Bismarck, North Dakota Correspondent I work in energy compliance in a state that produces more oil than any but Texas, mines lignite that fires the power plants that keep the upper Midwest warm, and ships both by rail through towns where the only other employer is the school, and I want to answer this question … Continue reading With the Green New Deal, the Amazon fires, and youth climate strikes, has 2019 changed the politics of climate policy in the U.S., or only the volume?
Politics
Can the Hong Kong protests sustain momentum, and what do they signal about the future of “one country, two systems”?
Sydney, Australia Correspondent There are about a hundred thousand Australians in Hong Kong and several hundred thousand Hong Kongers in Australia, a great many of them in the suburbs around me, and for the past eleven weeks the question in those households has not been whether the protests can sustain momentum but whether the people … Continue reading Can the Hong Kong protests sustain momentum, and what do they signal about the future of “one country, two systems”?
What does the year-end government shutdown over border-wall funding suggest about the state of budget negotiations and immigration politics in Washington?
Las Vegas, Nevada Correspondent I read budget hearings for pleasure, which is a confession, and I want to begin with the thing that nobody covering this shutdown has bothered to say, which is that 2018 was the best year for the federal appropriations process in a decade. Five of the twelve spending bills, including the … Continue reading What does the year-end government shutdown over border-wall funding suggest about the state of budget negotiations and immigration politics in Washington?
How has the #MeToo movement evolved in 2018 beyond high-profile cases, and what lasting institutional changes, if any, has it produced in workplaces and public life?
Long Island, New York Correspondent I have worked in and around the law for thirty years, in a district attorney's office, a school district, and a practice that handles the letters people write when they discover the rules apply to them, and I want to answer this question by pointing to the one change this … Continue reading How has the #MeToo movement evolved in 2018 beyond high-profile cases, and what lasting institutional changes, if any, has it produced in workplaces and public life?
Is the growing migrant caravan from Central America primarily a humanitarian, security, or political issue, and what policy responses does it demand?
Prescott Valley, Arizona Correspondent The question gives me three boxes to choose from, and I taught long enough to distrust any question that comes with its own boxes, so let me say at the outset that the caravan is all three and that the order in which a person ranks them tells you more about … Continue reading Is the growing migrant caravan from Central America primarily a humanitarian, security, or political issue, and what policy responses does it demand?
What are the implications of the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia?
Cheyenne, Wyoming Correspondent F.E. Warren Air Force Base is on the west edge of this city, and under the prairie around it, in three states, are a hundred and fifty Minuteman missiles that the airmen stationed here drive out to tend in all weather. Those are intercontinental missiles; the treaty the President says he is … Continue reading What are the implications of the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia?
How should the United States and its allies respond to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the evidence pointing to Saudi leadership?
Long Island, New York Correspondent I spent ten years watching prosecutors build cases, and the thing I learned about a suspect who changes his story is that the changes tell you more than any single version does. A man who says he was never there, then says he was there but left, then says there … Continue reading How should the United States and its allies respond to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the evidence pointing to Saudi leadership?
Is the escalating U.S.-China trade war more likely to produce a new equilibrium on trade or lasting economic damage for both sides?
Novi, Michigan Correspondent I manage supply chains for a living, so let me tell you what the trade war looks like from the inside of a purchasing meeting rather than from the inside of a cable news panel. It looks like a spreadsheet with a column that did not exist a year ago, and that … Continue reading Is the escalating U.S.-China trade war more likely to produce a new equilibrium on trade or lasting economic damage for both sides?
How is the deepening political and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela affecting regional stability and migration patterns?
Sheffield, Jamaica Correspondent Venezuela is six hundred miles from Jamaica, and for most of the past two decades it has been the country that sold us oil on credit. Under the Petrocaribe arrangement that Hugo Chávez created in 2005, Jamaica and a dozen other Caribbean states bought Venezuelan crude on terms that let us defer … Continue reading How is the deepening political and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela affecting regional stability and migration patterns?
With improvements in sports officiating such as allowing challenges, appeals, and/or reviews of calls on the field, will any major sport do away with human officiating?
Owatonna, MN Correspondent-Instant replay has become ubiquitous in all refereed sports. Coaches and managers can challenge calls by referees and umpires, and the number of calls subject to challenge is expanding. Technology can show us the outline of a baseball strike zone, allowing viewers to judge for themselves if the umpire called a pitch correctly. … Continue reading With improvements in sports officiating such as allowing challenges, appeals, and/or reviews of calls on the field, will any major sport do away with human officiating?
