Vaccinations can tell us something about voting. The key finding is the better a state has been vaccinated, the more likely it is to vote for the Democratic presidential candidate. Digging a little deeper into the data may even show which states are likely to influence, if not downright determine, the outcome of the next presidential election. This could make political pundits look good. President Joe Biden […]

Mark R. Jacobson, a foreign policy expert at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, served in Afghanistan as a reserve officer in 2006 and then returned in a civilian role, working as a foreign policy adviser to Gen. Stanley McChrystal and later as the deputy NATO senior civilian representative in Afghanistan. As both a scholar […]

There were 700 students in my sophomore class at Parkersburg High School in West Virginia in 1957. None of them were African-American. There were 225 students in my senior class at Mount Pleasant High School in Delaware in 1959. None of them were African-American. There were 200 students in my freshman class at Bowdoin College […]

It’s an old dream of mine and I just may do it: Buy a travel trailer and live on the American road for weeks at a time. Recreational vehicle living is a growing trend, particularly for younger people, who, post-Covid, prefer to work at home instead of commuting to their company’s office building. Thanks to technology, […]

Newspaper people rarely write about newspapers, but perhaps it’s time to make an exception. Louis DeJoy, the bull-like postmaster general appointed by Donald Trump to make the U.S. Postal Service function still more “like a business” – even though it’s not a business – has announced the latest round of punitive rate hikes and service cuts. Unless common sense […]

Perhaps no topic has dominated education news in 2021 like the debate over whether or not critical race theory should be taught – or whether it is even being taught – in America’s schools. Critical race theory is an academic framework that holds that racism is embedded in American society and its institutions. The debate […]

As someone who studies immune responses to respiratory infections, I’ve watched news of the emerging coronavirus variants with concern. I wondered whether vaccination or previous infection would provide protection against SARS-CoV-2 strains, especially the new, highly transmissible delta variant, which has rapidly spread to at least 70 countries. A person can develop immunity – the […]

I have been advocating for laws to reduce the gun violence in our state and I often hear folks say we don’t need new gun laws, we just need to enforce the ones on the books already. While I do think there is more our state and country can do to prevent gun deaths and […]

From condo salesman to reality TV host to leader of the free world, Donald Trump has occupied several lifetimes’ worth of identities over a remarkable career of reinventions. Even so, the billionaire mogul’s latest metamorphosis – into a consumer-rights plaintiff seeking to regulate big business – is a peculiar one. With a volley of lawsuits […]