What happened to kindness?
According to Remapping Debate's preliminary inquires, a range of factors have conspired to make us, in general, treat both family and strangers with less generosity of spirit than we once did. A relative lack of kindness would be disconcerting in any time, but it has special resonance at a time of pressing economic hardship and pronounced inequality. The diminution of kindness calls out for further study and reporting.
Open spaces, closed files
Wouldn't facility by facility information on operating costs, staffing, and level of use help New York City's Parks Dept. and outside observers assess whether there is equity in funding between and among parks as well as the related question of whether and to what extent to rely on private as opposed to public funding? Good luck getting the data.
ERA: historical curiosity or needed weapon against bias today?
No, the Constitution still doesn't say that equality of rights shall not be denied by the U.S. or by any state on account of sex.
National parks: window on America
A persistent budget shortfall has meant a Park Service that is often unable to imagine what it needs to become to help fulfill America’s best vision of itself.
National parks: window on America
What do 84.4 million acres of national parks have in common with a B-2 bomber? The annual appropriation for the parks is about the same as that bomber’s life-cycle cost. The result is a National Park Service that is understaffed, under-resourced, and often unable to imagine the park system that would help fulfill America’s best vision of itself.
Caution: going to work may still be dangerous to your health
Part 2 of Remapping Debate's series on chronic under-regulation examines the history of OSHA.
Putting the new GM-UAW contract in historical context
General Motors and the United Auto Workers just agreed on a new four-year contract. What began as an experiment in 2007 — establishing a two-tier wage structure, with new workers having a significantly lower starting wage and maximum wage than their predecessors — has apparently become a more permanent part of the landscape (at least through 2015). Remapping Debate puts the pay levels in context with inflation-adjusted data going back 50 years. For new workers, it is worse than it has been for virtually all of that period.
Chronic under-regulation
A new series that examines recurring patterns of regulatory failure across industries, and across administrations. Part 1 looks at the FDA and the cosmetics industry: under-regulated for over 30 years.
State aid to education down, down, down
Our FY 11-12 data gathering is now complete, and we find 40 states effectively cutting aid over last four years, 19 of them by at least 10 percent. South Carolina and California cut aid by the highest percentages.
Poorest states cut real-dollar aid to schools from 07-08 levels
Latest data show drop in 9 of the 10 states with the lowest median household income.
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