Why Trump’s control of the Republican Party is bad for democracy

  As former President Donald Trump edges closer to clinching the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, our political science research has shown that a second Trump presidency is likely to damage American democracy even more than his first term did. The reason has less to do with Trump and his ambitions than with how power dynamics have shifted within the Republican Party.

Are social media apps ‘dangerous products’? 2 scholars explain how the companies rely on young users but fail to protect them

    “You have blood on your hands.”

    “I’m sorry for everything you have all been through.”

  These quotes, the first from Sen. Lindsey Graham, (R-S.C), speaking to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and the second from Zuckerberg to families of victims of online child abuse in the audience, are highlights from an extraordinary day of testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee about protecting children online.

Why Mercedes-Benz workers are considering a union

  Here are two reminders of how our state leaders feel about unions.

  “These are out-of-state special interest groups, and their special interests do not include Alabama or the men and women earning a career in Alabama’s automotive industry,” Gov. Kay Ivey wrote after Mercedes-Benz workers announced an organization drive last month.

Rebuilding the IRS improves customer service and reduces the tax gap

  As the 2024 tax filing season begins, the IRS continues to build on the improvements made possible by the infusion of funds from the Inflation Reduction Act. The added support reversed more than a decade of disinvestment in tax administration and enforcement by appropriating $80 billion to modernize the IRS over 10 years. The infusion of long-term funding allows the IRS to invest in new technology and the staff needed to rebuild the agency, improve customer service, and ensure that the nation’s tax laws are enforced effectively.

How to protect your data privacy: A digital media expert provides steps you can take and explains why you can’t go it alone

  Perfect safety is no more possible online than it is when driving on a crowded road with strangers or walking alone through a city at night. Like roads and cities, the internet’s dangers arise from choices society has made. To enjoy the freedom of cars comes with the risk of accidents; to have the pleasures of a city full of unexpected encounters means some of those encounters can harm you. To have an open internet means people can always find ways to hurt each other.

  But some highways and cities are safer than others. Together, people can make their online lives safer, too.

70 years after Brown vs. Board of Education, public schools still deeply segregated

  Brown vs. Board of Education, the pivotal Supreme Court decision that made school segregation unconstitutional, turns 70 years old on May 17, 2024.

  At the time of the 1954 ruling, 17 U.S. states had laws permitting or requiring racially segregated schools. The Brown decision declared that segregation in public schools was “inherently unequal.” This was, in part, because the court argued that access to equitable, nonsegregated education played a critical role in creating informed citizens – a paramount concern for the political establishment amid the Cold War. With Brown, the justices overturned decades of legal precedent that kept Black Americans in separate and unequal schools.

Nonwhite people are drastically underrepresented in local government

  Elected representatives in government don’t always look like the people they serve.

  The people who serve in local governments – cities, counties, and other entities below the state level – represent the vast majority of elected officials in the U.S. My recent research with Diana Da In Lee, Yamil Velez, and Chris Warshaw finds that, like in the federal and state governments, nonwhite people are drastically underrepresented in local government.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse - New 2nd Congressional District is the race to watch in 2024

  The most interesting race to watch this year in Alabama will be for the newly drawn Second Congressional District.

  The new seat was drawn by the federal courts to create a second majority-minority district in Alabama. Currently we have six Republicans and one Democrat representing Alabama in Washington. If a Democrat wins the seat, we will have five Republicans and two Democrats on the Potomac in 2025. The new seat includes all of Montgomery and extends through the Black Belt, and gathers most of the black voters in Mobile.

Finding objective ways to talk about religion in the classroom is tough − but the cost of not doing so is clear

  Religious strife continues in many places. While the United States has a great deal of litigation and controversy over religion’s place in public life, it has largely avoided violence. Yet our society often seems unprepared to talk constructively about this contentious topic, especially in schools.

Urban agriculture isn’t as climate-friendly as it seems – but these best practices can transform gardens and city farms

  Urban agriculture is expected to be an important feature of 21st century sustainability and can have many benefits for communities and cities, including providing fresh produce in neighborhoods with few other options.

  Among those benefits, growing food in backyards, community gardens, or urban farms can shrink the distance fruits and vegetables have to travel between producers and consumers – what’s known as the “food mile” problem. With transportation’s greenhouse gas emissions eliminated, it’s a small leap to assume that urban agriculture is a simple climate solution.