by jpitney | Jan 10, 2026 | Journalism, Mass Media, Newspapers
Joshua Benton at Nieman Lab: Pittsburgh is the 28th-largest metropolitan area in the United States. It has a proud history as a center of industry and has transitioned into a major hub for medicine, robotics, and academia. It’s home to 10 Fortune 500 companies — more...
by jpitney | Jan 9, 2026 | Congress, House of Representatives
Don Wolfensberger at The Hill: According to a 2002 Congressional Research Service report by Rick Beth, between 1931 and 2002, the House adopted only 26 discharge petitions — 4.6 percent of 563 filed, though another 42 petitions, 7.5 percent, were considered by other...
by jpitney | Jan 8, 2026 | State Government
David Schultz at Governing: Tim Walz is out as a candidate for a third term as governor of Minnesota. He was undone by the constant drumbeat of fraud allegations, some proven, others still under investigation, that came to define the last years of his administration....
by jpitney | Jan 7, 2026 | California Politics, Insurance, Los Angeles
Levi Sumagaysay at CalMatters: A year after the deadly Los Angeles County fires, California’s property insurance market remains problematic; survivors are suing insurers over delayed or denied claims; and most of the state’s policyholders are likely to see their...
by jpitney | Jan 6, 2026 | Civil Rights, Crime, Higher Education
At National Affairs, Jon Shields and Stephanie Muravchik examine college syllabi on the “Open Syllabus” (OS) database. Few issues have vexed American politics more than the question of whether — and to what extent — the criminal-justice system is biased...
by jpitney | Jan 6, 2026 | California Politics, Economic Policy
Vince Ybarra at KFSN-TV: A new U-Haul report suggests the California exodus is still happening despite an increase in population. For people looking to move, California is not a desired location, according to data collected by U-Haul. The moving company compiled more...
by jpitney | Jan 5, 2026 | Polarization, Public Opinion
Arthur Brooks at The Atlantic: Achieving ideological diversity in the workplace is especially tricky because, in aggregate, people’s resistance to accepting political differences is growing. According to the polling firm YouGov, back in 2016, only 10 percent of both...
by jpitney | Jan 4, 2026 | Free Speech, Higher Education
Greg Lukianoff at The Dispatch: For most of my career, the biggest threat to free speech on campus came from inside higher education: the on-campus left (students, yes, but more importantly administrators) using the power of investigation and discipline to punish...
by jpitney | Jan 3, 2026 | Civility, Local Government
From the Transcript of Zohran Mamdani’s Inauguration Speech: The majority will not use the language that we often expect from those who wield influence. I welcome the change. For too long, those fluent in the good grammar of civility have deployed decorum to mask...
by jpitney | Jan 2, 2026 | Crime, Police
Michael Fortner at The Washington Monthly: Peter Moskos’s Back from the Brink is both oral history and urban epic—a ground-level account of New York’s astonishing, world-historical crime decline, narrated by the cops, commissioners, city officials, and civic leaders...
