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Why The Supreme Court Probably Doesn’t Care What Most Americans Think About Abortion Or Gun Rights

October 20, 2021 mikayla.makle

The Supreme Court is more conservative than it’s been in almost a century. Its new term begins today (Oct. 4), and by next June, when the term ends, Americans might finally understand what that means. Public opinion of the court is already at a record low after the court allowed a strict abortion law to go into effect in Texas in early September. Now, the justices are preparing to hear the court’s first major gun rights case since 2010 as well as a case on the future of abortion in the U.S. Both cases could result in decisions that are far more extreme than most Americans want.

“In the past, even if the court was trending conservative overall, it wasn’t like the conservatives always won and the liberals always lost,” said Michael Salamone, a political science professor at Washington State University who studies the Supreme Court and public opinion. “Now it’s looking like conservative victories are going to be a lot more consistent and a lot more far-reaching.”

In that sense, this new term might be a turning point — and not just because of the importance of the cases or the risk of a backlash to an individual decision. The next few months might be the beginning of a new era in which the conservative justices move sharply away from where most Americans stand on major issues, and dare politicians to do something about it.

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FiveThirtyEight

FBI data: Portland homicides up 83% from 2019 to 2020

October 14, 2021 mikayla.makle

Data from the FBI’s 2020 Uniform Crime Report show the number of homicides rose nearly 83% from the previous year.

In 2020, there were 53 homicides reported. In 2019, there were 29. The number of homicides reported in 2020 is more than double the number in 2018 and 2017.

In February 2021, Clay Mosher, a sociology professor at Washington State University Vancouver who studies crime trends, told KOIN 6 News it’s possible crime during the COVID-19 pandemic years could prove to be a statistical anomaly and he’s interested to see what the long-term data will show.

In 2021, the Portland Police Bureau says there were 60 homicides reported between January and August.

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KOIN

Program integrates community service into coursework

October 13, 2021 mikayla.makle

Hundreds of students on several Washington State University campuses will participate in community service projects as part of their English classes this year.

For his English 101 classes, WSU Pullman Teaching Assistant Professor David Martin wanted the service-learning component to be research focused; however, he did not have a clear idea of what types of projects would work in his curriculum.

“I was able to learn what other faculty in CES (Community Engaged Scholars) were doing and I found that to be very useful,” Martin said. “It got my mind and wheels turning on some possibilities for my classes.”

This semester, his students are working with community partners in the Palouse region to identify local challenges such as food and housing insecurity, abandoned pets, and stream erosion. They will create a problem statement, write a literature review, and pitch ideas for how those challenges can be resolved.

Students in Linda Russo’s English 302 class will work with the Palouse Conservation District to restore areas along the Palouse River. She said CES inspired her to explore what literary studies can look like when students literally get their hands dirty.

Vanessa Cozza and Johanna Phelps, English professors on the Tri-Cities and Vancouver campuses, respectively, said students in their technical and professional writing classes are working with multiple community partners to create promotional materials such as instruction manuals, brochures, logos, and website designs.

One of the greatest benefits of participating in CES, according to Martin, Phelps, Russo, and Cozza, was the opportunity to meet other faculty interested in service-learning. Many have stayed in touch with each other since the program concluded.

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WSU Insider

Ways to bridge community divides

October 4, 2021 mikayla.makle

Helping to bridge divides of understanding within communities is at the heart of four free, public presentations by Washington State University professors to be hosted online in October.

Sociologist Jennifer Sherman will present “Diamonds in the Rough: The Gentrification of Rural Washington” on Tuesday, Oct. 5 at 7 p.m. and on Tuesday, Oct. 12, at noon. Philosopher Michael Goldsby will present “Why Deny Science” on Wednesday, Oct. 6, at 5:30 p.m. and on Wednesday, Oct. 27, at 6:30 p.m.

In addition to Sherman and Goldsby, WSU professors Bill Kabasenche in philosophy, Matthew A. Sutton in history and Steven Stehr in political science are members of the Humanities Washington (HW) Speakers Bureau for 2021–23.

The non-partisan Foley Institute seeks to broaden the educational experience of WSU students and the surrounding community by engaging prominent speakers who encourage thought-provoking discussions and by supporting student internships in public service and scholarly research into public policy and political institutions.

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WSU Insider

Preventing fires from destroying entire towns will take communities learning to live with fire

September 29, 2021 mikayla.makle

In recent years, small towns, like Malden, Washington, have become victim to catastrophic fires that burned around them.

The three main factors that are leading to greater fire risk are a changing climate including hotter temperatures and drought, vegetative conditions and people choosing to live in homes built in or near forests, said Washington State University professor, school of the environment, Matthew Carroll, who studies how communities in the West can better adapt to “megafires.”

Conditions with large unkempt forest floors and debris have only gotten worse over the years as the techniques for fighting fire focused mostly on suppression and not about preventing it through prescribed burns or thinning trees, Carroll said.

The Legislature passed a bill last session that will direct $125 million every two years for forest health and wildfire prevention. That money will be broken down into three buckets: wildfire response, forest health and community resilience.

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The Spokesman-Review
The Neighbor