Puerto Rico’s Municipal Debt Crisis: A Two-Front Battle?
By Carlos F. Ugalde Puerto Rico continues to fall deeper into recession, piling up its current debt load. With more than $70 billion in total debt and no legitimate revenue-increasing mechanisms, insolvency is the most likely outcome. One of Puerto Rico’s largest contributors with $9 billion in debt is its government-owned Puerto Rico Electric Power […]
Playing the Blame Game
By Amanda Grannis This week, video footage surfaced of fraternity members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) at the University of Oklahoma singing a racist chant on a bus. The university responded by closing the SAE chapter and expelling two students. Another recent video shows the fraternity’s housemother saying repeated racial slurs at a fraternity party. […]
Delayed Departure: FAA Regulations Stunt Future of Delivery Drones
By Jared Gans In December of 2013, Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder, announced on 60 minutes that Amazon would soon be able to make thirty-minute deliveries within a ten-mile radius via drones (small, pilotless aircrafts). Amazon has succeeded in creating operable delivery drones; however, that was only the first in a series of battles to revolutionize […]
Increased Ferry Service: Sound Policy or Just Political Points?
By Henry Parr Earlier this month, Mayor de Blasio announced in his State of the City address that his administration had made plans to create a new citywide ferry service. The proposed plans would increase the number of ferry lines and include new stops in the Bronx, Queens, South Brooklyn, and Staten Island. While de […]
In its Recent Cyberattack, Should Anthem Have Known Better?
By Amanda Grannis Another day, another data leak. Anthem Inc., an insurance company that has health records of about 80 million employees and customers, is the latest entity to have experienced a security hack. Names, medical histories, Social Security numbers, addresses, were all among the volumes of data that were stolen. This security breach has […]
Sports Gambling: Is it Catching On?
By Jared Gans The estimated range of illegal sports betting in the United States is anywhere from 80 to 380 billion dollars annually. The illegal status of sports betting fails to prevent these wagers from occurring, but does prevent the government from profiting from possible tax revenues. The two major statutes that govern sports betting […]
Critiquing “The Myth of Gentrification” by John Buntin
By Henry Parr Is gentrification still a thing? Earlier this week, Slate published a piece by John Buntin entitled “The Myth of Gentrification.” Citing quantitative studies, Buntin suggests that gentrification is exceedingly rare and beneficial to low-income residents when it does occur. “It’s time to retire the term gentrification altogether,” argues Buntin.
De Blasio Prefers School to Work: The Fate of Workfare
By Henry Parr The New York Times reported last week[1] that Mayor Bill de Blasio has vowed to reform the city’s welfare program and to remove its “workfare program.” Workfare is one of the city’s largest welfare programs that requires recipients to work assigned jobs in order to receive unemployment assistance. Under the city’s current […]
A Significant Stride for New York’s Legal System: Cuomo Agrees to Settlement
By Jared Gans Over fifty years ago, the Supreme Court held in the case of Gideon v. Wainwright that states are required to provide defense lawyers to people charged with serious crimes and who are unable to afford legal counsel. Almost everyone is familiar with the Miranda warning, which states in part that “[y]ou have […]
Faking the “Student” in “Student-Athlete”
By Amanda Grannis An eight-month investigation has revealed startling news concerning student athletes and academic policies at UNC Chapel Hill. The rigorous investigation, which entailed interviewing 80 witnesses and reviewing 1.5 million emails, uncovered eighteen years worth of academic fraud within the state university’s academic programs for student athletes.