Abolish the Senate and publicly fund elections. Those are two of several suggestions John Dingell provided in his article in The Atlantic on how to fix the U.S. government. Why does it need fixing? Dingell cites the decline in the percentage of Americans who trust the federal government as the...
Effect of Khashoggi's Alleged Murder on U.S.-Saudi Relations?
How serious is the unfolding international incident over the alleged disappearance and murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi? “It should change everything about the United States’ long-standing relationship with Saudi Arabia. Regrettably, it probably won’t,” writes Aaron David Miller and Richard Sokolsky of The Atlantic. The criticism of the U.S....
As Character Education Disappears from Schools, Values Suffer
Blending academic instruction with the essential charge of developing students as people is a challenge facing a majority of schools in the 21st century. Paul Barnwell, a teacher in Kentucky, argues in his article published in The Atlantic magazine that the pressures of national academic standards have pushed character education out of...
Dyer Talks Staffing, 911 Calls, Atlantic Article, Parks, and More
Earlier this year it appeared to me that Mayor Lee Brand had teed up the perfect sales tax proposal for Fresno: a half-cent divided between parks and public safety. But the Fresno City Council majority shot down the idea and now voters have a single option — a 3/8 of...
SCOTUS Ruling on Travel Ban Came Down to Families
Reaction to the Trump v. Hawaii decision that upheld the President’s travel ban on seven nations remains strong days after the Supreme Court decided the case. Trump’s third attempt at an executive order, after lower court rulings blocked the first two, restricted entry into the United States from citizens of...
Forget National Dysfunction. America's Cities Are Blooming. Fresno Among Them.
You might remember that James and Deborah Fallows spent considerable time in Fresno as part of their five-year, 100,000-mile "journey into the heart of America." James Fallows, a correspondent for The Atlantic, met with then-Mayor Ashley Swearengin, interviewed local people and praised the Tower District, writing in an article that “you could...