In the News
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January 31, 2022
“This is a huge step in preserving his legacy in a way that Justice Ginsburg failed to do,” said Leah Litman, assistant professor of law, on the decision by Justice Stephen Breyer to retire from the U.S. Supreme Court while Democrats hold the presidency and a slim majority in the Senate. “He saw what happened to his friend, to her jurisprudence and all the things that mattered to her when she didn’t step down while she was able to.”
New York Magazine -
January 28, 2022
Don Herzog, professor of law, says there’s no real incentive for Dominion Voting Systems to reach settlements in its billion-dollar defamation lawsuits against pro-Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell: “It’s that almost always, the party settling will stipulate in its terms of settlement: I don’t concede that I did anything wrong. And unless they’re nuts, what the corporation wants out of those two is exactly the acknowledgment that you did something wrong.”
Reuters -
January 28, 2022
“We never know which ones are going to turn out to be the ones that have incredible economic impact, employment impact and innovation impact. It’s a numbers game: The more seeds you plant, the more flowers that might bloom,” said Stewart Thornhill, executive director of the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, commenting on the sudden burst of startup activity in the U.S., creating the biggest entrepreneurship boom in half a century.
WIRED -
January 28, 2022
The state of U.S. democracy and its “poor pandemic response” have emboldened China, says Mary Gallagher, professor of political science and director of the Center for Chinese Studies: “The multiple U.S. failures create momentum for renewed nationalism and confidence in China. This is made all the more effective by the Communist Party’s strict control over information, which can rain ‘positive energy’ down on what’s happening in China.”
The Associated Press -
January 27, 2022
“And this idea in Michigan that we have this old law on the books that actually makes providing an abortion a felony, such that if Roe is overturned, that would go into effect … it’s changed my impression that this is more precarious than I might have thought before,” said Joelle Abramowitz, assistant research scientist at the Institute for Social Research, on the potential elimination of federal abortion rights.
Detroit Free Press -
January 27, 2022
“The pandemic has done a lot of things that have contributed to inflation. One is that it has shifted demand from services to goods … more goods are being provided but it hasn’t been able to keep up, so we’re also seeing much higher prices,” said Joshua Hausman, associate professor of public policy. “The other is that the labor force has shrunk a lot from its pre-pandemic level.”
CBS News -
January 27, 2022
“The gains that we made in reducing class-based and racial inequality are being wiped away,” said Awilda Rodriguez, associate professor of education, on the “unprecedented” decline of students from low-income high schools who go on to higher education. But as universities and colleges struggle to fill seats, “we could be on the precipice of being pushed to thinking about how higher education could be more accessible, more equitable.”
The Washington Post -
January 26, 2022
While children under 5 are less at risk for severe COVID-19, the Omicron variant is driving a surge in pediatric hospitalizations. Elizabeth Lloyd, assistant professor of pediatrics says it’s hard to tease out how many children were hospitalized for COVID-19: “But from my experience, we’re definitely seeing more kids who are sick and who are sometimes needing ICU-level care. This is something we’re hoping with this (children’s) vaccine could be preventable.”
National Geographic -
January 26, 2022
Nationwide lockdowns and other restrictions imposed during the first six months of the pandemic saved more lives than the number lost due to the impacts of the shutdown on the nation’s economy, says Olga Yakusheva, associate professor of nursing. “We evaluated the full packet of public health measures as it was implemented in the beginning of the pandemic, but lesser mitigation measures may have worked just as well to reduce lives lost,” she said.
The Detroit News -
January 26, 2022
“Now, as in the 1970s, debate rages over what, if anything, should be done about levels of inflation. Economists don’t agree any more about how to respond now than they did back then,” wrote Elizabeth Popp Berman, associate professor of organizational studies and sociology. “That provides a potential opening for … people who want to advocate for a particular policy cause or idea — to push for changes that might or might not be independently good ideas, which are only relatively indirectly linked to inflation.”
The Washington Post
