In the News
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December 8, 2021
“While the economy’s pandemic-driven malaise might feel as if it has dragged on forever, in reality we have been experiencing an unusually rapid recovery,” said Justin Wolfers, professor of economics and public policy. “Starting from April 2020, it took only 17 months for the unemployment rate to fall below 5 percent, while in the previous three post-recession recoveries, it took 75 months, 26 months and 59 months.”
The New York Times -
December 8, 2021
Eve Brensike Primus, professor of law, says authorities must show gross negligence and causation if they want to prove the parents of Oxford school shooter Ethan Crumbley guilty of involuntary manslaughter: “The prosecutor is going to need facts to support the argument that these parents really knew there was a risk that their son would take a gun and shoot people dead — not just that their son was troubled in some way.”
The Associated Press -
December 7, 2021
Marc Zimmerman, professor of public health and director of the Michigan Youth Violence Prevention Center, says the COVID-19 pandemic could be partially responsible for an uptick in school violence: “The pandemic has created isolation, has created stress in families and in kids, and it’s all just coming to a head when school reopened. … We’re talking about lots of violence more broadly, not just firearm violence, but lots of incidents of bullying and fighting.”
Michigan Radio -
December 7, 2021
Low-income households in Detroit spend at least a quarter of their disposable incomes on water and sewer bills, putting the city’s poorest residents among the hardest hit by rising water costs in Michigan, according to research by Jennifer Read, director of the U-M Water Center, and colleagues. “If we continue on this trajectory, more people are going to have challenges affording their water and more communities are going to run into problems,” she said.
The Detroit News -
December 7, 2021
“We can transition away from our current energy system, make communities cleaner while improving health outcomes and building jobs,” said Tony Reames, assistant professor of environment and sustainability and senior adviser to the U.S. Department of Energy, whose research suggests that new zoning codes could “reduce future energy needs and related carbon emissions for the tens of millions of homes that will be built in the U.S. in coming decades.”
Grist -
December 6, 2021
“The average person is probably getting about five grams of plastic per week into their body from what you eat, what you drink and what you breathe. … This is equivalent to eating a credit card every week,” said Anne McNeil, professor of chemistry and macromolecular science and engineering.
National Public Radio -
December 6, 2021
“You can’t separate this from the history of blackface, yellowface and redface in this country, even if you have the most sensitive actors in the world playing these characters,” said Apryl Williams, assistant professor of communication and media, and digital studies, on a corporate education company’s use of white actors to play black characters in virtual reality diversity training.
BuzzFeed News -
December 6, 2021
“In the hands of state legislatures committed to eradicating abortion access, and federal appeals courts stacked with judges nominated to do the same, abortion access will be dramatically curbed. … Clinics will close. States will have accomplished what overruling Roe in its entirety would allow them to do: eliminate abortion access in many states,” wrote Leah Litman, assistant professor of law.
NBC News -
December 3, 2021
Joseph Eisenberg, professor of epidemiology and global public health, says travel bans could help buy time for vaccine makers, but there could be a big cost in future reporting of new strains: “The cost-benefit obviously is if the ban results in these countries being less likely to do this kind of surveillance and provide this kind of information that’s incredibly valuable about new strains because they don’t want these repercussions of having these travel bans, then the net may be a negative with respect to the future.”
USA Today -
December 3, 2021
“Launching a new program like this is destined to be a failure. Poor families will be the most affected since they will have to navigate a system that not even policymakers seem to understand besides dealing with the uncertainties about the program’s future,” said Luciana de Souza Leão, assistant professor of sociology, on a program proposed by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to beef up financial assistance to the less fortunate ahead of next year’s election.
The Washington Post
