Gov. Jay Nixon signed Executive Order 14-09 today, which orders and directs additional resources through the National Guard to “aid the executive officials of Missouri” and “to protect life and property.” Additionally, the State Highway Patrol is authorized to restrict and/or close streets and thoroughfares in order to maintain peace...
The civilian protest and police response in Ferguson, Missouri returns the “militarization of police” issue to the front of the domestic policy agenda. Here’s a definition of police militarization: “the process whereby civilian police increasingly draw from, and pattern themselves around, the tenets of militarism and the military model.” [from Peter Kraska,...
Throughout the course of 2013, religious communities across the globe experienced violence, displacement, and varying forms of persecution. From Christians to Muslims, religious discrimination has been rampant all over the world. In extreme cases, the deaths of hundreds of global citizens accompanied religious persecution in 2013. The Bureau of Democracy,...
The Obama Administration has already implemented a number of climate change policies in the last year to combat phenomena such as global warming and greenhouse gas emissions, but what are the economic costs of delaying further action? The White House released today a report from the Council Economic of Advisers...
Last week, the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP) released its first-ever National Plan for Civil Earth Observations. The National Plan represents the White House’s “blueprint for maximizing the value of observations collected by Federal agencies of the Earth’s land surfaces, oceans and atmosphere.” Because the U.S....
Ten years ago today the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States published the official account of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, The 9/11 Commission Report. A decade later, the Commission has reconvened as private citizens to “reflect on the changes of the past ten years and...
The Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress (CSPC) released a report this month on the U.S. electrical grid, a system it dubs “the most critical of critical infrastructure.” In preparation for its report, CSPC conducted a series of off-the-record discussions with experts from the government, the private sector, and the policy...
On September 16, 2013, an independent contractor named Aaron Alexis went on a sixty-nine minute shooting spree within Building 197 at the Washington Navy Yard. To carry out the shooting, Alexis used a legally purchased shotgun and the handgun of a security guard he killed. Throughout the course of the...
On July 9th, The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy released The 2014 National Drug Control Strategy. Released annually, The 2014 National Drug Control Strategy builds on the previous four Strategies, and serves as the Nation’s blueprint for reducing drug use and its consequences. While it is similar...
Immigration issues are reaching a boiling point in the Texas desert. Sparked by recent events, President Obama submitted a letter to Congress on July 8th titled, “Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Request to Address the Increase in Child and Adult Migration from Central America in the Rio Grande Valley Areas of the...
