Government

Just after 10:18 p.m. on July 17, 1944, UC Berkeley seismographs measured what looked like a 3.4-magnitude earthquake. Far from a routine temblor, though, this was a seismic event of a different kind: a ferocious explosion at the Port Chicago naval base, the worst stateside disaster of World War II. The explosion led to the six-week trial — and dismayingly swift conviction — of 50 black sailors, whose refusal to return to loading ammunition was judged by the Navy to be mutiny. more »

In the course of greeting thousands of visitors a year, Rangers on National Wildlife Refuges find that natural—world denizens invariably make some people flinch or go EWWW. Whether it's because today’s visitors tend to live more indoor lives than past generations or watch too many TV survival shows, fears of nature are flourishing — in all ages. "The older they are, the harder it is," says one ranger. "I have had the most trouble with adult chaperones." more »

The US Supreme Court decision allowing for-profit businesses to opt out of the contraceptive mandate in the new health care law has raised questions about what the ruling might mean for businesses, for future challenges to the contraception mandate, and even for the future of church-state law. The Pew Fact Tank posed these questions to Robert Tuttle, one of the nation’s experts on church-state issues such as: Are there other aspects of the Affordable Care Act that are likely to face religious-liberty challenges? more »

"When universities fail to respond adequately to campus sexual assault, they may be forcing the affected students to attend school in a sexually hostile environment. This environment deprives them of their freedom to go to class without being re-traumatized by a perpetrator sitting a few seats away, walk on campus without being harassed by a perpetrator’s friends, attend a party on-campus, or even feel safe in their own dorm rooms." more »