News and Issues

A faint, brief cheeping broke through the layers of human noise and caught my attention. My head turned quickly to the side of the house, waiting during the pause to pinpoint the source. More cheeping … and my ears reported to my brain that it wasn’t coming from a nest up in the branches, but from the ground. I was reluctant to step off the porch without knowing where it was safe to set my foot down.The baby bird called out with urgency as I inched my way toward his voice. I discovered him half buried in leaves that had blown up against the house during a storm. Perhaps the same storm had tossed him out of his parents’ nest of twigs and warm downy feathers. more »

"If the United States continues on its present course, it will face a united Europe that has made great strides toward providing family-support laws and institutions — and less developed countries where work-family conflict for professional-managerial and often even middle-income families is muted by the availability of extremely cheap domestic labor. To ensure the United States provides quality care for the next generation of workers, while at the same time utilizing effectively the human capital of its mothers, fathers, and all caregivers, we need to get serious about work-family public policy." more »

Respected communication scholar Erika Falk also extends her previous work by examining gender bias and maintenance in the press coverage of Hillary Clinton’s announcement to seek the presidency in 2008. Editor Edwards furthers her investigation of political cartoons by making “an examination of twenty years worth of masculinity as an interpretive frame” in editorial cartoons. Optimistically she notes that as more women enter presidential politics it could lead to a more neutralized gender depiction in cartoons. She notes the dearth of press coverage for women candidates both from the beginning of their presidential efforts in 1872 to today. That Barack Obama credited Chisholm for paving the way for his presidential success, should make race and gender scholars consider her important 1972 presidential race. more »

In a November survey by the Pew Research Center, 71% expressed a favorable opinion of Michelle Obama while just 16% expressed an unfavorable view. By comparison, 65% had a favorable opinion of Barack Obama, while 30% felt unfavorably. more »