Collateral Consequences and Reentry in Alaska: An Update

This article describes recent efforts at the national level to ameliorate the public costs of unnecessary collateral consequences, summarizes the array of statutory and regulatory impediments faced by released offenders in Alaska, and highlights legislative efforts in Alaska to improve community safety and public health by facilitating prisoner reintegration and reducing rates of recidivism.Introduction / Collateral Consequences in the U.S.: 2013–2014 / Collateral Consequences in Alaska: 2013–2014 / The Reform Movement / Conclusion / SIDEBARS / Alaska Resources on Reentry / The Second Chance Act in Alask

The social construction of obesity in New Zealand prime time television media : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University

Obesity is an issue that has always been associated with morality, however in more recent times it has become defined as a health problem (or disease) of epidemic proportions. The construction of obesity as a problem is partly associated with the eternal quest for thinness. Media representations play a role in the construction of obesity and may be increasingly influential as media is becoming more and more prevalent in Western society. Furthermore, media have been shown to have considerable influence in affecting health behaviours and body image. Previous research has shown that media representations of obesity have been predominately negative and obese people are underrepresented in most types of television programming. The goal of this research was to discover how obesity is socially constructed in New Zealand prime time television. Data was collected over the period of a month, forming a synthetic week of recorded television programming that covered the prime viewing period between 6.00pm to 10.30pm. A discourse analytical approach was used to identify three main themes, morality medicalisation, and factual versus fictional. The moral theme involved discourses in which moral judgements were made about obese individuals, on both their character and actions, generally positioning the obese person as morally lacking. The medicalisation theme contained discourses around obesity as a health issue that constructed health issues as the fault of the individual which could be solved only one way- by losing weight. This functioned to position obese people as sick or unhealthy. The third theme, factual versus fiction presents the differences found between depictions of fictional obese characters and real people on television. Overall, obesity was found to be constructed negatively in television media. On television, the obese person is one which is either invisible, or is the object of moral judgements about the obese individuals worth as a person and their perceived poor health. Television representations of obesity, in some part, lead to the marginalisation of obese people. However the loathing for excess weight has been around for centuries and is so deeply ingrained in public discourse that to make a difference in how obese people are seen and treated, there would have to be a change in how society thinks about obesity, not just in how the media portrays obese people

A thirst for knowledge

Deborah Herridge uses practical science to help children comprehend the vital role of water in our ecosystem..

Patricia Akhimie. Shakespeare and the Cultivation of Difference: Race and Conduct in the Early Modern World. Routledge, 2018. 220 pp.

In lieu of an abstract, here is the review\u27s first paragraph: In Shakespeare and the Cultivation of Difference, Patricia Akhimie sets an ambitious goal: in addition to exploring how race, class, conduct, and drama are intertwined in the early modern period, Akhimie seeks to show readers how to recognize the pain of racism, which she reads as “a persistent and particular kind of injustice, the signs of which are as fluid as they are injurious” (9). Despite the variability of signs of human differences and despite the promise of self-improvement offered by conduct literature, Akhimie argues that social immobility was the reality for many groups within early modern English society. This immobility stemed from the identification of somatic markers “like indelible blackness,” (5) and “the workings of racist thinking that link a social process of differentiation . . . to the naturalization of such differences” (11). To accomplish what she calls an “emancipatory task” (10), Akhimie examines an impressive range of primary materials. She focuses on four Shakespeare plays, Othello, The Comedy of Errors, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Tempest, which she pairs with surprisingly diverse yet relevant forms of conduct books devoted to “specific cultivating strategies” in the realms of travel, housekeeping, husbandry, and hunting

Lady Justice Cannot Hear Your Prayers

The Islamic finance industry continues to grow quickly as the appetite for everything, from Sharia-compliant home mortgages and car loans to sophisticated financial products, increases. This growth has triggered an interest in sukuk, bond-like financial instruments. And while the international market for sukuk has long been dominated by foreign issuers and English law, the attraction of a niche market compatible with U.S. federal and international securities laws may propel increased participation by U.S. issuers and investors who wish to transact under U.S. federal and state laws. As with all Islamic financial products, sukuk transactions inherently pose a Sharia compliance risk. Thus far, religious compliance has not posed a significant barrier to the international market given that most sukuk transactions are governed by secular laws that incorporate Sharia law or laws that are not averse to interpreting religious law. U.S. jurisprudence, however, has strongly avoided religious questions that would require courts to interpret religious doctrines. While the application of the religious question doctrine helps maintain the separation of church and state, it can withhold secular judicial remedies from parties to a commercial agreement that incorporates religious tenets, such as a sukuk transaction. Drawing upon the example of Dana Gas PJSC, a company that sued to have its own sukuk certificates declared invalid and related payment obligations declared unenforceable due to the transaction’s alleged noncompliance with Sharia law, this Note explores the Establishment Clause obstacles to adjudication of a similar claim under New York law. Ultimately, this Note concludes that the Establishment Clause bars adjudication of the merits of such a dispute and proposes the adoption of legislation, at the state and federal level, that would permit secular courts to “certify” religious questions to party-selected religious tribunals. Pending passage of such litigation, commercial parties are encouraged to utilize alternative dispute resolution

Fighting Domestic Violence in the Nation’s Capital

Every year, in the District of Columbia alone, the Metropolitan Police Department receives more than 18,000 calls for help from victims of domestic violence, and more than 2,500 battered women bring legal actions requesting protection from their abusers. Thousands of other cases go unreported, either because the victims are too afraid of their batterers to report the violence, or because they do not know how to obtain relief to which they are entitled