Meaningful Ethics Reforms for the New Albany

The corruption scandals of the last few years have profoundly shaken the faith of New Yorkers in their state government. This report examines the system erected by New York's current ethics laws and makes clear recommendations for a way forward

Radio spectra of a sample of X-ray selected BL Lacs

We present simultaneous multifrequency radio observations for a complete subsample of 26 XBLs from the Einstein Extended Medium-Sensitivity Survey, obtained with the Very Large Array (VLA). Spectra are computed using fluxes at 20, 6 and 3.6 cm. Unlike many radio selected samples, the EMSS did not impose any criterion on the radio spectrum to identify BL Lac objects. It is therefore possible to investigate the intrinsic radio spectral slope distribution and to determine the effect produced by this selection criterion. We find that 15% of the observed objects do not meet the flat-spectrum criterion imposed on some other BL Lac samples. A dataset that includes non-simultaneous data (that are also taken with different VLA configurations) shows an even higher percentage of steep spectrum sources. This effect can be ascribed to a larger fraction of extended flux detected with the more compact VLA configuration.Possible biases introduced by the flat--radio-spectrum criterion in the radio-selected BL Lac samples cannot explain the discrepancies observed in the evolutionary properties of Radio and X-ray selected samples of BL Lacs.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, to be published in Astronomy and Astrophysic

BL Lac evolution revisited

BL Lac objects are an elusive and rare class of active galactic nuclei. For years their evolutionary behavior has appeared inconsistent with the trend observed in the population of AGN at large. The so-called ``negative'' evolution implies that BL Lacs were either less or fainter in the past. This effect is stronger for BL Lacs selected in X-ray surveys. We have investigated if one of the selection criteria, namely the flat-radio spectrum (imposed on the Radio-selected but not on the X-ray-selected samples), might explain the different evolutionary trend.Comment: Proceedings of "Multiwavelength AGN Surveys", Cozumel, Dec 200

Literacy Traps: Society-wide Education and Individual Skill Premia

Using a model of O-ring production function, the paper demonstrates how certain communities can get caught in a low-literacy trap in which each individual finds it not worthwhile investing in higher skills because others are not high-skilled. The model sheds light on educational policy. It is shown that policy for promoting human capital has to take the form of a mechanism for solving the coordination failure in people’s choice of educational strategy.education, literacy, O-ring, skill formation, traps

Public Versus Private Praise: A Direct Behavioral Comparison in Secondary Classrooms

The purpose of the present study was to compare the effects of teacher public and private praise on students’ appropriately engaged behavior (AEB) and disruptive behaviors (DB). Overall, four general education classrooms in southern Mississippi employed a multiple-baseline design across two pairs to assess the effects of public and private praise. Each classroom’s mean percentage of observed intervals of AEB and DB across public and private praise intervention phases was assessed and compared. Overall, visual analysis of the graphs, multilevel modeling, effect sizes, and odds ratios showed that both public and private praise were more effective than no treatment at increasing AEB and decreasing DB. In addition, there were no statistical or clinically significant differences between the public and private praise interventions. The results were discussed in light of the previous praise evidence-base and in the context of controversies in the literature base regarding the effectiveness of praise. It was recommended that both forms of praise should be utilized in high school classrooms

Weathering NEPA Review: Superstorms and Super Slow Urban Recovery

Delays in implementing long-term neighborhood housing recovery measures following urban disasters profoundly disrupt a city\u27s revitalization and resurgence. Following recent large-scale urban disasters, some blame the National Environmental Policy Act environmental and historical review requirement for greatly slowing the long-term recovery process. They claim that the National Environmental Policy Act review is ill suited for the exigencies of disasters. Finding effective ways to advance urban disaster recovery as quickly as possible, while not compromising key environmental quality objectives, is a central challenge to implementing effective post-disaster recovery plans. This Article addresses how best to balance necessary regulation with critical disaster recovery objectives. Drawing on long-term recovery lessons from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and most recently, Hurricane Sandy, this Article articulates five principles that the federal government should incorporate in a new Unified Federal Review process

Rating the Cities: Constructing a City Resilience Index for Assessing the Effect of State and Local Laws on Long-Term Recovery from Crisis and Disaster

Superstorm Sandy, the 2008 Iowa floods, and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita all supply recent reminders that U.S. cities can no longer adopt an ad hoc approach to threats presented by climate change and natural hazards. The stories detailing long-term recovery from these disasters underscore that federal, state, and local governments are struggling to appreciate the legal tools and institutions necessary to implement the large-scale infrastructure, housing, and community development programs that climate change and more frequent natural disasters demand. This Article calls for development of a tool allowing succinct evaluation of the range of community capacities that will figure critically in the implementation of long-term disaster recovery efforts. On completion, this assessment tool will provide a snapshot of a local government\u27s resiliency - its capacity to address and bounce back from disaster-related challenges. Building on recent environmental, land use, and local government law scholarship, this Article recommends creation of, and outlines several key indicators for, a City Resilience Index (CRI). The CRI evaluates cities\u27 legal resources, focusing on whether a local government possesses the necessary legal and institutional toolkit to pursue redevelopment initiatives essential to managing the challenges presented by natural hazards and climate change

Farmland and Forestland in an Era of Climate Change: Hurricane Michael and Opportunities to Advance Rural Resilience

Catastrophic disasters fundamentally destabilize and reshape communities. They often cause loss of life and invariably inflict extensive property damage. Disabled individuals, the elderly, chronically ill persons, and families struggling to make ends meet are almost always left more vulnerable. Affected communities frequently experience population loss, a declining property tax base, and economic contraction. Over the last three decades, a string of major disasters has focused scholarly attention on their far-reaching impacts on large cities. Storms and earthquakes have reshaped urban landscapes and forced communities to reckon with their futures from San Francisco to Northridge, Houston to New Orleans, and Miami to the New York metro area. These catastrophes will be studied for years to come. As compelling and iconic as the stories of urban wreckage and recovery have become, they have limitations when applied to the nation’s smaller-sized communities. Urban disaster narratives elide a range of vulnerabilities that expose small cities and towns—and the agricultural industry those communities often support—to the far-reaching costs and harms of natural disasters. Further, commentators and scholars who have focused broadly on the problems facing smaller cities and rural areas have sometimes overlooked the impact of storms, wildfires, or floods on those communities. In short, a significant gap exists in our thinking about rural resilience. The problem is profound, as 97% of the nation’s land mass is considered rural. Drawing on stories and data gathered from northwest Florida and southwest Georgia’s ongoing recovery from Hurricane Michael (2018), this Article examines significant shortcomings in state planning and disaster recovery policies that left smaller rural communities, farmers, and forestland owners fundamentally unprepared for a major disaster. The challenges encountered by rural communities in carrying out long-term disaster recovery highlight critical questions about perils associated with rural futures in an era of climate change and sea level rise. The post-disaster solutions devised by state governments suggest opportunities and obstacles to realizing more sustainable and equitable paths for the 20% of Americans living in rural municipalities and counties. This Article proceeds as follows. Part I provides a general overview of the damage caused by Hurricane Michael’s destructive push through the small towns and less densely populated counties of northwest Florida and southwest Georgia. Part II briefly explores commentary and scholarship covering the challenges associated with responses to major disasters affecting rural communities. Part III examines the heightened vulnerability that rural regions face when disasters threaten the continuing viability of historic land uses and the economies they support. Part IV assesses the role that institutions can play in sustaining rural land uses and does so by considering the institutional obstacles and opportunities that one state navigated to deliver recovery resources to agriculture and silviculture businesses. Part V highlights Hurricane Michael’s anemic housing recovery and suggests ways that states could expand solutions to disaster-related housing loss and thus move more to jumpstart long-term transformative housing recovery