The CDR Nexus: Convergence of Climate Change Adaptation, Disaster Risk Reduction, and Land Restoration in Kajiado, Kitui, and Makueni Counties, Kenya

Experts have been calling for the integration of climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction into local administrative units for decades. With the emergence of an international land restoration agenda, a growing interest exists to understand how landscape restoration can increase local resilience while catalyzing the integration of climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. This project explores the interconnections and potential for achieving greater synergies among these three agendas, which we refer to as the CDR nexus. Kenya has committed to restore 5.1 million hectares of land under the AFR100 initiative (see box on page 2). One challenge for achieving this is that the country has a devolved system of government in which many CDR functions are implemented by 47 different subnational county administrations. Although general agreement exists that actions to achieve the goals of these policy areas should converge, some institutional barriers need to be overcome. For example, climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and land restoration initiatives are often situated in different ministries and departments. In addition, county administrative borders do not follow landscape or hydrologic boundaries that are ideal for land restoration planning. Sustainable financing is another concern. Although there is a growing call to “unlock” private investments for land restoration, merging a profit orientation with the social nature of development is not always easy. Therefore, developing institutional frameworks to guide these new activities toward county land restoration objectives is critical

Analyzing Social Network Structures in the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma with Choice and Refusal

The Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma with Choice and Refusal (IPD/CR) is an extension of the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma with evolution that allows players to choose and to refuse their game partners. From individual behaviors, behavioral population structures emerge. In this report, we examine one particular IPD/CR environment and document the social network methods used to identify population behaviors found within this complex adaptive system. In contrast to the standard homogeneous population of nice cooperators, we have also found metastable populations of mixed strategies within this environment. In particular, the social networks of interesting populations and their evolution are examined.Comment: 37 pages, uuencoded gzip'd Postscript (1.1Mb when gunzip'd) also available via WWW at http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~smucker/ipd-cr/ipd-cr.htm

Strengthening laws which take guns out of the hands of domestic abusers will help prevent future mass shootings.

Last week a gunman killed 26 and wounded 20 in a Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. Like many mass shooters, the gunman, Devin Kelley, had a record of domestic abuse. Sierra Smucker writes that the irrefutable link between domestic abuse and mass shootings means that lawmakers now need to focus on new and stronger measures, as well as strengthening ..

Obama’s executive orders on guns may be more suggestions than policy but we shouldn’t discount the power of executive pressure on state policy making.

President Obama’s recent actions on gun control illustrate just how limited such measures are, despite Republican accusations of ‘executive overreach’. Using the example of gun laws enacted to address domestic violence, Sierra Smucker argues that despite these limitations, the federal attention that such executive directions bring can push states to develop their own legislation to address problems such as gun violence

Coming to Speaking Terms: Communal and Ethical Dimensions of Baptism in Mennonite and Catholic Perspectives

Julia is a Mennonite-Catholic working toward a Master of Arts degree with a concentration in systematics. Julia was raised as a Mennonite and spent her life traveling including spending three years in Jamaica while her parents worked with the Mennonite Central Committee and a year in Haiti where Julia herself spent time working for the same service organization. Julia has spent much of her time working as part of an ecumenical movement to promote dialogue between Mennonites and Catholics known as Bridge Folk

COST OF CHIP POTATO PRODUCTION IN CENTRAL MICHIGAN

This bulletin represents a tool that can help producers, consultants, educators, and agribusinesses working with producers estimate costs of production and expected profit based on "typical" chip potato production management strategies found in Montcalm County, Michigan. The budget included in this bulletin will allow users to revise inputs based on their management strategies and calculate their expected cost and profit. This flexibility provides a decision aid to search for systems that generate higher net returns to the farm's resource base.Crop Production/Industries,

How North Carolina’s controversial bathroom bill provides a window into the complexities of public policymaking in a federalist system

In March, the North Carolina House of Representatives passed a bill to overturn an earlier non-discrimination ordinance in Charlotte, North Carolina, which had expanded protections for the transgendered. Sierra Smucker writes that the situation shows the complexities of the US federal system, which was established as a compromise between the national government and the states. This federal system allows the states – and even cities and local constituencies – to make their own policies, but these policies can still lead to conflict with the laws and norms of the rest of the country, and the federal government

How the Orlando mass shooting may be the catalyst for a new coalition to overcome the power of the gun lobby

Sunday saw the worst mass shooting in US history, with a gunman murdering 49 people in a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, and injuring many others. Sierra Smucker, visiting research student at the US Centre, writes on why we should not expect any gun policy changes following shooting. She does, however, suggest that if leaders in the gun control movement are able to form a coalition with those in the LGBTQ movement, together they may be able to overcome the pro-gun lobby

State initiatives on gun control and the minimum wage mean that a Trump presidency may not be as bad as some fear

As half of the country ponders how they underestimated Trump’s advantage, it is important to remember the state level propositions that passed across the United States last night. Sierra Smucker writes that victories of state ballot initiatives highlight the fact that a Trump victory is not necessarily a sign that American citizens are moving toward a conservative platform. Victories for gun violence prevention policies and minimum wage increases even in states that voted for Trump suggest that Americans are looking for ways to change their immediate circumstance and increase public safety. Shaking up Washington is part of that but that does not mean citizens have rejected the policies that Clinton ran on

Three more dead in California: why the US political system is to blame

On April 10th the city of San Bernadino in California entered headlines for gun violence once again as a man shot his wife, who was a teacher at a school; and one of her students, before shooting himself. Sierra Smucker argues that this is part of a much wider trend of intimate partner homicides, caused by the country’s grip on the Second Amendment and lax gun laws across states