State Trends in Premiums and Deductibles, 2003-2011: Eroding Protection and Rising Costs Underscore Need for Action

Rapidly rising health insurance premiums and higher cost-sharing continue to strain the budgets of U.S. working families and employers. Analysis of state trends in private employer-based health insurance from 2003 to 2011 reveals that premiums for family coverage increased 62 percent across states -- rising far faster than income for middle- and low-income families. At the same time, deductibles more than doubled in large and small firms. Workers are thus paying more but getting less-protective benefits. If trends continue at their historical rate, the average premium for family coverage will reach nearly $25,000 by 2020. The Affordable Care Act's reforms should begin to moderate costs while improving coverage. But with private insurance costs projected to increase faster than incomes over the next decade, further efforts are needed. If annual premium growth slowed by one percentage point, by 2020 employers and families would save$2,029 annually for family coverage.View the related infographic

What Are the Barriers Which Discourage 15-16 Year-Old Girls from Participating in Team Sports and How Can We Overcome Them?

Given the clear benefits of regular physical activity (such as reduced risks of cardiovascular disease and obesity, as well as other benefits including those related to mental health), exploration of the reasons that adolescent girls give for not taking part in team sports may be particularly valuable for enhancing later rates of participation. We combined questionnaires and semistructured interviews to assess the barriers that prevent 15-16-year-old girls from participating in extracurricular team games and what can be done to overcome these barriers and improve physical activity levels. Four barriers became prominent as to why girls in this sample do not participate: Internal Factors, Existing Stereotypes, Other Hobbies and Teachers. Methods to overcome these barriers were identified; changing teachers’ attitudes and shifting the media’s focus away from male sport. Following the successful summer Olympics and Paralympics in the UK, and the resulting positive focus on some of the nation’s female athletes, a shift in focus may be possible. However, this needs to be maintained to allow girls more opportunities, role models and motivation to participate in sport

Green imperialism, sovereignty, and the quest for national development in the Congo

This article deploys the term ‘green imperialism’ to denote the specificities of contemporary imperialism within the context of the hoped-for global transition towards low-carbon capitalist economies and societies in the coming decades. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) provides a modern exemplar of green imperialist dynamics in action. Hegemonic powers are seeking to position the Congolese economy as an exporter of low-cost, low-carbon metals and an open market for the entry of renewable energy finance and technologies. To date, the political response to green imperialism in the DRC has reproduced a model of mining-led national development that historically has delivered little by way of material improvements for most of the population, thus undermining the prospects of prosperity in the country. Albeit this time around there is the possibility of expanded access for some to renewable forms of energy as a foreign-owned private commodity, with all the limitations and contradictions this new model of energy delivery entails

The Curated Chronicles of the American Family: An Ideological Analysis of the Love Taza Blog

Named one of the top ten influencers of parenting by Forbes, Naomi Davis of the family-lifestyle Blog, Love Taza has transformed her family chronicles into a successful Internet business with an extensive following ( Top Influencers of 2017: Parenting ). This thesis examines the content of Love Taza to understand what messages Naomi communicates to her readers and how her readers may be receiving those messages. Using a sample of 600 posts from 2012-2017, a quantitative analysis was conducted to determine the type of content being presented. According to the findings, the majority of the posts included sponsored content and the most common theme was marriage and family. Posts were positive in tone, and most included images of the Davis children. Comparative data was examined between sponsorship and theme, engagement, and inclusion of children’s images. Statistically significant relationships were found between sponsorship and all variables, indicating sponsorships play an integral role in content selection. Expanding on the quantitative data, Stuart Hall’s (1980) method of textual analysis was used to further analyze content. The preferred reading indicates the Davis Family is an ideal reflection of the dominant ideology. The negotiated reading agrees, but considers the influence of capitalism, manifest in the large number of sponsored posts. An oppositional reading acknowledged how corporate sponsorships perpetuate hegemony and surmises that the family portrayed on the blog is not a reflection of reality, but a curated version of the elite’s ideas of perfection. This analysis demonstrates the potential influence of the blogging medium in American society

Reorienting Patrilineal Epistemology

My work explores how father figures – biological and cultural – transmit knowledge. I draw on personal anecdotes, popular fictions, and political realities to challenge the way masculinity is concocted. Traditionally, masculinity has been taught through what I term “patrilineal epistemology,” whereby the grandfather has taught the father, who teaches the son, who will teach his son, ad finitum. Santa Daddy, Untitled (My Father Never Taught Me How to Shave), and His Son’s Countenance Would not Bear the Same Fate as the Bare Face of His Watch focus on the lesson of shaving to reify alternatives and explore shared physiognomies between father and son. The Daniel Boone Line looks at the political implications of whose progress is privileged by these persistent pioneers. Bedtime Stories juxtaposes Shel Silverstein’s adult material with his iconic children’s illustrations to explore blurred the lines of intimacy and challenge the unconscious processes by which boys are fashioned into men. My work reorients this transference of knowledge to queer these constructions

Compound Extreme Events

There is a growing realization among scientists and decision makers that extreme events should not be considered in isolation. Compound events of three types will be described: 1) multivariate (e.g. heat plus humidity), 2) sequential (e.g. a heat wave after a tropical cyclone), and 3) concurrent (e.g. simultaneous temperature extremes in multiple regions). Research results will be presented for these compound extremes. More research is needed on correlations and physical mechanisms that can link seemingly independent extreme events. This research is especially urgent now, since climate change may shift the correlation structures of extreme events, and because compound extreme events can lead to outsized non-linear impacts, in part because of correlations that extend beyond climate variables into impacts and policy responses (e.g. simultaneous risk of heat waves, poor air quality, and power failures. Stakeholder driven approaches to identifying key impacts, and ultimately adapting to them, will also be discussed

The Extraterritorial Reach of Section 10(b): A Wolf Hunt Off Wall Street

Born to combat the market effects of the Great Depression, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 protects American investors and maintains American confidence in the U.S. securities market. These objectives are largely accomplished through the imposition of liability from Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act and the SEC’s Rule 10b-5. These federal laws impose civil and criminal penalties for domestic insider trading and securities fraud violations. Because Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 only apply domestically, when securities violations occur both within the United States and abroad, the reach of federal law becomes questionable, leaving federal courts with a complex issue. To resolve this issue, the Second Circuit created a Conduct and Effects test that left federal courts with a subpar solution to determine when Section 10(b) may apply extraterritorially. The test developed for over forty years and was widely accepted until the Supreme Court, in Morrison v. National Australia Bank, Ltd., brought Section 10(b)’s extraterritorial reach to a screeching halt in 2010. Ushering in a fundamental shift in securities law, Justice Scalia abrogated the Second Circuit’s Conduct and Effects test and purported to provide a clear Transactional test that avoided interference with foreign securities regulation. But the Court missed the mark, and instead created two new issues for the circuit courts of appeals. First, the Transactional test created an ambiguity that resulted in a sharply divided split among the First, Second, Third, and Ninth Circuit Courts. Second, the simultaneous enactment of the Dodd-Frank Act prompted a question of whether Congress partially abrogated the Court’s decision in Morrison and reinstated the Conduct and Effects test. In the wake of this circuit split comes uncertainty among the lower courts, threats to stare decisis, plaintiffs avoiding a defendant-friendly Second Circuit by forum shopping, and strains on international comity. To resolve the split, this Comment sets forth a factor-balancing test that determines whether the foreign elements of a transaction overcome the domestic elements to render Section 10(b) inapplicable to the conduct. This Spectrum test provides a flexible, but narrowly tailored, framework that can adapt to a rapidly evolving and globalizing securities market. It provides courts with a workable and consistent analysis that will facilitate the development of Section 10(b) jurisprudence

Re-visiting the rule of law and principle of legality : judicial nuisance or licence?

A constitutional democracy is required to embrace a discordancy of concerns in attempting to attain harmony and toleration of differently tuned instrumental values, interests and principles. Daily local and international news editorials testify to overreach of public and private power or functions that impacts unlawfully or unfairly upon the rights and interests of citizens. Our law reports are replete with examples of the latter fact. The proper and lawful exercise of public or private power, irrespective of the nature of the functionary, depends essentially on what is reasonable. Proportionality and rationality must serve as essential ingredients informing reasonableness. Axiomatic to the aforesaid is the role played by the rule of law in general and in particular the principle of legality – a necessary incident of the rule of law. The purpose of this article is to argue first that the principle of legality, employed at its best, offers rich impetus to our administrative law jurisprudence, second, that the improper application thereof poses a risk to subverting the principle of subsidiarity and, finally, examining the possibility of a commodious balance, if any, being struck between the elasticity offered by legality and the requirement of not bypassing national legislation