Chapman’s News & Ideas | Page 3

Poor homeless man or refugee sleeping on the wooden bench on the

To Fix Homelessness, Stop Fixating On Housing

Homelessness affects cities across the country, but it’s not just a local issue, though media cover it that way. Nor is homelessness mainly about housing; rather, it’s largely about untreated mental illness and drug addiction. Consistently misdiagnosed, homelessness is being wrongly addressed. Read More ›
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Caps, Gowns and Rude Interruptions

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav had a message for students when he delivered a commencement address at Boston University Sunday: “Show up,” he said. Alas, a number of students at the ceremony had their own message: “Shut up, Zaslav.” Some shouted, “Pay your writers,” a reference to the current Writers Guild of America strike, which was announced on May 2 and has very little to do a college graduation. Other students stood up with their back to Zaslav. Some clapped. Some booed. Many of the adults who shared the stage with Zaslav just sat there, because, apparently, it didn’t bother them if overly entitled students tried to squelch Zaslav’s remarks. At first blush, heckling may seem like an improvement Read More ›

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Biden Takes on Homelessness With Bromides

This month President Joe Biden released his homeless plan, “ALL IN: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness.” Be it noted, that the plan is dated December 2022, so it’s not exactly new. But this is something former President Donald Trump did as well — conduct numerous roll-outs for the same scheme. The Biden Administration touts a worthy goal — to reduce homelessness by 25% by January 2025. That’s more realistic than President Barack Obama’s 2013 pledge to end all homelessness by 2023. And Biden’s bound to get closer to his goal. But then, administrations never meet their goals on homelessness, so… What struck me about the Biden plan is how thin it is on specifics and rich it is in bromides. Read More ›

Scissors cutting a dollar bill in half
Money being cut showing cutbacks or wasteful spending

Federal Budget: No Place for Freelancers

Team GOP's handshake spending plan includes two goals — to cap discretionary spending in fiscal 2024 to at 2022 levels as well as a budget blueprint that balances within 10 years. Read More ›
Smartphone_Use

The Administrative State Can Put a Bug in Your Phone

In the age of cellphones and the internet, consumers often face a simple choice: convenience or privacy? Do we let Big Tech have access to our private communications and free email accounts because it's so easy? Once you've said yes — and who among us has not? — it's not a stretch to think that Big Data already has almost all your information, so why get picky at the next juncture? Read More ›
Closeup of a mail ballot envelope

Early Voting: Not Good

Think of the sacrifices our forebears made to expand the right to vote, because the franchise is precious. Now the goal is to make the exercise of voting not more robust, not more informed, but as easy as possible. Read More ›