A collective “huh” echoed earlier this month after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced checkpoints to enforce quarantine restrictions on travelers from places with high risk of COVID-19 infection. While states have imposed similar controls on each other’s residents since the beginning of the pandemic, for a city to do so is a […]
Last week, Virginia launched a COVID-19-tracking app that allows users to discover if they’ve come into contact with people who have tested positive for the virus and to anonymously report their own status if they become infected. Importantly, Virginia’s COVIDWISE is the first app to fully implement specifications put forward by Apple and Google that […]
It appears that government-imposed restrictions on travel, business, and social contact don’t become more palatable with age. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to simmer, the one competency that officials have consistently displayed is in tightening the screws, using the licenses and permissions they require as enforcement tools. For people tired of being bossed around, the […]
This week, Chicago Public Schools became the latest large school district to opt for online-only lessons in the fall. It’s an attempt to minimize the threat of COVID-19 infection, but it leaves a lot of Chicago families unhappy and—like their counterparts around the country—heading for the exits, in search of options that better suit their […]
It’s common in a democracy to worry that you’ll have to make peace with unpalatable election results. What’s new this year is the possibility that many Americans might refuse to make peace at all. It’s the logical extension of a moment in which the major presidential candidates seem to have been picked for their ability […]
Americans can’t agree on whether face masks are a good way to reduce the threat of transmitting COVID-19. We’ve even turned mask-donning into a symbol of partisan affiliation; those who would make them compulsory everywhere face off against those who refuse them under all circumstances. But we should at least be able to agree that […]
Protests against law-enforcement abuses continue across the country, but police and their supporters are hardly ready to throw in the towel. While some progress has been made at the state level, cops aren’t letting go of their tough tactics or their opposition to reforms. And government officials just can’t quit their addiction to deploying armies […]
Earlier this year, The New York Times looked at different editions of the same public-school textbooks published in California and Texas and found them spun in opposite directions to suit the ideological tastes of the dominant political factions in those states. It was a handy summary of the long-raging curriculum wars that have seen politicians […]
Federal law-enforcement agents brutally enforcing the government’s will against a segment of the population on the outs with the current administration are “jack-booted government thugs,” the National Rifle Association (NRA) charged in communications with its membership. Questioned by the press, the gun-rights group’s Wayne LaPierre defended the heated words, saying “they are a pretty close […]
There’s no question that the federal agents arresting protesters in Portland, Oregon, are acting against the wishes of state and local authorities. The mayor of Portland and the governor of Oregon both asked the Trump administration to remove its troops, and officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security refused. That reflects poorly on an […]
