Our weekly Top Five feature offers big stories or views from the past week with policy and legislative implications.
- A tragedy: Spiking death rates for white women, 25-55, The Washington Post, April 8, 2016
The story offers a close look at the death of a 54-year-old Oklahoma woman who represents a trend. An excerpt:
“White women between 25 and 55 have been dying at accelerating rates over the past decade, a spike in mortality not seen since the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s. According to recent studies of death certificates, the trend is worse for women in the center of the United States, worse still in rural areas, and worst of all for those in the lower middle class. Drug and alcohol overdose rates for working-age white women have quadrupled. Suicides are up by as much as 50 percent.”
- State changes school grading scale, The Post and Courier, April 13, 2016
A new 10-point grading scale in public schools will purportedly “level the playing field,” education officials say. The scale, which will follow traditional definitions of an “A” being between 90 and 100 percent and an “F” being below a score of 60, will also help thousands more students qualify for state lottery-funded scholarships. From a public policy perspective, that could impact lottery scholarship awards.
- Clyburn says rural areas need more focus, Orangeburg Times and Democrat, April 12, 2016
U.S. Rep. James Clyburn says rural areas need some serious investment to ensure they have equal opportunities.
- Congress split on MOX funding, Greenville News, April 13, 2016
A key Senate committee appears sympathetic to a plan to close the plutonium recycling project in South Carolina, but the House is considering a plan to keep the mixed-oxide fuel fabrication facility open. In February, the Energy Department recommended cutting the project’s budget to $270 million, which would stop construction and start closing the site.
- Ryan wages a parallel GOP campaign, The New York Times, April 10, 2016
This is the kind of analysis that political junkies live for. It outlines how U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan is running a campaign-like effort that is parallel to the GOP presidential campaign to protect the “Republican” brand in more ways than one.
- Want more stories like these? If you’d like to get these updates in much more depth every business day, we encourage you to subscribe to our sister publication, S.C. Clips. Click here for a two-week test drive.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!