Informed Opinion Online
While some customers have good reasons for switching to an Alternative Retail Electricity Supplier (ARES), staying with the default utility supply option is the best decision for most Illinoisans, given current market trends. The video also covers predatory marketing practices in the retail electricity market so that viewers can recognize and avoid them.
In the interview, Chandler and Eric discuss topics such as the historical precedents of United States’ electricity demand, grid reliability, the role of energy efficiency, balancing economic development with a fair cost allocation, the role of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and finally, Chandler’s advice to future Commissioners of the Kentucky Public Service Commission.
To explore these effects at a personal level, this podcast episode features a conversation with Julia Craig, a micro-content creator. Craig discusses the ramifications of the blackout in her life and online livelihood, her perspective on the ban, and the potential shifts in creators’ futures.
The executive order suspending USRAP claims that the admission of refugees threatens national safety and security. However, World Relief counters that refugees undergo the most rigorous vetting process of anyone entering the U.S. Refugees are subjected to several screenings, biometric data collection, and interviews by the Department of Homeland Security. Next, this information is cross-referenced with databases managed by agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Defense. Individuals linked to terrorist organizations or human rights violations are automatically denied resettlement in the U.S.
Smaller cities are often much less dense than large ones (compare Greenville’s ~2400 people per square mile to Chicago’s ~12,000). This means that congestion is less of an issue, but being more spread out might mean that walking from place to place is not as feasible as in a larger city. As a result, these cities focus on their dependent riders, who greatly value coverage of the entire city, not just the downtown, and generally prefer coverage to speed.
Transgender people in the United States who are subjected to imprisonment face some of the highest rates of violence, discrimination, and outright degradation of personhood compared to other groups in prison. According to a 2022 study of 280 transgender inmates in federal prisons, 58% of inmates reported falling victim to sexual violence. This is an issue that Trump’s executive order will make substantially worse, especially for trans women.
Sports betting stands out as the most easily accessible of the lot. In nearly 80% of the U.S, sports betting is legal or pending legalization. In these states, one can simply unlock their phone, download a betting app, and play within minutes. Now, almost anyone in the United States can join the 95% of people who lose money on sports betting apps from the comfort of their own homes.
The Black Student Success Plan is more than just another policy change. It is a long-overdue commitment to truly supporting Black students. For too long, Chicago has treated school segregation as a numbers game. But integration alone was never the answer – equity is. Rather than forcing Black students into a system where their counterparts were always avoiding integration, the BSSP marks a shift from mere integration to empowerment, healing the wounds from decades of segregation and failed integration efforts.
Deregulatory data democracy, which urges self-regulation within firms and organizations, applies to the three main sectors subject to US medical privacy regulation: healthcare, academic research, and corporations. Its proposed privacy-opinion-gathering methods here are consensus, consent, and behavioral analysis.
EUDR-compliant products must be kept separate from non-compliant products throughout their supply chains. This new requirement means tracing every coffee bean, every plank of wood, and every drop of palm oil back to the exact plot of land where it was grown. On paper, the EUDR is a win for the planet. In reality, it presents a logistical nightmare for industry stakeholders, the governments of producing countries, and, most of all, smallholders at the bottom of the supply chain.
In 2021, after decades of scandal and ineffective police oversight, Chicago overhauled its police accountability system, implementing a revolutionary model that gave ordinary residents a direct role in shaping how their communities were policed. The reform created Police District Councils (PDCs), elected three-member boards in each of Chicago’s police districts. These councils were designed to be the “eyes and ears of the community.” This created an official link between communities, law enforcement, and police oversight agencies, ensuring that local concerns weren’t ignored.
North and South Dakota have often been at odds — it started before they were even states. Despite the urging of national political forces, the southern half of the Dakota Territory was insistent on being granted statehood separate from its northern half. Why? While there were plenty of reasons based in proximity to regional trade routes, differences in population size, and in-fighting within the territorial government, the root cause can be distilled to the simple observation that “the south half did not like the north half”.
The vast majority of gunshots detected by ShotSpotter and followed up by a first responder yield no evidence to confirm that a crime has taken place – no 911 calls, witnesses, victims, or shell casings. Are these ShotSpotter alerts successes, or are they failures, reports of a gunshot that are akin to the ambiguous noise of a tree that may have fallen in an empty forest? The Chicago Police Department (CPD) deems these alerts successful; a ShotSpotter failure, for the CPD, is counted only when the CPD itself reports a mistaken incident to ShotSpotter via email. Using this methodology, the CPD indicated that ShotSpotter had a 99.6% accuracy for identifying gunshots in 2023.
By promoting a highly medicalized birth model, we discourage self-advocacy among mothers, leaving pregnant women vulnerable to unnecessary or inappropriate interventions. Our healthcare system also renders childbirth to be extremely expensive, costing an average of $18,865 per birth (excluding prenatal care). These vast expenses partially emanate from centering care at private medical facilities. One ramification of the high costs around birth is that socioeconomic and racial disparities are reinforced: accessing prenatal care becomes burdensome for those with limited resources and poor transportation options.
These surveillance technologies provoke a law enforcement reaction to crime alerts but do not seem to help much in preventing crime. Carjackings in Chicago decreased after the network of ALPRs was expanded in 2016 until 2020, but have since risen to rates higher to what they were in 2016. While gun violence has decreased to pre-pandemic levels, rates of victimization and shootings remain at historic highs. In order to accelerate crime reduction, and effectively stop people from worrying about the “what-ifs,” CPD should use these technologies to take a preventative approach to crime; currently, the modern equipment seems to have little value in deterring crime.
States with more funding for community mental health programs report lower incarceration rates for individuals with mental illness. A study conducted in California showed that every $1 spent on community mental health services saves around $6 through reduced police interventions, emergency room visits, and jail time. Wisconsin saw a 10% drop in arrests among participants in its crisis intervention and community mental health programs. Another example comes from San Antonio’s Restoration Center, founded in 2008, which provides detox services and short-term mental health treatment, complemented with long-term care referrals. The jail population in San Antonio has decreased by 20%, saving taxpayers over $10 million annually.
In addition to economic returns, early education has been found to reduce troublesome behavioral issues. An Australian structured social-emotional learning program offered to first graders lowered problem behaviors such as aggression, anxiety, and hyperactivity, demonstrating that appropriate training can support better self-regulation and conflict resolution skills. More generally, ECE contributes to an overall reduction in crime rates, increased high school graduation rates, and higher lifetime earnings, as students transition into adulthood.
Sanctuary cities prohibit local law officers from assisting with immigration law enforcers. Nonetheless, since immigration law is federally enforced, sanctuary cities like Chicago cannot offer full protection to undocumented residents. As a result, even long-term resident migrants like Maria can still be uprooted and deported.
Chicagoans have never gotten their money’s worth from Metra. Singapore’s world-class Rapid Transit network transported 1.3 billion passengers with a budget of just under $4 billion USD last year, equating to about $0.34 in expenses per passenger transported. Paris, Tokyo, and other rail-based cities offer similar numbers. With its 1 billion dollar budget this year, Metra conducted just 32 million passenger trips, spending $32.12 of taxpayer funds for each trip it conducted.
Transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) people comprise only 0.6% of the U.S. population, but Project 2025 would have you believe that ‘transgender ideology’ is an existential threat to the very fabric of American life. Fear-mongering about a vulnerable minority group can admittedly prove to be a viable, albeit cruel, political strategy. But if history is any indication, when one scapegoat falls, the hunt for the next begins.
Ensuring the success of this event is essential for reminding Mexican residents – and all other residents – that they are welcome and honored in Chicago. El Grito and Mexican Independence Day are annual opportunities for Mexican residents to commemorate their culture and history. Caravans, too, are a method for Mexican residents to gather and see the presence and impact of the Mexican community in the city they call home.
Admission exams are not the problem and eliminating them is not the solution. The long running, rampant problem is underfunded and under-resourced schools that have failed their students long before high school. Without the proper investment in educators, in parents, and in students themselves, removing an admissions exam serves as a performative but ineffective gesture to address the striking issues of segregation and academic achievement gaps.
Chicago can take several steps to address these inequities and ensure the cannabis industry lives up to its potential as a driver of social and economic justice. One key measure is creating additional equity licenses specifically for individuals disproportionately affected by cannabis prohibition. These licenses should offer significantly reduced application fees for applicants who meet specific criteria.
While public health failures have always existed in Chicago, COVID-19 drew specific public attention to the lack of transparency and the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on vulnerable communities. In 2022, the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office stopped publishing data on COVID-19 outbreaks, concealing crucial information about the virus’s impact on vulnerable populations.
AI is revolutionizing education by leveraging real-time student data to enhance both teaching and learning. It works by analyzing details like how long a student spends on a question, how often they access help, and their overall performance, to create a “student model” that helps predict future performance and identifies the most effective teaching strategies. These models create personalized learning tracks, such as customized practice problems, that are tailored to each student’s current understanding and areas of struggle.