Day: June 26, 2017💾

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Silent Sparks

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Silent Sparks

"As daylight drains from the summer sky, a cool breeze rustles through a hay-scented New England meadow. Relaxing in the long grass, even the keenest observer might miss the miniature army that’s now awakening from its daytime slumber. One by one, tiny male fireflies are creeping upward along grass highways. They pause at each apex, ready to lift off like silent Black Hawks. But as they prepare for their nightly search missions, these firefly males aren’t motivated by military conquest. Their quest? Genetic immortality. They’re hell-bent on procreation, driven by an urgent need to propel their genes into the next firefly generation. These resolute males are destined to spend every night of their short adult lives valiantly broadcasting their luminous signals. Unfortunately, the odds are stacked against them as they head off into the night looking for love."

Why Are Millions of Citizens Not Registered to Vote?

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Why Are Millions of Citizens Not Registered to Vote?

"Registration’s importance to the voting process and the large number of individuals who remain unregistered have spurred several major reforms intended to increase voter registration. Most notably, the federal government’s National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) requires that states allow eligible citizens to register to vote when completing other transactions at state motor vehicle and social services agencies, a provision commonly known as Motor Voter. Since enactment of the law, some states have expanded on this requirement by automating the Motor Voter process. Colorado upgraded its Motor Voter process in 2017, and Oregon became the first state to implement automatic voter registration in 2016, with at least six more planning to implement similar policies in the future. Other states offer Same Day Registration, which allows individuals to register and vote on Election Day, often right at their polling places."

What Americans Don’t Like About Obamacare

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What Americans Don’t Like About Obamacare

"For years, the Kaiser Family Foundation has surveyed Americans about health policy and the ACA, aka Obamacare. Periodically, those surveys have included open-ended questions about why Americans do or don’t support the law. Since the implementation of the law’s main features in 2014, Americans have thought about the ACA much as the Alaskans described by Murkowski have: Those who back it cite increased access, and those who oppose it worry about rising personal costs."

"Consider the tables below, in which I categorized responses along with the share of people falling into each category in Kaiser’s March 2014 and March 2015 surveys. For the law’s opponents, the single biggest issue to emerge from these answers is what I term “personal cost.” Thirteen percent of all respondents — and 23 percent of the law’s detractors — gave responses that fit into this category. This March 2014 response was emblematic: “My insurance has went up 400 percent. I think it rips off the doctors and young people. I can’t believe Congress will pass a law with them not knowing what it’s about.” If the new Senate bill seeks to improve upon the ACA in the public’s eyes, and especially in the eyes of the ACA’s detractors, it will need to keep out-of-pocket health care costs down."