Author: Neil Schoenherr

The city of Philadelphia on June 16 passed a 1.5 cent-per-ounce tax on soda and other sugary drinks, making it the first major city in the nation to impose such a tax. The move is poised to be a watershed event in public health policy, said a health economist at Washington University in St. Louis.

Martha N. Ozawa, former Bettie Bofinger Brown Distinguished Professor of Social Policy and professor emerita at the Brown School, died May 3, 2016, at her home in St. Louis. She was 82.

John Inazu, associate professor of law, discusses his research on the concept of “confident pluralism,” the idea we can and must live together peaceably in spite of deep differences over politics, religion, sexuality and other important matters.

On May 16, the U.S. Supreme Court sent the Zubick vs. Burwell case, a challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive requirement for employers, back to the lower courts for further examination, leaving women employees and students at workplaces around the country in limbo, says Elizabeth Sepper, associate professor of law and expert on health law.

A recent Supreme Court case that was expected to limit privacy laws actually has the potential to expand them, according to an expert on privacy law at Washington University in St. Louis.

Google’s decision this week to ban payday loan ads should be commended, but also highlights the need that many lower-income consumers have for affordable short-term loan options, says an expert on social and economic development at Washington University in St. Louis.

The U.S. Treasury Department has issued several rules recently aimed at cracking down on tax evasion and money laundering in the wake of the “Panama Papers.” Will continuing to add new, and increasingly aggressive, rules make any lasting or concrete changes to the American tax code? Maybe, but perhaps at a cost to the tax law as a whole, says Washington University tax expert Adam Rosenzweig.

Sarah Gehlert, E. Desmond Lee Professor of Racial and Ethnic Diversity at the Brown School, has been named to the steering committee of the California Breast Cancer Research Program.

Low-to-moderate income black students and graduates accrue on average $7,721 more student debt than their white counterparts, finds a new analysis by researchers in the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis.

A new study by Darrell Hudson of the Brown School delves into the discrimination felt by African American men in St. Louis, the stress it causes them and the coping methods they use to alleviate that stress.