Business & Entrepreneurship

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, antimicrobial resistance is one our most serious health threats, with infections from resistant bacteria becoming far too common. Part of the problem is over-prescription of antibiotics. Nanopore Diagnostics, winner of this year’s Olin Cup, hopes to change that.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule this spring on whether prayers before town hall meetings violate the First Amendment clause that prohibits the establishment of religion. John Inazu, a First Amendment expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, highlights one dimension of the litigation often unaddressed by commentators: what he calls the “mistakes of the past, present and future” adopted by proponents of legislative prayer.

Commercials for the commercials? Arnold Schwarzenegger in tennis gear? A “Full House” reunion? Must be Super Bowl time. “It’s interesting to see the experience of the Super Bowl ads lasting eight to 13 weeks on average today compared to one day of viewing the ads years ago,” says Carol Johanek, adjunct professor of marketing at Washington University in St. Louis’ Olin Business School.

3.5 out of 12 — That is the score the Electronic Frontier Foundation gave President Obama’s highly anticipated address on NSA spying last week. And while lauding Obama for recognizing the dangers of government surveillance and the importance of discussing it, Washington University in St. Louis privacy law expert Neil Richards agrees that the president did not quite go far enough to protect individual privacy.

Stuart Bunderson, the George and Carol Bauer Professor of Organizational Ethics and Governance, has accepted an appointment as associate dean of executive programs at Washington University in St. Louis’ Olin Business School. He will assume this role March 1.

“The House leadership’s procedural excuses for blocking a vote on critical immigration reform make little sense,” says Stephen Legomsky, professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis and the recent Chief Counsel of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Department of Homeland Security. In that position he worked intensively with White House and DHS officials and played a major role on comprehensive immigration reform. “It’s now been 7 months since the Senate passed a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill. Speaker Boehner should allow the people’s elected representatives in the House to consider it without further delay,” Legomsky argues.

Federal appellate judge Bernice Donald, JD, president of the American Bar Foundation, and Thomas Saenz, JD, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, will be the next speakers for the 16th annual School of Law Public Interest Law & Policy Speakers Series.

President Barack Obama signed a memorandum Jan. 15 directing agencies to allow federal workers to take six weeks of paid sick leave to help with a new child or a sick relative. The president also asked Congress to pass the Healthy Families Act, which would grant Americans seven days a year of paid sick time. Augmenting the Family and Medical Leave Act is one place Congress might start if it wants to combat sex-role stereotypes and advance women’s equal employment opportunity, as well as supporting families in times of illness, say experts at Washington University in St. Louis.

Washington University School of Law alumni Joseph E. and Yvonne L. Cordell have made a $1 million gift commitment to establish and endow the Cordell & Cordell Visiting Professorship in the law school.

Washington University in St. Louis and Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea are partnering to offer a unique learning experience to master the complex world of business by earning two degrees on two continents in their new Global Master of Finance Dual Degree program.