Humanities & Society

The Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy will kick off its fall forum series with a half-day symposium on “Taxing Temptation: Excise Taxes and Health” from 9 a.m.-noon Sept. 23 in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom in Anheuser-Busch Hall. The series, which is free and open to the public, also includes forums on education finance (Nov. 4) and monetary policy (Nov. 30).

On Wed., Sept. 14, at 4 p.m. in McMillan Cafe (Room 115) in McMillan Hall, an interdisciplinary panel of Washington University professors will hold a conversation about the meaning and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

StaudtThe devastating conditions in the Gulf Coast have left many Americans asking, “Why did the government fail when Katrina hit?” “The answer to this question can be linked to the organizational changes that occurred in the federal government after September 11, 2001,” says Nancy Staudt, professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis and expert on government decision-making. “At that time, the federal government began to worry about fragmented and uncoordinated relief efforts and sought to create a more streamlined approach to dealing with national disasters. FEMA was placed in a mammoth bureaucracy with less authority to respond to natural disasters; its power was diluted by the growing concerns for terrorism.”

Below is a link to the Washington University news release about the U.S. News & World Report undergraduate rankings for 2004-05: http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/3627.html To view a full listing of U.S. News magazine, book and Web-only rankings for 2004-05, please visit the U.S. News & World Report site: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/rankindex_brief.php

As the Senate prepares to consider nominees for two Supreme Court vacancies, some liberals fear that President Bush will use the opportunity to pack the High Court with conservative-leaning justices, pushing the law of the land dramatically to the right for years to come. However, a new book on the history of America’s judicial nomination process offers compelling evidence that a president’s ability to perpetuate personal political legacies through court appointments tends to be both short-lived and unpredictable. When it comes to the politics of Supreme Court nominees, president’s don’t always get what they want, suggests WUSTL Supreme Court expert Lee Epstein.

He’s the author of the Academic Bill of Rights, a manifesto intended to protect academic freedom by removing partisan politics from the classroom.

Welfare to work leaves some out in the coldThe Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 dramatically changed the nation’s welfare rules. The act ended low-income families’ entitlement to cash assistance and changed the welfare program from a system of income support to one based on work. “Unfortunately, one of the consequences of this legislation is that a segment of welfare recipients, probably the most disadvantaged group, left or were forced to leave welfare without having the proper means to live,” says Yunju Nam, Ph.D., assistant professor at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis.

Nutritionist offers advice for packing a healthy lunch box.With childhood obesity and diabetes on the rise, more and more people are becoming aware of the need to eat more healthily and to get more exercise early in life. Considering most kids’ affinity for fast food and video games, directing them to a healthier lifestyle can be easier said than done. But, as kids head back to school, a nutritionist at Washington University in St. Louis offers advice to parents on packing a healthy lunch for their children — one that they will actually eat.

The lead counsel for Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 election litigation and the director of the Southern Center for Human Rights are part of the fall lineup for the School of Law’s eighth annual Public Interest Law Speakers Series. Titled “Access to Justice: The Social Responsibility of Lawyers,” the series brings to the University outstanding academics and practitioners in areas such as international human rights, the economics of poverty, civil liberties, racial justice, capital punishment, clinical legal education, and government and private public service.

Spurred by concerns over China’s booming economy, the Bush administation plans to crank-up pressure on Chinese authorities to curtail the rampant theft of intellectual property — the black market in pirated films, software and equipment that costs American companies billions in lost sales. While anti-piracy rhetoric plays well in Washington, a new book on the “Politics of Piracy” in China suggests that external diplomatic pressure will have little effect on China’s ability to enforce international norms on copyrights, trademarks and patents. “The key to gaining enforcement of those laws lies at the local level,” says the book’s author, WUSTL China specialist Andrew Mertha.