Wendy Strobel, extension associate

"When the ADA was passed 19 years ago, people with disabilities had high hopes about the potential impact of the law on ending discrimination against this population.  Sadly, the interpretation by the courts left large holes in who would be protected from discrimination under the law.The new federal ADA Amendments Act, which went into effect on Jan. 1, 2009, will shift the focus of disability discrimination claims from whether or not a person has a disability to whether or not a discriminatory act took place.his new law represents a huge step forward in non-discrimination against people with disabilities.

Some people have expressed concern that the range of disabilities protected under the ADA Amendments Act is too broad and will mean that business will be inundated with disability discrimination claims.  I disagree. This law basically asks employers to extend its non-discriminatory practices that they provide to other minority groups to the community of people with disabilities. The ADA Amendments Act means that businesses must be sure to have clear processes and procedures in place for disability and workplace issues."

Art Wheaton, senior extension associate in Workforce, Industry and Economic Development

     "Blaming the unions for this meltdown is quite naïve and simplistic but seems to be politically popular.  The reality is that the collapse of General Motors and Chrysler is a complex mix of failed product design, poor marketing and economic conditions outside their control.
     The unions have shown courage in granting billions of dollars in concessions to help GM and Chrysler survive into the future.  While of course they share some responsibility for the consequences of past decisions, the union contracts have been negotiated in good faith with automotive executives since 1937. I think the current agreements approved by GM, Chrysler, UAW, and the Presidential Auto Committee also indicate a willingness of all sides to sit down and work out reasonable solutions in tough times.
     Ford and the UAW have managed to survive this downturn without bankruptcy or federal handouts. It is the same union and same union president helping Ford fight back to profitability. Keep in mind that Toyota has also lost billions of dollars, asked their government for money and fired their CEO. Same can be said of PSA Peugeot-Citroen in France.
     What we’re seeing happen today with the American auto industry is a global auto industry problem, not a Detroit or union problem.”

Art Wheaton, senior extension associate in Workforce, Industry and Economic Development

     "This Fox News report http://www.foxnews.com some relevant points.  GM and Chrysler dealerships compete against themselves. The margins they make on cars are so small they must charge customers higher on other services to make up the profit.     
     This has indeed led to poor dealership relations within GM and Chrysler. They simply have way too many dealers for the number of sales they make. GM has almost 4 times the number of dealerships thatToyota has with about the same number of sales. Chrysler had no choice in closing dealerships; it was a term and condition of giving away Chrysler to Fiat. The issue surrounding the shutting down of 3,000 car dealerships (2,200 for GM and 789 for Chrysler) is complex but necessary.     
     While it is never popular shutting down a viable car dealership, the realities of competition clearly have created ill will and drama among Chrysler and GM dealerships. The closing of these operations was, in this case, necessary.”

Paul Curtis, professor the Department of Natural Resources

“First documented in New York State in the winter of 2006-2007, White-nose Syndrome (WNS) refers to a disease responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of bats in the northeastern United States.

WNS has been observed in at least 65 bat roosting caves in New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia. Infected bats have a white fungal growth on the muzzle, wings, and other body surfaces.

This fungus apparently affects winter behavior, including shifts from regular roost locations in caves. Daytime outdoor flights during winter result in mass bat mortality near cave entrances. Fungal damage to wing membranes may be evident through mid-summer. Additional information on WNS can be found at http://www.fws.gov/northeast/white_nose.html.”

Thomas Pepinsky, assistant professor of government

“Burma’s new dissent movement is adopting a new kind of organizational strategy to confront an old problem in Burmese politics: An intransigent military junta that fears any organized opposition and is fiercely protective of the political status quo.

“While this movement is innovative, its likelihood of success in the near future remains low. Meaningful political change in Burma will most likely require an opening from the regime – in the form of perhaps a factional squabble, or the rise of a reformist faction in the military.  Once such an opening does appear, look to highly organized dissent movements such as this to play a key role in shaping subsequent political developments.”

Steven Kyle, associate professor of Economics; and Art Wheaton, auto industry and labor relations specialist

Kyle:
“The loan package is really just a bridge loan through March to allow a longer range plan to be worked out. Bush's statement made clear what most observers have been saying - that even though we favor the free market which penalizes poor management by pushing companies into bankruptcy, it would be irresponsible not to throw a lifeline to the auto companies at this point because the health of the whole economy depends in part on their continued existence. These loans are in fact convertible into stock and so the government can now add the auto industry to the list of areas that have been nationalized to some degree as a result of the economic crisis.”

Wheaton:
“President Bush made a difficult and correct decision today. The granting of TARP funds to allow GM and Chrysler to begin restructuring plants will be seen as one of his finest moments in office. It is never easy to go against your party's wishes but this was the right choice at the right time.

“The entire global auto industry thanks President Bush for giving GM and Chrysler a chance to begin restructuring. Using the Wall Street $700 billion funds will also help secure the long-term environmental funds approved earlier this year. This difficult decision was courageous and correct.”

Andrew Mertha, associate professor of Chinese Politics

“I was in Urumqi on Thursday, Friday, and then again on Sunday (transferring at the airport) and Kashgar on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  I was present at several meetings at the Public Security Bureau (PSB) in Urumqi and in Kashgar.The thoughts that follow are based on those several days of meetings and observations on the street.

Although earlier reports suggested that tensions were simmering below the surface (perhaps because of the incident in Guangzhou earlier in the week), it appeared to me that the PSB and other security units were taken by surprise at the possibility of large-scale protest in Urumqi and now Kashgar.

Of course, we were given boilerplate assurances that the 47 minority groups in Xinjiang are living in peace and harmony, but the fact that the meetings were not cancelled, and there was no subtext about possible tensions during the meetings and informal conversations that followed, suggests that the protests were genuinely unanticipated.

This also suggests a pattern, because Beijing did not seem to anticipate the Tibetan protests of March 2008 either, even though there are several anniversaries sensitive to Tibetans that occur in March.

If this stems from a degree of opening up and loosening the restrictions imposed by the coercive apparatus that has been taking place over the past decade, I would anticipate that Beijing will reverse this trend, at least in the short term, and certainly until after the ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic.

Indeed, this may be more than a short-term "corrective" in that it was precisely the element of surprise and "organization under the radar" that made the Falun Gong appear to be such a threat to the Chinese leadership.  Insofar as this is an apt analogy, I would anticipate a substantive enhancement of China's security capacity in the months and years to come.”

Colin Parrish, professor virology, Baker Institute for Animal Health at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine; and Alfonso Torres, professor and associate dean for public policy at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine

Colin Parrish: 
“Cats have a history of susceptibility to influenza viruses. We have seen the first instance of a human infecting a feline with the H1N1 virus and are likely to see more cases. It is equally likely that the infections in cats will be rare and mild, based on historical evidence, and that cats will not become transmitters of the virus to humans..”

-Colin Parrish, professor virology, Baker Institute for Animal Health at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine

 Alfonso Torres: 

“Given the large population of people infected with the H1N1 and the close contact that humans have with farm animals and household pets, there is a possibility that we will be seeing a few more human-to-animal infections. However, given the large number of people infected and their large opportunity for close contact with household pets, these human infections of pets appear to be an extremely rare occurrence.”

-Alfonso Torres, professor and associate dean for public policy at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine

Robin Blakely, Extension Associate in Cornell's Community and Rural Development Institute

“According to a study conducted at Cornell University, New Yorkers are increasingly concerned about economic challenges such as economic growth, employment, taxes, and the state budget. But concerns differ according to whether people live in rural, downstate, or upstate urban areas, as well as to the extent these issues impact their communities or the state as a whole.

Upstate urbanites and rural residents are, overall, more concerned about economic issues than are downstate residents, but downstate urbanites have shown the most dramatic increase in concern over these issues during the past year. While upstate urbanites view economic growth and employment as particularly vital issues to their communities, downstate urban residents are more apt to see these issues as significant for the state as a whole.”

Edward McLaughlin, professor of Applied Economics and Management

During economic downturns, a number of changes in food prices are predictable, and all are in evidence in this downturn: A switch from food service to retail, a switch from up-market stores to value formats, a switch from national brands to private labels, and a switch from exotics to commodities.

Steve Kyle

Professor of Applied Economics Kyle was recently featured on FoxNews.com with an opinion piece about the necessity for government intervention in failing U.S. banks. He has also spoken to the media about the stimulus package and the possibility of a new "Great Depression."

Robert Frank

Professor of economics. Frank's most recent book The Economic Naturalist takes a look at the economics of social behavior - why some seemingly "odd" behaviors make perfect economic sense. He is also an economics columnist for the New York Times.

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Victor Nee

the Goldwin Smith Professor of Sociology and director of the Center for the Study of Economy and Society in the department of sociology. Nee's current research focuses on advancing new institutional economic sociology, including a study of the effect of immigration on race relations in the American workplace.

Eswar Prasad

the Tolani Senior Professor of Trade Policy in the Department of Applied Economics and Management. Prasad specializes in international finance and economics, including financial globalization and China, Hong Kong and India's economies.

Kaushik Basu

The C. Marks Professor of International Studies and director of the Center for Analytic Economics in the Department of Economics. Basu writes a BBC News online column on South Asian economics and has authored several books, including The Oxford Companion to Economics in India. (Oxford University Press, May 2007)

Art Wheaton, senior extension associate in workforce, industry and economic development

“There was nothing surprising in the auto sales numbers released Sept. 1. Automakers with reputations for good quality and small-car lineups had good results.  GM and Chrysler disappointed with poor sales numbers, in part due to low inventories of small cars.

Toyota made impressive gains with Cash for Clunkers. The Toyota Corolla was the number-one car in sales to benefit from the U.S. funded Cash for Clunkers, but now Toyota has closed the California Corolla assembly plant and will import all future Corollas from Canada and Japan.”

Paul Curtis, professor, Department of Natural Resources

     "New York City proposes to capture and euthanize 2,000 geese during ‘round-ups’ when the geese are flightless during late June. Past research has shown that removal of adult geese will effectively lower the local population for several years. Such removals will reduce, but not completely eliminate, the potential for goose-aircraft collisions.  Thousands of geese will still remain in the lower Hudson River Valley and on Long Island. Also, these ‘resident’ geese will continue to attract and mix with thousands of migratory Canada geese each spring and fall.       
     Such removal programs are sometimes necessary to protect public safety on and near airports. Lethal control of geese, gulls and other migratory birds is almost always controversial, and will require both federal and state permits. Each airport provides a unique set of problems and bird management issues.
     Professionals from USDA-Wildlife Services often provide technical advice to airport managers. The FAA has published documents to assist airport staff with designing an effective bird abatement program. These technical materials will help reduce, but not completely eliminate, the potential for bird strikes by aircraft. Sometimes active management with scaring devices — bird bangers, trained hawks — or even lethal bird control, is needed to protect public safety.”

Art Wheaton

“General Motors has revisited some of the rural dealerships that were scheduled to close and has given several of them a reprieve. In the original analysis, GM did not clearly study the distance between rural dealerships, and has reversed its decision to close some of them. 

“I do not think GM will stop the closing of most of the announced dealerships unless legislation currently in Congress is passed, forcing GM to return to each state court to close dealerships. Each individual state has dealer-franchise laws that make it very time consuming and expensive to close dealerships. GM has used the bankruptcy process to avoid state-by-state litigation that would add billions to the costs of shutting down the dealerships. President Obama and the automotive task force are actively trying to avoid this legislation, which could derail GM's recovery.”

Art Wheaton, senior extension associate in Workforce, Industry and Economic Development

    "GM is very likely to file for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy before Monday. Ford, which is on track to pass GM and Toyota in United States production, will likely benefit from Chrysler and GM lost sales by being the reliable option for those wanting to buy from an American company that is not under threat or government bailout.
     Toyota is also under heavy pressure to cut costs and their quality and reputation have suffered in their rapid expansion efforts. Longer-term, I think that with the assistance of the Obama administration and substantial funding, both GM and Chrysler will come back from bankruptcy (GM better chance than Chrysler).”

Alfonso Torres, Professor and Associate Dean for Public Policy at the College of Veterinary Medicine

“The current ‘Swine flu’ infections in humans do not come from pigs. Swine do carry an H1N1 virus, but it is genetically different from the version currently infecting people. Furthermore, according to the World  Health Organization for Animal Health and several U.S. government agencies, there is no evidence at this time that pigs, or pork products, are playing any role in the spread of H1N1 influenza virus.
“Unfortunately, this strain of influenza was erroneously designated as ‘Swine Flu’ when it was originally identified.  The Centers for Disease Control has recommended that the correct name for the H1N1 virus that is infecting people should be ‘Novel H1N1 Influenza A virus,’ instead of ‘Swine Flu.’ ”

Casalino & Fins, Weill Cornell Medical College Faculty

Dr. Casalino:
    “President Obama recognizes that if healthcare costs are not brought under control there may be serious consequences for an already weakened economy. There are many specific strategies that may fix healthcare in the United States, and President Obama and Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) realize that the overall goal is to adjust the quality and efficiency of how care is delivered to patients.”
     -Dr. Lawrence Casalino, chief of the Division of Outcomes and Effectiveness Research in the Department of Public Health at Weill Cornell Medical College.

 Dr. Fins:
    “Obama has also stressed the moral mandate for access to care. His heightened regard for the ethical dimensions of this complex debate cuts through the rhetoric by reminding us why we ought to provide each American with healthcare security. This focus, coupled with his willingness to compromise, makes it more likely than ever that the president will achieve reforms which have eluded all his predecessors dating back to Harry Truman.”
    - Dr. Joseph J. Fins, chief of the Division of Medical Ethics, Professor of Medicine, Professor of Public Health and Professor of Medicine in Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College, and Attending Physician at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Center.

Rebecca Givan, assistant professor, ILR

   "The AMA is adopting a protectionist strategy, very similar to the strategy of the British Medical Association at the founding of the British National Health Service. Ultimately the British doctors acquiesced and are now among the fiercest defenders of their National Healthcare system.              When the president addresses the AMA, he will most likely try to reassure doctors that with public plan choice, alongside the existing private insurance plans, the public will continue to have access to high quality health care."

Sherry Colb, Professor of Law

“As Henry Louis Gates has himself acknowledged, it was appropriate for someone in the neighborhood to call the police and for the police to come to the scene, when two people appeared to be trying to force their way into his house. What police should not have done, after asking Gates for identification and thereby confirming that he did in fact live in the house, was to arrest him for disorderly conduct.    Gates's demand for identification, and the immediate accusation of racism showed disrespect for the police, and many less prominent citizens (white and black alike) would have refrained from such an exhibition. Yet Gates had every right to speak in this way, and to arrest him for it was an illegal and unconstitutional abuse of power. It may not, however, be accurate to say that the misconduct was motivated by Gates's race. Just as likely, it stemmed from a destructive arrogance through which police wish to see unquestioning compliance with their demands and punish those who disappoint this wish.”

David Funk, director, Progam in Real Estate

"Homebuyers that have delayed their decision to purchase a new home are recognizing that the $8,000 tax credit for new home buyers combined with builder discounts and still low interest rates, which many feel will be heading higher this fall, make this the time to finally make the purchase. 

The glut of foreclosures in the marketplace plus anticipated rollouts of further REOs that banks have been holding back should continue the overall decline in median home price sales for at least the next 6-12 months."

Jens David Ohlin, assistant professor of Law

“The War on Terror is more than just a foreign operation. Although the usual paradigm for ‘terrorism’ is the far-flung extremist, the homegrown terrorist is actually far more dangerous. It is for this reason that some of the most controversial Bush Administration cases dealt with alleged terrorists who were either born in the United States or captured here. Their legal fate – military commissions or civilian trials – prompted some of the most intense Supreme Court litigation of the past eight years. Now, the Obama Administration inherits many of the same problems as it must decide how to prevent and prosecute domestic terrorism.”

Gustavo Flores-Mecias, research fellow at Cornell's Polson Institute for Global Development

Is this common?
    The military coup in Honduras took Latin America by surprise. Even though armed forces have removed a sitting head of state twice in the region over the last decade (Venezuela's Hugo Chavez was briefly deposed in 2002 and Ecuador's Jamil Mahuad was overthrown in 2000), democracy and peaceful transfers of power through elections have certainly become the norm across the Western Hemisphere. This is the first breach of the constitutional order in Honduras since the country returned to civilian rule and adopted a new constitution in 1982.

What explains the coup?
    President Zelaya and his party's majority in Congress had grown apart over major policy decisions, including economic and foreign policy.Zelaya's decision to hold a non-binding referendum to convene a Constituent Assembly to re-write the constitution became the final straw in the executive-legislative standoff. Given that a similar strategy was followed by presidents Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Evo Morales in Bolivia, and Rafael Correa in Ecuador to re-write their countries' constitutions, the Honduran military interpreted the referendum as a threat to drastically alter the status quo. A statement issued by the Supreme Court and Congress's acceptance of the Zelaya's alleged resignation letter suggest that important sectors of the political elite backed the military coup.

Why does it matter?
    One of the dangers of the coup is that may set an important precedent in the region. Executive-legislative deadlock is quite common in presidential systems, which are the norm in Latin America. If the international community in general, and the Organization of American States in particular, fail to forcefully condemn the military coup, the message sent is that the consequences of ousting democratically elected leaders are low and that militaries are ultimately in control.  A real danger is a demonstration effect, where the armed forces in other places learn from the Honduran experience and follow a similar strategy. Such example would set back at least two decades of democratic stability in the region.

What can be done?
    There is a fine line between upholding democracy and respecting a country's self-determination. Hugo Chavez's threats to use military force against Honduras to reinstate president Zelaya seem exaggerated. Instead, the immediate condemnation of the coup by the Organization of American States and several of its member countries, including the United States and Brazil, should send a clear message to the coup coalition in Honduras about the risks of becoming an international outcast. Strong diplomacy and the threat of sanctions worked in Ecuador in 2000, if not to reinstate the ousted president, to convince the military to step down and uphold the democratic order. A similar course of action should be followed in the Honduran case.

Mark Wysocki, senior lecturer in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

“For hurricanes that form in the middle of an ocean, such as Hurricane Bill, weather forecasters must rely on historical data and use statistics to determine the most likely movement of the hurricane. The lack of hourly surface and upper-air data contribute to the uncertainty in forecasting the speed and changes in the intensity of a hurricane. So for now, we must rely on numerical models using information gathered by satellites, reconnaissance aircraft and climatology.”

“Hurricane Bill will stay well east of the Carolina shoreline and move northeastward, paralleling the East Coast, with only a 2 percent chance of making landfall near Boston sometime Sunday morning. In the meantime, the coastline from Florida to New Jersey can expect higher than normal wave action with some beach erosion.”

Tarleton Gillespie, assistant professor of Communication

    "The 2007 Census report on Internet use in U.S. households is, not surprisingly, a powerful reminder that the Internet has rapidly become an integral part of our personal and professional lives. Internet use has tripled in a decade, fueled by now-widely available broadband services. 
    Nearly three quarters of young adults use the Internet, and over half of children do as well. Internet access is up across all demographic groups, whether it's by education level, age, income, or ethnicity. These resounding signs of progress will be the stories of the day.
    But these numbers hide some persistent facts about the adoption of the Internet. First, the gaps are greater than the gains. Fully 86 percent of those with a college degree use the Internet, while only 30 percent of those without a high school diploma do. Three quarters of white adults use the Internet, while less then half of African-American and Hispanic adults do.
    Why do these gaps persist? We've overwhelmingly handed responsibility for the Internet's growth to the market -- which means broadband may be widespread, but it's expensive enough to be a drain on most household budgets, and too expensive for those living on a working-class wage. Except in a select few places, we've slashed funding for urban wi-fi networks and community access to computers. We focus the public money we are willing to commit on installing computers in libraries and community centers, but forget to also offer the skills training those communities need to use the Internet effectively. And the demand for broadband has been fueled primarily by the expanding availability of digital media online, overshadowing the important civic potential of the Internet -- something that requires access for all. Once the consumer demand for digital music and movies plateaus, what will motivate us to support citizen journalism, community organizing, and access to the kind of knowledge that may not pay for itself?"

Sherry L. Martin, assistant professor of government

“Predictions about what the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) electoral victory means for the U.S.-Japan security relationship has relied heavily on statements by party elites.  We need to shift attention back to voters, because public opinion ultimately constrains what politicians are able to accomplish.  The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) renewal of legislation permitting refueling missions to aid the U.S. in the Indian Ocean, and the DPJ’s ability to obstruct it, reflects a cleavage in public opinion.

“The important question now is how salient changing the U.S.-Japan security relationship is to the Japanese public. The DPJ position reflected a pragmatic strategy to distinguish itself from the LDP. In actuality, when the DPJ emphasized opposition to refueling missions during its 2007 Upper House election campaign, voters complained that the party’s attention was misplaced.

“The DPJ’s current manifesto emphasizes what voters care about – the economy and quality-of-life isues. Any effort to shift the terms of Japan’s security and defense relationship with the U.S. will be severely hampered if the DPJ lacks public support. Right now, public support is tied to economic recovery.  If the DPJ is unable to boost the economy, abandoning the status quo in security and defense will be untenable.”

Theodore Lowi, professor of government

“The Obama policy program was not tending toward failure but toward a series of thin, disappointing victories.  Senator Kennedy would have been helpful in all of the major policies, but only at the margins.  And it is almost certain that he would not have provided enough help to give Obama victory in the policy of highest priority: health.

“However, Kennedy's death may have been the luck of his Irish, and in an amazing way, a great coincidence in which history is repeating itself.  His brother, John F. Kennedy, began his presidency with a magnificent mandate, but by the end of 1962 he was suffering severe policy shrinkage in almost every area. His successor, Lyndon Johnson, used Kennedy’s assassination to revolutionize the Democratic party, enough to put through the two most highly prized goals that would fully overshadow the entire New Deal:  Civil Rights and Medicare/Medicaid.

“There's an old saying in American politics – too rude to be often heard, but overwhelmingly pertinent — "While there's death, there's hope."  The timeliness of Ted Kennedy's death would have appealed enormously to "Teddy" and the entire Kennedy clan.  I'm fairly certain that all the survivors will appreciate the coincidence.

William Jacobson, William A. Jacobson associate clinical professor and director of the Securities Law Clinic at Cornell Law School

“The Madoff ponzi scheme reflects a failure of securities regulators to take initiative to uncover ongoing fraud. Too often, regulators are reactive and only get involved after a fraud has done enormous damage.As details uncovered, it is becoming apparent that there were numerous opportunities for regulators to uncover that Madoff was using false books to hide his fraud.

The Madoff ponzi scheme shows the need for multi-tiered regulatory authority. Concentrating authority in a single regulatory entity runs a greater risk of failing to uncover fraud. Having two or three regulatory entities with jurisdiction over investment advisors and broker-dealers increases the likelihood of uncovering fraud. The role of the state regulators is particularly important, since state regulators are in closer touch with the community, and more likely to be the recipient of investor complaints. While some have advocated limiting the role of state regulators in policing the investment industry, the Madoff fraud shows that state regulators are vitally important.

The Cornell Law School Securities Law Clinic has long recognized the danger of ponzi schemes. At each of our investor fraud prevention seminars, we specifically caution the public about the warning signs of ponzi schemes, such as unrealistic promises of investment returns and delays in processing withdrawals. These public education efforts are vitally important, since it is better to avoid investment fraud in the first place."

Laura Harrington, associate professor of Entomology

"Many people believe that this will be a terrible year for mosquitoes because of a wet spring and early summer.  The reality is that it depends a great deal on the mosquito species that are present in an area, and that the prevalence of mosquitoes varies greatly on small geographic scales. Rainfall can both enhance and reduce vector populations, depending on the types of habitats that a particular species of mosquitoes prefer in a local area.

Container-breeding species are most susceptible to the detrimental effects of heavy rainfall, while heavier rain can increase breeding site availability for other non-container breeding species of mosquitoes.

There are about 60 different mosquito species in New York state."

Rebecca Givan, assistant professor in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations

“There will be a vote on healthcare reform in Congress this fall – President Obama has spent too much political capital on the issue to let it fade away.

“Both sides will end up compromising on some key issues. There are many powerful stakeholders in healthcare, from pharmaceutical companies to the insurance industry to employers in manufacturing, to the American Medical Association. All of these groups are desperately trying to shape the debate.

“Ultimately, both sides are likely to be dissatisfied with the final bill, but both sides may come together on the broad goals of increasing access to health care while containing costs.”

Sarah Kreps, assistant professor of Government

    “It is testimony to the rapidly changing situation in Iran that the brinksmanship with North Korea is playing out as a sideshow. In fact, the instability in North Korea arguably has more gravity. North Korea has conducted two low-yield nuclear tests and a number of missile tests. It recently reported that it had stepped up its reprocessing of plutonium and started a uranium enrichment program. North Korea also has a large conventional military, most of which is stationed near the border with South Korea, where the U.S. has about 30,000 troops. North Korea’s ability to inflict casualties is not trivial.
    If we take a step back and think about the cause of this recent brinksmanship, it looks like a response to the international tightening of sanctions after its April, 2009 missile test and condemnation of the May nuclear test. These are certainly proximate causes of Kim Jong-Il’s sabre rattling.
    But more fundamentally, North Korea appears to be setting up a leadership transition, which happens rarely but when it does, appears to coincide with international tensions. The last transition, from Kim Il-Sung to Kim Jong-Il in 1993-94, led to an international crisis and talk of U.S. strikes. Now it looks like Kim Jong-Il is in the process of transitioning power to his youngest son and the recent actions seem oriented around building up credibility for his successor. What makes this a challenge for the international community is the absence of transparency: It is impossible to know how the transition is shaking out, who is in power and what levers to pull.
    The levers that may be challenging in the immediate term are engagement, since North Korea has walked away from the six-party talks—the multilateral framework with the US, Russia, China, Japan, and South Korea. It’s not clear that tighter economic sanctions will work either, both because Russia and China have generally opposed them, but also because to the extent that these sanctions might work, they would do so in the long-term.
    In the shorter term, it may be that negative security assurances—a declaration that the U.S. will not attack North Korea—will grant North Korea what it wants: a guarantee that the regime will survive, which is its fundamental goal. Back-channel pressure from China and Russia, which seem to be growing increasingly impatient with Pyongyang, may also help end the standoff or at least reduce tensions.”

Andrew Mertha, associate professor of Chinese Politics

     "Whenever the topic of North Korea is raised, we discuss the need for Beijing to use its leverage against Pyongyang.  Of course Beijing, as a mature international partner, must do everything possible to help diffuse any crisis brought on by North Korea.  But we almost always overstate how much leverage Beijing actually has.  What we forget, or fail to realize, is that unlike the DMZ on the 38th Parallel, where tens of thousands of soldiers face each other eyeball-to-eyeball, the border between North Korea and China is actually quite porous and relatively under-defended.
     Visiting Dandong in Liaoning Province in 2004, some Chinese officials and I rented a boat on the Yalu River and got to within ten feet of the North Korean shore, while trucks carried on a brisk trade in commercial goods along a bridge nearby.  This is important to note because were North Korea to implode, the direct negative effect on China would be incalculable: millions of starving North Korean refugees would stream across the border into China, creating a huge security problem.  Moreover, this would be located in the epicenter of China's rust belt, where unemployment is in the double digits and where social unrest is bubbling just beneath the surface.
     For a government preoccupied with social stability, a North Korean implosion would be an absolute nightmare.  Given this, I think we should understand and appreciate the genuine constraints facing Beijing in its ability to leverage Pyongyang."

John Sipple, associate professor of Education

"New York state’s high cost per public-school pupil could be linked to several factors, such as tougher graduation standards. Beginning in the late 1990s, the state’s Board of Regents established substantially higher academic standards requiring that all students graduate with a Regents diploma - a college preparatory program. Boosting educational standards is never inexpensive.

New York’s Upstate region continues to lose 1-2 percent of its population each year, which translates into slowly declining enrollment. Imagine an elementary school that serves 100 students, but is losing two students per year. When you drop from 100 to 98 students, which teacher or administrator or program can you cut to reduce your costs? Hence, a slow, but steady, decline in enrollment results in a steady increase in the unit cost per student. Eventually, expenses can be cut, but not until a sufficient number of students have left the school.

A high cost of living is another factor. The cost of living in New York is high due to high taxes, healthcare and retirement costs (as a result of an aging population), and relatively high property values. Attracting sufficient talent to staff the schools requires salaries that are sufficient to recruit and retain educators.

The proportion of poor students in New York also has been on the increase. Federal dollars (namely Title 1) are keyed to poverty levels and hence have been driving more dollars per student into New York (now over 8 percent of average school district revenue is federal money)."

Jens David Ohlin, assistant professor of Law at Cornell University Law School

“The Obama Administration is caught in the middle of a political and legal triangle: a domestic audience that will be outraged at the prospect of criminal prosecutions, a domestic audience that will be outraged if no one is held accountable for the excesses of the Bush Administration’s War on Terror, and our obligations under international law to prosecute those responsible for, and complicit in, acts of torture.  The attorney general's decision to appoint a prosecutor suggests that - for the time being - these international responsibilities are being taken seriously by the administration.  The special prosecutor needs to investigate the allegations and follow where the evidence leads -- exactly what the Convention Against Torture requires.”

Ross Brann, the Milton R. Konvitz professor of Judeo-Islamic Studies

    “President Obama’s historic speech in Cairo Thursday morning represents a bold stroke of international political stagecraft that puts extremist groups on the defensive. He commanded the rapt attention of the region’s people, who appear inclined to give him a fair hearing and doubtlessly appreciated the culturally sensitive tone of the President’s address, in which he spoke, among other things, about the basic grievances and essential aspirations of Palestinians and Israelis alike.
    So too, the timing of President Obama’s speech to the Muslim world is brilliant and significant, coming after a well-publicized disagreement with the Israeli government regarding the issue of a settlement freeze. Although it will not affect their outcome, the speech also comes on the eve of important elections in Lebanon this Sunday and in Iran next week, where Ahmadinejad is expected to lose. However, the speech is not without risk, especially insofar as President Obama has raised expectations in the region that it be followed by substantial changes in American policy.”

Louis Arrone of Weill Cornell & Assoiciate Professor John Cawley

Arrone:
“I’ve spent my entire career working on ways to lower health care costs by treating obesity, and I envision a time in the near future where we spend more time treating obesity in internal medicine rather than waiting for chronic conditions to develop. High-risk patients, such as obese diabetes patients, can lower their health care costs substantially by losing even a modest amount of weight. Clinical trials have shown that high-risk patients who participate in weight-loss programs do see a moderate cost savings in their health care costs.”

Cawley:
“I do hope that people remember that there are many other costs to obesity as well. I’ve found in my research that obesity lowers  the wages of white females by 11.2 percent and that obesity-related absenteeism costs the U.S. $4.3 billion per year. We’ve also found that childhood obesity is associated with developmental delays and lower skill acquisition in children as young as three years old.  Others have documented the substantial evidence of bias and discrimination against obese individuals.  Obesity is a condition that affects individual lives and public policy in a staggering number of ways.”

Michael Dorf, professor of Law

     “The latest ruling by the California Supreme Court will be read as a setback for the cause of marriage equality.  However, the opinion simply vindicates the power of the People of     California to amend their state Constitution, whether wisely or not.      
     California is unusual in permitting constitutional amendments by a majority vote in a statewide referendum.  In this and other contexts, we have seen the pitfalls of this version of democracy by plebiscite.  Ultimately, the case says much more about the flaws in the California amendment procedure than it says about same-sex marriage.”

Jens David Ohlin, assistant professor of Law at Cornell University Law School

“The Scottish government argues that justice demands both punishment and compassion, or a mix of condemnation and mercy. This is certainly true in theory. The devil is always in the details, though. The question is, who is entitled to our mercy and when? In my opinion, the answer to this question depends, in part, on a theory of punishment. Do we put terrorists in jail to prevent them from killing or simply because they deserve imprisonment for the wrongs they have committed?”

Michael Dorf and Eduardo Penlaver , professors of Law

Dorf:
“Near the end of a wide-ranging round of questioning, Sen. Graham asked a question about the legality of indefinite (or in the Obama argot, ‘prolonged’) detention of enemy combatants…Judge Sotomayor pleaded that she was not a specialist in the law of war (fair enough), and so Sen. Graham asked her if she would think about the question a bit and have an answer for him in round 2. My guess is that she won't answer the question directly, because this really is the sort of thing that coold come before the Court. But Sen. Graham does deserve an answer, so I’ll take a crack at it...” [Read Dorf’s answer at his blog http://dorfonlaw.org.]

Penlaver:
“The most interesting thing to me is the way the Republicans' questions mirror the themes we've seen coming from right-wing commentators over the past few weeks.It clearly demonstrates that the Republican senators are (and have always been) cooperating in a coordinated conservative strategy to smear Judge Sotomayor as ill-tempered and ‘racist.’

The senators are using more polite language, talking about her judicial temperament and ‘prejudice,’ but the questions match up perfectly with the things that [Rush] Limbaugh and [Newt] Gingrich have been saying since her nomination was announced. Of course, it doesn't matter because I think they're getting the worst of the exchanges.  She comes off as reasoned and judicial, while they seem like bullies.

Barring some dramatic new development, there is no way they are going to be able to block her confirmation.

Eduardo Penlaver, professor of Law

   "Considered in the context the rest of her speech, it is clear that Sotomayor merely meant that appointing 'a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences' to the bench would (on average) do more to improve judicial decision-making than appointing a(nother) comparably wise white male judge. Understood in this way, the comment is benign and, more importantly, almost certainly true."

Michael Dorf, professor of Law

      “Justice Kennedy's opinion in Ricci v. DeStefano grapples with a legitimately difficult set of issues, but it raises at least as many questions as it answers. For example, lower courts around the country will now have to flesh out the meaning of a "strong basis in evidence" for an employer's decision to reject the results of an employment device as likely to lead to disparate impact liability. It is also unclear whether the majority's reasoning would apply to an employer's decision to reject a test before it is administered. For now, the forum for these questions will shift to the confirmation hearings of Judge Sotomayor.”

Michael Dorf, professor at the Cornell University Law School

If the Supreme Court wanted to find that ‘Hillary the Movie’ was beyond the reach of campaign finance regulation, it could have done so on narrow grounds. The fact that it asked the parties to brief fundamental questions about corporate speech and so-called ‘independent expenditures’ indicates that a majority of the Justices may be poised to abandon its incremental approach and usher in a new anything-goes era of campaign finance.

Andrew Mertha, associate professor of Chinese Politics

    "It is extremely unlikely that history would repeat itself with regard to the type of large-scale military crackdown that took place in 1989. This is not because the current leadership is more unified than the leadership in 1989, but rather because no leader today has the prestige within the People's Liberation Army (PLA) that their 1980's counterparts did.
    From a historic perspective however, as we consider the “20th anniversary of Tiananmen,” it’s important to recognize that the actual substantive significance of the events of 1989 was lost only weeks and months after the crackdown. By the time that Tiananmen became the symbol that it remains today, it had already lost its real meaning.
    Reporters and film crews were able to bring the events to an international audience in real time because of their physical presence in Beijing. But the much larger story was that these types of student-led protests, in which they occupied a physical space and were supported by ordinary people outside of academic circles, took place in almost every provincial capital and major city in China. And the outcomes varied as well.
    Friends of mine in Shanghai were struck by the ability of the protesters and the municipal leaders to reach an agreement that ‘more needed to be done’ but that the protests had to wind down, or they would become counterproductive. The same occurred in Chongqing. In Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, where I happened to be living at the time, the response was different: the military crackdown was swift, severe and between 200 and 600 people were reportedly killed. Yet, by focusing our attention on "Tiananmen," we deny the fact that this was a national movement, not one that was confined to a hallowed space in the center of Beijing.”

Xu Xin, associate professor of government

“The new catch phrase in U.S.-China official discourse is ‘tong zhou gong ji,’ a Chinese proverb which means ‘crossing a river in the same boat,’ or ‘weathering through thick and thin together.’ This spirit has never been as badly needed as it is today when the storm of the global financial crisis hits both countries. As the world’s largest holder of U.S. Treasury debt, China came to the first strategic and economic dialogue between the two countries with concerns about asset security – namely, the implications of record-high U.S. budget deficits on China’s investments. President Obama and his team have worked to reassure their Chinese counterparts that China’s investments are in good hands, and that the two superpowers could steer the course of global affairs as long-term partners should they be able to weather the global financial storm together.

The world has, in recent years, been witnessing the subtle tipping of the balance of power in favor of the rising powers, among which China takes the lead. In the 21st century, the first great challenge confronting the world is to avoid the seemingly preordained tragedy of great power conflicts and war, which twice devastated mankind for much of the 20th century. The second, even greater, challenge is to save our planet from being destroyed by overexploitation of the environment. To meet both challenges and many others, both countries must change their old-fashioned mentality about domestic and global governance before they will be able to transform their bilateral relationship into something good for all. In the new global power dynamics, the parties involved will win together if they cooperate but lose together if they don’t.”

Jens Ohlin, assistant professor of Law

    “The North Korean judicial system leaves much to be desired.  The trial apparently involved no defense attorneys — as far as we can tell — and little-to-no ‘due process’ as we traditionally understand the term here.  Indeed, little about the trial itself is known since much of North Korea operates in an information abyss.
    There will be no appeal, at least not in the criminal justice sense of the word.North Korea has a history of linking such cases with political diplomacy and the issues of the day.  In this case, the fate of the Americans will be linked with ongoing discussions of North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
    We can expect that the conviction of these two journalists will be resolved through diplomatic channels -- perhaps through a special envoy such as New Mexico Gov. Richardson or former Vice President Al Gore -- in tandem with negotiations about nuclear weapons and the threat of more sanctions.  Successful diplomacy can save the U.S. defendants from having to serve their sentence in a North Korean labor camp where conditions are usually brutal and inhumane.”

Thomas Golden, associate director of Cornell's Emplyment and Disability Institute

     “While Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits provide critical temporary financial assistance to eligible workers who are unemployed through no fault of their own, certain marginalized populations, such as people with disabilities, may be even more negatively impacted during times of high unemployment rates.
     Extended benefits under the UI program can provide up to 13 additional weeks of benefits when a state is experiencing high unemployment (or more in some states).  However, this extension still may not provide the time necessary for many covered workers with disabilities the time necessary to secure a new job with livable wages-as it is often more time-consuming to place a person with disability in the first place.
     Disabled workers whose extended UI benefits cease may have no income replacement option other than to apply for one of the two disability benefit programs administered by the Social Security Administration, thus fostering reliance and dependence on government entitlements.
     This makes a compelling argument for ensuring that UI benefit programs are tightly woven together with other critical employment supports to ensure that dislocated workers with disabilities have access to every opportunity to secure new employment with livable wages.”

Elizabeth Sanders, professor of Government

“At this stage of a failing war, the U.S. public predictably tires of the war, its casualties and financial costs. The American public is not easily led into war, and is always eager to get out when things go badly with no success in sight – as it did in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and now Afghanistan. Both current wars are losing popularity even among Republicans in the South, and that does not bode well for public patience. No president wants to lose a war, and the opposition party will always cast it in those terms. This is a real quandary for Obama.”