Legislative Expression: Sanctuary Policymaking in the U.S. States

2019 ◽  
pp. 95-117
Author(s):  
Loren Collingwood ◽  
Benjamin Gonzalez O’Brien

While sanctuary policies have traditionally been passed by cities and counties rather than states, this situation has shifted in recent years with both California and Oregon embracing their identity as “sanctuary states,” while in Texas SB4 was signed into law, officially banning sanctuary legislation across the state. This chapter examines the factors that increase the likelihood that state legislators will introduce pro- or antisanctuary legislation. We find that racial threat activated by an increasing minority population, the ideology of the state and its voters, and the structure of state institutions all increase the likelihood of pro/anti-sanctuary legislation being introduced at the state level.

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 215013272199545
Author(s):  
Areej Khokhar ◽  
Aaron Spaulding ◽  
Zuhair Niazi ◽  
Sikander Ailawadhi ◽  
Rami Manochakian ◽  
...  

Importance: Social media is widely used by various segments of society. Its role as a tool of communication by the Public Health Departments in the U.S. remains unknown. Objective: To determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social media following of the Public Health Departments of the 50 States of the U.S. Design, Setting, and Participants: Data were collected by visiting the Public Health Department web page for each social media platform. State-level demographics were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention was utilized to collect information regarding the Governance of each State’s Public Health Department. Health rankings were collected from “America’s Health Rankings” 2019 Annual report from the United Health Foundation. The U.S. News and World Report Education Rankings were utilized to provide information regarding the public education of each State. Exposure: Data were pulled on 3 separate dates: first on March 5th (baseline and pre-national emergency declaration (NED) for COVID-19), March 18th (week following NED), and March 25th (2 weeks after NED). In addition, a variable identifying the total change across platforms was also created. All data were collected at the State level. Main Outcome: Overall, the social media following of the state Public Health Departments was very low. There was a significant increase in the public interest in following the Public Health Departments during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: With the declaration of National Emergency, there was a 150% increase in overall public following of the State Public Health Departments in the U.S. The increase was most noted in the Midwest and South regions of the U.S. The overall following in the pandemic “hotspots,” such as New York, California, and Florida, was significantly lower. Interesting correlations were noted between various demographic variables, health, and education ranking of the States and the social media following of their Health Departments. Conclusion and Relevance: Social media following of Public Health Departments across all States of the U.S. was very low. Though, the social media following significantly increased during the early course of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it still remains low. Significant opportunity exists for Public Health Departments to improve social media use to engage the public better.


2008 ◽  
Vol 41 (04) ◽  
pp. 723-728 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Klarner

This paper applies the forecasting models of Klarner and Buchanan (2006a) for the U.S. Senate and Klarner and Buchanan (2006b) for the U.S. House of Representatives to the upcoming 2008 elections. Forecasts are also conducted for the 2008 presidential race at the state level. The forecasts presented in this article, made July 28, 2008 (99 days before the election), predicted an 11-seat gain for the Democrats in the House of Representatives, a three-seat gain for the Democrats in the Senate, and that Barack Obama would obtain 53.0% of the popular vote and 346 electoral votes. Furthermore, Obama was forecast to have an 83.6% chance of winning the White House and an 85.9% chance of winning the popular vote.


Stroke ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (Suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Richa Sharma ◽  
Lindsey Kuohn ◽  
Daniel Weinberger ◽  
Joshua Warren ◽  
Lauren H Sansing ◽  
...  

Introduction: The magnitude and drivers of excess cerebrovascular-specific mortality during the coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) pandemic are unknown. We aim to quantify excess stroke-related death and characterize its association with psychosocial factors and emerging COVID-19 related mortality. Methods: U.S. and state-level excess cerebrovascular deaths from January-May 2020 were quantified by Poisson regression models built using National Center for Health Statistic (NCHS) data. Weekly excess cerebrovascular deaths in the U.S. were analyzed as functions of time-varying, weekly stroke-related EMS calls and weekly COVID-19 deaths by univariable linear regression. A state-level negative binomial regression analysis was performed to determine the association between excess cerebrovascular deaths and social distancing (degree of change in mobility per Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports) during the height of the pandemic after the first COVID-19 death (February 29, 2020), adjusting for cumulative COVID-19 related deaths and completeness of deaths attributable to COVID-19 in NCHS. Findings: There were 918 more cerebrovascular deaths than expected from January 1-May 16 th , 2020 in the U.S. Excess cerebrovascular mortality occurred during every week between March 28-May 2 nd , 2020, up to 7.8% during the week of April 18 th . Decreased stroke-related EMS calls were associated with excess stroke deaths one (β -0.06, 95% CI -0.11, -0.02) and two weeks (β -0.08, 95% CI -0.12, -0.04) later. There was no significant association between weekly excess stroke death and COVID-19 death. Twenty-three states and NYC experienced excess cerebrovascular mortality during the pandemic height. At the state level, a 10% increase in social distancing was associated with a 4.3% increase in stroke deaths (IRR 1.043, 95% CI 1.001–1.085) after adjusting for COVID-19 mortality. Conclusions: Excess U.S. cerebrovascular deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic were observed with decreases in stroke-related EMS calls nationally and less mobility at the state level. Public health measures are needed to identify and counter the reticence to seeking medical care for acute stroke during the COVID-19 pandemic.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah Shely Klos ◽  
Frank B. Giordano ◽  
Stacy A. Stoffregen ◽  
Miki C. Azuma ◽  
Jin Lee

Abstract Background The present study aims to observe how societal indicators of workers’ values at the state-level are related to health and safety outcomes, particularly major injuries and fatalities in the U.S. Underscoring workforce flexibility and workability over workforce stability and safety might be indicative of the worth of workers which can be associated with occupational safety and health concerns. Methods Multiple regression analysis was adopted to examine how the state-level indicators of values on workers in terms of 1) minimum wage, using the data from 2015; 2) average of workers’ compensations for the loss of an arm, hand, leg, or foot in 2015 were prospectively associated with occupational fatality rates in 2016 and 2017. Socioeconomic contextual variables such as education level, GDP per capita, income gap, and population at the state-level were controlled for. Results The present study showed that state-level quantitative indicators of how workers are valued at work, namely minimum wage and workers’ compensation benefits, were significantly and negatively associated with fatality rates in the following year. Workers’ compensation benefits were significantly and negatively associated with fatality rates two years later, implying the lasting effect of this particular type of indicator of values on workers. Conclusions The present study illustrates the gap in how workers are valued across the U.S.. The study speaks to the importance of fostering culture where workers are adequately valued, cared about, and protected to prevent and curtail occupational fatality.


Author(s):  
Mensah Adinkrah ◽  
William M. Clemens

The U.S. state of Michigan abolished the death penalty in 1846. Since then, several abortive efforts have been made by state legislators to re-establish the death sentence to deal with convicted murderers. Concurrently, some support exists among Michigan residents for the restoration of capital punishment in the state. This article presents the results of the analysis of an attitudinal survey of 116 college students enrolled in three criminal justice courses in a Michigan public university concerning the reinstatement of the death sentence in the state. The data from this exploratory study show that a slight majority (52.6%) of respondents favored reinstatement whereas 45.7% opposed restoration. Advocates and opponents of re-establishment of the death penalty in Michigan provided similar religious, moral and economic arguments proffered by others in previous surveys on capital punishment available in the death penalty literature. The current study makes a contribution to the scant extant literature on attitudes toward the death penalty in abolitionist jurisdictions. As this body of literature grows, it can provide baseline data or information with which to compare attitudes in retentionist states.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris Shor

Why do state legislators vote the way they do? Which influence is predominant: ideology, party, or public opinion? The implementation votes surrounding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) provides a unique setting to examine this question, as they make all three considerations highly salient. State roll call votes on ACA implementation were sometimes polarized and sometimes unexpectedly bipartisan. What accounts for the heterogeneity in individual legislator behavior on bills implementing the ACA at the state level? Using new data on legislator ideology and votes from 2011–2015, I show evidence that legislator ideology was by far the most important predictor of voting on implementation votes, far more so than legislator party or public opinion. Moreover, I show the influence of ideology is heterogeneous by issue area and bill.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S560-S560
Author(s):  
Eugenie Stephenson

Abstract This presentation is a reflective piece on developing and staging of the inaugural Gerontology Student Workforce Day at the Georgia Capitol held in January 2016 through coordination with the state-level Council on Aging (GCOA: Georgia-Council-on-Aging). The aims of this initiative focused on bridging students’ gerontology education and career aims with current legislative concerns for older adults at the state level through networking and advocacy efforts. We also sought out to highlight to state legislators the necessity to support gerontology education. Results of this networking engagement included educating state legislators on both the role of gerontology education to support the needs of older residents at the community-level and highlighting to both parties the impact of gerontology professionals on the state’s workforce. As a result, we engaged gerontology students and early career aging professionals in high-impact networking opportunities focused on service and policy efforts with state legislators and local AAAs (area-agencies-on-aging).


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gene M. Heyman

A central feature of the Covid-19 pandemic is state differences. Some state Governors closed all but essential businesses, others did not. In some states, most of the population wore face coverings when in public; in other states, <50% wore face coverings. According to journalists, these differences were symptomatic of a politically polarized America. The Big 5 personality factors also cluster at the state level. For example, residents of Utah score high on Conscientiousness and low on Neuroticism, whereas residents of Massachusetts and Connecticut show the opposite pattern. In state-level regressions that controlled for partisan political allegiances, Conscientiousness was a significant (negative) predictor of the stringency of state Covid-19 restrictions, whereas Openness was a significant (positive) predictor of mask wearing. A number of the predictors were strongly correlated with each other. For example, the correlation coefficient linking Openness with the percentage of Democratic state legislators was r = 0.53. Commonality regression partitions the explained variance between the amount that is unique to each predictor and the amount that is shared among subsets of correlated predictors. This approach revealed that the common variance shared by Conscientiousness, Openness and partisan politics accounted for 34% of the state differences in Covid-19 policy and 35% of the state differences in mask wearing. The results reflect the importance of personality in how Americans have responded to the Covid-19 pandemic.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah S. Klos ◽  
Frank B. Giordano ◽  
Stacy A. Stoffregen ◽  
Miki C. Azuma ◽  
Jin Lee

Abstract Background The present study aims to observe how societal indicators of workers’ values at the state-level are related to health and safety outcomes, particularly major injuries and fatalities in the U.S. Underscoring workforce flexibility and workability over workforce stability and safety might be indicative of the worth of workers which can be associated with occupational safety and health concerns. Methods Linear regression analysis with a log-transformed dependent variable was adopted to examine how the state-level indicators of worker value in terms of 1) minimum wage, using data from 2015; 2) average of workers’ compensations for the loss of an arm, hand, leg, or foot in 2015 were concurrently and prospectively associated with occupational fatality rates averaged across 2015, 2016 and 2017. Socioeconomic contextual variables such as education level, GDP per capita, and population at the state-level were controlled for. Results The present study showed that state-level quantitative indicators of how workers are valued at work, namely minimum wage and workers’ compensation benefits, were significantly and negatively associated with fatality rates in the following year. Conclusions The present study illustrates the gap in how workers are valued across the U.S. The study speaks to the importance of contextual factors regarding worker value, as they can affect outcomes of health and safety culminating at a state-level.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document