Eliminating a Barrier to Access: Waiving or Reducing Fees for Public Records in Florida

Florida, the Sunshine State, is one of the few states that includes a right of access to public records in its constitution. While Florida guarantees a right of access to every person, special service charges and high costs for public records restrict access to only requestors with the financial resources to pay for requests. Some agencies assert that waiving fees for requests that have a public interest would be significantly costly. This article builds on research showing that a fee waiver for requests made in the public interest would have minimal effect on Florida municipalities. This article analyzes agency public records logs to assess how a fee waiver for requests made for noncommercial purposes and in the public interest would affect state agencies. This article finds that only 14% of requests reviewed would be entitled to a fee waiver.

All States Close but Red Districts Reopen: The Politics of In-Person Schooling During the COVID-19 Pandemic

How did political factors and public health affect state and local education decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially the continuation of in-person schooling? Using an original data set of state policies, we find that governors ordered school closures in spring 2020 but left decisions to districts in the fall, regardless of partisanship. Analyzing local district reopening plans, however, we find that decisions were more tied to local political partisanship and union strength than to COVID-19 severity. Republicans in the public were also more favorable than Democrats toward in-person learning. States’ decisions to leave reopening plans to their districts opened the way for the influence of local partisanship.

Association Between Maternal Mood State and Glycemic Response to a Mixed-Meal Among Latina Pregnant Women With Overweight and Obesity

Objectives To investigate if maternal positive and negative affect state is associated with the glucose and insulin response to a standardized breakfast shake among Latina pregnant women with overweight and obesity. Methods N = 31 non-diabetic Latina pregnant women, at gestational age 28–30 weeks, with a pre-pregnancy BMI 25–35 Kg/m,2 consumed a standardized breakfast shake in the morning after an overnight fast of at least 10 hours. The Positive and Negative Affect Scale was completed while consuming the drink. Blood samples collected at fasting and 6 postprandial time points (15, 30, 45, 60, 90,120 mins) were assayed for glucose and insulin and values were log-transformed for normality. The area-under-the-curve (AUC) for glucose, insulin, glucose: insulin ratio were computed as well as the Matsuda index of insulin sensitivity (SI). Results The median (IQR) values for positive and negative affect scores were 33 (27–40) and 11 (10–14) respectively. Categorizing the affect scores as high or low based on the median value, the mean AUC for glucose, insulin, and SI did not differ according to affect state (p > 0.05). However, women with a lower positive affect score had lower insulin AUC (F-1.2, p = 0.063), and consequently, a greater AUCglucose: insulin (F = 3.9, p = 0.007), which persisted after adjustment for maternal age, gestational age and BMI. A post-hoc analysis revealed significantly higher glucose: insulin ratio values at fasting (F = 0.58, p = 0.013) and 15min (F = 10.37, p = 0/008) and 60min (F = 2.65, p = 0.021) postprandial timepoints in those with low vs high positive affect. No differences in the glucose/insulin ratio were detected across levels of negative affect. Conclusions Contrary to expectations, higher positive affect in late pregnancy (i.e., more positive mood state) was associated with a less favorable postprandial insulin response in this cohort, contributing to a higher ratio of glucose: insulin, which is a sensitive predictor of insulin resistance. There is potential for unmeasured confounding which may have contributed to this unexpected direction of association between maternal affect state and insulin response in pregnant Latina women, which deserves further attention in future research. Funding Sources National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

State Disengagement: Evidence from French West Africa

How do states respond to political resistance? The standard repression or concession logic presumes that the state is strong enough to punish or co-opt dissent effectively. Instead, we argue that the state may disengage when it is weak. We show that colonial governments in French West Africa reduced public investments in districts where chiefs engaged in largely nonviolent disobedience. However, we also show that chieftain disobedience reduced government taxes and fees on Africans, rather than increased them as punishment. Because the state was too weak to punish with higher taxation or to concede by increasing investments, the state disengaged in hard-to-rule districts. Our findings show that chieftain resistance helps explain why subnational development was so unequal during colonialism. Low-level and nonviolent resistance, often overlooked in the conflict literature, also affect state–society relations and state formation. ¿Cómo responden los estados a la resistencia política? La lógica convencional de represión o concesión presupone que el estado es lo suficientemente poderoso como para castigar o cooptar la disidencia de forma eficaz. Sin embargo, sostenemos que el estado puede desentenderse cuando es vulnerable. Demostramos que los gobiernos coloniales del África Occidental Francesa redujeron las inversiones públicas en los distritos en los que los jefes ejercían una desobediencia mayoritariamente no violenta. Sin embargo, también demostramos que la desobediencia de los caciques permitió reducir los impuestos y aranceles del gobierno sobre los africanos, en lugar de aumentarlos como castigo. Como el estado era demasiado vulnerable para castigar con mayores impuestos o para ceder aumentando las inversiones, el estado se desentendió de los distritos difíciles de gobernar. Nuestros resultados muestran que la resistencia de los dirigentes ayuda a explicar por qué el desarrollo de la región fue tan desigual durante el colonialismo. La resistencia no violenta y de bajo riesgo, que a menudo se ignora en la literatura sobre conflictos, también afecta a las relaciones entre el estado y la sociedad, y a la formación del estado. Comment les États réagissent-ils à la résistance politique ? La logique standard de répression ou de concession présume que l’État est suffisamment puissant pour sanctionner ou coopter efficacement la dissidence. Au lieu de cela, nous soutenons que l’État peut se désengager lorsqu'il est faible. Nous montrons que les gouvernements coloniaux de l'Afrique Occidentale Française réduisaient les investissements publics dans les districts où les chefs s'engageaient dans une désobéissance en grande partie non violente. Toutefois, nous montrons également que la désobéissance des chefs réduisait aussi les taxes et frais imposés aux Africains par le gouvernement plutôt que de les accroître en guise de sanction. Étant donné que l’État était trop faible pour sanctionner par une taxation plus élevée ou pour faire des concessions en augmentant les investissements, l’État s'est désengagé dans les districts difficiles à gouverner. Nos conclusions montrent que la résistance des chefs contribue à expliquer pourquoi le développement subnational a été aussi inégal durant le colonialisme. La résistance non violente et de faible intensité, souvent négligée dans la littérature sur les conflits, affecte également les relations entre État et société et la formation des États.

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is positively associated with affective wellbeing

SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) vaccine hesitancy in the United States iscurrently at a high level. To enable a better understanding of thishesitancy, this study explores the association between affective wellbeingmeasures and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. We consistentlyfind a positive association between the two, regardless of whichof ten different affect state variables (two positive, and eight negative)or their composite, is used. For example, people who experiencemore worry or anxiety (two negative affect wellbeing states) areless vaccine-hesitant, and vice versa. The association is found tohold even when controlling for potential confounds such as incomebracket, political affiliation, gender and employment status. Associationsare strongest for the fully employed, and for those in themiddle-class income bracket. While consistent at the national level,considerable dispersion is found at the county level. We discuss theimplications of these findings briefly.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SPATIAL POSITIONING OF THE TERRITORY IN THE MODERN PERSPECTIVE OF ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATIONS

After the collapse of the command and administrative system, the main focus of the new market economy was aimed at strengthening the role of single-industry towns in the central part of the country, the peripheral territories of the state developed inertly, thanks to state support in the form of transfers and subsi-dies. All this caused a deep differentiation of macroeconomic indicators between the regions of one country, which significantly began to affect state security at the level of the whole country, since at the moment it is impossible to build a full-fledged economy without international relations. A healthy economy is where there are no weak links, but in the Russian economy such links have formed and started to fail, reflected in macro-economic indicators, which negatively affects the authoritarianism of the federation at the international level, where a stable economy within the country characterizes its foreign policy and the resulting relationships.