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What’s behind the surge in redrawing legislative maps?
What accounts for the number of partisan gerrymandering efforts midway through the 10-year census cycle? Brian J. Gaines is a professor of political science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the Honorable W. Russell Arrington Professor in State Politics at the U of I System’s Institute of Government and Public Affairs. Gaines, who as […]
New book casts anthropologist’s eye on European Court of Human Rights
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new book by a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign expert examines the world’s premier human rights court as rule of law comes under threat. The book “Justice in the Balance: Democracy, Rule of Law, and the European Court of Human Rights” considers not just why the rule of law and human rights […]
New book details the precarious financial lives of US bankruptcy filers
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new book co-written by a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign law professor and nationally recognized expert in bankruptcy law and consumer finance explores both the stories and the data behind people who file for bankruptcy in the U.S. “Debt’s Grip: Risk and Consumer Bankruptcy” was published by the University of California Press […]
New study details clusters of bystander interventions for workplace sexual harassment
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new study co-written by a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign expert who studies occupational stress and employee well-being sheds light on the different profiles of intervention behaviors bystanders may exhibit when they witness workplace sexual harassment. The paper identifies three distinct types of bystander intervention profiles, offering insights for workplace sexual assault […]
Research: Police uses of lethal force dropped dramatically in US from 2021-23
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The number of police-involved lethal force incidents in the U.S. dropped 24% from 2021 to 2023, according to research from the Cline Center for Advanced Social Research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The Cline Center’s SPOTLITE project has compiled nearly a decade’s worth of data to track and identify police uses […]
Paper: FDA needs to develop labeling standards for AI-powered medical devices
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Medical devices that harness the power of artificial intelligence or machine learning algorithms are rapidly transforming health care in the U.S., with the Food and Drug Administration already having authorized the marketing of more than 1,000 such devices and many more in the development pipeline. A new paper from a University of […]
Scholar: Federal privacy law needed for sensitive consumer data when companies go bankrupt
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Recreational genetic testing companies hold some of the largest repositories of consumer DNA in the world, but what happens to all that personal information when the company goes belly up? It would most likely be sold to a successor company that customers might not want to entrust with their genetic data, says […]
What effect will tariffs have on consumers, farmers?
Champaign, Ill. — Jonathan W. Coppess is the the Leonard and Lila Gardner Illinois Farm Bureau Family of Companies Endowed Associate Professor in Agricultural Policy at the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Coppess is the author of “Between Soil and Society: Legislative History and Political Development of […]
How will (now 10%) tariffs, cuts to USAID, affect Lesotho?
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Before President Donald Trump abruptly changed course on tariffs, the 12th smallest African nation, Lesotho, was near the top of the list of countries whose products would be taxed at the U.S. border. Charles Fogelman, a professor in the Global Studies Program and in the Center for African Studies at the University […]
Why were Venezuelan immigrants sent to El Salvador?
On March 15, more than 200 Venezuelan immigrants were accused of engagement in gang activity and deported from the U.S. — not to Venezuela, but to El Salvador, some 1,600 miles away from their home country. Ellen Moodie, an anthropology professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, is the author of “El Salvador in the […]
What effect will a weakened consumer watchdog agency have on borrowers, bankruptcies?
Champaign, Ill. — University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign law professor Robert M. Lawless is a leading consumer credit and bankruptcy expert. Lawless, the Max L. Rowe Professor of Law and co-director of the Illinois Program on Law, Behavior and Social Science, spoke with News Bureau business and law editor Phil Ciciora about the Trump administration’s abrupt […]
New law could mean bump in Social Security benefits for some public pensioners, expert says
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new law affecting Social Security benefits for workers with a public pension means some retirees will receive a modest increase in their monthly checks, according to a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign expert on U.S. tax policy and retirement issues. The bipartisan Social Security Fairness Act got rid of the Windfall Elimination Provision and […]