Weekly Roundup 6/18/2012

How Curt Schilling Dinged Rhode Island
Matthew Yglesias, Slate, June 13, 2012

Synopsis: Rhode Island lawmakers awarded retired Red Sox pitching star Curt Shilling a $75-million loan guarantee to move his fledgling computer-game company to Providence. Less than two years late the company is broke, and Rhode Islanders are on the hook for the cash.

Takeaway: "It looks an awful lot like a toxic interaction between stupidity, desperation, and Red Sox fandom. In 2010, Rhode Island created a $50 million Job Creation Guarantee Program to offer state-backed loans to entrepreneurs...[E]xpanding it to benefit just one firm was crazy."

For more on state schemes to lure jobs and business, see our March 2 report, “Attracting Jobs"

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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Rajat Gupta Convicted of Insider Trading by Peter Lattman and Azad Ahmed
Peter Lattman and Ahzam Ahmed, The New York Times, June 15, 2012

Synopsis: Rajat Gupta, who reached the pinnacle of corporate America as managing partner of McKinsey & Co. and director at Goldman Sachs, was found guilty of conspiracy and securities fraud for leaking boardroom secrets to billionaire hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam. The case caps a wave of successful insider trading prosecutions over the last three years that penetrated some of Wall Street’s most vaunted hedge funds and reached into America’s most prestigious corporate boardrooms.

Takeaway: The case demonstrated that successful insider trading prosecutions could be largely built on circumstantial evidence like phone records and trading logs. Previous convictions, including the trial of  Rajaratnam, have relied more heavily on wiretaps.

For background see the CQ Researcher report “Financial Misconduct” (Jan. 20, 2012).

--Thomas J. Colin, Contributing Editor

This Week’s Report: “Gambling in America”

Casinos, state-sponsored lotteries and other gambling operations provide not only entertainment for millions of Americans but billions of dollars for cash-strapped state and local governments.

As CQ Researcher Associate Editor Kenneth Jost writes in this week’s report, principled   objections to gambling in past decades have given way to liberalized social and cultural mores and a desire by politicians to find new sources of revenue.

“In the past, the love of gambling -- along with the hope of a winning number or a winning hand – was kept in check by other social forces, including moral or religious objections and fear of the social costs for gamblers and their families as well as society at large,” Jost writes. But that resistance has receded. “The critical reason for gambling’s increased acceptance … has been its role in providing revenue for state governments. . . . For lawmakers and governors, gambling offers a revenue source more politically palatable than new taxes.”

Jost’s deeply researched report traces the spread of lotteries and commercial and tribal casinos through most of the country, discusses the social and psychological pitfalls of gambling and features a robust pro-con debate by two outside experts on whether lotteries take advantage of the poor.

--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor

Weekly Roundup 6/11/2012

Woodward and Bernstein: 40 years after Watergate, Nixon was far worse than we thought

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, The Washington Post, June 9, 2012 (print edition: June 10)

Synopsis: The scandal that forced the only presidential resignation in U.S. history was more far reaching and more sinister than recognized at the time. That is the conclusion of the two reporters who broke open the scandal, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the Watergate break-in: June 17, 1972. Far from a “third-rate burglary,” Watergate was actually one part of five wars that President Richard M. Nixon waged against the antiwar movement, against justice, against the news media, against the Democrats and, ultimately, against history.

Takeaway: Despite efforts by some to minimize the scandal, Woodward and Bernstein say the historical record now shows that Watergate was “a brazen and daring assault, led by Nixon himself, on the heart of American democracy: the Constitution, our system of free elections, the rule of law.”

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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Why We Don't Believe in Science   

Jonah Lehrer, The New Yorker blogs, June 7, 2012

Synopsis: Learning science is even harder than we thought. Brain researchers say that before we learn many scientific facts and concepts we first have to unlearn intuitions that come naturally to us -- but contradict the facts. Our brains, for instance, take naturally to the notion that the sun revolves around the Earth.

Takeaway: Psychology and brain-imaging studies confirm why learning, especially scientific learning, is so tough: "Even after we internalize a scientific concept-—the vast majority of adults now acknowledge the Copernican truth that the earth is not the center of the universe—that primal belief lingers in the mind. We never fully unlearn our mistaken intuitions about the world. We just learn to ignore them."

For related reading, see our reports on Science in America (Jan. 11, 2008), Intelligent Design (July 29, 2005) and Teaching Math and Science (Sept. 6, 2002).

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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Prep-School Predators: The Horace Mann School’s Secret History of Sexual Abuse

Amos Kamil, The New York Times Magazine, June 10, 2012
 

Synthesis:  Widespread sexual abuse of both boys by teachers and coaches occurred for decades at one of New York City’s elite private schools, Horace Mann, according to a lengthy report by a former student.

Takeaway:  Even before the story was printed, numerous former students posted blogs online alleging they too had been abused. The school would not comment about the accusations, only saying that there are now policies in place for people to report incidents of sexual abuse; a former Board of Trustees member told the author, "No one will talk to you. They are all lawyering up."

For background see “Sex Scandals,” Jan. 22, 2010, and “Sex Offenders,” Sept. 8, 2006.

--Thomas J. Colin, Contributing Editor

This Week’s Report: “Alcohol Abuse”

Binge drinking and other forms of excessive alcohol use kill 80,000 Americans a year and drain more than $220 billion from the economy, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Yet, while alcohol abuse is down overall in American society,  that is not the case among college students, who drink more alcohol and binge drink more often than non-students of similar ages.

And this week’s Researcher points to another disturbing trend: the rising popularity of flavored alcoholic beverages such as Four Loko, Blast and Tilt. One expert calls Four Loko, with its 12 percent alcohol content and 23.5-ounce containers, “a binge in a can,” with the effect of up to five beers. Some researchers say the increased sale of such products contributes to girls now drinking as much or more than boys.

This compelling report includes a discussion on lowering the legal drinking age, a sidebar on a university’s efforts to control excessive drinking and a lively debate on whether raising alcohol taxes would reduce abusive drinking.

--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor

Weekly Roundup 6/4/2012

Olympics 2012: As colleges struggle to support non-revenue sports, the United States’s Olympic future is threatened 

Liz Clarke, The Washington Post, June 2, 2012 (print edition: June 3, 2012)

Synopsis: The United States’ future as an Olympic power is being threatened as college athletic departments struggle to support sports such as gymnastics, swimming and wrestling that are important to the quadrennial games but do not make money for colleges. Major universities continue to invest in the two major revenue-generating sports, basketball and football, but are cutting support for other sports. The University of Maryland, for example, recently eliminated eight of its 27 varsity teams, including track, swimming, diving and tennis.

Takeaway: College sports are in effect the “farm system” for many U.S. Olympians. “It’s not a good thing,” says the head of the wrestling coaches association, “for our farm system . . . to be eroding.”

For background, see my report “College Football,” Nov. 18, 2011.

--Kenneth Jost, Associate Editor

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Venus Chasers of the 18th Century   

Andrea Wulf, Los Angeles Times, June 3, 2012

Synopsis: Sky watchers around the world this week will be able to observe a rare and significant event:  the planet Venus silhouetted against the Sun as its orbit passes between Sun and Earth. Such rare, but ultimately predictable events, meticulously observed over thousands of years, allowed ancient astronomers to unravel the workings of the solar system.

Takeaway: In the 1760s, even during wars, astronomers traveled to exotic and dangerous places, “at great peril and against heavy odds in many cases — because they believed that the transit held the key to one of the most pressing quests of the age: the distance between Earth and the sun and, by extension, the size of the solar system.”

For related material, see the CQ Researcher reports Space Program (Feb. 24, 2012) and Science in America (Jan. 11, 2008) and the CQ Global Researcher report, Globalizing Science (Feb. 1, 2011).

--Marcia Clemmitt, Staff Writer

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Let’s (Not) Get Physicals

Elisabeth Rosenthal, The New York Times, June 3, 2012

Synopsis:  A steady stream of evidence in the last few years indicates that annual physical examinations and many of the screening tests that accompany them are pointless and even potentially dangerous.

Takeaway: Routine screening tests and medical procedures that research has indicated are unnecessary annually include EKGs, pap smears, blood work, cholesterol tests and bone scans to detect osteoporosis for women under 65.

For background see “Patient Safety,” CQ Researcher, Feb. 10, 2012.
 

--Thomas J. Colin, Contributing Editor