Rather than voting for or against a debt ceiling increase, lawmakers should vote to eliminate the debt ceiling entirely, suggest UMBC political science professor Roy T. Meyers and colleague Philip G. Joyce in a recent Baltimore Sun op-ed.

The scholars call the debt ceiling “an anachronism that causes more harm than good” and “a distraction from any reasonable debate on taxes and spending.” They suggest Congress should vote to repeal it, set reasonable targets for debt reduction over a multiyear period, and then use performance data to identify which government programs do and don’t work. Such data could inform arguments for cutting, sustaining or boosting spending for different programs.

A new Bloomberg Businessweek article sheds light on tax subsidies that benefit college athletic programs, including hundreds of millions in funding for stadium construction and sports departments’ exemptions from taxes on ticket, television and other income generated by their stadiums.

UMBC’s Dennis Coates, professor of economics, argues that college sports may not be the best use of tax exemptions. “When one thinks of charity, they don’t think of charity flowing to the head football coach of a big state university.” Questioning municipal  financing for stadiums Coates notes, “Using the borrowing power of the state and tax-exempt interest to build stadiums for sporting events isn’t the real purpose of the university, either.”

In the wake of Maryland’s recent vote to expand gambling locations and allow table games, Capital News Service asked Donald F. Norris, professor and chairman of UMBC’s Department of Public Policy, if sports gambling is in the state’s future. “It’s always possible that somebody could pursue it,” Norris said, “I just can’t foresee that happening.”

Norris further commented, “I’m willing to guess that the current governor is so fed up with the gambling issue that I’m sure he will not support anything.” To move sports betting forward, he suggests, there would have to be more active support for such legislation across the state. The full article is in the Afro, Washington Times and other local papers.

Canadian newspaper The Windsor Star has featured new research from UMBC’s Eric Zeemering, assistant professor of public policy, on how government and NGOs in Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan form cross-border cooperative relationships to promote economic development and create sustainable communities (see full article in the Journal of Urban Affairs).

Zeemering told reporter Dave Hall that although there are great opportunities for collaboration between Windsor and Detroit, the international border often serves to keep the communities apart and “there needs to be a concerted effort to forge those relationships.” Zeemering notes, “The danger in creating cross-border relationships at the political level is that those people change, and the best way to forge those relationships is to establish them at the ground level with city employees.” He cites the Windsor-based International Joint Commission, which focuses on water quality in the Great Lakes, as a strong example of lasting cross-border cooperation.

Excerpt:

When the surface temperature of the Atlantic Ocean was theoretically warmed to 104°F, all three nor’easters were invigorated, wind speeds were increased, new circulation patterns emerged, and precipitation was increased and redistributed. In one of the enhanced cases, the winds exceeded a Category 5 hurricane.

Even with the heaviest precipitation falling over the Atlantic Ocean in these simulations, precipitation of about eight inches per 24 hours would have built a mountain of snow and ice over southeastern Canada. Brewer and I suggested that a storm would have formed and moved across the United States every three days all year round. This would have produced an uncompressed snow pack of about 200 feet per year. Upon compression to solid ice, an ice layer would have grown to about 4,000 feet in 100 years. If bands of additional precipitation were swept around the centers of circulation of enhanced nor’easters off the coast of New England, the accumulation would have been even greater. The additional snow from enhanced nor’easters would explain a thicker Laurentide Ice Sheet in eastern Canada during a recent ice age.

Acknowledgments

The mesoscale model (Weather Research and Forecasting) and data used in this study were developed and maintained by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). NCAR is sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF). This research was funded by the National Creation Research Foundation at the Institute for Creation Research.

We enjoy hosting in-person events in Maryland for the Dissertation House, the Postdoctoral Writing Suite, and the new pilot “Writing for Publication” workshop. If you missed the deadlines for the in-person events, if you go to a school outside of Maryland, or if you can’t join us on campus, please strongly consider joining us online! You can blog with us and be part of the online community by introducing yourself, posting your goals, and recording your progress along the way. Our Winter 2013 cohorts will be blogging in full swing starting January 22, but you can begin now. Here are the links:

1) For “Writing for Publication” – blog here: http://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/2012/12/12/new-initiative-writing-for-publication-january-22-23-2013-umbc/

2) For the Dissertation House Winter 2013 Challenge, blog here: http://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/blog-online-challenge/winter-2013-challenge/

These events are hosted by PROMISE: Maryland’s AGEP and The Graduate School at UMBC.

Related articles

• “Dissertation House,” “Postdoc Writing Suite,” & “Writing for Publication” – January 22-25, 2013 (promiseagep.wordpress.com)

We enjoy hosting in-person events in Maryland for the Dissertation House, the Postdoctoral Writing Suite, and the new pilot “Writing for Publication” workshop. If you missed the deadlines for the in-person events, if you go to a school outside of Maryland, or if you can’t join us on campus, please strongly consider joining us online! You can blog with us and be part of the online community by introducing yourself, posting your goals, and recording your progress along the way. Our Winter 2013 cohorts will be blogging in full swing starting January 22, but you can begin now. Here are the links:

1) For “Writing for Publication” – blog here: http://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/2012/12/12/new-initiative-writing-for-publication-january-22-23-2013-umbc/

2) For the Dissertation House Winter 2013 Challenge, blog here: http://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/blog-online-challenge/winter-2013-challenge/

These events are hosted by PROMISE: Maryland’s AGEP and The Graduate School at UMBC.

Related articles

• “Dissertation House,” “Postdoc Writing Suite,” & “Writing for Publication” – January 22-25, 2013 (promiseagep.wordpress.com)