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Joshua Murray, Vanderbilt University The United Auto Workers union, or UAW, has told workers at three factories to go on strike after failing to agree on new contracts with each of Detroit’s major automakers. The contracts expired at 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 14, 2023. By midnight, the union posted a strike declaration on its website. The strike will force General Motors, Ford and Stellantis – the global company that builds Chrysler, Jeep, Ram and Dodge vehicles in North America – to halt some of their operations. “Tonight for the first time in our history we will strike all three of

John A. Fliter, Kansas State University and Betsy Wood, Bard College A movement to weaken American child labor protections at the state level began in 2022. By June 2023, Arkansas, Iowa, New Jersey and New Hampshire had enacted this kind of legislation, and lawmakers in at least another eight states had introduced similar measures. The laws generally make it easier for kids from 14 to 17 years old to work longer and later – and in occupations that were previously off-limits for minors. When Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed her state’s new, more permissive child labor law on May 26,

Kristina M. Lee, University of South Dakota When Utah legislators passed a bill requiring the review and removal of “pornographic or indecent” books in school libraries, they likely did not imagine the law would be used to justify banning the Bible. Utah’s H.B. 374, which took effect in May 2022, “prohibits certain sensitive instructional materials in public schools.” It joins a series of conservative book bans that supporters claim protect children but critics have argued unfairly target LGBTQ+ content and minority authors. But in early June 2023, the bill stirred further controversy when, after receiving a complaint from a parent

Richard Briffault, Columbia University Save America, one of former President Donald Trump’s political organizations, is seeking a US$60 million refund from Make America Great Again, Inc., another Trump political organization that is less strictly regulated by federal rules. Save America has paid Trump’s legal fees connected to multiple investigations into alleged criminal activities and is now down to less than $4 million in its account, The New York Times reported on July 31, 2023. It started 2022 with $105 million in the bank. Trump’s use of political action committees, often known as PACs, to pay his mounting legal fees has

Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., Harvard University What was Donald Trump thinking when he set about trying to maintain the presidency after losing it to Joe Biden? That’s the key question a jury will need to consider in Trump’s federal trial on charges announced Aug. 1, 2023, stemming from Trump’s attempts to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election. The latest indictment charges Trump with conspiring to defraud the United States; to obstruct an official government proceeding; and to deprive U.S. citizens of a civil right – namely, to have their vote count. In a fourth count, Trump is charged

Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., Harvard University What was Donald Trump thinking when he set about trying to maintain the presidency after losing it to Joe Biden? That’s the key question a jury will need to consider in Trump’s federal trial on charges announced Aug. 1, 2023, stemming from Trump’s attempts to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election. The latest indictment charges Trump with conspiring to defraud the United States; to obstruct an official government proceeding; and to deprive U.S. citizens of a civil right – namely, to have their vote count. In a fourth count, Trump is charged