Posts Tagged public policy
A Thought Experiment
Posted by Sheila Kennedy in Public Policy and Governance on December 14th, 2012
Sometimes, it’s useful to step outside our usual political debates about programs and policies, about this or that candidate or pundit or official, and think a bit about a more basic question–perhaps the most basic question facing any society: how should we live together? In my graduate Law and Public Affairs class, we spend a semester [...]
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You’ll Never Get Your Hair Cut in this Town Again
Posted by Sheila Kennedy in Public Policy and Governance on January 22nd, 2012
Recently, a colleague of mine was asked to research the impact of professional licensing laws and to report her findings to a legislative study committee. Licensing laws have steadily proliferated—in1970, about 10% of the American workforce required a license of some sort in order to earn a living; by 2000, that percentage had doubled to [...]
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Questions
Posted by Sheila Kennedy in Local Government on October 29th, 2011
I get tired of beating the same dead horse, but the Star’s story this morning about the Litebox episode–a piece of real reporting that is becoming increasingly rare–raises additional questions. The story makes vividly clear how slapdash the City’s vetting process has been, and how politically motivated the decision to announce “job creation.” But the [...]
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Have I Got a Revenue Enhancement for You!
Posted by Sheila Kennedy in Criminal Justice on August 21st, 2011
I’ve been pondering the arguments about how to reduce the national debt, and I have a proposal. Dump the drug war. The fiscal consequences of our current policies are staggering. While other estimates have been as high as 88 billion, an economics professor at Harvard reported in 2005 that replacing marijuana prohibition with a system [...]
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Going the Wrong Way
Posted by Sheila Kennedy in Local Government on April 18th, 2009
When I was practicing law, it wasn’t uncommon for clients to express apprehension about going to court. Among their concerns was the relationship between the judge and the lawyer representing the adverse party—were they poker buddies? Had the lawyer contributed to this judge’s campaign? Did he or she practice with a law firm that had [...]
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