In Context
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The Future of Medicare Drug Price Negotiation and Pharmaceutical Innovation
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One of the most publicized provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is the section mandating that a small subset of the most expensive pharmaceutical products in the U.S. be subject to Medicare price negotiations. The provision applies only to a minority of branded drugs and the implementation of it…
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The EU’s Digital Services Act takes on “The Algorithm”
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The governance of online platforms is at the forefront of policy regulation due to the exponential rise in illegal content, hate speech, and cyberbullying. The European Union (EU), a leader in this space, kickstarted formal regulation for online content moderation via the Digital Services Act (DSA), approved by the European…
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Chicago Parking Reform: An Interview with Lindsay Bayley
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Lindsay Bayley is the Co-Founder and Advisory Board Member of the Parking Reform Network, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public about the impact of parking policy on climate change, equity, housing, and traffic. Lindsay is also the Program Lead for Safe & Complete Streets at the Chicago Metropolitan…
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Is TikTok a National Security Threat?
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On March 7th, 2023, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill to empower the Department of Commerce to ban the popular short video app TikTok. Over the past two years, the Federal Government has beleaguered TikTok, owned by the China-based company ByteDance. TikTok is the target of investigation because…
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The True Cost of Free Parking: A Conversation with Henry Grabar
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Henry Grabar is the author of Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World. His book examines how parking shapes Americans’ lives through day-to-day interactions such as violence over a parking spot to its role in affordable housing development. Paved Paradise questions whether parking is the most efficient use of space…
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Breaking Down Biden’s “Billionaire Tax”
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In February’s State of the Union Address, the economy took center stage with the arrival of President Biden’s federal budget proposal. At a time of soaring deficit, what was the President’s plan to lower the federal deficit? Raise taxes on the uber-wealthy. Calling attention to the 15% corporate minimum tax…
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Behind USA’s Tip Culture: A Workaround for Employers to Escape Minimum Wage Payments
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The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced a series of updated regulations in 2020 and 2021 to protect tipped workers, including amendments to sections of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). These regulations protected employee tips from employers and addressed the two-tiered wage system that allowed employers to take partial…
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Federalism and Firearms: Gun Control Policies and the Intractability of Gun Violence in America
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Since the beginning of 2023, the United States has seen over 100 mass shootings. In 2022, death by firearm in the United States became the leading cause of mortality among children and teens ages 0 to 18, surpassing motor vehicle collisions, suffocation, drowning, and birth abnormalities. Only two years prior,…
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Redevelopment for Who? How TIF Redistributes Public Funds to the Wealthy
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If you’re standing on any street corner in Chicago, there’s a one in three chance you’re standing in a TIF district. TIF, short for Tax Increment Financing, is a strategy to spur redevelopment in areas that are “blighted”, i.e., an area that has experienced significant economic decline. Typically, these areas…
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New Bipartisan Legislation Creates Potential Path Forward for Federal Prison Reform
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There are 122 federal prisons in the United States, housing approximately 145,302 incarcerated individuals, and it’s no secret that the federal prison system and the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) have been dogged by allegations of wrongdoing and exploitation. Those allegations came to a head during a July 2022 hearing when…
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Vega v. Tekoh: Miranda Under Fire
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After nearly 60 years, the protections established by Miranda v. Arizona are under attack. Miranda v. Arizona helped protect individuals under arrest; for the first time, police officers were required to educate arrestees about their rights and the protections afforded to them. For many, Miranda rights functioned as a first…