Culture + Society
Dems should learn from corporations, JFK, LBJ and Reagan: Emotions are what sells
We are officially in yet another make-or-break election year for democracy. Already it feels like the ticking of a doomsday clock. The data points are strange and bleak. A Times/Sienna poll last fall showed President Biden getting beat handily by Donald Trump in five of six crucial swing states. Despite Trump’s utter disregard for the lives of […]
Looking back (and a little forward): 2023 selections & reflections from the Nevada Current staff
Note: As we do near the end of every year, each writer on the Nevada Current staff took a little time to highlight some of their work from the year, and say whatever they wanted to say about it. An embarrassment of riches. That’s how I’d sum up 2023 for its news value. In case […]
Russia’s ramped up rhetoric against LGBTQ+ groups is winning Putin far-right fans abroad
With LGBTQ+ rights continuing to expand across much of the world, Vladimir Putin’s Russia has doubled down on restricting them – and a new ruling has made the future even more uncertain for Russian LGBTQ+ groups and individuals. The LGBTQ+ “movement” is “extremist,” and its activities will be banned beginning in 2024, according to a […]
Anti-abortion attorneys ascend federal government ranks with Christian right legal training
When Mississippi Solicitor General Scott G. Stewart presented Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to the U.S. Supreme Court in December 2021, he argued that state lawmakers should be able to ban abortion at any time in pregnancy, not just after so-called “viability,” the point where a fetus could survive outside of a uterus. The […]
Author explores gratitude’s dark side — and how being grateful might still rescue us
For the author of a book on gratitude Diana Butler Bass has what might be a surprising admission: Gratitude didn’t come naturally to her. Bass published “Grateful,” her 12th book, five years ago. But before writing it, “I would not have considered myself a naturally grateful person,” she says. “I always struggled with cultivating gratitude, […]
Rosalynn Carter acclaimed by admirers for her pioneering advocacy for mental health, caregiving
Former first lady Rosalynn Carter leaves a rich legacy of championing mental health and women’s rights. She died Sunday just days after the family announced she had entered hospice at the home. She will be buried at the ranch house in Plains she and former President Jimmy Carter built in 1961. She was married for […]
Day of the Dead is taking on Halloween traditions, but is far more than a ‘Mexican Halloween’
Many Latinos regularly declare: “Día de los Muertos is not Mexican Halloween.” The declaration is increasingly repeated by non-Latinos too. Drawing a clear line between the two holidays is a rhetorical strategy to protect Day of the Dead’s integrity as Mexican cultural heritage and separate it from American popular culture. However, as a Mexican-American who […]
Regents, faculty push back on presentation by national group known for right-wing policies
Faculty from several Nevada colleges and universities criticized the Nevada Board of Regents Friday for entertaining a presentation from a national institute known for right-wing stances on diversity and ‘academic freedom.’ Although the presentation from James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal President Jenna A. Robinson centered on higher education board governance models, faculty argued […]
What a stalagmite from a Grand Canyon cave might tell us about climate change and groundwater
Summer monsoons in the Southwest are difficult to forecast with total accuracy, but the future of the temperamental rainstorms under climate change is an even bigger mystery. The North American Monsoon, a regional weather system ranging from Central America to the southwestern United States, is an important contributor to water budgets in regional deserts, when […]
The Supreme Court’s originalists have taken over. Here’s how they interpret the Constitution.
Today a majority of U.S. Supreme Court justices are either self-described originalists or strongly lean toward originalism. Yet less than 50 years ago, originalism was considered a fringe movement, hardly taken seriously by most legal scholars. So, what is originalism, and why is it so influential today? Originalism is the theory that judges are bound […]
NASA report finds no evidence that UFOs are extraterrestrial
NASA’s independent study team released its highly anticipated report on UFOs on Sept. 14, 2023. In part to move beyond the stigma often attached to UFOs, where military pilots fear ridicule or job sanctions if they report them, UFOs are now characterized by the U.S. government as UAPs, or unidentified anomalous phenomena. Bottom line: The […]
A men’s movement takes reins in a nationwide quest to end abortion
Wendell Shrock doesn’t believe in condoms. “We should leave the uterus to God,” the street preacher from Tennessee tells States Newsroom, in front of an abortion clinic outside of Atlanta, mid-morning in late July. Sweat drips from his cowboy hat into his salt-and-pepper beard that stretches halfway down his red-plaid shirt. The retired police officer […]