Senate Hearing Spotlights Bipartisan Agreement on Criminal Justice Reform

While the presidential election looms this fall, plenty of critical policymaking can still go down while partisan politics makes the headlines. Read about the issues that we're looking forward to in higher education, infrastructure, contraceptive care and access, and public finance for the year ahead.

Read our story>

Criminal Justice

• AL.com has published an investigation into Alabama’s parole system, highlighting how under Board Chair Leigh Gwathney parole rates have tumbled from around 50% in 2018 to just 8% in 2023.
   
• WBUR reports on how the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has ruled that it is unconstitutional for judges in the state to sentence anyone under 21 years old to life imprisonment without the chance of parole.
   
• A story from AP details how, in 2023, shootings in New Jersey dropped to the lowest level seen since records started being kept 15 years ago, and how firearm involved homicides fell 8% from the year before.

• A primer from Urban Institute on Medicare Advantage Employer Group Waiver Plans provides an overview of the current landscape and explains how enrollment and payment have changed over time.
   
• A new analysis from KFF found most nonprofit hospital systems had “adequate” or “strong” days of cash on hand in 2022.
   
• The National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) released an updated version of its Hospital Cost Tool, which includes 2022 data and new metrics on hospital labor expenses.
   
• The Actuarial Research Corporation issued a brief on the impacts of Medicare site neutrality on off-campus outpatient departments.

• Andrew Lautz of AV grantee the Bipartisan Policy Center outlines the bipartisan, bicameral tax deal negotiators struck this week.
   
• According to analysis from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, the bipartisan tax deal would increase benefits for about 16 million children in low-income families. 
   
• In The Wall Street Journal, Ruth Simon describes how the pandemic-era Employee Retention Credit has become a magnet for lawsuits and abuse.

• Want to know what’s happening with the Education Department’s latest round of accountability-focused negotiated rulemaking? The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators has a summary for you.
   
• The Center for American Progress, an AV grantee, published a report on ways college accreditation can be reformed to provide stronger oversight and a more student-centered approach.
   
• Learn how college mergers can evade oversight by blurring the line between public and private higher education, and policy solutions to this loophole, in a new blog from AV grantee The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS).

• In West Virginia, Senate President Craig Blair and his colleagues are calling on Congress to pass federal permitting reform – and they’re hoping other states will join them, West Virginia MetroNews reports.  
   
• In Maryland, Gov. Wes Moore has released a three-pronged legislation package to incentivize home building and development, according to the Baltimore Banner.

• Should your upcoming weekend include snow, get inspired by the sculpture pros at the Vulcan Snow Park in Minnesota.
   
• “Everyone should eat snow because it’s really fun,” says Anne Nolin, a professor at the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University. Here are a few recipes and caveats.
   
• My back hurt just watching the time lapse video of this "luxury snow cave build," although the final product and the views are neat. Perhaps a quinzhee snow fort is easier? In all cases, back yard builders should be rewarded amply with hot cocoa.