The Joyous Sound of Completion

Criminal Justice

• Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt recently signed two pieces of criminal justice legislation: KTUL Tulsa reports on the Oklahoma Survivors’ Act, which allows courts to lower a defendant's sentence if being subjected to domestic violence played a role in their offense, and KSWO covers House Bill 3158, which makes it easier for cosmetology and barber schools to train incarcerated people at the state’s correctional facilities.
   
• In an op-ed for The Detroit News, Lisel Petis of R Street writes about how Michigan’s money bail system negatively affects people and employers in the state and how proposed, evidence-based reforms strike an appropriate balance between community safety and equity. 
   
• An editorial in the Chicago Sun Times makes the case that establishing a state-wide public defense office would help the state fulfill its constitutional obligation to provide indigent criminal defendants legal counsel.
   
• Reason covers the history and bipartisan passage in the House of the Federal Prison Oversight Act, which would improve transparency and accountability in federal prisons; AV Vice President of Criminal Justice Advocacy Kevin Ring praised the House’s action in a statement last week.

• After examining trends in the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC's) role overseeing the pharmaceutical market, PORTAL suggests in JAMA that Congress should strengthen the agency's authority to reduce the negative impacts of pharmaceutical consolidation and unfair practices.
   
• KFF finds a majority of states offer Medicare Advantage (MA) plans to state retirees, with 12 offering MA plans exclusively. 
   
• According to U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) in its report on hospital price transparency, there is wide variation in prices for the same knee surgery among 27 hospitals in the Cleveland area.
   
• In Health Affairs, Sheena Ranganathan reviews recent developments in the No Surprises Act implementation.

• The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget highlights new Congressional Budget Office projections that rising debt could reduce income by an $14,500 per person by 2054.
   
• Matt Darling of the Niskanen Center writes how the experience rating system for funding unemployment insurance may be exacerbating the steady decline in male workforce participation for the American Institute for Boys and Men.
   
• Matt Yglesias explains why the question of who ultimately pays taxes is more complex than you might think for Slow Boring.

• The Century Foundation writes about how college accreditors should be held to stronger standards in their duty to hold educational institutions accountable for student outcomes.
   
• A vast majority of voters from across the political spectrum recognize the value of higher education and want to ensure students are getting a return on their investment, according to new polling from Third Way.

• Buffalo and Seattle legalized new housing construction by reforming parking mandates, according to a report from the Sightline Institution.
   
• Congress is having a bipartisan YIMBY moment, Semafor notes, as it makes progress on a bill that would make it easier to track which cities restrict new development.

• More 70% of U.S. nursing homes are run by for-profit companies with financial ties that make it hard to track how much money is going to patient care. A new video report from CBS News looks at whether care is compromised in these facilities.
   
• Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms’ (CHIR) Is Increasing Competition the Answer to Rising Health Care Costs? is the third in a series of briefings aimed at finding solutions to make employer-sponsored health care more affordable for all.

• Read about the life and career of baseball's newly anointed leading hitter in the history of the sport, Josh Gibson, who was duly recognized this week when Major League Baseball incorporated the statistics of the Negro League into its records.
   
• Kansas City PBS talks with leaders in the city's black community, including the president of the Negro Leagues Museum, Bob Kendrick, in this video about the impact of the League on the city, the Black economy, and integration.