Now that the budget impasse that stagnating swaths of the federal government appears to have ended (Washington Post), it is worth considering what lessons might be learned from the shutdown—in particular, the shutdown’s effect on the health of Americans. The enforcement of food safety was diminished. The FDA conceded at […]

First year law students are taught the basic theories of punishment in their Criminal Law classes within the first week — deterrence, rehabilitation, isolation, education, and retribution.  These relatively straightforward concepts seem simple enough until they are complicated by obstacles that exist solely outside of textbooks and in the real […]

Do you want to know where your food came from? Well, Congress made this really COOL law in 2002 that gives you all the information you want right at your fingertips. COOL (Country of Origin Labeling) was signed into law as part of the 2002 Farm Security and Rural Investment […]

Imagine you live in a small rural community in northern Montana with no more than a thousand residents, each of whom lives miles from the next. Your child becomes ill with a sudden high fever and you don’t know what to do.  Just five years ago, this situation would have […]

In a March 2012 report, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that by 2022, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) would reduce the number of nonelderly people without health insurance by 33 million, leaving another 27 million still uninsured.  A significant part of that 33 million included the […]