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Do New Leadership Hires Clarify WELL Health Technologies' (TSX:WELL) Public-Sector Digital Health Strategy?
WELL Health Technologies has appointed Dr. Andrew Bond as Chief Health Officer and Head of Public Sector, and Derek Clark as Chief Operating Officer, adding experienced leadership to clinical governance, government engagement, and platform-wide operations. These hires deepen WELL’s bench in both health system policy and complex multi-entity execution, reinforcing its push to work more closely with public health systems while scaling its national digital and clinic network. Next, we’ll...
Colorado Politics Calendar June 8-14
CoPo’s weekly political calendar helps you find political and public policy events throughout Colorado. It includes candidate and issue campaign events, public policy meetings, court hearings, state and local party conventions, assemblies, debates, rallies, parades, speaking engagements, traveling dignitary appearances, water meetings, book signings, county commission hearings, city council meetings and more. As a subscriber, […]
Multiple sources, joint analysis: pooling public health data for stronger public health intelligence across the Western Pacific
WHO Western Pacific countries and areas endorse a new policy brief on multi-source surveillance. A new World Health Organization (WHO) policy brief outlines a transformative approach to public health intelligence that connects data across a range of systems, sectors and disciplines. By creating a single, actionable picture of health threats based on multiple sources, such an approach aims to fill critical data gaps and aid countries in decision-making. WHO Member States across the Western Pacific endorsed the policy brief, Multi-source Surveillance to Support Public Health Action and Decision-making, at the WHO-led Asia Pacific Health Security Action Framework (APSHAF) Stakeholders Meeting held on 11 June 2026 in Malaysia.
Michigan Matters: Influential voices emanating from Mackinac Island
Oceans week 2026
This week is National Oceans week. One of the main events in Washington DC is Capitol Hill Ocean Week (or CHOW). This two-day event, sponsored by the U.S. Government, brought policymakers, scientis…
Policy Considerations for Defining Essential Health Systems
This policy brief outlines how an essential health system designation relates to existing designations and discusses policy considerations for developing measures to identify essential health systems.
Port Laredo trade summit to draw global business leaders
Hundreds of trade professionals, executives and policymakers are expected to attend Laredo's inaugural Global Trade Summit in July.
US rate futures raise rate hike odds in December after jobs data
U.S. interest rate futures on Friday increased the chances that the Federal Reserves will raise interest rates by the December policy meeting after a blockbuster payrolls number for May, which sharply exceeded market expectations.
This no-phones theater chain now asks visitors to order food by phone. The reviews aren’t good.
Alamo Drafthouse, which built its brand on a strict ‘no phones’ policy, is now asking patrons to use their devices to order from the menu.
Inside Trump’s suddenly softened new green card policy
Big business, including tech and AI companies, launched a quiet but extensive lobbying effort against the green card policy requiring applicants to apply from overseas.
Hospitals Are Leading Efforts to Make Health Care More Affordable
Affordability is front and center in conversations across the country, as Americans feel pressure from the rising cost of living and policymakers search for solutions. Hospitals and health systems share their concerns because we see the impact of high costs every day on the patients and families we serve. Hospitals are not waiting to do their part. Across the nation, they are already implementing efforts to make healthcare more affordable and accessible, as well as providing solutions that could lower costs across the entire health care system.
House passes Ukraine aid, Russia sanctions as GOP bucks Trump on foreign policy
Eighteen Republicans sided with Democrats to authorize billions in aid to Ukraine.
House passes bill to provide more Ukraine aid and impose new sanctions on Russia
The 226-195 vote is a sign of impatience with President Donald Trump's approach to the war and represents the House's second major foreign policy break with Trump this week.
Last Call for 6.4.26 – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida
A digest of the day's politics and policy while the bartender refreshes your drink.
Update: What We’re Watching, June 4, 2026
This update covers the latest federal health policy news and its potential impact on Kansas.
Health Department Announces Key Leadership Changes
The Wyoming Department of Health (WDH), under the leadership of Governor Mark Gordon and WDH Director Stefan Johansson recently named several key leadership appointments designed to strengthen the performance and services provided by the WDH.. Monique McBride Appointed as Chief Policy and Communications Officer Monique McBride joined WDH in January as the department’s Chief […]
MDHHS Finalizes Specialty Behavioral Health Services Location Policy
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) recently finalized Medicaid Policy Bulletin MMP 26-17, effective July 1, 2026, which clarifies reimbursement requirements for specialty behavioral health services provided through Prepaid Inpatient Health Plans in home, community and residential settings.
Improving Population Health Through Housing Policy: Lessons From the Public Housing Program
Housing is a fundamental social determinant of health and is particularly amenable to policy intervention.
Can AI Be Safe, Accurate, and Beneficial in Science?
A preview of the “AI Ethics & Policy in the Weather, Water, and Climate Enterprise” session at the 2026 AMS Washington Forum/
Public Policy Cornerstones of America’s Financialized Health Care System
I’ve been examining how public policies have facilitated the transformation of America’s health and medical care systems into today’s financialized and commercialized realities.
Rob Sand and Zach Lahn to speak at gubernatorial business forum
The candidates will focus on business policy issues, including workforce, tax and regulatory policy, and economic growth.
House health panel advances bills to combat elevated blood lead levels, fetal alcohol syndrome
The Michigan House Committee on Health Policy voted on Wednesday morning to advance two packages of bills to combat childhood lead exposure and fetal alcohol syndrome. Two of the three bills on lead exposure were not reported, however, and were instead referred to the House Committee on Rules. House Bill 4864, would alter Michigan’s definition […]
World Cup 2026: Fifa bans fans from taking water bottles into stadiums
Fans will not be allowed to take reusable water bottles into World Cup stadiums due to safety concerns, Fifa says in a late policy change.
Shanghai urged to unify incentives as EU firms in China flag rising challenges
European chamber pushes for ‘one Shanghai’ policy as survey reveals cross-border capital flow and market access barriers weigh on operations.
Last Call for 6.3.26 – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida
A digest of the day's politics and policy while the bartender refreshes your drink.
US economic activity and inflation both up in recent weeks, Fed survey shows
U.S. economic activity increased a bit in recent weeks, employment was little changed, and the fallout from higher energy prices due to the war in the Middle East was pervasive, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday, two weeks before Kevin Warsh convenes his first policy meeting as head of the U.S. central bank.
Trump suffers rare House defeat as bipartisan vote moves to withdraw troops from Iran conflict
The House voted to curb Trump's war powers in Iran after Democrats and several Republicans bucked the president in a rare bipartisan rebuke of his policy.
Why Kalshi Wants Businesses To Bet on the Knicks, Too
A Manhattan bar is using Kalshi as an insurance policy for a free-drinks promotion. This is the future prediction markets want.
Texas universities show sharp differences in health insurance premiums, Baker Institute report finds
Annual health insurance premiums for faculty and staff vary by more than $5,000 per employee across Texas universities, according to a new report from Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. For PPO (or POS plans) — the only plan type offered at every institution in the sample — the report finds that the total annual cost of individual coverage, combining employer and employee contributions, ranges from $8,095 for Texas universities belonging to Employees Retirement System of Texas (such as the University of Houston) to $15,742 at Trinity University.
Elections to top science bodies test Croatia’s gender equality in research
Croatia’s track-record on gender equality in science has been both questioned and lauded in recent months, following both bad and good news on the topic. On the one hand, a senior awards committee was announced without a single woman researcher included. On the other, the national science academy welcomed its first cohort of fellows with more women than men.Members of the committee, which gives national awards recognising scientific achievement, are proposed by the ministry of science and endorsed by the parliament. The current line-up does include a woman, but she is culture minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek rather than a researcher. Even then, she didn’t make it into the photograph released to announce the appointments on April 16. “The image speaks a thousand words,” says Tanja Rudež, a science journalist for Jutarnji List newspaper. “I am surprised that none of these men, all well-known scientists, saw a problem with the fact that there was not a single successful female scientist on the committee,” she told Science|Business.Ivan Đikić, a prominent Croatian biochemist based at Goethe University Medical School, commented on LinkedIn that the news illustrated a “sad truth” about the state of science in Croatia.“It [. . .] reveals a system where women, despite contributing a substantial share of high-quality, internationally competitive science, are systematically excluded from the very processes that determine recognition and influence,” he wrote. Some 60% of researchers in Croatia are women, according to the Croatian Bureau of Statistics, and they perform well in international competitions. For example, of the 12 European Research Council (ERC) grants awarded to Croatian researchers, seven went to women.“So how is it possible that decision-making bodies are still dominated by men over 60, while not a single female ERC laureate is involved in the selection process?” asked Đikić. “This is not a marginal oversight; it is a structural failure.” The ministry of science did not reply to a request for comment. The awards committee is not unusual. For example, a scientific advisory body announced by the ministry of demographics in April comprises 35 men and five women. The board of the Croatian Science Foundation, newly appointed by the parliament, is a little better, with five men and two women, but still unequal. “This is especially significant because such bodies do not merely distribute prestige. They shape research priorities, funding allocation and long-term scientific development,” Marija Lugarić, chair of the parliament’s committee on gender equality, told Science|Business. “Representation here matters not only symbolically, but materially.”Referring to the awards committee and the board of the science foundation, Lugarić says that while both bodies were appointed by parliament, neither met the minimum 40% gender balance threshold that Croatian law and EU guidelines expressly recommend for public bodies.Đikić wants to see EU institutions put pressure on the government to ensure basic standards of fairness, transparency and democratic governance in science policy are met. “Meaningful change will not come without pressure,” he wrote. “It must intensify both within Croatia and at the level of European institutions. Anything less undermines the credibility of Europe’s commitment to excellence and inclusion in science.”Rudež also underlined the importance of talking and writing about this topic, “because public opinion in Croatia does influence changes in the status and visibility of women in science.”The European Commission has not yet responded to a request for comment.Good news from the academyA more positive story came from the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts on 21 May, with the announcement of seven new women fellows and five men. This is the first time in the academy’s 165-year history that women have outnumbered men in a new intake.One of the new fellows, two-time ERC grantee Iva Tolić, credits the academy leadership with trying to be more modern and inclusive, representing the whole community better. “The academy is really aware that so far, before this election, there were very few women,” she told Science|Business. “So, they are actively trying to make this more equal.”Related articlesExplained: How the MSCA is close to achieving gender balanceCall for EU to leverage academic freedom in global talent raceRudež is more cautious, noting that despite the academy’s “breakthrough this year [. . .] it is still a predominantly male institution, with only 18% women.”This reflects a wider imbalance in Croatia’s research landscape. “The key levers of power in science are still in the hands of men,” she went on. “For example, all 14 rectors of private and public universities are men.”Similarly, Lugarić says a structural glass ceiling still exists in Croatian science, which is “most visible precisely where power is exercised.”She cites data from the Commission’s She Figures 2024 report, which shows that Croatia ranks second in the EU for gender equality in research and innovation overall, with an equality index of 79.6 out of 100. It is in the top five for women’s career advancement, participation in research; representation across all research sectors and for scientific publications.In stark contrast, it ranks second to last when it comes to women in decision-making positions in science. “This is not a coincidence,” Lugarić says. “It is a structural pattern.”Informal barriersThe persistent under-representation of women in the highest structures of Croatia’s academies, boards, award committees and leadership positions is not down to formal barriers, Lugarić says, but arises from more subtle obstacles such as “informal networks, persistent expectations regarding traditional gender roles and the unequal distribution of care responsibilities.”Tolić would like to see more support for young women in terms of affordable housing and child support, and higher salaries. Currently, she says, salaries in science stay low for the first 10-15 years, while housing and spaces in kindergarten are limited and expensive. “You have to work a lot, you get very little money, so it’s not great to have a family in this situation,” she says.But despite the challenges, Tolić is optimistic, saying that gender equality in research in Croatia is “definitely improving and going in the right direction.” The situation is particularly promising in biology, she adds, where most full professors, heads of department and deans of faculties are women. Lugarić, too, see the glass ceiling “very slowly, cracking,” and cites the academy election as an example that structural change is possible. Yet the situation in the national awards committee is a “stark reminder that without a conscious, systemic commitment to gender balance, progress will remain slow and uneven.”
Op-Ed | I built a New York City beauty business from the ground up. Policymakers should be careful not to break it.
I came into the beauty industry nearly four decades ago and have had the privilege of building my business to five locations across Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Marquette County Board passes resolution supporting rural mental health
The resolution also ensures rural input on policy decisions through a formal consultation process
Top ultra-processed food researchers call for sweeping policy change: ‘The system is rigged’
A survey finds that ultra-processed foods are a cross-partisan concern. And yet policy has been slow to follow.
International medical graduates represent nearly 25% of diagnostic radiologists in US
Recently policy changes under the Trump administration "highlight potential vulnerability in relying on this as a supply of radiologists," experts write in Academic Radiology.
OECD predicts spate of recessions globally if Iran conflict drags into 2027
Policy forum lays out ‘prolonged disruption’ scenario in which world’s GDP falls to 2.1% this year from 3.4% in 2025
Barriers to Inclusive Sexual and Reproductive Health Care for LGBTQ+ Populations: A Narrative Review With Emphasis on Midwifery and Obstetric Services in Greece
Despite recent legal and policy advancements, LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, and additional identities) populations continue to face significant barriers to equi...
Governor Moore Hosts Roundtable Discussion on Economic Impact of Federal Immigration Policy
Governor Moore Hosts Roundtable Discussion on Economic Impact of Federal Immigration Policy
Cantwell-Cruz bipartisan college sports reform bill gets major Senate hearing on Wednesday
U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell and Sen. Ted Cruz rarely find themselves on the same side of major policy debates.
Dr Oz says California owes $2B over health benefits for immigrants in US illegally
Dr. Oz argues states should not use federal funds for benefits that exceed national policy, citing California’s Medi-Cal program and costs to taxpayers nationwide.
Trump signs executive order to vet top AI models for national security risks
The move comes less than two weeks after Trump postponed a White House ceremony over concerns that a similar policy could dull America's edge on AI technology
Trump signs executive order to vet top AI models for national security risks
The move comes less than two weeks after Trump postponed a White House ceremony over concerns that a similar policy could dull America's edge on AI technology
Microsoft launches MXC, an OS-level sandbox for AI agents, with OpenAI and Nvidia already on board
Microsoft launches MXC, an OS-level sandbox for AI agents in Windows, giving enterprises secure runtime controls, identity, and policy enforcement.
Policy experts offer differing views on health care for all at HJ26
During Thursday's plenary at Health Journalism 2026, policy experts discussed whether the government should guarantee health care for all.
Where Forensic Science Meets AI: eSleuth, Inc. Names Former ATF Director Ken Melson to Its Advisory Board
eSleuth, Inc., the AI-driven investigative platform putting the power of advanced data analysis and machine learning directly in the hands of investigators, today announced the appointment of Kenneth E. Melson, former Acting Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, to its Advisory Board. Melson brings a rare depth of expertise spanning federal prosecution, agency leadership, and forensic science policy that directly strengthens eSleuth AI's mission to transform how la
How Science Works
The 2nd Weather and Climate Livestream is now underway. It is organized by a group of early-career researchers concerned about declining funding for the field and eager to demonstrate how weather and climate research makes a difference in our lives. Last year’s event was a great success, drawing terrific press coverage including a piece in the NY Times. This year features a strong lineup of talks aimed at a general audience — I highly recommend tuning in. Share I gave a talk yesterday about How Science Works in Three Steps. You can see the short presentation here (I’ve appended a transcript below): And please tune into the livestream here. It runs through tomorrow at 6 pm ET. Thanks for reading The Climate Brink! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work. Subscribe Cleaned up transcript: Thank you, and thanks to everyone tuning in. I want to talk about something I think a lot of people don’t really understand: how science actually works. Arguments over any scientific topic — climate change, vaccines, you name it — revolve around competing claims. For climate change, the claims are: Is the Earth warming? Are humans to blame? What will the impacts be? Over the last 150 years, the scientific community has developed a remarkably robust method for sorting out which claims are true and which aren’t. That method is what I want to walk through. So how does science generate knowledge? If you ask a high schooler, they’ll give you the version they learned in ninth grade: an individual scientist forms a hypothesis, runs an experiment, and draws a conclusion. That’s more or less what happens at the individual level, though in practice it’s more iterative — you design, test, and refine all at once, landing on a slightly different idea each time until you reach a conclusion about whatever hypothesis you’ve ended up with. But this isn’t science. It’s only step one. Any individual scientist can make mistakes — scientists are human. Maybe there’s a bug in the code, maybe there’s an error in the experiment. Just because someone ran an experiment and reached a conclusion doesn’t mean it’s right, and scientists don’t treat a single result as settled truth. Step two is peer review, the first layer of quality control. The scientist writes up what they did and submits it to a journal, which sends the paper to other experts in the field. Those experts judge whether the methods are sound, whether it properly references prior work, and whether the conclusions actually follow from the data. Ask any scientist and they’ll tell you peer review is miserable — the comments come back brutal, often harsh, and you have to revise and resubmit, sometimes multiple times, before an editor finally accepts the paper. Peer review catches an immense amount of bad science, but it can’t catch all of it. Reviewers get sloppy or overworked, they miss obvious mistakes, and they can’t catch hidden errors — a bug in the code, a misread instrument. So a peer-reviewed paper making it into a journal doesn’t mean the paper is right. Nobody treats a single paper as the final word. That’s where step three comes in: the crucible of science. Important results get retested by the broader community. If you publish something interesting, it gets dissected. Sometimes people try to reproduce your work directly but more often they test its implications. If someone claims X is true, and that implies that Y is also true, then scientists will go check Y. If a claim survives this gauntlet long enough, it becomes accepted. That’s how we generate knowledge. Let me give an example: the ozone hole. In 1985 — and I doubt many people watching were around then, but I remember it well — Joe Farman and his colleagues published observations from Antarctica showing that a huge chunk of ozone was disappearing every year. This was shocking because most atmospheric chemists had expected ozone loss to occur at mid-latitudes and high altitudes, not over the South Pole. When scientists see something they don’t understand, they rush to explain it, and several competing hypotheses quickly appeared in the peer-reviewed literature. One pointed to chlorine chemistry from chlorofluorocarbons. A second blamed nitrogen chemistry, possibly driven by solar proton events — meaning the sun was responsible. A third argued it wasn’t chemistry at all but dynamics: winds were carrying naturally low-ozone air from the lower atmosphere up into the stratosphere. Then the community went to work testing which theory could survive the crucible. Aircraft flew into the ozone hole and found no nitrogen, ruling out the nitrogen theory. Measurements showed the air in the polar vortex was descending, not rising — which would bring high-ozone air down, eliminating the dynamics theory. Meanwhile, those same flights measured enormous amounts of chlorine, strongly correlated with exactly the regions where ozone was being destroyed. That became known as the “smoking gun” paper, and it established that chlorine chemistry was the cause. Through this process, a consensus emerged. And it’s worth being clear that this consensus is organic. There’s no vote, no poll, no meeting where it gets decided. Scientists go to conferences, talk to one another, and independently arrived at the same answer. It’s the ultimate free market of ideas. After the consensus was established, the peer-reviewed literature doesn’t even mention the rival theories — it simply takes chlorine chemistry as given. That’s what a consensus looks like. It doesn’t mean every single scientist agrees, but it does mean there’s no longer any legitimate debate. So where can you see what scientists actually think? It’s all in the peer-reviewed literature, which contains the entire historical record of the argument: the discovery, the competing theories, the debate, the testing, and finally the community coalescing around one answer. But there’s a lot of room for misrepresentation. You can dig up an old paper claiming the ozone hole was caused by dynamics and wave it around as if there still was a debate about the cause of the ozone hole — without mentioning that the idea was disproven long ago and that even its own authors no longer believe it. There’s a bigger problem, though: the peer-reviewed literature is written in a language I call “nerd.” It’s extremely hard to read — honestly, some of it is hard for me to follow. It takes graduate students years to work through the literature in a single field, so we can’t expect policymakers or ordinary people to do it. This is where scientific assessments come in. The most famous is the IPCC — the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The job of an assessment is to read and summarize the peer-reviewed literature, synthesizing what’s settled, what’s been disproven, and what remains genuinely debated. To ensure the assessments accurately summarize the peer-reviewed literature, assessments are written by large teams, which are far less prone to bias than individuals and which dilute the influence of any one scientist with an axe to grind. The teams are deliberately assembled to avoid stacking the deck, and the reports themselves go through multiple rounds of peer review. That rigorous process is exactly why you can trust them and why people consider the IPCC to be the gold standard of what we know about the climate system. An assessment produced through a different process may well not be credible. You can even watch the consensus evolve across assessments. Take the attribution of warming. The 1990 IPCC report said the observed warming was broadly consistent with model predictions but also comparable to natural variability — in other words, we don’t know whether humans are responsible. By 1995, it concluded that the balance of evidence suggested a discernible human influence — a sentence only a committee could write, and one that barely commits to anything. By 2001, most of the warming over the previous 50 years was judged “likely” due to greenhouse gases; by 2007, “very likely”; by 2013, “extremely likely.” The 2023 report says essentially the same as 2013 — there’s not much stronger language available. So, to wrap up: science is our ultimate tool for deciphering the universe — the most successful method we’ve ever developed for determining what’s true and what isn’t. Our understanding is written into the peer-reviewed literature, so if you want to know what scientists think, that’s where to look. And for those of us who don’t speak nerd, scientific assessments are the Rosetta Stone — they translate nerd into English. Let me open the floor to questions. Thank you.
The work you can't always see: Beer is political, part 2
Recently I published a piece about beer, politics, and the question of who speaks up and who doesn’t. I meant every word of it. I still do. And then my inbox opened up. Cleveland Prost is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe I’ve been writing about beer since 2014. For most of that time, I kept things deliberately light — taproom profiles, new releases, the people behind the pints. Gradually, over years of building this thing, you gave me something I didn’t expect: permission. Permission to go deeper. To say what I actually saw in this industry and what I actually believed about it. That trust isn’t something I take lightly. It’s why that piece existed at all, and it’s why this one does too. I’m not walking anything back. But I want to go further. In that piece, I wrote that beer has never existed outside the system. That immigration policy affects who staffs breweries and harvests ingredients. That labor policy affects taproom workers. That civil rights policy affects who feels safe walking into a taproom. That “beer does not exist in a vacuum. The idea that it does is comforting. It is also false.” I believe that as much now as I did when I wrote it. But one idea came back at me, in different forms, over and over (from reader emails, comments, and conversations): that beer itself isn’t political — that it only becomes political when someone decides to make it that way. That what we’re really seeing is a choice by individuals to inject division into something that doesn’t inherently require it. It’s a comforting idea. It’s also wrong — and I think it’s worth being precise about why. That framing assumes that breweries operate outside the conditions shaping everything else. That politics is something you choose to bring into a room that was, until then, clean and neutral. That if you stay quiet, you stay clear of it. But the room was never neutral. It was never clean. Politics is already in the room. It’s in who walks through the door comfortably and who hesitates. It’s in whether a space can be used for organizing without fear. It’s in whether helping someone quietly might carry consequences you have to think carefully about in advance. It’s in who staffed the brewery, who harvested the grain, who can afford to be a regular. The idea that you opt out of all that by staying quiet is an illusion. You only change how visible your response to it is. This is, I realize, a hard thing to hear if you came to a beer newsletter for something lighter. I wrote recently that “beer, for me, has always felt like a refuge — a third place in an increasingly fractured world.” I meant that. I still do. But a refuge is not an escape from reality. It’s a place to gather strength to face it. Here’s what I actually missed — and what I want to correct. Multiple people in the industry reached out to me. I’m not naming them and I’m not identifying their businesses, because that’s not my call. If and when they want to be loud about what they’re doing, that agency belongs to them. What I can share is the substance of what they said, because it complicated something I presented too cleanly. The overall message: *You don’t know what we all are doing.* And they’re right. I don’t. One example involved a collaboration brewed quietly to support another business facing serious challenges in a whole different region, with proceeds directed toward solidarity, community, and keeping operations afloat. No announcement. It could have been broadcast widely. The point was never publicity. Another example involved logistical support for community efforts: organizing safe transportation, providing space for meetings on otherwise closed days, facilitating gatherings under difficult conditions. All of it happening while balancing real financial pressure and genuine concern for personal safety. None of what they described is a brewer “deciding to make beer political.” It’s people responding to the conditions around them — conditions that are already shaping who feels safe, who has access, who can gather, who needs help, and who has the capacity to offer it. Politics, again, already in the room. Already shaping choices. Whether anyone announced it or not. I’ve spent decades in taprooms, at barrel releases, at festivals, in back offices and brewing floors, talking to the people who built this industry from nothing. I know how much happens that never makes it onto social media. I know the owner who quietly comp’d a tab for someone having a crisis. The brewer who drove an hour to pick up a stranger who needed a safe ride. The taproom that stayed dark on a Tuesday so a community group could use the space without it becoming A Whole Thing. None of that gets a post. Most of it never will. So when I wrote recently about silence — when I said that “silence right now doesn’t feel neutral, it feels like complicity” — I was writing about what I could see. And I was right about what I saw. The public silence of breweries that have the platform, the stability, and frankly the safety to say something and choose not to? That still troubles me. I’m not softening that. But some of what I read as silence is actually something else entirely. It’s people doing the work with their hands instead of their phones. It’s people who are genuinely afraid — not of being canceled, but of real consequences for their families, their employees, their ability to keep the doors open at all. That deserves more than a footnote. It deserves to be named clearly. Here’s the tension I want to sit with honestly: public statements matter. They matter because people can’t rally around something they can’t see. Visibility creates awareness and solidarity. It helps people find each other. It tells someone standing outside your taproom door, uncertain whether they’ll be welcomed inside, something they need to know — or whether it’s even safe for them to be in public at all. That’s not performative. I wrote recently that the craft beer movement “was built on collective defiance. It was built on rejecting consolidation. On pushing back against homogeneity.” I believe that too. And I’ll extend it: breweries should be at least as loud about their values as they are when they drop a new seasonal. Your hazy IPA gets a full rollout — the label art, the tap handle photo, the countdown post. Human dignity deserves the same energy. Be as loud about human rights as you are about your beer. There is no reason those two things should require different levels of courage from you. But visibility isn’t the only form of courage. And not everyone can be visible right now without real consequences — financial, personal, sometimes physical. There are people in this industry doing hard, unglamorous, sometimes risky work in the background, and announcing it would compromise it or paint a target on someone who’s already stretched thin. That’s not silence as complicity. That’s operational discipline under pressure. What I want to push back on — clearly, not gently — is the idea that behind-the-scenes action and public visibility are in competition with each other. The person organizing quietly in the back room and the person posting a statement of solidarity on a Tuesday morning are both doing something real. We need both. We need the quiet infrastructure and we need the visible signal. We need people to know that this industry — at its best, at its most independent, and human — gives a fuck. I closed that piece with a question: “Reactive and fearful? Or clear and values-driven?” That question still stands. But having heard from you, I’d add a corollary: the values-driven path isn’t always the loudest one. Sometimes it’s a phone call and a recipe. Sometimes it’s a room made available on a closed Tuesday. Sometimes it’s a drive across town for someone who needed a safe ride home. All of it is political. All of it was always political. You don’t get to opt out of that — you only get to decide what you do with it. I’ve spent more than a decade writing about this industry because I believe it can be exactly that. I’ve been lucky enough to build an audience that lets me say so plainly. That’s a privilege I intend to use. The work is happening. Some of it you’ll see. Some of it you won’t. Support it either way. Cleveland Prost is a reader-supported publication covering beer and brewing across New York state. To receive new posts and support this work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Cleveland Prost is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe
British politics is fractured and chaotic – but at last it’s brimming with ideas for the future
Finally, Labour is talking policy, thanks to the leadership contest and Tony Blair’s intervention – and the centre-right is making a much-needed fightback too, says Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee
Restrictions on prediction market bets by US troops part of draft defense bill
Members of the US military may soon be barred from using prediction markets to bet on global events if a draft defense policy bill passes Congress and becomes law. The proposal comes after a high-profile case where a US special forces soldier is accused of using classified information to place bets tied to the capture of Nicolás Maduro.
Health officials oppose US plan to treat Ebola-exposed Americans overseas
Healthcare officials in the U.S., including former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials, on Monday warned Congress against adopting a proposed policy to treat Americans exposed to Ebola in Kenya or countries in the European Union.
Towards a responsive health system and equitable access to quality RMNCAH services
Indonesia’s vast geography and sociocultural diversity shape the delivery of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH) services in ways that are both enabling and challenging. Across provinces, significant variation has been observed in how services are planned, resourced, and delivered. These variations in service standards and quality are felt daily in the lives of women, newborns and adolescents. Despite these challenges, progress is visible. National estimates show a drop in maternal mortality ratio, from 331 to 140 per 100 000 live births since 2000, signaling improvements in care quality and access. Fertility has stabilised and contraceptive use has grown, yet unmet reproductive health needs persist, and adolescent pregnancies continue to reflect early marriage and limited access to youth-friendly services.To better understand how Indonesia’s health system has evolved under decentralisation, the Ministry of Health, supported by World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), IPAS and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), conducted a joint external review of RMNCAH programmes. This review draws on multiple sources of evidence, including existing literature, policy documents, national health system data, as well as field visits to six selected provinces to represent Indonesia’s geographic and administrative diversity. During the field visits, review teams observed service delivery in health facilities, spoke with health workers and local leaders and met mothers and families to understand how RMNCAH policies are operationalised. One of the challenges identified was the management of low birthweight (LBW) infants, a major contributor to neonatal deaths, under resource constraints. One midwife described a severe case of extremely LBW twins, one stillborn and the other died after three days of care. She recalled how the surviving infant struggled to swallow and may not have received breast milk, while simultaneous emergencies required the team’s attention, affecting the care provided to the infant.A subsequent review of the case by the district health office revealed insufficient antenatal care, fragmented maternal medical history due to population mobility, referral delays, limited provider capacity in neonatal intravenous access and a heavy workload that constrained proper newborn monitoring. These insights informed recommendations to strengthen both system-wide and service-level responses. Since the early 2000s, Indonesia’s decentralisation initiative has given much of the responsibility for funding, staffing and managing health services to regional governments. While the Ministry of Health sets national clinical standards, daily management of public health facilities falls under regional authorities through the Ministry of Internal Affairs. While this arrangement allows services to be tailored to local needs, it also depends heavily on local capacity for planning, budgeting and management. Health facilities and district health offices are better positioned to translate national priorities into local action when they have access to consistent technical support, helping health workers manage resource constraints and infrastructure gaps.The complexity of Indonesia’s health system governance is no easy feat to navigate. Understanding these dynamics is essential to strengthening policy, improving coordination and ensuring more equitable access to services across Indonesia. Under the leadership of Ministry of Health, recommendations from this exercise will be key in guiding the nation’s roadmap to an equitable and quality health system for RMNCAH.Written by Edit Oktavia Manuama, National Professional Officer (Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health), and Jessie Yunus, National Professional Officer (Gender, Rights, Equity, and Disability Inclusion)
The Virginia Supreme Court Chose Principle Over Politics: Katherine T. Bennett in RealClearPolicy - American Legislative Exchange Council
RealClearPolicy op-ed by Katherine T. Bennett examines Va. Supreme Court ruling striking a redistricting amendment over constitutional law.
National index tracks AI health care regulations as policy patchwork grows
As artificial intelligence rapidly enters health care, policymakers and health systems are struggling to keep pace with the implications for how the technology should be governed to ensure patient safety, ...
Appeals court panel rules that transgender troops were illegally barred from U.S. military service
A Trump administration policy illegally banned transgender troops from military service, a divided panel of federal appeal court judges ruled on Monday.
Racial Equity Impact Assessments as Tools for Advancing Population Health and Equity in Local Policy
Racial equity impact assessments (REIAs) are used by local governments to integrate equity considerations into policymaking and decision-making processes by evaluating potential impacts of proposed legislation before enactment.
Nothing About Us Without Us: A Call for Inclusive Health at the 79th World Health Assembly
Every year at the World Health Assembly, the World Health Organization (WHO) convenes delegations from 194 member states to discuss the state of global health policy and goals for the future, working to usher in greater health and well-being for all.
Paid Family Leave Is Coming – A Small Business Owner’s Guide
Small businesses look to offer competitive benefits, like paid family leave, to workers to attract and retain top talent. The growing list of state paid family and medical leave mandates often exclude very small businesses (less than 30 employees), leaving them to navigate how to offer the benefit. These decisions involve examining financial and administrative … Continued
Brooks senior develops national index tracking AI healthcare policy
As artificial intelligence reshapes health care, new questions are emerging about oversight, accountability, and patient safety. Brooks senior Will Moss ’26 developed the Health and AI Policy Index (HAPI), a public database designed to help policymakers, researchers, and health systems track emerging health care AI governance efforts.
How to Rebuild US Science and Technology Policy From the Rubble of Trump 2.0
Policymakers are going to need tools to clear the rubble and build a better foundation for policy upon which the future can be built, writes Cole Donovan.
Florida Policy Institute warns proposed homestead exemption changes will cost billions
Gov. Ron DeSantis is calling on lawmakers in a Special Session to revise homestead exemption taxes, restructuring property taxes in Florida.
Justice Ministry expands 'top-tier visa' program to attract foreign science and tech talents
More science and technology talent will become eligible for South Korea’s "top-tier visa" starting in June, as part of a government policy aimed at attracting m
Building public trust through interaction with scientists, health workers
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HOA residents should not be contacting repair vendors
After reading the association’s letter, the violation letter is fairly standard. Many associations have such a noninterference policy as part of their rules and regulations.
Rubio says Trump envoy Barrack to step down from Syria post
Trump envoy Tom Barrack to exit formal Syria post but retain key role managing US policy in Syria and Iraq.
Colombia’s ‘Total Peace’ plan: A failure or unfinished business for Petro?
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Here's the No. 1 breakfast mistake Americans make every morning, says oncologist and longevity expert
Ezekiel J. Emanuel has spent 35 years as an oncologist and expert on health policy. He shares his breakfast tips for better metabolic health, energy and longevity.
Global Health Watch: CDC Directors Warn About PEPFAR, Ebola & Aid Cuts, Policy Developments Threaten Open Science
A commentary by eight former US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) directors urges the US Department of State to reform PEPFAR, not dismantle it; the growing Ebola outbreak in Central Africa and ongoing hantavirus concerns underscore the risks abrupt changes pose to global health security; and a proposed new US federal grant regulation […]
Tracking AI in Federal Health Agencies: Key Trends from HHS's FY2025 Inventory
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Maternal health knowledge strong, but gaps remain
An Annenberg Public Policy Center survey finds that, while most Americans know that the health of a pregnant person affects the health of the baby, uncertainty about specific maternal health recommendations remains.
Mayor Sheffield sends bold message to Business & Political Leaders on Mackinac Island: Poverty Elimination is a Growth Strategy
Detroit's first woman Mayor doesn't play it safe in her first keynote address at Regional Policy Conference
Mayor Sheffield sends bold message to Business & Political Leaders on Mackinac Island: Poverty Elimination is a Growth Strategy
Detroit's first woman Mayor doesn't play it safe in her first keynote address at Regional Policy Conference
Jamie Dimon shares blunt message for Zohran Mamdani as New York business concerns grow
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Times/Siena Poll: 43% of Voters Dissatisfied With Both Parties
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Blistering report exposes how national K-12 group's DEI agenda is trickling down to local chapters
The National PTA faces scrutiny over DEI initiatives and left-wing political priorities allegedly trickling down to state and local school chapters and ultimately reaching students.
Reducing poverty is a growth strategy for Detroit, region, Sheffield says
Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield told the Mackinac Policy Conference that \
Hochul on state budget, Pope Leo's AI policy and Knicks fandom
Gov. Kathy Hochul sat down with NY1 for a wide-ranging interview.
Maternal mental health scores: Which states get a "D"
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Why Retrofitting Research Impact Does Not Work
AACSB and the Academy of Management are convening their first-ever Research Impact Conference in Dublin this week, unveiling a long-awaited framework that takes a significant step toward making business school research serve not just academia but also corporate practice, policy, and society–with the potential to go even further.
NGA Convenes Governors Health and Human Services Policy Advisors Institute to Strengthen Healthcare Delivery and Sustainability in States
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Washington's business exodus accelerates due to high taxes, regulation
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Bipartisan leaders gather to discuss challenges to American leadership at 2026 McCain Institute Sedona Forum
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Rural Health Transformation: Insights from States
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Bibi’s Manichean Politics
Over three decades, Netanyahu’s pivot to divisive electioneering has paid off.
Curing MAHA: How to Protect Public Health After Kennedy
INTRODUCTION When President Trump nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to become his secretary of health and human services, it was possible to conjure a few faint reasons for optimism. Yes, his well-known rejection of mainstream vaccine science and general penchant for medical quackery were frightening. But Kennedy also offered one fundamentally correct critique of America’s […]
California Democrats sound alarm over new ICE detention center policy
When Rep. Mike Levin arrived at Otay Mesa on May 11, he was handed a letter outlining a new policy
Last Call for 5.27.26 – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida
A digest of the day's politics and policy while the bartender refreshes your drink.
Steven Stenzler Recognized by Sacramento Business Journal as a 40 Under 40 Honoree
Steven Stenzler, a senior policy advisor in Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck’s State Government Relations Group, was recognized by the Sacramento Business Journal as one of its 2026 40 Under 40…
Opinion: Follow California’s lead in protecting workers from AI displacement
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Gov. Whitmer (D-MI), Mike Pence & Pete Buttigieg on Bridging Political Divide
Former Vice President Mike Pence, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) gather at a policy conference in Mackinac Island, Michigan, addressing topics like bridging the political divide.
Governors’ Policy Actions on Behavioral Health Access
(Download) Behavioral health workforce shortages remain a significant barrier to accessing care in rural areas across the United States. According to the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) State of the Behavioral Health Workforce, (2025) substantial shortages are projected for many occupations in the behavioral health workforce over the next 15 years, including psychologists, psychiatrists, […]
Texas business leader torches California’s billionaire tax push: ‘We don’t punish hard work’
Gabriela von zur Muehlen, chief policy officer for the Texas Association of Businesses, says high-tax states like California and New York are pushing wealth, jobs and investment toward Texas.
Why billionaires, CEOs and manufacturers keep choosing Texas as America’s business capital
Gabriela von zur Muehlen, chief policy officer at the Texas Association of Business, says Texas’ low costs and strong supply chains help attract billionaires, CEOs and manufacturers.
A Not So Happy Anniversary: A Year of Deceptive Science “Standards”
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Myths, Facts, and What’s at Stake When It Comes to Federal Maternal and Child Health Policy
Since January 2025, the Trump administration and Congress have advanced a series of policies that are wreaking havoc on our health care systems, and will
Rural health care infrastructure: Trends and considerations for the future
America's Rural Future symposium explores the challenges and policy shifts reshaping rural health care infrastructure, and what communities, states, and policymakers must consider to build lasting, locally responsive systems.
Advance directives in electronic health records linked to less burdensome end-of-life care and hospital death, study finds | The Roger and Flo Lipitz Center to Advance Policy in Aging and Disability
Documentation of advanced directives at least six months before death led to less burdensome medical interventions.
Advancing high-threat pathogen preparedness in WHO South-East Asia Region: 2025 in review
Effective preparedness for high-threat pathogens demands more than technical tools — it requires a coherent strategy, sustained country engagement, and the institutional infrastructure to translate evidence into action. In 2025, the Pandemic and Epidemic Management (PEM) Unit advanced all three, working across the full spectrum of high threat pathogen (HTP) preparedness: from methodology development and evidence generation to country-level technical support, emergency response, and regional workforce strengthening.At the core of the PEM unit's work is building the regional evidence and policy architecture needed to prioritize and respond to HTPs systematically. A major milestone was the development of the HTP Prioritization Methodology — a structured, multi-criteria approach to ranking pathogens by epidemic potential, severity, and national context — and its national pilot in Bangladesh, where SARS-CoV-2, Nipah, dengue, and cholera emerged as the highest-priority threats, informing the PEM unit's contribution to 2026–27 biennium prioritization and workplan development (Access link here).Underpinning this work, the PEM unit advanced the peer-reviewed evidence base for HTP preparedness in the South-East Asia Region (SEAR), with three publications in international journals in 2025: Development of a zoonotic influenza distribution assessment and ranking system (ZIDAR): Technical application in Nepal to support cross-sectoral risk-based surveillance in One Health; Implications for influenza A virus surveillance in Southeast Asian Region countries: a scoping review of approaches for the surveillance of swine influenza viruses at human-swine interfaces in BMJ Public Health; and Operationalizing multisector partnerships: a Theory of Action and Reflection tool for zoonotic influenzas in Health Policy and Planning. Together, these contributions move the Region’s HTP preparedness agenda from practice to science — generating the transferable methodological foundations that will inform evidence-based capacity strengthening in Member States.Country-level engagement in 2025 reflected the breadth of contexts in which HTP preparedness must function. Technical support was provided for Mpox and cholera events across the Region, including coordination of cholera and acute watery diarrhea prevention and control in Myanmar in the wake of the March 2025 earthquake. In Myanmar, the PEM unit contributed technical leadership to the earthquake emergency response — one of the most complex humanitarian emergencies in the SEAR — as Health Operations and Technical Support lead within the Incident Management Support Team. This included strengthening emergency response planning, supporting operational and after-action reviews, and providing monitoring and evaluation support for both acute and protracted crisis response. The breadth of HTP support provided to emergency operations across the SEAR was documented in the PEM unit’s contribution to the regional report for the Health Security Interface Technical Advisory Group.In Sri Lanka, technical collaboration with the WHO Country Office and the Ministry of Health laid the groundwork for the National Steering Committee's 2026 annual meeting, development of Standard Operating Procedures for specialized emergency response, and a national training programme — all structured around evidence-based risk assessment for specialized hazards including HTPs.Across the SEAR, the unit contributed to strengthening the workforce architecture that underpins HTP response. Technical inputs shaped the WHO South-East Asia Regional Health Emergency Workforce Strategy 2025–2030, and the PEM unit supported conceptual development of the health emergency workforce framework for the Pandemic Fund Round 3 proposal.Alongside this, the unit's sustained engagement on the meningitis agenda culminated in the launch of the Regional Implementation Framework to Defeat Meningitis in South-East Asia by 2030 at the Seventy-eighth Session of the Regional Committee, ensuring the Region's priorities were reflected in the Global Technical Task Force and expanding the unit's HTP engagement beyond outbreak-prone zoonotic pathogens (Regional Implementation Framework to Defeat Meningitis in South-East Asia by 2030).Taken together, 2025 demonstrated that meaningful HTP preparedness is built incrementally — through methodology, engagement, and the steady accumulation of institutional capacity across Member States.Bangladesh piloted the HTP Prioritization Methodology and identified the highest-priority pathogens in the country context (Photo credit: WHO Country Office, Bangladesh).
Educational change: where donor policies and the "science of scale" fall short - Devpolicy Blog from the Development Policy Centre
Robert Cannon argues donor policies and the "science of scale" fall short on sustainability and scale in education development.
Hyperreal Politics: When the Simulation Becomes Too Absurd to Satirize
The foreign policy playing out today in the West is so preposterously self-destructive it would be rejected as implausible fiction
Trump’s Science Advisor Calls Nuclear EO ‘Most Consequential Day’ Since Atoms for Peace in 1953
When a sitting administration’s top science advisor invokes Eisenhower’s 1953 Atoms for Peace speech to frame a present-day policy move, investors should pay attention. That is exactly what happened at the Operation Gigawatt Summit, where Michael Kratsios, Chief Science and Tech Policy Advisor to President Trump, anchored the case for a structural reordering of US ... Trump’s Science Advisor Calls Nuclear EO ‘Most Consequential Day’ Since Atoms for Peace in 1953
Trump's Science Advisor Calls Nuclear EO 'Most Consequential Day' Since Atoms for Peace in 1953
When a sitting administration’s top science advisor invokes Eisenhower’s 1953 Atoms for Peace speech to frame a present-day policy move, investors should pay attention. That is exactly what happened at the Operation Gigawatt Summit, where Michael Kratsios, Chief Science and Tech Policy Advisor to President Trump, anchored the case for a structural reordering of US ... Trump’s Science Advisor Calls Nuclear EO ‘Most Consequential Day’ Since Atoms for Peace in 1953