Archive for July 2025

By the time new research is published in a reputable journal, it has made it past several sets of skeptical eyes.

The Oregon Criminal Justice Commission published their report on July 1, detailing a 7% drop from 2023 to 2024 in reports to the state’s Bias Response Hotline. This includes reports of physical hate crimes and verbal harassment, such as slurs. Meanwhile, hotline staffers dealt with a 165% increase in spam calls, and calls where abusive language and harassment was directed at them, according to the report.

The New York State Tenant Bloc is a 501(c)(4) formed by Housing Justice For All, a statewide coalition of advocates for tenant-centered policy. Tenant Bloc launched a “Freeze The Rent” campaign in February and endorsed Mamdani in May. He was the first mayoral candidate to support a rent freeze and the only candidate to support a four-year rent freeze, which he made a pillar of his campaign.

How, I wonder, did we Americans reach a place where many of us are silent or supportive of a strongman’s $45 million birthday military parade that closed roads to residents and commuters for days? How did we get to a time when our leaders seem loath to invest in healthcare and don’t even hide their disdain for poor people, a significant number of whom are military personnel and veterans? I’m not sure I know what this country stands for anymore. I don’t know about you, but these days America sometimes feels to me like a treacherous foreign land.

The SWU Assignment: World Social Work Day 2025 question was:

“What are the most important things social workers should get from their professional training? What type of social work practice would they like to be involved in as they begin their professional careers, and why?”

Meet Megha Acharya, a social care practitioner based in Belfast. She arrived in Northern Ireland from Eastern India back in 2021 to complete her Masters Degree in Public Health, having already completed a dentistry degree.

For decades, Americans have been told a simple story about addiction: taking drugs damages the brain—and the earlier in life children start using substances, the more likely they are to progress through a “gateway” from milder ones such as marijuana to more dangerous drugs such as opioids. Indeed, those who start using at younger ages are much more likely to become addicted. But a recent study, part of an ongoing project to scan the brains of 10,000 kids as they move through childhood into adulthood, complicates the picture.