international students holding country flags

Higher Education’s International Student Quandary

BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL American colleges and universities operate on an unsustainable financial model. They are heavily tuition-dependent at all but the best-endowed institutions. In fact, of the more than 4,000 non-profit colleges and universities, the number that have the flexibility to rely on revenue, whether from endowment drawdowns or other sources, may be less…

All They Will Call You Will Be Deportee

BY HANK REICHMAN I’ve mentioned before on this blog that, given the extraordinary events of 1968, this is a big year for 50th anniversaries.  But today marks a notable 70th anniversary.  On the morning of February 27, 1948, a plane traveling from Oakland to the Mexican border crashed in Los Gatos Canyon, California, about an…

crowd demonstrating holding signs

New culture wars same as the old culture wars?

BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL Thirty years ago, we all understood what the term “culture wars” meant. It was about Mapplethorpe vs. Helms and teaching dead white men vs. revisionist and black history. There were lines. Whichever side you were on, you knew where you stood. The battle lines changed and have morphed into something quite…

Quotation of the Day

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Trump said at a rally in Albuquerque: “You know, it would be much easier working for Obama or working for Crooked Hillary because, frankly, when you’re working for Hillary, she wants to let people just pour in. You could have 650 million people pour in, and we do nothing about it. Think of…

The Most Common Job Held by Immigrants in Each State

The following map was created by Andy Kierz at the website Business Insider.  Much of its content is not surprising: the most common jobs for immigrants on west coast are in agriculture, in the south housekeeping and construction.  But note that in four states — Maine, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio — the most common job…

A Swede Appreciates Fourth of July

When I was a child visiting America, I remember my aunt having these square pans, deep, with chocolate cake, and upon it in the right colors, the American flag was drawn in enough sweetness to now make my teeth hurt.  That was the summer, too, she took me to a drive-through bank, and I recall…