Support Local Journalism, They Said: A Small-Town Model
The gnome was on its ass, face up, smiling. It had obviously been in a street fight, and lost to the street—or driveway, anyway. The tan-and-rusted minivan doing its predawn rounds with hazards flashing had wandered off that driveway, its
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For Fun: Post-Viral Parenting
The virus lays bare the trades we’ve made. Trading our time for money, we’re told, is what we all do. Fair enough. Trading our kids for money, we’re not told, is also what we all do. Fair not enough. Foul.
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Arc Enemies: Comparing a Two-Point Arc in Hockey to Basketball’s Three-Point Arc
A two-point arc in hockey? No thanks. Our editor’s latest at US College Hockey Online outlines why an extra-point arc works in basketball, but wouldn’t in hockey. (Our editor sorts his social media into separate accounts; to get his takes
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The Progressive Flat Tax
Imagine that we didn’t pay income taxes online, or by check. Imagine that we paid them in person, in cash, on Tax Day. Maybe everybody in town would bring sacks of cash to the Central Tax Pit and dump them
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Coronavirus and Gratitude
By writing this I hereby forfeit the popularity contest that I was never going to win. Friends, I come bearing inconvenient news: we’ve missed the point about the coronavirus. Yes, yes, this flavor of coronavirus is, indeed, a big deal.
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Minnesota Nice on Ice: An Ode to the Spectacle (and Diversity) of College Hockey
I recently saw a fight at a college hockey game. No penalties were assessed—it was a Politeness Fight. Parents stood nearby, watching their kids shoving… the puck into each other’s hands. “Here, you take it,” said one boy. “No, I
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For Fun: Lady Trojans Invade the Northland
“Next on the agenda is Principal Swenson for an update with the mascot problem. Ray?” “Thanks. As some of you know, we got a cease-and-desist letter from Really Equal for All demanding that we change our sports logo. Apparently a
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Losing the Race in College Sports (Part 1 of 3): The Myth of Overrepresentation
Discussions of race in college sports often rely on faulty statistics. One recent, high-profile example comes from The Atlantic, where sports columnist Jemele Hill offered an intriguing thought experiment involving black student-athletes and historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Unfortunately,
Read MoreLosing the Race in College Sports (Part 2 of 3): Race Is Just Part of the Story
The first installment in this series examined whether black, male student-athletes, and black students generally, are fairly represented on campuses of universities that participate in major-conference athletics. This part of the series focuses on their performances in the classroom compared
Read MoreLosing the Race in College Sports (Part 3 of 3): Big-Money Sports vs. the Classroom
The first installment in this series examined whether black, male student-athletes, and black students generally, are fairly represented on campuses of universities that participate in major-conference athletics. The second installment analyzed the effects of race on classroom performance, both among
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En-Title IX
You could hear our shivers. We hummed like refrigerators in our plastic seats, our frigid winter jackets micro-trembling, heat dissipating up, up, up into the bannered rafters. Thirty-seven minutes until game time, little pockets of people huddled among the 7,000-some
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Schools? Blame the Parents.
We needn’t harken to the days of Laura Ingalls to remember when going to school was a privilege. Much more recently, children still walked to school, in the winter, trudging through the elements with slates and books and literal lunch
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Generations Removed
My father is a Baby Boomer, but he jokes that he was raised during The Depression. He grew up on a small, family-run potato farm that was a lot closer to “farming” than to “agribusiness,” if you catch the distinction.
Read MorePoll-Wise: Can Polls Predict College Hockey’s National Tournament Better than the PairWise?
Our editor has published an article on US College Hockey Online (USCHO.com) about whether polls or computer-based rankings are better at predicting the national-tournament field in college hockey. P. A. Jensen is editor of RuralityCheck.com. He lives in
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College Students Are Adults, Right? [Kernel]
This is a new, shorter format: the Kernel (hence the picture). Feedback is welcome, especially on our editor’s Twitter account (@RuralityChecker). As always, thanks for reading. A local car salesman recently offered up this tidbit in casual conversation: “High school
Read MoreAmenities of the State [Kernel]
The mayor of Duluth, MN, wants more affordable housing in the city. The idea has at least two problems. The first involves perspective, and the second involves funding. First, perspective. Leaders of cities bemoan high housing costs, but that’s often
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Mind the Gap: Four Solutions to the Education Achievement Gap
C. N. Hughes, Ed.D. Director State Agency on Trends In Race and Education State of Minnesota St. Paul, MN 55155 Dear Dr. Hughes, This letter summarizes the findings of our grant (“Closing Minnesota’s Race-Based Educational Achievement Gap at All Costs,”
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A Thought Experiment for #EqualPay
Imagine that women’s soccer takes off. Would we be talking about #EqualPay for the men? For the uninitiated, the US Women’s Soccer Team is in the middle of a firestorm, and that firestorm is squarely in the gender pay gap.
Read More#Equal Pay, Inequality, and Yada-Yada Economics [Kernel]
This is a new, shorter format: the Kernel (hence the picture). Feedback is welcome, especially on our editor’s Twitter account (@RuralityChecker). As always, thanks for reading. After the US Women’s Soccer Team’s World Cup victory this weekend, all-world phenom forward
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Division Rivalry: Let’s Stop Pretending about “College Sports”
In college sports, when is it okay to take your ball—or puck—and go home? A couple of months ago, a group of small, private colleges in Minnesota decided to boot a school from their athletic conference, the MIAC. The University
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