Category: issues

A three-judge panel from the 6th Circuit ruled 2-to-1 that “education — at least in the minimum form discussed here — is essential to nearly every interaction between a citizen and her government. … Voting, taxes, the legal system, jury duty — all of these are predicated on the ability to read and comprehend written thoughts.” The decision revives a suit against the state of Michigan by a group of Detroit public school students. – Publishers Weekly

As we know, American society and politics (especially in Congress) are very different in 2020 than they were in 1934. Even then, there was political opposition to the very idea of arts funding and suspicion of artists as dangerous leftists. Julia Jacobs looks at that opposition, then and now. – The New York Times

“Abigail Disney, an Emmy award-winning film-maker and a granddaughter of the company’s co-founder Roy Disney, launched a Twitter tirade against the world’s biggest entertainment group … for protecting executive bonuses and dividends of more than $1.5bn while cutting the pay of more than 100,000 workers to help weather the financial impact of coronavirus.” – The Guardian

Now facing an immense shortfall in tax revenue—about $7.4 billion—the city has proposed a revised budget for the next fiscal year that would reduce the overall budget by $3.4 billion, compared to last year’s adopted budget. Among those cuts is a budgetary reduction of $10.6 million for the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA). – ARTnews

Critic Ben Read went looking for the source of the bizarre allegations that have had the right-wing internet in a lather for a few weeks. He found a 77-minute YouTube video about a pair of former-stuntmen-turned-Christianists spinning conspiracy theories about a great Satanic scheme afoot in Hollywood. Sure, it’s “outlandish,” Read allows — before putting his finger on the grains of truth that make it seem believable to some of us. – Artnet

The very features that make New York attractive to businesses, workers and tourists — Broadway, the subway system, world-class restaurants and innumerable cultural institutions — were among the hardest-hit in the pandemic. And they will take the longest to come back. – The New York Times

“For Roosevelt, it was not superfluous to the country’s most exigent needs. And in a move that remained decidedly controversial with his conservative congressional adversaries, he made the radical decision to enlarge and augment cultural provisions across the country.” – ARTnews

And everything else about our location, as well; you can download huge files of randomized info about the entire US, if you’d like. “If you’re wondering whether data from your phone is included in these reports, the answer is yes, probably. However, both Apple and Google are keen to emphasize that they’ve collected this data with user privacy in mind.” – Wired

As they fight viral virus misinformation, Facebook, Twitter, Google, and others are making some choices that, while they may be good for public health in the short term, have some First Amendment consequences. – The Atlantic

Stephen Hetherington: “I think it unfortunate that the rise in state support has produced its own ideological and political adherents, creating for some a mythological differentiation between art and entertainment, and between the supposed coarseness of commercial motivation and a sacralised, Kantian notion of L’art pour l’art – “without purpose, for all purpose perverts art”. The evidence is quite different: artistic creations move freely between the subsidised and the commercial (but not necessarily profitable) sectors, while neither has a monopoly on quality.” – Arts Professional