Domestic policy

*Stream* David Brooks from The New York Times will be in conversation with presidential historian Ronald C. White to discuss character as a part of the Grand Valley State University's series on "Character and Presidency."

Vivian Thomson will offer an insider’s account of how power is wielded in environmental policy making at the state level. Drawing on her experience as a former member of Virginia’s State Air Pollution Control Board, she narrates cases in Alexandria, Wise, and Roda that involved coal and air pollution. She identifies a “climate of capitulation” —a deeply rooted favoritism toward coal and electric utilities in state air pollution policies. Thomson links Virginia’s climate of capitulation with campaign finance patterns, a state legislature that depends on outsiders for information and bill drafting, and a political culture that tends toward inertia. She extends her analysis to fifteen other coal states and recommends reforms aimed at mitigating ingrained biases toward coal and electric utility interests.

This webinar on January 29, 2019 was jointly hosted by CLOSUP and the Michigan Municipal League.  The webinar features Professor Manny Teodoro from Texas A&M University, speaking on water and sewer system finance and policy, including how to measure affordability, and policy options for rate structures and related issues.  

Join us for a book talk with Hendrik Meijer about Arthur Vandenberg, a Republican Senator from Grand Rapids, MI. The event is co-sponsored by the Bentley Library, Ford Library, and the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.

The “Michigan’s Municipal Water Infrastructure: Policy Choices and Issues” conference is being sponsored by a consortium of universities across the state, with the hope of bringing a voice of academic research and analysis to the topic of municipal water policy in the state (particularly relevant in the face of the crisis in Flint). Faculty will present on a range of issues: from water supply engineering issues to municipal funding needs to health and environmental impacts to state and federal regulation.For more information and to register, please visit http://events.anr.msu.edu/MMWI/  This conference is free, however space is limited so please register early to secure your spot.

Join us for a Community Conversation about Restoring Public Trust in Michigan's State Government. Topics will include state government services, management of the public purse, and oversight of Michigan's political system.  We invite you to share thoughts, insights, and ideas! 

Join Domestic Policy Corps (DPC) and the Center for Local, State and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) for a panel discussion with a generation of Michigan governor transition leaders from 1991 to today.

Danielle Sered will speak about her experience directing Common Justice, a program of the Vera Institute of Justice that develops and advances solutions to violence that transform the lives of those harmed and foster racial equity without relying on incarceration.

Join Out in Public and the Ford School's Graduate Career Services for an online-only conversation with Diana Maurer (MPP '90), a director at GAO, on her career overseeing defense logistics issues, coming out, and transitioning while working at a federal agency.

Join the Diversity Student Coalition (DiSC) for the 2016 Diversity Summit, "About Us Without Us: Decision Making and Activism in Policy."

Join EPI's scholars at 27 roundtables, panels and poster sessions, and help us to celebrate Susan Dynarski's selection as the recipient of APPAM's Spencer Award for transformative work in education policy research.

The U.S. is in the midst of an energy transition. This path toward decarbonization of the energy sector promises many societal benefits such as reduced greenhouse gas emissions, technological innovation, and reduced air pollution. The costs of this transition such as price spikes or job displacement, however, are not evenly spread across the population, since some individuals and communities are more vulnerable to the adverse impacts than others. In this presentation, I will introduce a framework for conceptualizing vulnerability and then provide an illustration of its potential application using the case of the renewable portfolio standard. I will also present findings from interviews and focus groups with individuals that reside or work within more vulnerable populations. These findings provide insights about the manner in which communities perceive of the energy transition, and how they cope with changes introduced by the transition.

Carl Simon, director of the University of Michigan Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, moderates this panel on transportation policy featuring Peter Sweatman, UM's Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI); Matthew Naud, City of Ann Arbor; and Shannon Bouton, McKinsey Center for Business & Development. 

Help boost voter turnout by registering U-M students to vote!

This one-day symposium aims to grapple with this growing controversy, and explore ways forward for patents and patent systems that maximizes the public interest and social justice. The day will end with a book talk and reception celebrating the publication of Shobita Parthasarathy’s Patent Politics: Life Forms, Markets, and the Public Interest in the United States and Europe (University of Chicago Press, 2017). 

A presentation and Q&A on the Iran deal featuring two White House officials, including one of the Administration's negotiators.From the speakers: This presentation will lay out the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action negotiated between six major world powers and Iran after nearly two years of highly technical and painstaking sessions. Presenters include Paul Irwin, one of the negotiators, who will detail what the deal does and how it addresses international concerns about Iran's nuclear program, and Matt Nosanchuk, Associate Director for Public Engagement and Liaison to the American Jewish Community and on International Issues, and a native Detroiter.

Free and open to the public. Auditorium doors will open at 3:30 PM on March 19. This event will be live web-streamed; a link to the web-stream will be posted here on the day of the event at least 30 minutes prior to the start time.

Policy Talks @ the Ford School Free and open to the public. Reception to follow. Paperback editions of Lawrence Lessig's book, Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress–and a Plan to Stop It will be available for purchase at the event. Professor Lessig will sign copies of his book during the reception. Join in on the conversation on Twitter: #fordschoollessig This event is co-sponsored by the Michigan Campaign Finance Network. From the speaker's bio: Lawrence Lessig is the Roy L.

Free and open to the public. Join the conversation on Twitter: #policytalks Lecture by Roger Ferguson, president and chief executive officer of TIAA-CREF. About the lecture Despite our sluggish economy and the global economic uncertainty, building lifelong financial security is not a pipe dream in 21st century America. But for most Americans, it's become a do-it-yourself proposition, as a result of the decline of traditional pension plans in the private sector. This is a concern given the general lack of financial literacy among our population.

Free and Open to the Public Frank J. Thompson, Professor, School of Public Affairs and Administration, Rutgers University-Newark. Author of Medicaid Politics: Federalism, Policy Durability, and Health Reform With Commentary provided by: Scott L.

Free and Open to the Public. Presenting: Mark Funkhouser, Director, Governing Institute, Former Mayor of Kansas City, MO Abstract "The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot so well do, for themselves in their separate and individual capacities." - Abraham Lincoln Government exists to produce positive outcomes in the community and those outcomes are "co-produced" by government and citizens working together.  Every citizen has p

Free and open to the public. Book sales and signing immediately following. Continue the conversation on Twitter: #policytalks Thomas Mann (MA '68, PhD '77) and Norman Ornstein (PhD '74) will discuss their most recent book, the New York Times bestseller, It's Even Worse than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism.

Lecture by Alan Bersin, Assistant Secretary of International Affairs and Chief Diplomatic Officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.