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GOP claims win in Wisconsin high court race, a redistricting battleground

Conservative Judge Brian Hagedorn is declaring victory over liberal Judge Lisa Neubauer in a race to fill a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which looms as a likely battleground in the next decade's fight over partisan gerrymandering.

But Hagedorn, who was chief legal counsel to Republican Scott Walker for five years of his governorship, led by just 5,911 votes out of 1.2 million cast in complete but unofficial results. That margin of less than half a percentage point is close enough for the Democrat to request a recount, but she would have to pay for it.


If Hagedorn prevails he would be part of a 5-2 majority on the court and represent a big setback for the state's liberals, who picked up a seat on the state's top court and engineered Walker's defeat last fall. And much of the national interest in the race, and a significant amount of donations to the candidates, was because the partisan divide on the court will be important after the next round of redistricting starts in 2021.

"After the 2020 census, lawmakers in the bitterly divided state will have their next chance to draw up congressional and state legislative districts. If — or, more likely, when — lawsuits are filed over those maps, the state Supreme Court will have the final word on whether they pass muster," Talking Points Memo wrote. "In swing states from Wisconsin to North Carolina, redistricting has emerged as a focus in these less-covered, increasingly pricey contests. With varying degrees of candor, lawmakers and operatives are making it clear they're looking at state Supreme Court races with 2021 redistricting in mind."

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Is Bombing Iran Deja Vu All Over Again?

The B-2 "Spirit" Stealth Bomber flys over the 136th Rose Parade Presented By Honda on Jan. 1, 2025, in Pasadena, California. (Jerod Harris/Getty Images/TNS)

Jerod Harris/Getty Images/TNS)

Is Bombing Iran Deja Vu All Over Again?

After a short and successful war with Iraq, President George H.W. Bush claimed in 1991 that “the ghosts of Vietnam have been laid to rest beneath the sands of the Arabian desert.” Bush was referring to what was commonly called the “Vietnam syndrome.” The idea was that the Vietnam War had so scarred the American psyche that we forever lost confidence in American power.

The elder President Bush was partially right. The first Iraq war was certainly popular. And his successor, President Clinton, used American power — in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere — with the general approval of the media and the public.

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Conspiratorial Thinking Isn’t Growing–Its Consequences Are
a close up of a typewriter with the word conspiracy on it

Conspiratorial Thinking Isn’t Growing–Its Consequences Are

The Comet Ping Pong Pizzagate shooting, the plot to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and a man’s livestreamed beheading of his father last year were all fueled by conspiracy theories. But while the headlines suggest that conspiratorial thinking is on the rise, this is not the case. Research points to no increase in conspiratorial thinking. Still, to a more dangerous reality: the conspiracies taking hold and being amplified by political ideologues are increasingly correlated with violence against particular groups. Fortunately, promising new research points to actions we can take to reduce conspiratorial thinking in communities across the US.

Some journalists claim that this is “a golden age of conspiracy theories,” and the public agrees. As of 2022, 59% of Americans think that people are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories today than 25 years ago, and 73% of Americans think conspiracy theories are “out of control.” Most blame this perceived increase on the role of social media and the internet.

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Why a College Degree No Longer Guarantees a Good Job
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Photo by MD Duran on Unsplash

Why a College Degree No Longer Guarantees a Good Job

A college education used to be considered, along with homeownership, one of the key pillars of the American Dream. Is that still the case? Recent experiences of college graduates seeking employment raise questions about whether a university diploma remains the best pathway to pursuing happiness, as it once was.

Consider the case of recent grad Lohanny Santo, whose TikTok video went viral with over 3.6 million “likes” as she broke down in tears and vented her frustration over her inability to find even a minimum wage job. That was despite her dual degrees from Pace University and her ability to speak three languages. John York, a 24-year-old with a master’s degree in math from New York University, writes that “it feels like I am screaming into the void with each application I am filling out.”

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