CAS Connection

'This couldn’t have come at a worse time': Exporters brace for port strike delays

If the strike continues for a while, exporters will probably start looking for other options, said Woan Foong Wong, an economics professor at the University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences. Wong studies transport networks. “Maybe some of these goods could get moved over to the rail network, and then on to the West Coast ports,” she told Marketplace.

'The former president is using anti-trans rhetoric to distract from his waffling on abortion,' experts say

Alison Gash, professor and department head of political science, tells The 19th that she expects to see former President Donald Trump spread more anti-trans rhetoric in the coming weeks. She expects him to reach for that rhetoric as he tries to hold on to the segments of his base who may be angry about his disavowal of Project 2025, the blueprint for a second Trump administration offered by the conservative Heritage Foundation.

The Italian Far Right’s Beef With Vegans and Immigrants

"She throws a lot of red meat to her supporters,” Diana Garvin tells Sentient Media. Garvin is a professor of food and politics at the University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences. She adds that the anti-abortion, anti-gay and anti-immigration Italian Prime Minister uses meat to represent larger cultural issues and gain the vote of the country’s livestock farmers.

Deadly Landslide Strikes Ketchikan, Alaska

On August 25, a violent landslide raced down a forested hillside in Ketchikan, Alaska, killing one person and injuring three. The natural disaster followed a period of unusually heavy rain known as an atmospheric river. Scientists said that intensifying rainfall, driven by climate change, could increase the risk of landslides in the area of Southeast Alaska that includes Ketchikan. “There’s no single factor that seems to underline each of these events apart from a lot of moisture,” said Josh Roering, professor of earth sciences at University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences.

When ‘Abortion’ Wasn’t a Dirty Word

Physiologically, miscarriage and medication abortion are near-identical experiences. The New York Times spoke with history professor James Mohr. “Doctors in the 1850s couldn’t do much that the Romans couldn’t do,” he said. Mohr is the author of “Abortion in America: Origins and Evolution of National Policy." “That’s one of the dirty little secrets of the whole thing,” he added.

Rich countries drain ‘shocking’ amount of labor from the Global South

According to an article in Nature Communications, researchers say the Global South’s workforce provides a staggering 90% of the labor to power the world economy, yet gets only 21% of global income. “The Global South is carrying out all the production, but getting the worse deal,” said John Bellamy Foster, a sociology professor emeritus at the University of Oregon who wasn’t involved in the study.

How do celebrity suicides become contagious? New study provides clues

When a celebrity dies by suicide, sometimes a "suicide spike" occurs, as it did when comedian Robin Williams died in 2014. A new study published today in Science Advances explores those questions by modeling suicide much like a pathogen, such as flu or COVID-19. Science Magazine spoke with Nick Allen, a clinical psychologist who studies adolescent suicide prevention in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oregon but was not involved in the study. Allen is keen for more granular detail—for example, saying, it “would be great … to understand more about different patterns in the community, whether there are certain groups who are more susceptible to this kind of contagion.”