Bill’s Commentary:
“No way, you mean an actual whole book?”
The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books
Nicholas Dames has taught Literature Humanities, Columbia University’s required great-books course, since 1998. He loves the job, but it has changed. Over the past decade, students have become overwhelmed by the reading. College kids have never read everything they’re assigned, of course, but this feels different. Dames’s students now seem bewildered by the thought of finishing multiple books a semester. His colleagues have noticed the same problem. Many students no longer arrive at college—even at highly selective, elite colleges—prepared to read books.
This development puzzled Dames until one day during the fall 2022 semester, when a first-year student came to his office hours to share how challenging she had found the early assignments. Lit Hum often requires students to read a book, sometimes a very long and dense one, in just a week or two. But the student told Dames that, at her public high school, she had never been required to read an entire book. She had been assigned excerpts, poetry, and news articles, but not a single book cover to cover.
Bill’s Commentary:
“”Non US citizen”? Is she here legally or not? Does she get to vote too?”
Tim Walz’s Minnesota Swears in First Non-Citizen Cops, Including Hijab-Clad Somali Muslim
The most populous city in Minnesota, controlled by Democratic vice presidential hopeful Governor Tim Walz, has sworn in its first non-U.S. citizen police officer. Lesly Vera, who was born in Mexico, took the oath of office in Minneapolis last week.
The move follows a policy change by the Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) in 2023, eliminating the citizenship prerequisite for law enforcement candidates. Under the new guidelines, candidates only need to be residents authorized to work in the U.S.
“Our 23 new officers include the first Somali-American woman to join the department and the first permanent resident. A police service that looks like our residents is better able to serve our residents, and I couldn’t be more proud of the department we’re building under Chief O’Hara,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said.
Bill’s Commentary:
“Port Exposure”
The Companies Most Exposed to the U.S. Port Strike
Nearly 50,000 members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) have walked off the job, putting billions of dollars’ worth of goods at risk of severe delays.
It was estimated that on the first day of the strike (October 1st, 2024), 147 vessels carrying $34.3 billion in goods arrived at 14 idle ports along the East and Gulf coasts of America. The strike comes during peak shipping season, impacting as much as 49% of all U.S. imports.
Bill’s Commentary:
“Diplomacy at its finest!”
In break from tradition, China receives no formal statement from US on National Day
In a departure from past practice, the US Department of State is yet to release a formal congratulatory message to mark China’s National Day.
On October 1, China celebrated the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China accompanied by a week-long national holiday.
The US State Department has traditionally congratulated China before its National Day, as it does with all nations with which it has diplomatic ties. In previous years it congratulated China in statements on September 29 last year and on September 30, 2022.
Bill’s Commentary:
“For anyone wishing to help those in need post-Helene”
Samaritan’s Purse Starts Five-Site Response to Hurricane Helene
Samaritan’s Purse is responding in five locations across four states after Hurricane Helene devastated parts of the Southeast.
Helene tore through western North Carolina, dumping extreme rainfall—more than 2 feet in some areas—and causing terrible flash flooding. Some parts of the region are in ruins. We are providing relief in the mountains of Watauga County, North Carolina—home to Samaritan’s Purse international headquarters in the town of Boone. The town and surrounding communities have been particularly hard-hit with toppled trees, flooding, road damage, and a lack of power and water. This response extends to include neighboring counties in North Carolina (Ashe, Avery) and eastern Tennessee (Johnson), and our church base is Alliance Bible Fellowship in Boone.
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