Ted Kaufman, visiting lecturer in PPS and lecturing fellow in the Duke Law School, has been appointed to Vice President-elect Joe Biden’s seat in the U.S. Senate. The selection was announced by Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Miner on Nov. 24.

Two weeks after the election, veteran journalists and commentators Mark Shields (“NewsHour with Jim Lehrer”), Ruth Marcus (Washington Post), Jeff Zeleny (The New York Times) and Garrett Graff (Washingtonian) provide a post-election debriefing on media coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign. The panelists for the 2008 John Fisher Zeidman Memorial Colloquium on Politics and the Press discuss groundbreaking changes in the relationship between media and politics,  the contributions of different media sources, and the future of “mainstream” media.

Ambassador James A. Joseph, professor of the practice of PPS, gave a talk on leadership on the day after the election, examining the qualities exemplified by Nelson Mandela and how those qualities are needed now.

Commentary by David H. Schanzer, visiting associate professor of the practice of PPS, and director, Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security.

Poverty researcher Ron Haskins explains the success of 1996 welfare reform and identifies what is needed to ensure continued success. The free Nov. 5th lecture is sponsored by the Center for Child and Family Policy. Register at childandfamilypolicy.duke.edu.

Sanford Institute faculty members Phillip Cook, Clara Muschkin, and Jacob Vigdor have earned the 2008 Raymond Vernon Memorial Prize for best article published in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (JPAM). Co-authorRobert MacCoun, a professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, also shared the honor.

Crusading reformer Michelle Rhee, new chancellor of the failing Washington, D.C., public school system, will speak Nov. 17 at the Sanford Institute.

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman calls for a green technology revolution to energize America, address climate change and improve national security.

Pulitzer-Prize-winning author and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman will speak at Duke University Sept. 22 about the topic of his new book, “Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How It Can Renew America.”

Friedman will deliver the 2008 Terry Sanford Distinguished Lecture at 5:30 p.m. in Page Auditorium on Duke University’s West Campus. The event is free and open to the public, but tickets are required. Tickets may be obtained beginning Sept. 2 through the Duke Box Office, online at www.tickets.duke.edu or by phone at 919-684-4444.

Love After Loss, an exhibit of photographs of children in Ethiopia by Elena Rue, will be displayed at Duke University’s Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy, from September 16, 2008 to January 9, 2009. An opening reception at the institute, on September 16, 5–6 p.m., is free and open to the public.

Duke public policy senior Rachel Wolf is in Denver this week to volunteer at the Democratic National Convention. She's helping with registration, and will help staff the DNC "Campaign Briefing" event at which Sen. Barack Obama and DNC strategists brief the guests on the general election campaign. Secondarily, she will work with the media relations staff of Planned Parenthood. In between, she's writing a blog about her experience. [blog]

[Opinions expressed by student bloggers are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy. The Sanford Institute is not responsible for the accuracy of information supplied by student bloggers and is not liable for errors or omissions, nor related losses, injuries or damages.]

Professor of Public Policy Bruce Jentleson co-authored a report released today titled "Strategic Leadership: Framework for a 21st Century National Security Strategy.". Published by the Center for a New American Security, a Washington, D.C. think tank, the document proposes strategies for the next US administration to rise from the present historic low point in foreign relations and forge a new approach to national security.

Among the recommended strategies are to focus more resources on Afghanistan, correct the current imbalance between force and diplomacy, and to make global poverty reduction and the building of civil society infrastructure key elements of the United States' security strategy.
[Full report available online.]

For a discussion of the subject, please read the interview with Jentleson and co-author Ivo Daalder on World Politics Review.

With advertisements in The New York Times and The Washington Post a 60-member task force of national policy experts announced a“Broader, Bolder Approach to Education” campaign to break a decades-long cycle of reform efforts that promised much and have achieved far too little. 

Co-chaired by Helen Ladd, Edgar Thompson Professor of Public Policy Studies and economics at Duke University, Pedro Noguera, a sociologist at New York University, and Tom Payzant, a Harvard Graduate School of Education professor and former U.S. assistant secretary of education, the task force points to the many flaws in the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. The group’s complete statement and recommendations are available online www.boldapproach.org.

An interdisciplinary team of Duke University computer scientists, public policy experts, and film, video and digital scholars won a MacArthur Foundation grant to develop a computer simulation to teach humanitarian assistance strategies.

The New York Times profiles Duke Alum Reggie Love, personal assistant to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. [article]

Professor of PPS and law Joel L. Fleishman has received the Outstanding Nonprofit Lawyer Award from the American Bar Association.

Undergraduates, MPPs and PIDPs were honored at Public Policy Department graduation ceremonies May 10, 2008.

U.S. News and World Report released its 2008 public policy graduate programs rankings on March 28 and once again, the Sanford Institute of Public Policy’s graduate programs were ranked in the top ten.

Gunther Peck, the Fred W. Shaffer Associate Professor of History and Public Policy, comments on the Clinton campaign’s deliberate use of the Southern strategy, pioneered by Republicans who exploited racial tensions to draw voters to their candidates.

Hart Fellow Brian Wright (PPS ’07) is working with the Institute of Social Order (ISO) in Manila, the Philippines. The country’s oldest NGO, the ISO implements community-based coastal resource management.  Wright is investigating local fishers’ problems and approaches to creating sustainable fisheries. The fishers struggle with poverty, rapid political change, corruption and community division. They often resort to means—such as cyanide fishing—that are both illegal and destructive to the environment.

Wright conducted research in three different communities: one a regular part of ISO’s core program activities, one a recent addition to the program and the third, outside of the program and known as a “lair of illegal fishing,” called Taba-Taba. Below is an excerpt of Wright’s “Letter Home.”  The full text is online at the Hart Fellows Web site, along with Wright’s other letters and slideshows.

A group of women in Sahaspur, India, displaying their pink and blue loan books are just a few of the people featured in a new exhibit “Beyond Banking: The Faces of Microfinance,” on view from Feb. 25 to March 7, 2008 in the Fleishman Commons at the Sanford Institute of Public Policy.

The Louisiana Political Museum inducted nine new people into its hall of fame this month, including Ambassador James Joseph, Professor of the Practice of Public Policy Studies and Executive Director of the United States-Southern Africa Center for Leadership and Public Values at Duke University.

Durham Connects offers home health assessments for newborns and resources for new parents as part of research into ways to prevent child neglect.