Best foot forward. Vinton Thompson, a world authority on spittlebugs, has been named associate provost at Roosevelt University. In the September issue of the “Renaissance,” the school’s newsletter, he jokes, “There are lots of parallels between academia and spittlebugs. Spittlebugs are economic pests, and one is always looking for strategies to deal with the pests.”
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Reasons not to assimilate. Children who are immigrants or whose parents are–14 million at last count, one of every five people under age 18–“experience fewer short- and long-term health problems and fewer accidents and injuries than do children with U.S.-born parents,” according to a new report from the National Research Council. “There are fewer low-birthweight babies and infant deaths in immigrant families, and adolescents reportedly have fewer mental health problems and are less likely to engage in risky behaviors.” This is unexpected good news, since immigrant families are more likely to be poor. The bad news is that their health advantages don’t last: “By the third and later generations, for example, rates of adolescent risk-related behaviors…
You gotta be kidding. Writing in In These Times (October 18), Joel Rogers of the New Party shows how government tends to subsidize suburbs and exurbs more than cities. Then he adds that “the deliberate siting of military bases and other government facilities outside cities or more developed regions remains a deliberate national policy.” So what do progressives want–an air force base at Lake Calumet, marine training in Humboldt Park, an army base in North Kenwood?
