‘This billion-dollar sports behemoth should not be a nonprofit’
Scott Hodge at The Washington Post
Despite its “nonprofit status, the National Collegiate Athletic Association is big business,” says Scott Hodge. The NCAA is “lobbying Congress for antitrust and labor protections,” but “any deal should require the NCAA to shed its tax-exempt status and reincorporate as the for-profit sports and entertainment behemoth it has become.” It’s “time for the NCAA to go pro.” In “form and function, these organizations are no different than the major professional sports leagues.”
‘Wildfires are inevitable, but we can learn to control them’
Zhimin Wu at Al Jazeera
There is “no doubt that the costs of wildfires for people and the planet are immense,” says Zhimin Wu. But “fires have been part of the Earth’s ecosystem for hundreds of millions of years.” Conducting “controlled fires — often during cooler months — is a vital way for people to prevent destructive wildfires.” Some “fires are simply inevitable, however, and having better monitoring mechanisms to detect fires and an appropriate fire extinguishing capacity at the ready is necessary.”
‘Trump wants a bureau of MAGA statistics’
Dominic Pino at the National Review
President Donald Trump was “shooting the messenger of bad economic news based on bias against Republicans that does not exist,” says Dominic Pino. Revisions “to the jobs numbers” have “gone both ways under presidents of both parties and demonstrate exactly the pattern one would expect.” If it were “really true that Trump wanted to modernize and improve the BLS, he would have nominated someone with deep experience in economic data collection.” Trump “wants a lackey instead.”
‘The CDC shooting is a dark sign for science and America’
Krutika Kuppalli at Time
The CDC shooting “targeted institutions whose mission is to prevent illness, save lives, and advance knowledge,” says Krutika Kuppalli. It “should shake every one of us that such places were attacked at all.” During the “Covid-19 pandemic, the politicization of science reached unprecedented levels — permeating the highest echelons of government.” Framing a “respect or disdain for science as a political view doesn’t just undermine scientists and public health leaders; it sows fear and doubt.”
Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
