A number of important developments have occurred on key issues that the New York Analysis of Policy and Government recently addressed. Here’s a roundup:
RIGHT TO TRY
In March, we reported that the House of Representatives approved the “Right to Try” bill. The President has now signed the legislation, which allows those terminally ill to use experimental drugs. The common-sense measure authorizes the use of eligible investigational drugs by eligible patients who have been diagnosed with a stage of a disease or condition in which there is reasonable likelihood that death will occur within a matter of months, or with another eligible illness. Trump has been enthusiastic about the measure, even citing it in his State of the Union address.
The bill is modeled off a federal policy known as “Compassionate Use,” but contains several key changes meant to make it faster and easier for patients to obtain experimental therapies. The Right To Try advocacy group notes that “Over 1 million Americans die from a terminal illness every year. Many spend years searching for a potential cure, or struggle in vain to get accepted into a clinical trial. Unfortunately, FDA red tape and government regulations restrict access to promising new treatments, and for those who do get access, it’s often too late…Fewer than 3 percent of terminally ill patients gain access to investigational treatments through clinical trials. Right to Try was designed to help the other 97 percent…While millions of Americans will be diagnosed with or die of terminal illnesses each year, compassionate use exceptions are only granted to about 1,200 patients a year. Many patients run out of time before they can qualify for the exemption or complete the process. Right To Try laws help patients get immediate access to the medical treatments they need before it’s too late.”
BIKE LANES
In May, we reported how the use of state and local funds to build bike lanes was wasteful. There’s new evidence to back that up. A Daily Mail review found that Seattle’s new bike lane costs the taxpayers an absurd $12 million per mile. As The New York Analysis of Policy and Government noted in May, studies have found that only about 0.6% of commuters can make use of these lanes. The other 99.4% could be inconvenienced by them.
The Wall Street Journal reported that in cities including Baltimore, Philadelphia, Seattle, Boulder and even the trendy-friendly borough of Brooklyn, NYC, citizens are rising up against the practice of carving up roads for bike lanes. The publication found that ““Retrofitting city streets for protected bike lanes can be pricey. A master plan prepared for Baltimore’s Transportation Department recommended adding 52.5 miles over five years at a cost of $26 million…” Author and futurist Syd Mead, writing in The Los Angeles Daily News noted: “While the bicycle has many virtues, it also prompts people to go overboard. It’s often lauded as the transportation of tomorrow and the savior of cities. It is not. It is called transportation. It is not… It … operates under rigid limitations: the physical condition (and therefore age) of the rider, seasons and weather conditions, and terrain…Today there is an almost messianic insistence that bicycles should be a part of the urban transit mix. …In large urban centers…using a bicycle to traverse 10, 15, or 20 miles one-way is simply not a feasible proposition… any cost/efficiency formulae that purport to justify such infrastructure enter the realm of pure fantasy.”
CROWD SIZE
During the 2016 presidential campaign, and in the press reports concerning the Inauguration, The New York Analysis of Policy and Government noted that press estimates of attendees at Trump events significantly underestimated crowd size. There’s new evidence of that. The Free Beacon reports that “New York Times reporter Julie Hirschfeld Davis conceded …that President Donald Trump was correct to call out her report, saying her estimated crowd size for his Nashville rally a night earlier was incorrect. Davis’ original report said Trump’s rally attracted approximately 1,000 people, but the fire marshal’s office said they estimated ‘approximately 5,500 people.’ ”
EDUCATION SPENDING
Last November, the New York Analysis of Policy and Government reported that U.S. school systems were “Spending More and Getting Less.” The New York Post and the Empire Center think tank have recently analyzed data from the biggest-spending state, New York, which spends more per student than any other state.
The results indicate that all those dollars haven’t produced results, notes the New York Post . “A bit more than half the city’s white students show proficiency in math and reading. Fewer than one in 10 black, and fewer than one in five Hispanic, eighth-graders show proficiency in math.” The Wall Street Journal reports that in public schools statewide, 39.8% of students in grades three through eight were proficient in English in the spring, up by 1.9 percentage points from 2016. In math, 40.2% hit that mark, up 1.1 percentage points. However, there are concerns that even those limited and still poor results are due to watered down exams.
MEDIA BIAS
We have consistently reported on the growing problem of media bias, specifically, the tie-in between left-wing politicians and major news organizations. A list published in Snopes outlines some of the familial ties that led to concern during the Obama era:
- ABC News executive producer Ian Cameron,married to Susan Rice, National Security Adviser.
- CBS President David Rhodes, brother of Ben Rhodes, Obama’s Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications.
- ABC News correspondent Claire Shipman, married to former Whitehouse Press Secretary Jay Carney
- ABC News and Univision reporter Matthew Jaffe, married to Katie Hogan, Obama’s Deputy Press Secretary
- ABC President Ben Sherwood, brother of Obama’s Special Adviser Elizabeth Sherwood
- CNN President Virginia Moseley, married to former Hillary Clinton’s Deputy Secretary Tom Nides.
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Obviously, since the end of the Obama’s presidency, there have been changes.