Nut Allergies Continue to Inflame Risk-Aversion

In the latest issue of Time, Tiffany Sharples asks whether all the precautions Americans take to safeguard nut-allergic children from nuts “seem a little … nuts.”  Recently in Massachusetts, she relates, a “school district evacuated a school bus full of 10-year-olds after a stray peanut was found on the bus floor.”  She also details the same 2006 story written about by Common Good Chair Philip K. Howard in the Wall Street Journal and in his forthcoming book, Life Without Lawyers, where three 60-foot hickory trees were removed from a Connecticut neighborhood due to “nut over-precaution.”  “As a society,” Harvard professor Dr. Nicholas Christakis tells Sharples, “our priorities have been seriously skewed, and it's largely a result of fear.”  » article

Health Care

» States Warn of Primary Care Physician Shortages

» Center for American Progress Names Malpractice Liability Demonstration Projects “Idea of the Day”

» Op-Ed: We Can't Support Defensive Medicine

Society

» British Professor Wants Children to Be More ‘Risk Literate’

» Court Deals Setback to Sidewalk Injury Lawsuits in New York

» California Supreme Court: Clumsy Good Samaritans Can Be Sued 



Education

» Op-Ed: Too Much Testing Cuts Into Learning

» Op-Ed: To Improve Students' Performance, Let's Start with Discipline

» Center for American Progress Report: Tenure Decisions Unrelated to “Performance in the Classroom”

Common Good Chair Calls for Washington to 'Restructure'

Writing in the December 19th issue of the Wall Street Journal, Common Good Chair Philip K. Howard argues that it’s not only Detroit that needs ‘a complete restructuring,’ but also Washington itself.  “Removing the shackles of outmoded law," writes Howard, "will unleash untold resources and human energy.” 

Stuart Taylor on Life Without Lawyers

Stuart Taylor provides an early review in National Journal Magazine of Philip K. Howard’s forthcoming book, Life Without Lawyers, which is due out in January 2009.  The book, Taylor writes, “makes a powerful case that unless leaders from outside the world of politics overpower the entrenched special interests that dominate both major political parties, even Barack Obama will have little chance of transforming Washington – and no chance at all of fixing our schools, health care, or stultifying legal culture.”

Common Good Chair and President Address Education Conferences

Philip K. Howard recently gave a general session address at the Education Law Association’s 54^th Annual Conference held in San Antonio, TX.  The theme of the event was “Relevance and Reform: Building the Bridge Between Theory and Practice.”  A week beforehand, Common Good President Janet Corcoran participated in Teach For America’s inaugural New York City Alumni Summit where she spoke on “the numerous ways [TFA] alumni can use politics as an influential lever in closing the achievement gap.”

NEWTALK

Recently completed:

Should we scrap
No Child Left Behind?

UPCOMING EVENTS

Book Talk on Life Without Lawyers

Philip K. Howard will be discussing his latest book, Life Without Lawyers, on Wednesday, January 21st at the Manhattan Institute's Center for Legal Policy in New York City.  For information on how you can attend the event, please contact the Manhattan Institute at mi@manhattan-institute.org. 

VIDEO

Philip K. Howard delivers the 2008 Powell Lecture at Washington & Lee University Law School. » Watch