by admin | Jan 28, 2019 | Climate, Disaster, Disaster policy, Floodplain management, Government, Natural Hazards, Public policy, Resilience, Urban Planning
Eroded hillsides have helped push New Zealand to adopt its own approach to risk reduction. Late in 2017, I received an inquiry from Oxford University Press. Professor Ann-Margaret Esnard at the Urban Studies Institute at Georgia State University had recommended me for...
by admin | Nov 6, 2018 | Activism, Civil rights, Disaster, Disaster policy, Government, Housing, Natural Hazards, Public policy, Resilience, Urban Planning, Water, Wildfire
This post will be brief. Rather than ask you to read my thoughts, I want you to listen–hard. It has long been known among disaster recovery planners that lower-income citizens are considerably more vulnerable to disasters largely because of the marginal...
by admin | Oct 12, 2018 | Agriculture, Business, Disaster, Disaster policy, Floodplain management, Floodplain management, Government, History, Industry, Natural Hazards, Politics, Public health, Public policy, Public safety
It has been a few weeks of drought on this blog, but just the opposite in North Carolina, where Hurricane Florence dropped up to 30 inches of rain in some locations, and floods migrated downstream via numerous rivers to swamp cities both inland and near the coast....
by admin | Aug 25, 2018 | Activism, Blogging, Books, Careers, Government, History, National security, Politics, Public policy, Writing
Like John McCain’s assuredly final book, The Restless Wave, I read Facts and Fears: Hard Truths from a Life in Intelligence, by James R. Clapper, in large part because my wife bought it for me. The usual pathway to my desk for books I discuss in this blog is that they...
by admin | Jun 17, 2018 | Activism, Christianity, Civil rights, History, Immigration, Public policy, Racism, Religion
I am angry on Father’s Day. I am deeply disturbed by what I am seeing. I am a Christian who is insulted by the use of the Bible to justify the separation of children from parents who brought them to the U.S. border in search of safety and political asylum. First, it...
by admin | May 16, 2018 | Chicago, Crime, Government, Public policy, Public safety
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner, elected in 2014 and up for re-election this year as the Republican nominee, has made manipulative politics the centerpiece of his first term, at the expense of passing a budget through a Democrat-dominated legislature. Illinois has...