School of Social Work Assistant Professor Sunny Hyuckson Shin led a research team that studied the effects of childhood victimization -- neglect, physical abuse and sexual abuse -- on adolescent binge drinking (defined as five or more drinks in a row at least 2-3 times per months). The study, in Addictive Behaviors, showed childhood maltreatment is a robust risk factor for adolescent bing drinking controlling for paternal alcoholism.
"The new challenges we face in substance use research is to identify developmental mechanisms that link childhood maltreatment to heavy episodic drinking in adolescence that can be targeted in the future development of prevention intervention."
School of Law Professor Susan Koniak, in a New York Times op-ed, says the Obama mortgage bailout plan won't stop foreclosures because it concentrates on reducing interest payments, not reducing principal - a waste of taxpayer money that won't fix the problem.
"For subprime and other non-prime loans, which acount for more than half of all foreclosures, the best thing to do for the homeowners and for the bondholders is to write down principal far enough so that each homeowner will have equity in his house and thus an incentive to pay and not default again down the line. This is also best for taxpayers, who now effectively guarantee the securities linked to these mortgages because of the various deals we've made to support the banks."
School of Management Professor Stephen Davidson, author of "In Urgent Need of Reform: Saving the U.S. Healthcare System" being published this spring, questions whether today's White House health-care summit will have any lasting political impact.
"Congressional Republicans were advised by their leaders to oppose anything, no matter what compromise plan the Clinton Administration came up with. Some of those people are in even more senior positions in the party now. If they have the same attitude now, the summit won't have any positive effect on them. But if there are others who are open to considering reform, the summit signals that their ideas would get a fair hearing from the Obama administration."
School of Law Professor Kevin Outterson, director of the Health Law Program, says the U.S. Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling that drugmakers can't use federal regulation to shield them from lawsuits brought under state consumer-protection laws reflects poorly on the Bush Administration's legal views on such cases.
"A strong majority of the Court, including Justice Thomas, agreed that state tort law still applies to FDA-approved drugs. The Court was particularly unimpressed with the shoddy process the Bush Administration has used to attempt to overturn decades of precedent on this issue."
International Relations Professor Charles Stith, director of the African Presidential Archives and Research Center (APARC) and former U.S. ambassador to Tanzania, says African leaders tell him they are hopeful about the enhanced role the U.S. may play on their continent.
"Having just returned from a trip to eight African countries and meeting with six heads of state, there is a great deal of anticipation and expectation regarding a more enlightened policy from the new Obama administration. Clearly there is a role for the U.S. to play in issues like Zimbabwe, Darfur, Congo, and Somalia. Leadership in governments on the continent are interested in working with the United States to come up with some positive and proactive solutions to some of these pressing challenges."
School of Law Professor Cornelius Hurley, director of the Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law and former counsel to the Fed Board of Governors, says executives at banks taking taxpayer bailout funds should give back bonuses that flowed from investments in toxic assets that are now crippling the industry.
"It is generally understood that so-called 'claw-back' provisions will be a standard practice in executive compensation going forward. When it comes to taxpayer bailouts, retroactive application of claw-back provisions should be a pre-condition to receiving funds. In other words, 'give it back or get out' should be the standard for our capital-deprived institutions."
Journalism Professor Robert Zelnick, former ABC News correspondent, a Hoover Institute fellow, and author of "Israeli Unilateralism: Beyond Gaza," says Obama should build on Bush's Middle East progress. With Secretary of State Clinton in the region, Zelnick suggests in the Christian Science Monitor how this can be done.
"If (U.S. special envoys George Mitchell and Dennis Ross) can learn from Bush's mistake and embrace the positive aspects that came from his administrration, they could save themselves many redundant steps on the road to peace. If full-dress negotiations do produce accord, the key would then be 'shelving' agreement until the Palestinian Authority reestablishes sufficient control to implement it."
