Public Policy & NGOs
Here's a look at documents from public policy and non-governmental organizations
Featured Stories
Save the Children: Uganda - Child Malnutrition on the Rise as Conditions Worsen in Karamoja
WESTPORT, Connecticut, Sept. 12 -- Save the Children, an organization that says it is giving children a healthy start in life, opportunity to learn and protection from harm, issued the following news release:
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Uganda: Child Malnutrition on the Rise as Conditions Worsen in Karamoja
KAMPALA (September 10, 2026) - An increasing number of children in the Karamoja region of Uganda are arriving at health clinics malnourished, according to Save the Children staff, as a global hunger monitor predicts higher malnutrition in the region over the next few months.
New figures from the Integrated Food ... Show Full Article WESTPORT, Connecticut, Sept. 12 -- Save the Children, an organization that says it is giving children a healthy start in life, opportunity to learn and protection from harm, issued the following news release: * * * Uganda: Child Malnutrition on the Rise as Conditions Worsen in Karamoja KAMPALA (September 10, 2026) - An increasing number of children in the Karamoja region of Uganda are arriving at health clinics malnourished, according to Save the Children staff, as a global hunger monitor predicts higher malnutrition in the region over the next few months. New figures from the Integrated FoodSecurity Phase Classification (IPC), predict that the number of children under five experiencing acute malnutrition in Karamoja will reach 154,200 between November 2026 and February 2027 - a 25% increase from the 122,100 between July and October 2026.
Martha Ddambya, Save the Children's Acting Country Director in Uganda, said:
"Our teams in Karamoja are seeing the impact of this crisis every day. Families tell us they have less food to put on the table, harvests have been poor, and more children are arriving at health facilities malnourished and in need of urgent support. For parents, there is nothing more frightening than watching a child go hungry and not knowing where the next meal will come from. The sharp rise in child malnutrition should be a warning that the situation is deteriorating and that thousands more children are at risk unless action is taken now.
"Save the Children is working, in coordination with the Government of Uganda, alongside communities in Karamoja to help children access treatment, improve nutrition, and support families to grow food and earn an income, but the scale of need is growing. There is critical need for multisectoral support in anticipation of and response to the crisis affecting the Karamoja region and surrounding areas.
Drought-prone parts of Uganda and East Africa are feeling the effects of the super El Nino, with below-average rainfall contributing to lower harvests, reduced agricultural output, and localized crop failures, and plant stress.
"We urgently need increased funding to reach vulnerable children before conditions worsen further, and we need a stronger response to the impacts of El Nino and recurring drought. Investing now will save lives, protect children's health, and help families withstand the climate shocks that are becoming an increasingly harsh reality across the region," Ddambaya said.
The Karamoja region has a long history of severe droughts and deadly famines driven by a hot, dry climate, civil unrest, and repeated crop failures. A devastating famine in 1980, which was triggered by a combination of extreme drought and civil unrest, caused up to 50,000 deaths, killing about 21% of the population in Karamoja.
Decades later, reports from the UN's Africa Renewal publication demonstrate that the area remains highly vulnerable, with climate change, poor infrastructure, and ongoing insecurity routinely pushing hundreds of thousands back into critical food crises.
Save the Children supports children and families across Karamoja to access nutritious food and build more secure futures. Working alongside local communities and the government of Uganda, the organization is responding to the crisis by supporting early identification and referral of cases of malnutrition, capacity strengthening for the health workers in the designated treatment centers and empowering communities to treat malnutrition in children using locally available resources.
Save the Children has been operating in Uganda since 1959 and works across the country to ensure children can survive, learn and be protected, with programs focused on education, child protection, health and nutrition, child rights governance, and humanitarian response.
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Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. Since our founding more than 100 years ago, we've been advocating for the rights of children worldwide. In the United States and around the world, we give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. We do whatever it takes for children - every day and in times of crisis - transforming the future we share. Our results, financial statements and charity ratings reaffirm that Save the Children is a charity you can trust. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X and YouTube.
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Original text here: https://www.savethechildren.org/us/about-us/media-and-news/2026-press-releases/uganda-child-malnutrition-conditions-worsen-karamoja
[Category: Sociological]
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Uganda: Child Malnutrition on the Rise as Conditions Worsen in Karamoja
KAMPALA (September 10, 2026) - An increasing number of children in the Karamoja region of Uganda are arriving at health clinics malnourished, according to Save the Children staff, as a global hunger monitor predicts higher malnutrition in the region over the next few months.
New figures from the Integrated Food ... Show Full Article WESTPORT, Connecticut, Sept. 12 -- Save the Children, an organization that says it is giving children a healthy start in life, opportunity to learn and protection from harm, issued the following news release: * * * Uganda: Child Malnutrition on the Rise as Conditions Worsen in Karamoja KAMPALA (September 10, 2026) - An increasing number of children in the Karamoja region of Uganda are arriving at health clinics malnourished, according to Save the Children staff, as a global hunger monitor predicts higher malnutrition in the region over the next few months. New figures from the Integrated FoodSecurity Phase Classification (IPC), predict that the number of children under five experiencing acute malnutrition in Karamoja will reach 154,200 between November 2026 and February 2027 - a 25% increase from the 122,100 between July and October 2026.
Martha Ddambya, Save the Children's Acting Country Director in Uganda, said:
"Our teams in Karamoja are seeing the impact of this crisis every day. Families tell us they have less food to put on the table, harvests have been poor, and more children are arriving at health facilities malnourished and in need of urgent support. For parents, there is nothing more frightening than watching a child go hungry and not knowing where the next meal will come from. The sharp rise in child malnutrition should be a warning that the situation is deteriorating and that thousands more children are at risk unless action is taken now.
"Save the Children is working, in coordination with the Government of Uganda, alongside communities in Karamoja to help children access treatment, improve nutrition, and support families to grow food and earn an income, but the scale of need is growing. There is critical need for multisectoral support in anticipation of and response to the crisis affecting the Karamoja region and surrounding areas.
Drought-prone parts of Uganda and East Africa are feeling the effects of the super El Nino, with below-average rainfall contributing to lower harvests, reduced agricultural output, and localized crop failures, and plant stress.
"We urgently need increased funding to reach vulnerable children before conditions worsen further, and we need a stronger response to the impacts of El Nino and recurring drought. Investing now will save lives, protect children's health, and help families withstand the climate shocks that are becoming an increasingly harsh reality across the region," Ddambaya said.
The Karamoja region has a long history of severe droughts and deadly famines driven by a hot, dry climate, civil unrest, and repeated crop failures. A devastating famine in 1980, which was triggered by a combination of extreme drought and civil unrest, caused up to 50,000 deaths, killing about 21% of the population in Karamoja.
Decades later, reports from the UN's Africa Renewal publication demonstrate that the area remains highly vulnerable, with climate change, poor infrastructure, and ongoing insecurity routinely pushing hundreds of thousands back into critical food crises.
Save the Children supports children and families across Karamoja to access nutritious food and build more secure futures. Working alongside local communities and the government of Uganda, the organization is responding to the crisis by supporting early identification and referral of cases of malnutrition, capacity strengthening for the health workers in the designated treatment centers and empowering communities to treat malnutrition in children using locally available resources.
Save the Children has been operating in Uganda since 1959 and works across the country to ensure children can survive, learn and be protected, with programs focused on education, child protection, health and nutrition, child rights governance, and humanitarian response.
* * *
Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. Since our founding more than 100 years ago, we've been advocating for the rights of children worldwide. In the United States and around the world, we give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. We do whatever it takes for children - every day and in times of crisis - transforming the future we share. Our results, financial statements and charity ratings reaffirm that Save the Children is a charity you can trust. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X and YouTube.
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Original text here: https://www.savethechildren.org/us/about-us/media-and-news/2026-press-releases/uganda-child-malnutrition-conditions-worsen-karamoja
[Category: Sociological]
Peterson Institute for International Economics Issues Commentary: You're Already Getting Socialism--and Democratic Socialists Have Nothing to Do With It
WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 -- The Peterson Institute for International Economics issued the following commentary on Sept. 10, 2026, by senior research staffer Cullen S. Hendrix:
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You're already getting socialism--and Democratic Socialists have nothing to do with it
The election of New York mayor Zohran Mamdani and the surprising performance of Democratic Socialist or DSA-aligned candidates in Democratic primaries across the United States is reviving interest in socialism as a concept--and with it, its use alternately as a badge of honor and a political slur. This discourse is driven almost entirely ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 -- The Peterson Institute for International Economics issued the following commentary on Sept. 10, 2026, by senior research staffer Cullen S. Hendrix: * * * You're already getting socialism--and Democratic Socialists have nothing to do with it The election of New York mayor Zohran Mamdani and the surprising performance of Democratic Socialist or DSA-aligned candidates in Democratic primaries across the United States is reviving interest in socialism as a concept--and with it, its use alternately as a badge of honor and a political slur. This discourse is driven almost entirelyby policy initiatives emanating from the left: single-payer healthcare systems, wealth taxes, and nationalization of fossil fuels and private utilities. It is not primarily driven by a Republican-controlled White House taking equity stakes in US semiconductor companies or assuming veto power over the actions of US steelmakers.
Yet according to the most rigorous comparative measure of state ownership and control over the economy, that is where the action has been. The United States is trending toward more state control over the economy. That pivot is not being overseen by the intellectual descendants of early 20th century socialist leader Eugene V. Debs--it is coming from the Trump administration.
The real question is not whether the US economy is becoming more statist, but how. State ownership can durably coexist with economic freedom, innovation, and democratic institutions. It can also become a vehicle for patronage, rent-seeking, and consolidation of executive power. The terms under which these stakes have been acquired and managed by the administration--ad-hoc, privately negotiated, and with significant executive discretion--are more troubling than the equity stakes themselves.
What is socialism?
Before diving into the data, we should be precise about terms. The defining feature of socialism is public or state ownership and/or control of productive resources. In common and partisan political usage, the term often refers to economic redistribution, worker empowerment, and egalitarianism. Questions of income (re)distribution, worker rights relative to capital, and the desirable balance of political power between the government and private enterprise are of course important but analytically distinct from the ownership/control question itself.
Accordingly, economies as different as Qatar, New Zealand, and the Soviet Union's dictatorship of the proletariat can be classified as socialist. And state ownership and/or control of the economy goes by many different names in different contexts: dirigisme, state capitalism, social democracy, and "socialism" as used in US political discourse. These terms conflate at least three analytically distinct dimensions: who owns or controls productive assets, whether the redistribution runs upward or downward, and how much direct discretion the executive has over these assets.
The concept is often treated as either/or; the New York Times asked if Trump's economic policy was "capitalism at all." In fact, all economies throughout history have commingled public and private ownership to at least some extent. And the variation is quite wide. Singapore, routinely identified as among the most free-market economies in the world, operates a state-owned holding company--Temasek--with a massive portfolio spanning finance, real estate,1 telecommunications, and utilities. Even in the Soviet Union--the most extensive experiment with public ownership and central planning yet attempted--collective farms were allowed in later years to sell their produce at market prices once their state-mandated quotas had been filled.
Measuring state ownership and control
Assessing the mix of public and private ownership in a given economy is challenging because state control is often hidden through regulatory leverage, procurement, tariffs, credit allocation, and political pressure. These mechanisms facilitate control without appearing as ownership on a balance sheet. For that reason, most serious attempts to measure state control over the economy or "economic freedom," a term preferred by libertarian and conservative organizations, are based in whole or in part on expert assessments.
I use the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project's State Ownership of Economy dataset (v2clstown), which measures the extent to which the state owns or controls capital (including land) in the industrial, agricultural, and service sectors. V-Dem is based at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.2 The "or controls" clause in this definition is important, as control can be exerted without true ownership. The US government's "golden share" in Nippon Steel, secured after the United States approved its acquisition of U.S. Steel last year, allows the US government to appoint a member of the firm's board of directors and veto certain decisions, such as plant closures or idling, transfers of jobs, or relocating headquarters--but confers no equity and pays no dividends. It is control without ownership.
The variable is coded by country experts based on historical research and documentary evidence, and unlike other "economic freedom" measures--like the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom or the Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom in the World index--it does not embed assumptions about the inherent desirability of state or private control of capital.3 In 2025, scores ranged from -3.28 (North Korea) to 2.98 (Japan).
The correlation between Heritage's economic freedom measure and V-Dem's state ownership/control variable in 2025 is only moderate.4 The Heritage index measures regulatory burden and ease of doing business--fundamentally similar to what the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index captures--not state ownership of the economy. To see that these measures capture different things, compare Singapore's rankings on each. Singapore ranks no. 1 on the Heritage economic freedom measure and 138th on the V-Dem measure of state ownership/control, largely due to the massive economic footprint of Temasek.
How socialist is the US economy already?
Not very--but the trend is toward more state ownership. The United States has consistently ranked among the countries with the least state control of the economy for the past two decades according to the V-Dem index (in which rank 1 = least state control; rank 179 = most) (see figure below). Over that period, the United States never ranked lower than 4th out of 179 covered countries, and often ranked 2nd, just behind Japan in 1st place (North Korea ranks 179th). In 2025, the first year of the Trump administration, the United States came under more state control of its economy, and 15 countries now have less state control than the United States, while 163 have more.
The US change in these rankings was not small. Only about 1.2 percent of year-over-year V-Dem score changes since 2005 were larger than the US shift.5 More illuminating than the percentile is the company in which it places the United States. The largest year-over-year changes in the sample are driven by countries like Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Honduras, the Maldives, Myanmar, and South Sudan--countries facing either persistently volatile political economies or war-related crises, not large, advanced economies with several decades near the top of the rankings.
The United States is still among the most market-oriented economies in the world, within the top 20. But the trend is toward greater state ownership or control of the economy--that is, toward socialism. This is occurring under unified Republican control of the US government, not under a Democratic administration and certainly not due to the political influence of Democratic Socialists, who currently occupy only a tiny handful of seats in Congress.6
Most of the increase in state ownership and control has taken the form of equity stakes, rather than full nationalizations that would make the change much more obvious. Under the Trump administration, the United States has acquired a portfolio of equity or equity-like stakes in over 30 firms across the semiconductor, critical mineral, and quantum computing sectors, with the biggest single-ticket item being a 10 percent stake in Intel negotiated in 2025 that converted prior federal grants into US equity. Calls are coming both from politicians and the industry itself for the US government to take equity stakes in artificial intelligence hyperscalers who have yet to go public.
US precedent for these moves is thin. In 2008, the US government provided significant support to the US auto, finance, and insurance sectors, taking equity stakes in General Motors, several distressed banks, and insurance firm AIG. It also brought mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both government-sponsored enterprises created in the 1930s, under US conservatorship--control without ownership. All of that occurred during the 2008 financial crisis, the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Before that, one needs to go back to the actual Great Depression to find interventions of this type and magnitude. Both the 2008 and 1930s interventions occurred during periods of acute crisis. In contrast, the Trump administration's acquisitions have taken place during a period of economic growth, low unemployment, and financial market stability. These are proactive, open-ended acquisitions, not temporary lifelines.
The Trump administration is obviously not framing these acquisitions as socialism. They are being presented as sage industrial policy focused on industries critical to national security and economic competitiveness. That description may be accurate. But the acquisitions are no less socialistic for it.
Is it a slippery slope to communism?
No. Communism is a political-economic system that combines the abolition of private property--quasi-total political control of the economy--with the subversion of price mechanisms and a redistributive, authoritarian government. There have been no genuine transitions to communism in over 50 years, with the last occurring in 1975. The three regimes that can reasonably be classified as communist in 2026--Cuba, North Korea, and the Lao People's Democratic Republic--account for less than 0.2 percent of global GDP. China's model is more accurately described as highly interventionist market-oriented socialism than a communist, planned economy--and China has not been actively exporting communism or supporting communist insurgencies since Deng Xiaoping's reforms in the late 1970s.
The slippery-slope-to-communism argument is a red herring. Countries can durably sustain comparatively high levels of state ownership and high assessed levels of economic freedom: Singapore is the most prominent example, but Bahrain, Botswana, Malaysia, and Uruguay are others. Politically, these regimes range from an authoritarian constitutional monarchy (Bahrain) to a consolidated democracy (Uruguay). The longest-running electoral democracy with universal suffrage--New Zealand--has survived periods of high state control and lower state control. The historical record suggests moves toward greater state control are about as likely to produce moves back toward less state control as they are more state control. Across the 2000-2025 period, countries experiencing a decline in their V-Dem state control/ownership score of comparable magnitude to the 2025 US shock--above the 95th percentile--show a mixed split in their subsequent trajectories: 30 percent improved within five years, 32 percent kept falling, and 38 percent held steady. The pattern is not one of inevitably increasing state ownership and control. A single year's shift in state ownership tells you very little about whether it will persist, deepen, or reverse.
All ownership structures--whether state or private--have consequences for who benefits and how assets should be managed. A private firm answers to shareholders; a state-owned firm answers to political actors. Neither is politically neutral. What matters isn't neutrality as much as the nature of that control. Temasek, Singapore's massive state-owned holding company, and its sovereign wealth fund are operated by technocrats at arm's-length from politics and have reasonably transparent mandates and performance-related benchmarks. Even under those circumstances, some observers contend political influences are still present. But the state is, in the day-to-day sense, a mostly passive investor.
What is much more corrosive, both politically and ultimately economically, is when state control is exercised in a more ad-hoc fashion, through privately negotiated channels and without any pretension of independent oversight. Under these circumstances, state ownership and control typically redistribute benefits to politically connected clients and away from the public. This potentially corrupting phenomenon is the prevailing concern with the Trump administration's approach. It is the domestic analog to the administration's privately negotiated tariff exemptions favoring certain politically connected businesses: How else should one interpret Belgium's diamond industry securing zero tariffs on $2 billion in annual polished diamond exports in September 2025, then presenting Trump with a jewel-encrusted ring? It is a similar patronage logic operating through a different channel.
State direction of the political economy was famously characteristic of King Louis XIV's rule in 17th century France--a patronage-based regime that ultimately sapped its own economic competitiveness. Wealth came through royal charters and monopolies granted to those with court connections, not market competition. France boomed briefly; by the 18th century, it stagnated while Britain--its government's role in the economy constrained by parliament and allowing genuine market competition--leapt ahead.
The Trump administration's "golden share" in Nippon Steel and its personalized tariff structure and host of exemptions operate in this mode: control with weak institutional constraints and often without transparent process. A dollar spent lobbying for regulatory favor is a dollar not spent on research and development. Over time, this saps economic competitiveness through rent-seeking. An economy increasingly dominated by rent-seeking and the consolidation of political power it facilitates are the real risks.
The United States is becoming more socialist. This turn has nothing to do with Democratic Socialists or socialism as understood as an egalitarian political project. In doing so, it is not hazarding a descent into communism; rather, it is becoming more like most of the economies that populate the international system. Far more important than this shift toward state control is how that control is being exercised.
The author thanks Greg Auclair for helpful methodological feedback.
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Notes
1. About 90 percent of land in Singapore is owned by the government, and approximately 80 percent of the population lives in housing owned by the government. Singaporeans "own" housing in the form of 99-year leases, with ownership rights reverting to the state after expiry. Moreover, the ability to sell these leases is circumscribed by, among other things, ethnic quotas designed to promote social integration.
2. V-Dem draws on a global pool of more than 4,000 country experts spanning nearly every country in the world, typically aggregating judgments from at least five experts per country-year indicator using a Bayesian measurement model that accounts for individual coder reliability and bias. V-Dem does not report actual number of coders for each country, but the mean is 38. As a large country with a high concentration of political scientists studying democracy, the United States presumably has a higher number of coders.
3. The Heritage Foundation is not particularly coy about this; it begins its description of the US ranking on its index thusly: "The United States' economic freedom score is 72.8, making its economy the 22nd freest in the 2026 Index of Economic Freedom. Its rating has increased by 2.6 points from last year, ending the precipitous five-year decline of America's economic freedom. The Trump Administration's pragmatic pro-growth economic strategy--lowering the costs of doing business, advancing and spreading prosperity, and enhancing long-term competitiveness--has yielded the strongest economic growth rate recorded in recent years."
4. r = 0.56, n = 166. The Heritage Foundation labels its observations by the year of release, not the year of coverage: Scores in the 2026 Index are based on data from the second half of 2024 through the first half of 2025. V-Dem's 2025 score, by contrast, reflects calendar year 2025.
5. Rank-based measures can shift even when a country's own score is unchanged, if other countries' scores move around it; 5.3 percent of country-years initially flagged as rank shocks showed no meaningful change in the country's own score.
6. I count three: Rashida Talib (D-MI), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT)--and I am being generous including Sanders, who is not a member of the Democratic Socialists nor a registered Democrat, though he caucuses with Democrats in the Senate.
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Original text here: https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economics/2026/youre-already-getting-socialism-and-democratic-socialists-have
[Category: Economics]
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You're already getting socialism--and Democratic Socialists have nothing to do with it
The election of New York mayor Zohran Mamdani and the surprising performance of Democratic Socialist or DSA-aligned candidates in Democratic primaries across the United States is reviving interest in socialism as a concept--and with it, its use alternately as a badge of honor and a political slur. This discourse is driven almost entirely ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 -- The Peterson Institute for International Economics issued the following commentary on Sept. 10, 2026, by senior research staffer Cullen S. Hendrix: * * * You're already getting socialism--and Democratic Socialists have nothing to do with it The election of New York mayor Zohran Mamdani and the surprising performance of Democratic Socialist or DSA-aligned candidates in Democratic primaries across the United States is reviving interest in socialism as a concept--and with it, its use alternately as a badge of honor and a political slur. This discourse is driven almost entirelyby policy initiatives emanating from the left: single-payer healthcare systems, wealth taxes, and nationalization of fossil fuels and private utilities. It is not primarily driven by a Republican-controlled White House taking equity stakes in US semiconductor companies or assuming veto power over the actions of US steelmakers.
Yet according to the most rigorous comparative measure of state ownership and control over the economy, that is where the action has been. The United States is trending toward more state control over the economy. That pivot is not being overseen by the intellectual descendants of early 20th century socialist leader Eugene V. Debs--it is coming from the Trump administration.
The real question is not whether the US economy is becoming more statist, but how. State ownership can durably coexist with economic freedom, innovation, and democratic institutions. It can also become a vehicle for patronage, rent-seeking, and consolidation of executive power. The terms under which these stakes have been acquired and managed by the administration--ad-hoc, privately negotiated, and with significant executive discretion--are more troubling than the equity stakes themselves.
What is socialism?
Before diving into the data, we should be precise about terms. The defining feature of socialism is public or state ownership and/or control of productive resources. In common and partisan political usage, the term often refers to economic redistribution, worker empowerment, and egalitarianism. Questions of income (re)distribution, worker rights relative to capital, and the desirable balance of political power between the government and private enterprise are of course important but analytically distinct from the ownership/control question itself.
Accordingly, economies as different as Qatar, New Zealand, and the Soviet Union's dictatorship of the proletariat can be classified as socialist. And state ownership and/or control of the economy goes by many different names in different contexts: dirigisme, state capitalism, social democracy, and "socialism" as used in US political discourse. These terms conflate at least three analytically distinct dimensions: who owns or controls productive assets, whether the redistribution runs upward or downward, and how much direct discretion the executive has over these assets.
The concept is often treated as either/or; the New York Times asked if Trump's economic policy was "capitalism at all." In fact, all economies throughout history have commingled public and private ownership to at least some extent. And the variation is quite wide. Singapore, routinely identified as among the most free-market economies in the world, operates a state-owned holding company--Temasek--with a massive portfolio spanning finance, real estate,1 telecommunications, and utilities. Even in the Soviet Union--the most extensive experiment with public ownership and central planning yet attempted--collective farms were allowed in later years to sell their produce at market prices once their state-mandated quotas had been filled.
Measuring state ownership and control
Assessing the mix of public and private ownership in a given economy is challenging because state control is often hidden through regulatory leverage, procurement, tariffs, credit allocation, and political pressure. These mechanisms facilitate control without appearing as ownership on a balance sheet. For that reason, most serious attempts to measure state control over the economy or "economic freedom," a term preferred by libertarian and conservative organizations, are based in whole or in part on expert assessments.
I use the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project's State Ownership of Economy dataset (v2clstown), which measures the extent to which the state owns or controls capital (including land) in the industrial, agricultural, and service sectors. V-Dem is based at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.2 The "or controls" clause in this definition is important, as control can be exerted without true ownership. The US government's "golden share" in Nippon Steel, secured after the United States approved its acquisition of U.S. Steel last year, allows the US government to appoint a member of the firm's board of directors and veto certain decisions, such as plant closures or idling, transfers of jobs, or relocating headquarters--but confers no equity and pays no dividends. It is control without ownership.
The variable is coded by country experts based on historical research and documentary evidence, and unlike other "economic freedom" measures--like the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom or the Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom in the World index--it does not embed assumptions about the inherent desirability of state or private control of capital.3 In 2025, scores ranged from -3.28 (North Korea) to 2.98 (Japan).
The correlation between Heritage's economic freedom measure and V-Dem's state ownership/control variable in 2025 is only moderate.4 The Heritage index measures regulatory burden and ease of doing business--fundamentally similar to what the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index captures--not state ownership of the economy. To see that these measures capture different things, compare Singapore's rankings on each. Singapore ranks no. 1 on the Heritage economic freedom measure and 138th on the V-Dem measure of state ownership/control, largely due to the massive economic footprint of Temasek.
How socialist is the US economy already?
Not very--but the trend is toward more state ownership. The United States has consistently ranked among the countries with the least state control of the economy for the past two decades according to the V-Dem index (in which rank 1 = least state control; rank 179 = most) (see figure below). Over that period, the United States never ranked lower than 4th out of 179 covered countries, and often ranked 2nd, just behind Japan in 1st place (North Korea ranks 179th). In 2025, the first year of the Trump administration, the United States came under more state control of its economy, and 15 countries now have less state control than the United States, while 163 have more.
The US change in these rankings was not small. Only about 1.2 percent of year-over-year V-Dem score changes since 2005 were larger than the US shift.5 More illuminating than the percentile is the company in which it places the United States. The largest year-over-year changes in the sample are driven by countries like Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Honduras, the Maldives, Myanmar, and South Sudan--countries facing either persistently volatile political economies or war-related crises, not large, advanced economies with several decades near the top of the rankings.
The United States is still among the most market-oriented economies in the world, within the top 20. But the trend is toward greater state ownership or control of the economy--that is, toward socialism. This is occurring under unified Republican control of the US government, not under a Democratic administration and certainly not due to the political influence of Democratic Socialists, who currently occupy only a tiny handful of seats in Congress.6
Most of the increase in state ownership and control has taken the form of equity stakes, rather than full nationalizations that would make the change much more obvious. Under the Trump administration, the United States has acquired a portfolio of equity or equity-like stakes in over 30 firms across the semiconductor, critical mineral, and quantum computing sectors, with the biggest single-ticket item being a 10 percent stake in Intel negotiated in 2025 that converted prior federal grants into US equity. Calls are coming both from politicians and the industry itself for the US government to take equity stakes in artificial intelligence hyperscalers who have yet to go public.
US precedent for these moves is thin. In 2008, the US government provided significant support to the US auto, finance, and insurance sectors, taking equity stakes in General Motors, several distressed banks, and insurance firm AIG. It also brought mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both government-sponsored enterprises created in the 1930s, under US conservatorship--control without ownership. All of that occurred during the 2008 financial crisis, the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Before that, one needs to go back to the actual Great Depression to find interventions of this type and magnitude. Both the 2008 and 1930s interventions occurred during periods of acute crisis. In contrast, the Trump administration's acquisitions have taken place during a period of economic growth, low unemployment, and financial market stability. These are proactive, open-ended acquisitions, not temporary lifelines.
The Trump administration is obviously not framing these acquisitions as socialism. They are being presented as sage industrial policy focused on industries critical to national security and economic competitiveness. That description may be accurate. But the acquisitions are no less socialistic for it.
Is it a slippery slope to communism?
No. Communism is a political-economic system that combines the abolition of private property--quasi-total political control of the economy--with the subversion of price mechanisms and a redistributive, authoritarian government. There have been no genuine transitions to communism in over 50 years, with the last occurring in 1975. The three regimes that can reasonably be classified as communist in 2026--Cuba, North Korea, and the Lao People's Democratic Republic--account for less than 0.2 percent of global GDP. China's model is more accurately described as highly interventionist market-oriented socialism than a communist, planned economy--and China has not been actively exporting communism or supporting communist insurgencies since Deng Xiaoping's reforms in the late 1970s.
The slippery-slope-to-communism argument is a red herring. Countries can durably sustain comparatively high levels of state ownership and high assessed levels of economic freedom: Singapore is the most prominent example, but Bahrain, Botswana, Malaysia, and Uruguay are others. Politically, these regimes range from an authoritarian constitutional monarchy (Bahrain) to a consolidated democracy (Uruguay). The longest-running electoral democracy with universal suffrage--New Zealand--has survived periods of high state control and lower state control. The historical record suggests moves toward greater state control are about as likely to produce moves back toward less state control as they are more state control. Across the 2000-2025 period, countries experiencing a decline in their V-Dem state control/ownership score of comparable magnitude to the 2025 US shock--above the 95th percentile--show a mixed split in their subsequent trajectories: 30 percent improved within five years, 32 percent kept falling, and 38 percent held steady. The pattern is not one of inevitably increasing state ownership and control. A single year's shift in state ownership tells you very little about whether it will persist, deepen, or reverse.
All ownership structures--whether state or private--have consequences for who benefits and how assets should be managed. A private firm answers to shareholders; a state-owned firm answers to political actors. Neither is politically neutral. What matters isn't neutrality as much as the nature of that control. Temasek, Singapore's massive state-owned holding company, and its sovereign wealth fund are operated by technocrats at arm's-length from politics and have reasonably transparent mandates and performance-related benchmarks. Even under those circumstances, some observers contend political influences are still present. But the state is, in the day-to-day sense, a mostly passive investor.
What is much more corrosive, both politically and ultimately economically, is when state control is exercised in a more ad-hoc fashion, through privately negotiated channels and without any pretension of independent oversight. Under these circumstances, state ownership and control typically redistribute benefits to politically connected clients and away from the public. This potentially corrupting phenomenon is the prevailing concern with the Trump administration's approach. It is the domestic analog to the administration's privately negotiated tariff exemptions favoring certain politically connected businesses: How else should one interpret Belgium's diamond industry securing zero tariffs on $2 billion in annual polished diamond exports in September 2025, then presenting Trump with a jewel-encrusted ring? It is a similar patronage logic operating through a different channel.
State direction of the political economy was famously characteristic of King Louis XIV's rule in 17th century France--a patronage-based regime that ultimately sapped its own economic competitiveness. Wealth came through royal charters and monopolies granted to those with court connections, not market competition. France boomed briefly; by the 18th century, it stagnated while Britain--its government's role in the economy constrained by parliament and allowing genuine market competition--leapt ahead.
The Trump administration's "golden share" in Nippon Steel and its personalized tariff structure and host of exemptions operate in this mode: control with weak institutional constraints and often without transparent process. A dollar spent lobbying for regulatory favor is a dollar not spent on research and development. Over time, this saps economic competitiveness through rent-seeking. An economy increasingly dominated by rent-seeking and the consolidation of political power it facilitates are the real risks.
The United States is becoming more socialist. This turn has nothing to do with Democratic Socialists or socialism as understood as an egalitarian political project. In doing so, it is not hazarding a descent into communism; rather, it is becoming more like most of the economies that populate the international system. Far more important than this shift toward state control is how that control is being exercised.
The author thanks Greg Auclair for helpful methodological feedback.
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Notes
1. About 90 percent of land in Singapore is owned by the government, and approximately 80 percent of the population lives in housing owned by the government. Singaporeans "own" housing in the form of 99-year leases, with ownership rights reverting to the state after expiry. Moreover, the ability to sell these leases is circumscribed by, among other things, ethnic quotas designed to promote social integration.
2. V-Dem draws on a global pool of more than 4,000 country experts spanning nearly every country in the world, typically aggregating judgments from at least five experts per country-year indicator using a Bayesian measurement model that accounts for individual coder reliability and bias. V-Dem does not report actual number of coders for each country, but the mean is 38. As a large country with a high concentration of political scientists studying democracy, the United States presumably has a higher number of coders.
3. The Heritage Foundation is not particularly coy about this; it begins its description of the US ranking on its index thusly: "The United States' economic freedom score is 72.8, making its economy the 22nd freest in the 2026 Index of Economic Freedom. Its rating has increased by 2.6 points from last year, ending the precipitous five-year decline of America's economic freedom. The Trump Administration's pragmatic pro-growth economic strategy--lowering the costs of doing business, advancing and spreading prosperity, and enhancing long-term competitiveness--has yielded the strongest economic growth rate recorded in recent years."
4. r = 0.56, n = 166. The Heritage Foundation labels its observations by the year of release, not the year of coverage: Scores in the 2026 Index are based on data from the second half of 2024 through the first half of 2025. V-Dem's 2025 score, by contrast, reflects calendar year 2025.
5. Rank-based measures can shift even when a country's own score is unchanged, if other countries' scores move around it; 5.3 percent of country-years initially flagged as rank shocks showed no meaningful change in the country's own score.
6. I count three: Rashida Talib (D-MI), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT)--and I am being generous including Sanders, who is not a member of the Democratic Socialists nor a registered Democrat, though he caucuses with Democrats in the Senate.
* * *
Original text here: https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economics/2026/youre-already-getting-socialism-and-democratic-socialists-have
[Category: Economics]
FFRF Action Fund: 'Theocrat' JD Vance Claims He's Doing 'God's Work' in Disturbing 'End Times' Riff
MADISON, Wisconsin, Sept. 12 -- FFRF Action Fund, an organization that says it develops and advocates for legislation, regulations and government programs to preserve the constitutional principle of separation between state and church, posted the following news:
* * *
'Theocrat' JD Vance claims he's doing 'God's work' in disturbing 'end times' riff
=The FFRF Action Fund names Vice President JD Vance its "Theocrat of the Week" for his disturbing "end times" remarks and claims that he is doing "God's work."
Vance appeared a few days ago in a lengthy interview with podcaster and evangelical ... Show Full Article MADISON, Wisconsin, Sept. 12 -- FFRF Action Fund, an organization that says it develops and advocates for legislation, regulations and government programs to preserve the constitutional principle of separation between state and church, posted the following news: * * * 'Theocrat' JD Vance claims he's doing 'God's work' in disturbing 'end times' riff =The FFRF Action Fund names Vice President JD Vance its "Theocrat of the Week" for his disturbing "end times" remarks and claims that he is doing "God's work." Vance appeared a few days ago in a lengthy interview with podcaster and evangelicalChristian influencer Bryce Crawford, in which he detailed his beliefs about an approaching Christian apocalypse and his public duty to do "God's work." The podcast episode has already garnered over 1 million views on YouTube.
When asked by Crawford whether humanity could be approaching a Christian apocalypse, Vance said, "Do I think that we're in the end times? I don't know," adding that there are "things about the world that make me feel like I'd be not shocked if the Antichrist was walking among us."
Vance told Crawford that Christians are "commanded to try to, as much as possible, try to make the world the kind of world that God wants it to be." Regarding his own priorities as vice president, Vance said, "I'm trying to focus on doing as much of God's work as possible right now. And if that leads to the end times, OK."
When Crawford asked him whether, while vice president, he had come across evidence that the spiritual world is real, Vance took the opportunity to reiterate his claim that divine providence had guided President Trump's survival of an assassination attempt in 2024. Vance said, "He turned his head. The guy fired the bullet. Crazy coincidence, right? These things happen. But I think that that's a very spiritually impoverished way to look at things. Like, whatever the reason is, whatever God was trying to accomplish, like, it is just so obvious to me that coincidences like that don't happen without the hand of Providence."
"I would have assumed very dark forces had taken out Donald Trump, right as he was about to come back into the White House," Vance continued, referring to the scenario of Trump not surviving the assassination attempt. "There would have just been an illegitimacy to our entire political system."
Vance, and Trump himself, have both characterized the second Trump administration as guided by God's hand.
These claims are not new for Vance. In his spiritual memoir, published earlier this summer and detailing the vice president's conversion to Catholicism, Vance has written, "I think you got to just kinda try and have an attitude of: The end times may be coming, in fact they are coming, it's just a question of whether they're coming thousands of years down the road, or a few months down the road."
While Vance is free to hold his personal religious beliefs, he also wields enormous secular power as vice president and has routinely misportrayed his public office as a vehicle for divine will. (Vance is now a three-time "Theocrat of the Week.")
Our secular Constitution doesn't direct any governmental official to carry out "God's work" or to prepare the world for Armageddon -- which Vance appears to believe is truly coming.
* * *
FFRF Action Fund is a 501(c)(4) organization that develops and advocates for legislation, regulations and government programs to preserve the constitutional principle of separation between state and church. It also advocates for the rights and views of nonbelievers, endorses candidates for political office, and publicizes the views of elected officials concerning religious liberty issues.
* * *
Original text here: https://ffrfaction.org/theocrat-jd-vance-claims-hes-doing-gods-work-in-disturbing-end-times-riff/
[Category: Sociological]
* * *
'Theocrat' JD Vance claims he's doing 'God's work' in disturbing 'end times' riff
=The FFRF Action Fund names Vice President JD Vance its "Theocrat of the Week" for his disturbing "end times" remarks and claims that he is doing "God's work."
Vance appeared a few days ago in a lengthy interview with podcaster and evangelical ... Show Full Article MADISON, Wisconsin, Sept. 12 -- FFRF Action Fund, an organization that says it develops and advocates for legislation, regulations and government programs to preserve the constitutional principle of separation between state and church, posted the following news: * * * 'Theocrat' JD Vance claims he's doing 'God's work' in disturbing 'end times' riff =The FFRF Action Fund names Vice President JD Vance its "Theocrat of the Week" for his disturbing "end times" remarks and claims that he is doing "God's work." Vance appeared a few days ago in a lengthy interview with podcaster and evangelicalChristian influencer Bryce Crawford, in which he detailed his beliefs about an approaching Christian apocalypse and his public duty to do "God's work." The podcast episode has already garnered over 1 million views on YouTube.
When asked by Crawford whether humanity could be approaching a Christian apocalypse, Vance said, "Do I think that we're in the end times? I don't know," adding that there are "things about the world that make me feel like I'd be not shocked if the Antichrist was walking among us."
Vance told Crawford that Christians are "commanded to try to, as much as possible, try to make the world the kind of world that God wants it to be." Regarding his own priorities as vice president, Vance said, "I'm trying to focus on doing as much of God's work as possible right now. And if that leads to the end times, OK."
When Crawford asked him whether, while vice president, he had come across evidence that the spiritual world is real, Vance took the opportunity to reiterate his claim that divine providence had guided President Trump's survival of an assassination attempt in 2024. Vance said, "He turned his head. The guy fired the bullet. Crazy coincidence, right? These things happen. But I think that that's a very spiritually impoverished way to look at things. Like, whatever the reason is, whatever God was trying to accomplish, like, it is just so obvious to me that coincidences like that don't happen without the hand of Providence."
"I would have assumed very dark forces had taken out Donald Trump, right as he was about to come back into the White House," Vance continued, referring to the scenario of Trump not surviving the assassination attempt. "There would have just been an illegitimacy to our entire political system."
Vance, and Trump himself, have both characterized the second Trump administration as guided by God's hand.
These claims are not new for Vance. In his spiritual memoir, published earlier this summer and detailing the vice president's conversion to Catholicism, Vance has written, "I think you got to just kinda try and have an attitude of: The end times may be coming, in fact they are coming, it's just a question of whether they're coming thousands of years down the road, or a few months down the road."
While Vance is free to hold his personal religious beliefs, he also wields enormous secular power as vice president and has routinely misportrayed his public office as a vehicle for divine will. (Vance is now a three-time "Theocrat of the Week.")
Our secular Constitution doesn't direct any governmental official to carry out "God's work" or to prepare the world for Armageddon -- which Vance appears to believe is truly coming.
* * *
FFRF Action Fund is a 501(c)(4) organization that develops and advocates for legislation, regulations and government programs to preserve the constitutional principle of separation between state and church. It also advocates for the rights and views of nonbelievers, endorses candidates for political office, and publicizes the views of elected officials concerning religious liberty issues.
* * *
Original text here: https://ffrfaction.org/theocrat-jd-vance-claims-hes-doing-gods-work-in-disturbing-end-times-riff/
[Category: Sociological]
Earthjustice: Trump Administration Loses First Court Case Challenging DOE Orders for Coal Plants
SAN FRANCISCO, California, Sept. 12 -- Earthjustice issued the following news release on Sept. 11, 2026:
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Trump Administration Loses First Court Case Challenging DOE Orders for Coal Plants
Victory -- Court rules against the DOE order for the J.H. Campbell coal power plant in Michigan
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Washington, D.C. -- Today, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Trump administration's abuse of emergency powers to force coal plants across the country to continue operating long-past their planned retirement.
The court affirmed that the Department of Energy (DOE) grossly overstepped its ... Show Full Article SAN FRANCISCO, California, Sept. 12 -- Earthjustice issued the following news release on Sept. 11, 2026: * * * Trump Administration Loses First Court Case Challenging DOE Orders for Coal Plants Victory -- Court rules against the DOE order for the J.H. Campbell coal power plant in Michigan - Washington, D.C. -- Today, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Trump administration's abuse of emergency powers to force coal plants across the country to continue operating long-past their planned retirement. The court affirmed that the Department of Energy (DOE) grossly overstepped itsauthority when it prevented the retirement of the J.H. Campbell coal plant. The court ruled that the Department's justification for the order -- that it can keep a power plant open when there is no imminent need to do so -- was unlawful.
"The court rebuked the Trump administration's abuse of emergency powers," said Michael Lenoff, Earthjustice attorney. "The DOE needs to stay in its lane and use its emergency powers only in actual emergencies. Preventing the market-driven retirements of coal plants to advance a coal-friendly agenda is not a proper use of emergency powers. We will continue to challenge unlawful orders if DOE persists in issuing them."
The court order finds that the DOE cannot invoke Section 202(c) unless it establishes a genuine emergency. The court agreed that the federal government may not override well-established long-term planning processes to force an old, polluting coal plant to continue to operate. The court further affirmed that the management of day-to-day fluctuations in demand and supply belongs to grid operators and utilities, while states and grid operators are ready and able to plan for future long-term demand growth. The order states, "the Department's reading of 'emergency' invites frequent federal interventions that are unsupported by the statute and threaten the stability of the energy market."
There is no evidence that continued operation of Campbell and these other plants in Indiana, Colorado, Washington, and Florida is imminently needed, and the DOE should stop issuing orders requiring their operation.
Earthjustice argued the legal challenge against the Department of Energy's illegal application of Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act, representing the Sierra Club and Urban Core Collective. Earthjustice represents public interest groups challenging the DOE orders issued to six U.S. power plants in five states.
"Today's ruling is a victory for families across the Midwest who are tired of paying to keep this old, expensive, and dirty power plant online," said Sierra Club Chief Appellate Counsel Sanjay Narayan. "Instead of working to lower costs and clean up our air and water, the Trump administration has been pulling out all the stops to try to bolster dirty and expensive fossil fuels -- at public expense. This reckless agenda will not succeed. We will continue to hold the Department of Energy accountable to the law, and ensure that the J.H. Campbell plant finally retires as it was scheduled to, and we will continue to fight back against the other illegal extensions across the country."
In May 2025, DOE issued an order under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act forcing the J.H. Campbell power plant to remain operational just days before it was due to retire. Since then, the "emergency" order has been re-issued six times by DOE. The costs of operating the coal plant unnecessarily for the last year exceeded $248 million in June, according to the company's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, a cost of $642,000 per day. At no point over the last year was the electricity from the power plant needed. The DOE orders overrode careful planning by the state and the grid operator, and tireless efforts by community members who advocated replacing this old, polluting, and uneconomic coal plant with cleaner sources of electricity.
Earthjustice, the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, Environmental Law and Policy Center, Clean Air Task Force, and Environmental Defense Fund represented a large public interest coalition that petitioned the court to set aside DOE's order forcing the J.H. Campbell coal plant to operate. The states of Michigan, Minnesota, and Illinois, also petitioned the court.
* * *
Additional Resources
* About the Clean Energy Program (https://earthjustice.org/office/clean-energy)
* * *
About Earthjustice
Earthjustice is the premier nonprofit environmental law organization. We wield the power of law and the strength of partnership to protect people's health, to preserve magnificent places and wildlife, to advance clean energy, and to combat climate change. We are here because the earth needs a good lawyer.
* * *
Original text here: https://earthjustice.org/press/2026/trump-administration-loses-first-court-case-challenging-doe-orders-for-coal-plants
[Category: Environment]
* * *
Trump Administration Loses First Court Case Challenging DOE Orders for Coal Plants
Victory -- Court rules against the DOE order for the J.H. Campbell coal power plant in Michigan
-
Washington, D.C. -- Today, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Trump administration's abuse of emergency powers to force coal plants across the country to continue operating long-past their planned retirement.
The court affirmed that the Department of Energy (DOE) grossly overstepped its ... Show Full Article SAN FRANCISCO, California, Sept. 12 -- Earthjustice issued the following news release on Sept. 11, 2026: * * * Trump Administration Loses First Court Case Challenging DOE Orders for Coal Plants Victory -- Court rules against the DOE order for the J.H. Campbell coal power plant in Michigan - Washington, D.C. -- Today, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Trump administration's abuse of emergency powers to force coal plants across the country to continue operating long-past their planned retirement. The court affirmed that the Department of Energy (DOE) grossly overstepped itsauthority when it prevented the retirement of the J.H. Campbell coal plant. The court ruled that the Department's justification for the order -- that it can keep a power plant open when there is no imminent need to do so -- was unlawful.
"The court rebuked the Trump administration's abuse of emergency powers," said Michael Lenoff, Earthjustice attorney. "The DOE needs to stay in its lane and use its emergency powers only in actual emergencies. Preventing the market-driven retirements of coal plants to advance a coal-friendly agenda is not a proper use of emergency powers. We will continue to challenge unlawful orders if DOE persists in issuing them."
The court order finds that the DOE cannot invoke Section 202(c) unless it establishes a genuine emergency. The court agreed that the federal government may not override well-established long-term planning processes to force an old, polluting coal plant to continue to operate. The court further affirmed that the management of day-to-day fluctuations in demand and supply belongs to grid operators and utilities, while states and grid operators are ready and able to plan for future long-term demand growth. The order states, "the Department's reading of 'emergency' invites frequent federal interventions that are unsupported by the statute and threaten the stability of the energy market."
There is no evidence that continued operation of Campbell and these other plants in Indiana, Colorado, Washington, and Florida is imminently needed, and the DOE should stop issuing orders requiring their operation.
Earthjustice argued the legal challenge against the Department of Energy's illegal application of Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act, representing the Sierra Club and Urban Core Collective. Earthjustice represents public interest groups challenging the DOE orders issued to six U.S. power plants in five states.
"Today's ruling is a victory for families across the Midwest who are tired of paying to keep this old, expensive, and dirty power plant online," said Sierra Club Chief Appellate Counsel Sanjay Narayan. "Instead of working to lower costs and clean up our air and water, the Trump administration has been pulling out all the stops to try to bolster dirty and expensive fossil fuels -- at public expense. This reckless agenda will not succeed. We will continue to hold the Department of Energy accountable to the law, and ensure that the J.H. Campbell plant finally retires as it was scheduled to, and we will continue to fight back against the other illegal extensions across the country."
In May 2025, DOE issued an order under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act forcing the J.H. Campbell power plant to remain operational just days before it was due to retire. Since then, the "emergency" order has been re-issued six times by DOE. The costs of operating the coal plant unnecessarily for the last year exceeded $248 million in June, according to the company's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, a cost of $642,000 per day. At no point over the last year was the electricity from the power plant needed. The DOE orders overrode careful planning by the state and the grid operator, and tireless efforts by community members who advocated replacing this old, polluting, and uneconomic coal plant with cleaner sources of electricity.
Earthjustice, the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, Environmental Law and Policy Center, Clean Air Task Force, and Environmental Defense Fund represented a large public interest coalition that petitioned the court to set aside DOE's order forcing the J.H. Campbell coal plant to operate. The states of Michigan, Minnesota, and Illinois, also petitioned the court.
* * *
Additional Resources
* About the Clean Energy Program (https://earthjustice.org/office/clean-energy)
* * *
About Earthjustice
Earthjustice is the premier nonprofit environmental law organization. We wield the power of law and the strength of partnership to protect people's health, to preserve magnificent places and wildlife, to advance clean energy, and to combat climate change. We are here because the earth needs a good lawyer.
* * *
Original text here: https://earthjustice.org/press/2026/trump-administration-loses-first-court-case-challenging-doe-orders-for-coal-plants
[Category: Environment]
Children's Health Defense Issues Commentary: Synthetic Biology Is Transforming the Food Supply. Is FDA Doing Enough to Protect Kids?
FRANKLIN LAKES, New Jersey, Sept. 12 -- Children's Health Defense, an organization that says it restores and protects the health of children by eliminating exposures to environmental toxins, issued the following commentary by Henrick Karoliszyn, investigative reporter for The Defender:
* * *
Synthetic Biology Is Transforming the Food Supply. Is FDA Doing Enough to Protect Kids?
The FDA is proposing mandatory -- rather than voluntary -- notification when food companies determine that ingredients they add to food are "generally recognized as safe," or GRAS. But food safety advocates allege the ... Show Full Article FRANKLIN LAKES, New Jersey, Sept. 12 -- Children's Health Defense, an organization that says it restores and protects the health of children by eliminating exposures to environmental toxins, issued the following commentary by Henrick Karoliszyn, investigative reporter for The Defender: * * * Synthetic Biology Is Transforming the Food Supply. Is FDA Doing Enough to Protect Kids? The FDA is proposing mandatory -- rather than voluntary -- notification when food companies determine that ingredients they add to food are "generally recognized as safe," or GRAS. But food safety advocates allege thenew system still allows synbio food ingredients to enter the market before the ingredients have undergone adequate testing for safety and nutrition.
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is proposing mandatory -- rather than voluntary -- notification when food companies determine that ingredients they add to food are "generally recognized as safe," or GRAS.
The move, announced last month by the Trump administration, comes as a growing number of food ingredients are being developed using synthetic biology.
The agency said the proposed change would give regulators and the public more information about what is being added to the food supply and help the FDA identify potentially unsafe uses.
"Shifting to a mandatory notification system closes a decades-old information gap, giving the FDA the comprehensive visibility needed to enhance postmarket safety," acting FDA Commissioner Kyle Diamantas said during a press briefing.
The FDA will accept public comments on the proposal for 120 days.
The proposal would not require the FDA to approve every GRAS ingredient before it reaches consumers. Companies would continue to make the initial determination that a substance qualifies as GRAS, but they would have to notify the FDA and provide supporting information.
The proposed change comes as food manufacturers increasingly use precision fermentation, a form of synthetic biology that uses genetically engineered microorganisms to produce specific proteins, fats, enzymes and other substances.
Some companies are using the technology to produce plant-based proteins designed to replicate conventional animal foods, including dairy and egg proteins.
Several precision-fermented ingredients have received "FDA has no questions" letters under the existing GRAS notification system.
The technology has raised questions about what consumers are actually eating, how those ingredients are evaluated and whether existing regulatory requirements provide enough information about the food.
'Children should not become the post-marketing safety study'
Little is known about the long-term effects on children of regularly consuming foods containing synthetic biology-derived ingredients, as long-term data are limited.
Dr. Michelle Perro, a pediatrician and author who studies children's health, said she is skeptical.
"My greatest concern as a pediatrician is not that we have proven these foods are harmful to children," Perro said. "My concern is precisely the opposite: We do not have adequate evidence demonstrating the long-term safety of repeated consumption of many of these newly manufactured food ingredients during childhood."
Perro said children may be particularly sensitive to dietary exposures because their immune, metabolic and other biological systems are still developing.
"Children are not simply smaller adults," she said. "Their immune systems, intestinal microbiome, nervous systems, endocrine systems and metabolic pathways are developing rapidly. Exposures occurring during these developmental windows can have consequences that would not necessarily be predicted by short-term testing in adults."
Children need adequate protein, fats, vitamins and minerals for growth and development. Replacing conventional food with genetically modified organisms (GMO) or lab-grown ingredients can alter the nutritional composition of the final product.
For example, producing one protein found in milk does not re-create milk.
Cow's milk is a complex combination of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, minerals and other compounds. A product containing certain ingredients may reproduce one component or function of milk without reproducing its complete nutritional composition.
Perro said that difference warrants more research, particularly when products could become routine parts of children's diets.
"The appropriate scientific position is neither 'these products are definitely dangerous' nor 'the technology is safe because the intended protein resembles a natural protein,'" she said. "The appropriate position is: Show us the data."
Perro said she would like to see independent testing to determine exactly what these foods contain, including any unintended proteins or other substances they may produce.
She also wants testing to determine if they could cause allergic or immune reactions, along with studies on toxicity, effects on gut microbiome, child development and children's health over the long term.
"Children should not become the post-marketing safety study," she said.
What is precision fermentation?
Precision fermentation differs from traditional fermentation used to make foods such as yogurt, bread and sauerkraut.
In precision fermentation, microorganisms such as yeast or fungi are genetically engineered to produce a particular substance. The microorganism is grown in fermentation tanks, and the desired substance is then harvested and purified for use in food.
One example is beta-lactoglobulin, a major whey protein found in cow's milk. Companies can engineer microorganisms to produce a version of the protein without obtaining it directly from an animal.
The technology is promoted as a way to create specific food components at scale while reducing dependence on livestock. Supporters point to potential benefits involving cost, efficiency, sustainability and the ability to produce proteins with predictable functional characteristics.
But the technology used to manufacture an ingredient can create something new even when the intended molecule resembles one humans have consumed for generations.
A 2026 study published in Scientific Reports analyzed a commercially available "synbio milk" product using the fungus Trichoderma reesei.
The researchers found substantial differences between the product and conventional cow's milk. Of 69 nutritional compounds identified in bovine milk, only seven were detected in the synthetic-biology product, and generally in smaller amounts.
The study does not conclude that the product is toxic or that the unidentified compounds are dangerous. Rather, the researchers said the findings demonstrate a need for additional testing to determine any health risks.
"Therefore, comprehensive toxicity and allergenicity testing are needed to assess the safety of synbio milk for human consumption," the researchers concluded.
'Precision-fermented milk protein can still be a milk allergen'
For a child with a milk allergy, "animal-free" does not necessarily mean "free of milk allergens."
A precision-fermented dairy protein can still trigger a milk allergy even if no animal was used to produce it. The FDA's GRAS database includes multiple notifications for beta-lactoglobulin for use in milk substitutes and other foods.
"A precision-fermented milk protein can still be a milk allergen," Perro said.
She also raised questions about the manufacturing organism and purification process, including the possibility of residual proteins, metabolites and other compounds generated during fermentation.
"Regulators and researchers have identified potential safety issues involving host cell proteins and other remnants, microbial contaminants, unintended metabolites, toxins, chemical residues and unintended biological activity," Perro said.
Food-safety authorities have raised concerns about whether consumers can recognize potential allergens when the technology used to make an ingredient is not obvious from the food's label.
Britain's Food Standards Agency warned in June that allergens for precision-fermented foods need to be clearly labeled. The agency cited precision-fermented dairy alternatives as an example.
Did the FDA go far enough?
The FDA proposal would not mean every synthetic-biology food receives a separate FDA safety determination before reaching consumers.
That frustrates some food-safety advocates, who say mandatory notification does not go far enough.
Alexis Baden-Mayer, writing in a Substack commentary, stated that the proposal would allow companies to continue using the GRAS designation rather than obtaining traditional premarket approval for food additives.
Baden-Mayer wrote:
"GRAS is a failed process that lets companies claim that new synthetic Frankenfoods are exempt from pre-market safety testing. Under the loophole, all a company has to do is decide, on its own, that its novel ingredient is GRAS.
"As things stand now, the company doesn't even have to tell the FDA it has done so. This means we have no way to find out what new synthetic Frankenfoods are entering the food supply or what the risks of eating them might be."
Baden-Mayer argued that recent action by U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the proposal would not create the systemic change she wants to see in the food system.
"He isn't doing anything to close it or even tighten it up," Baden-Mayer wrote.
HHS and the FDA did not respond to a request for comment.
The FDA said GRAS substances can be exempt from food-additive requirements when they meet the applicable legal standard for safety based on scientific procedures supported by evidence.
The FDA's proposed GRAS rule comes as the Trump administration's Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda has placed greater emphasis on food ingredients and food safety.
Additionally, the FDA announced it was completing its first federal definition of ultraprocessed food, which advocates believe could expedite closer analysis and food transparency. The definition was not disclosed.
Related articles in The Defender
* Food Additives Causing Harm, Reforms Urgently Needed, AAP Says (https://childrenshealthdefense.org/government/food-additives-causing-harm-reforms-urgently-needed-aap-says/)
* Food Without Farms: Coke, Nestle, Pepsi Among Ultra-processed Food Giants Running Global Food Policy (https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/ultra-processed-food-giants-global-food-policy-coke-nestle-pepsi/)
* Foods Containing These 5 Toxic Chemicals Could Be Banned Under New Law (https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/california-law-toxic-chemicals-processed-foods-cola/)
* Food Safety Group Sues FDA Over Documents Related to Approval of GMO Salmon (https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/pfizer-tests-lyme-disease-vaccine-kids/)
* GMO Foods Linked to Increased Risk of Health Problems in Children (https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/gmo-foods-increased-risk-health-problems-children/)
* * *
Henrick Karoliszyn, DSW, is an investigative reporter for The Defender.
* * *
Original text here: https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/synthetic-biology-transforming-the-food-supply-is-fda-doing-enough-protect-kids/
[Category: Health Care]
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Synthetic Biology Is Transforming the Food Supply. Is FDA Doing Enough to Protect Kids?
The FDA is proposing mandatory -- rather than voluntary -- notification when food companies determine that ingredients they add to food are "generally recognized as safe," or GRAS. But food safety advocates allege the ... Show Full Article FRANKLIN LAKES, New Jersey, Sept. 12 -- Children's Health Defense, an organization that says it restores and protects the health of children by eliminating exposures to environmental toxins, issued the following commentary by Henrick Karoliszyn, investigative reporter for The Defender: * * * Synthetic Biology Is Transforming the Food Supply. Is FDA Doing Enough to Protect Kids? The FDA is proposing mandatory -- rather than voluntary -- notification when food companies determine that ingredients they add to food are "generally recognized as safe," or GRAS. But food safety advocates allege thenew system still allows synbio food ingredients to enter the market before the ingredients have undergone adequate testing for safety and nutrition.
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is proposing mandatory -- rather than voluntary -- notification when food companies determine that ingredients they add to food are "generally recognized as safe," or GRAS.
The move, announced last month by the Trump administration, comes as a growing number of food ingredients are being developed using synthetic biology.
The agency said the proposed change would give regulators and the public more information about what is being added to the food supply and help the FDA identify potentially unsafe uses.
"Shifting to a mandatory notification system closes a decades-old information gap, giving the FDA the comprehensive visibility needed to enhance postmarket safety," acting FDA Commissioner Kyle Diamantas said during a press briefing.
The FDA will accept public comments on the proposal for 120 days.
The proposal would not require the FDA to approve every GRAS ingredient before it reaches consumers. Companies would continue to make the initial determination that a substance qualifies as GRAS, but they would have to notify the FDA and provide supporting information.
The proposed change comes as food manufacturers increasingly use precision fermentation, a form of synthetic biology that uses genetically engineered microorganisms to produce specific proteins, fats, enzymes and other substances.
Some companies are using the technology to produce plant-based proteins designed to replicate conventional animal foods, including dairy and egg proteins.
Several precision-fermented ingredients have received "FDA has no questions" letters under the existing GRAS notification system.
The technology has raised questions about what consumers are actually eating, how those ingredients are evaluated and whether existing regulatory requirements provide enough information about the food.
'Children should not become the post-marketing safety study'
Little is known about the long-term effects on children of regularly consuming foods containing synthetic biology-derived ingredients, as long-term data are limited.
Dr. Michelle Perro, a pediatrician and author who studies children's health, said she is skeptical.
"My greatest concern as a pediatrician is not that we have proven these foods are harmful to children," Perro said. "My concern is precisely the opposite: We do not have adequate evidence demonstrating the long-term safety of repeated consumption of many of these newly manufactured food ingredients during childhood."
Perro said children may be particularly sensitive to dietary exposures because their immune, metabolic and other biological systems are still developing.
"Children are not simply smaller adults," she said. "Their immune systems, intestinal microbiome, nervous systems, endocrine systems and metabolic pathways are developing rapidly. Exposures occurring during these developmental windows can have consequences that would not necessarily be predicted by short-term testing in adults."
Children need adequate protein, fats, vitamins and minerals for growth and development. Replacing conventional food with genetically modified organisms (GMO) or lab-grown ingredients can alter the nutritional composition of the final product.
For example, producing one protein found in milk does not re-create milk.
Cow's milk is a complex combination of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, minerals and other compounds. A product containing certain ingredients may reproduce one component or function of milk without reproducing its complete nutritional composition.
Perro said that difference warrants more research, particularly when products could become routine parts of children's diets.
"The appropriate scientific position is neither 'these products are definitely dangerous' nor 'the technology is safe because the intended protein resembles a natural protein,'" she said. "The appropriate position is: Show us the data."
Perro said she would like to see independent testing to determine exactly what these foods contain, including any unintended proteins or other substances they may produce.
She also wants testing to determine if they could cause allergic or immune reactions, along with studies on toxicity, effects on gut microbiome, child development and children's health over the long term.
"Children should not become the post-marketing safety study," she said.
What is precision fermentation?
Precision fermentation differs from traditional fermentation used to make foods such as yogurt, bread and sauerkraut.
In precision fermentation, microorganisms such as yeast or fungi are genetically engineered to produce a particular substance. The microorganism is grown in fermentation tanks, and the desired substance is then harvested and purified for use in food.
One example is beta-lactoglobulin, a major whey protein found in cow's milk. Companies can engineer microorganisms to produce a version of the protein without obtaining it directly from an animal.
The technology is promoted as a way to create specific food components at scale while reducing dependence on livestock. Supporters point to potential benefits involving cost, efficiency, sustainability and the ability to produce proteins with predictable functional characteristics.
But the technology used to manufacture an ingredient can create something new even when the intended molecule resembles one humans have consumed for generations.
A 2026 study published in Scientific Reports analyzed a commercially available "synbio milk" product using the fungus Trichoderma reesei.
The researchers found substantial differences between the product and conventional cow's milk. Of 69 nutritional compounds identified in bovine milk, only seven were detected in the synthetic-biology product, and generally in smaller amounts.
The study does not conclude that the product is toxic or that the unidentified compounds are dangerous. Rather, the researchers said the findings demonstrate a need for additional testing to determine any health risks.
"Therefore, comprehensive toxicity and allergenicity testing are needed to assess the safety of synbio milk for human consumption," the researchers concluded.
'Precision-fermented milk protein can still be a milk allergen'
For a child with a milk allergy, "animal-free" does not necessarily mean "free of milk allergens."
A precision-fermented dairy protein can still trigger a milk allergy even if no animal was used to produce it. The FDA's GRAS database includes multiple notifications for beta-lactoglobulin for use in milk substitutes and other foods.
"A precision-fermented milk protein can still be a milk allergen," Perro said.
She also raised questions about the manufacturing organism and purification process, including the possibility of residual proteins, metabolites and other compounds generated during fermentation.
"Regulators and researchers have identified potential safety issues involving host cell proteins and other remnants, microbial contaminants, unintended metabolites, toxins, chemical residues and unintended biological activity," Perro said.
Food-safety authorities have raised concerns about whether consumers can recognize potential allergens when the technology used to make an ingredient is not obvious from the food's label.
Britain's Food Standards Agency warned in June that allergens for precision-fermented foods need to be clearly labeled. The agency cited precision-fermented dairy alternatives as an example.
Did the FDA go far enough?
The FDA proposal would not mean every synthetic-biology food receives a separate FDA safety determination before reaching consumers.
That frustrates some food-safety advocates, who say mandatory notification does not go far enough.
Alexis Baden-Mayer, writing in a Substack commentary, stated that the proposal would allow companies to continue using the GRAS designation rather than obtaining traditional premarket approval for food additives.
Baden-Mayer wrote:
"GRAS is a failed process that lets companies claim that new synthetic Frankenfoods are exempt from pre-market safety testing. Under the loophole, all a company has to do is decide, on its own, that its novel ingredient is GRAS.
"As things stand now, the company doesn't even have to tell the FDA it has done so. This means we have no way to find out what new synthetic Frankenfoods are entering the food supply or what the risks of eating them might be."
Baden-Mayer argued that recent action by U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the proposal would not create the systemic change she wants to see in the food system.
"He isn't doing anything to close it or even tighten it up," Baden-Mayer wrote.
HHS and the FDA did not respond to a request for comment.
The FDA said GRAS substances can be exempt from food-additive requirements when they meet the applicable legal standard for safety based on scientific procedures supported by evidence.
The FDA's proposed GRAS rule comes as the Trump administration's Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda has placed greater emphasis on food ingredients and food safety.
Additionally, the FDA announced it was completing its first federal definition of ultraprocessed food, which advocates believe could expedite closer analysis and food transparency. The definition was not disclosed.
Related articles in The Defender
* Food Additives Causing Harm, Reforms Urgently Needed, AAP Says (https://childrenshealthdefense.org/government/food-additives-causing-harm-reforms-urgently-needed-aap-says/)
* Food Without Farms: Coke, Nestle, Pepsi Among Ultra-processed Food Giants Running Global Food Policy (https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/ultra-processed-food-giants-global-food-policy-coke-nestle-pepsi/)
* Foods Containing These 5 Toxic Chemicals Could Be Banned Under New Law (https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/california-law-toxic-chemicals-processed-foods-cola/)
* Food Safety Group Sues FDA Over Documents Related to Approval of GMO Salmon (https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/pfizer-tests-lyme-disease-vaccine-kids/)
* GMO Foods Linked to Increased Risk of Health Problems in Children (https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/gmo-foods-increased-risk-health-problems-children/)
* * *
Henrick Karoliszyn, DSW, is an investigative reporter for The Defender.
* * *
Original text here: https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/synthetic-biology-transforming-the-food-supply-is-fda-doing-enough-protect-kids/
[Category: Health Care]
Children's Health Defense Issues Commentary: Ohio Schools Can Send Unvaccinated Kids Home for 25 Days -- Even If They're Not Sick
FRANKLIN LAKES, New Jersey, Sept. 12 -- Children's Health Defense, an organization that says it restores and protects the health of children by eliminating exposures to environmental toxins, issued the following commentary by Michael Nevradakis, senior reporter for The Defender and host of the Defender In-Depth on CHD.TV.:
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Ohio Schools Can Send Unvaccinated Kids Home for 25 Days -- Even If They're Not Sick
Under a public health order signed in February by Ohio Department of Public Health (ODH) Director Bruce Vanderhoff, schools can force unvaccinated kids to stay home whenever a school ... Show Full Article FRANKLIN LAKES, New Jersey, Sept. 12 -- Children's Health Defense, an organization that says it restores and protects the health of children by eliminating exposures to environmental toxins, issued the following commentary by Michael Nevradakis, senior reporter for The Defender and host of the Defender In-Depth on CHD.TV.: * * * Ohio Schools Can Send Unvaccinated Kids Home for 25 Days -- Even If They're Not Sick Under a public health order signed in February by Ohio Department of Public Health (ODH) Director Bruce Vanderhoff, schools can force unvaccinated kids to stay home whenever a schoolconfirms a case of measles or rubella. The policy also applies whenever a mumps or chickenpox outbreak occurs -- and it extends to sports and extracurricular activities, not just classroom attendance.
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Ohio's new policy forcing healthy, unvaccinated children out of school for 21 to 25 days after a confirmed case of measles or rubella is drawing fire from parents, lawyers and scientists.
Critics say the policy isn't needed to protect public health, it could harm children and it may be illegal.
The policy, part of a public health order signed in February by Ohio Department of Public Health (ODH) Director Bruce Vanderhoff, is enforceable even if the unvaccinated student shows no signs of illness or infection.
The policy also applies whenever a mumps or chickenpox outbreak occurs -- and it extends to sports and extracurricular activities, not just classroom attendance.
The 21-to-25-day quarantine resets every time a new case or outbreak is reported at the student's school.
Jeffrey Tucker, president and founder of the Brownstone Institute, called the policy "cruel and discriminatory" and a violation of the rights of children and their parents or guardians.
"If the policy is to protect the unvaccinated children, the parents should be the ones to decide," Tucker said.
Karl Jablonowski, Ph.D., senior research scientist for Children's Health Defense (CHD), said the "contrast between medical freedom and medical tyranny is blatant" in the policy, which he said "discriminates against people based on medical choice ... with zero evidence that they pose a risk."
Policy could lead to 'serious risk of vaccine injury'
Ohio's school vaccine mandates require students to receive routine childhood vaccinations for 10 diseases: diphtheria, hepatitis B, measles, meningococcal, mumps, pertussis (whooping cough), polio, rubella, tetanus and varicella (chickenpox).
Earlier this month, Ohio school districts sent letters to parents warning that children who haven't received two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine will be "excluded from school" for 21 days whenever the school confirms a measles case.
According to the policy, any vaccine doses children received five or more days before the minimum interval or age are "invalid" -- so those students are classified as unvaccinated and required to be re-vaccinated.
That could put those children "at serious risk of vaccine injury," according to Ohio Advocates for Medical Freedom, which called for the "immediate repeal" of the policy.
In a letter to leaders and members of the Ohio Senate and House of Representatives, the group said Ohio's policy amounts to a "coercion tactic to bully parents into submitting to vaccination against their conscience out of desperation."
Most families will be unable to find solutions to keep their unvaccinated children at home for several weeks or months, the letter noted.
Leslie Manookian, president of the Health Freedom Defense Fund, agreed that the policy appears deliberately designed to "coerce busy parents into vaccinating their children so they won't be excluded from attending school and any school-related activities."
However, Manookian questioned whether the policy will change the minds of parents who have chosen not to vaccinate their kids.
"This policy misses a larger point, which is that many parents would prefer to take the risk of their child contracting measles than to subject their child to the potential risk of the measles vaccines," she said.
Policy violates state law, attorney says
Legal experts also questioned Ohio's policy. Attorney Greg Glaser, whose practice focuses on constitutional law and the rights of the unvaccinated, called the policy a "clear abuse of administrative power" and an "unjust exclusion of healthy children from their classrooms."
Glaser said Ohio law recognizes the right of parents and caregivers to exempt their children from vaccine requirements for reasons of conscience, including religious belief.
The same law also explicitly states that schoolchildren can be excluded from school only during a declared "chicken pox epidemic."
"The state legislature never granted the Department of Health the authority to arbitrarily expand this statute to mandate weeks-long quarantines for healthy children based on isolated reports of measles, mumps or rubella," Glaser said.
Glaser said parents are "not powerless" against exclusion policies like Ohio's -- they can pressure their local school boards and state elected officials to repeal or change the rules.
"Families facing these illegal quarantines have grounds for civil litigation," he said. "No unelected health official has the authority to rewrite state law and turn schools into instruments of medical tyranny."
Is Ohio's policy scientifically sound?
Experts also questioned the science behind Ohio's new school vaccination policy. Jablonowski noted that Merck, the manufacturer of the MMR vaccine, has acknowledged that people who receive the MMR vaccine can still acquire and transmit the targeted diseases.
Jablonowski said:
"They are all live vaccines. Every vaccination is a case of the disease, typically asymptomatic cases.
"The package insert for Merck's MMRV states, 'transmission of varicella vaccine virus ... resulting in varicella infection including disseminated disease may occur between vaccine recipients ... and contacts susceptible to varicella including healthy as well as high-risk individuals.'"
According to a systematic review published last month in the peer-reviewed Expert Review of Vaccines, people who were vaccinated against measles can still contract and transmit the virus to others, and in some instances initiate substantial chains of transmission, which can "contribute to outbreaks."
In 2011, a fully vaccinated person in New York also infected others. In measles outbreaks in Italy between 2017 and 2021, many vaccinated people became infected. The same was true for a 2025 outbreak in Colorado.
"Even if every single child in a school, community or state were vaccinated, that would not stop cases of measles, because the measles vaccine suffers from both primary and secondary vaccine failure," Manookian said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that the primary failure rate of the MMR vaccine is as high as 7%.
A 2007 CDC study concluded that the immunity provided by the MMR vaccine wanes over time. The study found that 35% of vaccinated 7-year-olds, 60% of vaccinated 15-year-olds and approximately 66% of vaccinated adults can carry measles and infect others even if they don't have symptoms.
Ohio Advocates for Medical Freedom addressed the MMR vaccine's waning protection in its letter, stating that it's "absurd to discriminate against healthy unvaccinated children when more than 60% of the teachers are able to carry and spread measles to students."
In an analysis posted on Substack last week, epidemiologist Nicolas Hulscher identified at least three U.S. deaths likely linked to the MMR vaccine this year -- compared to no U.S. deaths definitively linked to measles cases.
Excluding kids from school may increase risk of self-harm
According to CHD Advocacy Director Michael Kane, evidence shows that excluding children from school can lead to their being "branded and scarred as being different and being removed."
School districts and state health boards haven't conducted studies on the potential harms of their exclusion policies. However, statistics suggest such policies may be connected to an increased rate of youth suicides in the U.S. in recent years.
Data from the Washington State Department of Children, Youth & Families show a sharp increase in youth suicides during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Nevada, the Clark County School District, which includes Las Vegas and is the fifth largest district in the U.S., reopened schools to in-person learning in January 2021, after 18 students had committed suicide since the beginning of the pandemic. That was double the number recorded in the district for all of 2019.
According to the New York State Office of Mental Health, suicide is the second-leading cause of death for youth in New York and throughout the U.S.
By contrast, official statistics from Sweden, which didn't impose lockdowns or school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic, show that suicides among young people decreased in 2020 and subsequent years.
In an interview with The Defender last year, Karl Kanthak, who has researched school vaccine exemption regulations and provided written and oral briefings on vaccine exclusion risks to boards of health and education, called school exclusion policies reckless.
Kanthak said there are parallels between students being barred from school attendance because of their vaccination status and students barred from school for disciplinary reasons.
"If anything, it is worse as the student did not break any rules to warrant the action ... It is now recognized that some youth will respond to a disciplinary suspension or expulsion with a self-harm attempt," Kanthak said.
He noted that when barring an unvaccinated child from school, administrators likely don't know anything about the student's mental status.
Related articles in The Defender
* Vaccinated People Can and Do Spread Measles, Peer-Reviewed Analysis Finds (https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/vaccinated-people-can-and-do-spread-measles-peer-reviewed-analysis-finds/)
* CDC Official: MMR Vaccine Doesn't Guarantee Protection Against Measles (https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/cdc-mmr-vaccine-does-not-guarantee-protection-against-measles/)
* Measles Cases Surged 20% Globally But Deaths Declined by 8% -- Are More Vaccines the Answer? (https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/global-measles-cases-deaths-decline-cdc-who-report/)
* 2 'Measles-Associated' Deaths in Pennsylvania Spark Media Blitz -- But Officials Won't Release Details (https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/pennsylvania-two-measles-associated-deaths-media-blitz-officials-decline-share-details/)
* Latest Measles Outbreaks a Result of Failed Vaccines -- Not Failure to Vaccinate (https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/latest-measles-outbreaks-result-failed-vaccines-not-failure-to-vaccinate/)
* Barring Teens With Medical Exemptions From Classroom Increases Suicide Risk (https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/barring-teens-medical-exemptions-vaccines-classroom-increases-suicide-risk/)
* * *
Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D., based in Athens, Greece, is a senior reporter for The Defender and host of "The Defender In-Depth" on CHD.TV.
* * *
Original text here: https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/ohio-schools-unvaccinated-kids-home-25-days-even-not-sick/
[Category: Health Care]
* * *
Ohio Schools Can Send Unvaccinated Kids Home for 25 Days -- Even If They're Not Sick
Under a public health order signed in February by Ohio Department of Public Health (ODH) Director Bruce Vanderhoff, schools can force unvaccinated kids to stay home whenever a school ... Show Full Article FRANKLIN LAKES, New Jersey, Sept. 12 -- Children's Health Defense, an organization that says it restores and protects the health of children by eliminating exposures to environmental toxins, issued the following commentary by Michael Nevradakis, senior reporter for The Defender and host of the Defender In-Depth on CHD.TV.: * * * Ohio Schools Can Send Unvaccinated Kids Home for 25 Days -- Even If They're Not Sick Under a public health order signed in February by Ohio Department of Public Health (ODH) Director Bruce Vanderhoff, schools can force unvaccinated kids to stay home whenever a schoolconfirms a case of measles or rubella. The policy also applies whenever a mumps or chickenpox outbreak occurs -- and it extends to sports and extracurricular activities, not just classroom attendance.
-
Ohio's new policy forcing healthy, unvaccinated children out of school for 21 to 25 days after a confirmed case of measles or rubella is drawing fire from parents, lawyers and scientists.
Critics say the policy isn't needed to protect public health, it could harm children and it may be illegal.
The policy, part of a public health order signed in February by Ohio Department of Public Health (ODH) Director Bruce Vanderhoff, is enforceable even if the unvaccinated student shows no signs of illness or infection.
The policy also applies whenever a mumps or chickenpox outbreak occurs -- and it extends to sports and extracurricular activities, not just classroom attendance.
The 21-to-25-day quarantine resets every time a new case or outbreak is reported at the student's school.
Jeffrey Tucker, president and founder of the Brownstone Institute, called the policy "cruel and discriminatory" and a violation of the rights of children and their parents or guardians.
"If the policy is to protect the unvaccinated children, the parents should be the ones to decide," Tucker said.
Karl Jablonowski, Ph.D., senior research scientist for Children's Health Defense (CHD), said the "contrast between medical freedom and medical tyranny is blatant" in the policy, which he said "discriminates against people based on medical choice ... with zero evidence that they pose a risk."
Policy could lead to 'serious risk of vaccine injury'
Ohio's school vaccine mandates require students to receive routine childhood vaccinations for 10 diseases: diphtheria, hepatitis B, measles, meningococcal, mumps, pertussis (whooping cough), polio, rubella, tetanus and varicella (chickenpox).
Earlier this month, Ohio school districts sent letters to parents warning that children who haven't received two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine will be "excluded from school" for 21 days whenever the school confirms a measles case.
According to the policy, any vaccine doses children received five or more days before the minimum interval or age are "invalid" -- so those students are classified as unvaccinated and required to be re-vaccinated.
That could put those children "at serious risk of vaccine injury," according to Ohio Advocates for Medical Freedom, which called for the "immediate repeal" of the policy.
In a letter to leaders and members of the Ohio Senate and House of Representatives, the group said Ohio's policy amounts to a "coercion tactic to bully parents into submitting to vaccination against their conscience out of desperation."
Most families will be unable to find solutions to keep their unvaccinated children at home for several weeks or months, the letter noted.
Leslie Manookian, president of the Health Freedom Defense Fund, agreed that the policy appears deliberately designed to "coerce busy parents into vaccinating their children so they won't be excluded from attending school and any school-related activities."
However, Manookian questioned whether the policy will change the minds of parents who have chosen not to vaccinate their kids.
"This policy misses a larger point, which is that many parents would prefer to take the risk of their child contracting measles than to subject their child to the potential risk of the measles vaccines," she said.
Policy violates state law, attorney says
Legal experts also questioned Ohio's policy. Attorney Greg Glaser, whose practice focuses on constitutional law and the rights of the unvaccinated, called the policy a "clear abuse of administrative power" and an "unjust exclusion of healthy children from their classrooms."
Glaser said Ohio law recognizes the right of parents and caregivers to exempt their children from vaccine requirements for reasons of conscience, including religious belief.
The same law also explicitly states that schoolchildren can be excluded from school only during a declared "chicken pox epidemic."
"The state legislature never granted the Department of Health the authority to arbitrarily expand this statute to mandate weeks-long quarantines for healthy children based on isolated reports of measles, mumps or rubella," Glaser said.
Glaser said parents are "not powerless" against exclusion policies like Ohio's -- they can pressure their local school boards and state elected officials to repeal or change the rules.
"Families facing these illegal quarantines have grounds for civil litigation," he said. "No unelected health official has the authority to rewrite state law and turn schools into instruments of medical tyranny."
Is Ohio's policy scientifically sound?
Experts also questioned the science behind Ohio's new school vaccination policy. Jablonowski noted that Merck, the manufacturer of the MMR vaccine, has acknowledged that people who receive the MMR vaccine can still acquire and transmit the targeted diseases.
Jablonowski said:
"They are all live vaccines. Every vaccination is a case of the disease, typically asymptomatic cases.
"The package insert for Merck's MMRV states, 'transmission of varicella vaccine virus ... resulting in varicella infection including disseminated disease may occur between vaccine recipients ... and contacts susceptible to varicella including healthy as well as high-risk individuals.'"
According to a systematic review published last month in the peer-reviewed Expert Review of Vaccines, people who were vaccinated against measles can still contract and transmit the virus to others, and in some instances initiate substantial chains of transmission, which can "contribute to outbreaks."
In 2011, a fully vaccinated person in New York also infected others. In measles outbreaks in Italy between 2017 and 2021, many vaccinated people became infected. The same was true for a 2025 outbreak in Colorado.
"Even if every single child in a school, community or state were vaccinated, that would not stop cases of measles, because the measles vaccine suffers from both primary and secondary vaccine failure," Manookian said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that the primary failure rate of the MMR vaccine is as high as 7%.
A 2007 CDC study concluded that the immunity provided by the MMR vaccine wanes over time. The study found that 35% of vaccinated 7-year-olds, 60% of vaccinated 15-year-olds and approximately 66% of vaccinated adults can carry measles and infect others even if they don't have symptoms.
Ohio Advocates for Medical Freedom addressed the MMR vaccine's waning protection in its letter, stating that it's "absurd to discriminate against healthy unvaccinated children when more than 60% of the teachers are able to carry and spread measles to students."
In an analysis posted on Substack last week, epidemiologist Nicolas Hulscher identified at least three U.S. deaths likely linked to the MMR vaccine this year -- compared to no U.S. deaths definitively linked to measles cases.
Excluding kids from school may increase risk of self-harm
According to CHD Advocacy Director Michael Kane, evidence shows that excluding children from school can lead to their being "branded and scarred as being different and being removed."
School districts and state health boards haven't conducted studies on the potential harms of their exclusion policies. However, statistics suggest such policies may be connected to an increased rate of youth suicides in the U.S. in recent years.
Data from the Washington State Department of Children, Youth & Families show a sharp increase in youth suicides during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Nevada, the Clark County School District, which includes Las Vegas and is the fifth largest district in the U.S., reopened schools to in-person learning in January 2021, after 18 students had committed suicide since the beginning of the pandemic. That was double the number recorded in the district for all of 2019.
According to the New York State Office of Mental Health, suicide is the second-leading cause of death for youth in New York and throughout the U.S.
By contrast, official statistics from Sweden, which didn't impose lockdowns or school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic, show that suicides among young people decreased in 2020 and subsequent years.
In an interview with The Defender last year, Karl Kanthak, who has researched school vaccine exemption regulations and provided written and oral briefings on vaccine exclusion risks to boards of health and education, called school exclusion policies reckless.
Kanthak said there are parallels between students being barred from school attendance because of their vaccination status and students barred from school for disciplinary reasons.
"If anything, it is worse as the student did not break any rules to warrant the action ... It is now recognized that some youth will respond to a disciplinary suspension or expulsion with a self-harm attempt," Kanthak said.
He noted that when barring an unvaccinated child from school, administrators likely don't know anything about the student's mental status.
Related articles in The Defender
* Vaccinated People Can and Do Spread Measles, Peer-Reviewed Analysis Finds (https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/vaccinated-people-can-and-do-spread-measles-peer-reviewed-analysis-finds/)
* CDC Official: MMR Vaccine Doesn't Guarantee Protection Against Measles (https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/cdc-mmr-vaccine-does-not-guarantee-protection-against-measles/)
* Measles Cases Surged 20% Globally But Deaths Declined by 8% -- Are More Vaccines the Answer? (https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/global-measles-cases-deaths-decline-cdc-who-report/)
* 2 'Measles-Associated' Deaths in Pennsylvania Spark Media Blitz -- But Officials Won't Release Details (https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/pennsylvania-two-measles-associated-deaths-media-blitz-officials-decline-share-details/)
* Latest Measles Outbreaks a Result of Failed Vaccines -- Not Failure to Vaccinate (https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/latest-measles-outbreaks-result-failed-vaccines-not-failure-to-vaccinate/)
* Barring Teens With Medical Exemptions From Classroom Increases Suicide Risk (https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/barring-teens-medical-exemptions-vaccines-classroom-increases-suicide-risk/)
* * *
Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D., based in Athens, Greece, is a senior reporter for The Defender and host of "The Defender In-Depth" on CHD.TV.
* * *
Original text here: https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/ohio-schools-unvaccinated-kids-home-25-days-even-not-sick/
[Category: Health Care]
Center for a Humane Economy: Former NFL Player LeShon Johnson Imprisoned for Dogfighting
WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 -- The Center for a Humane Economy posted the following news release on Sept. 11, 2026:
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Former NFL Player LeShon Johnson Imprisoned for Dogfighting
Group applauds federal prosecution of Johnson but says the prison term should have been doubled as a repeat offender tied to record seizure of 190 dogs
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Tulsa, Okla. -- Animal Wellness Action today applauded the U.S. Department of Justice and FBI for prosecuting former NFL player and repeat animal-fighting offender LeShon Eugene Johnson, but said he should have received a longer prison term for a repeat offender running ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 -- The Center for a Humane Economy posted the following news release on Sept. 11, 2026: * * * Former NFL Player LeShon Johnson Imprisoned for Dogfighting Group applauds federal prosecution of Johnson but says the prison term should have been doubled as a repeat offender tied to record seizure of 190 dogs - Tulsa, Okla. -- Animal Wellness Action today applauded the U.S. Department of Justice and FBI for prosecuting former NFL player and repeat animal-fighting offender LeShon Eugene Johnson, but said he should have received a longer prison term for a repeat offender runninga major national dogfighting syndicate. Johnson was sentenced to five years in prison after a jury convicted him on six felony counts related to a large-scale dogfighting and trafficking operation in Oklahoma.
Federal authorities seized 190 pit bull-type dogs from Johnson -- the largest number ever seized from a single individual in a federal dogfighting case.
"Dogfighting is an extreme example of a violent crime, and only the threat of long-term incarceration and asset losses will deter people from engaging in this kind of savagery," said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy. "Oklahoma is a hotbed of illegal animal fighting activity, and there must be more cases brought against dogfighters and cockfighters."
Johnson operated Mal Kant Kennels in Broken Arrow and Haskell, according to federal prosecutors. Evidence presented at trial showed that he selectively bred and trafficked dogs from fighting bloodlines, including dogs described in the dogfighting world as "champions" and "grand champions," and sold breeding rights and offspring to other dogfighters.
Johnson was no newcomer to animal fighting. He previously pleaded guilty to Oklahoma state animal-fighting charges stemming from an earlier operation known as Krazyside Kennels and received a five-year deferred sentence.
"Dogfighting is a calculated enterprise in which animals are bred, conditioned, and placed in a pit to maul each other for gambling and entertainment, a heinous crime of cruelty," said Kevin Chambers, Oklahoma state director for Animal Wellness Action. "We commend federal prosecutors for dismantling this operation and putting Johnson in prison."
"Johnson's prior conviction for dogfighting obviously did not deter him," Pacelle said. "This time federal authorities stepped in, built a major case, and put him behind bars. We applaud them for doing it, but for a repeat offender associated with 190 fighting dogs, a stronger sentence should have been imposed."
Animal Wellness Action noted that animal-fighting enterprises extend far beyond what happens inside a fighting pit. They can include breeding networks, trafficking of animals, gambling, training operations, specialized fighting equipment, and transportation networks that sustain an underground industry.
Animal Wellness Action is advocating continued aggressive enforcement and passage of federal legislation to dismantle animal fighting networks permanently. The federal Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Animal Trafficking (FIGHT) Act, H.R. 3946 and S. 1454, would strengthen penalties for animal fighting, enhance federal enforcement tools, and target the organized criminal enterprises behind these operations.
The bill is supported by both the National Sheriffs' Association and the Oklahoma Sheriffs Association along with more than 500 other law enforcement agencies and more than 1,150 endorsing agencies and organizations. 175 U.S. senators and U.S. representatives have endorsed the FIGHT Act, but none of them are from Oklahoma.
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Center for a Humane Economy is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(3) whose mission is to help animals by helping forge a more humane economic order. The first organization of its kind in the animal protection movement, the Center encourages businesses to honor their social responsibilities in a culture where consumers, investors, and other key stakeholders abhor cruelty and the degradation of the environment and embrace innovation as a means of eliminating both. The Center believes helping animals helps us all. Twitter: @TheHumaneCenter
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Animal Wellness Action is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(4) whose mission is to help animals by promoting laws and regulations at federal, state and local levels that forbid cruelty to all animals. The group also works to enforce existing anti-cruelty and wildlife protection laws. Animal Wellness Action believes helping animals helps us all. Twitter: @AWAction_News
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Original text here: https://centerforahumaneeconomy.org/former-nfl-player-leshon-johnson-imprisoned-for-dogfighting/
[Category: Animals]
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Former NFL Player LeShon Johnson Imprisoned for Dogfighting
Group applauds federal prosecution of Johnson but says the prison term should have been doubled as a repeat offender tied to record seizure of 190 dogs
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Tulsa, Okla. -- Animal Wellness Action today applauded the U.S. Department of Justice and FBI for prosecuting former NFL player and repeat animal-fighting offender LeShon Eugene Johnson, but said he should have received a longer prison term for a repeat offender running ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 -- The Center for a Humane Economy posted the following news release on Sept. 11, 2026: * * * Former NFL Player LeShon Johnson Imprisoned for Dogfighting Group applauds federal prosecution of Johnson but says the prison term should have been doubled as a repeat offender tied to record seizure of 190 dogs - Tulsa, Okla. -- Animal Wellness Action today applauded the U.S. Department of Justice and FBI for prosecuting former NFL player and repeat animal-fighting offender LeShon Eugene Johnson, but said he should have received a longer prison term for a repeat offender runninga major national dogfighting syndicate. Johnson was sentenced to five years in prison after a jury convicted him on six felony counts related to a large-scale dogfighting and trafficking operation in Oklahoma.
Federal authorities seized 190 pit bull-type dogs from Johnson -- the largest number ever seized from a single individual in a federal dogfighting case.
"Dogfighting is an extreme example of a violent crime, and only the threat of long-term incarceration and asset losses will deter people from engaging in this kind of savagery," said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy. "Oklahoma is a hotbed of illegal animal fighting activity, and there must be more cases brought against dogfighters and cockfighters."
Johnson operated Mal Kant Kennels in Broken Arrow and Haskell, according to federal prosecutors. Evidence presented at trial showed that he selectively bred and trafficked dogs from fighting bloodlines, including dogs described in the dogfighting world as "champions" and "grand champions," and sold breeding rights and offspring to other dogfighters.
Johnson was no newcomer to animal fighting. He previously pleaded guilty to Oklahoma state animal-fighting charges stemming from an earlier operation known as Krazyside Kennels and received a five-year deferred sentence.
"Dogfighting is a calculated enterprise in which animals are bred, conditioned, and placed in a pit to maul each other for gambling and entertainment, a heinous crime of cruelty," said Kevin Chambers, Oklahoma state director for Animal Wellness Action. "We commend federal prosecutors for dismantling this operation and putting Johnson in prison."
"Johnson's prior conviction for dogfighting obviously did not deter him," Pacelle said. "This time federal authorities stepped in, built a major case, and put him behind bars. We applaud them for doing it, but for a repeat offender associated with 190 fighting dogs, a stronger sentence should have been imposed."
Animal Wellness Action noted that animal-fighting enterprises extend far beyond what happens inside a fighting pit. They can include breeding networks, trafficking of animals, gambling, training operations, specialized fighting equipment, and transportation networks that sustain an underground industry.
Animal Wellness Action is advocating continued aggressive enforcement and passage of federal legislation to dismantle animal fighting networks permanently. The federal Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Animal Trafficking (FIGHT) Act, H.R. 3946 and S. 1454, would strengthen penalties for animal fighting, enhance federal enforcement tools, and target the organized criminal enterprises behind these operations.
The bill is supported by both the National Sheriffs' Association and the Oklahoma Sheriffs Association along with more than 500 other law enforcement agencies and more than 1,150 endorsing agencies and organizations. 175 U.S. senators and U.S. representatives have endorsed the FIGHT Act, but none of them are from Oklahoma.
* * *
Center for a Humane Economy is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(3) whose mission is to help animals by helping forge a more humane economic order. The first organization of its kind in the animal protection movement, the Center encourages businesses to honor their social responsibilities in a culture where consumers, investors, and other key stakeholders abhor cruelty and the degradation of the environment and embrace innovation as a means of eliminating both. The Center believes helping animals helps us all. Twitter: @TheHumaneCenter
* * *
Animal Wellness Action is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(4) whose mission is to help animals by promoting laws and regulations at federal, state and local levels that forbid cruelty to all animals. The group also works to enforce existing anti-cruelty and wildlife protection laws. Animal Wellness Action believes helping animals helps us all. Twitter: @AWAction_News
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Original text here: https://centerforahumaneeconomy.org/former-nfl-player-leshon-johnson-imprisoned-for-dogfighting/
[Category: Animals]