Tag Archives: Politico

Food & Drink, Memories & History, Pleasures, Politics, Travel

After a ‘near death’ experience, Amtrak prepares for rapid growth- POLITICO

By DANIELLE MUOIO DUNN and JANAKI CHADHA,
08/08/2022 10:00 AM EDT

Amtrak is seeing an unprecedented demand for seats and rapidly moving to add service to new cities across the country. | Getty Images

Two years ago, Amtrak was facing a “near-death” experience, Stephen Gardner, CEO of the national passenger rail service, said at a briefing last week with the Association for a Better New York. Both business and travel leisure rapidly grinded to a halt, causing ticket sales to drop 97 percent in a matter of weeks.

Now, the agency is seeing an unprecedented demand for Amtrak seats and rapidly moving to add service to new cities across the nation.

Ridership on the Northeast Corridor is only down 15 percent from 2019 levels, with some routes surpassing pre-pandemic levels. “It’s really very positive that even though the world has changed so much in Covid, we see really strong interest in passenger rail and a whole new generation of riders coming into the network,” Gardner said.

Source: After a ‘near death’ experience, Amtrak prepares for rapid growth- POLITICO

Current Affairs, Memories & History, Politics, Science & Health

Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows – POLITICO

“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” Justice Alito writes in an initial majority draft circulated inside the court.

By Josh Gerstein and Alexander Ward, 05/02/2022 08:32 PM EDT, Updated: 05/03/2022 02:14 PM EDT

Abortion rights supporters and anti-abortion demonstrators rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 1, 2021. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images

The Supreme Court has voted to strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, according to an initial draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito circulated inside the court and obtained by POLITICO.

The draft opinion is a full-throated, unflinching repudiation of the 1973 decision which guaranteed federal constitutional protections of abortion rights and a subsequent 1992 decision — Planned Parenthood v. Casey — that largely maintained the right. “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Alito writes.

scotus-initi al-draftDownload

Download and read the draft opinion yourself…

Editor’s Note: Read more, see link below for original item…

Source: Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows – POLITICO

Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Memories & History, Politics, Religion & Spirit, Times They Are A-Changing

How the ‘Culture War’ Could Break Democracy – POLITICO

Thirty years ago, sociologist James Davison Hunter popularized the concept of culture war. Today, he sees a culture war that’s gotten worse—and that spells trouble for the future of the American experiment.

By ZACK STANTON, 05/20/2021 05:30 PM EDT

POLITICO illustration; Photos: Getty; AP

In 1991, with America gripped by a struggle between an increasingly liberal secular society that pushed for change and a conservative opposition that rooted its worldview in divine scripture, James Davison Hunter wrote a book and titled it with a phrase for what he saw playing out in America’s fights over abortion, gay rights, religion in public schools and the like: “Culture Wars.”

Hunter, a 30-something sociologist at the University of Virginia, didn’t invent the term, but his book vaulted it into the public conversation, and within a few years it was being used as shorthand for cultural flashpoints with political ramifications.

He hoped that by calling attention to the dynamic, he’d help America “come to terms with the unfolding conflict” and, perhaps, defuse some of the tensions he saw bubbling.

Source: How the ‘Culture War’ Could Break Democracy – POLITICO