skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Monday, March 18, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

National Week of Conversation Debuts This Week

play audio
Play

Monday, April 23, 2018   

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — This week is the first-ever "National Week of Conversation" - a series of events promoted by local groups that work to bridge the partisan divide - in California and across the nation.

The idea is to get people talking about the issues, focusing on civil dialogue, where they listen respectfully and hopefully find common ground. Studies show that hyperpartisanship in the U.S. is as high these days as it was right after the Civil War. And Kamy Akhavan, CEO of a group called ProCon.org, said these ideological battle lines are corrosive to our democracy.

"We need to be able to deliberate, discuss, debate issues without being disagreeable, and having things break down, to name calling, people retreating into their echo chambers and behind their filter bubbles,” Akhavan said. “That's not how our system of government was designed to work. And yet increasingly that seems to be what's happening."

To take part, visit NationalWeekofConversation.org and sign up to attend one of the public forums, join an online dialogue or be matched up with someone in your neighborhood whose perspective might broaden your own. Some of the topics to be discussed include race relations, gun control, clean elections, medical marijuana, and power imbalances in relationships.

Sandy Heierbacher, director of the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation, said the groups are working hard to encourage people of all backgrounds to come to the table.

"For race dialogues, oftentimes you have a white facilitator and a facilitator of color and that helps people that might be less drawn to dialogue or less trusting of it, helps them to feel like, 'OK, someone's going to be looking out for me in this space, so I might be more comfortable actually attending,’" Heierbacher said.

Demographic studies show that Americans are increasingly "self-sorting" - into like-minded communities, by moving to neighborhoods with very little diversity, and by choosing to follow partisan news and social media groups.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Corporate partners sign contracts to offer a graduate assistantship and pay the students. In turn, MSU pays the graduate assistant's tuition, fees and salary, so the assistantship is directly tied to the academic experience. (pressmaster/Adobe Stock)

play sound

By Victoria Lim for WorkingNation.Broadcast version by Farah Siddiqi for Missouri News Service reporting for the WorkingNation-Public News Service Col…


Social Issues

play sound

A new report brands Connecticut's tax system as "regressive" for low- to middle-income residents and uses a report from the state to make its point…

Environment

play sound

Backers of a new federal rule said it will increase fairness for livestock and poultry producers, in North Carolina and across the country. The U.S…


A study by the advocacy group Inseparable showed one in five adults said at any given time, they consider their mental health to be either 'fair' or 'poor.' (Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Mental health care advocates are encouraging federal agencies to adopt a proposed update to regulations which would expand access to psychological car…

Social Issues

play sound

With hotter summers bringing hotter working conditions, the Maryland Department of Labor is implementing a heat stress standard to protect workers …

Environment

play sound

Recreational fishermen in New England say commercial trawlers are threatening the survival of smaller businesses relying on a healthy stock of Atlanti…

Social Issues

play sound

Women are treated much differently than men by the criminal justice system, according to a new report detailing how and why mass incarceration is …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021