For the first time in decades, capital punishment is a rising issue in the 2024 U.S. presidential campaign. Several of the Republican candidates are pushing for expanding the death penalty to be used as punishment for a wider array of crimes, including drug and human trafficking. President Joe Biden, meanwhile, has argued against capital punishment and promised in his 2020 campaign to remove it from U.S. statutes. The president has not yet acted on his campaign promise, however. Republicans, including presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, have been outspoken on the campaign trail about their desires to enforce tougher…

The Biden administration is proposing a new minimum staffing standard for American nursing homes, and the move is receiving mixed feedback. Those in favor argue that it will help to increase the quality of care in these facilities, while those who oppose the newly proposed standard argue that it could lead to nursing home closures and other unintended consequences. Among its stipulations, the proposed rule would require nursing home facilities to have a registered nurse (RN) on staff 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Current federal law mandates that nursing homes have an RN on duty for eight…