American Association for the Advancement of Science
Rush Holt is chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the executive publisher of the Science family of journals. He is a former Democratic Congressman representing New Jersey's 12th District.
The politics of science and America's future Tomorrow's Earth Day March for Science , which will be held in Washington and 400 other cities across the country, was scheduled before President Trump formally proposed massive cuts in federal funding for research in medicine, public health, energy and the environment. That's complicated the original goal of March organizers: to stress the vital importance of what they do without being perceived as another unhappy, partisan interest group. Many scientists are alarmed about losing the benefits of their work — and America's advantage over other countries that might never be recovered. But others fear that public protest will politicize work that needs to be free of partisanship to be most effective.
Closing a Chapter on the 2001 Anthrax Scare At a news conference yesterday, the Justice Department said Dr. Bruce Ivins was the only person with access to the strain of anthrax that killed five and panicked the nation after September 11. It claimed FBI evidence would have proven him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt if he'd lived long enough to go on trial instead of committing suicide. Is the case against Ivins believable? Why did it take seven years? If Ivins suffered from mental illness for so long, why was he working with deadly toxins in a government laboratory?
Is the threat from Russia missing from the Russia meddling probe? There's much being made about the Trump administration's possible ties with Russia. But the bottom line is Russia's effort to influence American democracy. Do the President and his aides care enough to take action before voters go back to the polls?
What is Trump's plan for Middle East peace? On his first foreign tour, President Trump has promised "peace" between Israel and the Palestinians. Are there any details for re-starting talks that have been stalled for the past three years?
What happens when America retreats from the world? Is President Trump taking his "America First" agenda to extremes, withdrawing the country from the international stage on trade and climate change, distancing America from its traditional allies across the Atlantic and even threatening to physically isolate the country through the building of a wall along its southern border? León Krauze guest hosts.
The Trump agenda: where's the beef? President Trump says big things are happening. After celebrating a House bill on health care, he doesn’t yet have Senate agreement. With James Comey’s public testimony scheduled tomorrow, the President today tweeted his selection of a new FBI Director. Is the Chief Executive all style and no substance? Later, terror attacks in Iran and conflicting claims about who’s behind them.