For many nuns in the U.S. April is a busy month. Not only do they have the liturgical season of Easter but they have the proxy season of corporate governance. The proxy season is the time when panies hold their annual shareholder meetings. During these meeting any shareholders who own more than $2,000 in stock or 1% of pany can mend pany take a specific course of action or institute a policy change for the betterment of pany. As the...

Working Paper: “Top Ten Myths of Medicare” Richard L. Kaplan (University of Illinois College of Law),Illinois Program in Law, Behavior and Social Science Paper No. LBSS13-02; Illinois Public Law Research Paper No. 11-28; SSRN, Working Paper Series (PDF) In the context of changing demographics, the increasing cost of health care services, and continuing federal budgetary pressures, Medicare has e one of the most controversial federal programs. To facilitate an informed debate about the future of this important public initiative, this...

In today’s Acton Commentary, “Mike Rowe and Manual Labor,” I examine the real contribution from a star of the small screen to today’s political conversation. Mike Rowe, featured on shows like The Deadliest Catch and Dirty Jobs, has written letters to both President Obama and Mitt Romney focusing attention on the skills gap and our nation’s dysfunctional attitudes towards work, particularly hard labor, like skilled trades and services. In his letter to Romney, Rowe writes that “Pig farmers, electricians, plumbers,...

Yesterday, privately-owned Hobby Lobby, a popular craft store chain, filed suit opposing the HHS mandate which forces employers to provide “preventive care” measures such as birth-control and “morning after” pills. “By being required to make a choice between sacrificing our faith or paying millions of dollars in fines, we essentially must choose which poison pill to swallow,” said David Green, Hobby Lobby CEO and founder. “We simply cannot abandon our religious beliefs ply with this mandate.” Hobby Lobby is the...

The Acton Institute is anticipating a move to our new building in the heart of Grand Rapids, MI. With the generous funding of donors, the 24,000 square feet of space will allow us to serve an even munity. Acton’s Executive Director, Kris Mauren, says the $6 million renovation allows the Institute to remain in its Grand Rapids home, while raising its international profile. “This is a great place to be and it doesn’t stop us from being the international organization...

Public health officials estimate that Americans consume an average of 40 gallons of sugary soda per person per year. But now thanks to the tireless efforts of Michael Bloomberg, NYC’s Mayor and Nanny-in-Chief, the average New Yorker will now only consume 39.2 gallons of sugary soda per person per year.* On Thursday, New York City passed the first U.S. ban of oversized sugary drinks as a way of curbing the obesity epidemic. Violators of the ban face a $200 fine...

In an odd story from Maryland, Ari Ashe of WTOP reports, Many people find speed cameras frustrating, and some in the region are taking their rage out on the cameras themselves. But now there’s a new solution: cameras to watch the cameras. Yes, you read that correctly. Prince George’s County, Maryland, has a problem with people vandalizing their speed cameras and their solution is to install additional cameras to watch them. In response, Michael Rosenwald says what many others surely...

Yesterday at , a leading social media site, an article entitled ‘5 Fun Games With a Higher Purpose‘ was featured. The article noted that these types of games attempted bine fun with some sort of societal impact. One game, Darfur is Dying, allows the player to simulate life in a Darfuri refugee camp for a family. If one family member leaves to get water and is killed or captured, the player must choose the next family member to send out....

Today’s blog post is from one of our faithful On Call in munity members, Sheila Seiler Lagrand, Ph.D. who earned her doctorate in anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles. As an undergraduate at the University of California, San Diego, she studied anthropology and literature with an emphasis in writing. Currently she blogs at Godspotting with Sheila and contributes regularly at BibleDude.net. Sheila is a member of the The High Calling. Her work has appeared in Chicken Soup for...

In his Acton Commentary today, Jordan Ballor writes, All work has a spiritual dimension because the human person who works in whatever capacity does so as an image-bearer of God. “While the classic Greek mind tended to scorn work with the hands,” write Berghoef and DeKoster, “the Bible suggests that something about it structures the soul.” If we derogate work with the hands, manual and skilled labor, in this way, we separate what God has put together and create a...