BALTIMORE, MD, May 13, 2025 – As communities across the United States continue to confront the devastating toll of mass shootings, new research reveals a staggering economic dimension to these tragedies. A study published in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science finds that mass shootings cause an estimated $27 billion in annual lost revenue for U.S. retailers driven by sharp declines in foot traffic, reduced transaction volume and long-term store closures.
BALTIMORE, MD, May 13, 2025 – Researchers who took a close look at loosened concealed carry laws between 2010 and 2017 have found that “Shall Issue” regulations, which remove local authority discretion on the issuance of concealed carry gun permits, contribute to a significant increase in handgun purchases. At the same time, the researchers found that in states that adopted “Permitless Carry” policies, there was no noticeable change in gun purchases.
The time has come: REAL ID will finally be implemented in less than one week, about 20 years after it was initially proposed.
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Governors, please take a step back. It is time for mayors and city officials in your largest cities to assume full authority for managing the COVID-19 response in their communities. The very public battle between the governor of Georgia and the mayor of Atlanta exemplifies how the COVID-19 response has become more about political partisanship than public wellbeing.
Chicago grabbed the headlines in April and May with its surge of Covid-19 cases and deaths. It is relinquishing that dubious distinction to small cities and rural areas. Based on Illinois Department of Public Health data, since August 1, 29% of new state-wide cases have been in small cities and rural areas (those outside of the Chicago metropolitan area and the two primary Illinois counties east of St. Louis). For deaths, this number jumps to over 38%.
COVID-19 is poised to overhaul the college sports playing field. With all the uncertainty surrounding fall sports, with the Big Ten and Pac-12 delaying all competition, the intercollegiate sports business model is ripe for structural changes. The #WeAreUnited movement is symptomatic of the discontent, frustration and concern among student athletes.
The Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences pulled the trigger to delay (the better word is cancel) college football until the spring. The Big 12, Atlantic Coast and Southeastern conferences all seem intent to follow through and play this fall. Any conference decision to delay football, or any college sport for that matter, ensures that the sport will not be played this academic year.
SierraSierra Imwalle, a real estate agent in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is taking the COVID-19 pandemic seriously. When she shows houses to clients, she takes precautions: masks, distance, hand sanitizer. She’s avoiding the denser, usually crowded downtown area and steering clear of restaurants. Other people in Ann Arbor are also sticking to public health recommendations, she says. They’re wearing masks and following stay-at-home orders. “We’ve done a really good job maintaining a low number of cases,” she says.
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