Molly Bloom
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Managing editor @routefifty, covering U.S. state and local government. Send me tips and cat photos: mbloom@routefifty.com
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Articles by Molly Bloom
State legislators question effectiveness of federal student loans and policies
Americans owe about $1.6 trillion in student loans, 42% more than a decade ago, according to the Pew Research Center. Three in four Americans don’t think college is even worth it if you have to take out student loans. And more than half of college grads are underemployed one year after getting their bachelor’s degrees.
Biden administration forgives $4.5B in student debt for public service workers
The Biden administration announced on Oct. 17, the cancellation of $4.5 billion in student debt for more than 60,000 local, state, federal, and tribal government workers and others in public service. The debt relief is the result of fixes the administration has made to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which clears the remaining student loan balances for public servants who have made monthly payments for at least 10 years, according to a Department of Education statement.
Biden administration forgives $4.5B in student debt for public service workers
The Biden administration announced on Thursday the cancellation of $4.5 billion in student debt for more than 60,000 local, state, federal, and tribal government workers and others in public service. The debt relief is the result of fixes the administration has made to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which clears the remaining student loan balances for public servants who have made monthly payments for at least 10 years, according to a Department of Education statement.
This state is shrinking the public-private pay gap for state workers
Few people take a government job with the goal of striking it rich. But in Tennessee, a concerted effort to make state employees’ pay competitive with the private sector has paid off—for both employees and the state, officials say. The effort required changing the state’s theory on how public workers should be compensated, said Kim Thau Yap, assistant commissioner for the Tennessee Department of Human Resources.
Election workers may need to become whistleblowers this fall
While federal whistleblowers like Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning may loom large in the public imagination, lawyers at the Government Accountability Project, a nonprofit whistleblower protection organization, are preparing for a potential influx of calls from a new type of client this fall: election workers.
More Americans go hungry after COVID relief measures end
The percentage of American households who went hungry at least some of the time rose again last year, marking the second straight year of increases in food insecurity after nearly a decade of decline, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report released this week.
Help us report on long COVID in kids
Millions of kids and teens are living with long COVID. Their varied symptoms — from rashes and trouble remembering things to excruciating limb and stomach pain and weight loss — can have wide-ranging effects on their lives and on their families. Long COVID is hard to track. Research estimates that anywhere from 4% to 25% of the 15.6 million American children and adolescents who have had a COVID-19 infection will develop some form of long COVID.
Minnesota Public Radio News
Ground Level Topics BENEATH THE SURFACE Even in the land of 10,000 lakes, water is no longer unlimited; pressures on Minnesota’s groundwater are forcing residents and municipalities to adapt. RETHINKING A COMPANY TOWN The biggest source of good-paying jobs in International Falls has cut more than 200 positions leaving the community to absorb the blow and start figuring out what its future might hold.
In this Facebook group, liberal and conservative women actually listen to each other
Brittany Walker Pettigrew is, by her own description, “liberal AF.” The 45-year old child welfare manager from Oakland, California, grew up in a liberal bubble so impenetrable, she was a college freshman the first time she met a Republican. Stevie Krupnik calls herself “a pretty conservative conservative.” The 65-year old retired nurse from Hunterdon County, New Jersey, thinks the “Clinton phenomenon” is a sham and admires President Donald Trump’s “shoot-from-the-hip” style.
Mystery Sound Extravaganza 2018
Mystery Sound Extravaganza 2018 By Molly Bloom – April 3, 2018 Sounds abound all around. Do you think your ears are up to the task? We have an episode chock full of nothing but mystery sounds to challenge and stretch your listening powers. (Also, did you hear that the Brains On! store is open? We couldn’t be happier with the t-shirts and other goodies we have to offer.
Come see our live show in Boston!
Come see our live show in Boston! By Molly Bloom – February 28, 2018 We have some event news! We’re going to be in Boston as part of the Cambridge Science Festival! Marc, Sanden and Molly are all going to be there for a live stage show on April 15 all about robots (and we’ll have some mystery sounds too, of course). You can get your tickets here. Hope to see you there!
8 Oscar-nominated films you didn't know were based on books
All the Money in the World Oscar nomination: Actor in a Supporting Role for Christopher PlummerBook it's based on: Painfully Rich by John PearsonWhen 16-year-old John Paul Getty III is kidnapped, his mother Gail desperately tries to convince his billionaire grandfather to pay the ransom. When he refuses, she joins forces with Getty Sr's advisor in a race agains time to try and save her son's life.BUY NOW £44.19, Amazon
Our 100th episode! What’s the big deal?
In this milestone of an episode, we ask why people seem to love the number 100 so much. We also learn some amazing tricks involving the number 100 from a mathemagician. And fan favorite Gungador goes from Most Epic Fighting Battle Realm to a much more challenging setting: high school. We had to bring Gungador back for this tale of math and dancing after the amazing response we got to our Gungador vs. the Sound Wave story. Here are some of our listeners’ illustrations of that epic battle.
Dolphins vs. Octopuses: Showdown in the sea!
Two of our planet’s most amazing animals go head to head in our latest debate. We’re asking you to decide which animal reigns supreme. Is it the eight-armed, three hearted, shape-shifting octopus? Or the speed-swimming, echolocating, super-jumping dolphin? Listen along as Marc argues for #TeamOctopus and Sanden fights for #TeamDolphin. We’ll learn amazing facts about both sides along the way.
Mary Shelley and the science of Frankenstein
Frankenstein has become a pop culture mainstay and it all started off as a novel written by an 18-year-old woman written in the early 1800s. As we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the novel’s publication, we look at how Mary Shelley was inspired by science and how the lessons of the book still resonate with the scientific world today. For more on electricity, check out our four-part series from December.
New to the show? Here’s where to start!
Got curiosity? You’ve found the right place. Brains On is a science podcast that answers questions from kid listeners around the world. They help us by interviewing scientists and co-hosting the show. Love science? This is the show for you. Don’t like science? We’ll change that, just give us a try. We’ve made about 100 episodes, so if there’s a topic you’re interested in, search here to see if we have an episode about it.
The nerve! Electricity in our bodies
Your body is making and using electricity all the time — but how do we do it? We’ll take a look at how bioelectricity helps our brain sends signals and our hearts pump blood. And we’ll learn about some amazing animals that use electricity in weird and wild ways.
Inside 'Molly's Game,' Aaron Sorkin's new film on high stakes poker
In 2017, several major art exhibits were changed because of protests. The Guggenheim pulled three pieces after animal rights activists said there was animal cruelty. The Whitney removed a piece by a white artist depicting Emmett Till’s death out of its Biennial due to public outrage. Events like these raise questions about censorship, artistic expression and power in the art world. More: In 2017, an angry public demanded the removal of controversial art works. Could the debate limit artistic freedom?
Here's A Bunch Of Books You Should Read Over Christmas
Christmas is looming, and hopefully that means getting the chance to get through some of the books that are on your ever-growing shame pile. If you are looking for more to add, or are simply after some new recommendations - this is what the team will be reading over the summer break. I have so many things on my list. I'm an absolute monster. I'll try to keep this brief. WELCOME TO ARTEMIS. The first city on the moon. Population 2,000. Mostly tourists. Some criminals. Jazz Bashara is a criminal.
Here's A Bunch Of Books You Should Read Over Christmas
Christmas is looming, and hopefully that means getting the chance to get through some of the books that are on your ever-growing shame pile. If you are looking for more to add, or are simply after some new recommendations - this is what the team will be reading over the summer break. I have so many things on my list. I'm an absolute monster. I'll try to keep this brief. WELCOME TO ARTEMIS. The first city on the moon. Population 2,000. Mostly tourists. Some criminals. Jazz Bashara is a criminal.
Shocking! The science of static (Electricity Series pt. 1)
What makes your hair stand on end? Why does your skirt stick your tights? Why do you get zapped by electric shocks when you go to touch a doorknob? We answer those questions as we explore the science of static electricity. We’ll also learn about the 18th-century parties where the goal was to shock, very literally, yourself and your loved ones. Plus: The first event in the first-ever Brains On Electric Games! It’s a dramatic tennis match between Benjamin Franklin and Jean-Antoine Nollet.
AJC Voter Guide to Nov. 7, 2017 elections
We asked candidates running in this month’s city, school and municipal elections to explain why you should vote for them. In addition to asking them questions about their experience and their stand on prominent issues, we asked some candidates to tell us which television character with whom they most identify. See where candidates stand on important issues, and who has a lot in common with Batman. Poll hours on Tuesday, Nov.
Narwhals: Unicorns of the sea?
Narwhals: Unicorns of the sea? By Molly Bloom – October 10, 2017 A narwhal pod. (Courtesy of Kristin Laidre) Narwhals are whales, and super cool ones at that. But that cool thing coming out of their heads is a tusk, not a horn.
Everything you need to know before the solar eclipse
Here in the United States we have total solar eclipse fever — that’s because on Monday, August 21, a total solar eclipse will be visible on a path from Oregon on the west coast to South Carolina on the east coast. And the rest of the country will get a glimpse at a partial eclipse. This is the first solar eclipse to go across the US since 1979. As cool as a solar eclipse is, you cannot just go out and stare at the sky. Nope. Please don’t. Really. Don’t do it.
Earlier school start dates an issue for some metro Atlanta parents
If you’re one of those parents who hold Christmas and back to school seasons in identical regard — both inexorable, expensive events that seem to come earlier every year — we have some good news for you: You’re right. The first day of school in many metro Atlanta school districts has crept earlier over the past ten years, in some districts daring to edge its way into the month of July this year.
Whatever happened to summer? Schools starting earlier
Kindergarten teacher, Nell Wright welcomes students on their first day of class in 2016 for Cobb County’s Argyle Elementary School. Schools are starting earlier, cutting summer breaks short. JOHN SPINK /JSPINK@AJC.COM Schools in metro Atlanta are ending summer break and starting earlier than past generations. Some districts and charters schools are daring to edge starting days into the month of July this year.
Deep Sea vs. Outer Space
It’s time for the next Brains On debate! Our listeners sent in over 100 possible matchups and we whittled the list down to ten. You voted and chose this intense matchup from the depths of darkness, under the water and beyond our earth’s atmosphere. Who will prevail? This epic episode includes three rounds of heated debate, two mystery sounds, and one winner.
Small earthquake reported in east Georgia
This is the second earthquake reported in Georgia in a week. A 2.2 magnitude earthquake struck an area just north of LaFayette in northwest Georgia on Monday. The small quake happened at 4:47 a.m. near the city of Washington in Wilkes County. The region experiences small earthquakes about once every year or two, according to the USGS. Georgia Tech Geophysics Professor Andrew Newman says the 3.2 magnitude quake isn't uncommon in the state.
Atlanta school ethics commission to consider ethics complaint
The Atlanta school board’s ethics commission will meet Tuesday to consider a complaint eight board members filed against fellow board member Leslie Grant. The board members say Grant shared confidential information about a real estate deal with a potential buyer after being told that the information should be kept private. The ethics commission, a seven-person, independent board, is charged with hearing complaints of ethics violations against board members.
Atlanta Public Schools names Lisa Bracken as CFO
Atlanta Public Schools executive director of finance Lisa Bracken has been named Atlanta Public Schools' new chief financial officer. Bracken replaces current chief financial officer Robert Morales, who is leaving to take the same role with Fulton County Schools. Bracken holds masters and bachelor's degrees from Georgia State University and previously served as the director of budgets for Fulton County Schools. Bracken’s appointment is effective July 1.
North Atlanta, Jackson high schools to offer new IB program
The new program is for students who want to focus on “career-related” learning in their junior and senior years. Students can focus on areas including audio visual technology and film, web and digital design, and computer programming. “This allows us to serve students through the IB Programme in the 11th and 12th grade that want the academic rigor in preparation for college and focus on an established career pathway.
Atlanta principal-teacher inappropriate relationships make school improvement even tougher
Improving high-poverty schools that have struggled for years is tough enough, but Atlanta has seen another factor making the task even more difficult: sexual misconduct among school leaders. Three Atlanta school principals have resigned in the past three years after being accused of sexual relationships with teachers at their schools.
Brad Pitt, Michael B. Jordan sign on to Atlanta school cheating movie
Michael B. Jordan will star in a movie about the test cheating scandal that resulted in criminal convictions for 11 former Atlanta educators and Brad Pitt will be one of the producers, Deadline Hollywood reports. The movie will focus on Parks Middle School, one of dozens of Atlanta schools where educators cheated on the state tests Georgia students take each year in an effort to meet ever-increasing performance targets set by then-Superintendent Beverly Hall.
Atlanta school officials: Freezing Fulton County property values will hurt kids
Fulton County residents listen to a presentation during an Emergency Town Hall Meeting earlier this month. Their comments came the day before the Fulton County Board of Assessors is scheduled to consider rescinding new property value assessments that for many residents are sharp increases over the previous year. Half of all values are up by 20 percent or more over last year. Nearly a quarter are at least 50 percent higher.
Atlanta schools superintendent says don’t freeze property assessments
Residents are pleading with county officials to rescind property value assessments that would mean big increases in their tax bills. "Public agencies have mandatory costs that must be covered, and in a city like Atlanta that is seeing growth, there should be at least some corresponding new revenue to cover these costs," she said in a statement released Friday evening.
Atlanta celebrates 100-year old lunch lady
Gladys Cornelius celebrated her 100th birthday in sequins and heels and with an official proclamation naming June 5 in honor of Cornelius, who served lunch to thousands of Atlanta school children over the years.
Top Atlanta school official resigns, fights release of background report
The Atlanta school district official in charge of the district's expensive and ambitious plan to remake the city's schools resigned last month and is fighting to keep a report investigating his background secret. Former Chief of Schools and Academics Donyall Dickey had been expected to leave Atlanta this spring to become superintendent of the Portland, Oregon, schools.
Dept. of Justice: Former Kennesaw State student should lose DACA status
Federal officials now say they don't believe Jessica Colotl has a felony conviction that would mean the loss of her protection from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, but stand by their decision to revoke her protection under that program.
Gwinnett County woman fights deportation under Trump immigration policy
A federal judge will hear arguments tomorrow in the case of a Norcross woman and Mexican national whose 2010 arrest while a Kennesaw State University student sparked a national debate over illegal immigration. Now immigration law enforcement actions under the Trump administration have brought Jessica Colotl into the spotlight again, as she fights a request from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that she be deported.
Eight Atlanta school board members accuse fellow board member of ethics violation
Eight members of the Atlanta school board filed an ethics complaint against the board’s ninth member Tuesday, claiming board member Leslie Grant shared confidential information about a multimillion-dollar real estate deal with a potential buyer. Grant is accused of telling WonderRoot, a community arts organization seeking to purchase the former Hubert Elementary School building on Memorial Drive, that the district didn’t technically hold title to the property.
More employees implicated in investigation into Atlanta school purchasing ethics
Two more Atlanta Public Schools employees are facing discipline in connection with the hiring of a company owned by the district’s then-purchasing director to provide parking and staffing services, and an internal investigation into the school district’s purchasing practices has grown. More than $60,000 in revenue from those parking services may be missing. The former purchasing director, who was fired, had been accused of fraud at his previous job.
Georgia students can get free college tuition if they enroll in one of these 12 fields
Georgia college students who major in high-demand fields can get up to $500 towards college tuition under a newly expanded and renamed state scholarship program. The HOPE Career Grant, formerly known as the Strategic Industries Workforce Development Grant, is available to students who enroll in select majors aligned with one of 12 industries in which state officials believe there are more jobs available than there are skilled workers to fill them.
How to succeed in high school: Advice from Atlanta's top students
More than 2,400 seniors will graduate from Atlanta Public Schools this month. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently asked Atlanta’s Class of 2017 valedictorians for their advice on how to succeed in high school. Many advised their peers to try to start strong in their freshman years. But they also offered words of encouragement: “Don’t let failure seem like it's the end of the world,” Carver High School valedictorian Anna Watson said.
Agnes Scott College President Elizabeth Kiss to step down
Agnes Scott College President Elizabeth Kiss announced today her plans to step down next June after 12 years as president. Kiss began her tenure of the private women’s college in Decatur in August 2006. “Agnes Scott College is a better place today because of Elizabeth Kiss’ extraordinary leadership and unwavering commitment to our mission of educating women to be strong leaders in a global society,” said Agnes Scott Board Chair Elizabeth Holder said in a written statement.
Second chances were made for kids like this Morehouse senior
Morehouse senior Keith Glass at Morehouse College on Tuesday, May 9, 2017. Glass was not a serious student through his early high school years, giving no serious thought to college. Encouragement from educators and other students, and a visit to Morehouse, led him to make changes. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM Second chances were invented for kids like Keith Glass. Third, fourth, and fifth chances too. Glass started high school at South Atlanta with ambitions of being a rapper.
For Atlanta’s first charter school, the long game pays off
The school was initially one of Atlanta’s lowest performing elementary schools. But as the school’s test scores rose, development transformed East Lake into a safer place. A housing project was demolished and replaced with mixed-income apartments. New stores moved in. Today, Drew and East Lake have become national examples of how to rebuild a neighborhood around the neighborhood’s school.
Jesse Jackson tells Atlanta students to “keep hope alive”
Rev. Jesse Jackson visited Atlanta’s Jackson High School Monday for an end of the year celebration. In an address during Jackson’s Awards Day ceremony for underclassmen, Jackson spoke of the Rev. Martin Luther King and of former Atlanta mayor Maynard Jackson, Jackson principal Stephanie Johnson wrote in a Facebook post. “Stop the violence. Save the children. Keep hope alive,” Jackson told students.
Atlanta group aims to help black families navigate charter school choices
Too many parents, especially African American parents, don’t understand that their children don’t have to attend the traditional Atlanta public school in their neighborhood, says David Mitchell, an Atlanta banker and brother of Atlanta city council president and mayoral candidate Ceasar Mitchell. That lack of knowledge is the impetus behind a new group Mitchell started as a "beacon of information" for African American families around charter schools.
That Georgia guy lauded as a superhero teacher isn’t really a teacher
Twitter user @mainey_maine posted a letter he said was shared by one of his students. Photo via Twitter. It was a feel-good story that came to light on social media and drew national attention, a letter from a student who had never met his “real dad” thanking his teacher for being like a father to him. But The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned that the letter’s recipient, who represented himself as a fifth grade Atlanta teacher, isn’t what he says.
Will giving schools new names change student performance?
Atlanta school leaders hope new names for struggling schools will help remake them into places students are proud to attend. That’s the theory behind recent decisions to name two Atlanta schools, one for former President Barack and former First Lady Michelle Obama and another for Rep. John Lewis. D.H. Stanton Elementary School is now Barack and Michelle Obama Elementary.
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