As we have discussed in previous articles in this newsletter, including one in this issue, climate change is on the rise worldwide and is negatively affecting many aspects of human life. The impacts have not excluded the public sector from their scope. From public schools to fire and emergency services, from public transportation to water and electricity delivery, climate change is wreaking havoc on public sector delivery of quality-of-life services.

With the number of catastrophic losses on the rise and higher premiums proving unpopular with both insureds and state regulators, some of the largest insurance companies in the country are withdrawing from states, leaving many property owners with limited options for insuring their property. Many of these carriers cite the increasing cost of reinsurance as the determinative issue while most also point to the ongoing and ever-increasing number of billion-dollar losses in the states in question.

As artificial intelligence (AI) advances dominate the world’s technology discussions, the United States is playing catch up but taking steps toward voluntary and government mandated regulation of the new technology. The government’s activity began in July of 2023, when the Biden administration announced a voluntary agreement among 7 leading AI companies to certain safeguards on the development of the technology.

It has been almost half a century since anti-war and racial injustice protests plagued the college campus landscape and scarred the nation. The 1970 calamities at Kent State University and Jackson State College happened just days apart culminating in the forming of The President’s Commission on Campus Unrest to quell the public outcry.