Welcome

Dear friends of VTIPG and the Community Change Collaborative,

We share five articles each week that we find timely and meaningful that address concerns related to the state of our democracy and civil society. We aim to offer pieces that illuminate significant dimensions of our country's policy and governance challenges and the state of social norms that sustain the possibility of addressing those concerns. Please note, the views expressed in these essays do not necessarily reflect the perspectives of VTIPG faculty or staff or of Virginia Tech. We upload these articles and stories to our website. You may find that archive at News and Opportunities at http://ipg.vt.edu. Thank you to IPG's Community-Based Research Manager Lara Nagle for suggesting a New York Times article for use this week.

If you would like to suggest an article for consideration, please contact the editor below.

Our first piece this week, from Cardinal News, discussed how communities and businesses across Southwest Virginia will be negatively affected by the Trump Administration's tariffs.
A second selection, from Reuters, examined Harvard University's decision to sue the Trump Administration over its decision to freeze federal funding supporting the institution's large research enterprise due to its leaders' refusal to comply with President Trump's ideological demands.
Our third story, published by National Public Radio (NPR), discussed Pope Francis's death, legacy and potential successors.
Our fourth article, from The New York Times, demonstrated that Elon Musk's SpaceX company is poised to earn billions from federal contracts at the same time that the "Department of Government Efficiency" he leads has moved to shut down several national agencies and displaced more than 100,000 federal workers.
Last, we feature a piece from The Guardian that profiled the risks of continuing to offshore drill offshore in the Gulf of Mexico.

Brief synopses of these articles appear below. We hope the perspectives they offer encourage reflection and conversation!

Best wishes,

Billy Parvatam

VTIPG Communications Coordinator

pbilly97@vt.edu.

Photo: This map shows the "average effective tariff rate" on each county, based on its employment mix. Credit to Cardinal News.

Businesses in some Virginia counties won't feel tariffs at all, but the ones who will feel them most are in rural areas

Dwayne Yancey of Cardinal News discussed the effects of the Trump Administration's tariffs on rural Virginia in this article. Yancey contended that counties across Southside and Southwest Virginia will experience disproportionate effects because they are manufacturing and agriculturally dependent. Although the industrially dependent counties could theoretically benefit from the tariffs in the long term (provided the higher taxes on imports succeed in prompting some companies to bring some manufacturing jobs back to the United States and they choose to locate a share of those in Virginia, which is by no means certain), the populations of those same counties will surely suffer in the near and long-term from the higher costs imposed on a variety of products as President Trump's plans take effect. Notably, voters in the top 10 localities in Virginia facing the highest effective tariffs under the Trump plan all supported the president in the 2024 election by significant margins.

Yancey, D. (2025, April 22). "Businesses in some Virginia counties won’t feel tariffs at all, but the ones who will feel them most are in rural areas." Cardinal News. https://cardinalnews.org/2025/04/22/businesses-in-some-virginia-counties-wont-feel-tariffs-at-all-but-the-ones-who-will-feel-them-most-are-in-rural-areas/

Photo: Harvard University. Credit to Wikipedia.

Harvard University sues to block Trump from slashing billions in research funding

Jack Queen reported on Harvard University's decision to sue the Trump administration after the institution’s leaders rejected White House demands that they contended would have cost it its independence. Among other demands, Trump declared that Harvard must ban masks and end all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and initiatives. The administration indicated it would freeze $2.3 billion in national research funding awarded to the school’s faculty unless the university complied with these requirements and also provided detailed information concerning its foreign ties, budget, students, and faculty. Queen argued that this threat arose as part of a broader Trump war on top U.S. universities, which he has accused of mishandling pro-Palestinian protests and allowing antisemitism. Harvard is the first university to file a lawsuit in response to such actions by the administration.

Queen, J. (2025, April 22). "Harvard University sues to block Trump from slashing billions in research funding." Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/legal/harvard-university-sues-trump-administration-media-reports-say-2025-04-21/

Photo: Pope Francis. Credit to Wikipedia.

After Pope Francis' death, debates begin over his successor

This NPR article discussed Pope Francis' death on Easter Monday, April 21, and profiled the conversations that have arisen since surrounding his possible successors. Willem Marx also sketched the roles and experience of several top contenders in this piece. A gathering of 135 eligible Church cardinals known as the conclave will convene next month to select a new Pontiff via secret ballot. Possible successors include some who differ from Pope Francis in their perspectives and others who share his views.

Marx, W. (2025, April 22). "After Pope Francis’ death, debates begin over his successor." NPR. https://www.npr.org/2025/04/22/nx-s1-5372296/pope-francis-death-successor-conclave-cardinals

Photo: Elon Musk. Credit to CNBC.

Musk is positioned to profit off billions in new government contracts

This article discussed businessman Elon Musk’s company SpaceX benefiting from government contracts at the same time he is overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is slashing numerous public programs. DOGE has prompted chaos by pushing out 100,000 federal workers and shutting down several government agencies, even as SpaceX is posed to receive billions of dollars in new national contracts. Eric Lipton contended in this story that the boost in federal spending targeted to the company has been facilitated by several Musk allies who now hold key government positions. SpaceX looks set to benefit from the administration's new policy, for example, to prioritize hiring commercial space vendors to produce communications systems and to manufacture satellites; fields the company now dominates. Many critics are arguing that Musk is now enmeshed in an array of ethics violations and conflicts of interest.

Lipton, E. (2025, March 23). "Musk is positioned to profit off billions in new government contracts." The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/23/us/politics/spacex-contracts-musk-doge-trump.html

Photo: The Gulf of Mexico Credit to Brittanica.

Trump has brought much-needed attention to a site of great tragedy: the Gulf of Mexico

Greg Gandin of The Guardian discussed the risk of continuing to drill for oil offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Most such drilling in the U.S. today occurs in the Gulf, which yields more than 650 million barrels of crude a year. Among other concerns, this offshore drilling creates "produced water," which is poisonous and often flows into the Gulf. In addition to rising water temperatures and decreasing terrestrial life, many other ecological challenges now confront the region as a result of long-term pollution. Gandin suggested that Trump's executive order to rename the Gulf to "Gulf of America" (an effort to energize his electoral base on jingoistic grounds) may work to shift the spotlight away from these important concerns.

Gandin, G. (2025, February 3). "Trump has brought much-needed attention to a site of great tragedy: The Gulf of Mexico." The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/03/trump-gulf-of-mexico?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

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