TOWNSEND — Superintendent Brad Morgan and Principal Laurie Smith are pleased to announce that North Middlesex Regional High School senior Adam Manni has been selected to participate in the Close Up Washington: Johnson & Johnson Scholarship Program.
Author: Ashleigh Barber
Chiefs Get ‘Close Up’ Look at D.C. & Inauguration
Washington, D.C. was the spot, as 32 students and three teachers from McIntosh High got hands-on for a week of sightseeing and civic engagement workshops through the “Close Up Foundation.”
ECIER Foundation Students Travel to Washington DC
In January 2025, twelve students from Northwest Indiana had the unique opportunity to participate in a weeklong government studies program in Washington D.C. through the ECIER Foundation. This unforgettable trip was part of a partnership with the Close Up Foundation, which is dedicated to providing high school students with an in-depth, hands-on learning experience about the U.S. government. The students, representing several schools in the region, were able to engage with peers from across the country and witness firsthand the workings of American democracy.
Lina Khan, the FTC, and Antitrust Laws
Over the past four years, policy put forth by President Joe Biden’s administration represented a notable shift in the executive branch’s attitude toward multi-conglomerate merging. This merging refers to large corporations buying up smaller businesses from a variety of different industries, thus reducing the possibility of competition from small business.
During the Biden administration, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) adopted an agenda of general deterrence on corporations that own too large a percentage of a given industry, often referred to as a monopoly, filing multiple high-profile antitrust lawsuits that drew national attention to then-FTC Chair Lina Khan. Khan’s lawsuits contradicted the deregulation agenda that began with President Ronald Reagan’s administration and was maintained by every president until Biden. President Biden justified the shift, stating, “We’re now 40 years into the experiment of letting giant corporations accumulate more and more power. And what have we gotten from it? Less growth, weakened investment, fewer small businesses. Too many Americans who feel left behind. Too many people who are poorer than their parents.”1
Khan was vocal about her belief that a major cause of inflation is corporate consolidation, or the merging of smaller businesses into monopolies. She noted that “even as some of the supply chain issues have eased, prices have not come down concurrently as much,” and implied that the manufactured inflation by large corporations was good for their profits.2 While there is no exact boundary within a given market that labels a corporation a monopoly, Khan stated that the FTC could look at the behavior of a corporation and see if it is operating with a “too big to care” approach, signaling they have too much power. This is where the Biden administration’s FTC would take antitrust action, using laws and regulations designed to prevent companies from forming monopolies or engaging in practices that unfairly restrict competition in the marketplace.3 The most recent attempt by the FTC to address such behavior was the proposed Kroger-Albertsons grocery merger, blocked in two different courts as of December 2024. The potential remains for the merger to move forward in President Donald Trump’s administration, which would result in the largest single grocery corporation in U.S. history.4
Khan pointed to the pharmaceutical industry, tech companies, and the hospitality industry as illustrative examples of how unchecked monopolies can drive up costs for Americans. For instance, the FTC claimed that the pharmaceutical company Teva filed improper patents on prescriptions like inhalers to prevent generic options from being made. It found that the same inhaler that costs $7 in France costs American consumers $500, as Americans are forced to buy the brand name.5 The FTC announced a bipartisan rule in December 2024 banning junk fees for concert tickets and hotel stays, stating, “People deserve to know up front what they are being asked to pay.”6 The FTC also announced that it would look into large artificial intelligence companies that it claimed are given undue influence on markets and are engaging in collusion or price-fixing at casinos and hotels by providing the same algorithms to entire industries that use them to set their prices.7
President Biden largely stood by the decisions of the FTC, though he declined to renominate Khan to another seven-year term as commissioner. Khan, who stepped down in 2025, garnered mixed reactions from both Republicans and Democrats. Notably, Vice President JD Vance has shown some support, stating that he doesn’t “agree with Lina Khan about everything, but (he) think(s) she’s been smart about going after these big tech companies.”8
The courts, however, do not always agree. The FTC lost high-profile cases, including antitrust suits it filed against tech companies Meta in 2020 and Microsoft in 2022. Startup founders have complained that that these lawsuits are scaring off investors so much that it’s stifling innovation. Some say the Biden administration’s FTC exercised too much power and are preparing to take action in district courts and, political experts suspect, in the Supreme Court.9
President Trump, meanwhile, designated Andrew Ferguson as the new chair of the FTC on his first day in office. The future of antitrust policies and laws under his leadership remains a significant area of public and political debate.
Discussion Questions
- Should the Trump administration’s FTC continue the trend of antitrust policies? What might be some benefits and drawbacks of this approach?
- Should there be a legally defined percentage of a given market that one corporation is allowed to have influence or ownership over? How might that affect American consumers?
- How do issues like prescription costs, junk fees, or AI impact your community? Do you think the actions taken by Khan and the FTC will change how they impact you? If so, how?
- How much control should the federal government have in limiting the power of monopolies? How might more control protect or harm consumers?
As always, we encourage you to join the discussion with your comments or questions below.
Close Up is proud to be the nation’s leading nonprofit civic education organization, working with schools and districts across the country since 1971. If you would like to partner with us or learn more about our experiential learning programs, professional development, or curriculum design and consulting, contact us today!
Sources
Featured Image Credit: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images
[1] The White House: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/07/09/remarks-by-president-biden-at-signing-of-an-executive-order-promoting-competition-in-the-american-economy/
[2] “60 Minutes”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebQtWZH3TW4
[3] Department of Justice: https://www.justice.gov/atr/antitrust-laws-and-you
[4] National Public Radio: https://www.npr.org/2024/12/10/nx-s1-5114999/kroger-albertsons-merger-ftc-lawsuit-court-ruling
[5] Federal Trade Commission: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/03/ftc-files-amicus-brief-asthma-inhaler-patent-dispute
[6] Federal Trade Commission: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/12/federal-trade-commission-announces-bipartisan-rule-banning-junk-ticket-hotel-fees
[7] Bloomberg Law: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/antitrust-risks-to-firms-lurk-inside-some-ai-pricing-algorithms
[8] CNBC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7MA2EkpRXM
[9] “60 Minutes”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebQtWZH3TW4
FOX32 Chicago | Local Students Reflect on Visiting D.C. for Inauguration Festivities
A group of students from northwest Indiana just got back from Washington D.C. They were in town during the inauguration and took part in a week-long government studies program.
The Second Trump Presidency
Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States on January 20, 2025. In his first day in office, President Trump signed 26 executive orders, the most in recent history. In contrast, President Joe Biden signed nine on his first day in office and President Trump signed just one when he was inaugurated in 2017. Now, the nation is reflecting on his inaugural address and the executive orders he has already signed and is looking to President Trump’s second “first 100 days” in office.
What Did Trump Say in His Inaugural Address?
George Washington began the tradition of giving a speech upon being inaugurated, and every president since has given one. Most inaugural addresses are meant to unify the country after the campaign, reaffirm their commitment to national values such as democracy and liberty, and set forth the president’s overarching political principles. Historians and pundits say President Trump’s second inaugural address was unusual in that he laid out specific policy actions he wanted to take, from renaming Denali to Mt. McKinley to declaring the country would recognize only two genders.
While President Trump began his speech by characterizing himself as a peacemaker and a unifier, pledging to create a golden age for the country, it quickly became partisan. He mentioned the increase in his support by Hispanic and Black voters, the “radical and corrupt establishment,” and that he felt the Department of Justice had been weaponized against him. He also spoke extensively on his immigration and energy policy goals, including one of his campaign catchphrases, “Drill, baby, drill.”
Many presidents since the end of World War II have talked broadly about world peace. President Trump spoke generally about ending conflicts and having the wisdom to avoid new wars. However, he also referenced Manifest Destiny, the 19th century philosophy that the United States was divinely destined to expand its borders, which was used to justify the displacement and extermination of millions of Native Americans. He complained about Panama’s administration of the Panama Canal and declared the Gulf of Mexico will now be known as the Gulf of America.
Why Do We Keep Track of the President’s First 100 Days?
Since Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first presidency in 1933, the country has kept track of a president’s first 100 days in office. In his first 100 days, President Roosevelt passed regulations and pushed legislation through Congress to help the country recover from the Great Depression. Ever since, presidents have been evaluated on the success of their first 100 days. The actions of a president at the start of their term can let the country know what to expect.
What Can We Expect from Trump’s First 100 Days?
Before taking office, President-elect Trump messaged that his goal for his first 100 days was to reverse President Biden’s policies and pick up where he left off in 2020. We can expect major changes to our diversity, environmental, immigration, and foreign policies.
President Trump signed an executive order declaring that there are only two genders, and that the United States would not recognize transgender people. He also ended diversity, equity, and inclusion hiring goals for the federal government. President Trump has already withdrawn the United States from the Paris climate agreement and declared an energy emergency to promote drilling on federal lands. He signed an expected, but controversial, executive order to pardon the nearly 1,500 January 6 rioters, including hundreds convicted of assaulting police, carrying firearms, and destroying property.
We can also expect lawsuits challenging many of these executive orders. The American Civil Liberties Union has already pledged to challenge President Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship for people whose parents are not in the country legally. The state attorney general of California is expected to file suits against President Trump’s pledge for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
Discussion Questions
- Did you watch the inaugural address? What do you think about President Trump’s vision for America’s future?
- What are your views on the president’s executive orders? Which do you agree with? Which do you disagree with?
- What do you want to see in the new administration’s first 100 days in power?
- What message would you want to send to President Trump as he begins his second term?
- Why do you think it’s important for the new administration to listen to young people?
Additional Links
- WATCH President Trump’s inaugural address on C-SPAN.
- WATCH conservative and liberal responses to President Trump’s inaugural address:
- REVIEW President Trump’s America First priorities.
- READ the list of presidential actions.
Related Posts
As always, we encourage you to join the discussion with your comments or questions below.
Close Up is proud to be the nation’s leading nonprofit civic education organization, working with schools and districts across the country since 1971. If you would like to partner with us or learn more about our experiential learning programs, professional development, or curriculum design and consulting, contact us today!
Sources
Featured Image Credit: AP Photos/Morry Gash
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-first-100-days-when-did-we-start-caring-about-them-and-why-do-they-matter/
https://www.npr.org/2024/11/06/nx-s1-5181800/2024-election-trump-first-100-days-agenda
https://www.si.edu/stories/brief-history-presidential-inaugural-speeches
https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2024-12-09/4-day-one-promises-from-president-elect-donald-trump
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/01/20/us/trump-inauguration-speech-annotated.html
https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-inauguration-swearing-capitol-b3549ebe5dae74a872502aa79def7a11
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5097337-aclu-sues-trump-order/
https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/trump-inauguration-california-lawsuits-executive-orders/
Columbia Gorge News | For Hood River County School District’s Migrant Ed Team, Work is Year-Round
HOOD RIVER — Twenty-five Hood River Valley High School (HRV) students in the migrant education program will head to Washington, D.C., over spring break to take part in the Close Up Foundation’s High School Program, “a six day and five night program for high school students to experience their government in action”.
The Hill | Here are The Hill’s Changemakers 2024
Welcome to The Hill’s Changemakers: 24 of 2024. For the second year in a row, we’re highlighting both the household names and lesser-known players who are making an impact at the Capitol and around the world. Whether you agree or disagree with them, these two dozen pathfinders are setting the pace and shaking things up in Washington.
BrowardSchools.com | BCPS Students Participate in Rally to the Tally for New Floridians
Approximately 150 newly arrived immigrants and English Language Learners, who are Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) high school students, will take part in Rally to the Tally for New Floridians from December 10 – 13, 2024. This four-day field trip provides students the opportunity to see first-hand the legislative system at work. Students will visit the state capital and tour Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, the University of Florida and the University of Central Florida.
The Decline of Local Newspapers
A free press is a crucial part of our democracy—so important that it was enshrined in the First Amendment of the Constitution. Once a staple of information, newspapers have been steadily declining and disappearing for decades. There are nearly 6,000 newspapers that publish in the United States and, on average, two shut down every week.1 Current projections show that by the end of this year, the United States will have lost one-third of the newspapers that it had back in 2005.2 What does a community lose when its newspaper folds?
The decline of local newspapers can be attributed to several factors, including high production costs, decreased advertising revenue, and declining readership. These compounding factors can lead newspapers to lay off employees or cut back on how frequently they print as cost-cutting measures. Newspapers that once published daily may now print only a few editions per week. Some have shifted to become online-only publications. Other have shuttered altogether. Newspapers have become increasingly reliant on digital advertising to cover their operational costs, with digital ad sales accounting for nearly half of all revenue they take in.3
A shift to consuming news online, intensified by smartphones, has disrupted traditional news outlets like print media. In a 2023 survey by the Pew Research Center, only nine percent of U.S. adults said they turn to print publications often to get their news, compared to 56 percent who said they get their news digitally.4 The survey also found that nearly one-third of all young Americans get most of their news online from TikTok.5
The Local News Initiative, a project from Northwestern University that tracks local news outlets across the United States, has found that over 1,500 counties have only one local news outlet. More than 200 counties have none at all.6 This lack of local news outlets creates “information deserts” that deprive communities of vital information. Typically, when a newspaper shutters, there are no other news outlets—in print or online—that fill the information gap.7 Rural and low-income communities are more likely to suffer from a lack of quality news.8
“Increasingly, I’m worried that we’re evolving into a nation of journalistic haves and have-nots,” said Penny Abernathy of the Local News Initiative. “That has huge implications for not only our democracy, but for our society.”9 Journalists serve as checks on power, bringing accountability and transparency by investigating and reporting on government officials, school board members, and business owners. Their stories spur local governments to act on issues that they may not otherwise address. By reporting the facts, whether good or bad, they strengthen their community’s faith in local leaders and institutions. But in the last two decades, two-thirds of local reporters have lost their jobs.10 This creates a void of in-depth coverage and quality reporting on relevant topics and pressing issues.
The reasons for the decline of newspapers also impact our democracy by enabling “more corruption and irresponsible spending” by local governments and “more straight ticket voting, less competitive elections, and lower turnout” by voters.11 Newspapers keep people informed about the issues their community faces and how their local government functions. They provide updates about upcoming elections, candidates, city ordinances, policing procedures, and educational decisions. When people are aware of what’s going on, they can feel more invested in the success of their community and be more likely to civically engage in it. Conversely, people are less likely to speak out against a policy if they are unaware that it’s being considered by their city council, and they may decide to not vote in a local election if they don’t know about the candidates’ backgrounds or platforms.
The local angle of a story—the voices, opinions, and needs that are important to distinct communities—are lost when news is only available online or through national sources. These types of news can create media echo chambers and increase political partisanship, as they tend to frame stories, for a larger audience, in terms of “this side verses that side.”12 By highlighting conflict, it becomes difficult to see people, even neighbors, as anything other than the political party they belong to or the candidates they vote for. Online sources are also more susceptible to misinformation and disinformation without the journalistic standards practiced by newspaper journalists, editors, and publishers.
The sense of community that comes from knowing local news—even weekly football scores, marriage announcements, and obituaries—creates a common connection that can’t be easily replicated online or on a national level. “Our paper spoiled us,” said Steve Rader, who lives outside a small, rural community in Texas that lost its newspaper last year. “They did so much work. And it was so colorful and beautiful, and they celebrated our successes and our tough times.”13 When asked if the loss of the newspaper felt personal, he replied, “Oh, yes, yes. Yes, that paper was a part of our life.”14
Discussion Questions
- Does your community have a newspaper? (You can find out by exploring the Local News Landscape map from the Local News Initiative.) If so, do you or members of your family regularly read it?
- What sources do you get your news from?
- What are some benefits of having access to the news online? What are some drawbacks?
- Why are local newspapers important to communities?
- What do you think should be done to support newspapers and local journalism?
Other Resources
- READ the full Local News Initiative report.
- WATCH two PBS reports on the subject: How the Loss of Local Newspapers Fueled Political Divisions in the U.S. and The Connections Between Decline of Local News and Growing Political Division.
As always, we encourage you to join the discussion with your comments or questions below.
Close Up is proud to be the nation’s leading nonprofit civic education organization, working with schools and districts across the country since 1971. If you would like to partner with us or learn more about our experiential learning programs, professional development, or curriculum design and consulting, contact us today!
Sources
Featured Image Credit: Tom Starkweather/Columbia Journalism Review
[1] Axios: https://www.axios.com/2023/11/16/newspapers-decline-hedge-funds-research
[2] Ibid.
[3] Pew Research Center: https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/newspapers/
[4] Pew Research Center: https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/news-platform-fact-sheet/
[5] Pew Research Center: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/11/15/more-americans-are-getting-news-on-tiktok-bucking-the-trend-seen-on-most-other-social-media-sites/
[6] Local News Initiative: https://localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/projects/state-of-local-news/explore/#/localnewslandscape
[7] Local News Initiative: https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2022/06/newspapers-close-decline-in-local-journalism/
[8] Local News Initiative: https://localnews.knilab.com/projects/state-of-local-news/2023/report/#ethnic-communities
[9] PBS: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/the-connections-between-decline-of-local-news-and-growing-political-division
[10] Local News Initiative: https://localnews.knilab.com/projects/state-of-local-news/2023/report/#ethnic-communities
[11] PBS: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-the-loss-of-local-newspapers-fueled-political-divisions-in-the-u-s
[12] Ibid.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Ibid.
