Publication Type: Poster
Abstract: Racial/ethnic profiling has become a major national issue. Claims of racial profiling often arise with respect to traffic stops and an officer’s decision to search a vehicle for drugs and other contraband. In response to concerns over profiling, law enforcement agencies across the country have begun to require their traffic officers to record the race/ethnicity of the motorists they stop as well as those they search, but not necessarily the duration of the vehicle stop or the duration of the vehicle search. Initial data collected by the Nebraska State Patrol (NSP), like that of most other state police agencies, showed that minority drivers were, in fact, more likely than white drivers to have their vehicles searched, but that minority motorists were less likely than whites to be found with contraband. In this study, we conduct systematic observational research on the post-stop interactions between state troopers and minority, as well as non-minority motorists, including the duration of the stop and the search, as well as other situational and outcome variables.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The performing arts provide unique opportunities for socialization, language development, and collaborative creative expression. The process of creating original music, drama, and musical theatre works provides a structure within which young people can learn to communicate and collaborate. With wise facilitation, this process can enable those from diverse populations to cooperate, reaching new levels of awareness, tolerance, and understanding.This paper will examine the use of musical and theatrical projects that bring together Arabic and Jewish artists with particular focus on Palestinian-Israeli content and issues. Public artistic projects for adults and youth will be discussed, with emphasis on educational ventures involving young people. This work lays an important foundation for building relationships among participants and can serve as a important model for intercultural education. If music and theater can indeed be used as vehicles for promoting intercultural understanding, it is important to disseminate this information so that these techniques can be promulgated, laying the foundation for true conflict resolution, beginning with expression and interchange, and leading to understanding of the human experience

Publication Type: Symposium
Abstract: This panel will examine alternative transportation options, and why energy literacy is key in helping society move in a new direction.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Many lesser developed countries have ventured into regional cooperation arrangements with the hope of integrating markets and decision-making. One of the major motivations behind these integration efforts is the hope that they will aid in development. The idea is that cooperation reduces costs for certain activities, that pooling resources will promote development that individually each country cannot do, and that the sprit of cooperation and regional solidarity will prove beneficial for solving common problems. However, regional integration has not produced the sought after goals among some developing countries. We argue that too often countries join regional organization due to ideation or bandwagoning rather than sound economic policy. As a result, integration has not been a successful vehicle for development when states join more than one integration project with similarly sized economies. By integrating with similarly sized economies, states that are already small and poor cannot take advantage of economies of scales or other benefits that could be bestowed by larger and relatively wealthier partners. This problem is exacerbated when states form overlapping networks. I address the divide in theory and policy as well as understanding policy formation and success from a normative versus structural perspectives.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: There are two key cases regarding a search of a motor vehicle incident to an arrest. In Belton v. New York, 453 U.S. 454 (1981), the driver was outside the car when arrested and the police conducted a search of the vehicle for weapons and contraband. In Thornton v. United States, 541 U.S. 615 (2004) the court upheld the authority of the police to legally conduct a vehicle search after the arrestee was in police custody. While this appeared to settle the vehicle search incident to arrest issue, the Supreme Court recently agreed to hear the case of Arizona v. Gant, 143 P.3d 379 (2006). This is a case where police conducted a warrantless search of an arrestee’s vehicle at the scene, after the individual was handcuffed, in the back of a patrol car, and under the supervision of a police officer. With a new Chief Justice and Associate Justice, the question now is whether the Supreme Court is about to change direction. Will the court find a niche to support the officers’ warrantless search of Gant’s vehicle, or will Justice Scalia’s dissenting opinions from earlier cases rise to a majority and possibly suppress the evidence discovered in Gant’s vehicle?