I haven’t been on vaca­tion, but I have done lit­tle more than key admin­is­tra­tive main­te­nance for the past week and a few inter­est­ing arti­cles and dis­cus­sions have popped up in the debate community.

First, just before NFL Nation­als began, Mike Bietz wrote about the pos­si­bil­ity of travel restric­tions in Min­nesota. The imme­di­ate dis­cus­sions involve ath­let­ics, but it could be extended to speech & debate. Mis­souri is infa­mous for its travel restric­tions. The pro­posed Min­nesota travel lim­its are not as strict as those in Missouri.

Sec­ond, The 3NR has a follow-up on the dis­cus­sion about read­ing author qual­i­fi­ca­tions aloud which we men­tioned pre­vi­ously.

Finally, there has been a lot of dis­cus­sion about judg­ing and Pub­lic Forum Debate. First, the PFDe­bate Forums began dis­cussing whether or not a judge should ever inter­vene. Chris Palmer has pro­posed the use of a Pub­lic Forum Par­a­digm ques­tion­naire and then come the PFDe­bate Forums to dis­cuss it fur­ther. Jim Menick is inter­ested in the idea. Please visit the PFDe­bate Forums and let us know what you think.