Today’s roundup of interesting articles and links from around the web includes worrisome news on tenure and federal declassification, a discussion about the importance of the University of Missouri Press, the history of voting reform and restrictions, and more.

News

Court Rejects Law Professor’s Assertion that “Tenure” Means Continuous Employment
A federal appellate court ruled against a tenured law professor’s claim that she was wrongly terminated, stating that “her contract referred to ‘the concept of tenure’ but did not define tenure as a right to continuous employment or ‘create an obligation’ of such.”

Obama administration struggles to live up to its transparency promise
A disappointing report from the Washington Post finds that after a promising start, the administration’s progress on declassification and Freedom of Information Act requests now seems stalled or worse.

With NASA Mars Rover Curiosity Safely on Surface, Time to Take Inventory
NASA rover Curiosity withstood a 354-million-mile journey to Mars and on Monday landed safely in what is believed to be the Gale Crater.

U.S. Has Hottest Month on Record in July 2012, NOAA Says
NOAA reported that in the 118 years of U.S. records, July 2012 was the hottest month ever observed. The average temperature across the continental U.S. was 3.3 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the 20th century average, and 0.2 degrees hotter than the previous record set in July 1936.

Discussions

The Importance of the University of Missouri Press
Donna Potts, chair of the AAUP’s Assembly of State Conferences, discusses how the decision to close the University of Missouri Press may have “violated the AAUP’s recommendations, principles, and statements.”

Digital Deadline
Brian Kibby writes at Inside Higher Ed: “As I see it, the publishing industry needs to do all it can to ensure that within 36 months, higher education in the U.S. will be completely digital.”

Voting “Reform” across the Ages
Jonathan Zimmerman discusses the history of voting reform and restriction in light of Pennsylvania’s new voter ID law.

Born in the USA: The Politics of Birthright Citizenship in Historical Perspective
Video from this March conference at the University of Maryland, College Park, now online at the Center for the History of the New America and C-SPAN.

Britain or Bust
An installment in the New York Times’s Historically Corrected series covers the imbroglio over the Churchill bust, the “special relationship,” and “Anglo-Saxon heritage” on the campaign trail.

Michael Nash’s Work Lives On
An appreciation of the life of the historian and archivist by Norman Markowitz. Nash passed away on July 24.

Miscellaneous

One (Imaginary) Race with Every Medalist Ever: Men’s 100-Meter Freestyle
As part of the New York Times’s Olympics coverage, Kevin Quealy and Graham Roberts put together graphics of an imaginary race of every men’s 100 meter freestyle Olympic medalist all the way back to 1896.

This post first appeared on AHA Today.