The Ugly Business of Lethal Injection

| Aug 8, 2011 | Rights / DemocracyThe pretense of lethal injection as a peaceful and painless way to execute prisoners is unraveling, and this may change the face of the death penalty in the United States. In September 2009, the state of Ohio tried to execute Romell Broom. The execution team, with...

Watching Out for Our Water

| | Environment / HealthWater is at risk in the United States and around the world. Its quality and availability is in peril. Today, nearly one in eight people lack access to adequate supplies of safe drinking water. Globally, water-borne diseases kill more people than tuberculosis or...

Waiter, There’s a Newfangled Technology in My Soup

| | Food / FarmingThe U.S. food system has a new bedfellow, and it may already be on your plate. Increasingly, the coatings that keep supermarket produce fresh-looking and the chemicals used in pesticide-intensive farming are incorporating nanotechnology — a technology still in...
Playing Chicken in the Capitol

Playing Chicken in the Capitol

| | Rights / DemocracyThe problem with the game of chicken — two people racing toward each other, each daring the other to turn aside — is that the crazy one always wins. The one who doesn’t care about head-on collisions has a stunted imagination and can’t conceive...

America’s Real Job Creators are Broke

| | Economy / BusinessAs narrators used to say in Western movies: “Meanwhile, back at the ranch…” Our policymakers in Washington have totally lost sight of what’s happening at the ranch. John Boehner’s GOP-controlled House and Barack Obama’s White House...