Cigarettes: The Killer that Won’t Die

Cigarettes: The Killer that Won’t Die

Would you believe that 45 million adult Americans still smoke? That’s about one in five of us grownups. Worldwide this killer habit ends about six million lives each year. But what’s most disturbing — 10 percent of victims never even took a puff....
More Than 46 Million Americans Still in Poverty

More Than 46 Million Americans Still in Poverty

This blogpost originally appeared on Truthout. According to Census Bureau figures released today, 15 percent of the US population lives in poverty. In 2011, more than 46 million Americans lived below a poverty line that was set more than four decades ago, in 1969. The...
This Week in OtherWords: September 10-16, 2012

This Week in OtherWords: September 10-16, 2012

This week, OtherWords is running a debut column by Katie Halper, our new guest columnist. Katie, a young writer who is also a stand-up comedian, has shared an “unedited” (that is, a painfully honest and entertaining) draft of Ann Romney’s speech with...
A Glimmer of Military Budget Sanity

A Glimmer of Military Budget Sanity

Here’s a milestone of sorts. In July, for the first time since 1998, the House of Representatives voted to maintain the current military budget rather than increase Pentagon spending. It’s the first step toward bringing the budget down. Within the bill,...