Clear Warning Signs

Clear Warning Signs

For many people of color, it was with a sickening sense of familiarity that we watched the video of yet another routine traffic stop that would come to a tragic end. Two days before authorities discovered Sandra Bland’s lifeless body in her Texas jail cell, the...
The Drill Is Gone

The Drill Is Gone

When Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential election, the GOP’s battle cry from that race also prevailed. Remember “drill, baby, drill”? This country produced 3.2 billion barrels of oil last year, up 75 percent from 1.8 billion in 2008. The boom helps explain why, as...
A Welcome New Yardstick for Measuring CEO Greed

A Welcome New Yardstick for Measuring CEO Greed

Should corporations in America have to annually reveal how much they pay their most typical workers compared to how much they pay their CEOs? In 2010, Congress embraced that idea. Lawmakers plugged into the landmark Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer...
Big Ag Spars with the First Amendment

Big Ag Spars with the First Amendment

The First Amendment may be inconvenient to some people at times, but it’s still the law of the land. Case in point: so-called “ag-gag laws.” These are laws in Idaho, Montana, Utah, North Dakota, Missouri, Kansas, and Iowa that prohibit people from...
Throwing Public Education under the Bus

Throwing Public Education under the Bus

Public education used to be, you know, public — an essential societal investment for the betterment of all, paid for by all through school taxes. In addition to privatization schemes to turn education over to corporate profiteers, public schools themselves have...