| Jul 18, 2011 | Rights / DemocracyI was born and raised in Washington, DC before the miracle of air-conditioning. I know well that July is a beast in that city. Yet I will return to Washington, DC on July 30 to participate in the Save Our Schools march and rally. Why? Because I don’t want to...
| | Food / FarmingThanks to decades of deregulated agriculture, markets for corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, and other farm commodities have become high-stakes casinos. If family farmers are to be stewards of the land and safe, nutritious local supplies of food are what we want, then we...
| | Peace / SecurityThe Romans had an expression for it: “Nulla poena sine lege,” no punishment without a law. But people sometimes forget that the opposite is also true: Without punishment for offenders, a law itself can die. The Justice Department recently announced that,...
| | Economy / BusinessMy father, long dead, spent his working years in tool and die shops in Detroit, an experience from which he crafted a political, economic, and social philosophy of life. “They’re all in it together,” he would say. That was the very core of the...
| | Environment / HealthWest Virginia’s Upper Big Branch coal mine was a disaster even before it exploded into an underground inferno last year, killing 29 miners. A new investigative report by federal safety inspectors found that this mine — owned by the enormously profitable...
