| Jan 13, 2016 | Economy / BusinessMillions of low-paid Americans rang in 2016 with a raise, as a handful of state minimum wage increases went into effect on the first day of January. Many of those raises are a barely noticeable 15 or 20 cents an hour — little comfort to people struggling to make ends...
| | Peace / SecurityPicture a world in which most of the people you encounter — on the street or at work, in stores or classrooms, at the movies or in church — are openly carrying guns. That’s the world Second Amendment absolutists are promoting when they repeat their mantra, “The...
| | Peace / SecurityThe armed men occupying an isolated federal building in a remote Oregon bird sanctuary say they won’t leave until the federal government stops its “tyranny.” Yet it’s not clear what that tyranny is, exactly. One of the group’s leaders is Ammon...
| | Environment / HealthNow that it’s already been phased out, the world can agree that a chemical used in Teflon — the famous coating on nonstick pots and pans — was toxic. A recent New York Times Magazine article told the story of the heroic victims who paid with their health and the...
| | Peace / SecurityGood fences, wrote Robert Frost, make good neighbors. But an 18-foot high, 2,000-mile wall? That’s another story. It just antagonizes your neighbor — and shows your own fear and weakness. Yet this is what self-described conservatives running for president...