Archive
A Flat-footed Backflip for Wall Street
Congress, which had been so tied up in a partisan knot by right-wing extremists that it became unable to move, suddenly sprang loose at the end of the year. Before heading home for the holidays, it put on a phenomenal show of acrobatic lawmaking. In one big,...
Port Strikes Mirror Organized Labor’s Roots
Port truckers in California walked off the job in November to protest their dismal working conditions. Required to lease trucks while paying insurance and maintenance costs, drivers often earn less than minimum wage. The strike came just days after big box retailers,...
The Torture Question
Ethics Training for Congress? Dream On
Do you — or does anyone — really need a book of rules and a three-hour briefing to do your job ethically? If you're a Congress critter, apparently so. For that's what newly elected lawmakers have just received. Nearly all those newcomers rode to victory on a tsunami...
What the U.S. Should Learn from Russia’s Collapse
After months of whispered warnings, Russia’s economic troubles made global headlines when its currency collapsed halfway through December. Amid the tumbling price of oil, the ruble has fallen to record lows, bringing the country to its most serious economic crisis...
In OtherWords: A Steady Stream
All year long, OtherWords gives editors — at no cost — a steady stream of independent-minded commentaries to choose from for their op-ed pages. That’s how we do our share to ensure that as long as there are newspapers in print or a digital format, the national...
Four Ways 2014 Was a Pivotal Year for the Internet
The death of the Internet is at hand. Sound familiar? That’s what Internet pioneer Robert Metcalfe predicted in 1995 when he wrote that spiraling demands on the fledgling network would cause the Internet to "catastrophically collapse" by 1996. Metcalfe, of course, was...
Dreamers Need Not Apply for Health Care
With the second open enrollment period for Affordable Care Act coverage underway, millions of Americans are gaining new access to health care. But there’s one group of people that won’t be signing up anytime soon. These are young immigrants in the United States — over...
A Lump of Coal for Fossil Fuels
The fossil-fuel divestment movement got the perfect holiday gift in 2014: tumbling stocks. Founded only two years ago by experts and students fed up with the glacial pace of climate action, this global effort is already liquidating more than $50 billion of the oil,...
Warning: Fracking May Harm Public Health
What do public health advocates like me tell people all the time? Get tested. Use protection. In practice, that means we’re always explaining how everything from cancer screenings to immunizations to bike helmets can save lives. The same logic ought to apply to...
