Archive
Washington’s Slow-Motion Thaw
The strangest part of seeing the Cuban embargo officially deemed past its use-by date is how long this took. I first traveled to Cuba in 1995, after convincing my editor that it would become a huge business story once President Bill Clinton normalized relations. Like...
End the Cuban Embargo for Good
What did President Barack Obama mean when he declared that Washington will normalize relations with Cuba? Will they become the same as U.S. relations with any other country? Will all Americans be free to travel there? To do business with Cuba? Or will the strict...
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...
