Archive
Free to Eat Whatever You Want
My neighbor just left to spend the entire summer in Europe. He's the guy with a highly restrictive diet I recently wrote about, with countless food intolerances that his "nutritionist" detected using dubious testing methods. I haven't had the heart to tell him she's a...
Recipe for Ripoffs
President Barack Obama is a surprisingly devout disciple of so-called "free trade." During his first presidential bid he promised to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), indicating some concern over the U.S.-Canada-Mexico pact. A month after...
Illegal Ingredients
Success in Seattle
At last, our political leaders in Washington are taking action for low-wage workers and the middle class, striking a bold blow for America's historic value of economic fairness. Gosh, I hope you don't think I meant Washington, D.C. No, no. The same old corporate...
Remembering Dr. Maya Angelou
I was traveling when Dr. Maya Angelou died, away from my poetry community in Washington, D.C. But my Facebook feed was crowded with tributes and powerful remembrances, as writers, survivors, and truth tellers chronicled the impact of Dr. Angelou's life and words on...
This Week in OtherWords: June 4, 2014
This week in OtherWords, Mary Anne Hitt applauds the Obama administration's effort to reduce climate-damaging emissions and Raul A. Reyes urges GOP leaders to stop blocking a bill that would give undocumented immigrants who grew up in the United States a path to...
Walmart’s Top-to-Bottom Taxpayer Subsidies
Low-income families weren't the only ones hurt by cuts to food stamps last fall. Top Walmart executives also took a hit. The cutbacks ate into the discount giant's sales because so many of its low-income customers rely on this public assistance program to help pay for...
Stalled at the Starting Line
"Gentlemen, start your engines." That message, played repeatedly in a commercial beamed on the Jumbotron at this year's Indianapolis 500, had nothing to do with racecars. A coalition of faith, business, and law enforcement leaders used the iconic event to launch their...
Nixing the Pentagon Slush Fund
The Senate Armed Services Committee has finished its work on the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act, a bill that guides Pentagon policies. The measure authorizes $514 billion in spending for the Pentagon, along with the Energy Department's national security...
Giving Our Kids a Fighting Chance
As dire warnings from climate scientists continue to escalate and extreme weather events become increasingly common, the Obama administration's new proposal to cut carbon pollution from existing power plants couldn't be more important or timely. The Environmental...
