Archive
Dud Congress Breaks with a Thud
Twenty-two. That's how many bills have become law since the 113th Congress was sworn in on January 3, 2013. It's one more illustration of the dysfunction that's engulfed the Capitol. One bill that did become law this year was the continuing resolution that funded the...
How to Move Millions into the Middle Class
President Barack Obama is pledging to make the rest of his time in office about "making this country work for working Americans again." That means one branch of government is on the case. After rejecting White House proposals to create good jobs that would rebuild our...
Kiss of Death
Sharron Camaratta bites her lips. She never thought of this as a major problem until 2007. That's when she read that certain brands of lipsticks contain lead, a substance that can cause brain and nervous system damage. So she stopped wearing the problematic brands —...
The Devil Is in the Taxes
While pretty much everybody agrees that the U.S. tax code is a mess, nobody does anything about it. Oh, politicians talk about doing something, but mainly what they do is make it worse. There's a reason for this. You. You're the reason. People, alas, tend to be greedy...
The Bezillionaire Times
Amazon's bezillionaire CEO is buying The Washington Post, America's second-most prestigious daily newspaper. Jeff Bezos only had to pay $250 million, less than 1 percent of his $28 billion personal fortune. Has plutocracy finally overwhelmed our press? Some veteran...
Hold the Pomposity
Ruth Bourdain of Twitter fame has been revealed! If you're like me, you had no idea there ever was someone named Ruth Bourdain on Twitter, or that she was a satirical character made up by an anonymous — but very funny — prankster. Now that "her" identity was exposed...
Get Radio-Active
Are you tired of hearing nothing but the corporate news and mainstream views on commercial, mass-market radio? Well, go get your own station! That's not as preposterous as it might sound, thanks to a freelance, free-range, free-form collective of mostly young...
As the World Drowns
Warming doesn't Bother me, Just turn up The old A/C. Expensive news, everyone: The worldwide cost of the melting Arctic ice may total up to $60 trillion dollars, according to a University of Cambridge study. That's nearly a year's worth of global economic output we'll...
Climate Change We Can Believe In
Solving the Student Debt Crisis
Well, finally! Hard-right congressional leaders and the Obama White House ultimately agreed that interest rates on student loans should not double to nearly 7 percent, as they let happen early in July. Instead, college students will be billed at a rate that will...
