Archive
The Changing Face of America
We’ve been hearing about it for years, and now the time has come. In May, the Census Bureau announced that for the first time, the birth rate of people of color exceeded that of whites: 50.4 percent to 49.5 percent.
Diplomacy Is the Only Way Forward with Iran
Negotiators from the United States, the other four permanent members of the UN Security Council, and Germany met with Iranian negotiators in Baghdad to discuss Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Although there’s still a long road ahead, the resumed diplomatic action has made progress that undoubtedly sets the tone for future negotiations.
Walmart’s Unsurprising Bribes
I like little towns, towns where Main Street is lined with small shops and stores — drugstores, hardware stores, a café where you can get breakfast or lunch, maybe a clothing store or two — that kind of little town. In its heyday, it was a place you could go to shop and meet friends by accident, perhaps sit down with them for a cup of coffee. It was a business district of angle parking, no meters. Main Street was charming.
Lobby Responsibly
The big beer brewers often admonish us imbibers of their products to “Drink Responsibly.” Well, I say back to them: Lobby Responsibly.
United States of Walmart
What Medical Mistakes?
Estimates vary, but every year an average of 195,000 Americans die from medical errors. These acts aren’t done on purpose — they are screw-ups, often dealing with medication. Other hundreds of thousands are annually injured. Surely, you say, Washington and the state capitals must be working feverishly to sort all this out.
The Lineup: Week of May 21-27, 2012
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Crushing College Dreams
As graduation season swings into high gear, a new economic crisis confronts thousands of this year’s high school and college grads — crushing college student loan debt.
We Can’t Afford Energy Subsidies and Tax Breaks
Last year, the top six U.S. oil companies made $148.7 billion in profits. That works out to about $407 million a day, $17 million an hour, or $283,000 per minute. At that pace, in roughly the amount of time it will take to read this commentary, just these six oil companies will have earned about $3 million in profits. Not revenues, profits.
Let’s Resist Herbicide-Resistant Crops
A Pioneer seed saleswoman introduced the first genetically modified crop to my central Missouri county in the winter of 1996 at a University Extension Soils and Crop Council meeting. She told us that if a farmer planted this genetically engineered soybean, then sprayed the herbicide Roundup all over his field, weeds would die but the soybeans would survive.
