Health Care Under Fire

Health Care Under Fire

Look out, the Supreme Court’s black-robed gang of far-right ideologues is rampaging again. The Supreme clan is firing potshots at the Affordable Care Act. Caught in the crossfire is the court’s own integrity, along with the health of millions of innocent...
Banking on Tanking

Banking on Tanking

In Murfreesboro, Tennessee, less than an hour’s drive from my childhood home, two high school girls’ basketball teams just made national headlines — by trying to lose to each other. The basketball gods must have cringed at the late-February matchup between...
Reclaiming Our State Budgets

Reclaiming Our State Budgets

I live in Chicago, a city of dramatic skylines and gleaming office towers for titans of business and finance. My state of Illinois is home to 17 billionaires, and our downstate farmers are the country’s second-largest corn and soybean producers. And yet new Illinois...
What We Lose with a Privatized Postal Service

What We Lose with a Privatized Postal Service

Did you know that when you ship a package through Federal Express, the U.S. Postal Service often carries it the last mile? Last year, the Postal Service delivered 1.4 billion packages for FedEx and UPS. In fact, it delivers the last mile for almost a third of FedEx...
Wal-Mart Does Something Right

Wal-Mart Does Something Right

Once, I indirectly forced a neighbor to drive far out of her way for a head of broccoli. I think she’s forgiven me, but I’m not sure the love is still the same. She was kindly caring for my child and running errands when she turned toward Wal-Mart for a...
A Crash Course on Reality

A Crash Course on Reality

I was always one of those kids who got As in school. Give me an assignment, I’ll do it. A test? I’ll take it. Lecture to me, and I’ll absorb every word. Now that I’m back at school 11 years after getting my college degree, though, I suddenly find myself in a very...