Environment and Health
A Cleaner Plague
Have you had your daily minimum requirement of triclosan today? How about your dose of triclocarban? Chances are you have, but don't know. These two antimicrobial chemicals disrupt the human body's normal regulatory processes. Animal testing shows that these chemicals...
The Fracking War on Coal
When the EPA opened a new comment period on Jan. 8 for the public to weigh in on proposed greenhouse gas limits for new coal-fired power plants, it didn't take long for the overblown rhetoric denouncing President Barack Obama's so-called "War on Coal" to begin. The...
Keeping Sludge Away from Your Seedlings Is Harder than You Think
Spring is so close we can almost taste it. If you're a gardener, you've already counted how many weeks until the last frost, ordered your seeds, and perhaps even began starting your seedlings indoors. And if you're like some gardeners, once it's warm enough, you'll...
The Cold Truth Atlanta’s Epic Traffic Jam Exposed
Communities around the country can learn a sobering lesson from the day Atlanta literally froze up. How Congress handles one of its biggest spending decisions will indicate whether our leaders got the message. Atlanta found itself scrambling in mid-February to avoid a...
The Best Way to Keep Our Water Safe
2014 has been a bad year for drinking water. First, a coal industry chemical spill left West Virginia residents in nine counties with water so polluted they could only use it to flush their toilets. And now 82,000 tons of coal ash have found their way into a river...
It’s Health Care, Not Software
So the Affordable Care Act didn't exactly deliver the greatest website. What did we get after all those years of haggling? Only health insurance for 9 million people (and counting) who didn't have it before. Only an end to pre-existing medical conditions keeping you...
Making Valentine’s Day More Meaningful
Valentine's Day, it seems, has all the trappings of a made-up Hallmark holiday. It's a holiday created purely to encourage us to go out and give our money to a few select industries: greeting cards, candy, roses, restaurants, etc. As it turns out, the holiday has a...
The Unaffordable WeDon’tCare Act
Remember when it looked like the Republican Party could do nothing but stamp its feet and shout about the Affordable Care Act's shortcomings without coming up with any alternatives? OK, there was former Sen. Jim DeMint's suggestion last summer that having the...
A Tough Act to Follow
Failing the Future
If President Barack Obama wants to make action on climate change a legacy of his administration, he better do a lot more in the next three years than his lackluster performance in this year's State of the Union address. Instead of outlining an approach to build a...
