Virginia Is for Dirty-Energy Lovers

Virginia Is for Dirty-Energy Lovers

If you live in Virginia and would like to shrink your carbon footprint, here’s what passes for good news: We’re now officially free to ban fracking. For two years, Old Dominion communities weren’t at liberty to prevent that kind of oil and gas drilling. After the...
Lending Dreams

Lending Dreams

Nina Bailey has wanted to buy a home in her adopted city of Detroit for years. Instead, like tens of thousands of other Detroiters, she rents an apartment, where she lives with her two children. Bailey can afford a monthly mortgage payment. She’s got a decent-paying...
In OtherWords: May 6, 2015

In OtherWords: May 6, 2015

This week in OtherWords, Nathalie Baptiste and LeeAnn Hall put Baltimore’s recent upheaval into a context illustrated by cartoonist Khalil Bendib. And I salute the climate movement’s patron saint — Pope Francis. In addition to our regular lineup of...
Coddling the Rich

Coddling the Rich

Question: How much did Congress save taxpayers last year when it cut food stamp benefits for 16 million poor children? Answer: Less than the windfall Congress is trying to bestow on a few of the richest American families by ending the federal estate tax. The House has...
Converting the Fossil-Fuel Fundamentalists

Converting the Fossil-Fuel Fundamentalists

Kicking humanity’s addiction to oil, gas, and coal before those industries render the planet uninhabitable may take a miracle. So it’s a good thing that the climate movement found a patron saint. I’m talking about Pope Francis, of course. Before an upcoming encyclical...