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...
Some Good News from the Middle East

Some Good News from the Middle East

There’s not much good news coming out of the Middle East these days. But one reason to take heart is the progress of nuclear negotiations between Iran and the West. Even as new conflicts sprout up elsewhere, a three-decade standoff between Tehran and Washington...
When Your Armed Neighbor Comes Knocking

When Your Armed Neighbor Comes Knocking

A North Carolina grand jury has indicted an atheist with a history of virulently anti-religious statements in the murder of three Muslim American students in Chapel Hill — a young couple and the wife’s sister. The victims’ family and friends say the killings were the...