Perspectives
We need justice on foreclosure fraud
Investigative reporter David Dayen calls foreclosure fraud “the largest consumer fraud in the history of the United States.” He cites “multitudes of evidence about fake documents, forged documents, illegal foreclosures, foreclosures on military members while they ...
Walmart is still bad for the planet
In May, Walmart was hit with $110 million in environmental fines after pleading guilty to improperly dumping pesticides, fertilizer and other hazardous materials into public sewers and landfills. The Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section said that it was ...
A half-century later, the environmental movement returns to its roots
It’s been more than four decades since the first Earth Day event held on April 22, 1970. And since that time it is fair to say that the environmental movement has had its ups and downs. So where does it stand today, and what should we expect moving forward? When it ...
Bowl a strike for reproductive freedom
Everybody knows abortion became legal for all women with the ‘Roe v. Wade’ Supreme Court decision in 1973. Fewer people know that in 1976, poor women lost that fundamental right to determine whether or when to have children. That is the year that the Hyde Amendment (...
Zombie conservatives at the schoolhouse door
Last week, the president delivered an education speech that fell somewhat short of the standard set by Lenin in his address at the Finland Station, launching the Bolshevik Revolution. In fact, Barack Obama told Americas schoolchildren to work hard, respect their ...
Domestic violence: A private matter?
Perhaps it’s time to retire the term “domestic violence.” It seems that some folks still believe it’s somehow different than regular, ordinary old violence...
Obama, like past leaders, a slow starter
Happy first anniversary, Barack Obama. Although happy is probably the wrong word...
The impacts of privatizing the turnpike
"We are privatizing ourselves into one disaster after another,” veteran journalist Ted Koppel said recently on NPR. “We’ve privatized a lot of what our military is doing. We’ve privatized a lot of what our intelligence agencies are doing. We’ve privatized our very ...
A challenge to end childhood hunger
Improving access to quality education is the single greatest investment we can make in our country, but for children to succeed in the classroom, we must first make sure their basic needs are met...
A fracking threat to children
We’ve all seen (or at least heard of) the movie Erin Brockovich, in which a bold and fiercely determined mom takes on a chemical company for exposing a small town and the families and children that live there to toxic chemicals that have been linked to cancer. It’s ...
State of the Union: What I needed to hear
I felt great after the Jan. 27 State of the Union address...
