By Curtis Seltzer – BLUE GRASS, Va. — Six months ago, I wrote that Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders would be the nominees for president in 2016. Those predictions seemed far-fetched at the time. Now, Trump seems nearfetched, and Sanders is running a stubborn second to Hillary Clinton. Both Trump and Sanders have gotten stronger…
By Glynn Wilson – Homo sapiens have impacted the Earth’s climate to such a pervasive extent that scientists are urging the ushering in of a new geological era. We have now left the Holocene epoch and entered the Anthropocene, according to a new study out Thursday from the journal Science. The Holocene epoch, which scientists…
By Robert Reich – What’s at stake this election year? Let me put as directly as I can. America has succumbed to a vicious cycle in which great wealth translates into political power, which generates even more wealth, and even more power. This spiral is most apparent is declining tax rates on corporations and on…
WASHINGTON (NAJ) – The Obama administration filed its civil case in federal court against Volkswagen and its subsidiaries on Monday documenting multiple, willful violations of the Clean Air Act due to the company blatantly faking clean emissions tests and high gas mileage in its diesel automobiles sold to the public as clean and fuel efficient…
The recent announcement that federal authorities have returned nearly $12 million in recovered losses to more than 1,000 victims of an elaborate fraud scheme represents still another cautionary reminder “that all that glitters is not gold,” according to an announcement just out from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. For nearly seven years, Goldfinger Coin and…
Following in the footsteps of his father, who made headlines in 2014 by leading an armed standoff between ranchers and the federal government over grazing rights in Nevada, Ammon Bundy and his fellow protesters are occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Burns Oregon demanding that the government surrender public control of a habitat preserve…
By Renee Lewis – The weather effects of El Niño, already blamed in large part for unusual winter floods, tornadoes and other extreme weather in the U.S., the U.K. and other countries during 2015, is far from over. Scientists predict El Niño’s worst effects will be felt in 2016. “El Niño 2015 has already created…
By Eugene Robinson – You probably noticed that 2015 was pretty weird. But hey, it’s a brand new year — a fresh start, a blank slate, an unwritten script. In 2016, what could possibly go wrong? Uh, where to begin? My fingers balk at typing the words “President-elect Trump” because I don’t think such a…
By Robert Reich – Martin Shkreli, the former hedge-fund manager turned pharmaceutical CEO who was arrested last week, has been described as a sociopath and worse. In reality, he’s a brasher and larger version of what others in finance and corporate suites do all the time. Federal prosecutors are charging him with conning wealthy investors.…
Environmental Group Pushes for Expedited Oral Arguments – By Glynn Wilson – The Bentley administration is stalling in federal court by opposing expedited oral arguments in a lawsuit filed against the proposed use of $58 million in BP oil settlement money — designated to restore the Gulf eco-system — to build a hotel and convention…
By Edgar Wilson – As popular as it has become (frankly, it has crossed the threshold to cliché) to compare governance to private-sector business management, America’s selection of would-be Manager-Politicians routinely fail to grasp the single most dynamic force of business today: innovation. It isn’t entirely their fault. By design, America’s political structure is slow…
By Eugene Robinson – History will remember 2015 as the year when The Republican Party As We Knew It was destroyed by Donald Trump. An entity called the GOP will survive – but can never be the same. Am I overstating Trump’s impact, given that not a single vote has been cast? Hardly. I’m not…
By Art Swift and Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — The year 2015 was an “intriguing, complex and turbulent year,” according to Gallup. A politically independent Vermont senator surged in the Democratic presidential race. Same-sex marriage became law in all 50 states. Russia’s leadership received the lowest approval ratings worldwide for the eighth consecutive year.…
By Jeff Brady – The U.S. wind power industry is celebrating after reaching a new milestone in November: 70 gigawatts (GW) of generating capacity. “That’s enough to power about 19 million homes,” says Michael Goggin, senior director of research at the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). There are more than 50,000 wind turbines operating across…
By Paul Brown – LONDON — After a decade of aggressive growth in demand, the market for coal has stalled and is unlikely to recover, according to the International Energy Agency. Its report on the medium-term coal market says that demand in China — which uses 50 percent of the world’s coal — has begun…
DeltaWorld Entertainment, a new fun, worker-owned company on the Gulf Coast, announces its first public launch Saturday night in downtown Mobile at Portal Studios. “Aquanox: A DeltaWorld Thanksgiving Solstice,” a short film co-produced by Glynn Wilson and Walter Simon, will premier Saturday, December 19, beginning at 6 p.m. Summary In the year 2050, an environmental…
Nearly 200 countries agreed to save the planet, but the Republicans have a different idea. By Ben Adler – Republicans didn’t even wait for a global climate change deal to be struck in Paris to start trying to undermine it. Last month, congressional Republicans were loudly discouraging other nations from signing onto any agreement, arguing…
By Robert Reich – The great American middle class has become an anxious class – and it’s in revolt. Before I explain how that revolt is playing out, you need to understand the sources of the anxiety. Start with the fact that the middle class is shrinking, according to a new Pew survey. The odds…
By Marjorie Cohn – The war in Vietnam resulted in the deaths of more than 58,000 Americans and more than 3 million Vietnamese. Twenty years ago, the United States and Vietnam normalized diplomatic relations in an effort to put the terrible legacy of the war behind them. But for the survivors—both Vietnamese and American—the war…
By Juan Cole – The price of petroleum fell Monday to levels not seen since the crash of 2008, at one point hitting $35 a barrel in New York. There is every reason to expect prices to remain low for a few years, and they could easily go lower as Iranian crude comes back on…
