The military’s ban on openly gay service officially ended at midnight, and already one member of the Air Force has shared a video of his personal journey out of the closet. A 21-year-old servicemember who had been keeping an anonymous vlog about his quest to come out to his girlfriend, family, and comrades posted a
Continue reading …In the wake of the news last week that a record number of Americans now live in poverty, Pro Publica has put together a striking list of statistics that shed light on the scope of the problem. Here are a few that caught our eye: • Official U.S. poverty rate in 2010: 15.1 percent •
Continue reading …President Obama’s plan to give the economy a short-term jolt, paid for in part by tax hikes on the rich, won’t turn things around, a top economic adviser to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney writes. In a column for Bloomberg News, Glenn Hubbard argues that the economy suffers from more fundamental problems, and lays out
Continue reading …A Georgia parole board has denied clemency to Troy Davis, the death-row inmate whose case attracted international attention amid what supporters say are significant doubts over his guilt. With the failure of Davis’ last-ditch appeal, announced Tuesday morning, he appears all but certain to be executed by lethal injection Wednesday at 7 p.m. “He’s guilty,”
Continue reading …Twenty current and former employees at an Amazon warehouse in Pennsylvania say they were forced to work in brutal heat at a breakneck pace while hired paramedics waited outside in case anyone became dangerously dehydrated. Spencer Soper of the Lehigh Valley has published an exhaustive investigation into the massive online retailer’s Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania operation.
Continue reading …California lawmakers have written about $10 billion in IOUs to school districts this year alone, the Voice of San Diego’s Will Carless reports. To make up for the shortfall, districts have borrowed money from banks, and as a result will rack up hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest charges that they will have to
Continue reading …Ever wonder what it would be like to fly around the globe? Check out this time-lapse video from the International Space Station, which Radiolab describes as providing a “Superman-esque view of the planet.” The video begins over the Pacific Ocean and then moves over North and South America and Antarctica, according to science educator James
Continue reading …President Obama has unveiled a plan to trim $3 trillion from the deficit over the next decade–half of which would come from new tax revenues. The plan involves declining to extend the Bush tax cuts for high earners, which are scheduled to expire at the end of the year. It also includes a new tax
Continue reading …President Obama has unveiled a plan to trim $3 trillion from the deficit over the next decade–half of which would come from new tax revenues. The plan involves declining to extend the Bush tax cuts for high earners, which are scheduled to expire at the end of the year. It also includes a new tax
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