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 …A calico cat named Willow was found on East 20th St. in Manhattan earlier this month, and a microchip implanted underneath her fur returned her to a loving home in Boulder, Colorado, where she had escaped five years earlier. Willow’s 1,800-mile journey baffled and captivated cat-lovers around the country. “Perhaps she hitched a ride, with
Continue reading …A tenth of teachers who began teaching in 2007 or 2008 only lasted one year before they quit, according to a new study by the National Center for Education Statistics. Teachers who worked under the supervision of a mentor or who made salaries of more than $40,000 were less likely to drop out over the
Continue reading …In New Mexico and Germany, two people in unrelated cases are claiming to be children who went missing years ago. An 18-year-old man in New Mexico says he is Robbie Romero, who missing 11 years ago. The case was treated as an unsolved homicide, but no body was ever found. For years, Ronnie Romero, Robbie’s older brother,
Continue reading …Washington, D.C. public schools are to become the first in the nation to require students to take standardized tests on sexual education. Children in grades 5, 8 and 10 will take the 50-question test this year, after health officials worried students were uneducated about sexually transmitted diseases, the Washington Post reports. Half of all gonorrhea diagnoses
Continue reading …Former Army Sgt. Stacy Vazquez and Air Force Maj. Mike Almy became figureheads for the movement to repeal the military’s ban on openly gay servicemembers. The military veterans who were discharged for being gay lectured senators in press conferences on Capitol Hill, argued their case on TV news, and even walked down the red carpet
Continue reading …Illinois and Pennsylvania saw their jobless rates increase by the most of any state last month, according to new government numbers. Illinois’s unemployment rate rose by 0.4 percentage points to 9.9 percent in August, when the economy added no new jobs at all nationally. Pennsylvania’s increased by the same amount, to 8.2 percent, but remains
Continue reading …“We’ve eliminated the inefficiency caused by moral hazard, by eliminating the asymmetric info.” A Federal Reserve official talking about ways to avoid future financial bailouts? A Pentagon war games planner discussing efforts to reduce the chances of a conflict with Chinese? Nope. It’s Betsey Stevenson, the chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor, talking
Continue reading …The U.S. Supreme Court has issued a rare motion to stay the execution of a Texas Death Row inmate who had already ate his last meal and was prepared to be lethally injected Wednesday night. What makes the highest court’s 11th-hour intervention even more unusual is that convicted murderer Duane Buck’s lawyers aren’t arguing that
Continue reading …Lawmakers in Congress are preparing for battle on several fronts as they weigh President Obama’s jobs plan–and one of the likely sticking points will be the administration’s request to further extend unemployment benefits, which are scheduled to expire at the end of the year. The White House argues that with economic growth faltering and unemployment
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