Media

A potential showdown could begin on Monday as Congress reconvenes and is expected to take up the issue of extending long-term unemployment benefits.

I’m usually a pessimist, but New York’s mayoral inauguration on New Year's Day gave me a strange feeling that politics had long stopped providing—hope. One expects the usual pomp and circumstance at these events: politicos, celebrities, prominent donors with the right amount of tradition, pop culture, and promises of a better day. But rarely do you hear of a twelve year old stealing the spotlight from those with last names like Clinton and Cuomo, but that’s just what Dasani Coates, a so-called “Invisible Child,” did.

Voting rights advocates are girding for a series of crucial battles that will play out over the next twelve months in Congress, in the courts, and in state legislatures. Victories could go a long way to reversing the setbacks of the last year. Defeats could help cement a new era in which voting is more difficult, especially for racial minorities, students, and the poor.

A few years ago, I got pulled over on my bicycle by a police officer, also riding a bike, because I wasn't wearing a helmet -- which the officer incorrectly said was required by law. It's episodes like that which give the nanny state a bad name. 

Demos Vice President of Policy and Outreach Heather McGhee voices support for Senator Warren's Equal Employment for

Middle-class Blacks are using credit to help cover their basic living expenses, according to a report from the NAACP and public policy research organization Demos. In the recession’s aftermath, 79 percent of middle-class African-American households carry credit card debt. 

The New York Times reported this morning (echoing the reporting of Greg Sargent and others earlier this year) that Democrats plan to campaign on raising the minimum wage during the election season.  Aside from being good economic policy, raising the minimum wage is quite popular,

If affluent people decide that cities are great places to live, how do we stop lower and middle income people from being priced out? That's a tough and complex problem, but not one that Alec MacGillis seriously addresses in his gratuitously snarky attack on Richard Florida in the New Republic.