Media

Imagine you’re a finance lobbyist and want to move deregulation and other industry-friendly policies through Congress. While you might think the House Financial Services Committee would be the logical place to do it — since it has jurisdiction over financial issues, naturally — what if there were a sneaky way to maneuver it through a far less scrutinized committee, so most people would have no idea what you were doing?

Governor signs HB1339, changes law that required some counties to dilute the votes of county residents who did not live adjacent to a prison

Momentum for a carbon tax is not just building on the federal level, states are looking at the idea, too.

With over twenty million Americans still unable to find full-time work, Washington can't take its eye off job creation for a minute. That's certainly the feeling of voters, who overwhelmingly told exit pollsters on Election Day last November that fixing the economy should be Congress's number one priority -- far more than said reducing the deficit.

Paul Ryan is known for his devotion to cutting spending, but even compared to his previous attempts, his latest plan, with its promise to balance the budget by 2023, is remarkable for its severity. It's also notable for how blantantly it renegs on the core principle of the Simpson-Bowles Commission agreements which promised that deficit reduction should not come at the expense of the poor or increase economic inequality.

The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hearing and 300-page report (plus 200 pages of exhibits) on the London Whale is now being digested by the public and spun by JP Morgan Chase. The bank lost $6.2 billion and survived easily because of its immense size.

When Vernardo and Claire Simmons-Valenzuela married, they imagined all the trappings of a middle-class life. Soon enough, they had kids. Claire finished a master's degree. They held jobs as an Army medic and a physician's assistant. They dreamed of next steps: owning a home, taking their first vacation in years. Vernardo would return to school for a bachelor’s in nursing. But when payments for the couple's $187,000 in combined student loan debt came due, most of it accrued during Claire’s graduate education, they put those dreams on hold.

The push for Same Day Registration has encountered a curious adversary in some states this year – county clerks.

The latest example is Utah, where the state Senate killed a SDR bill last week on an 18-10 vote. Under current state law, Utahans must register at least 15 days before an election if they want their ballot to be counted. Since many voters don’t tune in until the waning days of a campaign, arbitrary deadlines like this come as an unwelcome surprise to a lot of people who hope to participate in elections.

Months after super storm Sandy, families are still waiting for permanent housing. Only a quarter of the families registered with NYC’s hotel sheltering program will find permanent housing with the next three months. Between New York and New Jersey, damage from the storm is estimated to cost over $71 billion.