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A military hiring expo, which provides jobs training to veterans. House Republicans hope to expand these sorts of programs. The Senate proposition directly hires veterans as police officers and firefighters. (Photo Courtesy of the Pennsylvania National Guard)

A military hiring expo, which provides jobs training to veterans. House Republicans hope to expand these sorts of programs. The Senate proposition directly hires veterans as police officers and firefighters. (Photo Courtesy of the Pennsylvania National Guard)

On the heels of a disappointing jobs report last week, Congress returned from recess on Monday with several options for how to help create jobs. All of those options involve some increase in this year’s deficit or a rise in taxes to offset the revenue, a non-starter to conservative ideologues. 

Recently, the Wall Street Journal published an editorial harshly criticizing a bill being considered by the California State Assembly to create universal, portable retirement accounts, administered by an independent board and invested in private financial markets.

The Nation's Brentin Mock reports on a new study, "Bullies at the Ballot Box" by Common Cause and Demos, which merits the attention of everyone concerned about the abuse of voting rights. As Mock reports,

Missouri is at a higher risk for bullying this year but it's not at school. Missouri has made a list of ten states at risk for voter bullying this election year. Missouri made the list because it is expected to have some highly contested races.

NOW that some sunshine is being shed on 401(k) expenses, it’s time to see how you can improve returns by lowering the costs of the middlemen.

Something that you hear about quite a lot these days is the "all of the above" energy plan. The phrase is in both party platforms with the general idea being that our energy needs should be met by using all forms of energy available -- coal, oil, gas, nuclear, renewables, biofuels, etc. Diversifying our energy sources and moving away from strictly relying on fossil fuels is a good idea.

A non-partisan policy analysis group, California Common Sense (CACS), released a report last Thursday called “Winners and Losers: Corrections and Higher Education in California” that shows how the state has reduced higher education funding while simultaneously increasing it for the state prison system consistently over the past three decades.

Chicago teachers themselves will say it: nobody wanted to go on strike.  But today, after ten months of fruitless efforts to negotiate a fair contract, the city’s classrooms are empty and educators are walking picket lines for the first time in 25 years.  At first glance, the strike looks like a negative outcome for every