Media

President Obama’s State of the Union Address included an important call to fix the long lines and other problems that plagued voters in 2012. 

State tax systems, according to a new report from the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, take a far larger share of income from their lowest income residents than they do from the wealthy, exacerbating income inequality within and between states, encouraging the wealthy to move to low tax states, and even worse, threatening the effectiveness of federal and state programs designed to ease the tax burden for the poorest families.

Obama gave the country a glimpse of his new pre-K initiative in last night State of the Union address—and reason to hope that he’ll bring the rest of the country toward the national models set by states such as Georgia and Oklahoma.

After a campaign season marked by climate silence, the President’s inaugural call for action on climate change left hope that the administration was serious about making climate a priority. And, there were parts in last night’s State of the Union that were promising, beyond the simple fact that he addressed the issue at length. First and foremost, the President tied extreme weather events to climate change.

“I’m trying to think of another industry where a 20 percent error rate would be acceptable.” says 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft, in a new exposé of the credit reporting industry. “That’s a pretty high error rate.”

To say the least.

NEW YORK – National public policy organization Demos announces experts available for commentary on and around President Obama’s State of the Union address. 

As Saturday’s “technical release” from our chums at the Department of Labor reminds us, Obamacare will require all companies, small businesses excluded, to provide health insurance to those working 30 hours per week or more in 2014. Along with some noise the IRS is making about how universities pay their faculty, this is causing some serious anxiety in higher education. 

Heather McGhee discusses the racist strategy behind austerity economics.

The blizzard that pounded the Northeast on Friday was no Hurricane Sandy, but it has left thousands of people without power throughout the region. For some households, losing power may be no big deal. But if you're old or disabled, this can be a dangerous situation.

The problem is that it's hard in most communities to know which residents may badly need help. After Sandy, hastily organized volunteers knocked on doors in buildings in Rockaway and other places to identify the old and frail.