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If I had one question to insert into tonight’s presidential debate, I would ask the candidates what they propose to do about child poverty.

In a single sentence order the Supreme Court today rebuffed a plea by Ohio state officials to close early voting in the final three days before the election. 

This is a big win for democracy in Ohio. Like we've seen around the country, it's been the courts, and for the first time the Supreme Court, that have halted efforts to restrict the vote. 

Nearly every politician says they want tax reform, but it's hard to imagine many having an appetite for curtailing today's biggest tax expenditures -- particularly the home mortgage interest deduction.

Or maybe that's wrong.

The FBI is reported to be looking into phone calls and theactions of four employees in its investigation into events surrounding the infamous “London Whale” trades that lost JP Morgan Chase upwards of $6 billion earlier this year. It has also been reported that the SEC is on the case.

As we celebrate the anniversary of the Clean Water Act, we should also focus on how to increase the number of waterways that are clean enough for fishing or swimming. As we wrote earlier this week, the CWA doesn’t cover nonpoint sources of pollution, which is caused by rain or snowmelt runoff that carries wastes into bodies of water.

The students assembled outside Borough of Manhattan Community College yesterday morning were indignant.

The Pew Research Center issued a deeply troubling study last year which found that black and hispanic households had suffered a much bigger decline in their net worth as a result of the Great Recession than white households. The net worth of hispanics went down by 66 percent between 2005 and 2009, blacks by 53 percent, and whites by just 16 percent.

This week marks the fortieth anniversary of the Clean Water Act (CWA). In 1972, Congress overhauled the Federal Water Pollution Act and provided the basic structure for regulating the discharge of pollutants from point sources. The CWA gave the EPA the authority to set effluent limits on an industry-wide basis and on a water-quality basis. It also required anyone who wanted to discharge pollutants to first obtain a permit, or else the discharge would be considered illegal.

As a politician who cut his teeth on the South Side of Chicago, Barack Obama was positioned to become the first urban president in decades, even since Teddy Roosevelt.

His stimulus plan promised billions of dollars for infrastructure projects, including public transportation and multi-family housing, which are particularly beneficial to cities. Obama even went as far as establishing an Office of Urban Affairs, and tapping former Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion to lead it. 

So how have things turned out for cities over the past few years?