Media

Representative Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, sent his second letter today demanding True the Vote reveal their plan to deny eligible voters the right to vote. But True the Vote continues to mislead.

When being the mayor of New York City isn’t enough, it’s time to start playing with the big boys. In 2012, that means starting a Super PAC. Michael Bloomberg is taking his fabled centrism on the road.

When it comes to climate change, there is one area in which the U.S. leads all other nations. Our media gives more time and attention to climate deniers than any other country. The study looked at five other countries besides the U.S.- Brazil, China, France, India and the UK- to see how leading newspapers in each country dealt with climate skepticism. It found that coverage of climate skepticism is mostly limited to the U.S. and to the U.K.

Four years ago, voter turnout was 49 percent -- the highest since 1968. Still, it remains to be seen if voters will come out in droves as they did during the election. To make sure that no avoidable factors -- ranging from intimidation to a lack of a photo ID -- keeps people at home on Nov. 6, five organizations are hitting the ground to do what they can to encourage all groups to get out and cast their ballots.

Over a century ago, progressive reformers were deeply worried about how wealthy interests had hijacked American politics, populating state legislatures with cronies who did as they were told and otherwise steamrolled the will of the people.

To level the playing field, reformers worked to create mechanisms for direct democracy through state referendum and ballot initiatives, allowing voters to bypass corrupted political systems.

During a long discussion of energy in last night's presidential debates, never once did either Mitt Romney or President Obama say anything about climate change. Instead, the energy discussion seemed to revolve around who would drill more for oil and gas and who could promote coal the most.

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.