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Preparing the terrain for Senator Marco Rubio, his Florida colleague and friend, Representative David Rivera (R-Fla) introduced this week the Studying Towards Residency Status Act or STARS Act. This act is Rep. Rivera’s alternative to the DREAM Act that has stalled in Congress for nearly eleven years. Complimenting this Act, last January Rivera introduced similar legislation, the Adjusted Residency for Military Service Act or ARMS act.

The 2009 CARD Act has been celebrated for helping consumers: The law limits interest rate hikes, fees, and other frustrating aspects of the credit card industry. Now, on the three-year anniversary of the bill’s signing, a report from the research and advocacy organization Demos suggests that it has successfully helped middle- and low-income households pay down their balances and avoid fees.

Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens addressed the controversial Citizens United decision. 

As natural gas becomes more affordable, power plants are switching over from coal to save money. Since last March, power plants increased their natural gas use by 40 percent. Over the same time period, coal use fell to 57.6 million tons, down from 72.3 million ton in March 2011.

There is a terrible beauty in how America's constitutional system seems designed to stop big changes from ever happening -- or, more specifically, stops the majority of ordinary people from ever getting their hands on real power.

Millions of Americans with damaged credit records are at risk of being unfairly denied job opportunities by companies that use credit histories to screen applicants. Faced with growing public complaints, seven states have rightly limited the use of credit histories by potential employers. Federal, state and local lawmakers who are considering similar legislation are on the right track.

There are more than 50 million Americans with investments in 401(k) and other defined-contribution retirement-savings plans. They’re about to be getting more information about the fees they pay.

By one estimate, it could be sobering news.

Retirement-plan administrators have to provide detailed information to employers by July 1 about the fees they charge. Employers have to share that information with workers in their plans by Aug. 30, and once a year after that. The charges include investment-related fees and fees for administering a plan itself.

In a series of posts at The Atlantic, Jonathan Adler has looked at how to advance environmental protection and action on climate change while still adhering to conservative principles like limited government and market-based solutions. Adler’s posts are interesting and thoughtful.

Here’s a question that you probably don’t want to answer honestly: What fees are you being charged by your 401(k) plan?

Don’t feel bad if you haven’t got a clue, because that puts you in the majority. An AARP study a few years back found that 65 percent of 401(k) account-holders didn’t know they were even paying fees.