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Last week Vermont lawmakers passed groundbreaking legislation establishing a Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) for the state.

New York, NY - On May 5 2012, the Connecticut Senate passed legislation introduced by Governor Dannell Malloy, and Secretary of the State Denise Merrill to enact Same Day Registration and online voter registration, effective July 2013 and January 2014, respectively. The bill, HR 5024, had been previously passed by the state House. It now heads to the governor’s desk for his signature, expected later this month. 

What do Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber), Charles Manson, and a large majority of Americans have in common? People who are not insane would say nothing. The Heartland Institute, a right-wing think tank, however, recently put up a billboard that equated the 62 percent of people that think the weather is changing (i.e.

Earlier this year, when President Obama's critics were in overdrive trying to blame the White House for rising gas prices, we wrote that there were three main ways to bring gas prices down: end oil speculation to prevent market distortions, reduce tensions with Iran, and meaningfully increase investment in alternative energies to diversify our fuel supply. We also noted that if Americans drove more fuel efficient vehicles, fluctuations in gas prices would be less of a big deal.

If Washington is going debate tax reform, fundamental questions should be on the table: Like, for instance, how we might tax bad things -- i.e., pollution and over-consumption -- instead of good things, like work and wealth creation.

One obstacle to such a rethinking, though, is that energy and pollution taxes scare the heck out of elected leaders. Everyone remembers Bill Clinton's disastrous BTU proposal in 1993 and -- more recently -- how easily a vote for climate change legislation in 2009 was turned into a liability for House members.

The Federal government has been regulating electrical products almost since electricity was invented. And, for decades, it has set energy efficiency standards for a variety of products -- from cars to air conditioners to refrigerators.

The best way for Congress to tackle the budget deficit is to do nothing for the next year. That's because, under current law, the Bush tax cuts will expire at the end of 2012 and a range of spending cuts will take effect. As well, tax cuts enacted under President Obama will also expire or be reduced, including expansion of the EITC, the Child Tax Credit, and the temporary payroll tax cut.

Every single working day of the year, American women pay a 22.6 percent gender tax on their income.  By gender tax, I mean a negative transfer imposed upon women’s wages which reduces the wealth they control and increases the amount of time they work.

The credit reporting industry likes to argue that credit checks reveal something about an individual’s character or ability to act responsibly.