Media

Saturday was Bob Herbert's 

Limitless greed, unrestrained corporate power and a ferocious addiction to foreign oil have led us to an era of perpetual war and economic decline.

So here we are pouring shiploads of cash into yet another war, this time in Libya, while simultaneously demolishing school budgets, closing libraries, laying off teachers and police officers, and generally letting the bottom fall out of the quality of life here at home.

But Richard Brodsky, a former long-time New York legislator and lawyer who has done battle with Indian Point on a range of issues, argued in an interview Tuesday that the NRC has been no tougher a regulator than the Securities and Exchange Commission and other federal agencies that allowed the financial meltdown of 2008 to happen.

If you really want to improve the education of poor children, you have to get them away from learning environments that are smothered by poverty.

One of the most powerful tools for improving the educational achievement of poor black and Hispanic public school students is, regrettably, seldom even considered. It has become a political no-no.

Is Nuclear Power Worth The Risk?

Worst-case scenarios unfold more frequently than we’d like to believe, which leads to two major questions regarding nuclear power that Americans have an obligation to answer.

First, can a disaster comparable to the one in Japan happen here? The answer, of course, is yes — whether caused by an earthquake or some other event or series of events. Nature is unpredictable and human beings are fallible. It could happen.

On March 4, Manhattan Federal Judge Loretta Preska upheld an NRC decision to let Indian Point operator Entergy use insulation that withstands fire for only 27 minutes.

The crisis in Japan has reignited intense debate among lawmakers about the safety of U.S. nuclear-power plants; nowhere more so than at Indian Point, where two aging reactors are 24 miles north of New York City.

Rates for basic landline telephone service would probably go up if a bill moving rapidly through the Legislature becomes law, according to a report to be released today by two interest groups.

The report, by the left-leaning New Jersey Policy Perspective and Demos, cites a 2009 survey by the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates that found rates rose in 17 of 20 states that deregulated the service. The increases ranged from 8 percent to 100 percent.

In Connecticut, the federal government has awarded renewals for the two nuclear reactors at Millstone to operate until 2035 and 2045. 

In New York, the two plants at Indian Point — built in the mid 1970s, are up for renewal — but both Governor Andrew Cuomo and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman campaigned on closing them.