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Yesterday brought the sad news that noted environmental advocate and scholar, Barry Commoner, had passed away. As pointed out in the many tributes to his life and achievements, Commoner was one of the founders of modern environmentalism and embraced a more complex, holistic view of environmental issues.

This morning saw a big victory for Pennsylvania’s voters when a judge partially enjoined Pennsylvania’s strict new voter ID law in advance of next month’s elections.  Pennsylvania’s voters will not have to show a photo ID in order to vote a regular ballot this November. This victory will remove an unnecessary burden that threatened the freedom to vote for tens of thousands of voters this fall.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, with the support of the mortgage task force formed by the Obama administration last January and the Justice Department, has commenced the long overdue prosecution of the Big Banks for their role in triggering the financial crisis of 2008. (That is not a typo -- the Justice Department has finally moved against the Big Banks.)

Mitt Romney finally offered up some details yesterday about tax reform, specifically how he would limit tax deductions and broaden the tax base in order to afford the lower tax rates he is proposing. Romney said in Denver:

How would the 2012 election be different if many more young, poor and minority citizens paricipated? We would find out if we were to modernize our elections system. In most parts of the country, our elections system is stuck in the 19th century. Often intentionally, the patchwork of laws at the state and local level makes it difficult for voters to know how, when, and where to register.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and his administration are trying to walk a fine line on the future of fracking in the state. A few months ago, word leaked from the Cuomo administration that fracking might be allowed on a limited basis in towns that approved the practice.

Just a year ago, Occupy Wall Street commanded attention from the media and politicians alike. Yet last night the central concern of that social movement -- one shared by a majority of Americans -- wasn't even mentioned as both candidates and the moderator ducked the problem of economic inequality. 

As many people have already pointed out, Mitt Romney's stated policy preferences last night differed greatly from Mitt Romney's stated policy preferences through the campaign to this point. What we saw last night was a Romney much more comfortable with the idea that tax revenue is an important part of keeping the government functioning at a healthy level, a Romney much less comfortable with the idea of cutting taxes for the rich, a Romney much more concerned with the notion of opportunity and fair play than with freeloaders ruining the economy.

Energy policy came up pretty quickly in last night’s debate. Mitt Romney actually listed energy independence as his first plan for economic growth and job creation in his opening. While energy independence and investments in energy production are good economic engines, how much economic growth will occur depends on what we are talking about when we talk about energy independence.

One of the most frustrating aspects of national politics over the past two years is that deficit reduction has become Washington's top priority -- even as economists tell us that austerity only makes economic downturns worse and pollsters tell us that Americans are more worried about job creation than budget shortfalls.

President Obama shares the blame for letting the focus shift away from jobs. Again and again since late 2009, he has accepted and helped legitimize the premise that deficit reduction should be a top national priority.

In the first presidential debate, one of Jim Lehrer’s “hard hitting and incisive” questions was to ask Governor Romney whether he thought any current regulation was “excessive.” In the response, Romney said the following:

The Government Integrity Fund is a 501(c)4, a dark money group with a wildly misleading name. The Fund has been making a big splash in Ohio, spending a million dollars in advertisements against Senator Sherrod Brown. 

Even if you stayed awake through the policy blizzard that was Wednesday night’s debate, you didn’t hear a word about the dramatically different future the candidates can bring about for women and families.

While the September jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics provided plenty of political ammunition it was also an ambiguous signal about the current labor market.

It is true that courts have been striking down Republican efforts to restrict voting among certain demographic groups. Yet by no means is the fight over. 

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.

When workers at a Southern California warehouse that stores goods for Walmart walked out on strike last month,  it was no isolated incident.

Today the Pew Center on the States released a summary of the differences between the presidential candidates on key issues affecting the states. The summary reflects Governor Romney’s preference for devolving to the states responsibility for critical policy matters.  

Among other things he would replace the Affordable Care Act with state plans, and convert Medicaid and federal job training programs into block grants. 

Just as every fall, we are warned about powerful hurricanes that could devastate coastal areas, every four years we hear warnings about an “October surprise” that could upheave the political landscape on the eve of the election. This year, the “surprise” threatens to hit land on November 2: it is the prospect that a million workers could receive a layoff notice on the Friday before the election.