Posted Jun 17, 2013, 5:59 pm
Mike Alberti
/Remapping Debate
If American corporations are, as the Supreme Court ruled in 2010, citizens entitled to free speech and other rights from the nation, what corresponding obligations to the nation do these corporations have?... Read more»
Posted Jun 16, 2013, 4:13 pm
Simeon Tegel
/Global Post
United and integrated, the region would be a force to reckon with on the world stage. But does Latin America’s unification reality match up to the rhetoric?... Read more»
Posted Jun 13, 2013, 10:22 am
Jason Berry
/GlobalPost
In his candid speeches and sermons, the new pope “forges a moral vocabulary on economics” to remind church leaders — and followers — of their responsibility to the poor.... Read more»
Posted Jun 12, 2013, 10:15 am
Jean MacKenzie
/GlobalPost
Edward Snowden’s decision to come forward as the über-leaker behind the latest government abuse scandal has made him into a modern antihero. He and Bradley Manning are shattering traditional concepts of patriotism, loyalty, even legality. A TV series can’t be far behind.... Read more»
Posted Jun 11, 2013, 10:10 am
Brooks Jackson
/Factcheck.org
President Obama incorrectly claims that the Senate has taken three times longer to confirm his court nominees than those of his predecessor, George W. Bush. The president made the claim recently as he announced that he would nominate three judges to fill vacancies on the federal Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.... Read more»
Posted Jun 9, 2013, 11:25 pm
Michael Beckel
/Center for Public Integrity
Trevor Potter — a Republican lawyer and president of the Campaign Legal Center, which advocates for stronger campaign finance regulations — says that the Internal Revenue Service is right to be on the lookout for organizations with a “significant amount of political activity.”... Read more»
Posted Jun 9, 2013, 11:07 pm
Eric Alterman
/Center for American Progress
When economic historians look back at the current moment, they will likely be shocked first and foremost by the following paradox: During an era when global and technological developments were pushing most nations toward greater economic inequality, the U.S. government did almost everything possible to accelerate these trends and further enrich its wealthiest citizens at the expense of everyone else.... Read more»
Posted Jun 9, 2013, 4:09 pm
Michael Linden
/Center for American Progress
The federal budget has dominated the policy and political debate in Washington over the past three years. During this time, both the underlying fiscal landscape and the broader economic context for the debate have shifted in very important ways, yet the debate has remained remarkably static. Most policymakers seem to be stuck in 2010, as if nothing has changed in the years since.... Read more»
Posted Jun 6, 2013, 9:09 am
Robert Farley
/Factcheck.org
Critics of a bipartisan Senate bill to overhaul the nation’s immigration system falsely claim that it will cost an additional $6.3 trillion, citing a study by a conservative group that opposes the bill. However, the report is not an analysis of the bill, and it says the cost of keeping the status quo “could run into the trillions” – so the net cost would be substantially lower than $6.3 trillion.... Read more»
Posted Jun 3, 2013, 2:08 pm
Hetchinger Report
We were very surprised at the findings of a new report showing that the instructors in many of our community colleges expect very little from their first-year students—and a large fraction of those entering these institutions cannot meet even those low standards.... Read more»
Posted May 29, 2013, 6:18 pm
Sally Steenland
/Center for American Progress
It’s Day 90 of sequestration—the across-the-board spending cuts that went into effect March 1, which the Obama administration predicted would be devastating and conservatives insisted wouldn’t be so bad. Three months in, it’s worth asking how harmful the phased-in cuts have been—although that depends on whom you ask.... Read more»
Posted May 27, 2013, 9:50 am
Robert Farley
/Factcheck.org
An ad from Mayor’s Against Illegal Guns accuses Sen. Jeff Flake of breaking a promise to strengthen background checks because he voted against a bill that would have expanded background checks. But Flake did not promise to expand background checks, and he voted in favor of a bill that he argues (though others contest) would have strengthened the system.... Read more»
Posted May 24, 2013, 12:24 pm
Kim Barker & Justin Elliott/ProPublica
In the furious fallout from the revelation that the IRS flagged applications from conservative nonprofits for extra review because of their political activity, some points about the big picture — and big donors — have fallen through the cracks. Consider this our Top 6 list of need-to-know facts on social welfare nonprofits, also known as dark money groups because they don’t have to disclose their donors.... Read more»
Posted May 21, 2013, 12:11 pm
Richard Tofel
/ProPublica
ProPublica’s job is to report the news rather than to make news ourselves, but sometimes we find an article of ours to be itself a subject of public debate. Last week was such a time, when two articles we had published back in December and January became the subject of significant attention in light of the uproar over IRS oversight of the process for granting tax exemption to so-called “social welfare” groups.... Read more»
Posted May 21, 2013, 12:01 pm
Michael Beckel
/Center for Public Integrity
During its past four fiscal years, the Internal Revenue Service has formally denied the applications of just 60 organizations seeking recognition under Section 501(c)(4) of the U.S. tax code as “social welfare” groups. In the same period, the agency processed 8,214 applications and approved 6,837 of them.... Read more»
Posted May 19, 2013, 6:26 pm
Ken Sofer
/Center for American Progress
As President Barack Obama and his national security advisors continue to weigh the costs and benefits of providing greater financial and materiel support for elements of the Syrian opposition—potentially including lethal aid—it is important to understand the structure of the Syrian opposition, which remains plagued by many divisions.... Read more»