All eyes turned to the Junior Senator from Pennsylvania. Hundreds of thousands watched or listened by means of C-SPAN’s broadcast of the long awaited and vital debate.
‘Fast track’ trade fight moves to House
POLITICO: The Senate on Friday approved a “fast track” trade promotion authority bill that will help President Barack Obama conclude a massive Asia-Pacific trade agreement and sets the stage for a fierce battle in the House when lawmakers return in June. The 62-37 vote followed two weeks of debate on the measure, which would allow […]
LNP editorial criticizes D. A. Stedman, but misses main point
When an agent of the government kills someone, no matter how justified, it amounts to an arrest, indictment, trial, conviction and execution. If government can withhold vital information about an execution of a member of the public, then the most basic rights and protections of our citizenry are in serious danger.
Al Gore at UC Berkeley: ‘Democracy has been hacked’
UC BERKELEY: …Gore opened by highlighting the importance of accounting for the “whole spectrum” — every system that supports humanity — and not just focusing on what we can see. “We need to shift our way of looking at things by finding new perspectives,” he said. One way to do this, he said, is to […]
Gov. Wolf: Decriminalize marijuana – ‘We break up families for reasons we shouldn’t’
“I believe, for a number of reasons, that we ought to decriminalize marijuana use. I think our prisons are over-crowded as a result of people going to jail for reasons that, you know, we break up families for reasons that we shouldn’t,” Wolf said…
The Year That Changed Jeb Bush Forever
POLITICO: He was born in Midland, Texas, and he spent a good bit of his boyhood in Houston, and he went to high school in Andover, Massachusetts, and to college in Austin, Texas, and he has lived for the last three and a half decades in Miami. But at the top of the list of […]
Can One Trust Russian Statistics?
Can one have confidence in studies carried out by a telephone survey? When a Russian is called with a question, whether he/she supports the president, only a fool or protester ready for barricades would answer “no.”
Boy Scouts’ President Calls for End to Ban on Gay Leaders
NEW YORK TIMES: Robert M. Gates, the president of the Boy Scouts of America and former secretary of defense, called on Thursday to end the Scouts’ blanket ban on gay adult leaders, warning the group’s executives that “we must deal with the world as it is, not as we might wish it to be.” Speaking […]
Meet the Progressive Likely To Become Philadelphia’s Next Mayor
Once considered a moderate, Kenney ran on a progressive platform, advocating for raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, ending stop-and-frisk, decriminalizing marijuana, and restoring funding to the city’s cash-strapped public schools. As a city councilman, he fought for a bill that reduced cooperation between Philadelphia police and federal immigration authorities in detaining undocumented immigrants in the city, as well as a bill expanding LGBT rights.
Low U.S. Rail Spending Leads to Poor Safety, Experts Say
NEW YORK TIMES: Across Europe and East Asia, hundreds of millions of train passengers a year are routinely whisked, at speeds that often exceed 200 miles an hour, over extensive rail networks that, for many, present a more reliable and affordable long-distance alternative than even air travel… By a global standard, the United States has […]
To LNP editorial board re Coach Bill Sassaman: You pose the wrong question
“Is winning games and making the playoffs the only, or even the key, factor in judging a high school coach?”
Rigging of Foreign Exchange Market Makes Felons of Top Banks
NEW YORK TIMES: …On Wednesday, four large global banks — Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase,Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland — pleaded guilty to a series of federal crimes over a scheme to manipulate the value of the world’s currencies. The Justice Department accused the banks of collusion in one of the largest and yet least regulated […]
4 Cancer Charities Accused in F.T.C. Fraud Case
NEW YORK TIMES: …In soliciting donations through telemarketing calls and direct-mail, the F.T.C. complaint says, the charities described specific uses for the money they solicited, like transporting patients to and from chemotherapy or purchasing pain medication for children. “These were lies,” the complaint says, and the money went to the people running the charities for […]
KEISLING: Gov. Tom Wolf uses budget, and deficit, as policy bludgeon to shape debate
How Wolf turned the tables is not only an interesting study in crisis management in our age of divided government and gridlock, but also provides insights into Wolf’s leadership style.