Housing First Doesn't Work: The Homeless Need Community Support
Homeless advocates from 36 states are gathering this week at the Beyond Housing Conference sponsored by the Institute for Children, Poverty and Homelessness (ICPH). Institute President and CEO, Ralph...
View ArticleA Prayer for All Cities: About Philadelphia's Election for Mayor
I have lived in Philadelphia since 1964, a transplant from Baltimore, where I attended Garrison Junior High, Forest Park High (each public schools), and graduated from Goucher College. Like most of you...
View ArticleTop 5 Goals for Open Government in 2014
Open government offers a society a number of attractive benefits. Transparency begets accountability. The provision of information enhances the ability of governments to provide valuable public goods...
View ArticleUnlikely Hero
Maybe there is hope for closing the gaping partisan divide between the two major political parties, at least on environmental matters. Republican Governor Sam Brownback of Kansas, an ultra-conservative...
View ArticleWhat the New Budget Deal Means for Drug Policy Reform
Over the past four years, we've worked hard to support drug policy reform rooted in science, evidence and research. A difficult budget environment hasn't made it easy. Damaging cuts caused by...
View ArticleWhy It's Okay for the Chinese to Spy on Us
Buried in a chilling New York Times article about how the National Security Agency has bugged up to 100,000 computers worldwide is a curious discussion about how, in a summit meeting in California last...
View ArticleObamacare Rocks
The relentless flow of good news about Obamacare may explain why a growing number of elected Republicans are walking away from the issue. Two new bits of insurance news suggest progress that backers of...
View ArticleFifty Years After First Surgeon General Report on Smoking, E-Cigarettes Pose...
This week marks the 50th anniversary of the first Surgeon General's report on smoking and health -- an occasion for recognizing both how far we've come and how far we have yet to go in fighting to end...
View ArticlePresident's Proposal For FISA Public Advocate Legislation a Ticket to Nowhere
President Obama's proposal that Congress authorize "outside government" public advocates is doubly useless: (1) Congress legislates almost nothing; and (2) such advocates would be too slow and limited...
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Abortion Rights: We Can Handle the Truth
When it comes to abortion rights, we can handle the truth. Many are stunned to see banners falsely claiming that "abortion hurts women" hanging from the city's publicly managed lamp posts on Market...
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Mistreatment of Domestic Worker By Indian Diplomat Is Not Unique
The recent story of an Indian diplomat in New York arrested for labor abuses garnered national headlines, but the mistreatment suffered by her domestic worker employee barely received a mention. The...
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Congress Takes Landmark Decision for Rivers and Rights
Dams have turned freshwater into the ecosystem most threatened by species extinction, displaced 80 million people and impoverished many more. Even so, the World Bank is eager to re-engage in large dam...
View ArticleJerry Brown for President: The Way We Were
Governor Jerry Brown said while touring inland California a few days that he's not planning to run for president in 2016. "No, that's not in the cards," he said in a rather off-hand response to a...
View ArticleWhy Civil Libertarians Should Oppose Federal Civil Rights Charges in Kelly...
On Monday, a jury acquitted Officers Manuel Ramos and Jay Cicinelli of charges related to the death of Kelly Thomas. Immediately afterwards, the FBI field office in Los Angeles announced that it would...
View ArticleWhy Power Corrupts
Recent accusations against Chris Christie and members of his staff have many pondering an age-old question: Why does power corrupt? Last July, Eliot Spitzer appeared on "The Tonight Show" and was...
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What We Talk About When We Talk About Votes for Women (to 8 Year Olds)
My foot doctor made me do it. As head of the PTA at a Brooklyn public school, having listened to my tales of female derring-do in the suffrage movement while treating my dastardly plantar fasciitis,...
View ArticleSteps Forward on School Discipline
"The United States is far from providing each child with as much education as he can use. Our school system still primarily functions as a system of exclusion....[T]here is an enormous reservoir of...
View ArticleAssociated Press Falsely Claims Obamacare Site Is Written in 'Spanglish'
The Associated Press' recently published and factually-challenged report that the Obamacare Spanish-language site is written in "Spanglish" is both funny and pathetic. Years of high school Spanish seem...
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Friday Talking Points -- In Other News...
Before we begin this week's political wrapup, please be advised that President Obama's speech on reforming the National Security Agency won't be covered here today. Obama just gave the speech this...
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