Though the midterm elections are months away, Washington is now turning its attention to Congressional races. Republicans are likely to hold on to the House of Representatives because they redrew the boundaries of congressional districts in 2010. Senate Democrats are less confident. Their main concern right now is the Affordable Care Act’s impact on […]

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  In October 2009, I attended J Street’s first national conference in Washington, D.C. The advocacy group, which described itself as a “political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans,” was a year old and already under attack by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, for half a century the dominant Israel-issues organization. AIPAC was leaning on […]

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  More than two months after Freedom Industries spilled tens of thousands of gallons of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol into the Elk River, many West Virginians are still relying on bottled water. And state and federal officials lack complete information about the toxicity of the coal-treatment chemical that poisoned the tap water of 300,000 people downstream. The […]

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  On a brilliant fall day, Stan Pennington and Eric Hines ride out in a government Jeep, surveying the rolling hills of Carroll County, Maryland, but they come to a stop when the pastoral scene takes an ugly turn. Pennington, who grew up in the area and has worked with local farmers for more than […]

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(Source: Khalil Bendib) The austerity mania that plagued our political system for four years is finally subsiding. The latest sign is President Barack Obama’s decision to nix the Social Security cuts he had previously included in his budget proposal. This was a body blow to the most powerful pro-austerity force in Washington—the Fix the Debt […]

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