ON A SOMBER TUESDAY MORNING IN MID-APRIL, pews were filled in the tiny chapel of Pax Advent Christian Church. Behind the sobbing women, men wearing jeans and pressed shirts stood together, the nails of their calloused hands scrubbed clean of black dust. With red buds blooming outside, the pastor spoke of hope for a future […]

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Gaming the System—The death of 29 coal miners in Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch Mine in April was not exactly predicted when the House Committee on Education and Labor met on February 23—to address a failed safety inspection process. But the industry’s response to tougher regulations that followed a spike in miners’ deaths midway through […]

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The (Supreme Court) Case for Immigration ReformSheer incapability or lax enforcement of the laws barring entry into this country, coupled with the failure to establish an effective bar to the employment of undocumented aliens, has resulted in the creation of a substantial “shadow population” of illegal migrants—numbering in the millions—within our borders. This situation raises […]

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The New Financial Economy—In 1948, 56 percent of profits in the U.S. economy derived from manufacturing, while 8.3 percent came from the financial sector. In 2007 (the year the financial collapse began) manufacturing produced 10 percent of profits, while the financial sector produced 26 percent of profits. The $62 Trillion Question—Eighteen months ago, Iowa Democratic […]

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Don’t Call the Cavalry Homicides have soared since the president deployed the army in Juárez in January of 2008. In 2007 there were 317 reported killings; in 2008, 1,623; in 2009 the number reached 2,754.   Judith Torrea is a Spanish journalist who reports on drug-trafficking, organized crime, the death penalty, and immigration. Her work […]

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