Will Voters in Maryland Elect Ben Jealous Their First Black Governor? By Karen Houppert On a Sunday morning in September, Maryland Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ben Jealous is in church—of course… Letter From Downeast By Peter Behrens I’ve just lost a friend. He didn’t die. Our friendship of 41 years expired—burned up, shredded—in one email exchange. Jack—I’ll […]

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Trump’s Trade War: An Unwinnable Folly By Steven Pressman During his volatile presidential campaign, Donald Trump griped about the U.S. trade deficit and criticized U.S. trade agreements. He called the North American Free Trade Agreement “the worst trade deal the U.S. has ever made.” NAFTA reduced trade barriers (especially tariffs) between Canada, Mexico, and the United […]

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Marlboro Man Diagnosed With Chronic Insecurity By Simon Reich America has become obsessed with feeling insecure. It has become an endemic part of the culture, though it wasn’t always this way…       Millennial Midterms By Mark Riddle Millennials are not what you think they are. In the common imagination, millennials are—we are told—entitled new urban […]

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A Brief History of American Bigotry By Setsuko Winchester I recently went to Ellis Island on a beautiful spring morning… To be there all these years later, knowing what I know now, was as if someone had firmly screwed in a light bulb that had been left loose, finally illuminating a part of my story and […]

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Sex Crimes and Criminal Justice By Barbara Koepple Responding to several highly publicized sex crimes and public fears, legislatures across the country have adopted statutes that allow the continued imprisonment of sex offenders after they have completed their sentences. Veteran investigative reporter Barbara Koeppel has spent the past 12 months reporting on this third rail of […]

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