Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY, Va. — The National Park Service calls this “America’s Favorite Drive,” but if you go by the traffic, U.S. Highways 81 and 66 to Washington, D.C. might better fit the bill. After camping in the mountains of Virginia for a couple of nights in an…
By Glynn Wilson – MANASSAS, Va. – Driving south from Washington, D.C. we ended up exiting Interstate 66 at Centerville, hitting Highway 29 on part of what is also called Lee Highway, named after the Commander of the Confederate Army in the American Civil War — or War Between the States. The drive takes you…
Watch the video – WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 4) — We made our way from the Hungry Mother State Park — after a cool summer night July 3 in the mountains by the creek — through the crowds in the nation’s capital on Friday to a Pentagon parking lot by the Lady Bird memorial, where we…
Coming Clean – By Michael Brune – Everyone has an occasional bad day at work, but it’s tough to top the one that Rep. Eric Cantor had last month in Virginia. Overnight, he went from being one of the most powerful figures in Congress to a trivia question: Name the first House majority leader in…
By Glynn Wilson – MARION, Va. — Who says government is so bad? The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation employs young people every summer to engage Virginia’s youth in a structured program of important conservation and park projects on public lands while providing learning that fosters teamwork, self-esteem, social responsibility and respect for the…
By Glynn Wilson – MARION, Va. — The Council of Economic Advisers released a report on Wednesday detailing the negative effects on local economies and public health in states where Republican administrations failed to cooperate with the federal government and expand Medicaid. The report, entitled Missed Opportunities: The Consequences of State Decisions Not to Expand…
By Robert Reich – A number of billionaires are flooding our democracy with their money, drowning out the voices of the rest of us. But Charles and David Koch are in a class by themselves. They’re using their fortune – they’re the fifth and sixth richest people in the world — to create their own…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – When Scotsman John Muir first started the Sierra Club in 1892 with the three purposes to promote recreation in nature to help save it through conservation activism and public education, I think he grasped something about how human nature works that we seem to have lost in…
The wood stork, a large American wading bird, is no longer an endangered species after a successful three-decade conservation effort that has seen the population spread through the Southeast. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell announced Thursday that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is down-listing the wood stork from endangered to threatened under the…
Coming Clean – By Michael Brune – In his 19th-century curmudgeon’s classic, The Devil’s Dictionary, Ambrose Bierce defined a plan as “the best method of accomplishing an accidental result.” When the EPA released its “Clean Power Plan” this month for reducing carbon pollution from power plants, the agency was clear about the results it expects…
By Glynn Wilson – A solid majority of Americans, 61 percent, still support President Barack Obama’s decision from 2011 to remove nearly all U.S. troops from Iraq, according to the latest Gallup poll on the subject, and 57 percent of Americans still say the war and invasion was a mistake. Public support for the U.S.…
BATON ROUGE, La. – While Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal was in the nation’s capital last Saturday contemplating “a hostile takeover of Washington D.C.,” residents in his own state began a peaceful 155-mile walk from Grand Isle to the Governor’s Mansion in Baton Rouge to show support for a lawsuit that would hold the oil and…
By Wayne Ruple – HEFLIN, Ala. — A proposed windmill “farm” on Turkey Heaven Mountain died recently due to lack of support from Cleburne County commissioners in the face of public opposition. The County Commission met June 16 and considered four resolutions which would have effectively killed the project. They punted on supporting the proposed…
To: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney From: Tomas Young I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of the 4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of the hundreds…
They may be little, but they pack a big star-forming punch. New observations from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope show small galaxies, also known as dwarf galaxies, are responsible for forming a large proportion of the universe’s stars. Studying this early epoch of the universe’s history is critical to fully understanding how these stars formed and…
ANALYSIS – By Glynn Wilson – Public confidence in the news media in America continues to post record lows in public opinion surveys, according to the latest Gallup poll on the subject. And while the public’s confidence in television news and newspapers continues to decline to record lows, the amount of crap being passed off…
Amending the Constitution may sound audacious, but it’s not impossible – By Leo Gerard, USW – All of this has so emboldened billionaires that one of them, Tom Perkins, said earlier this year that citizens should get one vote for each tax dollar they pay. No more one person one vote. Ketchup king H.J. Heinz…
By Robert Reich – Rather than confront poverty by extending jobless benefits to the long-term unemployed, endorsing a higher minimum wage, or supporting jobs programs, conservative Republicans are taking a different tack. They’re peddling three big lies about poverty. To wit: Lie No. 1: Economic growth reduces poverty “The best anti-poverty program,” wrote Paul Ryan,…
How Increasing Ideological Uniformity and Partisan Antipathy Affect Politics, Compromise and Everyday LifeANALYSIS – By Glynn Wilson – Republicans and Democrats are more divided along ideological lines – and partisan antipathy is deeper and more extensive – than at any point in the last two decades, according to a new research study from the Pew…
But Her Numbers Are Already Starting to Take A DiveBy Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — As Hillary Clinton takes the national stage as the early front runner in the presidential election of 2016, a majority of Americans, 54 percent, view her in a positive light, according to the Gallup Poll’s latest favorability rating survey.…
