By Frank Newport, Andrew Dugan and Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. – As the Democrats gear up for their first nationally televised presidential debate Tuesday night, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton maintains a higher net favorable rating among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents than her closest rival, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, with a 12-point lead…
By Robert Reich – Giant Wall Street banks continue to threaten the wellbeing of millions of Americans, but what to do? Bernie Sanders says break them up and resurrect the Glass-Steagall Act that once separated investment from commercial banking. Hillary Clinton says charge them a bit more and oversee them more carefully. Most Republicans say…
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. – In spite of the naysayers on the political right, solar power continues to grow as a significant source of energy in the economy of the United States, setting records every year, according to a new report out from the Solar Energy Industries Association. Out of all new electricity…
A Day That Will Live in Infamy – The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. – I woke up this morning with a fitful start. It promised to be a depressing day. But it was a beautiful morning in the campground thanks to a cool front that passed through the region with…
By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala – The temptation was too great for New Yorker satirist Andy Borowitz. Photos of Donald Trump’s August 21 campaign rally at the football stadium here showed a throng so white it might have been a convention of albinos. Perhaps a spy agency’s scanning technology could pick out a few…
By Glynn Wilson – While Vice President Joe Biden has only hinted that he might run for president against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a new Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday shows Biden might fare better against any of the Republicans in the general election than Clinton, who until…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. – If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. A cool front passed through the nation’s capital overnight, making it extremely comfortable in the campground. It is easy to be lazy and not want to care about the ridiculously shallow coverage of the presidential election of…
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. – After spending much of the spring and summer in Shenandoah National Park, I pulled into the nation’s capital on Thursday and camped in a friend’s driveway near the Potomac River for the night — only to wake up Friday morning and see a misleading ad campaign on NBC’s…
By Brandon Busteed and Jessica Stutzman – WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans with an education beyond an undergraduate degree show a higher level of well-being than those with less education, according to the latest Gallup poll on the subject, which found that 74 percent of adults in the U.S with graduate degrees say that they learn…
By Andrew Dugan WASHINGTON, D.C. — As the 2016 presidential race increasingly dominates political news, Gallup is now reporting that the Democratic Party has regained it historical edge over the Republican Party in favorability ratings, a fact which may have implications for the White House race. As of the latest public opinion poll on the…
By Dominic Rushe – British Petroleum has agreed to pay a record environmental fine of $18.7 billion to settle legal actions brought by the U.S. and five Gulf states over the fatal Gulf of Mexico oil disaster of 2010. The U.S. Department of Justice, along with the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas and Florida,…
By Nicholas Sheppard – If Hillary Clinton’s bid for the presidency is successful, would it make her the most powerful woman in history? The proposition is a tricky one, because of all the historical relativism. Making sense of it involves looking at power both in absolute, and global terms. Unlike other powerful women in history,…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK, Va. – It’s cool in the mountains this Sunday morning at first light. The birds are singing and the does and fawns are starting to move around. A few drops of water are still dripping down on the canopy from the trees, remnants of…
By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – After a couple years trudging through the weeds and thickets of laws, regulations, technical standards, hazard assessments, health effects, economic impacts and other consequences of petroleum storage tanks, Mobile has arrived at nearly the same place it began this trek. On June 11 a three-member subcommittee presented its…
So Why Do They Keep Geting Reelected? – By Jeffrey M. Jones – PRINCETON, N.J. — Americans’ confidence in most major U.S. institutions remains well below the historical average, especially the Republican Congress, according to the latest Gallup poll on the subject. “Congress is the institution in which Americans express the least confidence this year,”…
Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – Who knew Herbert Hoover was such a great guy? About the only thing most Americans know about former President Hoover is that he was in office when the stock market crashed in 1929, leading to the worst Great Depression in U.S. history. He was defeated when seeking reelection…
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Obama administration’s Environmental Protection Agency issued a mixed report Thursday on the impacts of hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” for methane gas on drinking water. The agency’s draft assessment, put together at the behest of Congress, shows that while hydraulic fracturing activities in the U.S. are carried out…
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. – The conservative Republican base is shrinking, as old racists die off. According to the latest Gallup Poll data on the subject, the percentage of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who are conservative on both social and economic issues rises steadily with age. “An analysis of aggregated surveys conducted since…
By Carrie Louise Nutt – The America I grew up in is not the America of today. This is always true. Life is constantly changing. The world is constantly changing. Nothing stays the same. It’s one big ball of organic aliveness. But the difference is that the America of today is not an improvement over…
Education Matters — By Larry Lee — Debbie Deavours has spent 33 years in the Fayette County school system, the last eight as principal at Berry Elementary in the little town of Berry with its 1,250 people. Debbie has 300 students in pre-K-6. Some 65 percent of whom get free or reduced price lunches. And…
