Among the other states taking up the issue are Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas and Ohio. In all four of those states, Republicans advanced their Voter ID bills last week. Those states look to join the eight states that require photo ID and the 19 that require some form of ID, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The state attorney general wants federal regulators to take enforcement action against the Indian Point nuclear plant for what he called the company's failure to comply with fire safety requirements.
"In the wake of Japan's crisis, our country's nuclear facilities should be bolstering their safety measures, yet Indian Point is looking to weaken its precautionary measures," Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Monday.
New York Times columnist Bob Herbert has written his last New York Times column, but I hope and expect he will stay in the debate. He lived up to the venerable injunction that journalists should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. We need his passion.
Limitless greed, unrestrained corporate power and a ferocious addiction to foreign oil have led us to an era of perpetual war and economic decline.
So here we are pouring shiploads of cash into yet another war, this time in Libya, while simultaneously demolishing school budgets, closing libraries, laying off teachers and police officers, and generally letting the bottom fall out of the quality of life here at home.
But Richard Brodsky, a former long-time New York legislator and lawyer who has done battle with Indian Point on a range of issues, argued in an interview Tuesday that the NRC has been no tougher a regulator than the Securities and Exchange Commission and other federal agencies that allowed the financial meltdown of 2008 to happen.
If you really want to improve the education of poor children, you have to get them away from learning environments that are smothered by poverty.
One of the most powerful tools for improving the educational achievement of poor black and Hispanic public school students is, regrettably, seldom even considered. It has become a political no-no.
Worst-case scenarios unfold more frequently than we’d like to believe, which leads to two major questions regarding nuclear power that Americans have an obligation to answer.
First, can a disaster comparable to the one in Japan happen here? The answer, of course, is yes — whether caused by an earthquake or some other event or series of events. Nature is unpredictable and human beings are fallible. It could happen.
On March 4, Manhattan Federal Judge Loretta Preska upheld an NRC decision to let Indian Point operator Entergy use insulation that withstands fire for only 27 minutes.
The crisis in Japan has reignited intense debate among lawmakers about the safety of U.S. nuclear-power plants; nowhere more so than at Indian Point, where two aging reactors are 24 miles north of New York City.
Rates for basic landline telephone service would probably go up if a bill moving rapidly through the Legislature becomes law, according to a report to be released today by two interest groups.
The report, by the left-leaning New Jersey Policy Perspective and Demos, cites a 2009 survey by the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates that found rates rose in 17 of 20 states that deregulated the service. The increases ranged from 8 percent to 100 percent.
In Connecticut, the federal government has awarded renewals for the two nuclear reactors at Millstone to operate until 2035 and 2045.
In New York, the two plants at Indian Point — built in the mid 1970s, are up for renewal — but both Governor Andrew Cuomo and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman campaigned on closing them.
Professional football has a big, big problem on its hands, and I'm not talking about the lockout that is jeopardizing the 2011 season.
Dave Duerson was once a world-class athlete, a perfect physical specimen whose pro football career included Super Bowl championships with the Chicago Bears and New York Giants. Friends and former teammates would tell you that he was also a bright guy — a graduate of Notre Dame with a degree in economics and, at least for awhile, a successful businessman.
When CenturyTel, a Louisiana-based phone service provider, merged with Embarq last year, the state Rate Counsel hammered out an agreement with CenturyTel that required the company to invest heavily in capital improvements over the four years following the deal.
Creative ideas regarding energy, education, jobs and so forth have trouble even getting a hearing.
The United States is not racked with the turmoil that is shaking the Arab world, or the tragic devastation that has hit Japan. We are not in a state of emergency. We’re in a moment when it is possible to look thoughtfully at the American landscape and take rational steps to ensure a better, more sustainable future.
Just a Prelude to the Real Fight, Robert Hiltonsmith writes at The American Prospect. What Republicans really want to cut is Social Security and Medicare, he writes.