George Zornick | The Nation
How Little We Know About Heavy Tar Sands Oil
Demonstrators protest the Keystone XL Pipeline in 2011. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci.)
When the Exxon Pegasus pipeline ruptured Friday in Mayflower, Arkansas, tens of thousands of gallons of diluted bitumen were sent forth into a residential neighborhood, and 22 homes had to be evacuated. Since this is the same sort of oil that would be carried by the Keystone XL pipeline, were it to be built, the Arkansas spill is appropriately spurring a conversation about safety. Is Keystone also going to lead to more spills? (There have been twelve on the completed portions of the pipeline already.) And how dangerous is this stuff spilling all over the ground?
More Bullets Than Seconds: New Details from Tucson and Newtown
Law enforcement agents respond to the shooting in Newtown. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill.)
As Washington gears up for the big Senate floor debate on gun control, two disturbing reports about the mass shootings in Tucson and Newtown have underscored the urgent need for a ban on assault weapons and semi-automatic magazines.
New Study Demands Zero-Tolerance for Military Sexual Assault
A woman Marine recruit. A new report has concluded that officials need to do more to prevent sexual assaults in the military. (Flickr/Expert Infantry.)
Female veterans who suffered a sexual assault in the military are nine times more likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder compared to other female veterans, and military officials must do more to prevent these assaults—these are the conclusions of a gripping new government report on the hardships faced by troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Bipartisan Push to Scrap Medical Device Tax Is a Cautionary Tale
A 2.3 percent tax on medical devices, such as MRI machines, has senators of both parties up in arms. Photo credit pennstate via Flickr.
It’s not often one finds bipartisan agreement in the Senate, but Thursday night seventy-nine senators joined to symbolically repeal the medical device tax provision of healthcare reform—a 2.3 percent levy on medical device companies that is projected to raise $30 billion over ten years to help finance the new law.
GOP Begins Throwing Up Roadblocks to the EPA Nominee
Gina McCarthy, Barack Obama’s nominee to head the EPA. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Well, that didn’t take long: A Republican Senator has already placed a “hold” on the nomination of Gina McCarthy to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri announced the move Monday, and cited delays in EPA approval of the St. John’s Bayou and New Madrid Floodway Project in the southeast part of his state.
A Truly Progressive Budget Vision
Keith Ellison, the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari.)
Paul Ryan’s recently released budget will not become law—at least not any time soon. The Democratic Senate would never pass it, President Obama would never sign it. Ryan surely knows this, and his proposal is a fantasy budget: more an ideological argument than genuine attempt at legislating.
Senate Democrats Press Obama on Chained CPI
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh.)
President Obama visited Capitol Hill on Tuesday afternoon in an effort to get Senate Democrats on board with his sequester replacement plan, which contains some tough sells for the caucus—particularly on Chained CPI, a new and less generous way to calculate government benefits.
Victory on Bush Tax Cuts Might Not Last Long
Paul Ryan’s budget proposal leaves room for negotiation on tax rates for high earners. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite.)
President Obama started off his second term with a major victory: getting Congress to pass a bill eliminating the Bush tax breaks for individual earners making over $400,000 per year.
The Paid Sick Leave Battle Widens in the States
Sangita Nayak of 9to5 speaks at a petition hand-in, Milwaukee City Hall, June 2008. (Flickr/Dave Moore)
In recent months, more and more cities and states are requiring that employers give paid sick leave to their workers. It’s a broadly popular policy, and a necessary one—one in three American workers has no guarantee of being paid during an illness, including only 25 percent of part-time workers. Aside from creating even more economic vulnerability for workers, this can greatly increase the spread of seasonal flus, which costs businesses $10.4 billion every year, according to the CDC.
Beware Obama's Dealmaking
Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais.)
As sequestration churns on, President Obama is reaching out to moderate Republican members of the Senate to see if he can still put a deal together. He is coming to the Hill next week for a Republican luncheon, and hosting other members for dinner tonight. The president is also picking up the phone. “He just called me,” Senator Lindsey Graham told reporters yesterday. “What I see from the president is probably the most encouraging engagement on a big issue that I’ve seen since the early years of his presidency. He wants to do the big deal.”
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