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The Nation

Shame on the Senate: Gun Control Is Dead, For Now


Senator Ted Cruz points to a photo of a Remington rifle during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun control. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite.)

Among so many depressing days in Washington, Wednesday is surely one for the ages.

A Review of '42': Jackie Robinson's Bitter Pill


Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment.

This week in Major League Baseball was Jackie Robinson Day. This is when Commissioner Bud Selig honors the man who broke the color line in 1947 and pats MLB on the back for being “a leader in the Civil Rights Movement.” It’s possible to appreciate that Selig honors one of the 20th Century’s great anti-racist heroes. It’s also possible, out of respect for Jackie Robinson, to resent the hell out of it.

The Senate’s Drone and Trigger-Happy Immigration Bill

Gang of Eight senators discuss immigration bill
Senator Marco Rubio speaks on a bipartisan agreement on the principles of legislation to rewrite the nation's immigration laws. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

There could be a lot to celebrate about the Senate’s new comprehensive immigration reform bill. There’s a lot to already be cautions about as well—especially since lawmakers have already indicated they’ll want additional hearings and expect amendments that will likely make the bill more draconian. But what we do know is that nearly any move forward on regularizing status for most currently undocumented immigrants hinges on border security.

Kent State Students Demand Debt Redress

College students in Ohio currently graduate with nearly $28,000 in student loans, which ranks seventh highest in the United States. In addition to incurring large debts to attend college, graduates also now face a job market where average starting salaries have declined for six straight years.

At Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, students are taking on even more debt than both the state and national average. According to the Project On Student Debt,  for the year 2010, 77 percent of Kent State graduates took out student loans. Even worse, the average debt upon graduation was $28,186! Why? Look at the rising tuition and fees. Since 2003, tuition and fees have increased by 46 percent. Moreover, KSU students have recently been informed that they will also be charged $440 per each credit hour for each one they take over 16. Such a plan will only force more students to incur more debt and extend the estimated date of graduation for many and is far less generous than most other colleges and universities in Ohio, which don't charge additional fees until 18 credit hours or more are reached.

In an effort to raise awareness about excessive tuition hikes and fees, the KSU Young Democratic Socialists (YDS) are organizing with other student groups, creatively utilizing social media to connect with others on campus and organizing digitally to stand in solidarity with students mobilizing at other campuses in the state.

A Robin Hood Response to the Austerity Lie: Tax Wall Street


Congressman Keith Ellison. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

America is not broke, despite what advocates for austerity would have us believe.

Greg Kaufmann: After Sequestration, Where Will Poor Families Sleep?

Under the axe of sequestration, 140,000 families are set to lose housing assistance, mainly through cuts to Section 8 vouchers. "We're moving in the wrong direction from a collective perspective," The Nation's Greg Kaufmann says. "Half of the recipients are people with disabilities or seniors, the other half are families with children"—and, as is, only one in four families who are eligible for vouchers actually receive them. Kaufmann joins The Melissa Harris-Perry Show to discuss the impending crisis and what the big banks have to do with it

James Cersonsky

Punishing Students For Who They Are, Not What They Do


A student reads at a school in New Jersey. One in four black students were suspended in 2009-10, compared to one in fourteen white students. (AP Photo/Jose F. Moreno.)

Until last month, I had never seen a stop-and-frisk happen. Despite the amount of attention devoted to the controversial New York City policy in the last year, despite the protests, and despite having lived in the city for almost four years, I had never witnessed a stop-and-frisk. And then, a few weeks ago, I watched as two policemen stopped middle-aged black man on 98th Street, and frisked him. I wondered, not for the first time, what it would take for those same policemen to stop and frisk me. Controlling for all other factors—location, time of day, behavior—what would it take for the cops to stop and frisk a pretty white lady on the Upper West Side?

Despite Boston, Terror Is at an All-Time Low


Boston Marathon bombing investigators search a woman's bag at the scene of the explosions. (REUTERS/Adrees Latif)

The headline in today’s New York Times had to be read twice to make sure that’s what it really said: “Blasts End A Decade of Terrorism on the Wane.”

AFL-CIO's Non-Union Worker Group Headed Into Workplaces in Fifty States


Demonstrators from MoveOn.org and Working America picket against federal budget cuts outside John Boehner's office in West Chester, Ohio. (AP Photo/Al Behrman)

The country’s largest non-union workers’ group will soon announce plans to establish chapters in every state, achieve financial self-sufficiency and extend its organizing—so far focused on politics and policy—directly into the workplace.