A second nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, the hospital where Thomas Eric Duncan became the first Ebola fatality in the U.S., has tested positive for Ebola. With that news comes the revelation that the hospital was ill-prepared to handle such an infectious disease, and that it was learning the Ebola protocols as it […]

President Calvin Coolidge poses with unidentified tribal leaders after signing the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. It was supposed to ensure all Indians had the right to vote, but it took several court cases over the next 46 years to make it stick. Efforts to suppress the Indian vote have continued up to the present […]

Mike Brown, an unarmed teenager, was shot and killed in the middle of the street by Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson on a hot and hazy Saturday afternoon on August 9, 2014. For over two months, people have practically begged the St. Louis County Police Department to release a detailed incident report of the […]

Another day, another piece of evidence proudly defending your career as an outsourcer isn’t the way to win a U.S. Senate election. The latest: ATLANTA — For the first time, Michelle Nunn leads the race for Georgia’s Senate seat. In an exclusive 11Alive poll conducted by Survey USA, Democrat Michelle Nunn leads likely voters 48 […]

Rep. Tom Cotton (R-AR) In 2010, Democrats cut the middle man—the banks—out of federal student loans. Federal loan subsidies that had been going to banks instead started going to things like increasing Pell Grants and strengthening Income-Based Repayment programs. Republicans started screaming about a federal takeover of a federal program. It’s now 2014, and Arkansas […]

Satisfied customers. Our friend Charles Gaba is keeping an eye on premium rates in Obamacare plans for 2015. He features this post from PricewaterhouseCoopers on the latest six states to report. Among the six states and DC with final rate announcements, the average premium (across metal tiers and ages) is about $328, and the average […]

Remember that ridiculously insulting “Yes to the Dress” ad from the College Republican National Committee? Well, Stephen came up with an ad of his own to get women to vote Republican. (How much do you want to bet that some Republican strategist somewhere is actually lamenting “Why didn’t we think of that?!”) Full video after […]

It’s Wednesday! Joan McCarter day! But I must confess that I have fresh gun madness to discuss, and a growing pile of material that gives still more context to that astounding chart showing how the growth in recent expansion periods picked middle class pockets. Our embedded live stream is temporarily on the blink, but you […]

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE… Wednesday Margaret and Helen Blogging When last we checked in with the blogosphere’s feistiest pair of lefty octogenarians, they were calling out the Republican candidate in the Texas governor’s race for getting a $10 million settlement after he sued the owner of an oak tree that fell on him, […]