A bipartisan group of more than 1,000 state lawmakers have signed a letter to Congress calling for real health reform that includes a public option, according to a recent press conference call organized by the Progressive States Network (PSN).

One day it dawned on me while watching that epic drama "In the Heat of the Night" with Sidney Poitier. A feeling of sorrow many of us Negroes feel whenever we sense our Caucasian brethren feeling uneasy. A lot of White Americans are losing the good-old-days. Since I don't hear Joe Wilson calling me a liar I'll continue.

The association of Italians with Communism in the United States has been obscured by the unfounded assertion that in 1927 Italian American radicalism along with Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti died. This perspective predominates despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

The serious Obama spoke today [Sept. 22]. Recently, I recognized two positive features in his behavior: his attempt to make healthcare available to the 47 million Americans who don’t have access to it, and his concern for climate change.

Compensation over the long run reflects the market value of labor as a commodity. Market value oscillates around the cost of production – of the worker. There are many factors that influence the oscillation.

Flu season is here. And it has brought its nasty cousin swine flu (H1N1) with it. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, swine flu began to spread in the US last spring, picked up some steam over the summer and now as the usual flu season begins is expected to spread quickly.

If someone told you that a bunch of low-income people, most of them African American or Latino, most of them women, most of them elderly, had been victimized by a predatory mortgage lender that stripped them of much of their equity or of their entire homes, you might not be surprised.

I was born in Santa Tecla, near San Salvador. My father was a big rig driver and my mother was a stay at home mom. We had a big family – four brothers and two sisters. When I was old enough, I worked in the Armando Araujo coffee and soap factory. We Salvadoreños are hard working people.

A couple of weeks ago the New York Times columnist was doing his usual Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol and back trek when he encountered a bunch of "tea party" people demonstrating and "carrying 'Don't Tread on Me' flags, 'End the Fed' placards and signs condemning big government, Barack Obama, socialist healthcare and various elite institutions."

At last, the Senate Finance Committee (SFC) has put forth its health proposal and began marking up and debating the proposal on September 22. It is the last of the five committees in the House and Senate with jurisdiction over health care reform to consider legislative language.

Thomas Friedman has a problem. As he describes in his bestseller Hot, Flat, and Crowded, while many activists advocate a low-carbon lifestyle in his Maryland neighborhood, he had to give up his attempt to install a couple of solar panels on his house because doing so is illegal under a local ordinance.

Four Atlanta activists and a State Senator were arrested during a demonstration which took place on August 31, 2009, at the office of Wells Fargo bank in East Point, Georgia, at 11:00 AM.

While a strong majority of American voters continue to support climate change legislation which would control pollution that causes global warming and would create a new generation of "green jobs," much of corporate America and its right-wing congressional allies are digging in their heels to block it.

This week, a Fulton County Superior Court Judge approved of an emergency injunction on Wednesday, September 16, 2009, to temporarily halt the closure of the Grady Health System Outpatient Dialysis Clinic.

As wildfires consume parts of California larger than some smaller states, everyone is talking about how we can prevent such disasters from getting going in the first place. One novel approach is to enlist goats. Not as firefighters...

The framing of the debate along these lines – big versus small government – is misleading. It cleverly conceals what’s at the core of the present controversy that has divided Congress and the country: the role and responsibilities of government.

Some on both the left, and Libertarian, sides of the political stream, are quick to oversimplify the current crisis as a cyclical crisis of overproduction, ho hum, "that's capitalism," love it or leave it. But I think there is more going on.

For most of us, the rain that falls on our roof runs off into the ground or the sewer system. But if you’re motivated to save a little water and re-distribute it on your lawns or plants—or even use it for laundry, dishes or other interior needs—collecting rainwater from your gutters’ downspouts is a no-brainer.

On this episode, President Obama raises the roof at the AFL-CIO annual convention, discussing his positions on issues like workers' rights, the environment, jobs, health care reform and education.

The House of Representatives took a step this week toward repealing the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the 1996 federal ban on marriage equality that singles out same-sex couples for exclusion, when a group of more than 90 members introduced the Respect for Marriage Act.