I am the host of StarTalk. I’m an astrophysicist, and I have a co-host, Lynne Koplitz, who is a professional standup comedienne. I had seen her work and saw how creative and progressive she was in her commentary about life, politics, social mores, and the like.

Vito Marcantonio defied the truism of American politics that in the United States a radical politician has only two possible fates – defeat or co-optation. Marcantonio was the most electorally successful radical politician in modern American history: between 1934 and 1950 he served seven terms in Congress.

The Protest Singer is a biography of Pete Seeger unlike most any other. Reading more as a recorded conversation than a biographical portrayal, Wilkinson based most of his little book on a series of visits to the Beacon NY home of his subject.

To little fanfare, the federal minimum wage rose to $7.25 per hour July 24th. It was the third scheduled raise in the minimum wage since 2007. A higher federal minimum wage is the best kind of economic stimulus for working families, say workers’ rights advocates and even some business owners.

Junkyard Empire may be the hungriest new hip hop band in North America. Not hungry for fame or fortune or platinum records, though they probably would love all that.

As more and more states are turning against coal power facilities in the U.S., advocates have been using the legal system to halt new pending plants.

According to consumer advocate Remar Sutton, there are many ways to save energy and other resources around the home without spending a lot of money. And taking action sooner rather than later will lead to ongoing savings on utility bills, so a little cash outlay now will more than pay for itself in the long run.

"I wasn’t elected as President to restore capitalism in Cuba or to surrender the Revolution. I was elected to defend, maintain and continue perfecting socialism, not to destroy it," affirmed Cuban President Raul Castro on Saturday.

It’s been a long nine days in the YCL School. We held classes on Marxist Methodology, Socialism, Strategy and Tactics, the fight against racism and more. It has been a lot and I hope speaking dialectically that each of us is a different person than we first started. It’s all about the negation of the negation and everything is dialectical.

A public plan could more easily control overall savings and level of quality. It is true that in some rural areas – not an accident that all of the blue-dogs are from rural states – coops function well and certainly at no worse cost than the Canadian National Health Service does in its remote rural areas.

Today, the population of New Orleans is still about 175,000 people fewer than it was before Hurricane Katrina hit four years ago next month. Along with concerns about jobs and housing costs, the city's vulnerability to flooding has weighed heavily on the minds of many evacuees, many of whom have not returned.

Senator Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) is one of those so-called “blue dog” Democrats who remain ambivalent about parts of the Obama political agenda, particularly the Employee Free Choice Act (despite his long-time popularity with Indiana trade unionists) and health care reform.

According to Economic Policy Institute economist Josh Bivens, after a contraction of the Gross Domestic Product, the measure of all economic activity, over the past two quarters of an annualized rate of negative six percent, the GDP for this past quarter will come in at about negative 1.5 percent. Without the President's economic recovery act, the number would have been three times higher, he reports.

While most people understand the urgency of climate change, one of the top concerns many working families have with a cap-and-trade system is added costs for energy.

The legacy of the Bush Administration has been a perfect storm of economic devastation – in finance, housing and jobs. The challenge of fixing this economic mess is enormous – and urgent. Creating good jobs that cannot be outsourced is central to the solution.

Four years after Hurricane Katrina, there have been some significant improvements to the levees of New Orleans. However, even with improvements scheduled to be completed in 2011, advocates say the U.S. government has left the standard of protection at dangerously low levels.

While in prison, Vick met with the president of the Humane Society of the United States. He also will be working with groups aimed at steering young people away from dogfighting. By all accounts, Vick is profoundly remorseful. And if you had to declare bankruptcy and spend two years in Leavenworth, you would also be feeling a share of regret.

A New Yorker magazine investigative report about why McAllen, Texas, a city located in Hidalgo county – which has the lowest per capita income in the country – has one of the highest medical costs per person in the United States (surpassed only by Miami, Florida), has stirred an unusual controversy over the rarely discussed contradictions that affect the quality and coverage of health services in that country.

At eight in the morning on Monday, ten Alameda County Sheriffs arrived in their patrol cars in front of the tan house on the corner of Tenth and Willow in west Oakland, the oldest African American neighborhood in the city, and one of the oldest on the west coast. The renovated home is surrounded by an iron fence, and the sheriffs poured through its open gate and up the stairs.

A group of apparel makers with business interests in Honduras, in a July 27th letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, endorsed the administration's call for restoration of democracy and basic civil rights and liberties in that country.