IPS Blog

This week in OtherWords, Jill Richardson warns readers gearing up for their summer barbecues about the rise of superbugs. Those antibiotic-resistant bacteria are getting hard to avoid if you buy meat in American supermarkets.

We also have an op-ed by Raul A. Reyes on the Heritage Foundation's ill-fated report that was supposed to pinpoint the high cost of giving undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship. As Reyes explains, this "study" instead exposed the think tank's shoddy research standards and the racist outlook of one of its lead authors.

OtherWords normally releases all our newsroom-ready commentaries on Wednesday mornings, but we make exceptions for work tied to breaking news. Following the resignation of disgraced report co-author Jason Richwine, we ran this op-ed on Saturday instead. We're increasingly tinkering with our timing, so please visit our website more often. When you do, be sure to check out our blog, where we offer bonus commentaries by Jim Hightower. This week, we're featuring our columnist's hilarious salute to Rep. Louie Gohmert and other political "nincompoops."

Here's a clickable summary of all our latest commentaries and a link to our new cartoon. If you haven't already subscribed to our weekly newsletter, please do.

1. The Swinging Electorate / Marc Morial
   Despite formidable efforts to disenfranchise African Americans in 2012, a larger percentage of black voters than white voters turned out at the polls to assure Obama's victory on Election Day.
2. License to Kill / David Reingold
   Without environmental regulations, many companies would gladly poison you to earn bigger profits.
3. No Junior Partner / Jess Hunter-Bowman
   Could someone please tell Secretary Kerry that Latin America is no longer our "backyard"?
4. Heritage’s Immigration Nightmare / Raul A. Reyes
   If the conservative think tank's intent was to derail immigration reform, that's a losing battle.
5. Uncle Sam: Please Tax the Titans / Donald Kaul
   Don't ask me what a hedge fund is — if I knew, I'd manage one.
6. A Primer for Taming Corporate Power / Sam Pizzigati
   For social change, slow and steady may win the race.
7. Those Uninvited Guests at Your Barbecue / Jill Richardson
   With most samples of several common store-bought meats testing positive for antibiotic-resistant "superbugs," factory farming practices must change.
8. The Parched Truth About American Jobs / Jim Hightower
   The recent good news about job creation obscures the bad news facing the nation's middle class.
9. Don’t Fence Me In / William A. Collins
   The prosperous are further isolating themselves physically, as well as economically, from the rest of us.
10. Superbugs at the Supermarket / Khalil Bendib cartoon

This week in OtherWords, Jason Salzman makes the case against the Koch brothers’ potential purchase of the Los Angeles Times and other Tribune Media newspapers while Jim Hightower weighs in on the larger context behind the recent garment worker tragedy in Bangladesh.

Here’s a clickable summary of all our latest commentaries and a link to our new cartoon. If you haven’t already subscribed to our weekly newsletter, please do.

1. Turning Journalism into a Joke / Jason Salzman
   Obama’s serious comments about the value of journalism stand out as the Koch brothers consider buying the Los Angeles Times.
2. Ohio’s Poorly Performing School Assessment / Chris Schillig
   Test scores don’t tell the whole story.
3. Fighting the Foodopoly / Wenonah Hauter
   Only four gigantic companies process 80 percent of the beef we eat.
4. Middle Eastern Re-Run / Donald Kaul
   Unless you have something better that can replace a brutal regime like Assad’s government in Syria, what can you accomplish with military intervention?
5. How We Pay for CEO ‘Performance’ / Sam Pizzigati
   A gaping tax loophole pads executive pay and the federal debt.
6. Hollow Bee Hives May Threaten Our Lives Too / Jill Richardson
   The United States should follow Europe’s example and ban pesticides that may be wiping out these key pollinators.
7. Fashion Victims / Jim Hightower
   The gravitational pull of corporate greed makes clothing factories prone to disasters like the recent tragedy in Bangladesh.
8. Our Stake in Guatemala’s Genocide Trial / Emily Schwartz Greco and William A. Collins
   Thirty years after Ríos Montt’s atrocities, U.S. military policy in Latin America remains a human rights disaster.
9. Made in Bangladesh / Khalil Bendib cartoon

This week in OtherWords, Jo Comerford and Donald Kaul weigh in on the government's reversal of sequester-driven cuts that inconvenienced air travelers as other budget woes hurt children, the elderly, and the unemployed.

Below, you'll find a clickable summary of all our latest commentaries and a link to our new cartoon. Be sure to visit our blog, where we've been running bonus Jim Hightower commentaries. This week, you can catch his views on George W. Bush's shiny new library.

If you haven't already subscribed to our weekly newsletter, please do.

1. The Internet Racket / Timothy Karr
   Phone and cable providers are reaping obscene profit margins from their dominance of the Internet market.
2. The Path We Should Follow after Syria Crosses the Red Line / Don Kraus
   Working closely with the United Nations could help Obama avoid the horrendous mistakes Bush and Clinton made.
3. Banking on the Poor / Andrew Korfhage
   Payday borrowers are trapped in a spiral of revolving loans and compounding penalties.
4. Useless Baggage / Jo Comerford
   With their big fuss over aviation punctuality, lawmakers make it clear that they're not feeling the pain felt by the majority of Americans.
5. Flying Over an Act of Monumental Stupidity / Donald Kaul
   The great victims of this sequester will be our children, the unemployed, the poor and the elderly — all groups with feeble lobbies or no lobbies at all.
6. Austerity Will Leave Us Crying ’96 Tears’ / Sam Pizzigati
   But America's wealthy don't seem to mind.
7. A Parenting Priority / Jill Richardson
   Even when the kids complain, you're doing right by them when you cook dinner and eat together.
8. Narco-State Building / Jim Hightower
   After 11 years of U.S. military operations, Afghanistan produces 90 percent of the world's poppies and 75 percent of the planet's heroin.
9. The War on Sex / William A. Collins
   Despite declines in teen pregnancy and abortion rates, some conservatives aren't ready to celebrate.
10. Obama and the Red Line  / Khalil Bendib Cartoon
    
     

This week in OtherWords, Jill Richardson looks at the Texas factory explosion in the context of whether we should be using so much nitrogen fertilizer in the first place and William A. Collins and I review recent progress toward ending the prohibition on pot.

Here's a clickable summary of our latest commentaries and a link to our new cartoon. If you haven't already subscribed to our weekly newsletter, please do.

1. A Reasonable Food Fight / Ryan Alexander
   President Obama's efforts to overhaul the nation's global food aid system are sensible.
2. Our Biggest Terrorist Threat / Marc Morial
   Senate inaction on guns was inexcusable in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing.
3. Shameless Bipartisanship / Richard Long
   Two once-prominent politicians who disgraced themselves in sex scandals are angling for a return to public life.
4. Saber-Rattling on the Korean Peninsula / Justin Bresolin
   Aggressive posturing only increases the likelihood of a dangerous miscalculation.
5. Stopping the Senseless Carnage / Donald Kaul
   Could we just cut back on warfare a little?
6. Tracking CEO Pay / Sam Pizzigati
   The most important executive compensation indicator is the gap between what CEOs and their workers are paid.
7. The Price of Our Fertilizer Addiction / Jill Richardson
   Compared to the lifetime of grieving ahead for the people of West, Texas, a few years of reduced crop yields is a small price to pay for converting from "conventional" to organic farming.
8. Making Poverty a Crime / Jim Hightower
   Jailing indigents for debts costs the courts way more than the fines they owe and violates the Constitution.
9. The Pot Prohibition Runs Its Course / Emily Schwartz Greco and William A. Collins
   Now that most Americans support the legalization of marijuana, some Republicans back the right of states to stop banning it.
10. Holy Smokes / Khalil Bendib
    
     

This week in OtherWords, Donald Kaul skewers the "progress" Congress is making on gun control, Chris Schillig weighs in on the Boston Marathon attack from a runner's perspective, and Jim Hightower marvels at the Army's green ambitions.

Here's a clickable summary of our latest commentaries and a link to our new cartoon. If you haven't already subscribed to our weekly newsletter, please do.

1. Under-Regulating the Regulators / Michael Smallberg
   The career moves of the latest SEC chiefs underscore the agency's revolving door problem.
2. Let’s Lace Up and Keep Running / Chris Schillig
   We can't close down the world and huddle in our houses after the Boston Marathon attack.
3. Cutting Your Benefits Isn’t the ‘Middle’ Way / Peter Hart
   The rest of us are being left out of the "entitlement reform" story.
4. ExxonMobil’s Mayflower Mess / Michael Brune
   Tar sands crude is both more toxic and much harder to clean than ordinary oil.
5. No Progress on Gun Control to Report / Donald Kaul
   Gun lobbies have our legislature of cowardly lions in their teeth.
6. The Art of Inequality / Sam Pizzigati
   Monumental gifts to museums are coinciding with the erosion of arts programs at the nation's public schools.
7. How to Send Less Trash to the Landfill / Jill Richardson
   Make a down payment on your own soil's fertility by composting.
8. The Army Goes Off the Grid / Jim Hightower
   Fort Bliss, a base near El Paso, is a hotbed of solar power and other green energy initiatives.
9. Where the Money Is / William A. Collins
   America's banks have always been shady.
10. Sacrificing Social Security / Khalil Bendib  cartoon