This week, OtherWords is running a debut column by Katie Halper, our new guest columnist. Katie, a young writer who is also a stand-up comedian, has shared an “unedited” (that is, a painfully honest and entertaining) draft of Ann Romney’s speech with our readers.

Thanks to all the newspaper editors who are now running Sam Pizzigati’s column — this week he unpacks the shortcomings of the growing business of teaching K-12 public school kids online through for-profit enterprises. As always, I encourage you to subscribe to our weekly newsletter and visit our blog. If you haven’t signed up yet, please do.

1. A Glimmer of Military Budget Sanity / Miriam Pemberton and Gabriel I. Rossman
   Even House Republicans can’t stomach spending $17,000 on a helicopter drip pan.
2. Illegal Interns / Eric Glatt
   Unpaid internships have metastasized into a labor market scourge.
3. We Won the War on Poverty, then Lost the Peace / Salvatore Babones
   If America could eliminate most serious poverty in the United States in the 1960s, surely we could do the same today.
4. The Drought Lottery / Ryan Alexander
   Our lawmakers should spend the next month figuring out how to reduce our $16 trillion debt instead of showering special interests with even more wasteful subsidies that have nothing to do with the drought.
5. Virtually, Anything Goes with Online Education / Sam Pizzigati
   State officials are allowing tax dollars to underwrite K-12 virtual disasters.
6. Ann Romney’s Unedited Convention Speech Leaked / Katie Halper
   Sometimes the elevator for our cars takes an inordinate amount of time.
7. Radioactive Ties / Jim Hightower
   Whether corporate political money shouts or whispers, it still corrupts.
8. Just Another Corporate Profit Center / William A. Collins
   Americans who want to know what caused Haiti’s devastation need to look in the mirror.
9. Military Pork Shield / Khalil Bendib (Cartoon)

Military Pork Shield, an OtherWords cartoon by Khalil Bendib