Washington, D.C.–(ENEWSPF)–August 18, 2011.  As the White House completes its interagency review of the Environmental Protection Agency’s updated ground-level ozone standard to protect public health, some of the companies required to reduce their pollution continue to make exaggerated claims that negative economic impacts will occur due to these updated protections.[Read More…]

Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–August 16, 2011.  Given the confusing and crazy history that we Americans seem incapable of rising above, I suppose it was preordained that nearly every conversation about the first black president would devolve to an examination of its racial elements. From the moment then-candidate Barack Obama declared himself a[Read More…]

Washington, D.C.–(ENEWSPF)–August 12, 2011.  The cuts to national security spending in the recent deal to raise the debt ceiling have attracted significant criticism from conservative commentators who argue that these cuts are unexpected, unprecedented, and threatening to our national security. Today the Center for American Progress released the brief “Defense[Read More…]

Washington, D.C.–(ENEWSPF)–August 12, 2011.  The recent debt deal struck last week resulted in congressional Republicans stating that tax increases cannot be part of deficit reduction. Michael Ettlinger, Vice President for Economic Policy at the Center for American Progress, explains why these Republicans are drawing such hard lines in his piece[Read More…]

New York, NY–(ENEWSPF)–August 11, 2011.  Fifty-five percent of American adults support legalizing marijuana, up from 52 percent in 2010, according to the results of a new Angus Reid Public Opinion poll. Pollsters conducted an online survey of a representative national sample of 1,003 American adults. A solid majority, including 63[Read More…]

Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–August 6, 2011.  In a document provided to Treasury on Friday afternoon, Standard and Poor’s (S&P) presented a judgment about the credit rating of the U.S. that was based on a $2 trillion mistake. After Treasury pointed out this error – a basic math error of significant consequence –[Read More…]

Washington, D.C.–(ENEWSPF)–August 4, 2011.  Despite the conservative “border security first” rhetoric—the primary obstacle to comprehensive immigration reform – a recent USA Today article shows that border communities are safer on average than U.S. cities and a New York Times report suggests that net illegal immigration from Mexico may now be[Read More…]

Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–August 3, 2011.  The U.S. Commerce Department’s Economics and Statistics Administration (ESA) today issued the second in a series of reports on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) jobs and higher education. As expected, the report, Women in STEM: A Gender Gap to Innovation, finds there are fewer women than[Read More…]

Washington, D.C–(ENEWSPF)–August 3, 2011.  There is a lot to dislike about the debt deal passed by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama yesterday. Criticize it for being completely skewed toward radical right-wing priorities. Point out that it forces draconian cuts to some very important public investments, services,[Read More…]

Washington, D.C.—(ENEWSPF)–August 1, 2011.  Today the Center for American Progress released an analysis showing that the debt deal struck this weekend does nothing to help with the biggest problem facing our nation: anemic job growth and a faltering economy. In fact, by putting a noose on public investments and tightening[Read More…]