Helen Durkin
| May 24, 2013, 12:55 p.m.
It was 1970. I was in the fourth grade. And whenever Sister Mary Agnes was losing us during tough math lessons, she’d make us stand at our desks and do jumping jacks. It got our blood flowing, our brains working.
Erik R. Lieberman
| May 24, 2013, 12:22 p.m.
Patent trolls are a significant and growing threat to America’s businesses. Also known as “nonpracticing entities,” patent trolls are firms that acquire old — often invalid — patents with the sole purpose of using them to sue and extort settlements. Unlike typical inventors, they have no intention of further developing, manufacturing or marketing the patents. Not satisfied by attacking producers of products, patent trolls have begun to target end users of widely adopted technology, including retailers and small businesses.
Kavon W. Nikrad
| May 24, 2013, 5 a.m.
Since 2010, conservatives have used a 2010 paper in the American Economic Review by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff to claim spending cuts should be made to preserve the economic and fiscal futures of America. The argument claims that debt levels greater than 90 percent of gross domestic product — 15 percent lower than America’s current debt-to-GDP ratio — harm economic growth. This position has been prominently touted by, among others, former Republican vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis.
Ellen P. Aprill
| May 23, 2013, 3:18 p.m.
IRS employees who review applications for exemption have a duty to ask follow-up questions of applicants, including groups affiliated with the tea party. In the current controversy, IRS reviewers wrongly singled out conservative groups for unusually exacting follow-up. In a number of these cases, they also asked inappropriate questions, such as the identity of donors.
Stephanie Monroe
| May 23, 2013, 3:16 p.m.
Every year, tens of thousands of students across the country continue to struggle in low-performing schools with little or no access to the individual attention they need to succeed. For so many of these children, the tutoring assistance program established by No Child Left Behind is nothing short of an educational lifeline in an otherwise failed system. Known as Supplemental Educational Services, free tutoring is a parental empowerment option for Title I kids trapped in failing schools.
Grant Seiffert
| May 23, 2013, 5 a.m.
Recently, the Senate Commerce Committee served as the forum for a discussion we will be hearing much more about — the convergence of the tech and transportation industries in “intelligent vehicles.”
Rep. Karen Bass
| May 22, 2013, 2:13 p.m.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said it best earlier this month: “The incomprehensible evil of child trafficking has to be brought to a halt ... we cannot and must not let these children down.”
Chief Jim Johnson
| May 22, 2013, 2:07 p.m.
Last week, law enforcement officers arrived in the nation’s capital by the thousands for National Police Week to honor the sacrifice of the 120 officers killed in the line of duty in 2012.
Gerald S.J. Cassidy
| May 22, 2013, 6 a.m.
The mere mention of food stamps on Capitol Hill conjures up long held political stereotypes of Republicans reaching for the budget ax while Democrats reach out their hands, both a gross mischaracterization and oversimplification of a complex problem.
Dale Hall
| May 20, 2013, 2:20 p.m.
As the Agriculture committees in the House and Senate turn their attention to considering and reporting out a five-year farm bill this month, it’s important to consider how many Americans have felt the negative effects of not having a comprehensive bill.
Rob Mosbacher and Mark Green
| May 20, 2013, 2:04 p.m.
The debate has been settled. The question is no longer whether private business can be mentioned in the same breath as global development. Instead, it’s how can poor countries take better advantage of the transformative nature of private enterprise?
Nancy Soderberg
| May 20, 2013, 5 a.m.
We are at risk of an Internet “cold war” if the U.S. does not stand up to dangerous proposals from repressive regimes to control the Internet. As governments and members of civil society and industry gather in Geneva for the World Telecommunication/ICT Policy Forum, countries of the like continue to push efforts to give their governments new powers to suppress their citizens’ unfettered access to the Internet.
Mark Wenzler
| May 17, 2013, 1:41 p.m.
When he visited the Grand Canyon 100 years ago this month, President Theodore Roosevelt admonished Americans to “leave it as it is. You can not improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it. What you can do is to keep it for your children, your children’s children, and for all who come after you.”
Rep. John Conyers Jr. and Philip L. Harvey
| May 17, 2013, 1:40 p.m.
It has been five years since the financial crisis struck, and progress in putting the unemployed back to work still lags, with no end in sight.
Sterling K. Speirn
| May 17, 2013, 5 a.m.
Members of the American Dental Association will be fanning out across Capitol Hill this week in an effort to educate and influence lawmakers regarding what they think will improve access to dental care.
Robert Johnson
| May 16, 2013, 1:22 p.m.
We are on the cusp of finally realizing federal immigration reform in the United States. As our nation’s lawmakers debate this much anticipated bill, it is essential that we are diligent in ensuring that all aspiring citizens have a fair shot at the pathway to citizenship. There are those who believe that anyone with a criminal conviction, no matter how minor or old, should be shut out of this process and deported. I strongly disagree.
Rep. Michael M. Honda
| May 16, 2013, 1:21 p.m.
For too long our immigration system has had an exclusionary effect, leaving families separated and causing unimaginable heartache. Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders know this too well. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, for the first time in our nation’s history, excluded a group of people based purely on ethnicity.
Reps. Doris Matsui and Jan Schakowsky
| May 16, 2013, 1 p.m.
In May we celebrate Older Americans Month, a time to recognize and celebrate the many contributions seniors make every day in our communities. It is also a time to reflect on what we can do, as policymakers, to ensure their lifetime of hard work is rewarded and their golden years are comfortable.
Emily Tulli
| May 16, 2013, 5 a.m.
When we hear the words “immigration reform,” we probably assume that any rules coming out of the legislation will apply only to immigrants. Wrong.
Melanie Sloan
| May 15, 2013, 3:44 p.m.
Everyone can agree it is unacceptable for the IRS to target particular organizations based on political ideology. If that’s what agents at the IRS were up to, they were wrong and there should be consequences. The real problem, however, is not that the IRS is overly aggressive but that it has sat by idly while an ever-increasing number of groups blatantly violate the laws governing 501(c)(4) organizations. Where is the outrage over that?
