As we walked down my Washington DC block on election eve, before the returns starting coming in, a stranger in a darkened doorway suddenly addressed me and my friends. “Are you ready,” he asked tauntingly, “to drain the swamp?” A few hours later, the remark seemed ominous. But of course, just days after, it has proved to be
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Lawyers from coal-dependent states, led by West Virginia, are challenging President Obama’s Clean Power Plan. Joining their effort is an army of industry-funded law firms that specialize in fighting the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Together, they will argue that the EPA does not have any authority under Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act to
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This morning the U.S. Department of Education convenes what may finally be the last session of its negotiated rulemaking on a proposed “gainful employment” rule, a measure aimed at cutting off federal aid to career college programs that fail to train students to earn a decent living.  The latest draft regulation from the Department would
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There’s a populist revolt against Big Money, and one place where you can see this on full display is in Texas. Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst is running against former Solicitor General Ted Cruz for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate, and each side has accused the other of being beholden to lobbyists. Dewhurst, who is widely
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It was so hot in D.C. this weekend that a plane trying to depart from Reagan National Airport actually sunk into melting tarmac. In Colorado, wildfires have destroyed over 600 homes in a matter of days. Meanwhile, the recent “derecho” storm, one so severe it needs a special name, killed at least 23 people and left
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On Wednesday, the Bipartisan Policy Center held a forum on the “Vanishing Moderate Democrat.” To demonstrate this supposed phenomenon, it hosted various self-styled “moderate” Democrats as panelists. But besides this supposed centrist ideology, these panelists all shared one other attribute — they all became corporate lobbyists after leaving Congress. Here’s a list of the panelists
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The jobs report released this morning by the federal government is discouraging, with unemployment hanging around 8.2 percent.  Americans expect their government to take action and work to fix the economy. Freshman congressman Tim Scott (R-SC) claimed to be doing that yesterday, when he hosted a “Revitalizing America” forum on Capitol Hill. My colleague Lee
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The United States is the only developed nation that does not require employers to give their employees paid sick leave. For many Americans, that means choosing between their pay and their health — a devil’s choice if there ever was one. Philadelphia’s Claudia Rendon had to face that choice late last year. She was fired
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