No denying it, Tuesday was a big day for Republicans. They took control of the Senate, expanded their majority in the House, and added to the number of governorships they hold. The Senate outcome is rightly…
It’s a new team in charge of the Senate
Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
Midterm elections in American politics are akin to a reset button and on November 4, 2014 the American people pushed that reset button in a big way. The Founders of the American Constitution set up an…
Slot machines are designed to make losses seem like wins.
REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
A 2011 Massachusetts law allows for the expansion of gambling, including slot machines. That law is now on the November 2014 election ballot for potential repeal. This is a real opportunity for voters…
Is California ready for prison reform?
Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
On November 4, 2014, Californians will vote on Proposition 47, the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act. The measure would change many crimes from felonies, which generally require prison terms, to misdemeanors…
Comedian Stephen Colbert at the 2010 Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.
Reuters
John Oliver’s new program Last Week Tonight is the most recent addition to the parody news genre. Like its predecessors, the show frequently mocks American politics; for example, an attention-grabbing…
Polls are open. Which campaigns’ ground games will outlast the election?
AP
In the final Election Day push, more and more focus is being shifted to the “ground game,” or the effort campaigns make to identify and turn out voters. From Massachusetts to Alaska, New Hampshire to Colorado…
Russians protesting murder of crusading journalist Anna Politkavskaya.
Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters
A few weeks ago, a colleague of mine stood talking before an attentive group in a hotel conference room when the doors burst open and six stern-faced government agents strode in and demanded he halt the…
Your odds of winning are greatly improved if you own a casino.
Gambling is good business, or at least a profitable one. According to the American Gaming Association, in 2012 the 464 commercial casinos in the US served 76.1 million patrons and grossed $US37.34 billion…
A specter continues to haunt the Arab world – the specter of regionalism. The idea that illogical national boundaries, drawn by colonial overlords divided what should have been a pan-Arab region has been…
A chicken and egg problem: more women will stand for office once more women win.
Larry Downing/Reuters
A common complaint about American’s representative democracy is that it is not representative. Across all levels of office, most elected seats in the US continue to be occupied by white, non-Hispanic men…
A prime driver of human progress has been trade, in both goods and ideas. Isolation, in contrast, leads to stasis, suspicion, even regression. As Matt Ridley described in The Rational Optimist, when the…
Two Massachusetts politicians campaign in New Hampshire
Brian Snyder/Reuters
According to Senate historians, 1,950 men and women have served in that body since 1789. Since the direct election of Senators began in 1914, just three of those senators have, after losing re-election…
One way to manage problem gambling would be to limit the supply of poker machines.
EPA
Casino gaming is on the rise across much of the developed world, with governments increasingly unable to resist the allure of windfall taxes and a hefty influx of cash for the local economy. Massachusetts…
What if an experimental treatment seems to hold a terminal patient’s only hope?
Pill bottle image via www.shutterstock.com
On November 4, the state of Arizona will decide whether to join Colorado, Missouri, Louisiana and Michigan in passing so-called right to try laws. If passed, the “Arizona Terminal Patients’ Right To Try…
No tech here…
Stack of hands image via shutterstock.com
Foundation essay: This article is part of a series marking the launch of The Conversation in the US. Our foundation essays are longer than our usual comment and analysis articles and take a wider look…
Nothing but corn as far as the eye can see
Timothy M. Hagle
Every four years Iowa begins the presidential nomination process with the Iowa Caucuses. The start of caucus season is also the start of complaints by those who object to Iowa going first in the nomination…
Common goals can become a common problem.
Shutterstock classroom
The Common Core State Standards Initiative (or Common Core) is a quintessentially American approach to addressing the relatively modest academic performance of many students. The Common Core seeks to raise…
Is there room for more?
US Capitol image via shutterstock.com
The American public’s dislike of Congress is far from a new development in US politics. However, over the past few years the situation has gotten even worse with public approval of this institution hovering…
Casinos like this one in Maryland bring benefits as well as costs. The challenge is working out which is greater.
www.marylandlivecasino.com
During the past two decades, the US casino industry has expanded dramatically. According to the American Gaming Association, there are now nearly 1,000 commercial and tribal casinos in the country. Plans…
An artist’s rendering of Wynn’s proposed $1.6 billion casino on the Mystic River, Everett.
The [upcoming vote](http://ballotpedia.org/Massachusetts_Casino_Repeal_Initiative,Question_3(2014) on whether to scrap plans to allow casino resorts in Massachusetts fits into a broader pattern of individuals…
Hope you didn’t skip a race …
Scott Miller/Reuters
Although the midterms are typically referred to as federal elections, there is no federal entity that governs the conduct of elections in the US. There are basic election laws governing the timing of federal…
Confused by the news?
befuddled woman image via www.shutterstock.com
Foundation essay: This article is part of a series marking the launch of The Conversation in the US. Our foundation essays are longer than our usual comment and analysis articles and take a wider look…
Does this look like a conservative city to you?
Ixnayonthetimmay
Mesa, Arizona: a place with wide streets and narrow minds. Or so goes a once popular saying about this traditionally laid-back, conservative community that came into official existence in 1883 as a Mormon…
Foundation essay: This article is part of a series marking the launch of The Conversation in the US. Our foundation essays are longer than our usual comment and analysis articles and take a wider look…
Adrian Peterson has been indicted for injury to a child.
Arvee5.0
US sports continue to struggle with the controversies surrounding Ray Rice’s domestic violence case, and the arrest of Slava Voynov on suspicion of domestic violence. But what has not been a matter of…