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Chicago Public Schools recently asserted — again — that there was a way to "improve" community schools, cut budgets, $52 million dollars worth. The decision to eliminate administrative and operational expenses is touted as a means to help close an estimated $1 billion deficit, just as school closures were supposed to do. The earlier claims proved untrue, will this one?

Poor Barbara Buono. The only Democrat in New Jersey with the guts to take on Chris Christie has languished for months beneath a media radar that's begun to turn her obscurity into a campaign narrative. 



We hear a lot about corporations avoiding federal taxes. Less well known is their non-payment of state taxes, which along with local taxes make up 90 percent of U.S. education funding. The total cost of K-12 educational cutbacks in recent years is approximately equal to the amount of state taxes left unpaid by these companies.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s latest plan to lower his state's debt revolves around selling off university buildings, highways and prisons despite the potential long-term drawbacks. Among the targets are buildings originally paid for by student fees and donations throughout the University of Wisconsin school system.

"Protect the child molesters" doesn't appear anywhere in the Bible that I know of, but the New Jersey Catholic Conference seems to be acting like it does, hiring the most expensive and powerful lobbying firm in Trenton, Princeton Public Affairs, to fight against a bill that would extend the statute of limitations for sexual abuse victims.

When the "New York Times Book Review" assigned conservative columnist David Brooks to review George Packer's book — one that argues that elite-driven economic policies have negatively "unwound" the lives of millions —the mass media blueprint was clearly placed on the table. This is how the American elite will convince the 99 percent that government and the poorest Americans are to blame for every one's everyday struggles.

Syria's spiraling violence has resulted in the confirmed killings of nearly 93,000 people but the real number is likely to be far higher, the United Nations' human rights office said Thursday. The new death toll released in Geneva points to the seemingly unstoppable carnage that has engulfed Syria for more than two years.

The world's largest retailer, Walmart, last month released a list of more than 200 factories it said it had barred from producing its merchandise because of serious or repeated safety problems, labor violations or unauthorized subcontracting. But at least two of the factories on the list have continued to send massive shipments of sports bras and girls' dresses to Walmart stores in recent months, according to interviews and U.S. customs records.

Global energy-generating capacity from renewable sources rose by 115 gigawatts in 2012, compared with 105 gigawatts the previous year, which is great news for both consumers and the environment. The bad news for American workers? China is leading the way.

Around the country, nuclear power plants are shuttering their doors as the cost of regulations and repairs skyrocket. For major utility corporations, natural gas is a cheaper alternative.