Citizen Leadership

Ken Burns, whose film series have illuminated American history on PBS for decades (The Civil War, The National Parks, Jazz, Baseball and on and on), is arguably the leading documentarian of our time. Now he and his talented team from Walpole, N.H., have completed The Roosevelts, a 14-hour series that will spread over seven successive nights next fall, two hours of prime Read More ›

Charges by John Crudele in the New York Post that the U.S. Census Bureau fudged the monthly unemployment numbers a couple of months before the 2012 election are not persuasive. First, according to the Census’ statement today, Julius Buckmon, the individual quoted in the New York Post story “left” the Census Bureau payroll (on what terms we don’t know) in 2011; so he hardly Read More ›

The Republicans in Congress deserve an apology from the media, among others. It was only a month ago, but you would think it was the paleolithic age; the media and the politicracy have forgotten that the infamous government shutdown was fought over the issue of Obamacare. The Republicans wanted to stop it, or at least delay it. The White House and Congressional Democratic were totally, indignantly Read More ›

Pioneer Park in my hometown of Puyallup, Washington, was once the homestead of Ezra and Eliza Jane Meeker, founders of the town. After the Meekers moved out of their pioneer cabin into a much fancier house a few blocks away, they donated the old homestead to the newly formed city. Pioneer Park is today the center of Puyallup, surrounded by Read More ›

Chalk up another one for the hidden hand of Discovery Institute. Through a pernicious web of connections in Indiana, including the Eli Lilly Foundation, we apparently persuaded the trustees of Ball State University in Muncie to show the door to President Jo Ann Gora. At least that is the fear of Professor Jerry Coyne of the University of Chicago, noted Read More ›

The National Park System has a budget of $2.6 billion, much of it raised by concession and attendance fees. Even if it were entirely taxpayer-funded it would represent only .00068 of every federal dollar in our $3.8 trillion budget. Nonetheless, hardball-playing White House strategists have made it the most conspicuous instrument of pain inflicted by the federal shutdown. The Republican House has tried Read More ›

Citiwire founder and syndicated columnist Neal Peirce, whose unique beat for four decades has been America’s cities, announced last week that he is ending his Citiwire column. It’s not exactly the end of an era, but it is a good chance to pause to consider the one we are in. All metropolitan-oriented reporting has been affected by Peirce’s vigorous, honest, straightforward journalism. Sometimes “Cities” was Read More ›

There is an unfair stereotype that older men tend to be grumpy. For example, there is a cartoon strip called “Crankshaft” where the title character is an old bus driver who is constantly grumpy about everything. There is even a movie called “Grumpy Old Men.” Old men in TV station comedies are always grumpy. So – I am determined not to Read More ›

It has become a commonplace joke on the phone that the NSA is probably listening in. The humor is a bit forced because it hides a fear. We know that rash talk, the unconsidered remark, can get celebrities into trouble and maybe cost them a job. But now less well-known citizens also may have to worry that the increasingly ubiquitous Read More ›

When we think of poverty, we might think of blighted inner cities or depressed rural towns. But don’t forget poverty in the suburbs, says a new book from the Brookings Institution by Elizabeth Kneebone and Alan Berube, Confronting Suburban Poverty in America. Since the 1980s, poverty has been growing in the suburbs at a faster rate than in the cities Read More ›