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The electric chair could make a comeback in Virginia. Due to a shortage of the drugs used for lethal injection, the Virginia House of Delegates recently passed a bill (proposed by Del. Jackson Miller, R-Manassas) that would allow electrocution of condemned prisoners, rather than giving them a choice which way they prefer to die. The bill still has to go through the Senate before becoming law, however, and Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Richard Dieter thinks it's unlikely to

Now that same sex marriages can be legally performed in 17 states (plus the District of Columbia), the other states are starting to feel the pressure that comes when you are on the wrong side of the zeitgeist. For two of these states—Utah and Oklahoma—the pressure has come in the form of the federal court system, which has invalidated provisions in their constitutions outlawing same-sex unions and forbidden recognition of such unions performed in other states. This means, of course, that it is

"A house divided against itself cannot stand. . . . It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery, will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States.”—Abraham Lincoln, 1858 His “House Divided” speech at the 1858 Republican Convention in Illinois was not, as we often remember it

After a committee vote and hearings in the US Senate on the nomination of Janet Yellen to the chair of the Federal Reserve system, many in the United States wait to see if the institution she plans to lead will face any serious scrutiny. Subject to secrecy and opaque practices, the Federal Reserve is officially charged with setting monetary policy for the United States, but much of its activity is shrouded in mystery. Yet, despite some bipartisan support, there has been little movement toward a

University of Texas Tower // Credit: Larry D Moore 1980 Wikidpedia Nor is there magic in 950; the approximate number of victims of mass shootings in the US since 1982 alone and over 200 mass killings since 2006 The statistics are telling and horrifying. The first of the now hundreds of mass shootings I can remember in all its horrific details is the 1966 University of Texas massacre perpetrated by Charles Whitman who gunned down 49 people, killing 17. Years later, the Florida school teacher w

The goal for a national core curriculum, like Common Core, is to ensure that all students who graduate with a U.S. education are capable of participating in the national economy. Proponents argue students should be prepared for the demands of an increasingly globalized workforce or higher education, no matter where they were educated. However, indicators show states with historically lower quality education systems are falling farther behind in spite core curriculum's implementation. In states

In a recent town hall meeting, Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn let it be known that, in his opinion, President Obama is “perilously close to the Constitutional standard for impeachment.” He is wrong. I do not say this to defend President Obama or his administration in any way, but merely to point out something that Senator Coburn should be ashamed for not understanding in the first place: that there is no Constitutional standard for impeachment. The “Constitutional standard for impeachment” is whate

The partisan battles in North Carolina are extending their reach into the court system. Over the past year, the Republican controlled legislature, aided by a Republican governor, Pat McCrory, enacted a host of controversial legislation that banned gay marriage and put in place new abortion restrictions. Then last week, they passed new voting laws which MSNBC called "a truly abominable piece of anti-democratic legislation." The bill was purportedly to prevent fraud, although fraud has not been a

Some of the largest known reserves of natural gas are located in the United States; our country alone has an estimated 2,400 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas. Fracking, the process of injecting gallons of water, sand and chemicals underground at a great pressure in order to extract gas and oil from shale rock formations, allows companies to obtain hard-to-reach resources. If fracking continues, it will provide over half the energy supply of the U.S. in only 2 years. Proponents of hydrauli

Credit: Calin Tatu / Shutterstock.com Hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as fracking, is the process of injecting fluids under high pressure to crack underground rocks and release oil or gas. With the introduction of technologies such as this, oil reserves that have historically been too difficult to extract have become viable extraction sites. Natural gas is referred to as the “bridge fuel” from gas and oil energy to renewable sources. It is responsible for nearly 40 percent of electr