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by Bob Warhover A fracking rig in Bradford County, Pennsylvania // Credit: Appvoices.org Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” as it has come to be known in the popular lexicon, is the process of drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at a high pressure in order to fracture shale rocks so they release the natural gas or oil inside. Despite the relatively recent emergence of the term, fracking has been successfully utilized in commercial operations since the late 1940s. However, the proces

Mexican Army troops during a firefight in Michoacan // Credit: AP Mexico Those old enough to remember Prohibition in the United States remember it as a controversial and violent era.  The passage of the Eighteenth Amendment and Volstead Act by Congress in 1919 prohibited the manufacture and sale of “intoxicating liquor” for recreational use and Prohibition began in January 1920. The alcohol ban, long championed by the temperance movement, was enacted with the intention of simultaneously loweri

Can legislation on technology ever reflect the fast-paced nature of the digital frontier? Credit: readwrite.com In a push toward increased privacy in the social media realm, Washington became the most recent state to enact a law banning employers from asking for the website or password of an employee's personal social media profile. "We're trying to assure people's privacy in this space, that we (have) vigilance and the ability to move on a moment's notice when people's privacy has been violat

State interest expenses have risen even as interest rates have fallen. It’s general knowledge that falling interest rates help debtors.  As long as a loan can be refinanced at a new, lower rate, a debtor can expect lower payments. Then what’s going on with the fifty states? Interest rates have been falling significantly since 2007, but the cumulative interest expense of the states has been steadily marching higher anyway. From fiscal 2005 to 2012, total interest expense reported by the 50 st

Credit: sumofus.org Anywhere else in society if you took money from people you had a fiduciary responsibility to otherwise serve it would be a crime, and you could have civil liability. But the duopoly has this sweet deal, they can require campaign contributions for access (extortion or pay-to-play), or accept large unsolicited campaign contributions (bribery) with an explicit or implied expected behavior. Last year, I ran a Twitter campaign, #ShouldElectedOfficials Stop Taking Money From Corp

In sharp contrast to the global optimism felt when President Barack Obama first took office, new polls suggest that both domestic and international approval of the Obama administration foreign policy has declined significantly. According to polls taken by Fox News, Time, CBS, and CNN in June 2013, an average of 46 percent of Americans disapprove of President Obama’s foreign policy, while 44 percent approve. A majority of Americans are supportive of U.S. drone strikes in the Middle East, which

Credit: Konstantin L / Shutterstock.com The U.S. Senate recently passed a controversial immigration bill by 36 votes after fourteen Republicans sided with Democrats. The bill would allow undocumented immigrants in the states, including California, to become citizens and allot billions of dollars to secure the U.S.-Mexico border. In California, the issue of undocumented immigration, and how to deal with it more effectively, has been heavily discussed for years. The Golden State has more immigra

Nineteen strangers were all it took to pick up our welcome mats and lock our doors. Two buildings in New York City, a field in Pennsylvania, and the always invincible Pentagon quickly became the symbolic origins of political mistrust and cynical hostility toward non-Americans. Determined to guarantee ourselves that a nationwide tragedy would never again befall us from an outside enemy, immigrants lost our collective hospitality. The once destructive path of McCarthyism was revived in a society

Credit: UAS Blog On Tuesday, the US Senate voted by a large margin -- 84-15 -- in favor of moving the immigration reform bill to the floor for further discussions. Among the key elements in the upcoming debates will be to reach a balance between the naturalization efforts favored by the Democrats and the security of the borders required by the Republicans. The passage of the immigration reform bill to the Senate floor begins a negotiation process that will likely last for weeks and will offer

Illinois, New Mexico, and South Carolina have yet to release their annual financial reports of the fiscal year ending last June. These late financial statements create a lack of transparency which, in some ways, is reminiscent of the savings and loan crisis a few decades ago. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, taxpayers paid massive clean-up costs to deal with pervasive failures of savings and loan institutions around the country.  This episode taught us some lessons about the role and moral hazard o