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"I'm exhausted. I'm exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for, and deeply disappointed with where we are right now." That's what President Obama heard from a middle class, African-American woman at a townhall meeting Monday, who identified herself as a wife, mother, veteran, CFO for a veteran's services organization, and middle class American. She continued: "I have been told that I voted for a man that said he was going to chan

Philadelphia officials set a disturbing precedent when they recently sent out demand letters to local bloggers and website operators to pay a business licensing fee and fork over a portion of their nonsalaried income, or face stiff penalties. Will other cash-strapped cities follow Philadelphia's lead and tax bloggers as business owners? City Paper news has the story: "After dutifully reporting even the smallest profits on their tax filings this year, a number — though no one knows exactly what

Though the 2010 midterm elections have not yet even taken place, political commentators and observers are already speculating about possibilities and prospects for the 2012 presidential election. Likely Republican challengers to Obama/Biden are well-known and need not be rehearsed once more.  But, there are also a handful of individuals whose names repeatedly come up in discussions as potential third party and Independent presidential contenders. In recent weeks, there has been some amount of

If a group of people told you that elected officials, influential civic groups, the mainstream media, and independent polling organizations were all engaged in a systematic effort to effectively silence them by ensuring that the wider public was not exposed to their views and opinions, you might conclude that this was nothing but an elaborate conspiracy theory. Yet, this is the reality faced by third party and independent candidates for elected office all across the United States. In Pennsylva

The two-party duopoly is a threat to the free exchange of ideas.  The establishment parties, in conjunction with a complicit corporate media, often exclude third party and independent voices and perspectives.  But, opportunities to challenge this deeply entrenched political system are beginning to increase, especially this year as anti-incumbent sentiment reaches historic levels. Jake Towne, an independent candidate for Congress in Pennslyvania's CD-15, announced late last week that he has been

This month there has been little good news for the California public school system.  On March 4, California got word that the state’s bid for a piece of over $4 billion of the federal stimulus dollars available to improve education for the poorest students, the program known as Race to the Top, was denied.  Instead, fifteen states including New York, Pennsylvania and Louisiana as well as the District of Columbia were selected in the first round of Race to the Top dollars. California won’t know

California almond growers have reason to be worried, very worried. Honeybee populations across the country have declined sharply since last Fall. The California almond industry, supplying 80 percent of the world market of almonds, requires roughly half of the nation's commercial hives to pollinate its groves. This ratio might see a dramatic change when new tallies on hives are available this Spring. Many beekeepers have seen Winter hive losses as high as 50 percent. One Pennsylvania beekeeper

The 550,000 students enrolled at the University of California and the California State University system have been served a steady diet of tuition and fee increases over the past few years.  In part to cope with a $350 million net cut in state support to both systems this year, a 32 percent increase for UC students -- $1,929 -- is scheduled to take effect in September – on the heels of a 9.3 percent increase in 2009. CSU increased tuition 30 percent in 2009. In September, tuition climbs another

What’s your favorite state in the nation? The answer is California! That is the message Governor Schwarzenegger has been trying to send out to potential business owners and investors this month. In the last week alone, Schwarzenegger has spoken to the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and has co-hosted a press conference with Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania… among other ambitious endeavors. The governor is kicking into high gear, a full-scale pro-business drive, targeting both new businesses a

Let'shear it for Pittsburgh, which Tuesday made dirtyair not just California'sproblem. The Pennsylvania city topped the American LungAssociation's annual list for the worst short-term air pollution fromparticles and was barely second to Los  Angeles for year-round levels. It's thefirst time in 10 years that a city outside California has headed any list in the yearlyState of the Air report, the lung association says. Otherwise,the news was not good for Californiacities that historically have h