After the Housing Boom: The Decline and Fall of Maricopa, AZ

February 24, 2009

Housing boom inspires builders to make houses for scads of young people who couldn’t afford to live in Phoenix. Population multiplies from 1k to 37k, $250k homes lure young marrieds, and it turns out they couldn’t manage to pay back their loans. Now it’s a death trap, or a suicide rap. Take your pick.

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Cantor: Give the GOP Back its Mojo

February 24, 2009

House Whip Cantor, fresh off of holding the lines on the stimulus plan (with an assist from Pelosi-Reid’s mistake), talks to Time about whether the GOP’s united opposition is a re-energizing stroke of populist genius or a foolhardy move against the popular new POTUS. His answer? The guiding moment for the next four years.

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Slums of Hope

February 24, 2009

Generations of government policies didn’t change anything for the 1 billion occupants of the world’s slums. So today’s policymakers aren’t focused on “replacing or eradicating them…Policy has shifted toward improving slum conditions incrementally, helping residents gradually become better off, even if still living within the slums.”

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White House Plans to Send Nearly $1B to Gaza

February 24, 2009

SecState Clinton to announce major funding to MidEast next week in Egypt, should cover roughly half of the cost of collateral damage, rebuilding in wake of Israel’s offensive against Hamas, strengthen Palestinian Authority. Money to go through United Nations, which we know never gives anything to Hamas, no, never.

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Specter Never Forgets, Presses Kagan with Ginsburg Tactic

February 24, 2009

Arlen Specter rehashes Justice Ginsburg’s ’93 confirmation fight with a question to Solicitor General nominee Elena Kagan, asking whether she believes Ginsburg’s rather extreme positions on the age of consent (she suggested 12) and other issues are “moderate” as she wrote in a book review. Kagan parries, responds. She’s smart.

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Climate Fears Driving Surge in Ecomigration

February 24, 2009

There are 25 million “ecomigrants” according to those who study such things, from Katrina to Snowbirds. Article finds only man on earth who regrets leaving Michigan for Florida, justifying it by saying he’s “watched movies like ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ … there are these giant tidal waves. I don’t think they are so far-fetched.”

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SCOTUS Hears Navajo Nation on Coal Rights

February 24, 2009

This coming Monday, the United States Supreme Court will hear oral argument in a case involving the coal royalty rights of the Navajo Nation. It will be the second time the Justices have involved themselves in the dispute. The first time, in 2003, the Court sided with the government, that is to say the Interior […]

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Shades of Reagan: Obama's Interest in the Letters From the Citizenry

February 23, 2009

A “special purple folder” is delivered daily to the POTUS with ten letters from “real Americans.” DC is an easy place to get insulated from reality, as seen in W’s second term. It’s to Obama’s credit that he restored the Reaganesque tradition. Plus, good anecdotes about people choosing between eating and lyme disease meds.

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MN Sen: Rulings Diminish Coleman's Chances

February 23, 2009

The Senate election trial is a month old, enough time to ask: Does Norm Coleman have a chance of winning? A series of court rulings have dealt the Republican long odds for overturning DFLer Al Franken’s 225-vote lead. The three judges hearing the case have been only partly receptive to Coleman’s bid to expand the […]

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Dems Resist Obama on Social Security Reform

February 23, 2009

WASHINGTON — President Obama is eager to seek a bipartisan solution to ensure the long-term solvency of Social Security, people who have spoken with him say, but he is running into opposition from his party’s left and from Democratic Congressional leaders who contend that his political capital would be better spent on health care and […]

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