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Community Colleges Are Segregated and Unequal

Hamilton Nolan · 05/28/13 10:13AM

More than 40% of American college students are enrolled in a community college. The problems facing community colleges resemble the problems facing public schools more than the problems facing larger universities. In particular, racial segregation and inequality.

How Doomed Is the U.S. Postal Service?

Hamilton Nolan · 05/28/13 08:02AM

Those who enjoy slow-motion disasters have spent years watching the travails of the gallant United States Postal Service, which is kind of like FedEx if it was run by the Three Stooges. Just how existentially challenged is our nation's mail service?

McDonald's CEO in Feisty Racial Exploitation Accusation Exchange

Hamilton Nolan · 05/24/13 10:52AM

Annual shareholder meetings are the one time when activists traditionally get a chance to berate corporate executives directly, trying to goad them into exchanges. And hey, McDonald's had a pretty decent one yesterday. Featuring racism charges!

Obama Boldly Calls For Basic Sanity and Human Rights

Hamilton Nolan · 05/23/13 03:18PM

In a speech interrupted by frequent heckling, President Obama today made a bold and daring call for America to try to adhere to age-old concepts of "law" and "basic human rights" in the amorphous and endless "war on terror." But might treating people "decently" threaten Our Freedoms?

Tax Havens Don't Have to Be Considered Respectable

Hamilton Nolan · 05/23/13 01:34PM

Certain nations in this world prosper by becoming "tax havens"— by pulling in money from people and entities seeking to avoid taxes in their home countries. They profit as the treasuries of other nations suffer. Now, even some non-utopians are predicting their end.

The Part-Time Job That Pays $1,122 Per Hour

Hamilton Nolan · 05/21/13 02:09PM

If you're looking for a job, we highly recommend becoming a corporate board member. The work is easy. The hours are slack. And the pay is absolutely amazing.

Meet John Arnold, the Role Model for Billionaires

Hamilton Nolan · 05/17/13 02:17PM

Often, when we hear of some finance wizard accumulating a vast fortune at a young age just by moving money around, we grumble, "That rich asshole should just retire and give all his money away to charity." To our amazement, one richie is doing exactly that! Meet James Arnold, the billionaire who acts how you wish billionaires would act.

'Too Big to Fail' Has Not Changed a Bit

Hamilton Nolan · 05/10/13 09:45AM

A small handful of huge Wall Street banks are quite literally Too Big to Fail: the failure of any one of these institutions would rip such a large hole in the global economy that we'd all fall in and break our necks. In times of trouble, therefore, these banks will always, always, always be bailed out by the public— by you, and me, and your poor little grandma. We learned this the hard way during the last financial crisis. So what has changed since then? Nothing.

Are the Benghazi Hearings as Revelatory as the GOP Wanted?

Maggie Lange · 05/08/13 04:20PM

At the Benghazi hearings being held today in Washington, prominent Republicans and witnesses are criticizing the Obama administration's response to last year's attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. The attack on the compound last year on September 11, killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

Car Bomb Injures Two at French Embassy in Libya

Cord Jefferson · 04/23/13 09:40AM

A car bomb rocked the French Embassy in Tripoli today, injuring two guards in what's presumed to be the first terrorist attack on a diplomatic outpost in the Libyan capital since the deposition of Muammar Qaddafi in 2011. The blast was also the most major strike at a foreign government's compound since a cadre of assailants stormed the U.S. Consulate in September 2012 and killed four, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.

Rupert Murdoch Is Getting Into Transcendental Meditation

Taylor Berman · 04/21/13 08:19PM

Perhaps stressed by the Koch Brothers' reported interest in buying up major newspapers across the country, Rupert Murdoch has taken up a new hobby: transcendental meditation. Murdoch tweeted the news Sunday afternoon, admitting that he's had some difficulty mastering the practice.

Reese Witherspoon Arrested, Shouts 'Do You Know My Name?' at Police

Taylor Berman · 04/21/13 06:15PM

Drunk driving is, generally speaking, a bad idea, even if you're, say, the husband of a wealthy movie star. A worse idea? Deciding to drunkenly berate the police officers arresting your husband, especially if you're the famous movie star wife of the person getting arrested. Unfortunately for everyone involved, this is just what Reese Witherspoon did early Friday morning, a decision that resulted in her arrest.