Issues

Ever since President Obama made securing nuclear weapons assets a top priority for his global arms control agenda, guarding and disposing of these holdings have become an international security preoccupation. Yet, in all of this, the urgent task of securing and disposing of known nuclear weapons assets has all but sidelined what to do about nuclear weapons-usable plutonium and highly enriched uranium that we have lost track of. This is understandable. It also is worrisome. more »

Chris Payne writes: I pay tribute to the undervalued segment of Americans workers who labor in this manufacturing sector. They are a cross section of young and old, skilled and unskilled, recent immigrants and veteran employees, some of whom have spent their entire working lives in a single factory. Together, they share a quiet pride and dignity, and are proof that manual labor and craftsmanship still have value in the 21st century US economy. more »

Two computer science graduate students have found that the NSA's mass collection of phone records can yield much more information about people's private lives than the US government claims. New research shows how "metadata" surveillance can be used to identify information about callers including medical conditions, financial and legal connections, and even whether they own a gun. more »

Listen and view North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitcamp's questions and a witness stating the difficulty in finding teachers for the Indian community schools. Is catching up with middle-class children's vocabulary impossible or is early childhood intervention a reachable goal for the children of Indian country? In another hearing, VHA administrative data sources show a similar pattern of findings in that Military Sexual Trauma is significantly associated with risk for suicide for both women and men. more »