Political Commentary & Opinion

MONTPELIER, Vt. — Gov. Peter Shumlin announced this week he has called off his plans for single-payer health care in Vermont for 2015, saying “now is not the right time.” At an unannounced news conference, Shumlin said he received the final modeling for financing single-payer health care on Tuesday and concluded the taxes required to fund…

Is Detroit doomed to fail or on the brink of rebirth? One filmmaker is on a mission to find out. Ben Howe, founder and creative director of Mister Smith Media, is investigating the Motor City in his latest project. “Someone needs to cover both the dangers that Detroit faces as well as the uplifting stories,”…

In his final move as majority leader, Sen. Harry Reid ushered through a series of tax breaks that directly benefit residents of his home state of Nevada. Called tax extenders, the package retroactively renews expired tax breaks, including a state sales tax deduction and the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act. The Senate passed the tax…

When April Leffingwell gave birth to her son, Elijah, they instantly became survivors. Eight weeks earlier, in a procedure that could have killed them both, doctors partially removed Elijah from April’s womb so surgeons could remove a tumor the size of an orange from the boy's left lung. "I was at the lowest point in…

A parody movie about a plan to kill North Korea dictator Kim Jong Un has gained more publicity than it bargained for—so much so that Sony canceled the movie’s release. After threats of terror attacks in theaters and ongoing cybersecurity problems for Sony, theaters began pulling the film. After Sony made the announcement to halt the…

Washington is routinely accused of spending your tax dollars frivolously, but $349 million toward a project that may never be used? “All you’ve done is go around in a damn circle, like a dog chasing his tail,” says a project foreman. The Washington Post exposed the multimillion-dollar NASA construction project, saying it built a $349 million laboratory…

U.S. aid worker Alan Gross was released this morning after spending five years in a Cuban prison. Today’s prisoner swap marks just one piece of President Obama’s plan to normalize relations with Cuba after decades of hostility. >>> Cuba Frees American Contractor in Prisoner Swap American Alan Gross released in prisoner swap with Cuba; Obama…

The National Children’s Study has been canceled despite almost 10 years of work and $1.3 billion of funding after a National Institutes of Health working group concluded that the project was flawed and too expensive to continue. Researchers and children’s health advocates now fear that while funding for smaller projects will continue in 2015 with…

Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen met with several left-leaning groups last month to discuss monetary policy. Now, several conservative organizations are asking for the same opportunity. “Conservatives cannot sit back and allow liberals to have sole voice with the Federal Reserve System,” says @Lonegan Twenty representatives from more than a dozen conservative groups hand-delivered their…

PITTSBURGH — In a sparsely populated township in western Pennsylvania, one ecosystem is attempting to enter a court battle in its own name. In Grant Township, Pennsylvania General Energy wants to convert one of its fracking wells into a waste disposal well. It received a permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in March. Township…