Liberal Lens

As Vice President Joe Biden reportedly mulls a bid for the US presidency, his champions portray him as a credible alternative to Democratic Party front-runner Hillary Clinton, who faces accusations …

Jeb Bush’s last name comes with advantages that are difficult to overstate. In a presidential race, he gets, among other things, instant name recognition and a built-in fundraising apparatus from …

The convention floor at Denver Airport’s Crowne Plaza on a recent afternoon could have been the trade show for any well-established industry — gray-haired execs in conservative suits mingling with …

Less than three weeks into her presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton has already accomplished a stunning feat. She appears to have unified large swaths of the Democratic Party and its activist …

For those pining for a Democratic Party that tries to represent more than the whims of the rich and powerful, these are confusing times. On the presidential campaign trail, Hillary …

In theory, the changeover from paper to email should make government more transparent. The cost of archiving documents should be lower, because data can be housed on relatively small hard …

To the casual observer, the investment returns recently announced by the California pension system might seem like cause for celebration. The state’s investments in firms that buy private companies generated …

WITH THE opening of the new Congress, Republican lawmakers have been promising a renewed focus on border security as a supposed cure-all for America’s broken immigration system. Left unaddressed, though, …

On its face, Chicago’s municipal pension system is an integral part of the Chicago city government. The system is included in the city’s budget, it is directly funded by the …

IN 2008, then-candidate Barack Obama was lambasted for supposedly endorsing policies of wealth redistribution. The right feared that under an Obama presidency, Washington would use federal power to take money …

THE DRAMATIC, across-the-board victory engineered by Republicans in the Nov. 4 elections would seem to bode well for the party’s chance to capture the White House in 2016. The GOP …

Why did Bradley Cooper and Jessica Alba fail to record a tip when they paid their cabbies during New York City taxi rides back in 2013? Why was Cooper near …

IF critics of income inequality are wondering why the growing gap between rich and poor hasn’t been a more potent political issue in the upcoming elections, a new study offers …

As states move to hide details of government deals with Wall Street, and as politicians come up with new arguments to defend secrecy, a study released earlier this month revealed …

A DECADE ago, as the US hemorrhaged manufacturing jobs, the federal government considered reclassifying fast food as a manufacturing industry. Sounds ludicrous? Today, with the manufacturing sector still ailing, the …

AS states and cities grapple with budget shortfalls, many are betting big on an unproven formula: Slash public employee pension benefits and public services while diverting the savings into lucrative …

There are plenty of reasons to worry about the proposal to combine Comcast, America’s largest cable and broadband company, with Time Warner Cable, the second-largest cable firm and third-largest broadband …

When I went into journalism, one of the first things I was told as a freshman is that journalism is different from stenography. It is supposed to be — or …

In the national debate over what to do about public pension shortfalls, here’s something you may not know: The texts of the agreements signed between those pension funds and financial …

In America, there is regular ol’ corruption, and then there is Chicago Corruption, with a capital “C.” America’s third largest city is so notoriously corrupt, all you have to do …

The rich have never been richer and the poor keep getting poorer. The financial Masters of the Universe enjoy indefinite taxpayer-funded bailouts, while the social safety net for the poor …

Seven years before legal marijuana went on sale this month in my home state of Colorado, the drug warriors in President George W. Bush’s administration released an advertisement that is …

Whenever scandal arises in Washington, DC, the fight between the two parties typically ends up being a competition to identify a concise message in the chaos — or, as scientists …

Two months before my Colorado community was overwhelmed this week by epic rains, our state’s chief oil and gas regulator, Matt Lepore, berated citizens concerned about the ecological impact of …