Sometimes it takes being smacked in the face with the cold, hard truth to realize what has been slowly happening all around you. For me, the truth about just how much affordable housing has been lost in Alexandria, Va., the place I’ve come to call home, happened today as I was walking to the Braddock [...]

It doesn’t take a genius to know that tap water is not meant to catch on fire. Yet, for some who live near natural gas drilling stations in the United States, it is very much a reality. Natural gas has been billed as a “clean” and inexpensive form of energy. But, when it is extracted [...]

March 16, 2010 Today, as I watched a screening of Josh Fox’s documentary GasLand, about natural gas extraction by means of a hydraulic drilling process called “fracking,” it struck me just how often we allow short-term greed to stand in the way of what is best for everyone over the long term. Natural gas has [...]

March. 02, 2010 Are you poor if you earn enough money to buy food and keep a roof over your head, but not enough to pay for child care or essential prescription drugs? What about if you earn twice the official poverty rate, but, thanks to a high cost of living, are paying more than [...]