Bill Clinton Plays Not My Job

In 2005, President Clinton founded the Clinton Global Initiative to address “the world’s most pressing challenges.” Next week in Chicago, Clinton is hosting the CGI America meeting, with a focus on job creation and economic growth in the U.S. And because there’s no possible segue from such important work to a show as silly as [...]

Peter Falk, TV’s Legendary ‘Columbo,’ Dies At 83

Police Lt. Columbo didn’t seem like the cop you’d want on your case. He was absent-minded, and he didn’t seem serious. He drove an old car, his hair was a mess, he chewed a cigar and he always had on that rumpled raincoat. But it was in this role as one of TV’s legendary crime [...]

Jose Antonio Vargas: ‘If I Didn’t Tell Those Lies … I Couldn’t Have Survived’

There were two words, said Michele Norris, missing in Jose Antonio Vargas’ New York Times Magazine piece. Vargas, as we reported, is the Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist who came out as an undocumented immigrant in a detailed story to be published on Sunday. But, Michele told him, he never said, “I’m sorry.” In the piece, Vargas [...]

Libyan Rebels, Loyalists Clash In Tunisia Town

Until several months ago, the Tunisian town of Djerba was a placid, sun-bleached stretch of the Mediterranean coast with white-washed hotels that catered mainly to vacationers from Europe. But the Tunisian revolution that began last December scared away the foreign tourists. And now the fighting in Libya is spilling over the border and turning the [...]

Weak Jobs Market Takes Heavier Toll On Black Men

President Obama spent Friday pushing job creation in manufacturing, but he’s getting increasing pressure for job results from a key part of his base: African Americans. The unemployment rate for black men is about double the national average — and economists don’t expect that number to fall to the single digits anywhere in the near [...]

Kids, Keep Your Tongue In Your Mouth (Where It Belongs)

This is a post for all the kids who stick their tongue in places they shouldn’t, and the parents who tell them not to. Late one afternoon last September, an EMT crew delivered a 9-year-old boy to the emergency room at Duke University Hospital in North Carolina. His problem was obvious. His tongue was stuck [...]

For AARP, A ‘Monumental’ Shift On Social Security?

For decades, AARP — the nation’s largest advocacy group for seniors — has been viewed as the most powerful defender of Social Security. As a result, any hint that the organization might entertain benefit cuts would be seen as an abrupt about-face. But that’s precisely what happened a few days ago, when a front page [...]

A Mixed Race Take On What It Means To Be ‘Free’

A lonely young New Yorker finds a puppy while jogging. A middle class couple tries navigating the treacherous waters of admission to a sought-after preschool. A new mother grows jealous of the chic and thin mom living across the hall. It’s all stuff you may have seen before — but not quite. At least not [...]

Minorities At The Movies Fill Seats, But Not Screens

According to a recent study, Hollywood has a little problem that could be costing it a lot of money. Call it the Tyler Perry paradox. The director’s Madea movies, melodramatic comedies featuring Perry in drag as the no-nonsense, busty grandma, complete with silver wig, purse and gun, have been hugely profitable for Lionsgate Films. He [...]

Imported Beavers Gnaw Away At Argentina’s Forests

At the frosty southernmost tip of South America, a devastating problem is afoot — and it’s a very furry one. A small group of Canadian beavers introduced into the wild in 1946 have multiplied into an army of 200,000 across a remote archipelago. And those beavers have been busy, chomping and gnawing their way through [...]