For Russians, New Year’s Eve Remains The Superholiday

While for many people the frenzy of holiday cooking and feasting is subsiding, for Russians, it’s just revving up. During the Soviet era, Christmas was erased from the calendar. But its traditions were too strong to suppress; they were transplanted to New Year’s. On New Year’s Eve in Russia, people eat and drink through the [...]

Is The Occupy Movement Too Big To Succeed?

When Occupy Wall Street protesters moved into New York’s Zuccotti Park on Sept. 17, the mainstream media pretty much ignored it. Seven days later, 80 people were arrested in a march, and videos of a police officer macing a young woman went viral. When 700 protesters were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge on Oct. 1, [...]

Las Vegas Housing Market Attracts Asian Investors

Investors from Asia are taking advantage of housing prices that have plummeted in recent years, buying foreclosures and short sales at below what it would cost to build them. Kevin Chu’s Hong-Kong investment firm owns property in Las Vegas, but he’s never seen any of it. So his first visit to the U.S. is to [...]

A Week Out In Iowa, Most Republican Presidential Candidates Are All In

Let the buses roll. A week before Iowa caucus-goers start the 2012 Republican presidential nominating contest, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich were starting cross-state bus tours on Tuesday (although Gingrich’s would be an abbreviated tour, The Des Moines Register reported.) Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who [...]

Abstract Artist Helen Frankenthaler Dies At Age 83

At a time when the art world was still dominated by men, Helen Frankenthaler’s abstract canvasses earned the respect of critics and influenced generations of artists. One of the major Abstract Expressionist painters of the 20th century, Frankenthaler died Tuesday at her home in Connecticut; she was 83 years old. In the early 1950s, Frankenthaler [...]

The Undertakers Of The Retail Industry

When the internet kills a big box retailer, Gordon Brothers is the undertaker. “They’re stuck with selling the things that are inside the box,” says bankruptcy lawyer Steve Jakubowski. Gordon Brothers specializes in retail liquidations. When a store dies, they put on a suit, greet the guests and sell them whatever remains. And that means [...]

Iraqi Interpreters Hope Visas Come Before Militants

The U.S. troops are gone from Iraq. But there are still a few thousand Iraqis, especially interpreters, who worked with the U.S. military and are desperately waiting for American visas — a process that takes years. Many of these Iraqis were branded as traitors by hard-line Iraqi groups. They have often been targeted by militias [...]

Housing Market Stays Mired In Low Home Price Spin

This month, consumer confidence jumped to its highest level since April, a sign that the U.S. economy is starting to mend. But the housing market isn’t going along yet with this cheerier mood: Home prices were down 3.4 percent for the year as of October, according to a new report released Tuesday. Housing has been [...]

Playing The Expectations Game And Other Last-Minute Candidate Tricks

In this final week before the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, each of the Republican presidential candidates is starting an all-out scramble to shore up support in a contest that’s still up for grabs. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney are competing for the votes of moderate, mainstream Republicans. Both [...]

Congress Really Is As Bad As You Think, Scholars Say

Congressional approval ratings are on the rocks, hovering in or near single digits for the first time since pollsters started measuring them. But just how bad is the current congressional stalemate? Thomas Mann, senior fellow of governance studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington, is working on a book about Congress with a title that [...]