Health and Public Safety

March 21, 2013 - Multiemployer health care plans bargained by unions should have been a model for U.S. health care reform, but the Affordable Care Act tilts the playing field against them.

February 15, 2013 - With the fight over the Keystone XL pipeline intensifying, the old argument that unions must choose between jobs and the environment is losing its grip as climate change becomes more evident and more urgent.

January 28, 2013 - An investigation has uncovered hundreds of examples of illegal and hazardous workplace practices at construction sites across Texas, the deadliest state for construction workers.

January 18, 2013 - Southern states with weak gun laws are a major source of weapons used to commit crimes in other states -- but some of the region's political leaders say they plan to resist new federal initiatives to curb gun violence.

January 11, 2013 - With new data out showing that 2012 was the warmest year on record for the contiguous United States, and with costs mounting due to droughts and other climate-related disasters, will political leaders finally take action to address the problem?

January 8, 2013 - Federal lawmakers trumpeted last week's passage of the Drywall Safety Act of 2012. But thanks to the efforts of U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) on behalf of the industry lobby, the bill doesn't actually set enforceable standards to prevent contaminated drywall from ending up in people's homes.

January 3, 2013 - One of the biggest decisions facing North Carolina's new legislature and governor is whether to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act to cover more than 500,000 low-income people. Much of the opposition to expansion is more about ideology than anything else, a visceral reaction to a law that has been mischaracterized since it was proposed.