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April 22, 2005 - The Raleigh News & Observer follows up on our post yesterday about President Bush's Earth Day photo-op at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park today:Spring wildflowers and dogwoods are just blooming in the Smokies. Yet nature guide Erik Plakanis already has warned hikers about exerting themselves at high elevations because of bad air.Three days of unhealthy air so far this month equals the number of ozone alert days in the Smokies for all of last year. And ozone season has just begun.

April 20, 2005 - The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports today that real average weekly earnings dropped 0.3 percent in March. This was the second month of decline -- real earnings dropped .3% in February as well -- putting the annual rate of decline at 3.6%. As the BLS notes, "A 0.3 percent increase in average hourly earnings was more than offset by a 0.6 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index."

April 18, 2005 - Our friend Naomi Klein has an excellent piece in the latest Nation magazine, about the administration's little-noticed move to create an Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization. As Klein reports:

April 15, 2005 - For those despairing about the growing injustices in our tax code -- and threats of more on the way -- our friend Max Sawicky of the Economic Policy Institute has

April 15, 2005 - Today's New York Times reports that "Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, has agreed to join a handful of prominent Christian conservatives in a telecast portraying Democrats as 'against people of faith' for blocking President Bush's nominees.'"God's supposed displeasure with a U.S. Senate procedure, the filibuster (although for those who take the bible literally, no chapter and verse was cited) will be front and center in the proceedings:

April 13, 2005 - In case you missed it, the St.

April 12, 2005 - Our friend Pam Spaulding has a rundown on "The State of Bigoted Marriage Amendments" newly added to state constitutions. The South is, to no one's surprise, solid on the issue. Five Southern states passed constitutional amendments banning gay marriage just last year: Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi (plus, for good measure, border state Oklahoma). North Carolina has such an amendment under consideration.