Coding bootcamps, which offer people a short crash-course in programming with an eye toward the workforce, have become popular in Silicon Valley. State regulators, however, are threatening to shut them down if they don’t comply with new regulations.

California Governor Jerry Brown’s beloved bullet train project has had a rough go of it lately. As public support for it has plummeted, he has inadvertently antagonized the environmentalists in his base while it gets tossed around by the courts. A pending appellate court review on Brown’s access to $8.6 billion in bond money will decide the next chapter in the bullet train saga, which stands today about where it did two years ago: without a credible source of funding or a good justification for why it’s necessary.

President Obama hopes the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal will be a signal to the entire Asia-Pacific region that the United States is committed to the region, not just militarily but economically. But Harry Reid and other Senate Dems aren’t too keen on it.

A group of nine students is heading to court to challenge California’s laws regarding the hiring and firing of teachers, arguing that that the state’s laws put teachers’ interests ahead of those of their students. This is morally right, but will it hold up in court?

Louisiana placed near the top in yet another education report card measuring charter school policies. The state has staked out a place at the front of the reform movement; the question now is whether these reforms actually work.

Every man, woman and child in Chicago is carrying $18,596 in pension debt, the largest per-person liability in the nation and nearly that of Puerto Rico and New York City combined.

Thailand’s struggles touch on issues that Thais for various reasons don’t like to speak openly and frankly about: the role of the monarchy, the health of the king and ethnic and regional divisions inside the country. But these issues are of the utmost importance.

A number of small private colleges are cutting tuition in a bid to attract more students. It’s a smart move if they can cut their costs at the same time, but there’s little evidence they’re doing that quite yet.

“American diplomacy, backed by the threat of force,” President Obama claimed to scattered applause during the State of the Union address on Tuesday, “is why Syria’s chemical weapons are being eliminated.” According to reports, only 4.1 percent of Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal has been destroyed. The operation to dispose of them is now two months behind schedule.

Detroit has finally unveiled its debt repayment plan, and the terms are far more favorable to city pensions than outside bondholders. This is good news for Detroit’s pensioners, but it could have ripple effects across municipal debt markets.