Delegates at the California Democratic Party convention overwhelmingly passed a resolution yesterday censuring fellow party members who support school reform and calling groups like Democrats for School Reform a front for Republican and corporate interests. “Let’s be perfectly clear”, the President of the California Teachers Association explained, These organizations are backed by moneyed interests, Republican operatives […]

Have a long commute? You’re more likely to gain weight and die early than your teleworking counterparts. A Swedish social geographer found that those who travel more than 31 miles to work are more likely to die young. For reference, the average commute distance in the US is 25 miles each way. That’s not good. […]

Nepal, a country sandwiched high in the Himalayas between China and India, has historically tilted toward India in regional politics. Ethnic and cultural similarities pull the two countries together, and visitors from one country can cross freely into the next without a passport. For a long time, India has also provided Nepal, one of the poorest […]

A new webchat service hopes to keep scattered teleworking employees talking. Sqwiggle is trying to hit the sweet spot between always-on chatrooms and video chat software like Skype. Techcrunch reports: Each company gets their own “Workroom”, with each member getting a spot in a Brady Bunch-esque grid of heads. When you’re not actively in a conversation […]

This weekend, Hugo Chavez’s chosen successor, Nicolas Maduro, won Venezuela’s first election since Chavez’s death—just barely. As Reuters reports, Maduro won with 50.7 percent of the vote over Henrique Capriles’ 49.1 percent, a difference of just 235,000 votes in an election where almost 14.8 million ballots were cast.Maduro, a young and far less charismatic leader than […]

First Russia and India reported disappointing growth numbers. Now add China to the list of BRICS that are slowing down. The Wall Street Journal has the figures: Gross domestic product grew 7.7% on a year-to-year basis in the first quarter, down from 7.9% in the fourth quarter of 2012 and lower than many economists forecast, according to […]

Today is the birthday of Kim Il-sung, traditionally an excuse for North Korea to very publicly flaunt its military might. The national holiday is usually celebrated with an ostentatious parade, but last year also served as an occasion to attempt to launch a rocket into space. The launch was a spectacular failure, but it did […]

Germany owes Greece €162 billion in World War II reparations, according to a leaked top-secret report commissioned by Greece’s Finance Ministry. That amounts to roughly 80 percent of Greece’s GDP, and could go a long way towards helping the country right its finances. Der Spiegel reports: [T]he commission arrived at a clear conclusion: “Greece never received any […]

This week, we turned our attention toward the failure of the GOP to deal with the mistakes of the Bush Presidency, particularly when it comes to foreign policy. The next generation of Republican leaders need to get better at convincing the American people that the party knows what it’s doing overseas: The Republican Party like […]

The Lone Star State remains America’s leader in education innovation. As the nation’s leader in test-based accountability, Texas is graduating a higher percentage of students than California and New York and at a fraction of the cost. But now Texas is looking to make some changes to its rigid system of frequent testing, giving teachers […]