Municipal crises are spreading relentlessly in California, this time to Fresno, home to half a million residents. Fresno took a beating during the recession when, like many other cities, it saw tax revenues start to dry up. But that didn’t stop city officials from digging themselves into an economic hole with absurd spending projects, like […]

The British government’s health agency is the latest body to give fracking a clean bill of health, in a move that should galvanize the country to act on its considerable reserves of shale gas. Reuters reports: Public Health England (PHE) said in a review that any health impacts were likely to be minimal from hydraulic […]

3D printers are already helping people worldwide bypass guilds and inefficient systems. CBS news recently ran a profile on Paul McCarthy, who developed a 3D printed prosthetic hand for his son Leon. Leon was born without any fingers on one hand, but McCarthy was able to find a free design online that he used to make a […]

Greenland, the world’s biggest island and an autonomous territory of Denmark, overturned a multi-decade ban on uranium mining in a close parliamentary vote a week ago. Chinese companies have joined Australian, British, Scottish, and other firms in an effort to elbow their way into this developing resource bonanza. The end of the ban, which had […]

Greens made a massive mistake by picking a fight over the Keystone XL pipeline. That’s the gist of a new piece by Jonathan Chait, who writes on the dysfunctional politics and poor strategic thought in the green movement for New York Magazine: [Environmental activist Bill McKibben] has spent several years organizing activists to single-mindedly fight against approval of […]

Half of all Americans now claim they don’t belong to either political party, according to a new WSJ poll. With the Obamacare “debacle” following close on the heels of the government shutdown, disillusionment with Washington is running high. In light of this, both parties need to do some serious soul-searching.Doing a bit of that soul-searching on the […]

Looks like we’ve got ourselves a natural-gas powered convoy. Looking to capitalize on the country’s glut of cheap natural gas, many US companies are looking to convert their fleets to run on compressed natural gas (CNG) instead of gasoline. The WSJ reports: About 5% of all heavy duty trucks sold next year will run on natural gas, up […]

We’re already seeing a growing body of evidence that charter schools improve students’ academic performance, but a new study suggests that the benefits continue even after students leave the classroom. Researchers from Harvard and Princeton tracked a group of students from the Harlem Children’s Zone’s Promise Academy and found that, in addition to having higher […]

As the EU looks to resolve its long-term economic issues, Chancellor Angela Merkel and other German politicians have emerged as the key figures driving EU policy. Many expect Merkel, after having won her third term, to assume even more responsibility in reforming the Eurozone economy. Der Spiegel provides us with a German take on the matter: This has […]

“The reforms this time will be broad, with major strength, and will be unprecedented,” Yu Zhengsheng, a member of the elite Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party in China, announced this weekend. “Inevitably they will strongly push forward profound transformations in the economy, society and other spheres.”When China’s President Xi Jinping came into office last year, many […]