Another Democratic governor is distancing himself from the blue model: Illinois Governor Pat Quinn announced a plan to shore up the state’s pension system by reducing benefits and increasing contributions and working time by state employees. Quinn’s plan would raise the age at which pensions can be collected by two years to 67, while reducing […]

Mohammad Nasheed, the former president of the Maldives, was forced to resign his post at gunpoint in February. Nasheed says that remnants of his predecessor’s thirty-year dictatorial reign are running the government now in collusion with Islamic radicals. The United States and India have begun to work with the new government, saying “dialogue” is the […]

With falling revenues and declining tax bases ripping holes in state budgets from California to Rhode Island, it’s been a bad few years for state governments. But a new report from the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government has some heartening news—state tax revenues have risen to $184 billion, higher than the pre-recession levels of […]

Via Meadia has been down on green industries a lot lately, but far be it from us to hide news that plays against type: Over in Israel’s Arava Desert, where the sun shines strongly almost every day of the year, one solar project might be heading for the big time. After more than five years […]

The wave of international criticism against North Korea’s recent failed missile launch, and the international jitters over a possible new nuclear test haven’t fazed the DPRK’s best friend.As Reuters reports, China’s President Hu Jintao has vowed to stand by his man in Pyongyang. “The traditional friendship between China and North Korea was personally created and […]

The bad news from Europe is coming on so many levels that it is hard to avoid the feeling that something fundamental has changed in what remains the largest economic bloc — and largest collection of democracies — in the world.From France come the election results, bad news in three different ways. First, there is […]

‘Tis the season of nail-biting, as students around the country nervously eye their mailboxes for thick letters from their colleges of choice. Via Meadia, as we usually do at this time of year, counsels less stress and more planning for the exciting times ahead.  What you do in college is much more important than what college you do […]

India’s launch of a ballistic missile said to be capable of reaching Beijing isn’t getting quite the reaction Indians sought — at least not in public.The Atlantic Wire offers quotes from official Chinese publications pouring scorn on what they call a “dwarf missile” from a “backward” country. The BBC is also picking up the story, […]

Schadenfreude alert: readers, and especially those who don’t much like the New York Times, should make sure they are not eating soup or holding hot liquids before viewing the video below. Uncontrollable gales of laughter stemming from excessive levels of schadenfreude may cause spilling and staining.New York Times staffers, like suffering proles all over the […]

Forget pink slime.Here at Via Meadia we’ve been following another meat story: the underfunded effort of scientists around the world to save the planet and feed the world by generating tasty cuts of meat from stem cells in labs. Governments aren’t helping — probably because the ag lobby doesn’t want cows made obsolete and in […]