DC has just become the latest battleground over Walmart’s business practices. The retailer recently announced plans to open a number of stores in the city, but the District government has been throwing obstacles in its path. On Wednesday, the city council approved the Large Retailer Accountability Act by an 8 to 5 vote. The bill […]

I promised you yesterday, dear reader, a post arguing that the Manichean pro- and anti-democracy polarity with which most Americans think about the situation in Egypt is deeply and dangerously misguided. I promised, as well, an argument to the effect that this view is an expression of a secularized evangelism anchored in the Western/Christian mythical, […]

Iran would need a decade to build the infrastructure to exploit its natural gas reserves, thought to be the world’s largest, because of international sanctions. It would need to develop its resources while world prices are at all-time lows, and are projected to stay there, due to American, Canadian, and Australian shale gas. Good luck with that!

According to Alabama’s new education standards, black students will not be expected to do as well as white ones in public schools. The WSJ reports: “Beginning this fall, Alabama public schools will be under a new state-created academic accountability system that sets different goals for students in math and reading based on their race, economic […]

Could this new eyeglass technology put a whole profession out of business?The Times reports on Adlens Variable Focus, a company that offers self-adjusting glasses. Knobs on the side of the glasses allow wearers to adjust the strength of the prescription themselves. The implications are huge: There are distinct advantages to variable-focus glasses like these. First, […]

A: When it comes to biofuels, yes, the US should be following Europe’s lead.Just a handful of days after Europe’s biggest oil companies, Shell and BP, indicated that they are shuttering their advanced biofuels divisions, EU lawmakers took a step toward curbing the continent’s biofuel requirements.Currently, the EU is planning on sourcing 10 percent of […]

Here’s a story that will spread sunshine in Beijing this morning: lawsuits by South Korean victims of Japanese forced labor practices from the World War II era are moving forward against a Japanese steelmaker. It looks as if there will be a wave of these cases, reviving extremely (and justifiably) bitter Korean memories about the […]

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is donning his tinfoil hat, and investors, diplomats and even some of his supporters are not impressed with the new look. Erdogan has already identified the covetous “interest rate lobby” and other foreign “dark forces” at work, and he stood silent as his Deputy PM blamed the “Jewish diaspora” for […]

The delay of Obamacare’s employer mandate continues to generate coverage—even the Times is getting into the act. The Grey Lady released a piece today that profiles Shanty Grill, a representative restaurant that is heaving a sigh of relief over the delay of the mandate. But the delay hasn’t stopped the restaurant from making preparations for the future, […]

For those hoping that Georgia’s seemingly endless political turmoil would subside after 2012’s transfer of power, the last seven months have offered little respite. Though the new government has made some genuine headway with a variety of important reforms, such initiatives have largely played second fiddle to a regular drumbeat of despair. The latest such […]