Jul 01 The Changing Face of the Tea Party By Dante Chinni _pap_embed_custom('news01s4110qed4',482,304,""); Six months into the 2010 primary season, the most-discussed new force in American politics, the tea party movement, remains something of a mystery. Wins by Republicans with tea party backing such as Rand Paul and Sharron Angle in… Continue reading
Jun 29 Patchwork Nation: Gun Shop Locales and Legal Challenges By Dante Chinni On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the Constitution's Second Amendment right to bear arms applies to state and local gun control laws. And on Tuesday the overwhelming reaction was, now what? The ruling lacked specifics and… Continue reading
Jun 28 States, Communities Struggling With Medical Marijuana Regulations By Lee Banville Whether it's the LAPD attempting to close 400 of the city's marijuana dispensaries or Montana adding nearly 20 percent more card-carrying medical marijuana users just last month, states and municipalities are struggling this summer with legislating about medical pot. Some… Continue reading
Jun 24 Economic Hardship Index Holds Some Good News; Housing Concerns Persist By Dante Chinni Turning on an economic recovery is not like turning on a light. Numbers improve and then, slowly, people begin to feel better and start to spend. In 2010 that means for any real economic improvement to have an impact on… Continue reading
Jun 22 What South Carolina Races Can Teach Us About This Election Year Some years the flow in politics is a torrent, a powerful river rushing in one direction where the coming impacts are obvious and clear. In summer, you can look ahead to November and see a pretty clear image of the… Continue reading
Jun 16 Is Gulf Disaster a Political Problem for Obama? Yes, But Not Everywhere By Dante Chinni Somewhere in the 50-plus days that raw crude has been spewing from a hole in the floor of the ocean, the Gulf oil spill became a political problem for the White House. But the problems for the president aren't the… Continue reading
Jun 14 In Montana, GOP Looks to Regroup After Primary Infighting By Lee Banville As we get further from last week's primaries and the rush of analysis on races in Nevada, Arkansas and California, there's more to say about what's happening politically at the state level. In Montana, there was only one statewide… Continue reading
Jun 09 In Tuesday's Primaries, Three Messages From Three States By Dante Chinni _pap_embed_custom('news01s4071qed4',482,304,""); If you are looking for a unified theme out of Tuesday's round of primaries, good luck. In states holding the biggest votes of the night there were decidedly different storylines and lessons. The tea party movement had… Continue reading
Jun 07 Positive Signs in the Housing Market? Tamp Down That Excitement By Dante Chinni Measuring the health of the U.S. economy continues to be a dodgy game. Witness last week's job numbers that were nowhere as good as many had hoped. But a more complicated measure of improvement may be the U.S. housing… Continue reading
Jun 04 Patchwork Nation: Views From Baton Rouge on the Oil Leak By Dante Chinni Of all the startling numbers out of the Gulf oil spill story, the most interesting one may be this: zero. That is the number of calls out of the Louisiana State legislature for any freeze on drilling in the Gulf. Continue reading