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The Iranian government said if its diplomatic efforts with its “brother,” the Kuwaiti government, didn’t bear fruit, it would work to develop a shared oil field by itself. Iran, which ranks among the top 5 of OPEC oil producers, claimed it was getting more oil out of shared fields in recent years. Yet, with Kuwait allied with the United States and working more closely with Iran’s long-time rivals in Riyadh, it’s unlikely there will be any brotherly love in the Persian Gulf anytime soon.
Iranian authorities announced they were hoping “positive diplomacy” would convince the Kuwaiti government to work bilaterally in the Arash/Dorra oil field in the Persian Gulf. The reserve capacity of the field is estimated in the hundreds of millions of barrels and Tehran claims production in shared oil fields had increased about 10 percent compared to the last calendar

Americans overwhelmingly believe that food from our farms should be safe to eat and that farm animals should not be abused for its production. So it is disturbing that legislators in a number of states throughout the country are considering legislation known as “Ag-Gag” bills that would cripple the ability of investigators to expose animal abuse and food safety concerns. Ag-Gag bills criminalize taking photos or videos on farms to expose problems, such as animal cruelty, environmental and labor violations, and other illegal or unethical behavior. Simply put, Ag-Gag legislation poses a danger to the American public — people and

It’s fashionable these days to refute the decline of America, whether in real or relative terms. Conversely, it’s practically heresy to proffer anything that suggests American decline. In this election year, the debate is predictably polarizing — but in an “either you’re with us or against us” kind of way.
Robert Kagan, who counsels Mitt Romney on international affairs, has greatly influenced the discourse on America’s place in the world. His arguments on American decline have even impressed President Obama, who himself has bought into the groupthink, as I reported last

Written by Casey Enders
To the members of the University Greek community:
In many ways, the Greek community at the University lives up to its promises: it is a way to find great friends, take advantage of new leadership opportunities and enrich your social life. I have really loved being part of my sorority, as well as the broader community, and I know many graduating fourth years who count their decision to rush among their best decisions in college.
And yet there are many aspects of the Greek system at the University which cry out for reform and significant change. There are sororities that put their least attractive girls in the kitchen during recruitment, relegating them to making drinks because their own sisters have judged them unfit to represent their organization. There are women who are locked in hotel rooms and forced to drink copious amounts of alcohol during the pledging

In the early 60s, French philosopher Gaston Bachelard wrote “The Poetics of Space,” a dreamy exploration of how we experience intimate spaces in our homes. “Our house is our corner of the world,” he wrote. “It is our first universe, a real cosmos in every sense of the world.” To speak with designer Victoria Klein is to be reminded of Bachelard’s reverie.
Klein became an interior designer in her 50s, merging a lifelong fascination with color, textiles, and the “dressmaker details” of the trade with a passion for historic

Singer/songwriters Kenny Loggins, Gary Burr and Georgia Middleman recently formed the new band Blue Sky Riders, and were profiled by Huff/Post50 in February. They are finishing their first album and will be chronicling their experiences as a band in this blog.
So I’m in Alabama, backstage at a show getting ready to perform with my boyfriend at the time, Gary Burr, when Gary checks his email and says, “Georgia, get this: Kenny Loggins just wrote me about that band idea. Instead of a duo, he wants to form a trio by adding a girl to the mix … one who’s not only a great singer but can write as

I try to stay as invisible as possible when I’m on the street taking pictures. This is where my ancient CIA training comes in handy: I’m a guy with a camera who can easily blend in. I’ve never heard the words, “Don’t take a picture of that,” because most people don’t even notice that I’m taking a picture.
Over the last four decades, the definition of what is or isn’t street art has been debated by dealers, academics, and artists themselves; it seems to defy clear categorization. I’m not a dealer, an academic, or a street artist, and my own definition has remained constant: Street art–and the street art I photograph–must be in a public place, must be visually captivating and perhaps beautiful, must be the product of an informed intellect (not of a vandal), and must be

It was during the twilight years of the evil called apartheid that I moved to South Africa to fight for causes that I deeply felt.
In violation of the Group Areas Act, Hillbrow was a racially integrated neighborhood of Johannesburg. It was also the location of several gay clubs and home to bookstores and the city’s nightlife. It was an island of joy in a sea of Calvinist Puritanism. Here, in my apartment looking out toward the clunky Voortrekker Monument, I started a gay

The recent resignation confessional by a (now) former Goldman Sachs executive offers just the latest insight into the way that some bankers may view their customers: as a means to higher bank profits, regardless of what is in the best interests of those clients. Greg Smith, a former Goldman Vice President, suggests that the practices at Goldman risk jeopardizing customer trust in the institution. But the allegations about the culture at that investment bank are just the most recent of a stream of embarrassing revelations about bank practices to have come to light in recent years, allegations that suggest that banks have a lot of work to do to improve their image, let alone to do right by their clients.
In order for banks to be trusted, they must be trustworthy, and what customers need today are mechanisms for gauging the extent to which banks are engaging in responsible practices, the types of practices that could prevent the next financial crisis and lead to greater trust by the general public in those institutions. Several municipalities across the country are exploring the possibility of adopting so-called “responsible banking ordinances,” and such legislation could help serve as a means by which local governments, and even individual consumers, can ensure that the banks with which they do business engage in practices designed to promote sustainable economic development and not simply bank profits.
The revelations contained in the former Goldman executive’s missive were not the only ones about bank practices coming to light last

The Samantha Koenig case has taken another crazy turn and it involves the arrest of Israel “Izzy” Keyes, a man who was apprehended all the way in Lufkin, Texas — which is over 4,000 miles away from Anchorage, Alaska. In fact, officials in Anchorage have acknowledged that Israel is their one and only suspect as well as their only person of interest in the abduction of the 18-year old barista. So this leaves a lot to talk about considering the investigators are not really answering questions and the young woman is still missing.
It was pointed out in this Gather News article, that Israel Keyes appears to fit the profile of a potential serial predator. This leaves to question whether or not Samantha Koenig could be his only

Last week I traveled to Vienna, Austria, to serve as head of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs, the organization committed to implementing international agreements to control the abuse, production and trafficking of drugs while also ensuring their availability for medical and scientific purposes. In my remarks before the commission, I outlined the Obama administration’s 21st century approach to drug control policy — an approach that rejects the false choice between an enforcement-centric “war on drugs” on the one hand and the extreme notion of drug legalization on the other. After all, addiction is not a moral failing on the part of the individual — science shows that drug addiction is a disease of the brain that can be prevented and

A number of commenters make good points regarding spending cuts in the federal budget.
I often argue that we can’t achieve budget sustainability on spending cuts alone. That’s passes for a bold argument these days, because pretty much everyone agrees that government spends too much, right? So the only point of contention is whether budget sustainability should involve tax increases as well.
But what, specifically, does government spend “too much” on? Defense? Some say so, and there are clear inefficiencies there, but as a share of the economy, it’s not historically high. What about agriculture subsidies; industry subsidies; all those tax expenditures (spending through the tax code) for kids, research, investment, health care, housing, education?
The historical record, shown below, shows spending by the federal government as a share of GDP wiggling around a pretty narrow range until the Great Recession, where it shoots up, by necessity. But it’s already coming

Long before Chinatown, Little Italy, and SoHo became some of New York City’s most popular neighborhoods, at the heart of them all sat St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral. In its early years, the Cathedral provided critical support to Irish Catholic immigrants, not just in a spiritual sense, but by providing them with health care, child care and food. The brick walls around the church also offered parishioners literal protection from anti-Catholic groups, like the Know Nothings of the

Imagine that when you woke up today, before logging online to check email or read this post you had to walk a mile or more, wait in line with as many buckets as you could carry, fill them with whatever water you can find, and haul the 50 pounds or so of water you collected back to your house, splashing on your face and up your arms with each step. It’s the only water you and your family will have for the rest of the day. You’ll bathe from these buckets, wash your clothes, cook your food, and drink whatever water you need to survive. It’s not exactly safe to drink and one of these days, it could kill

“The doctor begins to lose freedom… So a doctor decides he wants to practice in one town and the government has to say to him, you can’t live in that town. You have to go someplace else. And from here it’s only a short step to dictating where he will

America’s prisons aren’t just overcrowded. They are rapidly graying.
Why should we care? Because at $68,000 per prisoner, older adults in prison cost three times as much as their younger counterparts and with the older prisoner population now five times as large as it was in 1990, we can no longer afford to ignore this growing financial cost and hidden humanitarian crisis.
Through my research, I’ve gathered narratives from a variety of sources, including from over 200 open-ended survey responses and letters from older adults in prison. While there are many complicated aspects to this issue, one thing is clear: These elderly prisoners aren’t the only offenders. The system itself is an offender too.
Perhaps the largest tragedy is that this exponential increase of older adults in prison is not due to a crime surge in that demographic but rather is the result of stricter sentencing laws passed in the midst of the 1980′s tough on crime

Dear Mrs. Romney:
You seem the kind of woman who can speak plainly and would not use code words to describe the nature of your husband’s campaign. But there was something about that expression, “taking the country back,” that you have been using on the campaign trail, something that makes me more than a bit uneasy about the future if your husband should win the coming presidential election.
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By Marcelino Quinez
It’s often said that imitation is the greatest form of flattery. This country has definitely seen its share of a repeated behavior. For the greater part of the last 50 years, anytime injustice has been committed against a minority, the people who identify with that group have done one of two things: boycotted a product or marched in the streets. Many of us grew up reading about

President Obama should appoint Jeff Sachs President of the World Bank. Jeff is, without doubt, the world’s top development economist. He has worked tireless for decades in every corner of the globe helping impoverished countries eliminate hunger and disease, fight inflation and unemployment, and take the steps needed to jumpstart and perpetuate economic growth.
Jeff is extremely well known to every progressive-minded head of state in the developed

Our country has been wrestling with abortion for a very long time. On my campaign site, I point out that all of us are both pro-choice and pro-life. Pro-lifers wouldn’t force two unwilling people to procreate even though doing so would produce life. In that context, pro-lifers are

Once a self-help term becomes shopworn, it needs to be refreshed. I think this is true of terms like faith, compassion, unconditional love and gratitude. Let me address the last one. How is gratitude a useful expression of spirituality? No one argues that it makes others feel good if you are grateful, but is that useful to their personal growth and yours? Many people find it much easier to give than to receive, for example, which makes it hard for them to feel grateful when they are on the receiving end of a gift, favor, appreciation or

I have always found the more interesting part of the NFL to be when there are no games being played. The NFL offseason is, to me, the “in-season” and never lacking for story lines or drama. The discipline handed out to the New Orleans Saints for their systematic program of “bounties” paid to players for injuring opponents from 2009-2011 ranks as one of the most influential stories of the year in football.
I certainly expected Commissioner Roger Goodell to levy the “Triple Cocktail of Discipline”: fines, suspensions, and the loss of draft picks. And all three were given, as per the NFL’s statement, with the money quote from Goodell: “A combination of elements made this matter particularly unusual and egregious.” Yikes.
The damage: indefinite suspension for former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, one-year suspension for head coach Sean Payton, eight-game suspension for general manager Mickey Loomis, six-game suspension for assistant coach Joe Vitt, loss of consecutive second-round picks, and a team fine of

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!” There are a few more no’s in the exact quote, but essentially, this is what the hippie in the movie Hair says when, in prison, he is being forced to get his hair cut. Take away the hippie’s hair, and you’ve taken away everything he represents. Everything he’s made of. His entire raison

Many of us are feeling the thaw of winter and the early heat of spring. It’s a glorious time of year, albeit a charged one. Growth spurts, spring cleaning, bikes that need maintenance, gardens that need pruning, multiple school projects, the season of birthdays. And for basketball