Michael Regan

Which prospective Republican presidential candidates are getting the most media attention? It depends on whether you get your news from traditional media or from blogs, Nate Silver says in his NY Times blog, FiveThirtyEight. In traditional media, the five candidates getting the most attention are Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, Haley Barbour and Tim […]

One year after the first Race to the Top federal education grants were awarded, the dozen winners are starting to implement the programs that won them the money–and in some cases, trying to scale back on plans that may have promised too much, too soon, Michele McNeil reports at Education Week. The U.S. Department of […]

At National Journal, Brian McGill has put together a cool interactive look at who sits where in the West Wing of Barack Obama’s White House.

As Connecticut considers establishing its first earned income tax credit for low-income working families, other states are going in the opposite direction, cutting or eliminating existing credits to help balance their budgets, Pamela M. Prah reports at Stateline.org. Currently, 23 states and the District of Columbia offer earned income tax credits based on a percentage […]

Hiring freezes are among the most common ways state and local governments try to address budget problems, but they’re not always effective, Melissa Maynard says at Stateline.org. For starters, there are always exceptions, like the need to maintain staffing for ’round-the-clock police and corrections operations. And invariably, attrition will cost agencies employees with skills not […]

Another example of how words can affect survey results: A new Quinnipiac University poll finds that people are  more likely to support the ability of public employee unions to negotiate wages and benefits when it’s referred to as “collective bargaining rights” rather than just “collective bargaining.” In a telephone survey of 1,384 voters in Ohio, […]

It’s been widely reported that digital technology has become indispensable to the popular uprisings in the Mideast, but it isn’t just a matter of heading down to the Verizon store for a new I-phone. As regimes under attack try to shut down the Internet or block cellphone services, The Economist reports, tech-savvy revolutionaries have turned […]

Newsweek recently asked 1,000 Americans to take the nation’s official citizenship test, and the results weren’t pretty: Twenty-nine percent couldn’t name the vice president; 73 percent couldn’t correctly say why we fought the Cold War; 44 percent were unable to define the Bill of Rights. And 6 percent couldn’t even circle Independence Day on a […]

The Internal Revenue Service is never particularly popular this time of year, and Politico’s Jeanne Cummings has one more ill to lay at the tax agency’s feet: The never-ending barrage of political advertising. In recent years, groups such as Karl Rove’ Crossroads GPS have been formed as “non-profit social action organizations” under IRS regulations, allowing […]

Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, a team of researchers confirms that a pint of Guinness really does go down better in Ireland. For years Guinness drinkers have debated whether the famous Irish stout, originally brewed in Dublin, is as enjoyable elsewhere in the world.  The question came up several years ago, Anna Davison […]

The number of Hispanics counted in the 2010 Census has been larger than expected in most of the 33 states for which the Census Bureau has released detailed population totals so far, according to an analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center. Overall, the 33 states’ combined Census 2010 total of 38.7 million Hispanics was higher […]

For the first time, the Internet surpassed newspapers in 2010 as a source for news, a report released today by the Pew Research Center says. According to a December 2010 survey, 46 percent of people say they get news from online sources at least three times a week, compared with 40 who say the same […]

So you’re willing to be a sport and flush $5 on the office NCAA basketball pool, but you don’t want to wind up after Round 2 in the “out of the running” category with your boss’s 8-year-old son. You’re spending your time reading The Mirror instead of, say, the Sports Illustrated “NCAA Tournament Experts’ Picks,” […]

Sen. Joseph Lieberman called for a moratorium on construction of nuclear power plants in the US in the aftermath of Japan’s earthquake and tsunami, which damaged two nuclear reactors. “The reality is that we’re watching something unfold,” he said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “We don’t know where it’s going with regard to the nuclear […]

After surveying the official portraits of all 50 governors, the political trivia junkies at Smart Politics have found that  Republicans are eight times more likely than Democrats to wear flag pins on their lapels than Democrats, and three times more likely to wear red ties over blue. Republican governors also are slightly more likely to […]