Michael Regan

As state and local governments facing budget problems look to cutting employee compensation, two polls suggest voters oppose one controversial proposal: Stripping public employee unions of some or all of their collective bargaining rights. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s attempts to do that have drawn thousands of protesters to the state Capitol, and led Democratic legislators […]

As the nation marks Presidents Day, timed to coincide with the Feb. 22 birthday of George Washington, Americans rank the first president fifth on a list of the greatest chief executives, Gallup reports. No. 1 on this year’s list is Ronald Reagan, followed by Abraham Lincoln, Bill Clinton and John F. Kennedy. Gallup notes that […]

After a streak of 12 straight presidential election cycles in which it voted for the winner, Missouri lost its status as the nation’s bellweather state in 2008, the politics geeks at Smart Politics say. The new leader: Ohio, with 12 consecutive cycles of giving its Electoral College votes to the winner. Runner-up, and lagging far […]

In what’s shaping up as the worst of four bad years for state budgets across the country, at least 20 governors have submitted budget proposals with no new or increased taxes, Stateline.org reports. Some are even proposing tax cuts, including Florida Gov. Rick Scott wants to reduce taxes by $2 billion despite a deficit of […]

The period between 2008 and 2009 saw the largest decrease in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 20 years, Tiffany Stecker says at Climatewire, and the lousy economy gets part of the credit. That was hardly the only reason: Better technology, recycling of industrial materials, higher prices for coal and lower costs for natural gas also […]

The conventional wisdom is that, despite President Obama’s lackluster popularity ratings, the Republican Party hasn’t assembled a particularly strong field of potential challengers. And going by the polling numbers, Nate Silver says at FiveThirtyEight.com, the conventional wisdom is right. At this point in the last three presidential cycles, Silver says, both parties had potential candidates […]

Insurance brokers already are feeling a pinch in their paychecks because of health care reform, Christine Vestal reports at Stateline.org, and many are uncertain about their futures. State officials say insurance agents will continue to play an important role, but just what that role will be is unclear. And whatever it is, it will come […]

Everybody wants a better transportation system, but nobody wants to pay for it. That’s the gist of a Rockefeller Foundation survey being released this week, The Washington Post reports. Maintenance and improvement of roads, bridges and transit systems is a high priority for a large majority, but by an even greater margin they don’t want […]

Here’s some good news for Gov. Dannel P. Malloy as he puts the finishing touches on his budget proposal: More than two-thirds of Americans think his approach of combining taxes hikes and spending cuts is the way for states to solve their budget problems, according to a new Pew Research Center poll. Now the bad […]

In a scandal notable only for its rapid denouement, U.S. Rep. Christopher Lee, R-NY, resigned Wednesday night just hours after the website Gawker reported that he had been trolling Craig’s List for dates. Lee’s speedy departure is the latest in a series of hasty exits just as scandals are heating up, Politico reports. Ex-Rep. Eric […]

As Republicans in Congress begin an effort to roll back the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to regulate greenhouse, Democrats released documents this week showing that President George W. Bush’s EPA administrator also favored regulation. Stephen L. Johnson wrote Bush a letter in 2008 saying the carbon dioxide posed a  danger to the country under the […]

Confused about health care reform? An MIT economist involved in developing the legislation has a solution: a graphic novel–essentially a super-sized comic book–to explain it all, Christine McConville reports at the Boston Herald. Jonathan Gruber, a nationally recognized health economist, said his three comic-loving kids encouraged him to use the hip format of the graphic […]

A federal development progrtam aimed at helping poor communities has been used to fund hundreds of upscale projects, including hotels, condominiums, office buildings and a car museum, David Dietz reports at Bloomberg Markets Magazine. The 10-year-old New Markets Tax Credits program is supposed to be used in areas with at least a 20 percent poverty […]

Even as political leaders vow to shrink government at all levels, practitioners of occupations from pet grooming to tree trimming are asking state legislators to require licensing for their professions, Stephanie Simon reports at the Wall Street Journal. “Occupations prefer to be licensed because they can restrict competition and obtain higher wages,” Morris Kleiner, a […]

Connecticut’s junior senator says he’s easing into his new role: “I’m establishing relationships before I do a lot of public stuff,” Richard Blumenthal told The Mirror’s Deirdre Shesgreen this week. But Blumenthal has made a splash in one venue: He posted his premier blog Friday at Huffington Post, an Internet hotspot for liberal thinkers and […]