Outside the Beltway

A new study seems to show that student evaluations of teachers are something other than a popularity contest.

Have credit cards and ATMs eliminated the value of large currency zones?

Columbia political science professor David Epstein has been charged with a 3-year incestuous relationship with his adult daughter.

“If you can’t afford to hire a bartender, you shouldn’t be having a party.” That’s the mantra of New York hipsters.

Republicans have blocked a bill that would have helped rescue workers who became sick helping others at Ground Zero.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he isn’t running for President, but he’s sure acting like a guy who’s at least thinking about it.

Amid signs that Democrats in Congress might rebel against the tax cut deal he struck with Republicans, President Obama took to the airwaves today to defend it at the same time that his base is rebelling against it.

Julian Assange is a loathsome human being. Is he also a rapist? Under Swedish law, maybe.

President Obama is already taking heat from the left for his compromise on tax cut extensions, but will it actually hurt him in the end?

Many Congressional Democrats both campaign for a higher minimum wage and employ interns at less than the existing minimum wage, many for no pay at all.

Why would policy outcomes be different under the 17th Amendment?

In her new book, Sarah Palin puts forward a view of the role of religion in politics that is in direct contrast with America’s own traditions.

Democrats are losing the debate over the extension of the Bush tax cuts, but when you look at the playing field it seems pretty clear that that they never had a chance.

The Obama administration is banning hundreds of thousands of federal employees from calling up the WikiLeaks site on government computers because the leaked material is still formally regarded as classified.

Viacom says a lower court ruling in favor of Google “would radically transform the functioning of the copyright system and severely impair, if not completely destroy, the value of many copyrighted creations.”

Despite recurring predictions that the Internet and mass communications would allow people to work from anywhere, talent continues to cluster in big cities.

Are the interests of a given state different than the interests of the people living in that state?

Mike Bloomberg says we’re electing people to Congress who “can’t read” and “don’t have passports.”

After 1 1/2 years in office, President Obama has yet to grant a single request for a pardon or clemency, continuing a thirty year trend in which the Presidential pardon power has nearly fallen in to disuse.

The choice is between a world in which officials can share information and carry out reasoned debates with one another and a world in which nothing can be written down.

The major outlets that received document drops from Wikileaks are covering the story in different and interesting ways.

A new round of Wikileaks documents is out, and it opens the door on diplomatic correspondence previously hidden from the public.

If some security “experts” get their way, the security procedures we encounter at airports could start showing up elsewhere. Will Americans stand for it?

“Ugly Betty” actor Michael Brea killed his mother with a samurai sword while screaming Bible passages.

North Korea has unveiled to the world a new nuclear processing facility that puts back on the table the question of just what we should, or can, do about the fact that a rogue state possesses nuclear weapons and wants to build more.

A new poll about the proposals coming out of the Deficit Commission makes it clear that the American public needs to grow up.

Less than expulsion, but more than a slap on the wrist. The House Ethics Committee recommends that New York Congressman be censured for cheating on his taxes and breaking the rules of Congress.

The first civilian trial of a Guantanamo detainee ends with the Defendant being acquitted on all but one charge, and shows us why the entire process is little more than a show trial.

Yet another sign that the GOP’s biggest nightmare may actually end up coming true.

Charlie Rangel has been found guilty of 11 violations of House ethics rules.

Arianna Huffington has become an online mogul by convincing big donors to pay her for content others generate for free. Did she steal the idea?

There was bound to be entertainment during Charlie Rangel’s Ethics Committee hearing, and the Harlem Congressman did not disappoint this morning.

Here’s my plan for creating a budget surplus of $126 billion by 2015 and $592 billion by 2030.

Thanks to an interactive web tool from The New York Times we can all try to make the hard political choices needed to fix the budget mess.

Maine’s Olympia Snowe appears to be the next target of the Tea Party movement, but she is also uniquely situated to retain her seat if she chooses to.

A ten year old case out of Texas raises yet more doubts about the justice of the death penalty.

There are grumblings from within the Democratic caucus in the House that Nancy Pelosi may not be the best choice for Minority Leader. Unfortunately for Democrats, though, they don’t seem to have a viable alternative at the moment.

An incident at a school in England provides us with an object lesson in why the often derided concept of separation of church and state is an important part of protecting individual liberty.

The New York Times has joined the mostly muted chorus calling on Democrats to select someone other than Nancy Pelosi as their new Minority Leader. In all likelihood, their call will go unheeded.

Keith Olbermann was reportedly suspended for failing to apologize for making political donations to Democratic candidates, but it really seems intended to serve to justify the illusion that MSNBC’s programming is not partisan.

While health experts warn Americans to cut the amount of fat in their diet, the Federal Government helps businesses like Domino’s and Taco Bell promote high-fat products to the public.