New America in the News: 2007

On a parallel track from the health debate raging in the legislature, the Little Hoover Commission continued its examination of state’s health landscape on Thursday, calling academics and advocates to talk about health proposals on the table. Since last year, the Little Hoover Commission, which is charged with examining ways to make state government more efficient, began looking at different aspects of the health care system late last year...

Several reports released this week put a spotlight on rapidly rising health care costs, suggesting they will keep climbing in the foreseeable future.

That could be a signal that employers and consumers will see increases in health insurance rates, economists warn.

The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that consumer prices rose 0.2 percent in January, driven in part by the biggest jump in medical costs since August 1991.

Before the U.S. toppled Saddam Hussein, Iraq had been something of a counterweight to Iranian power in the Middle East. Now with Saddam gone, Iranian political influence has been expanding, not just in Iraq, but in the region. As VOA correspondent Gary Thomas reports, Saudi Arabia is not happy about the shift in what had been a delicate balance of power.

Empowering Iran was not one of aims of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. Nevertheless, analysts say, it has become one of its unintended consequences.

A new study says the war in Iraq is creating terrorists out of foreign fighters who will then pose a new threat when they return to their home countries. The study comes to the conclusion that Iraq War critics have been making for some time: the war is causing terrorism rather then stopping it.

We speak with Peter Bergen, a research fellow at the Center on Law and Security at the NYU School of Law and senior fellow at the New America Foundation, who co-authors the study...

WASHINGTON — Morgan E. O'Brien is used to jolting the wireless industry. Now the Nextel co-founder is back in the start-up business and again aiming to shake up the airwaves...

This time, the 62-year-old entrepreneur is pitching a controversial plan to transform public safety communications while also extending high-speed wireless Internet service to hard-to-reach rural areas.

His attempt to gain federal approval for his idea may be his biggest challenge yet. Supporters laud him as a visionary. Detractors brand him a profiteer...

THE ingredients most likely to spark confrontation between the United States and Iran could scarcely be simpler or more combustible: a tin filled with an explosive charge and a lump of copper is all that is needed to manufacture what the US military calls an Explosively Formed Penetrator (EFP).

When the device is triggered by an infrared sensor it fires a molten ball of metal at its target with sufficient speed to penetrate most American vehicles' armour. The consequences can be horrific.

Oil on the Brain: Adventures From the Pump to the Pipeline.
By Lisa Margonelli. Doubleday. $26. 325 pages.

Verdict: A fascinating drive.

Like many journalists, Lisa Margonelli knows a little bit about a lot of topics. Like many freelance writers, she moves from one unrelated topic to another, depending on what strikes her fancy and on what an editor will buy.

Here's the reason that California's health care insurance mess will never get fixed: Our political leadership would rather do nothing than anger any of the powerful special interests by passing a reform package that would require everyone to share the financial burden to get a better system.

The US House of Representatives on Friday issued a rebuke to George W. Bush’s Iraq strategy in the first concrete demonstration of opposition to the war by Capitol Hill since the US-led invasion almost four years ago.

The 246-182 vote was non-binding and will have no impact on Mr Bush’s plan to deploy 21,500 extra troops in addition to the 131,000 already there as part of his “new way forward in Iraq” unveiled last month...