Human Rights

We Need to Fix How We Measure Poverty

Erin Drankoski — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:19:00 -0400

From climate change to redistricting, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have teamed up on a number of issues. It's time to add another to the list -- updating the antiquated and misleading way we measure poverty.

It may seem like an odd concern for the Republican duo. But Bloomberg took the lead on the issue last year when conditions in New York City were similar to those California faces today: The economy was down; need was rising; and public resources were constrained.

Dudamel's Great, but He's Not the Whole Show

Erin Drankoski — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:36:00 -0400

It's not unusual for a global city to recruit an international talent like Gustavo Dudamel to conduct its symphony orchestra. (Alan Gilbert, the new conductor of the New York Philharmonic, is the first native New Yorker to hold the post since the institution was founded in 1842.) What is unusual is how the Los Angeles orchestra is using the high-culture, Venezuelan-born wunderkind to build a rapport with this city's native-born Latino masses. Gauging from the widespread, deliriously upbeat hoopla -- and taking into account Dudamel's

Our Bodies, Our World

Erin Drankoski — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 07:20:00 -0400

In the third day of Justice Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Senator Tom Coburn asked, "Do you believe that the court's abortion rulings have ended the national controversy over this issue?" Sotomayor was curt: "No." Coburn went further: "You don't have to name them, but do you think there are other similarly divisive issues that could be decided by the court in the future?" A measured Sotomayor again declined to get specific. "That, I can't answer," she said. "I can only answer what exists. People are

The Bradley Effect Was about Guns, Not Racism

Erin Drankoski — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:40:00 -0400

Nelson Rising, chairman of Tom Bradley’s 1982 campaign for California governor, still remembers the phone call. Bradley called him shortly after 4 a.m. on a long election night, when it was clear Bradley had lost to Republican attorney general George Deukmejian.
“You were right,” Bradley told Rising a bit wearily.

Eyal Press

Erin Drankoski — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:49:00 -0400

Schwartz Fellow

Eyal Press is a Schwartz Fellow at the New America Foundation. He is a contributing writer at the Nation and a journalist who has written extensively about politics, social issues and the world of ideas. His essays, reviews, and feature stories have appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic Monthly, Mother Jones, The Columbia Journalism… more

'Occupation' By Eliza Griswold | NPR

Erin Drankoski — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:53:00 -0400

One of Eliza Griswold's poems from Afghanistan from NPR. ... Original Article

African Taiban Terrorizes Nigeria

Erin Drankoski — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:26:00 -0400

Under Hillary Clinton's watch, the State Department has called Nigeria "probably the most important country in Africa." Why? Three words: light, sweet, crude. Nigeria is one of America's largest oil producers, and poised to become even a bigger one. It is also Africa's most populous country—one in six Africans comes from Nigeria—and one of the continent's richest and most corrupt democracies.

The Perfect Storm

Erin Drankoski — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:04:00 -0400

In the days between Christmas and New Year's Eve, Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, sat at his desk in Lower Manhattan and reached out to people who had lavished generous donations on his organization during the long, benighted tenure of George W. Bush. It was a heady moment: the era of Dick Cheney, John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales was winding to a close, and Barack Obama was about to assume office, having vowed to rescind some of his predecessor's more egregious assaults on civil liberties.

Somalia Revisited

Cecille Isidro — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 11:59:00 -0500

International Summit for Community Wireless Networks 2008

Communications — Wed, 28 May 2008 07:00:00 -0400

A New America Event
05/28/2008 - 4:00pm

The New America Foundation/Wireless Future Program is pleased to announce that the International Summit for Community Wireless Networks (ISC4CWN) will be held on May 28th – May 30th, 2008 in Washington, DC. Co-hosted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) at its downtown headquarters, IS4CWN is the largest gathering of community wireless networking developers, implementers and allies working to build universal, low-cost wireless broadband networks around the world. The Summit serves as an integral… more