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Monica Potts

Monica Potts is a senior writer for The American Prospect. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, the Connecticut Post and the Stamford Advocate. She also blogs at PostBourgie.

Recent Articles

Talking Taxes in Connecticut

The state's current governor, Dannel Malloy, has taken it upon himself to make Connecticut's taxes more progressive.

Monica PottsJun 09, 2011
The state's current governor, Dannel Malloy, has taken it upon himself to make Connecticut's taxes more progressive.

There are two Connecticuts. One is made up of port cities and working-class burgs so decimated by deindustrialization they could be mistaken for parts of the Rust Belt. The other is the one that more commonly springs to mind: the old-money land of yachts, weekend homes, luxury cars, and faux-quaint small towns.

In the battle for resources, the old money (or just plain big money) usually wins. The state didn't have an income tax at all until 1991, when one-term Gov. Lowell Weicker fulfilled a campaign promise by establishing one. But even that tax provided a loophole for wealthy denizens of the state's southwestern corner, from which many residents commute to banking and other high-paying jobs in New York City.

Ever the Accused

Monica PottsJun 06, 2011

Few cases start off as clear-cut as the one against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the newly resigned International Monetary Fund chief who is now facing rape charges in Manhattan. A cleaning woman told police that Strauss-Kahn sexually assaulted her when she walked into his hotel suite at Sofitel New York on the afternoon of May 14. She fled and told fellow employees, who called 911.

A Change in the Pecking Order

The Department of Justice's lawsuit against a Shenandoah Valley chicken company fulfills half a government promise.

Monica PottsMay 24, 2011
Adult chickens at a farm in Missoula, Montana. Flickr/Katie Brady.

Mike Weaver, a chicken farmer who runs a local farmers' association in West Virginia, knows about 120 chicken farmers in the Shenandoah Valley who could lose their farms. Earlier this month, the Big Ag company they contract with, Tyson, sold its chicken processing-plant to George's Family Farms, Incorporated, bringing the number of chicken processing plants there down from three to two.

Osama Bin Laden Is Dead; Obama Addresses Nation

President: "Justice has been done."

Monica PottsMay 02, 2011

Tonight, President Barack Obama announced that U.S. troops killed Osama bin Laden in a compound in Pakistan. Addressing the nation at a last-minute press conference, Obama reminded the country that he had made it a priority to capture or kill bin Laden, "a terrorist who's responsible for the murder of thousands of men, women, and children." Obama said he had first received intelligence on bin Laden's location in August and last week had determined that there was enough information to take action. Today, troops went into the compound, and bin Laden died in a firefight. The United States took custody of his body.

Where Are Religious Conservatives When You Need Them?

Religious conservatives profess to care about the poor, but when the poor need help most, they're nowhere in sight.

Monica PottsApr 06, 2011
(Former Congressman Tony Hall/The Alliance to End Hunger)

In 1993, when Tony Hall was serving as a congressman from Ohio, he fasted for 22 days to protest the elimination of the House Select Committee on Hunger. That effort led to the establishment of the Congressional Hunger Center, an advocacy organization that educates members of Congress on hunger issues, and an increase in aid to the United Nations World Food Programme. So, when Republicans began threatening to cut $32 billion from the federal budget, with the cuts hitting anti-poverty programs the hardest, Hall decided to fast again.

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