Monica Potts

The Guttmacher Institute has updated its report on the need for contraceptive services at both the national and state levels in 2008. While the number of women of childbearing age has remained steady, the number of women seeking contraceptive services has risen 6 percent since 2000. That’s mirrored in the rise in the number of […]

On Monday, The New York Times’s Fixes column dived into the results of conditional cash-transfer programs, which have been instituted in 40 countries and give direct payments to low-income families if they meet certain conditions, like keeping their children in school. The amounts are low: In Brazil, poor families get about $13 a month for […]

Low-income New Yorkers spent half a million dollars at farmer’s markets last year according to the City Council, which, under the leadership of Speaker Christine Quinn and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has invested city money for more of the machines that process food stamps at markets across the city. As the Daily News points out, that’s […]

Over at Feministe, Jill goes to town on Ross Douthat’s latest New York Times column, about what he calls “The Unborn Paradox.” That is, there are women who experience unwanted pregnancies, and infertile couples who want babies, and wouldn’t it be nice if we could meet in the middle somewhere on this? As Jill notes, […]

Via Wonk Room, The Hill reports that Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich thinks Republican challenges to the health-care reform law could actually result in a more progressive, single-payer system. That could also be the result of any successful challenges to the individual mandate, of course. It might turn out that the government can force insurance companies […]

At ColorLines, Terry Keleher writes about his efforts to become more consciously engaged with issues of race after adopting a black child. His white privilege has become visible to him now, he says, when he sees people react differently in the presence of his son. Keleher also provides tips on how to engage in these […]

Matt Yglesias rounds up the problems with and the responses to Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour’s comments on the Citizens Council in his hometown of Yazoo City, Mississippi. Citizens Councils were more moderate white supremacist organizations than the KKK, and used economic and social pressures rather than violence to dominate and suppress blacks. Barbour’s statements were […]

Darren Samuelsohn writes that renewable energy sector lobbyists aren’t having an easy time courting the Republican lawmakers who will be in power come January. That’s especially true for the nascent wind and solar energies which are struggling to keep grants grants and other boosts created in the stimulus Republican leaders are critical of giving long-term […]