Our progress updates bring you the news filtered through the lens of outcomes. We ask: Has the event, action, or utterance changed anything? In particular, has it contributed tangibly to resolving any of the problems that we focus on here? Our reports demonstrate progress towards a solution – or regrettably, a regression from possible resolution. If our editors do not agree that the event, action, or utterance has moved the needle of progress one way or the other, then it won’t be reported here.
Nashville Handicapped in Fighting Climate Change
Despite important progress on emissions reduction and climate adaptation, Tennessee’s biggest city lacks support from key players and has yet to go all-in to meet its climate change goals.
Desire to Respond to Climate Change Takes Lake Oswego Only So Far
Despite strong civic engagement, the city of Lake Oswego will need to overcome limited municipal resources, state bureaucracy, and the absence of federal leadership to more effectively adapt to climate change
Is Now the Time to Expand Medicare?
President Biden’s proposal to add three new benefits ignores concerns over looming Medicare insolvency and our historically high national debt.
Pushing for Real Policy Debate
When we interviewed Maya MacGuineas earlier this year, she made her case for real policy debate by putting serious ideas on the table and challenging others to do the same. We couldn't include them all in our profile of her, so we decided to excerpt some of her comments here.
Election Security, Voter Suppression & Voter ID: Behind the Debate
The voter ID debate pits election security concerns against worries about suppressing voter access. It is a false choice and a distraction from more dangerous threats to election integrity.
Hyperventilating Over the Debt Ceiling
Raising the debt ceiling will make Congress confront past spending decisions, but puts no limits on future spending despite claims by some congressional leaders.
Gloomy Climate Report Obscures Effective Actions
The UN’s latest warning is “code red for humanity” and cast its usual pall over the news cycle, overshadowing the many successful efforts focused on counteracting climate change.
Voting Rights Battle: Partisan Conflict or Attack on Democracy?
The battle being waged over voting rights in state legislatures and the US Congress has been too easily mischaracterized as a partisan fight. Texas Democrats walked out to avoid a floor vote and bring attention to a state-by-state attack on our democracy.
Biden’s Budget Blues or Effective Balancing Act?
President Biden has decisively answered one of the most critical early questions of his administration, making plain that increased public investment in response to the pandemic-induced economic crisis will be his priority rather than curbing the growth of the national debt.
Nurses Strike for Patient Safety
Nurses claim that limited staffing levels during the pandemic have compromised patient safety, prompting them to strike and drawing attention to hospital systems that received stimulus funding and posted substantial profits while its staff faced hazardous workplace conditions, layoffs, and furloughs.
Kentucky Expands Voting Rights, Bucks Political Polarization
Kentucky has defied a divisive political narrative on election reform and voting rights by bringing Republicans and Democrats together to make voting a little easier for state voters.
Georgia’s New Voting Law: Mostly A Step Backward
Competing partisan-driven narratives are causing broad confusion over a new voting law in Georgia that poses legitimate threats to the integrity of the electoral process.