Category: Policy

Understanding the National Defense Authorization Act and Why This Year Is Different

Posted on by cary

For more than six decades, the National Defense Authorization Act has been one of the quiet wonders of American governance. While much of Washington cycles between theatrical crisis and procedural drift, the NDAA has marched forward every year like a metronome. It is the legislative embodiment of something we rarely acknowledge anymore: the capacity of Read More “Understanding the National Defense Authorization Act and Why This Year Is Different”

Why Energy Policy Feels Different When Winter Arrives

Posted on by cary

The first cold snap always carries a kind of civic honesty test. There is that familiar moment when the furnace clicks alive, sending warm air through the vents and a quiet warning through the household budget. We spend most of the year talking about energy policy as if it were an abstraction measured in megawatts Read More “Why Energy Policy Feels Different When Winter Arrives”

An Open Letter to the WNBA and Its Stakeholders

Posted on by cary

Commissioner Engelbert, WNBPA leadership, team owners, and members of the basketball community: I am writing as a longtime supporter of the WNBA who believes that the league is entering an important moment in its history. The momentum around women’s sports has never been stronger, and the WNBA stands at the center of a cultural shift Read More “An Open Letter to the WNBA and Its Stakeholders”

The Day the People’s House Went Dark

Posted on by cary

Congress is supposed to argue. It is supposed to debate, negotiate, and fight like hell over ideas that affect millions of people. What it is not supposed to do is shut itself down because one man decides democracy is inconvenient. Recent reporting revealed that Speaker Mike Johnson refused to convene the House of Representatives for Read More “The Day the People’s House Went Dark”

The Legal and the Low-Risk: The People Insurance Markets Can’t Afford to Lose

Posted on by cary

A late October evening in Denver, and a software designer named Marcus sits at his kitchen table scrolling through his health plan options. The renewal notice arrived with a jolt. His premium is jumping more than twenty percent this year. His rent is up. Groceries are up. And he has not been sick once in Read More “The Legal and the Low-Risk: The People Insurance Markets Can’t Afford to Lose”

The Big Ten’s Payday Loan

Posted on by cary

College football functions as civic ritual as much as sport. The stadiums resemble cathedrals. The rituals resemble holidays. Generations of families plan their lives around Saturdays in the fall. The Big Ten has long held a unique place in that cultural landscape. It represents not only tradition but a certain Midwestern idea of fairness and Read More “The Big Ten’s Payday Loan”

The Wisdom of the Ward and the Decline of Institutional Memory

Posted on by cary

There is a county clerk in Wisconsin who can tell you, without looking, which precincts always flip their absentee tallies at the last minute and why. She knows which vendors require a workaround nobody wrote down. She knows the unspoken truce between her office and the town board. She is retiring next month. Her replacement Read More “The Wisdom of the Ward and the Decline of Institutional Memory”

When Disinformation Becomes a Business Model

Posted on by cary

The video opens the way these things usually do. A blurred screenshot. A whispery narrator. The suggestion of a hidden truth just out of reach. Facts are optional. Ambiguity is the point. A vague accusation drops into the digital bloodstream and within hours it mutates into certainty. Thousands share it. Tens of thousands believe it. Read More “When Disinformation Becomes a Business Model”