Vice President Biden intoned, “On this vote, the yeas are 54, the nays are 46. Under the previous order requiring 60 votes, the amendment is not agreed to.” Moments later, from the gallery, Patricia Maisch, survivor of the horrific Tucson shooting, shouted at the senators below, “Shame on you!”

The Senate had defeated the bipartisan compromise background-check amendment worked out by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Patrick Toomey (R-Pa.), 54-46. Adoption of the amendment required 60 votes under a unanimous consent agreement. Proponents had agreed to set that threshold in order to avoid a threatened time-consuming filibuster.

This was not the Senate’s proudest moment.

The raft of school shootings across the country is dramatic evidence of the need to provide a better support system for children with mental illness. As schools have focused more and more narrowly on academic performance, early warning signs of mental and behavioral health disorders have been all too frequently overlooked. The Mental Health in Schools Act of 2013 (S. 195) has placed a spotlight on children’s mental health, now at increasingly greater risk given cuts to state education budgets. These cuts threaten to further reduce already limited numbers of school counselors and other support personnel. In a time of “big data,” we cannot ignore the fact that one in five children in the United States suffers from mental illness. Over the past 20 years, suicide rates have nearly doubled among children between ages 10 and 14.

Read more...

If any good news came from Friday’s revelation that the IRS targeted conservative groups during the nonprofit application process, it was this: liberals can no longer call the Tea Party crazy.

Main Street merchants, still reeling from the economic devastation of the Great Recession, are one step closer to fair and equal treatment in the collection of sales taxes, thanks to the Senate’s recent passage of the Marketplace Fairness Act. The law, which passed with bipartisan ease, is long overdue and aims to rectify a distorted marketplace that gives online retailers an unfair edge over their brick-and-mortar competitors.

However, it faces a steep uphill battle in the U.S. House of Representatives, and has already been tarnished by grossly inaccurate characterizations by the lobbyists for the online retailers whose ability to avoid paying any sales tax has put an untold number of small businesses, with no Internet presence, out of business. The legislation is neither a new tax nor a tax increase. Rather, at its core, the bill is about making competition between all merchants — whether online or over the counter — fair and equitable.

Read more...

Over the past decade, the United States has spent upwards of $100 billion on K-12 classroom technology to no discernible effect. The reason is clear: most education technology in use in K-12 classrooms is not integrated into core instruction, and thus offers limited educational value.

Read more...

The nomination of Thomas E. Wheeler, longtime president and CEO of the Cellular Telecom and Internet Association, to head the Federal Communications Commission has produced predictable bursts of praise and criticism. Both sides make some valid points, but the simple truth is that we don’t know where Wheeler stands on some of the most critical issues the FCC will face in the coming years — issues that will have a huge impact on consumers.

Read more...

We already knew that the CIA gave unusual access to the creative team behind the movie “Zero Dark Thirty.” Now we know at least some of what the agency got in return. A memo obtained earlier this week by Gawker shows that the screenwriter, Mark Boal, altered two scenes at the CIA’s request.
 
In the end, though, this revelation doesn’t tell us much, if anything, about the film’s accuracy, or lack thereof. “Zero Dark Thirty” is and always was fiction, a product of its creators’ artistic and political choices. One of their choices was to depict torture as effective, disturbing but necessary, and something that American heroes do.
 
As a former interrogator, I’ll be the first to acknowledge that all of us — including those at the CIA — are interested in gaining actionable intelligence to disrupt terrorist plots. But as someone who interrogated members of al Qaeda, I know that torture is ineffective, disturbing and unnecessary.

On April 12, the Office of Special Counsel announced it was investigating allegations that B. Todd Jones, nominee to lead the DOJ’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), had retaliated against whistle-blowers at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota, where he concurrently served as U.S. Attorney.  But the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota, the DOJ, and concerns about whistle-blower protection are not just appetizers for corruption in Washington – they make up a main course that is about to become the meal ticket for a Cabinet appointee.

The upcoming congressional debate over comprehensive immigration reform presents a rare opportunity for immigrants living in this country to have a real chance at pursuing the American dream. As reform legislation is drafted and debated, we must consider the essential role immigration courts play in ensuring that everyone has a fair day in court when presenting their case to remain in the United States. Congress must revisit the courts’ current resources and structuring, and better equip and empower our benches to secure due process for all.