The Wisconsin Idea

Feature

How Iowa’s Independent Streak Explains Bernie Sanders’ Meteoric Rise

Iowans have a long history of breaking from party orthodoxy. Our reporting from the state shows that could be good news for Sanders on February 1.

Theo Anderson

Dispatch

New York’s ‘Carwasheros’ Push for Safer, Fairer Workplaces

Car washes are the 'wild, wild West" of workplace regulation. The Car Wash Accountability Act will improve that—if it is ever implemented

Jean Stevens

Feeling the Bern or Ready for Hillary? Where The Democrats Stand on Criminal Justice

George Lavender

Rural America

A Farm Organizer Visits Fish Country: An Alaska Journal, Part I

Severine Von Tscharner Fleming

Feature

Remembering Hillary’s Entry into Politics—For Junior High President

The story of Hillary Clinton's first campaign and her outrage at Nixon's 1960 defeat—plus her famous chocolate chip cookie recipe.

Betsy Vandercook

Feature

None of the Democratic Candidates Have Gotten Syria Right: Why They Should Be Talking Peace, Not War

Obama has finally taken a tentative path toward a viable solution--but may waffle without support

Stephen R. Weissman

Culture

Watching Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Hateful Eight’ Is Three Hours of Self-Punishment and I Loved It

Tarantino gives us a hangman-based civilization, with specious “law and order” talk doing nothing to obscure the essential cruelty of his characters’ actions.

Eileen Jones

Labor

Rahm Emanuel Is Trying To Pay Wall Street Banks Even More for Chicago’s Bad Financial Deals

Saqib Bhatti

Feature

The Obama Administration Is Continuing a Failed Strategy of Building Military Bases Around the World

The United States seems intent on continuing its imperialistic policies in the Middle East (and worldwide).

David Vine