Social Issues & Demographics

In 2006, the last time Congress took a serious look at comprehensive immigration reform, hundreds of thousands of immigrants, legal and illegal, marched through the streets of the nation's cities. The resulting media coverage was filled with stories about real people — brown people! — whose lives would be affected by the proposed legislation.

In this unnerving job market, simply staying on the payroll can feel like completing an obstacle course blindfolded, backwards and in heels.  But experts say the challenges we face today are ones that woman are uniquely suited to overcome. Here, how to be an irresistible hire from now to 2023.

Original article

It was the killings that initially drew me to the idea of exploring the U.S.-Mexico border. According to government figures, there were 47,515 drug-related killings in Mexico between late 2006 and late 2012, though many experts put the death toll much higher. Every aspect of Mexican life is affected by organized crime and its endless struggle for control of the distribution of marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin. Most of the drugs are destined for the United States and Canada.

Lauriol plaza, in Washington, D.C., is one of those restaurants where it's hard to hear your voice over the din by 6 p.m. Salsa music blares. Waiters yell out to one another as they hoist platters of sizzling fajitas over their heads. The bar is packed with revelers armed with table beepers and margaritas the size of small fishbowls.

A few years back, an elegant female patron, infuriated about the long wait for a table, demanded to speak with the owner. Luis Reyes approached and introduced himself.

"I asked to speak with the owner," the woman said.

Comprehensive immigration reform. Suddenly the phrase is on everyone's lips. From President Barack Obama to rising Republican star Sen. Marco Rubio to right-wing television hosts Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly. As if by magic, everybody's for it after six years of ducking and using reform as a political wedge issue -- everybody wants to get it done.

But what exactly is it? What kinds of changes will it entail, and what will they mean for America?

The strategic landscape of the 21st century has finally come into focus. The great global project is no longer to stop communism, counter terrorists, or promote a superficial notion of freedom. Rather, the world must accommodate 3 billion additional middle-class aspirants in two short decades -- without provoking resource wars, insurgencies, and the devastation of our planet's ecosystem. For this we need a strategy.

The early case for telecommuting—made most prominently by Alvin Toffler in his best-selling The Third Wave in 1980—had a strong romantic flavor to it. For futurists like Toffler, the home office would be an "electronic cottage” that might “glue the family together again,” provide “greater community stability,” and even trigger a “renaissance among voluntary organizations.” Forget about bowling alone: In Toffler's future, we'd all be telecommuting together! (Toffler, it must be said, was only popularizing ideas that had been aired many decades earlier.

Robert Wright weighs in on whether the horrific shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School will spur a gun control policy change. Kayla Pope and Hank Greely, who we recorded after an October New America event, discuss the developing field of using brain science in the courtroom. Elizabeth Weingarten hosts.

Last year, two Michigan residents won the state lottery. Ordinarily, this would not be a newsworthy occurrence, but they were also Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients. Despite their windfall, they continued to receive SNAP benefits.

Michigan was one of around 40 states that don’t require SNAP recipients to document their savings to determine eligibility. Technically, neither winner was in violation of the rules. Still, it didn’t take long for charges of waste, fraud, and abuse to draw attention to this “loophole,” and Michigan reinstated its asset limit.

Anne-Marie Slaughter made a splash this summer with an article in the Atlantic called "Why Women Still Can't Have it All," chronicling her decision to leave a prestigious State Department job to spend more time with her teenage sons. This week, Slaughter published a short follow-up article on the foreign-policy impact of workplace policies that lead women to "opt out" -- and the factors that make many successful women unwilling to discuss these issues openly.