Social Policy

After Boston Bombing, Rightbloggers Turn on Immigration (Mexican or Whatever)

There's a bill working its way through Congress that would offer a "path to citizenship" to the sort of immigrants currently known in some circles as illegal. Though its application is general, it's obviously aimed at U.S. guests of the Mexican persuasion, and it only has a chance of passing because ... More >>

Mr. Cuomo, You've Sure Got a Funny Way of Increasing Education Spending

Gov. Andrew Cuomo extended the state's impressive run of evading the fact that it owes New York City billions of dollars in educations funds. As we reported last week, the state has demonstrated an uncanny ability to pretend like the N.Y. State Court of Appeals didn't mandate that it pay the city ... More >>

Healthcare Ruling: Will It Help The Prez Or Rally The Rabid Republican Base

Remember in 2010 when Republicans picked up 63 seats in the House of Representatives in the biggest loss for a party (in this case, the Democratic Party) in the House since 1938? And how the huge loss can be partially attributed to right-wing outrage over President Obama's healthcare plan? Well, the ... More >>

ACT UP Did March for Single-Payer Health Care

In this week's Pride Issue feature "Does 'Gay Inc.' Believe in Free Speech?" we report about how the mainstream gay organizations, even the AIDS groups, were largely absent from Zuccotti Park in 2011 and were not advocating a single-payer option during 2010's raging health care debates. Reader Eust ... More >>

Senator Bill Perkins Actually Voted Against Ban On Spending Welfare Money On Cigs, Booze and Strippers

A bill that would ban spending welfare money on "sins" like cigarettes, booze, strippers and gambling sailed through the New York State Senate yesterday, which is no surprise. The fact that some legislators actually voted against the bill, however, is absolutely shocking.One of the few lawmakers to ... More >>

Bad News, Impoverished Sinners: Lawmakers Want To Ban Buying Cigs And Booze With Welfare Money

As un-fucking-believable as it may sound, welfare recipients in New York currently are allowed to spend public-assistance money on things like cigarettes, booze, and strippers -- but hopefully not for long.A bill has been introduced in the state Senate that would ban welfare recipients from using pu ... More >>

Can the DREAM Act Help Undocumented Students Earn a Living?

Dream, deferred

A State Version of DREAM Act Introduced As a Kind of Consolation to Federal Failure

​The New York State Youth Leadership Council announced yesterday that a state version of the DREAM Act was introduced in the New York Senate. Although the group is hailing this as a positive step, it's a big step backwards from what the DREAM Act set out to be. Originally introduced over ten ... More >>

Cathie Black Booed at Brooklyn Policy Meeting

New Schools Chancellor Cathie Black, already embattled based on her lackluster qualifications and bad jokes, had a tough showing last night in Brooklyn, where she was booed audibly (and on video!) at an Educational Policy meeting, as reported by New York's Daily Intel and the New York Daily News. It ... More >>

Inside the Great Cathie Black Media Blitz

​Today in How Reporters Report: Everyone got their panties in a twist when former city schools chancellor Joel Klein resigned last November and Mayor Bloomberg appointed Cathie Black -- a publishing exec with no discernible skills, background, or preparation for the job -- as his replace ... More >>

Return to Sender

What would comprehensive immigration reform look like if the feds got off their duffs?

FAIR-y Tales

Before Roe v. Wade: Fighting Over Abortion in Albany

​Clip Job: an excerpt every day from the Voice archives. March 25, 1971, Vol. XVI, No. 12 A holy war in Albany for the 'Right to Life' By Robin Reisig The New York State legislature is probably going to practice medicine again this spring. Abortion medicine. Catholics opposed to killing "th ... More >>

This Guy Really Doesn't Want Cathie Black To Have That New Job

​The backlash against Mayor Bloomberg's new pick for city schools chancellor didn't take long to gather steam. A state senator-elect with ties to the teacher's union is already vying to block Cathie Black, the former Hearst Magazines chairman, from taking the job. He's urging state officials to de ... More >>

NARAL's Endorsement of Eric Schneiderman: The Backstory

​NARAL New York just produced a video and hosted a press conference for Eric Schneiderman, the Democratic candidate for attorney general. NARAL has yet to even endorse Andrew Cuomo, the sitting attorney general who is running for governor. Yet it is governors who shape abortion policy; Ne ... More >>

In Honor of April Fools' Day: A Minuteman Takes Over Ask a Mexican

A special column for a special day

Rightbloggers Scour Kennedy Funeral for Anti-Obamacare Ammo

After a plane crash killed liberal Senator Paul Wellstone, his wife and daughter, and several staff members in 2002, his friends and family held a memorial at the University of Minnesota attended by 15,000 people. The theme was "Stand up, keep fighting" for Wellstone's beliefs, and the expected D ... More >>

Inside the Heads of Obama's Health Care Town-Hall Rowdies

Render Unto Chávez

But don’t get César wrong, gabachos

Giuliani's Immigration Problem

Much as he hates to admit it, Rudy loved (most of) those huddled masses

Holding Pattern

Another kind of 9/11 victim, Narinder Singh spent more than five years locked up for no crime at all

Protesters to Huddled Masses—Get Out!

Immigrants rally, counterprotesters react, and Al Jazeera takes it all in

Poor Analysis

No Wafer for Rudy

Giuliani campaigns as a Catholic, but he's on the outs with God

Welfare Chief: New Federal Law Could Soak City

Can Bill Gates Rescue Evelyn Cabrera?

The journey of one high school senior through the small-school experiment of America's most generous philanthropist

Minutemen Take Border Battle to 39th Street

The Squeeze Is On

Bad news for poor kids: Under new welfare law, state has to meet yet another 'quota' of cuts

South Dakota's Genius Scheme to Outlaw Abortion

The trick? Privately fund a public initiative overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision

Morning Report 11/25/05
Curses, Foiled Again!

Faye Wattleton Is Still Here

Former president of Planned Parenthood says wake up

Poor Students, Fast Learners

Welfare moms fight for a right they have—to stay in school

What's So Scary About a National ID

Where The Welfare Queens Went

Morning Report 2/15/05
Parliament? Funkadelic!

Struggling to Study

Mayor Blocks Education Law for the Poor

A Maximus Postscript

Hidden Conflicts of Rudy's Welfare Team

Protecting the Homeland

Ten Ways to Keep America Safer Without Trampling on Immigrants

Against Rosa's Odds

On the Road With a Welfare Warrior

Unholy Matrimony

Politics and the President's Marriage Proposal

Beyond the Threshold

Marriage Programs Preview What Bush Has in Store

The Welfare-Reform Catastrophe

During Recession, Millions Are Being Hurt by Workfare Rules

The Vanishing Americans

A Caste of Poor Single Mothers

Bad Counsel

The Arrest of an Immigration Lawyer Charged With Smuggling Turns Up the Heat on the INS

Saving the Safety Net

Advocates Mobilize to Revamp Federal Welfare Law

It’s the Supreme Court, Stupid

The Next President's Picks Could Determine the Fate of Roe v. Wade 

A 'New Rudy' Health Plan

Can Hizzoner Solve a Problem He Helped Create?

Lesbian, Gay, and Binational

Bill Proposes Immigration Rights for Queer Couples

A Question of Privacy

Medicaid Records Dispute Plagues City’s Workfare Program

Profit and Loss

Why the U.S. gets so little bang for its health care buck