James Pogue
Soul on Fire
California’s Conservation Camp program is a huge but little known joint venture between the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and Cal Fire, the state firefighting agency. The program disperses some 4,200 felons from California’s...
Bangladeshi Workers Are Rioting and Burning Down the Terrible Factories They Work In
As many as 200,000 workers are participating in strikes, protests, and riots in Bangladesh. They are demanding a minimum wage of 8,000 Bangladeshi Taka, roughly equivalent to $100 per month—a huge increase from the $37 per month minimum wage that...
A Factory Collapsed in Bangladesh on Wednesday, and 300 People Were Crushed to Death
On Wednesday, more than 2,500 workers outside of Dhaka went to work in a factory where cracks had just recently appeared in the walls. The building collapsed. At this writing 300 people are confirmed dead, around 600 injured. Nine hundred people are...
Disasters Made in Bangladesh
We still don’t know exactly how many of Swapna’s coworkers were killed at the Tazreen Fashions factory on November 24, 2012. She was sewing shorts—“half-pants,” they’re called in Bangladesh—when on the ground floor piles of yarn and acrylic fabric...
On the Road with Obama and Romney - Reelection
It's a little underwhelming, a re-election. We wake up and, give or take a few Senate seats, we're exactly where we were. Wednesday was a sunny day in Cincinnati, though I slept through most of it. I went out in the afternoon to buy the paper and pack...
Voter Suppression: Did It Happen in Ohio?
We watched a Republican poll worker reject a black girl with a blonde dye job and a pink hoodie. The 866-OUR-VOTE people caught her on her way out and asked why she'd been rejected. She was vague on the reasons. They told her to go back in and insist...
Jay-Z: 99 Problems but a Mitt Ain’t One
Bruce Springsteen came on stage to support Obama. I mean, I have a fucking Bruce Springsteen tattoo and even I was a little baffled by what the hell he was doing up there. Then Jay-Z came on and rapped about Mitt Romney.
On the Road with Obama and Romney: Ugliness in Ohio
Just when Obama came on stage, a bald white man began shouting from the balcony of the arena. Obama smiled and waved. He spoke again. The man started yelling again. Sheriff's deputies came to remove him. He hung onto the guardrail of the balcony he...
On the Road with Obama and Romney - Part VI
Romney talked for too long—the cadets were scratching themselves and glancing around by the end of his speech. The candidate outlined his vision, which was essentially peace through respect. Or peace through fear, if you want to put it that way. There...
On the Road with Obama and Romney - Part V
I started thinking about writing an obituary for George McGovern four days ago, when the news came out of Sioux Falls that the senator was in hospice and, as the family put it, "nearing the end." But I waited too long, and I know that now every...
On the Road with Obama and Romney - Part 4
The first Obama-Romney debate dirtied the robes of majesty. That, I think, was the great loss for the president in it. He spoke with Romney as though the machine of power really was something they could just tune up, and that has never really been this...
On the Road with Obama and Romney - Part 3
I'd been asked to go see the vice presidential debates in person. Center College, where they were held, is close enough to Cincinnati to appeal to the freshman planning to drive home every weekend, and the thought was that I was already in the...