Weekly Round Up: August 24 - 28, 2009

Domestic

Progressives Lose a Hero and a Friend

On Wednesday John Podesta reflected on the loss of Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), a tireless public servant and progressive leader. For over four decades Kennedy devoted himself to such progressive issues as education, immigration reform, fighting poverty, expanding civil rights, and ensuring health care for every American. Angie Kelley took a closer look at Kennedy's involvement in immigration and how his vision of reform will live on inside and outside of Washington.

Mark Greenberg outlined flaws with the current federal poverty measure and how it can be updated and improved. And Michael Ettlinger and Michael Linden calculated the importance of several factors contributing to the 2009 and 2010 federal deficits, which were announced by the Congressional Budget Office and the Office of Management and Budget on Tuesday. Their findings: Forty percent of the new deficit numbers is due to President Bush, 20 percent to the economic downturn, and 16 percent to Obama's efforts to save the economy.

Health Care

Health Reform Will Help the Insured and the Sick

In the third video in a series on health reform, Tom Daschle discussed how health reform will help Americans who have insurance and how it will aid those with health problems (view the first video here and the second here). Ruy Teixeira's public opinion snapshot showed that the essentials of health reform remain very popular with the public. And Scott Lilly explained that no industry has more to gain—or lose—from health reform as private, for-profit insurance companies.

Energy and Environment

Counting All the Benefits

A report from Geoffrey P. Lewis and Julian L. Wong presented a full systems analysis of energy-saving solutions that revealed that efficiency is the most cost-effective measure.

Tom Kenworthy suggested that Colorado's new oil and natural gas regulations can serve as best practices for the rest of the country especially as interest grows in expanding the use of natural gas.

Ingredients in perfumes may pose health risks, but consumers can look for alternatives and avoid potential risks to their health, according to this week's It's Easy Being Green.