After more than a decade of conservatives' dominance of public bioethical debate, progressive bioethics is finally in ascendance. Editors Joanthan Moreno and Sam Berger map this new landscape with Progress in Bioethics, an anthology featuring contributions from progressive and nonprogressive bioethicists alike. They tackle substantive policy issues such as stem cell research, conscience clauses, and health care reform. More generally, they discuss the meaning of progressive bioethics, its place in the political arena, its stance toward biotechnology, and its interplay with religion. And most importantly, they seek to apply the fundamental progressive values of social justice, critical optimism, and practical problem solving—values that are needed now more than ever to restore ideological balance to the politics and policy of the life sciences.

Please join CAP and Democracy: a Journal of Ideas for a lively panel discussion led by Jonathan Moreno, Senior Fellow at CAP, Editor-In-Chief of Science Progress, and co-editor of Progress in Bioethics. The panel will include Jonathan's co-editor, Sam Berger, Democracy editors Michael Tomasky and Clay Risen, as well as two contributors to Progress in Bioethics, Kathryn Hinsch of the Women's Bioethics Project and Marcy Darnovsky of the Center for Genetics in Society.

In the aftermath of regulatory failures that led to an unprecedented global financial crisis, the rules of the road are being rewritten. The House of Representatives passed legislation late last year and the Senate Banking Committee is hard at work behind closed doors to develop its own plan. Are the changes pending in Congress bold enough to fix the U.S. Financial System?

Author Bob Pozen's new book, Too Big to Save, offers a sophisticated analysis of the origins of the crisis written for experts and non-experts alike and is chock full of detailed prescriptions for reforming various economic policies. Rob Johnson was recently named executive director of the Institute for New Economic Thinking, a newly formed research and grantmaking organization formed to develop fresh approaches to economic theory and policy.

Please join the Center for American Progress for an event, using Pozen's book as the launching pad, where these two astute students of the crisis will talk about what they think we need to do and whether the legislative process is likely to produce it.

Copies of Too Big to Save? will be available for purchase at the event

Please find reviews of this book here and here.

As the international community prepares to convene in London on January 28 to coordinate its efforts in Afghanistan, please join the Center for American Progress for remarks by National Security Advisor James L. Jones on January 25, 2010 on the administration's strategy in Afghanistan and the region.

Jones' speech will be followed by a panel of experts on Afghanistan analyzing the upcoming London conference, the state of the Karzai government in Afghanistan, and the international community's nonmilitary efforts in the country. The panel will include Paul O'Brien, vice president of policy and advocacy at Oxfam International, J. Alexander Thier, director for Afghanistan and Pakistan at the United States Institute of Peace and James A. Bever, Director of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Task Force at USAID. Panelists will assess U.S. progress on the "civilian surge," efforts to improve Afghan governance and tackle corruption, recent proposals for reconciliation with elements of the insurgency put forth by the Karzai government, and ways in which the United States can improve its own coordination and capacity on the civilian side.

The Center for American Progress and the Progressive Book Club are pleased to announce the first event in the 2010 season of their joint authors series, "Moving Forward: Foundations of a New Progressive Era." The CAP/PBC series is designed to examine a range of issues emerging from the intersection of history, philosophy, political theory, and public policy. Each event features a different topic and authors with live and online audiences debating and discussing the issues raised.

Our first event of 2010 will feature historian Jackson Lears, author of Rebirth of a Nation: The Making of Modern America, 1877-1920, and presidential scholar, Sidney Milkis, author of Theodore Roosevelt, the Progressive Party, and the Transformation of American Democracy, discussing the cultural and political changes of the original progressive era and how these ideas continue to influence American politics today.

Click here to get both books at a discounted rate when you join the Progressive Book Club

Copies of Rebirth of a Nation: The Making of Modern America, 1877-1920 and Theodore Roosevelt, the Progressive Party, and the Transformation of American Democracy will be available for purchase at the event.

Community colleges is being heralded as a key player in reviving economic opportunity for workers and national competitiveness for the United States. A key drive of this intense interest is the Obama administration's American Graduation Initiative which is poised to infuse more than $12 billion into the nation's 1,000+ community colleges over the next 10 years. This investment has the potential to be transformative.

Yet, will it be a thoughtful transformation? Community colleges have evolved since 1947 to embrace three core activities: university transfer education, occupational education, and developmental education. They currently exist in more or less tension with one another. The integration of these activities through the lens of student success is the key to realizing the promise of community colleges as engines of economic opportunity and competitiveness.

The Eurasian region is critical to U.S. energy security. With its abundant natural resources and large economic base, Eurasia presents opportunities to address supply concerns and to develop new markets. However, as the gas disputes between Russia and Ukraine have demonstrated, it is also the locus of important challenges to the interests of the United States and our allies.

Please join the Center for American Progress for an event featuring Ambassador Richard L. Morningstar, special envoy for Eurasian energy, who is the senior State Department official responsible for energy issues relating to Europe, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. In his talk, Ambassador Morningstar will offer the first comprehensive public statement of Obama administration policy on this subject.