The New Republic

Anyone who keeps an eye on immigration in America is thinking about Arizona right now, as the U.S. Supreme Court considers the federal government’s lawsuit against Arizona’s SB 1070. While the court digs into the legal nuances of pre-emption, let’s step back and consider what the debate is really about. READ MORE >>

Last week, Brookings published a paper by my colleague, Jonathan Rothwell, focused on the extent to which low-income kids are concentrated in low-performing schools, as measured by test scores. READ MORE >>

March’s job numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics were bleak. The 120,000 jobs added to the economy fell far short of the 200,000 that were expected. While the unemployment rate dipped to 8.2 percent, in California it remains stubbornly high at 11 percent. Against this backdrop, an interesting and complicated discussion is taking place in metropolitan Los Angeles over the best way to spend public dollars, create jobs, build needed infrastructure, while simultaneously boosting U.S. manufacturing. READ MORE >>

The hottest topic in economic development theory right now is the role of institutions. In their new book, “Why Nations Fail,” social scientists Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson argue that institutions—the rules of society—have long lasting implications on national prosperity. READ MORE >>

Today, as we mark the close of another tax filing season, an article in this morning’s New York Times reminds us just how important this time of year is to millions of low-income working families struggling to make ends meet. READ MORE >>

Recently in the Wall Street Journal, transportation consultant Wendell Cox published an op-ed entitled: “California Declares War on Suburbia.” Cox argues that “planners” in California are attacking what he calls “the most popular housing choice,” the single-family detached home, and if they get their way, they will weaken California’s economy, drive up housing prices, and increase traffic congestion. READ MORE >>

Ready. Set. Go. Last week, the first business day of April marked the starting line for the race against the H-1B visa cap for fiscal year 2013, and 22,000 applications have already been filed in the first four days--the fastest rate since 2009. READ MORE >>

A more than 20-year old program, long underutilized, is slowly emerging as a potential lifeline for regional economic development for some metro areas and states at a time when traditional financing streams are running dry. READ MORE >>

It’s game day.  Kentucky’s two largest metro areas face off tonight as the University of Louisville Cardinals and the University of Kentucky Wildcats, of Lexington, go head-to-head in New Orleans in the final showdown before Monday’s NCAA championship game. READ MORE >>

Two of the country’s best-known urban thinkers have a discussion underway at Atlantic Cities and New Geography about changes in the urban hierarchy brought along by globalization. It paints a picture of globalization as a zero-sum game in which one city’s growth comes at the expense—at least relatively—of another’s. They suggest that peaks—concentrated centers of population and prosper READ MORE >>