January 2013

The arctic air that just moved through the area produced substantial lake-effect snow off the Great Lakes. But both Pennsylvania and Illinois got odd, rare streaks of snow in the vicinity of nuclear power plants: perhaps nuclear-tower snow or nuclear-cooling-pond snow. Read more

The GOP has been losing ground in America's cities, and the wounds are largely self-inflicted. If it can throw off its Agenda-21 fringe and its instinctual opposition to urbanist ideas that really shouldn't be ideological, it could make progress—especially in red-state cities that are the new urbanist frontier. Read more

In 2006, Illinois Republicans ran a social moderate against an unpopular governor, and lost. In 2010, they ran a social conservative against an even more unpopular governor, and lost. Now Bill Brady has moved to the center, conservatives are moving against their former standard-bearer, and the party has to decide again what sort of candidate should oppose Quinn (or a much, much more formidable foe). Read more