Politico

Let’s Get to Grips With the Housing Crisis — The Young Demand It

POLITICO 06/13/24 By Michael Shank Incumbent leaders have largely failed to tackle key socioeconomic issues like the rising cost of housing. All across Europe and the U.S., new right parties are rising to power, threatening progress on many social and environmental issues, including critical climate action. The recent EU parliamentary […]

Want to Accelerate Climate Action? Show People Real-Life Benefits

POLITICO 03/07/24 By Michael Shank Rather than leading with data and promoting health, safety and economic “co-benefits” as bonus add-ons, climate advocates need to flip the script. For years, the priority of many environmentalists has been to get the public to care about climate change via data and science — […]

Conyers Pushes Bee Protection Bill

POLITICO 04/09/14 By Jenny Hopkinson Pending legislation in the House of Representatives aimed at providing greater protections to pollinators is necessary to ensure a steady food supply and prevent agricultural losses, says Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), sponsor of the measure. In an op-ed in Roll Call, Conyers and Michael Shank, […]

The Iran Opening

POLITICO 06/17/13 By Michael Shank and Wayne Gilchrest U.S.-Iran diplomacy got a boost recently with the White House nomination of Samantha Power as the next U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. While Power, who chaired President Barack Obama’s Atrocities Prevention Board, is not shy about military intervention, her work with […]

How Pentagon Employees Are Picking America’s Pocket – In Afghanistan

POLITICO 12/8-9/12 By Michael Shank At the beginning of this lame duck session, a report was delivered to Congress by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). Likely few in Washington read it. The U.S. war in Afghanistan wasn’t a big part of pre-election politicking and now, post-election, the […]

The Surprising $1.5 Trillion Fix to the Fiscal Cliff

POLITICO 11/24-25/12 By Michael Shank and Sonia Manzano No longer can the President of the United States defer dealing with immigration. While it was barely a campaign issue, for America to continue avoiding comprehensive immigration reform is plainly inexcusable. When President Obama takes up immigration reform in 2013 he must […]

Why We Heart Hurricanes: The Climate Change Connection

POLITICO 11/02-04/12 By Michael Shank Watching television this week, as Hurricane Sandy descended on Washington D.C. and meteorologists scurried to remain atop the latest forecasting, myriad presidential election campaign advertisements were met with one major marketing competitor: the American Petroleum Institute and its various oil, coal and gas bedfellows. It […]

What Paul Ryan’s Economic Roadmap Means for America

POLITICO 08/24/12 By Michael Shank Working with one of House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s Democratic colleagues on the budget committee, as senior policy advisor to U.S. Congressman Michael Honda (D-Calif.) for several years, I know the economic picture Ryan is trying to paint all too well. It is a grim […]

When Washington Welcomes A Nonviolent Muslim

POLITICO 06/02/12 By Michael Shank CBS News “60 Minutes” recently produced a show about Turkish Muslim scholar Fethullah Gulen, spurred by concern about the so-called Hizmet movement’s alleged connection to a growing network of high performing and nationally ranked charter schools in the US.  These schools rank in Newsweek’s top […]