V. V. B
The Economist
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Past articles by V.:
Why the number of abortions in America is at a historic low
OF ALL THE controversies thrown up by America’s cultural wars, abortion remains perhaps the most divisive. This was the issue that Ronald Reagan used to try to unite northern Catholics and southern evangelical Protestants behind his Republican presidential bid in 1980. → Read More
A trial in Chicago illustrates why the city’s police department needs reform
THE CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT (CPD) has an ugly history. In its most infamous chapter, in the 1970s and 1980s, officers allegedly tortured suspects. But even then police officers were not put on trial for protecting their own. → Read More
The mid-terms and the youth vote
ON THE day of the tenth anniversary of his election as president Barack Obama returned to his adopted hometown, ostensibly to rally for J.B. Pritzker, the Democratic Party’s candidate for governor of Illinois. → Read More
The mid-terms and the youth vote
ON THE day of the tenth anniversary of his election as president Barack Obama returned to his adopted hometown, ostensibly to rally for J.B. Pritzker, the Democratic Party’s candidate for governor of Illinois. → Read More
Early voting surges among young people
ON THE day of the tenth anniversary of his election as president Barack Obama returned to his adopted hometown, ostensibly to rally for J.B. Pritzker, the Democratic Party’s candidate for governor of Illinois. → Read More
Andrew Gillum versus Ron DeSantis
THE winners of Florida’s governor primaries on August 28th epitomise the divisions in their parties. Andrew Gillum, the 39-year-old Democratic mayor of Tallahassee, is a forceful champion of all of the most progressive policy proposals of Bernie Sanders, the self-proclaimed democratic socialist who ran for the presidency. → Read More
Why support for the death penalty is rising again in America
RUBEN GUTIERREZ is in many ways typical of the thousands who sit on death row in America. The 41-year-old has been there for two decades, insists on his innocence and is still fighting for DNA testing. He is scheduled to die in Huntsville State Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas, by lethal injection on September 12th. → Read More
Republicans in the Midwest like candidates who like Donald Trump
IT WAS Wisconsin that did it. Hillary Clinton, confident that she would win the reliably Democratic Midwestern state in the 2016 presidential election, neglected to campaign there. Donald Trump carried the state, the first time a Republican managed to do so since 1984. Ever since, Midwestern elections have been closely watched. → Read More
Results from elections in the Midwest should worry Republicans
VOTERS in Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, Michigan and Washington state headed to the polls on August 7th in some of the last primaries (and one special election) before mid-term elections in November that will determine which party controls the House. → Read More
Playing politics after a weekend of carnage in Chicago
AS THE balmy Sunday evening of August 5th wound down, the Chicago Police Department (CPD) was out in force on North Avenue Beach. Officers guarded the trendy Shore Club and watched Castaways, a beach bar shaped like a boat. The watering holes are often trouble spots during very hot weekends. → Read More
The parties’ preferred primary candidates prevail
MARY TAYLOR has been John Kasich’s lieutenant-governor since he was elected governor of Ohio in 2010. She backed all of his policies loyally, including the expansion of Medicaid and health insurance for the poor, and did not criticise Mr Kasich’s “Never Trump” campaign during his presidential candidacy. → Read More
Democratic smiles in Pennsylvania’s special election
Conor Lamb looks to have scored a surprising victory in a deep-red congressional district → Read More
The sudden demise of Donald Trump’s voter-fraud commission
KRIS KOBACH of Kansas feels undeterred in his crusade to prove the persistence of widespread voter fraud—despite lacking any shred of evidence to support the claim. → Read More
Why America still permits child marriage
CHILD marriage is common in the developing world. One in three girls there is believed to marry before the age of 18, which is how child marriage is generally defined. If the practice is not reduced, another 1.2bn women will have married as children by 2050. → Read More
President Trump winds down DACA
“DACA will continue to exist in Chicago,” promises Rahm Emanuel, the mayor of Chicago, half an hour before President Donald Trump’s administration announced the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme, known as DACA. → Read More
The next director of the FBI faces a tough audience
CHRISTOPHER WRAY acquitted himself well during his hearing before the Senate judiciary committee on July 12th. At times slightly awkward, the performance demanded fully four and a half hours. → Read More
The attorney-general’s amnesia
FOR A tense two hours on June 13th Jeff Sessions, the attorney-general, faced questions before the Senate intelligence committee about his dealings with Russian officials during the election campaign last year. → Read More
The Economist explains: The many, many probes into Trump-Russia ties
ON MAY 17th Robert Mueller (pictured), a respected former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was appointed as special counsel by the Department of Justice to run the FBI’s investigation into whether Russia attempted to influence America’s presidential election in November, and whether it did so in co-odination with member... → Read More
You’re fired: President Trump abruptly sacks the head of the FBI
JAMES COMEY had no intention to leave his job. “You are stuck with me for about six and a half years,” said the former deputy attorney-general, who was appointed as the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation by Barack Obama at a cyber-conference in Boston in March 2013. But it was not to be. → Read More
The Economist explains: How St Louis became America’s chess capital
ST LOUIS is a troubled, shrinking city in the American Midwest. Its population peaked at 850,000 in the 1950s. Decades of middle-class flight have left it with only 315,000 residents, of which almost one-third live at or below the federal poverty level. → Read More