UNDERNEWS: Things that have gotten better and worse

THINGS THAT HAVE GOTTEN BETTER THIS YEAR

THINGS THAT HAVE GOTTEN WORSE THIS YEAR

More than 107,000 Americans, a record, died of drug overdoses in 2021

U.S. Gun Deaths Surged 35% in 2020, Higher for Black People

Earth has nearly 50 percent chance of hitting key warming threshold in the next five years, report says

Growing number of U.S. dams in poor, high-hazard condition

It's not just home prices. Rents rise sharply across the U.S.

Fewest Americans collecting unemployment benefits since 1970

Newspapers keep eliminating print days

U.S. inflation jumped 8.5% in past year, highest since 1981

Projected temperature for world above safe limit

Federal minimum wage hasn't risen in almost 13 years

It’s 70 degrees warmer than normal in eastern Antarctica. Scientists are flabbergasted.

Rent inflation hits new high, led by Miami with 39% rate

ABOUT THE EDITOR

The Review is edited by Sam Smith, who covered Washington under nine presidents, has edited the Progressive Review and its predecessors since 1964, wrote four books, been published in five anthologies, helped to start five organizations (including the DC Humanities Council and the DC Statehood Party), was a plaintiff in three successful class action suits, served as a Coast Guard officer, and played in jazz bands for four decades.

A truly independent journalist with his feet firmly grounded in the reality of neighborhoods and everyday people. -- Patrick Mazza, Progressive Populist

A truly original voice in American journalism: humorous and plain spoken and filled with common sense -- Jay Walljasper, Utne Reader

Inimitable -- Mother Jones Magazine

Sam's a cynical cat -- Marion Barry

Sam's one of the few independent voices left. The press today is either extreme or special interest or else just establishment, an extension of the corporate spirit -- Eugene McCarthy,

One of a small group of whites with whom many blacks would trust their political lives - Chuck Stone, Washingtonian.

A reputation for wit, intelligence and anger. -- Claude Lewis, Chicago Tribune

Smith is an island of reason and information in a sea of narcissistic blather. -- City Paper, Washington

Whatever the debate, the Review's sharp critiques encourage us to look out our window, notice and act upon what we see, and also to look further -- to the rest of the country and globe -- to see how the organized big world interacts with our more spontaneous small worlds. - Utne Reader

ABOUT THE REVIEW

Regularly ahead of the curve, the Review has opposed federal drug policy for nearly 50 years, was a lonely media voice against the massive freeways planned for Washington, was an early advocate of bikeways and light rail, and helped spur the creation of the DC Statehood Party and the national Green Party,

In November 1990 it devoted an entire issue to the ecologically sound city and how to develop it. The article was republished widely.

Even before Clinton's nomination we exposed Arkansas political scandals that would later become major issues. .

We reported on NSA monitoring of U.S. phone calls in the 1990s, years before it became a major media story.

In 2003 editor Sam Smith wrote an article for Harper's comprised entirely of falsehoods about Iraq by Bush administration officials.

The Review started a web edition in 1995 when there were only 27,000 web sites worldwide. Today there are over 170 million active sites.

In 1987 we ran an article on AIDS. It was the first year that more than 1,000 men died of the disease.

In the 1980s, Thomas S Martin predicted in the Review that "Yugoslavia will eventually break up" and that "a challenge to the centralized soviet state" would occur as a result of devolutionary trends. Both happened.

In the 1970s we published a first person account of a then illegal abortion.

In 1971 we published our first article in support of single payer universal health care

In 1970, we ran a two part series on gay liberation.

in 1965 we called for the end of the draft.

In the 1960s we proposed community policing

UNDERNEWS

Things that have gotten better and worse

Americans Now Living Longer After Heart Attack

Starbucks workers drive nationwide surge in union organizing

Biden Has Already Done More for Rural America Than Trump Ever Did

Unemployment Number Hits 50-Year Low at 1.4 Million

The rise of self organizing workers

Legal pot brought in more than $3.7 billion in 2021

Ranked choice voting growing on campuses