While the nation’s infrastructure has seen slight improvement since the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) released its last report card in 2009— from D to D+ —the group warns that, without a major commitment and investment, the roads, bridges, drinking water systems, mass transit systems, schools and systems for delivering energy that we depend on “may soon fail to meet society’s needs.”  

Ten years ago this week, the United States launched the invasion of Iraq. The nation remains divided on the wisdom, strategy and outcome of the war that claimed the lives of 4,488 U.S. service members and left more than 32,000 wounded.  

But there is one certainty—the men and women who honorably fought and served in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade have come home to an economy that works even less for them than it does others. Job loss, stagnant wages and a widening gap between working families and the wealthy and Wall Street are some of these problems.  

This January, Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) introduced the  Immigration Innovation Act , known as "I-Squared." It will triple the number of foreign temporary workers from about 800,000 to more than 2.3 million. This will distort the labor market for jobs in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), which has only 4 million workers all told. I-Squared will  seriously depress the domestic STEM labor market .

You probably don't have to look beyond your own community to see the visible signs of a crumbling and over-crowded transportation system. And you probably don't need to look further than your own family or close friends to find someone who is out of work.

In 2012, the pay gap between women’s and men’s median weekly full-time earnings increased from 2011, reported the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) in  new analysis . 

The nation’s economy added 236,000 new jobs in February and the jobless rate was 7.7% from January's 7.9%, according to  figures released this morning  by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The 236,000 jobs created reflect 35 straight months of positive job growth. But the number of long-term unemployed (those who are jobless for 27 weeks or more) was unchanged at 4.8 million. These people account for 40.2% of the unemployed.

Before a packed crowd at AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C., Nobel-Prize winning economist Paul Krugman said the way to ease the economic crisis in the United States is to create more jobs through increased public investment, raising wages and restoring workers’ ability to bargain collectively. Austerity policies are the last thing we should be doing. The event was part of AFL-CIO's Book Club series. Krugman discussed major themes in his book  End This Depression Now! , which was just released in paperback.

First thing you need to do is watch the video above,  by YouTube user politizane . We’ll wait.

OK, finished? Great. I’m sure you’re mind is a little blown.

A duo of Democratic lawmakers have spent the years since the financial crisis calling for a financial transactions tax, a small fee on individual trades that would slow down markets and make them safer for investors and the country as a whole. Sen. Tom Harkin (Iowa) and Rep. Peter DeFazio (Ore.)  introduced legislation  that would institute the financial transactions tax again this year, after 11 European countries announced they would adopt such a tax.

The United States and 10 other countries are negotiating our  next big trade agreement , called Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP. It's time to re-examine what works and what doesn't work.

Imagine a  thought experiment , where we put environmentalists in each country in charge of negotiating the next trade agreement. Preposterous! I know. Stick with me. This is a thought experiment.