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Myth busting | The top 5 food-safety questions journalists should be asking ASK THIS| August 226, 2009 A Kansas State University professor whose Web site chronicles food-safety concerns does a little myth-busting about the role of government inspectors, the safety of organic foods, and the conventional wisdom. 
Socialized insurance, not socialized medicine | What single payer is all about ASK THIS Polls show public opinion highly supportive of single payer health insurance, and one version has been introduced in the House of Representatives. But Republicans and influential Democrats like Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, with financial ties to insurers, are effectively blocking consideration of it.
Physicians for Human Rights ask: | What’s happening in the Afghan massacre probe? ASK THIS In 2001, possibly as many as 2,000 Taliban and other captured fighters were suffocated in container trucks and then buried in a mass grave. Investigations were said to be thwarted during the Bush presidency. President Obama has ordered fact-finding. So what’s the status, and what has been found out thus far?
Following the money | Using the Web to track stimulus spending ASK THIS News organizations need to keep up their reporting on how stimulus funds are being spent, and a great deal of help is available online.
Investing in people | The government performance problem ASK THIS A Harvard professor calls a major government-wide investment in the workforce necessary both to improve critical services and to prepare for an imminent tidal wave of retirement. Here's how reporters can advance the story.
Sound and fury aside… | Would a 'public option' bring real health care reform, or is it mostly an empty slogan? ASK THIS Single payer advocate Rachel Nardin urges reporters to take a hard look at the so-called 'public option' part of health care reform. Not only is it a far cry from single payer, but as now conceived in Congress, it will insure relatively few people and have hardly any effect on costs.
| You thought it was only Republicans who’d block a government-run health insurance alternative? Maybe not. ASK THIS Twenty-one Senate Democrats oppose or are undecided about a public option. Reporters should ask them why, and check out their ties to the health and insurance industries.
U.S. is 15th in broadband. Can it get back to the top? | The new FCC chairman is making all the right promises. Can he fulfill them? ASK THIS Julius Genachowski, with connections to Obama and prior experience at the FCC, says he will promote universal, affordable, open broadband. To do that and to fulfill other promises, he first will have to take the agency out of the grip of the telecommunications firms it is supposed to regulate. Press coverage here isn’t just desirable, it’s vital.
Allowances for tuition, housing and supplies | New GI Bill is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of veterans to college this fall ASK THIS| July 183, 2009 Aug. 1 is implementation date; reporters can track progress in their states. Benefits may be uneven from state to state—because of a quirk, for example, California private colleges are less likely to participate.
| For the poor, the misery just keeps piling up ASK THIS Some are gasping for air, some drowning, writes Judith Bell. The impact of the economic collapse on everyday life – on how to get to work (if they have a job), on health, on housing, can be enormous. It's an important, moving story in every community.
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