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Questions for candidates | Better off today than 4 years ago? ASK THIS With the 2006 elections looming, Morton Mintz is revving up questions for candidates for office. This installment may be seen, perhaps, as a 2006 version of the old-time misery index. 
Any more like him out there? | Watchdogs, meet a gadfly ASK THIS Chas Freeman is a Washington insider with a twist. A former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, he now runs a think tank dedicated to raising questions that otherwise might never get answered -- or even asked -- because they're too embarrassing, awkward, or difficult. He shares a few of those questions with NiemanWatchdog.org’s Dan Froomkin.
Rumsfeld's 'WMDs' | The Defense budget: ‘A shrinking force at a higher cost’ ASK THIS Defense expert Winslow Wheeler tells reporters how the 2007 Pentagon budget and the new Quadrennial Defense Review are high on gimmicks but low on effectiveness for combating terror.
Expense breakdown | How much do localities spend on elections? ASK THIS Estimated costs: $10 per voter (in year 2000); of every dollar 35 cents is for voter registration, 35 cents for equipment and Election Day expenses, and 30 cents for administration.
A status report | The politics and science of state-by-state stem-cell research ASK THIS The ban on federal funding for most embryonic stem-cell research has prompted discussion of state funding. Here advocate Sean Tipton lists the questions he feels reporters should ask to better deal with the issues and status of state-funded stem-cell research.
Iranian 'confidence deficit' | Nonproliferation and nuclear standoffs ASK THIS The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty dates back to the 1960s. Expert Jeffrey Lewis reminds us that, among other things, a key part of the agreement was for countries with nuclear weapons to pursue negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament. A lot has changed since then.
Exploring a muted reaction | Have Americans developed a taste for torture? ASK THIS The author of a new book on torture wonders why public response to an issue that cuts to the very core of America's national identity has been so muted. And he lays out a series of questions for President Bush, congressional candidates and your readers aimed at bearing witness to what may turn out to be a fundamental shift in moral choices by the American public.
A Washington, DC, tutorial | Defense budget pork: 2,966 items costing $11.1 billion ASK THIS Winslow Wheeler, a Capitol Hill veteran of many years, walks reporters through the pork in the Defense budget. He tells how to find it, how it gets there and what to do about it.
Another unfunded mandate | Have you heard: We’ve got new, sweeping welfare changes ASK THIS News organizations should ask serious questions about the changes in welfare policy that were quietly enacted as part of the Fiscal Year 2006 budget reconciliation bill. They are the most sweeping welfare changes in a decade.
'Addicted to oil' | What if there are no gains from reducing Mid-East oil imports? ASK THIS Writers are skeptical that there would be any real benefits, doubt Bush’s motives and pose sharp questions for reporters to ask. What would work, they say, are higher gasoline taxes to restrain consumption.
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