The Story of Ernestor
Dodge City, Kansas relies on undocumented immigrants—from meatpacking workers to the city's assistant finance director.
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From the Air Traffic Controller’s Perspective
Two days ago I mentioned the unflappable, multi-tasking and multi-dimensional competence with which an air-traffic controller at Denver’s Centennial airport handled a sudden shift in winds, and the resulting complete re-organization in…
View From the Right Seat
During our more than 50,000 miles of flight for our American Futures project, I’ve sat in the “right seat” of our Cirrus SR22. That’s the official term for my spot in…
The Air Traffic Ballet
During our travels Deb has often mentioned our interest in, and nearly-all-times admiration for, the Air Traffic Controllers with whom we deal. One of her early posts, “Say Souls on Board,”…
What Rural Economies Look Like From Above
In Kansas, the advent of an energy industry is inscribing itself on the physical landscape, adding wind farms to wheat farms.
A Note About Trumpism, From the ‘Real America’
For the past week my wife Deb and I have been in western Kansas — Dodge City mainly, also Garden City, briefly Spearville. There will be a lot more to…
The Multi-Dimensional Reality of the Nation, vs. the Flattened Reality of National Politics
My wife Deb and I have started out on the road again—northern Texas recently, now western Kansas, with a diversion to Colorado and then far southern Texas once again. Reports…
A Good Start: Bobby’s Story
One of my favorite features of our American Futures project is the occasional serendipity of crossing the path of some surprising, remarkable person. Like Jerrie Mock, the Columbus, Ohio, housewife who was the…
America by Air: Whitewater
In one way or another, all Clinton-era “scandals” trace back to Whitewater. That was the late-1970s Arkansas real estate deal that prompted an investigative crusade by the NYT during Bill Clinton’s presidential run in…
More on the Public Role in Fostering Private Innovation
A few days ago I argued that the Maker Movement finally depends on the ingenuity and effort of private entrepreneurs and of companies large and small — but that these efforts go much faster,…
The Maker Movement: If Hamilton Were Around, He Would Be a Fan
If Hamilton Were Around, He Would Be a Fan
Finding Health Care in the Desert
With the closest hospital 100 miles away, Ajo, Arizona's Desert Senita Health Center acts as the region's clinic
The Surprising Problem With U.S. Manufacturing: It’s Creating Too Many Jobs
An ongoing theme of our reports from “career technical” schools—like this high school in Georgia and this community college in Mississippi and these high schools and tech-training centers in California and South Carolina, and these colleges in Vermont and Maine—is that for…
The Maker Revolution: What It Has Changed, and What It Hasn’t — Yet
What It Has Changed, and What It Hasn't — Yet
Why the Maker Movement Matters: Part 2, Agility
Business are finding that "makerspaces" enable them to reduce what's known as the mind-to-market gap: how long it takes for an idea to become a thing on a shelf.
‘Mr. China’ on Making Things in America
Following this earlier post about the significance of the Maker Movement, and before an upcoming report on an unusual and significant maker/startup space in Louisville, I want to mention a very interesting WSJ interview by…