Larry Summers Again? Really?

President Obama seriously wants to nominate one of the men who caused the recession to chair the Fed; researchers are finding many animals, especially rodents, are smarter than the average human; and, Detroit is suffering because of the auto industry’s utterly capitalist decision to put shareholders before everyone else. These discoveries and more below.

On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that have found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.

The New Larry Summers Sure Looks Like the Old Larry Summers Okay, let’s try this again. Ezra Klein says the president really, really wants to nominate Larry Summers to replace Ben Bernanke as Fed chairman, but is hesitating over the blowback he’d court as a result.

The Earth’s Ambassador What place should there be on Earth for the Moderns?

Detroit’s Decline is a Distinctively Capitalist Failure The auto industry Big Three were loyal only to shareholders, not the people of Detroit. The city was gutted by that social choice.

How Squirrels, Pigeons, and Rats Are All Smarter Than You Animal researchers have no universally accepted scale of interspecies IQ.

Spanish State: They Want Us Poor, Silenced And Straight The governing Popular Party (PP) is on a crusade – not only against fundamental rights such as health, education, housing, work, but also against sexual and reproductive freedoms.

Obama’s Speaking Tour: More ‘Talk the Talk’ Again This week and next, President Obama is reportedly planning to make a series of speeches on the economy.

Bonjour, America! Watching the free-for-all in Washington over immigration reform, it’s easy to conclude that an airtight border has always been our national goal.