Born right smack dab in the middle of the ‘baby boom,’ I am a member of an all but extinct sub-group of American women – the stay-at-home-mom-by-choice. For a quarter of a century, built-in flexibility was ingrained in my daily routine. But, to quote the poet laureate of my generation, “the times they are a changing.”

Last Sunday, Smokey the Bear, America’s venerable protector of the forest, celebrated his 70th birthday. In this age of mega-wildfires – some suggest Smokey has outlived his usefulness and should be put out to pasture. As a Californian residing at the base of the Santa Clara foothills, I couldn’t disagree more.

From January 1st to May 22nd of this year, the U.S. Senate cast a total of 163 votes. 68 of these votes – nearly 42% of all the 163 votes cast – were taken expressly to use cloture to thwart and avoid a filibuster.

Cultural life in America, post World War II, revolved around the private ownership of an automobile. Cars remain the predominant mode of personal transportation favored throughout the 50 states, but a growing body of research reveals America’s love affair with the auto is cooling down.

Consider a classroom filled with confident, eager 4-year-olds on the first day of school. Now, imagine, every seat filled with kids ready to tackle their ABCs and 1-2-3s in pre-k classrooms filled to capacity – in every neighborhood, small-town and city across the country.

The leak of the chemical into the Elk River effectively shut down Charleston, the capital city of West Virginia —closing schools, government buildings and local businesses.

Risky Business members Bob Rubin & Tom Steyer speak at the Ceres Investment Summit on Climate Risk in NYC.

Fifty years ago, President Johnson launched an unconditional War on Poverty in an attempt to relieve and abolish it. Has it succeeded, failed, or something else?

Despite the ‘self-imposed ‘retirement of Dave Roberts and the dismantling by the New York Times of its climate desk and discontinuance of its Green Blog, it was a banner year for media coverage of climate change – increasing by 30 percent in 2013.

This week the Supreme Court, the governors of eight East Coast states, Next Generation’s Kate Gordon and Risky Business Co-Chair Tom Steyer clarify why borders, lines of demarcation and geographic regions are vitally important.