That was the question raised by President Obama during an interview in China (one of our biggest creditors), as cartoonists seized the opportunity to comment on America's looming national debt. "It is important," said Mr.

You wouldn't think the bottom line on the $1.6 trillion federal budget deficit and $11.9 trillion national debt crisis could be summed up in a single sentence, but when the right words whizzed by, the Wall Street Journal's David Wessel was quick to point them out.

You know you're in for a bout of grim reading when the international agency charged with worrying about how we power the planet starts off its fact sheet with a question like this: "Why is our current energy pathway unsustainable?"

As if anyone needed proof that immigration will remain a major issue, a new international survey reports that some 700 million people worldwide say they would move to another country if they could. Not surprisingly, the largest single group, one-quarter, say their first choice would be to come to the United States.

The latest edition of the "nation's report card" shows that math scores failed to improve for the first time since 1990, and you don't have to have great math skills to know that isn't good enough. But how do we move skills forward?

The Obama administration has been making noises about a longer school year, and the Associated Press takes the opportunity to examine whether American students need to spend more time in class. We can't say whether or not that will improve student achievement, but we can say it goes to one of American parents' big concerns about their children.

This has been "Climate Week" at the United Nations, bringing world leaders, experts, advocates and celebrities together to help set the stage for negotiations later this year on a new treaty for greenhouse gas reduction.

There's a potential milestone in the fight against HIV, with word that for the very first time, a vaccine has been found to provide a small but measurable protective effect against the disease.

New census data suggests the recession is deterring new immigrants from coming to the United States – but Public Agenda's research shows it isn't shaking those who are already here.

America's magazine editors continue to come up with new ways of rating colleges, with the U.S News and World Report ranking coming out as Washington Monthly unveils a new standard aimed at assessing an institution’s contribution to the "public good." But what does the public think a college education is all about?