Gautham Nagesh

In advance of this weekend's superfight between Manny Pacquiao and "Sugar" Shane Mosely, a look at whether the sport has a chance of regaining its place in American life… More »

Michigan is off to the races in 2010, with a gubernatorial contest that will favor the GOP… More »

It looks like Mike Nofs will win the special election in Michigan's 19th State Senate District. From the Jackson Citizen Patriot: With 63 of 107 precincts reporting, Mike Nofs, a Republican from Battle Creek, leads with 13,571 votes to Martin Griffin's 6,302 votes in the 19th district state Senate race.The polls closed at 8 p.m. Griffin, D-Jackson, and Nofs, are competing to fill the vacancy left by Mark Schauer, who was elected to Congress last fall. The 19th…… More »

If he wins his race tonight, he's the real bellwether.… More »

The growing political involvement of Indian-Americans… More »

[Gautham Nagesh]While I'm glad I got the chance to discuss how the recession has disproportionately affected places like my hometown in Michigan, I wanted to end my guest blogging tenure on a more optimistic note. I believe Jackson and the surrounding communities will eventually find a way to cope with the loss of the manufacturing base and recover economically, but I think those solutions will arrive only through the commitment and hard work of the community.…… More »

[Gautham Nagesh]The news this week that the economy lost 467,000 jobs in June was a sobering reminder to most of the country that it's unlikely we've seen the bottom of this recession. But here in my hometown of Jackson, Michigan, people are hardly surprised to hear about the loss of manufacturing jobs. It's become a fact of life.Jackson is in many ways the perfect place to witness first-hand the effects of the economic downturn. Located 80 miles west of Detroit on…… More »

[Gautham Nagesh]I'm rarely shocked by the news these days, but this story in Politico today did the trick:For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to "those powerful few" -- Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper's own reporters and editors. The astonishing offer is detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who…… More »

[Gautham Nagesh] Greetings folks, it's an honor to be part of the team for the week. I spend my days covering federal technology for Nextgov and have also written for National Journal. My main interests are sports, government waste, fried foods and anything involving my home state of Michigan. One note on Neil's post: I actually interviewed for a job with Vibe when I was in college, where I was asked to name my three favorite rap albums of all time. At the time…… More »

A genre that once thrived by flipping off authority now has a place on the president's iPod. Where does rap go from here?… More »