Over the course of the last century, from the Progressive era through the New Deal and Great Society, the United States slowly but surely moved toward guaranteeing those things. Giving the red states the power to deviate from this course means giving them the right to undo that progress.

By defining the debate largely in terms of power—framing it with the Biblical idea of challenging the rich and defending the poor and powerless—Moral Mondays not only emphasizes a progressive economic agenda but also opposes Republicans’ assaults on abortion rights and gay rights.

The Tax Foundation compares the 50 states on many different measures of taxing and spending, including individual and corporate income tax rates, business tax climates, excise taxes, tax burdens and state spending. Examples: Connecticut is ranked as having the highest tax burden per capita, with Mississippi ranked as having the lowest. Wyoming’s business tax climate is ranked most favorable, with New York ranked last.

Links to state tax systems information, revenues and expenditures, and credits.

Nevada had the highest unemployment rate among the states in August, 9.5 percent. The next highest rate was in Illinois, 9.2 percent. North Dakota continued to have the lowest jobless rate, 3.0 percent.

Frederick Boehmke and Paul Skinner built a database of 189 policies that states adopted between 1912 and 2009 and created an ‘adoption rate’ measure that assesses states based on how many of the universe of possible policies they’ve adopted at each point in history. Overall, California is the most innovative state while Mississippi is the least innovative.

State data on demographics and the economy, health costs and budgets, health coverage and uninsured, health insurance and managed care, health reform, health status, HIV/AIDs, Medicaid and CHIP, Medicare, minority health, providers and service use, and women’s health.

Tables containing state and county health insurance coverage estimates for 2012.

Each of the 20 fastest-growing metropolitan areas in 2011-2012 were located in the South and West, including Charleston, Orlando, Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio. Each of the 20 slowest growing or declining areas were located in the Northeast and Midwest, including Youngstown, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis.

13 states—California, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington--plus the District of Columbia, allow same-sex marriage, and 35 states have limitations on it.

A wave of abortion limits have been passed this year by conservative lawmakers and governors, who have approved more than 40 restrictions in statehouses around the country. <a href="http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/politics/test/297/">Here</a> is a look at individual state policies.

State reported high school graduation rates. Iowa topped the list at 88%, with Nevada ranked last among the states at 62%.

The best educated states are Massachusetts, Maryland and Connecticut, while West Virginia, Mississippi and Arkansas are among the worst.

The highest ranked public colleges and universities in the 2014 Best Colleges rankings, listed according to their ranking category. Among national universities, the top 5 are UC Berkeley, UCLA, University of Virginia, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Measured by how much they share out of what they have available, the most generous Americans are not generally those in high-income, urban, liberal states like California or Massachusetts. Rather, people living in areas that are more rural, conservative, religious, and moderate in income are our most generous givers.