The American dream is becoming less-so as the gap widens between the wealthy and rising numbers of people living in poverty. As wages for many workers in the United States have remained stagnant for a decade or more, declining during the so-called "Great Recession" that began in 2008, about 40 percent of self-described middle-class Americans don't believe they'll be able to maintain their status for long. That's according to Der Spiegel, a German publication, which also notes in "On the Way Down: The Erosion of America's Middle Class," that the top 1 percent of the U.S. population owns more than one-third of all the assets in the nation, up 3.7 percent since 2001. On the other end of the spectrum, the bottom 80 percent of the population owns just 12.3 percent of all assets in the United States, down by 3.3 percent.

As scientists gather all sorts of worrying data about climate change, including testimony to Congress that the entire ice mass of Greeland could in coming years disappear if temperatures around the world rise slightly higher, a politician running for U.S. Senate in Wisconsin is trying to play researcher. Johnson, a Republican plastics industry mogul, said there is no need to put in place regulations that would lower the pollutants scientists say are linked to global warming because "I absolutely do not believe in the science of man-caused climate change. It's not proven by any stretch of the imagination."

Recast

Of the myriad indicators that the economic recovery touted by so many politicians and officials is a mixed bag -- from lingering unemployment to scores of new people seeking jobless benefits -- add a bit of good news. "Consumer confidence," which attempts to measure optimism in the retail marketplace, is up. That's according to the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment, which climbed nearly 2 points to 69.6 after hitting its lowest level since last November. The level was also slightly higher than many economists had predicted and could well mean that the economy, which is more than two-thirds reliant on the spending of ordinary Americans, is healthier than expected.

Recovery on Wheels

On Wednesday, my wheels stopped whirring and merely turned. The gears started clunking, instead of neatly clicking into place. I was somewhere on the far side of one of many long, winding, uphill roads when a strong wind started spitting rain into my face. This was the point during the 70-mile, one-day trek from Denver through cow-and-horse country to Colorado Springs that I felt maybe I should quit. All I had to do was stop pedaling and fall off my bike into a nice cozy ditch. A support truck would come get me. But with other cyclists pushing hard all around me, I kept chugging forward with the occasional friendly push from a fellow cyclist.