By BEN BOYCHUK and JOEL MATHIS, Scripps Howard News Service

What's behind America's deepening class divide?

Is America's economy fair? A new Gallup poll this week shows that Americans are divided over whether the American economy is fair or not: 49 percent say unfair, but 46 percent say fair. There's a wrinkle, however: 62 percent of Americans say the economy has been fair to them personally, while only 36 percent they they've been treated unfairly.

Is Newt Gingrich running a racist presidential campaign?

Which GOP candidate is best? After a year of debates and campaigning, the process for electing the next president gets under way on Tuesday. That's when Republican voters in Iowa will gather across the state and caucus to decide which GOP candidate should get the party's nomination.

Did anything good come out of 2011? As 2011 comes to a close, it's easy to look at the American political landscape and see nothing but smoking ruins. The economy is a disaster. Democrats and Republicans can't agree on how to get it going or on how to reduce the deficit. Gridlock plagues government to an unprecedented degree. But things can't be all bad, can they?

One of the most polarizing figures in America at the moment is Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow.

Can government do anything about rising income inequality? Perhaps spurred by the Occupy Wall Street protests, there has been greater focus lately on the topic of income inequality in America.

Is America ready for a flat tax? Back in the late 1990s, Steve Forbes ran for president proposing a "flat tax" in which everybody -- rich and poor -- would pay exactly the same percentage of their income in taxes. Forbes' idea failed, but GOP presidential candidates Herman Cain and Rick Perry have proposed a variation of the flat tax as part of their economic plans.

What is the meaning of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement? For about a month now, protesters have camped out in a park in New York's financial district, part of an "Occupy Wall Street" movement that has since spread to hundreds of other cities across the nation.