ArcaMax

President Donald Trump likes to fire people, and he resents congressional constraints on that presidential prerogative. While Trump's opponents may view that attitude as one more manifestation of his autocratic instincts, his complaint is grounded in legitimate concerns about the separation of powers that presidents of both parties have raised...Read more

With the controversy surrounding President Donald Trump's executive order terminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs "in the federal workforce, and in federal contracting and spending," many thought the administration was also banning Black History Month. Soon after Trump enacted his DEI measures, the Department of Defense announced ...Read more

Donald Trump's much-ballyhooed Department of Government Efficiency does not actually exist. The program's official status is more significant than it might seem, because it reflects the yawning gap between the president's promises of fiscal restraint and the reality of what can be accomplished without new legislation.

Billionaire entrepreneur...Read more

What do the Peace Corps, desegregation of the military, and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II have in common?

They were all established by presidential executive orders, or EOs.

Executive orders are all over the news of late, as President Trump uses his presidential authority to undo many of President Biden’s ...Read more

Eggs have never been a regular item on my grocery shopping list, but toward the end of last year, I began buying more of them because I was experimenting with various turkey meatloaf recipes. When I had extra time to cook breakfast, I prepared scrambled eggs using avocado oil as a base. Due to the ongoing effects of the 2022 bird flu outbreak,...Read more

"I'm gonna create borders," Donald Trump promised during his 2016 campaign. "No drugs are coming in. We're gonna build a wall. You know what I'm talking about. You have confidence in me. Believe me, I will solve the problem."

Trump did not, in fact, solve the problem: The annual number of drug-related deaths in the United States rose by 44% ...Read more

In practical terms, Donald Trump's attempt to nullify birthright citizenship by executive decree, which ran into immediate legal trouble last week, is probably the least significant element of his immigration crackdown. But it is telling as an indication of the president's willingness to disregard the law in pursuit of his agenda.

Under the ...Read more

This year's National Day of Racial Healing, sponsored by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, emphasized the importance of children growing up in supportive communities that nurture their talents and stimulate their desire to learn in school. In a short video presentation, the foundation's president and CEO, La June Montgomery Tabron, discussed how all...Read more

Monday was a big day for presidential clemency, but that does not mean it was a good day. Both outgoing President Joe Biden and incoming President Donald Trump used that power in self-interested, shortsighted ways, sacrificing the public interest to benefit political allies and, in Biden's case, family members.

Biden granted preemptive ...Read more

"Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy." -- Jude 24

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used the beginning of this scripture in his "Strength to Love" chapter, "Our God Is Able." This message is undoubtedly needed as encouragement for those who have already ...Read more

President-elect Donald Trump's sentence of "unconditional release" for violating a New York law that prohibits falsification of business records entails neither jail nor probation. But unless Trump successfully challenges his 34 felony convictions on appeal, he will suffer a lifelong penalty that should trouble civil libertarians across the ...Read more

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently released its 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report, which found that over 770,000 people were unhoused in January of last year. This accounts for a disturbing 23% increase for those without permanent residence since 2023. Migration and natural disasters were cited as main ...Read more

Even moderate drinking could give you cancer, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned last week. But according to a congressionally commissioned report published last month, moderate drinking is associated with reduced overall mortality.

Although those findings are not as contradictory as they might seem, the dueling glosses reflect the ...Read more

Just before New Year's Eve, a Gallup poll survey headline accurately captured the feelings of many people in our nation: "Americans Predict Challenges in 2025, With a Few Bright Spots." The top concerns were unsurprising, including anxiousness about the economy and a growing budget deficit, intensified partisan conflict and more global disputes....Read more

Bryan Bowers and his business partner, Mike Licata, planned to build medical office space across from a new hospital in downtown Utica, New York. The Oneida County Industrial Development Agency nixed that plan by agreeing to take the property so a competing business next door could use it for a parking lot -- a land grab that a state appeals ...Read more

In anticipation of the December release of "Mufasa: The Lion King," I eagerly watched every trailer posted on YouTube. I was excited to finally examine Disney's revelation of Mufasa and Scar's backstory, and I was not disappointed. The computer animation in "Mufasa" is much better than the photorealistic depiction of the animals in the 2019 "...Read more

Last February, explaining why he thought President Joe Biden could not be successfully prosecuted for mishandling classified documents, Special Counsel Robert Hur suggested that jurors would be apt to view the president as "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory" and "diminished faculties." That amply supported ...Read more

As the Madison, Wisconsin, community reels from the deadly shooting at Abundant Life Christian School, pictures of grief and mourning despondently tell the story of this tragedy's aftermath. I viewed the recent online collage of photos on CNN's website that showed students and parents holding candles at an evening vigil, a distraught police ...Read more

On his first day in office, President-elect Donald Trump promises, he will pardon at least some of the 1,500 or so people who have been charged with crimes in connection with the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. He notes that most of those defendants were not violent and that they faced a lot of pressure to plead guilty, as about 1,000 have ...Read more

One of the most encouraging stories of racial reconciliation among Southern Christian congregations is taking place in Mobile, Alabama, a port city that is still heavily segregated. The Black and White ministers who have come together to root out longstanding prejudice and simple fear of racial and cultural differences were featured in a ...Read more