The United States had planned to send a delegation to Greenland, headed by Vice President JD Vance’s wife, Usha. But guess what? Greenland wasn’t having it, saying the visit was too provocative.

It’s a pattern. When President Donald Trump talks about buying Greenland, taking over Canada, or getting back the Panama Canal, it makes people ...Read more

If there was one moment that exemplified the work and message of Pope Francis, it would be this: the late Pontiff embracing Vinicio Riva, a man covered in the disfiguring growths of neurofibomatosis in November 2013.

Riva, like so many others, made his way to St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican hoping for a glimpse of the pope. He got so much ...Read more

Five homes, so close to one another in Rustic Canyon.

The one just up the hillside from me, the flames swallowed whole.

Outside another, two doors down from mine, five-gallon spring water bottles in a wooden casing leaned against wooden siding. When the two homes between us — one a Prohibition-era speakeasy — blazed in livid rage, the ...Read more

Donald Trump can’t get rid of Pete Hegseth fast enough as the tough talking former Fox News host looks more and more like a huge liability and a soft target for Democrats.

The White House has already begun looking to replace the Pentagon chief, according to AP, after the latest scandal involving him sharing classified information in a Signal ...Read more

The death of Pope Francis silences a powerful — and increasingly solitary — voice for peace, equality, and disenfranchised people in the face of a growing threat from authoritarianism and climate change.

The pope strived to be a compassionate force for good, and a unifier at a time when many world leaders — including President Donald ...Read more

A symbolic turning point for U.S. climate policy, and by extension the world, happened when President Ronald Reagan removed the solar panels that his predecessor, Jimmy Carter, had installed at the White House, signaling a return to business as usual — i.e., burning more fossil fuels and hastening a growing climate crisis.

After the death of...Read more

Amid a world with growing rancor and discord and hate and war, we have lost a needed voice for peace and human compassion with the death of Pope Francis on Easter Monday, leaving behind a church marked by the imprint of his humble and caring character.

“Blessed are the peacemakers” says the Gospel of Matthew and Francis was a world leader ...Read more

Gov. Gavin Newsom made headlines Friday for his comments about wrongfully deported Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia, when he was trying to make news about tariffs.

Speaking at a Central Valley press conference announcing a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its wildly unpredictable trade policies, Newsom answered a question ...Read more

Across 12 eventful years, the reign of Pope Francis saw no shortage of resonant images. One thinks of him standing all alone in St. Peter’s Square, in the darkest days of COVID, offering prayers for the world. Or greeting enormous crowds at papal masses in Iraq, East Timor, Myanmar. Or indeed, dispensing an Easter blessing, amid an adoring ...Read more

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency wants more power and more data. DOGE has attempted to defy a court order to access Social Security data. It has forced or tried to force access to IRS data systems, Medicare data, SEC data, National Labor Relations Board data, and Education Department student data, among other things.

DOGE is ...Read more

Two of my books are among the 381 volumes that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered removed from the library of the U.S. Naval Academy because they were deemed to relate to the topics of diversity, equity or inclusion.

The arbitrary removal of these books reveals a sophomoric approach to history by word search. That amateurish tactic of ...Read more

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled recently that Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia must be released and returned to his family. He was wrongfully deported to the high-security prison in El Salvador based on what the Trump administration calls an “administrative error.”

However, during a recent visit to the Oval Office with ...Read more

In these tough times, as we grapple with saving America itself, it is important to note progress and victories.

This year, for the first time, women make up a majority in California’s state Senate. Across both chambers, 58 women — a record high — are serving. This is just two seats away from gender parity, which would make California the ...Read more

The ping of incoming texts startled me awake.

Texts from family, texts from friends; all starting with the same two words. Oh no. Oh no.

I woke to a world without Pope Francis in it. That was the last thing this sad old world needed.

The first pope from the global south spent his final Easter defending the defenseless who are under attack.

...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Give Gov. Gavin Newsom credit. You can call it grandstanding and opportunistic, but suing President Donald Trump over tariffs was smart, bold and much needed.

Sure, it was political. Newsom adroitly leaped ahead of other potential 2028 presidential contenders by taking aim through the court system at Trump’s allegedly ...Read more

As spring weather sets in, fears of a bird flu pandemic have not materialized, and there is less cause for worry than there was in the winter. Experts say the short-term risk of a pandemic is low, but the recent appearance in mammals of the potentially dangerous avian influenza A strain, H5N1 — the bird flu virus — demands redoubling efforts...Read more

For some, it’s as routine as paying at the checkout counter. For others, it’s as nerve-racking as a root canal. Which experience you have depends largely on one thing: where you were born.

We’re talking about international travel.

Since President Donald Trump took office, Western travelers trying to enter the United States have been ...Read more

It’s time for Democrats to end the circular firing squad between moderates and progressives. Each side blames the other for Trump’s win in 2024, with each urging the other to adopt its diagnosis of what went wrong and give in to its vision of the path forward.

Both sides need to change — and the key is to understand not just the economic ...Read more

As a virologist and a former associate director of the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania, I observed firsthand the development of various treatments and cures — a process that is complex, sometimes frustrating and often exhilarating. Now President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr....Read more