KINMEN, Taiwan — From this tiny outer island of Taiwan, which lies less than two miles from the Chinese mainland, one can view the high-rise towers of the Chinese port city of Xiamen.

Looking out over an extensive beach and through the mist at China, I realize Xiamen could probably be reached from where I stand by a good swimmer. From this ...Read more

It’s too early to say whether two major special-election upsets — the narrow defeat of a highly-favored Republican in a Tampa Bay based Senate seat, and a Democrat’s victory in a South Palm Beach County House district — are anything more than a continuation of the fact that Democrats tend to do better in special elections.

But these two...Read more

Once upon a time in California, I went to the Orange County fairgrounds to watch Arnold Schwarzenegger give the signal for a wrecking ball to drop onto a vehicle.

The audience went wild, and Schwarzenegger went on to become governor and deliver on his promise to roll back a car tax increase, thereby blowing a $4 billion hole in the state budget...Read more

Voter fraud conspiracies are like methamphetamine running through MAGA veins, stirring up equal parts passion and paranoia.

President Donald Trump, of course, is the king pusher of this particular addiction, pathologically certain he won the 2020 presidential election (he did not). In his second term, and in advance of the November election, ...Read more

It’s almost disappointing to see backers of Michigan’s Millionaires Tax fail in their bid to get the measure on the November ballot.

It would have been good to have the debate about the wisdom of this progressive eat-the-rich dream, and then finally put it to rest at the ballot box.

Even better would have been seeing the advertising ...Read more

The children from the Shajareh Tayebeh primary school, a girls’ school in Minab, Iran, should have been sitting in classrooms, giggling with their friends, and dreaming about recess — not wondering if they would survive that day. Their parents should have been looking forward to picking them up that afternoon, hearing the day’s stories, ...Read more

When I read all the hype being heaped on Kamala Harris’ lead in early polls for the 2028 Democratic nomination, I have to chuckle to myself.

The release of a Rasmussen Reports poll in February was titled, “Kamala Harris Still Leads 2028 Field for Democrats.” One headline in the Hill predicted, “Kamala Harris may yet be the Democratic ...Read more

Two recent election results have Black voters, strategists and activists talking. One is the Senate Democratic primary in Texas, which saw Representative Jasmine Crockett lose pretty handily to James Talarico, a white candidate who is centrist in bearing if not in policy. The other is the Senate Democratic primary in Illinois, which saw ...Read more

Global fragmentation appears to be well underway. The astonishing shift in U.S. foreign and economic policy is a primary cause, but the picture is far from simple and implicates many other factors. How to make sense of this teeming disorder? Where will these shifting forces lead the world?

For a persuasively bleak assessment, read "The Doom ...Read more

Encountering animals in nature—whether on a hiking trail, at the beach or in a neighborhood park—can be one of the most rewarding aspects of spending time outdoors.

Spring break, specifically, brings millions of visitors to natural spaces and vacation destinations, often for the first time. Yet many nature enthusiasts unintentionally put ...Read more

For generations, the United States has framed legal immigration as a kind of social contract. Since 1965, when the Immigration and Nationality Act ended the national-origin quota system, the U.S. has formally opened legal immigration to people from around the world without racial or national-origin preferences.

If people from across the globe ...Read more

American farmers have become among the most productive in the world at growing grains. In doing so, to keep afloat, they have been depleting our rich soils, polluting water from Des Moines to the sprawling dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, driving prices down, increasing farmer debt, and drawing heavily on taxpayer welfare.

Something is wrong ...Read more

At a moment when America’s home insurance crisis has become bad enough to turn conservatives into socialists, a possible solution may just involve — you guessed it — big government. And contra Ronald Reagan, in this case there’s reason to think the government truly can help.

To address soaring insurance premiums and coverage gaps in an ...Read more

Dolores Huerta broke her silence 60 years after Cesar Chavez had assaulted her. In her statement, Dolores Huerta said, “I carried this secret for as long as I did because building the movement and securing farmworker rights was my life’s work.” She did not want to hurt the movement.

After 15 years of working with survivors and supporting ...Read more

It is not easy to be an American Muslim today. At a time when the United States is engaged in yet another conflict involving a Muslim-majority country, rhetoric from a growing number of public figures, including some of our highest officials, continues to vilify Islam and cast suspicion on Muslims as disloyal or dangerous. Too often, national ...Read more

The year was 1998. Bill Clinton was in the White House, Titanic was packing movie theaters and a startup with a funny name, Google, was just launching.

In California, voters were choosing their next governor.

There was great anticipation surrounding a political heavyweight and whether she'd jump into the race. There was a rich businessman ...Read more

Gov. Kathy Hochul said that she had no choice from a hostile federal government and had to change the state’s Essential Plan health coverage and thus potentially remove nearly a half-million New Yorkers from this zero-premium plan. The request to alter the program received preliminary approval from Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers ...Read more

On May 31, 1969, the first student speaker to address a Wellesley College graduation took the stage. You already know her name: Hillary Rodham.

The future first lady and secretary of state — who later took the last name of her husband, Bill Clinton — was preceded at the podium by Massachusetts Sen. Edward Brooke, a moderate Republican and ...Read more

User taxes don’t function properly when some users are able to avoid the tax.

Fuel taxes and vehicle fees are two major sources of revenue for Nevada’s State Highway Fund. This makes sense. Officials use the State Highway Fund to build and maintain roads for vehicles.

Nevada Department of Transportation Director Tracy Larkin Thomason ...Read more

Governing, the political sages tell us, is all about making choices, particularly when leadership faces finite resources and the choices are between war and peace; this is the "guns or butter" balancing raised by Lyndon Johnson's pursuit of the Vietnam War and, appropriately, by President Donald Trump's Iran war.

Thus far, according to budget ...Read more