Politics
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Commentary: How Lou Gehrig's life taught me to fight for Prop. 50
I have ALS, an incurable and fatal disease. There’s a good chance I will die within a few years.
But my spirit feels optimistic. My game is in the middle innings — lots of time left.
Baseball is an apt metaphor because ALS is “Lou Gehrig’s disease.” The legendary New York Yankee died from it. Despite his condition, he told his fans, ...Read more

Gustavo Arellano: Former bracero doesn't want the program to return. 'People will be treated like slaves'
One May morning in 1961, 21-year-old Manuel Alvarado strapped on his huaraches, stuffed three changes of clothes and a thin blanket into a nylon tote bag and bid his parents farewell. He was leaving their rancho of La Cañada, Zacatecas for el Norte.
The United States had been kind and cruel to his farming family. His uncles had regaled him ...Read more

Commentary: When AI therapy helps
I’ll admit something personal: I’ve talked to an AI therapist. It was remarkably useful, meeting me in tough moments whenever with words that actually helped me take a step back, breathe, and process. That mix of good and bad is what makes artificial intelligence so fascinating and so important to get right.
The truth is, not all AI therapy...Read more

Commentary: AI reshapes the American workplace -- but where are the jobs?
In recent years, American workers have been going through an unprecedented experiment in how we work. During the COVID pandemic and social distancing, U.S. businesses embraced the latest online technologies to vastly expand remote work. That, in turn, ushered in the slow creep of artificial intelligence applications into every crack and seam of ...Read more

Commentary: Even Saudi Arabia is focused on solar energy. Will the US be left behind?
While the Trump administration has effectively declared war on wind and solar energy — blocking all permitting of projects on federal lands and pushing through a rollback of federal subsidies and tax credits — other nations are embracing renewable energy as a strategy for building economic and political strength.
China remains the world’...Read more

Noah Feldman: If 'conversion therapy' is free speech, what isn't?
Based on oral arguments last week, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority seems likely to hold that the First Amendment protects so-called conversion therapy for gay and transgender minors when it is conducted entirely through conversation. If so, it would be the first time the court has ever held that talk therapy is fully protected speech...Read more

George Skelton: Katie Porter's meltdown opens the door for this LA Democrat
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sen. Alex Padilla apparently dreams of becoming California’s next governor. He’s thinking hard about entering the race to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom. And Katie Porter may have just opened the starting gate for him.
Porter has been regarded as the early front-runner. But she tripped and stumbled badly during a ...Read more

Abby McCloskey: Even GOP voters are souring on this economy
Here’s a shocker: Democrats and Republicans don’t see eye-to-eye on the economy.
But focusing on the partisan divide obscures the bigger picture: Majorities in both parties think the economy is not good. This is bad news for Republicans, the party in power and also the party historically more trusted with the economy. And it’s bad news ...Read more

Editorial: Sister Jean's remarkable longevity
Boston University has a term for those who make it to 100 years old without showing any outward sign of dementia or any other clinically demonstrable disease: “escapers.”
It’s a reference to how, as one inevitably approaches the limit of the natural human lifespan, morbidity is something to be “escaped.”
Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, ...Read more
Editorial: Trumpian smearing of Chicago gets the scrutiny it deserves in a federal courtroom
When confronted with assertions from Trump administration officials regarding Chicago (it’s a “war zone,” a “hellhole,” etc.), most of us who live here understand that the picture being painted of our city bears little resemblance to reality.
That doesn’t stop President Donald Trump and lieutenants such as Homeland Security ...Read more

Commentary: Getting fired for social media posts is the new workplace cancel culture
Americans think the First Amendment protects their speech. It doesn’t — at least not at work for most of us. Just ask the executives, teachers, lawyers and even a Secret Service agent disciplined after posting about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. A single Facebook update or tweet — whether mocking, angry or ...Read more

Commentary: How billionaires are rewriting history and democracy
In the Gilded Age of the millionaire, wealth signified ownership. The titans of old built railroads, monopolized oil, and bought their indulgences in yachts, mansions, and eventually, sports teams. A franchise was the crown jewel: a visible, glamorous token of success.
But that era is over. Today’s billionaires, those who tower, not with ...Read more

Commentary: Draw a red line against AI in nuclear war
On Sept. 22, a group of more than 200 prominent individuals, including 10 Nobel Prize winners, published an open letter calling for urgent action to enact binding international safeguards against dangerous uses of artificial intelligence, or AI.
“AI holds immense potential to advance human wellbeing, yet its current trajectory presents ...Read more

Patricia Lopez: 'Farmageddon' can't be solved with a bailout alone
It’s harvest time in the Midwest and farmers are bringing in bumper crops of soybeans, corn and wheat. They should be elated.
But their best customers are shopping elsewhere as a result of a global trade war ignited by President Donald Trump. Punishing tariffs have created what some are calling “Farmaggedon.”
China, once a top ...Read more

Editorial: $100,000 H-1B visa fees are a distraction from real reform
With America’s global leadership in scientific innovation facing unprecedented competition, getting high-skilled immigration right should be a top priority in Washington. The first task for the White House is to get out of its own way.
The administration sparked fear and confusion last month by announcing that it would impose a $100,000 fee ...Read more

Trudy Rubin: Trump's Gaza deal offers an opportunity to pursue peace
On my home office wall hangs a framed poster with the word peace in English, Arabic, and Hebrew.
I acquired it in Jerusalem in November 1977 when I was covering Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s historic visit there, a stunning event that truly changed the Middle East. Once Egypt — then the Arab world’s foremost military power — signed a...Read more

Commentary: What to read into Bari Weiss' elevation to lead CBS News
There are many ways to interpret Bari Weiss’ elevation to editor in chief of CBS News — an impressive title that still doesn’t quite capture her influence, considering she’ll report directly to David Ellison, chairman of Paramount and son of the billionaire Oracle co-founder.
One could, of course, be jealous. She’s 41, has no ...Read more

Editorial: Smearing Tish James: Political indictment undermines Trump Department of Justice
The Trump-corrupted Department of Justice indictment of the president’s declared political enemy, New York Attorney General Tish James, on flimsy bank fraud charges is a joke and the matter should be easily dismissed by an independent federal judge.
Whether this is selective prosecution or malicious prosecution is to be established, but it is...Read more

James Stavridis: Putin is taking his hybrid warfare to the sea
As a retired admiral and former supreme allied commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, I was thrilled when Sweden and Finland joined the alliance. My first thought was about the vast coastline the two Nordic states provided, essentially turning the Baltic Sea into a “NATO lake.”
Russia has a sliver of land on the eastern corner...Read more

Ronald Brownstein: These are the blue-collar voters the GOP needs to worry about
In the 2024 election, Donald Trump mapped an escape route for Republicans from the greatest long-term challenge facing the party. Less than a year later, that path looks much more precarious.
The core demographic challenge facing the GOP is that the party’s most reliable bloc of voters — White people without a four-year college degree — ...Read more