We got a kick out of an old chestnut among conspiracy theorists — whether intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe and whether any of those aliens have visited Earth — that rose to the surface earlier this week thanks to the musings of none other than former President Barack Obama.

Obama’s off-the-cuff remarks to a podcast host ...Read more

The best lesson I learned during my formative years in journalism came from the editor at my first daily newspaper job, Doug Turner of the late Buffalo Courier-Express.

I had told him that the councilmen at the suburban town I was covering were trying to bully me out of writing a critical story. Turner, who had spent a career covering local- ...Read more

What do a recent grad, a disenchanted employee, and a parent returning to the workforce all have in common?

They’re each trying to determine which skills are in demand and how they can convince employers that they are competent in those fields. This is easier said than done.

Recent grads point to transcripts lined with As to persuade firms ...Read more

Last weekend, Secretary of State Marco Rubio traveled to Germany for the annual Munich Security Conference, where he delivered a speech that was both reassuring to the European dignitaries in the audience and nerve-wracking because of its references to the kind of MAGA culture-inspired war themes that Europe generally shivers at. After the ...Read more

Every February, Black History Month provides an opportunity for us to remember the past and confront how history continues to shape our future. One place where the legacy of the past is hiding in plain sight is the property tax system — a foundation of local government finance that is not as fair as it needs to be.

As lawmakers across the ...Read more

“I think, therefore I am,” philosopher René Descartes famously said in 1637. To think means to be alive. Learning how to think is why students go to to school.

As a high school student and high school teacher in different parts of the country, we believe education can still serve that purpose — but we’re worried.

Thinking was still a ...Read more

Democrats are on the verge of making affordability the defining and winning issue of the 2026 midterm election. The optics surrounding this failure of a Trump administration would be laughable if the consequences for working families weren’t so serious.

President Donald Trump and his cronies boast endlessly about a supposedly “stellar” ...Read more

Where are the statesmen when the state is under siege by the current head of state?

I've been mulling that question, hardly for the first time, but on three occasions just in the last few days.

On Monday, the federal holiday celebrating George Washington's birth, former President George W. Bush posted an essay on the first U.S. president as ...Read more

My parents were just children when they were wrested from their homes into tarpaper barracks surrounded by barbed wire. The message: They were not welcome.

On Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, authorizing the incarceration of more than 120,000 people of Japanese descent — an entire group of people ...Read more

During the postwar decades, American medical science reached a sort of financial equilibrium: The government would fund basic scientific research with billions of dollars in academic grants, then entrust the subsequent development of health-giving products to private enterprise.

The arrangement hasn't always worked in the public's interest — ...Read more

There’s an old saying that “only the good die young.” Not true, of course, but the sentiment is understandable given the complex twists and turns of any life, including that of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights titan and noteworthy presidential candidate, who at age 84 died Tuesday at his home in Chicago.

The Rev. Jackson’s rise ...Read more

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a lot of promises on his way to becoming health secretary. He pledged to Make America Healthy Again, of course, and to restore trust in embattled health agencies. And he said he wouldn’t “take away anybody’s vaccines.”

In his first year in office, he’s already broken most of these promises.

The sweeping, ...Read more

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey wouldn’t be a progressive Democrat if she didn’t want to eliminate the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

She made it clear in a Sunday WCVB “On the Record” interview when asked if ICE should be defunded. “Yes,” she answered, adding that the agency has “more funding than all state and...Read more

One year ago, Donald Trump returned to office with four clear priorities: secure the border, lower costs for working-class Americans, restore economic growth and put good-paying American jobs first.

As he prepares to deliver his State of the Union address, measurable results are not just visible, they are undeniable. And the second phase is ...Read more

Imagine if a candidate for, say, the California Assembly appeared at a political event and delivered the following remarks:

"No to kosher meat. No to yarmulkes. No to celebrating Easter. No, no, no."

He, or she, would be roundly — and rightly — criticized for their bigotry and raw prejudice.

Recently, at a candidates forum outside Dallas,...Read more

All too frequently government programs for sympathetic causes are plagued by high levels of fraud.

Consider Minnesota. Thieves systematically ripped off programs to feed children, provide housing and child care, and help children with autism. Federal prosecutors believe the amount stolen could top $9 billion. Prosecutors have already secured ...Read more

Who gets to be “American”? In the United States, it’s become a fiery political question with life-or-death consequences.

On one side is Team MAGA, for whom “America” means the U.S. and “American” signifies a U.S. citizen — in many of their minds, specifically a native-born, white, Christian U.S. citizen. They routinely deny that...Read more

President Donald Trump is the consummate salesman, and his State of the Union address will certainly seek to convince Americans that our republic is in a better place. Despite some improvements, the American people, at our core, know that things still aren’t as rosy as our president would like us to believe.

News that consumer confidence has ...Read more

As the U.S. struggles with how to respond to the violent actions of federal immigration enforcement agents, it’s a good time to remember how one small Florida community turned its tragedy into a national movement.

Eight years ago on Valentine’s Day, a mentally unstable 19-year-old brought his legally obtained AR-15 semi-automatic rifle to ...Read more

Why can’t the Texas Senate race be between John Cornyn, the Republican incumbent, versus James Talarico, a Democratic state representative? Because that would be too sane for the times we’re living in.

Instead, a recent University of Houston poll shows Ken Paxton, the state’s firebrand Republican attorney general, and Jasmine Crockett, an...Read more