Politics
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Editorial: The power of 'sunshine' vs. Pete Hegseth
No more fitting tribute exists of Sunshine Week, the annual tribute to open government, than a judge’s refusal to let Pete Hegseth manipulate the Pentagon press.
U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said the policy he struck down favored journalists “willing to publish only stories that are favorable or spoon-fed” by Department of Defense ...Read more
Commentary: The Gulf states are between Iran and a hard place
On Saturday, President Donald Trump tossed a big, loud threat Iran’s way: If Iran doesn’t reopen the Strait of Hormuz in 48 hours, the United States will start bombing its nuclear power plants. But on Monday morning, as the deadline neared, Trump reversed course. The U.S. strikes, he wrote, are now off for a five-day period because U.S. and ...Read more
Adriana E. Ramírez: The SAVE Act is not about protecting the vote
President Donald J. Trump gathered Republican lawmakers in his Florida golf course on March 9, encouraging them to push the controversial SAVE Act through Congress. The proposed law requires “documentary proof of United States citizenship” to vote in federal elections, among other things.
“If you don’t get it, big trouble, my opinion,�...Read more
Editorial: There's no constitutional right to sodas paid for by SNAP
You should have to spend your own money to buy soda. Some people disagree.
This month, the National Center for Law and Economic Justice sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That agency runs the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which is often called food stamps. The goal of SNAP is to help low-income Americans purchase food.
But ...Read more
Editorial: America's airport problems need to be fixed now
America cannot function with travelers stuck in security lines for three and four hours, as was reportedly the case Monday at several major U.S. airports, compounding the weekend problems and snarling the travel of business travelers and spring breakers alike.
Transportation Security Administration employees cannot be expected to go weeks or ...Read more
Aaron Brown: What we still don't know about private credit is troubling
What’s going on in the $3 trillion private credit sector? To understand, let’s start with a sampling of the recent news that’s put investors on edge:
•In February, Blue Owl Capital Inc. gated withdrawals from a retail credit vehicle, meaning investors who wanted their money back were told to wait. Then, it was forced to defend a sale of...Read more
Editorial: A megabucks bailout is brewing for Big Ag as the farm economy struggles
The White House has scheduled a party for Friday and you, taxpayer, will be picking up the check – in more ways than one.
The Celebration of Agriculture event at the South Lawn is intended to “shine a spotlight on the men and women growing our food, fiber and fuel.” Unfortunately, the spotlight also will illuminate trouble in the ...Read more
George Skelton: Trump attacking Newsom's dyslexia proves president's incompetence
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — President Donald Trump claims Gov. Gavin Newsom is unfit to be president because he has a “learning disability.” It’s a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black.
The centuries-old pot-kettle idiom points out hypocrisy — as when one person accuses another of a flaw that afflicts himself.
California’s ...Read more
Commentary: The fuel shortages of the '70s were crazy. Will we be running on empty again?
LOS ANGELES -- Surely you haven’t forgotten those mad COVID weeks of scrambling for the most elementary necessities: the masks, the baby formula, the toilet paper?
Maybe we should start to think of that as … practice.
Twice in the last 50 years, crises in the Mideast, one of them centered in Iran, have turned Americans into frantic hunter-...Read more
Mihir Sharma: The theater of the absurd in trump's trade fight
The U.S. government’s trade lawyers are working overtime. So what if the work in question requires more imagination than it does expertise?
Over the past fortnight, investigations into 16 countries for supposed manufacturing “excess capacity” have been launched under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act. The office of U.S. Trade ...Read more
Commentary: Tax season is here, but Americans are paying the debt bill in other ways, too
It’s tax season, and millions of American households are settling last year’s bill — but a much larger one is coming. For all the conversations taking place about trillions of dollars in accumulating government debt, we rarely talk about how the costs show up in everyday life.
Sometimes, this new tax bill shows up through future tax hikes...Read more
Commentary: Liberty and justice for some
Late February brought two stories that most Americans filed under separate categories. In Kansas, the state government invalidated the driver's licenses and birth certificates of transgender residents, erasing legal identities with the stroke of a pen.
In New York, a Columbia University neuroscience student named Ellie Aghayeva was taken from ...Read more
Mark Z. Barabak: California can have both easy voting and quicker election results. Here's how
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Every two years, elite athletes compete in the Olympics, biennial plants — like carrots and onions — produce seeds and people across America look on with consternation and mounting impatience as California counts its election ballots.
The prolonged tally has become as much a part of electioneering in the Golden State...Read more
Noah Feldman: A judge's vulgar dissent is a loss for everyone
A recent opinion by a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit is a contender for the most vulgar piece of judicial writing in the 300-plus-year history of recorded judicial decisions in the English language.
The opinion in Olympus Spa v. Andretti — a dissent from the 9th Circuit’s decision not to rehear a case involving a ...Read more
Editorial: Amid mounting risks, the Fed wisely puts rates on hold
Much as expected, the Federal Reserve left its policy rate unchanged last week, stressing new uncertainties in the economic outlook and the limits of monetary policy in managing them. This was the right call: If ever there was a time for a central bank to wait and see before altering interest rates, it’s now.
Accordingly, the Fed’s new ...Read more
Commentary: President Trump and his allies are trying to make it harder for Americans to vote
President Donald Trump and his administration have been working diligently to try to undermine Americans’ trust in our elections. The steady drumbeat of lies and disinformation is intended to give cover to their efforts to interfere in our elections and stack the deck in their own favor. Time and time again, we see them justify their actions ...Read more
Robin Abcarian: Republicans fearing a midterm rout revive Islamophobia as political strategy
Boy, it's been a struggle whipping up ugly racist sentiment since President Donald Trump "closed" the border last year. No more stories about immigrant caravans marching ominously north to steal our jobs and rape our women. No more tall tales of Haitian gangs eating the cats, eating the dogs.
Sure, immigrants might still be "poisoning the blood...Read more
LZ Granderson: Trump wants to 'take' Cuba, but we've done that repeatedly before
During President Barack Obama's first term, when the U.S. and Cuba initially made attempts to thaw our icy relationship, I visited the island country as part of an educational delegation.
We met with government officials including Mariela Castro, the daughter of then-President Raul Castro, as she was working on pro-LGBTQ+ legislation. We ...Read more
Commentary: What an Austrian cow and Illinois' Fermilab teach us about scientific discovery
Apparently, cows know how to scratch an itch — with a broom. This fascinating new discovery provides the first known example of multipurpose tool use beyond chimpanzees. It required finding just the right cow (her name was Veronika) in just the right paddock (nestled in the Austrian countryside) with just the right owner (a particularly ...Read more
Commentary: Health care is the way for Democrats to win
When someone is sick in this country, they don’t ask for a politician. They ask for a doctor, a nurse, or a therapist — a front line health care worker. They look for someone they trust.
Right now, our country’s health care system is sick.
Families are anxious about their finances. Many are being forced to decide whether they can afford ...Read more




















































