The next time you fill up your gas tank, you may be paying for President Donald Trump’s war with Iran.

Just days into the new 60-day agreement, Iranian officials began discussing new charges on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. The Trump administration says they are not tolls. Iran calls them fees. American families will pay either ...Read more

Last month, the Texas State Board of Education adopted a required reading list that includes Bible stories and scriptures at every public-school grade level, from kindergarten through high school. In first grade, for example, students will learn about Jonah and the whale.

OK. Everybody should know the story of Jonah and the whale. Father Mapple...Read more

A republic, if you can keep it,” Benjamin Franklin famously responded when asked by a Philadelphia socialite what it was that he and the other Founders had wrought.

Her question, and his answer, in the 1787 conversation framed the choice for the emerging new country as being between republic and monarchy. Today, in some quarters, the choice ...Read more

To test whether our nation’s founding principles remain strong enough to make it another 250 years, PBS surprised a group of nine prominent Americans with a hypothetical worst-case scenario for the midterm elections.

We started by assembling notables who were willing to go on national TV to game out a gripping story in which our democracy is ...Read more

A farmer in Ames, Iowa, pulls up to a gas station and stares in shock at the numbers on the pump. The price of fuel has jumped sharply since the outbreak of war with Iran. His next thought is simple: every extra dollar spent on diesel is a dollar he cannot spend elsewhere. Before long, those higher costs will show up in the price of food, ...Read more

Ask almost any adult about their first summer job, and they’ll remember it instantly. Usually with a smile on their face.

Maybe you scooped ice cream or bused tables (or both). Perhaps you perfected your mopping form on dirty linoleum floors or folded endless piles of shirts mussed by casual shoppers.

Whatever your first gig, you likely ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Could the Declaration of Independence be signed today by this crop of political leaders, particularly the one who occupies and defaces the White House?

Not just sign, but sincerely mean it.

Especially the guy who bangs a wrecking ball against the historic East Wing to make room for an incongruous ballroom monstrosity, ...Read more

What in the actual Stage 4 melanoma is going on around here?

"Auntie, look at my tan lines!" my 16-year-old niece commanded after spending a few hours at the beach the other day. Every day this summer, like a weather reporter, she announces the "UV index."

Initially, I assumed she was trying to avoid the worst part of the day for sun exposure....Read more

The U.S. government’s monthly reading on inflation is due July 14, but American consumers already know the score. Even if the consumer price index dips from last month’s three-year high, the cost of living has gone up across the economy, putting a squeeze on household budgets.

One result? People are becoming better shoppers, spending their ...Read more

Let’s say you drive over a pothole in front of your house in Denver and call the city. They come fix it within a few days. Problem solved.

Now let’s say the problem is the sidewalk in front of your house. You call the city again.

Until recently, city staff would have pointed you to their “Homeowner’s Do-It Yourself Guide for Hazardous ...Read more

During his 26 years as a night-shift nurse, Ed Collum watched colleagues nod off mid-conversation, battle chronic illnesses and, too often, die young from cancer, stroke or suicide.

Collum puts it bluntly: “The night shift is not good for you.”

The science backs him up. Shift work, especially overnight and rotating schedules, is a major ...Read more

The Social Security trust fund will run out of money by late 2032, according to the annual report the program issued last month. The specific date is new — last year’s report projected insolvency by early 2033 — but the overall trend is not: Social Security’s long-run imbalance was first projected in 1985. Even for Congress, ignoring 41 ...Read more

When President Donald Trump signed an executive order this spring to speed up FDA approval of psychedelic treatments, he echoed a push for healing long championed in California. I know these benefits myself — but also devastation.

In 2023, my husband and I enrolled in a clinical trial using MDMA (commonly known as ecstasy). I found this ...Read more

My daughter has a life.

That sentence should not be remarkable. For most of American history, it would have been. The Trump administration, it seems, would like to go back.

My eldest daughter turned 25 in September. We had a St. Louis Cardinals-themed birthday party — chocolate cake, her favorite — and she stood at the counter and helped ...Read more

Donald Trump, now 80 years old and seeking riches his whole life, has realized his dream by debasing the once-solemn duties of the U.S. presidency.

After decades of bankruptcies and losses and inflating his own wealth as he mismanaged his companies, Trump has finally found profit, with his financial disclosure statements showing he pulled in at...Read more

In the old days, before accepted medical protocols came under partisan assault, infants typically received a vitamin K shot to enhance blood-clotting capability and a few drops of an antibiotic to stave off eye infections before leaving the hospital, followed by a thorough round of vaccines against life-threatening diseases.

Americans assumed ...Read more

Happy Birthday, America!

You turned 250 on Saturday and, honestly, you don't look a day over 249. (Ha ha.)

Seriously, it's perfectly understandable why there's more gray on your scalp and deeper worry lines on your face. This last year has been another challenging one, to say the least. (And we thought the one cataloged 12 months ago in this ...Read more

Donald Trump remade the Republican Party in his own image, and those GOP incumbents who’ve attempted to stand in his way or haven’t been exuberantly supportive enough for his liking nearly always have been dispatched to retirement by MAGA primary voters.

Establishment Democratic Party politicians are getting to know the feeling.

First, a ...Read more

When people consider where leadership originates, they’ll often cite club sports, internships or professional experience.

My response is different.

I was 11 when I got into “Super Smash Bros.” Like many kids, I spent countless hours playing video games with friends after a long school day, battling players on Discord, learning new ...Read more