“Let that sink in” is among the most persistent refrains on political Twitter.

Jolts have hit American brains too fast and too furious over the past five years, what with political upheaval and the pandemic. Our minds need “sink-in” intervals to absorb what has happened.

Even as overused as the phrase is — enough to merit parody, ...Read more

Once upon a time, televised hearings could galvanize the nation, set the national agenda and even change the course of history. Think of the Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954, which spelled the end of Wisconsin Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy and his witch hunts for Communists, or the Senate Watergate Hearings in 1973, which ultimately led to the ...Read more

A House committee to investigate the events of Jan. 6 held its first hearing this week, aiming to unravel the details of the Capitol riot that left five dead. The riot was an attack on our democracy, a startling insurrection that many have called an act of domestic terrorism, including FBI Director Christopher A. Wray.

More than 500 ...Read more

The raucous tenor of Tuesday’s St. Louis County Council meeting is rooted in growing public confusion over vaccinations and mask mandates. Some of the confusion is deliberately sown by educated people who choose to make this a political issue. Others are understandably frustrated because they believed in the science and got vaccinated, only ...Read more

The new Supreme Court conservative supermajority has already radically changed notions of law in some pockets of America. For proof, look no further than the brief that the state of Mississippi filed last week in the most closely watched abortion case in a generation, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which the Supreme Court will ...Read more

As the United States wrestles with how to curb the spread of the COVID-19 delta variant — and President Joe Biden launches a push to get federal workers vaccinated — it’s painful to compare our struggle with that of the rest of the world.

While coronavirus infections soar in developing countries from lack of vaccines, Americans have ...Read more

For decades, communist China has been wielding its influence in African countries, establishing strong financial interests and working to convince growing nations that its authoritarian communism is a better form of government than democratic models of individual liberty and economic freedom.

While not a typical kitchen-table issue for ...Read more

Climate change got personal for my family in 2013, when a refugee bear fleeing a nearby wildfire scaled my goat-corral fence and killed most of the herd in front of our eyes. Milk providers, yoga partners and friends Natalie Merchant, Bette Midler and Stevie Nicks were lost that day (we name our goats after singers we like). Baby Taylor Swift ...Read more

Pedro Loza, now 74, recalls the exact moment he realized he would have to settle in the United States, despite his dream of returning to reside once again in his beloved Mexico.

He was working in construction in Chicago in the 1990s, watching Spanish-language TV news reporting on California’s spate of anti-immigrant policies, including the ...Read more

The delta variant is spreading rapidly in California and nationwide, but happily so are crackdowns by public and private employers aimed at limiting the ability of their unvaccinated workers to infect others with COVID-19.

On Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced new rules requiring vaccination or regular testing and masking for the ...Read more

There has never been a more fraught time to be mid-air than 2021. I’m thinking, of course, about what aviation officials are calling an “off the charts,” roughly sevenfold increase in so-called “air rage” incidents on U.S. airliners during a post-pandemic traveling surge. These events have ranged from the obnoxious — party-bound ...Read more

Now is the summer of our discontent — that’s pretty much the way we all felt a year ago, when we were shut down, locked up and trapped in the pandemic summer of 2020.

But this week — despite the fact that all Americans over age 12 have received what many would call the God-given gift of a chance to receive, absolutely free, a lifesaving ...Read more

More than 77 million Americans volunteer a total of 6.9 billion hours a year doing everything from fighting fires to raising funds for cancer research. These efforts help others and support communities. But volunteering also tends to benefit the volunteers themselves in at least four different ways.

1. Boosting your health, especially if you ...Read more

Yes, the For the People Act would prevent gerrymandering this cycle.

However, deadlines are fast approaching.

A recent column made the argument that, if passed, the For the People Act's redistricting reforms wouldn't take effect until 2030. The piece also chastised voting rights and pro-democracy groups for misleading their members and ...Read more

Reform isn’t optional for the Chicago Police Department. It’s mandated by the consent decree imposed by the federal government after the 2014 murder of Laquan McDonald, a Black teen, by a white police officer. But even with the weight of the Justice Department behind it, the consent decree still needs a crucial component — buy-in from rank...Read more

As effective as the COVID-19 vaccines have been, the pandemic has taken an unfortunate turn in recent weeks. New cases and hospitalizations are no longer in decline across the United States, they’re on the upswing; the highly contagious delta variant accounts for most. Doses of the vaccines are plentiful, but the arms willing to accept them ...Read more

Like many of the country’s institutions, the U.S. military has come under fire from certain Republican lawmakers for daring to take on racism and extremism within its ranks. One recent example occurred early this month, when an Air Force Academy professor said in an op-ed that critical race theory — that academic lightning rod — was fair ...Read more

Since taking office, President Joe Biden and his top advisers have made it clear that there is almost nothing Iran can do to get his administration to rescind its offer to negotiate a return to the 2015 nuclear deal that Biden’s predecessor abandoned. Thankfully, that might finally be changing.

On Wednesday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah ...Read more

A move in Congress to require young women to register for the draft as young men are required to do has riled conservatives like Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. The issue is, for the moment at least, a theoretical one. America hasn’t drafted anyone in half a century, relying entirely on a volunteer military since 1973.

But men ages 18 to 25 still are...Read more

Here we are again, on pins and needles over the rampant spread of COVID-19 in Florida, a mere two weeks before children start in-person school in some counties.

It’s no joke: Florida leads the nation in COVID-19 cases, and hospitalizations are surging to a horribly familiar crisis point.

This time, it’s the delta variant, more easily ...Read more