There’s an old saying that a recession is when you lose your job and a depression is when I lose mine. A similar logic applies to floods. Hurricane Helene brought a flooding disaster to southern Appalachia unlike anything seen since Katrina. But getting just an inch of water in your house could be life-changing in its own way.

It shouldn’t ...Read more

The American Immigration Council, a pro-immigration think tank, issued a report last week estimating the costs — financial costs only — of deporting all the undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

The financial impacts of deporting between 11 million and 14 million people are, not surprisingly, vast. The group’s low estimate starts at $315 ...Read more

By every definition, I am a frequent flyer. Every Thursday afternoon, after I cast my last vote in the Senate, I head to the airport to fly home to Illinois, where I take meetings with constituents and attend state events through the weekend. Come Monday morning, I’m back on a plane to Washington.

I understand the practicality of airline ...Read more

The federal government has fumbled one of its largest obligations in education.

The result is chaos for colleges and millions of students who depend on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to access loans and scholarships.

The lack of accountability raises a deeper question: Why do federal bureaucrats have so much power over ...Read more

Mpox is spreading across several African countries. The World Health Organization declared mpox a “public health emergency of international concern.”

The Democratic Republic of Congo has been hardest hit, though Burundi has also seen a recent surge of cases. To date this year, 36,000 suspected cases have been reported, with more than one-...Read more

In the middle of an interview last week, former President Donald Trump casually tossed out “absolutely I’d revoke (temporary protected status for Haitian immigrants) and I’d bring them back to their country,” referring to the humanitarian immigration program that has given protections from deportation and work authorization to some 200,...Read more

Melania Trump’s memoir covers a lot of ground about the former first lady’s multifaceted life, but the aspect that most took observers by surprise was her explicit support for abortion rights, then driven home by a video that she subsequently posted on X.

In it, Trump says that “without a doubt, there is no room for compromise when it ...Read more

I’m a die-hard Buffalo Bills fan who suffered through four back-to-back Super Bowl losses — sports are a big thing in my household. So on National Sports Day (Oct. 16), my family will be celebrating all the joys and miseries of professional athletics. What we won’t be cheering for are any “sports” activities that involve animals, ...Read more

Some right-leaning voters who oppose Donald Trump are thinking of voting neither for him nor Kamala Harris.

I understand how they feel. In 2016, I published an article urging Never Trump conservatives to consider casting their ballot for a third-party candidate. In the election that year, I did just that.

I regret writing that column. I regret...Read more

Clueless and politically-expedient Democrats marked the one-year anniversary of the terror attack on Israel by repeating their calls for a cease-fire – a case of incredibly bad timing and an affront to our Israeli allies.

Leading the liberal charge were Massachusetts Democrats Elizabeth Warren, Ayanna Pressley and Ed Markey, who not ...Read more

Chances are you've never heard of Tina Peters. It's worth taking a moment to get to know her.

Peters used to be the elections chief in Mesa County, Colorado, a slice of rugged beauty perched on the state's Western Slope.

After the 2020 election, Peters fell in with the tinfoil-hat crowd promoting the phony claim the presidential race was ...Read more

For a state that has experienced many tragedies, Oct. 7 will long be remembered as perhaps the darkest day in Israel’s history. Israelis from across the political divide marked the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ terrorist attack into southern Israel with sadness, mourning and reflection on Monday. Israel, meanwhile, is a state at war with ...Read more

If you are wired into the flow of campaign news — as I am, for my sins — you will be inundated this week with reports of a new analysis of the fiscal impact of the economic proposals of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

Long story short: Trump's would be much worse in terms of increasing the federal debt than Harris'. According to the study ...Read more

In a climate where so much time and energy is spent trying to tackle human disease, Monday’s Nobel Prize in the category of physiology or medicine is a welcome reminder of the value of pursuing research that scratches a scientific itch. Sometimes, that work might lead to a new understanding of human biology.

“Curiosity research is very ...Read more

In his June 25 advisory, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called firearm violence a public health crisis, noting that it is now the leading cause of death among U.S. children.

For me, this is personal.

My son, Kenzo, was 15 when he was shot and killed by a friend whose home he was visiting. To impress Kenzo, the friend had quietly gone and gotten ...Read more

New York City Mayor Eric Adams insists he’s innocent of the bribery and campaign-finance charges that federal prosecutors brought against him last month. As a citizen, he has a right to make his case in court. As an elected official, he has an obligation to convince the public he’s still worthy of their trust. He’s not off to a good start....Read more

Can you imagine Illinois with a $17 billion budget surplus?

Neither can we. But it does happen — elsewhere. One Midwestern neighbor, Minnesota, had a cool $17 billion cushion to work with less than two years ago when Gov. Tim Walz, now the Democratic vice presidential nominee, and state lawmakers were given the enviable task of what to do ...Read more

Do vice-presidential debates matter? Conventional wisdom says no. Historically, polls have shown that those quadrennial 90 minutes have little effect on how people will vote in the presidential election.

Tuesday night's debate between the Democratic nominee, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and his Republican opponent, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, seems to ...Read more