Belatedly, Alabama lawmakers have passed a bill protecting access to in vitro fertilization. The measure came two weeks after the state Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos should be considered unborn children under the law. Three fertility clinics had suspended treatments, citing liability concerns. Would-be parents were caught in limbo.

...Read more

The primaries are over and California has made one decision for certain: For the first time in 30 years, the Golden State will not send a woman to the Senate.

Welcome to women's history month 2024, where even in California, progress feels like finding tampons in the public bathroom, then realizing they're the kind with no tube.

For those ...Read more

California took a big step last fall when lawmakers passed a pair of laws requiring big companies doing business in the state to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and climate-related risks, shining a light on their role in fueling the climate crisis.

But now that it’s time for the experts at the California Air Resources Board to craft ...Read more

Until Katie Porter won her congressional seat in 2018, being a Democrat in Orange County was like rooting for the Angels: Someone has to do it, amirite?

Republicans had held a majority of my home county's legislative, congressional and supervisorial seats for decades. They maintained a robust ecosystem of candidates, funneling activists onto ...Read more

President Joe Biden is angry.

When he ran for office in 2020, Biden promised to restore normalcy and unity to America. In his State of the Union address Thursday night, he gave a speech that was partisan, dishonest and, at times, incoherent. It wasn’t an update on America, nor was it hopeful, unifying or inspiring.

In a speech that ran over ...Read more

All the fearmongering in Washington over the $1.5 trillion federal budget deficit hides a truth few politicians would admit — that hefty headline number you hear so much about is an unreliable measure of US fiscal health.

Savvy economists prefer what’s known as the primary deficit, which is the overall shortfall minus what the government ...Read more

It’s one of the classic lines in America cinema. In Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Paul Newman and Robert Redford are cornered by a posse of lawmen, and the only escape is to leap from a cliff into the river below. When Sundance says he won’t jump, because he can’t swim, Butch reassures him: “The fall will probably kill you.”

It�...Read more

Anyone hoping that Republican voters around the country would use Super Tuesday to slow their party’s careening trajectory toward the Trumpian cliff now must face facts: It’s over.

Donald Trump’s near-total sweep of Super Tuesday states, and challenger Nikki Haley’s subsequent campaign suspension Wednesday, means that, barring some epic...Read more

Dear Caitlin Clark,

Recently, I was lucky enough to see you play in person. I brought my 5-year-old daughter to Williams Arena in Minneapolis, where I live now with my wife and two girls. You dominated as usual and were playing at a different level than anyone else on the court. The shots you were making reminded me of when I would play NBA ...Read more

When salespeople knocked on my door a year ago attempting to sell me solar panels, I declined, explaining that I couldn’t afford them and that I was already doing my part to combat the climate catastrophe by being vegan. But when they asked if I’d be open to hearing more information, I agreed, mostly out of curiosity. Six months later, I had...Read more

“That’s the wrong question.”

In the most recent season of “True Detective,” Jodie Foster plays a detective in Alaska. Her character has a knack for pushing other officers to ask better questions about the complex case in their hands. Unsurprisingly, it annoys the heck out of her colleagues. Also unsurprisingly, it helps them get to ...Read more

I never thought of myself as a mass killer, but the Alabama Supreme Court has a different idea.

Last month, the court ruled frozen embryos are legally children, allowing several in-vitro fertilization patients to sue a fertility clinic for wrongful death over the inadvertent destruction of their refrigerated, um, kids.

To be clear, you cannot ...Read more

If you failed to visit the gym, cut back on sweets or start a new hobby in January, never fear. Experts say it's best to make resolutions a little later in any case. And the most important resolutions you make in 2024 may be less about self-help than about the nation as a whole.

There’s never been a better year, in fact, for civic resolutions...Read more

More than a half-century ago, stunt daredevil Karl Wallenda balanced on a 1,200-foot tightrope suspended above the rocky waterfalls of the northeast Georgia mountains and successfully crossed the Tallulah Gorge. The state hasn’t seen a high wire act as daunting since, but Republican Governor Brian Kemp may be getting close.

The governor has ...Read more

Donald Trump didn’t write Katie Porter’s requiem post on social media. But throw in a few misspellings and capitalized letters and he very well could have.

“Because of you, we had the establishment running scared,” she told supporters of her unsuccessful U.S. Senate bid in a Wednesday night statement on X. This, Porter continued, ...Read more

For this primary election I decided to cast my ballot in person after voting by mail the last few pandemic-dominated years.

Because I live in California, where every active, registered voter receives a vote-by-mail ballot, I had a lot of convenient options. I could mail in my ballot or drop it off at a secure dropbox. I could go to one of ...Read more

One of global warming’s more colorful dangers is the possibility that melting permafrost will revive prehistoric diseases and trigger horrific pandemics. But the more immediate candidates for a disastrous, climate-fueled comeback are newer and man-made.

A hotter and more chaotic atmosphere is making it harder to build nuclear weapons and ...Read more

Sixty years ago, President Lyndon Johnson declared “an unconditional war on poverty.” Using policies and programs as weapons, Johnson focused heavily on health coverage and “human capital.” His Great Society agenda also included key political reforms like the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968, the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act ...Read more

On Oscar night, millions will tune in to see whether the captivating story about the race to create the world’s first nuclear weapon will take home an armload of Academy Awards. As we watch, we must remember this: No matter who lands a golden statuette on March 10, we will all wake up on March 11 just one terrible miscalculation, accident or ...Read more

The symbol of sentencing excess in California could be an extra-large slice of pepperoni pizza, taken from four youngsters on the Redondo Beach Pier.

The petty theft resulted in a sentence of 25 years to life in prison for Jerry Dewayne Williams because he had a record that included two serious or violent felonies — and because several months...Read more