With COVID-19 cases growing exponentially, Los Angeles County public health officials have ordered the suspension of outdoor dining at restaurants for three weeks starting Thanksgiving Day. It's the latest escalation of business restrictions stemming from this surge, and with cases hitting a new high Monday — 6,124 — it will likely not be ...Read more

Among the reviews of Barack Obama's new memoir, "A Promised Land," a theme has emerged: Obama thinks too much. That Obama thinks is no surprise to anyone following his career or holding this book, which weighs in at 768 pages. But how does he think too much?

For some, Obama's mind is exhausting because it is exhaustive. The "degree of detail" ...Read more

Shortly after President-elect Joe Biden clinched his party's nomination in May, a group of 50 progressive organizations sent his campaign a letter urging him to commit to a broad agenda of foreign policy reform. They wanted him to agree to such policies as reentering the Iran nuclear deal and cutting at least $200 billion from the Pentagon ...Read more

President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to end many of Trump's harsh new immigration policies. But his choice of Alejandro Mayorkas to lead his Department of Homeland Security indicates the new administration won't be embracing open borders, or even crafting especially welcoming policies toward migrants arriving over the Mexican border.

President...Read more

When I ran for elected office my very first time, it was 1994, and it was a great year for Republicans: The Newt Gingrich revolution was occurring at the national level and conservative Delegate Ellen Sauerbrey had defeated moderate Rep. Helen Delich Bentley for the GOP gubernatorial nomination of Maryland.

Those were heady days for a 39-year ...Read more

The problem with Rudy Giuliani isn't that his mascara runs or that he held a post-election event next to an adult book shop. Nor is it his behavior toward the young woman in the Borat movie or his pinkie ring or the fact that he told his second wife he was divorcing her by announcing it at a news conference.

The problem with the former New York...Read more

President Donald Trump has largely been a corrosive force on health care issues, working to undermine the Affordable Care Act and advancing policies that favored younger, healthier people at the expense of Americans with preexisting conditions. But on prescription drugs — an area largely overlooked by the ACA — he's aligned himself with the ...Read more

President-elect Joe Biden is expected to restore protection to "Dreamers," provide a pathway to citizenship for other immigrants, rescind his predecessor's travel bans and allow in more refugees. It is a welcome break from the cruelty of his predecessor, who separated children from their parents and put them in cages.

Immigration is often ...Read more

If 2020 were a play, Florida would have reached Act 2 of the COVID-19 drama. It's disturbingly like Act 1.

Cases are surging, people are waiting hours to get tested and Ron DeSantis doesn't appear up to the job.

Actually, he hasn't appeared much of anywhere lately. DeSantis has adopted a basement strategy since the election, retreating to the ...Read more

Does anyone recall the old Alka-Seltzer commercial that sang: "Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, Oh what a relief it is?"

That song ricocheted 'round my head as the Trump administration finally greenlit a transition period to the Biden presidency. And as President-elect Joe Biden unveiled his national security team, including longtime foreign policy ...Read more

Everyone, even the mildly optimistic American, will come to the Thanksgiving table this year feeling worn out, worried, disappointed or cheated. Directly or indirectly, everyone has experienced the pandemic and the final, exhausting run of the Donald Trump presidency.

As years go, 2020 will live in infamy because so many of our fellow Americans...Read more

Maybe Donald Trump finally sees that the trash compactor walls are closing in. After otherwise loyal Republicans increasingly acknowledged that his legal options are exhausted and urged the transition to President-elect Joe Biden to begin immediately, Trump allowed the General Services Administration to finally allow the process to proceed.

...Read more

Finally.

On Monday, Emily Murphy, the administrator of the General Services Administration, authorized the release of funds for the transition from the Trump administration to the incoming administration of Joe Biden.

In a grudging and self-pitying letter (Murphy said her pets had been subjected to threats!), the administrator told Biden that ...Read more

To mark the 400th anniversary of one of the world's most famous voyages, the Mayflower Memorial in Southhampton, England, installed a new plaque this month. Situated alongside those honoring the Mayflower's passengers and crew, it reads: "In memory of the Wampanoag of Patuxet who perished in the 'Great Dying' plague of 1616 to 1619 introduced by...Read more

I close my eyes and picture my mother's face. The feathery softness of her cheeks, the small nose with a slightly downward point, the wrinkles that trace the trajectory of her emotions through the years, including the deep smile lines on either side of her mouth. Her ivory-white hair, long now from months without a cut, and her eyes — the ...Read more

Global challenges won't wait for President Donald Trump to accept his clear defeat. So President-elect Joe Biden has been wise not to wait either, especially when it comes to forming his foreign policy team.

Biden's announcement of several key posts sends a signal to adversarial nations and transnational actors who would seek to seize advantage...Read more

In November of 1863, President Abraham Lincoln was faced with a choice that was typical among his presidential duties, but was particularly unusual given the circumstances. The case at hand: whether to approve of an execution or to show mercy and grant clemency. His son Tad reportedly pleaded with his father to let the doomed go free, which ...Read more

Wednesday is usually a travel day for my family, like many of yours. Every Thanksgiving for nearly a dozen years, we've packed up and flown south to Birmingham, Alabama, where my husband's father and stepmother live. This is their holiday in our version of the unofficial family custody calendar so many of us are bound by, and we all go to them �...Read more