In June, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) finally released the long-awaited homelessness numbers for 2025, revealing a 3.3 percent decrease in overall homelessness between January 2024 and January 2025.

To be clear, this modest decline is not cause for celebration – 745,652 people remain homeless on a given night in ...Read more

Not content to pour billions of dollars into a high-speed rail sinkhole, California’s policymakers now have a plan to burn billions more on high-speed buses.

You can’t make up this stuff.

Kerry Jackson of the Pacific Research Institute wrote recently that California lawmakers have discussed a proposal put forward by state transportation ...Read more

Social Security is now just six years away from insolvency, according to the latest annual assessment. Many in Congress might like to keep on ignoring the problem, as they have for years, but this won’t be an option much longer. Senators elected in November will see the system’s trust fund empty during their terms.

Maybe, just maybe, this ...Read more

Halfway through the U.S. primary election season, at least one thing is clear: Voters in states that hold closed party primaries are, as usual, losing out.

More than 20 states hold primaries in which only registered party members are eligible to participate. In a battleground state or district, that process can produce competitive general ...Read more

In 1913, Antonino Alati left southern Italy to find a better life in a land where many people regarded him as little better than scum.

He joined millions of his fellow countrymen in the United States, where the press vilified Italians as poor, dirty, violent Catholics who had too many babies, refused to assimilate and could never possibly be ...Read more

The Supreme Court wrapped its term on Tuesday. The progressive notion that the justices would be a rubber-stamp for the Trump administration was a notable casualty.

In a blow to the White House, for instance, the justices overturned President Donald Trump’s executive order ending automatic citizenship for anyone born on U.S. soil. Writing for...Read more

"America 250” is no “Spirit of ‘76.”

For those of us who remember the bicentennial, the semiquincentennial is a complete and utter dud. Many fine festivities will take place on and around July 4, but compared with the years-long nationwide celebration that marked this country’s 200th anniversary, 250 feels like a nonevent.

Perhaps it...Read more

When people ask why I love America, my answer is simple.

I love America because it is a place where ordinary people can live extraordinary lives. That has certainly been true in my life.

I grew up believing that if you worked hard, treated people with respect and stayed true to your principles, there were no limits to what you could accomplish...Read more

The American spirit is the heartbeat of our greatness. You’ll see it in the tenacity of farmworkers and the unique drive of dedicated craftsmen and trade workers. You’ll witness its nobility in the brave teams of first responders nationwide and the empathy and support of small-town communities that fuel the flame of American industry.

And ...Read more

The Supreme Court was correct on Tuesday to strike down President Donald Trump’s order excluding from the 14th Amendment’s guaranty of birthright citizenship those who are born when their parents are “unlawfully or temporarily present” within the nation’s borders. The result matters for many reasons. One is that the majority correctly ...Read more

As constitutional amendments go, the 14th is straightforward. Ratified in 1868 after Republicans in Congress had fiercely repudiated the notorious Dred Scott decision, it declares that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”

The issue before the ...Read more

America has much to celebrate this July 4, but also much to do. Even after 250 years, the task of conserving the Republic given to us by our Founding Fathers is a never-ending struggle.

Fortunately, we have a wellspring of wisdom from those Founders we can tap. Thomas Jefferson, the author of our Declaration of Independence, outlined the ...Read more

Major disasters have a way of bringing people together. The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks ushered in months of unity and bonhomie among New Yorkers. The 1985 earthquake in Mexico City, which killed approximately 5,000 people, did much the same, with Mexican civilians teaming up to launch their own rescue operations as the federal and city ...Read more

It shouldn’t be too much to ask that taxpayer-funded social service programs benefit people who actually exist.

Apparently it is, as more than 1 million people enrolled in Obamacare plans lack Social Security numbers, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ...Read more

The American Revolution unleashed what one prominent historian has called a “contagion of liberty.” Ideas for change went viral, as revolutionaries saw independence as an opportunity to establish a truly different sort of nation. Some even saw the possibility of creating a more equitable society.

While many reformist proposals involved ...Read more

The flow of money into U.S. politics is already harming democracy, and now, it’s about to get worse.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down limits on campaign expenditures by political parties in coordination with candidates in a 6-3 decision that only continues the problematic trend started by Citizen’s United v. FEC. Without these ...Read more

Here’s the truism that powers the free market. Economic growth hinges on what the government doesn’t do far more than what the government does do.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released an update on state-level employment. Over the past year, only two states have had a substantial increase in nonfarm payroll employment. They are ...Read more

Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot in 2021 created a pilot program called Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement to weave mental health experts into public safety responses.

The idea was both compassionate and practical. Many 911 calls involve people suffering psychiatric crises, severe depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or ...Read more

There’s a saying: “You are what you eat.” If that’s true, then everyone around here is Italian. It’s the meal of choice at home and dining out, and no one turns it down — not even, I suspect, members of the Chicago news media. I’ve seen plenty of them in Italian restaurants. But a few of these journalists still serve up twisted ...Read more

It’s settled now. States can count mail-in ballots after Election Day if postmarked by that day.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s opinion for the majority in Monday’s 5-4 ruling on vote-by-mail was straightforward. In interpreting federal law, the opinion read, “The electorate’s choice is made when voting is complete, not when ballots are ...Read more