“The raid against MAL (Mar-a-Lago) is another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime’s political opponents, while people like Hunter Biden get treated with kid gloves. Now the Regime is getting another 87k IRS agents to wield against its adversaries? Banana Republic.” — Gov. Ron DeSantis in a recent tweet ...Read more

Recently I was struck by a conversation I had with a progressive friend. When I noted the significant decrease in extreme world poverty over the past two decades — a remarkable achievement that has attracted relatively little news coverage — he responded by confidently denying that this was so. His reasoning was instructive: If this were ...Read more

Without knowing what the Department of Justice has learned about former President Donald Trump’s conduct, it’s impossible to say whether searching his home in Mar-a-Lago was justified. Before all the facts are in, however, it’s crucial to understand that the verdict on this action and what follows can’t rest only on what the law says. ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California is plagued by wildfires, drought, homelessness, unaffordable housing and the nation's steepest gas prices. And there is scary inflation and devastating climate change.

So, what is our greatest concern? What keeps us awake at night? It should be all of above.

But odds are it's not the lack of gambling ...Read more

In May of 2017, I was in Kyoto, Japan, sitting on the patio of a Starbucks while scrolling through news headlines on my phone. The top story that day was that North Korea had test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile, which had landed in the Sea of Japan. Yet, everyone around me was carrying on with their day, seemingly unbothered.

It’...Read more

On July 11, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Nikema Williams introduced the Youth Voting Rights Act, which if enacted would be perhaps the most significant expansion of voting access for young people in more than 50 years. It’s the second major action intended to make voting easier for young people, including and especially college students, in ...Read more

Infected people have coughed on me, maskless.

I didn't get COVID.

I've attended parties that became super-spreader events — didn't get COVID.

I never sheltered in place and frequently punctured my pandemic bubble during the worst waves — didn't get the virus.

One time, the spittle of a sneezing, sniffling guy somehow went through his ...Read more

Police radio communications have been public ever since the Detroit Police Department began broadcasting one-way transmissions to mobile officers on station KOP in the 1920s. In fact, in those early days, headquarters occasionally interspersed calls to Motor City police cars with renditions of “Yankee Doodle” to satisfy the Federal Radio ...Read more

Attorney General Merrick Garland has insisted that “no person is above the law in this country,” and it appears that he meant it. The FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Palm Beach home, Mar-a-Lago, could not have happened without Garland’s knowledge and approval.

The concept that no one is above the law has been the theme of ...Read more

As California prepares to update its low carbon fuel standard — a policy aiming to reduce emissions from transportation fuels — Indigenous groups and environmentalists across the Midwest are fighting one of its key provisions. The policy would incentivize ethanol production through technology that stores carbon underground not just in ...Read more

Wasn't Jan. 6, 2021, proof enough for Rep. "My Kevin" McCarthy and other Republican officials that words matter?

That anti-government rhetoric, echoes of Donald Trump's grievances and war metaphors are triggers — no pun intended — for a small battalion of armed extremists, who stand back and stand by for any perceived signal to literally go...Read more

Anyone laboring under the misimpression that California is a progressive utopia should contemplate the state’s stupefying debate over safe drug injection sites. In the face of an overblown reputation for liberalism and the mounting toll of drug overdoses, the state’s leaders have resisted departing from their drug war footing of yore to ...Read more

My sister lives in Connecticut and is a devout Catholic. When Roe v. Wade was overturned, we had a very heated discussion about the topic. I argued that more than 60% of the U.S. population was in favor of keeping Roe. She countered that all those polls were wrong. If you really were to ask everyone in the country, most people would prefer to ...Read more

KHARKIV, Ukraine — If you wonder why the United States should keep supporting Ukraine, let me describe my recent visit to Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city and long the cultural and academic capital of the country.

In May, Ukrainian soldiers drove the Russian military back from the city, which is only 25 miles from the Russian border. ...Read more

Brace yourselves, Californians.

The onslaught of political advertising that will fly at us this election season is shaping up to be more intense than ever, with most of it trained on two dueling measures to permit sports betting. Gambling interests have already anted up roughly $350 million to wage campaigns for and against Propositions 26 and ...Read more

A depressing and pathetic battle is going on in a Los Angeles courtroom to win control of the paltry belongings of the notorious murderer and cult leader Charles Manson.

All that is at stake in the dispute over his will are the clothes he owned and maybe two or three guitars — the stuff he had at Corcoran State Prison when he died in 2017. ...Read more

I am writing this from Amritsar, India, in the state of Punjab. The Sikh Golden Temple here is one of India’s leading attractions, and last night I shared space with thousands of people over the course of four or five hours. In that time, I saw only two people who might qualify as white Westerners.

That simple observation — and my travels ...Read more

In a polarized America, you don't get this kind of agreement on much of anything.

Three-fourths of voters favor empowering Medicare to bargain with drug companies for lower prices, and capping older Americans' drug costs at $2,000 annually. In the same Morning Consult/Politico poll, a similar share supports reducing the federal deficit by up to...Read more

Let me start by stating the obvious.

The execution of a federal search warrant at the residence of a former U.S. president is more than an extraordinary occurrence.

Fact is, things like that just don’t happen.

Pick a presidential scandal in our history —Teapot Dome, Watergate, Iran-Contra or Whitewater. It just doesn’t happen. Not until...Read more

The House select committee’s investigation of the Jan. 6 insurrection has hammered home a fundamental truth about democracy. This cherished form of government, rooted in the will of the people, can be upended by demagogues when political party gatekeepers do not block their ascent to power.

When gatekeepers fail in this critical duty, ...Read more