Sometimes it’s the humble actions that matter, which is a lesson for our dangerous time. For years, I’ve volunteered to get out the vote for my preferred candidates. In one election, knocking on doors in a Seattle neighborhood, I spoke with three people who supported my candidate for governor but wouldn’t have voted had I not contacted ...Read more

Manufactured housing, colloquially known as the “mobile home,” has a reputation for low quality, but that stereotype is outdated. As states grapple with ways to relieve home prices for beleaguered residents, they need to rethink this option and clear the obstacles to constructing more of it.

Homes built to the modern Department of Housing ...Read more

Public comments quietly closed Oct. 6 in response to the proposed rescission of the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, an undercelebrated piece of federal legislation that has protected about 58.5 million acres of roadless areas across our National Forest System. That’s about one-third of the 193 million acres that make up our national ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Secretary of State has mailed a thick “Official Voter Information Guide” to every registered voter. It’s jam-packed with helpful material. But one bit should be totally ignored.

It tells voters to fill out their ballot immediately — ”today” — and return it right now. Don’t take any time, in ...Read more

Social conservatives now assure American women they can still “have it all” if they just do it in sequence, starting with early motherhood and later taking on a job. The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 Report claims it’s a mistake for women to postpone childbearing to pursue higher education and begin their careers. Heritage ...Read more

The big question this fall is not whether Ken Paxton, Greg Abbott, Bo French or TIm O’Hare will lose.

They’re all in elections that are too close to call. James Talarico, Gina Hinojosa, Jon Rosenthal and Alisa Simmons are pushing them like no Democrats in 30 years.

But no matter whether those Republicans lose, other Democrats will get ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — About two years ago, Michael Mata boarded a bus at 5 a.m. near the shelter where he was living, on the northern edge of South Los Angeles. He was determined to bring an end to years of sporadic homelessness and a string of dead-end jobs.

A shelter mate had advised him to arrive early at Chrysalis, a nonprofit that helps people ...Read more

FOOTHILL FARMS, Calif. — As a California state lawmaker, Richard Pan authored some of the strongest vaccine laws in the country.

His reward — and part of the backlash, on top of death threats — was being physically assaulted outside the Capitol in Sacramento and spattered with blood thrown from the gallery.

Now, a few years removed from...Read more

Ever since things in Ukraine first went sideways for Vladimir Putin back in the spring of 2022, the Russian president and his officials have said that, not only were they fighting Nazis and responding to NATO aggression, but that the stakes of the conflict were so high that Russia may cease to exist should they fail.

This claim has always been ...Read more

This weekend, President Donald Trump publicly surrendered U.S. honor and security interests to Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

The U.S. president demanded that Ukraine “replace” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with someone willing to make “a deal” with the Kremlin to (supposedly) end the war. Yet the “deal” that Trump envisions would not ...Read more

When students at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee grilled Republican gubernatorial nominee Byron Donalds last month about his record, he promised to bring his finance background to the state’s top job. “The next governor has to have experience in how a company’s balance sheet operates,” said Donalds, who was a financial adviser ...Read more

As predicted when President Donald Trump and his dangerous quack Health Secretary Bobby Kennedy Jr. cast doubt on vaccines, preventable disease is spreading, such as measles.

Now New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has now had to declare a state of emergency over the measles outbreak, which has exceeded 100 cases.

Surprising no one, these cases have ...Read more

When the Founding Fathers gathered in Philadelphia 250 years ago to “form a more perfect Union,” they studied the collapse of the Greek and Roman republics with an eye toward designing a system of government that could withstand a populist demagogue who could seduce the masses, undermine democracy, and catalyze tyranny.

The system of checks...Read more

If you haven’t already done so, now is the ideal time to get your flu shot.

If you have, great job. You’re giving your body time to build immunity before cooler weather and indoor activities increase your exposure to influenza that sickens people throughout fall and winter.

Early signs are that the flu could be particularly bad this year. ...Read more

“Nobody knows anything,” the screenwriter William Goldman famously said of the movie business. Much the same can be said today for artificial intelligence, a technology that’s moving fast, destination unknown. Unlike movies, though, the bots may one day rise up and exterminate humanity, according to some in the industry. It’s fair to say...Read more

The swamp may not be drained, but it’s shrinking.

In September, the federal government employed 2.68 million people. That number includes Postal Service employees, but not members of the military. It’s a noticeable decline from the start of President Donald Trump’s second term. In January 2025, the federal government employed more than 3 ...Read more

I recently went diving off Kawaihae on Hawaii’s Big Island. The water was bathtub warm, about 85 degrees, with an impressive 80 feet of visibility which meant you could see how little of the reef ecosystem was left. The coral was dead, just a few shoaling fish moving through the rocky structures that remained. It wasn’t my first encounter ...Read more

Last month, the annual day celebrating U.S. citizenship came amid deep challenges for our democracy. The Trump administration has launched an all-out assault on the right to vote, threatening to pass into law new challenges to voter registration that wouldn’t just make it harder for most Americans to make their voices heard, but outright strip...Read more

The Pentagon’s abrupt withdrawal of a dozen long-range B-1 bombers from a British airbase raises a host of troubling questions. Vice President J.D. Vance said the move was made “out of an abundance of caution” after U.S. and British officials reportedly received warnings of a potential drone attack ordered by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary...Read more