Yajaira Gonzalez became a U.S. citizen and a registered Democrat on the same day.

She arrived from Mexico 20 years ago, and was granted temporary legal status in 2012 after President Barack Obama established DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The policy allows some immigrants who were brought illegally to the U.S. as ...Read more

There can be few American public institutions more widely detested than the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

The NCAA spent decades promoting the ideal of the amateur "student-athlete," barring football and basketball players from compensation while their coaches and university athletic directors collected millions of dollars a year. ...Read more

The Supreme Court’s new code of ethics is little more than a naked attempt to gaslight our nation after a year of disturbing reports showing that the justices have been engaged in what would be considered highly unethical conduct in any other branch of government.

Chief Justice John Roberts would have Americans believe that the justices’ ...Read more

His timbre was just one reason I always looked forward to hearing Henry Kissinger, who died this week after living a full century, expound on international relations. It was gravelly and deep, and grew only more so over the years. But it wasn’t just the voice. It was his unique accent, eccentric to some but strangely familiar to me.

I’ve ...Read more

Saying that public officials should be “ethical” is like saying that sunshine and puppies are good things. The tougher questions are what “ethical” means, how to tell if public officials meet that standard and what to do if they don’t.

So, we should be wary of the current campaign to exert control over the Supreme Court by creating a ...Read more

I have to hand it to the inimitable Charles Pierce of Esquire magazine.

A few days after media critic Margaret Sullivan complained in the Guardian that journalists were not effectively conveying the dangers of a second Trump administration, the headline on his essay did not mince words: "Nazi-Curious Madman Currently Under Indictment For 91 ...Read more

Sam Altman’s dismissal and rapid reinstatement as CEO of OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, confirms that the future of AI is firmly in the hands of people focused on speed and profits, at the expense of all else. This elite will now impose their vision for technology on the rest of humanity. Most of us will not enjoy the consequences.

The ...Read more

When former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy made the incredible remark that the United States has never sought land after winning a war, except to bury its war dead, he was pilloried on social media and mainstream media for being ignorant.

McCarthy, a California Republican, proudly shared his untruth on social media on Sunday. For the record, his ...Read more

Wednesday marked eight months since Russian authorities detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and charged him with espionage. If convicted, he faces a sentence of up to 20 years in a penal colony.

His only “crime” was practicing journalism and reporting in Russia about that country’s invasion of Ukraine. Gershkovich’s ...Read more

There can be few American public institutions more widely destested than the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

The NCAA spent decades promoting the ideal of the amateur "student-athlete," barring football and basketball players from compensation while their coaches and university athletic directors collected millions of dollars a year. ...Read more

In mid-November, 16 men were the first incarcerated students to graduate with a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University. As an educator in the program, I have learned that their stories are crucial for healing and growth — for them, certainly, but also for us who live in this society that practices punishment and exclusion instead of ...Read more

Temporarily expanding Medicaid during the pandemic was one of America’s sharpest responses to COVID-19. But the wind-down has been anything but. The Biden administration needs to ensure that Florida and other states are not haphazardly removing the neediest from this vital health insurance.

Congress passed a coronavirus relief package in 2020...Read more

Inflation has left millions of Americans with no good choices, even when it comes to necessities like what to eat. Despite chicken prices being at a record high, families are buying more than ever. Why? Because the alternatives are even worse: Staples like beef and pork have sadly become unaffordable for millions whose budgets have been ravaged ...Read more

Derek Chauvin was not sentenced to death. The former Minneapolis police officer and convicted murderer of George Floyd was sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison, and he should have every right to serve that time in safety. So his life-threatening stabbing by another inmate on Friday, just two years into his term, is an appalling failure of ...Read more

If a decision handed down by a conservative federal appeals court last week is allowed to stand, it will gut what remains of one of the most important federal laws enacted in my lifetime, the Voting Rights Act.

An 8th Circuit Court of Appeals panel held that no one other than the federal government can sue to enforce a key section of this vital...Read more

“How many kids do you have?”

Even five years later, that seemingly simple question stirs a panic inside me and brings tears to my eyes.

On Jan. 18, 2019, my world changed forever when my 17-year-old son died by suicide. His death was a shock but not a complete surprise since he had been struggling with depression for so long despite ...Read more

Who interprets the Constitution? For many decades, the answer to this question was almost always the U.S. Supreme Court. But in the past few years, a dramatic shift has started taking place. Increasingly, voters are taking constitutional interpretation into their own hands — and our democracy is better for it.

When the Supreme Court ...Read more

The knife attack that wounded an adult and three children in Dublin last week, and the subsequent anti-migrant rioting there, demonstrated the ways in which the U.S. and Ireland are part of the same chilling trajectory of political violence and intolerance that is wracking so much of the world today — as well as the one big way in which ...Read more

I often contemplate the emotional well-being of my dog. I work from home, and he has gracefully adapted to my schedule, adhering to specific routines. He dines and plays by my side, gets plenty of walks and is rarely alone. At times, though, I wonder if he’s genuinely happy or if making him part of my human family might be inadvertently ...Read more

My parents were Palestinian refugees who managed to rent an apartment in the city of Nazareth after their village, Ma’Alool, 10 miles to the west, was destroyed by the advancing Israeli army in 1948. My father, a cobbler, took his trade to Nazareth’s historic bazaar. From the little shop he rented I was able to watch shoppers as they went ...Read more