By any stretch of the imagination, the U.S. is one of the world’s biggest coal producers. Even after declining by about half since 2008, output last year was still about 527 million metric tons, the fourth-biggest total globally. And yet you could keep all of America’s coal boilers and blast furnaces going until Thanksgiving in 2025 with the...Read more

With weeks before Florida voters start casting mail and early ballots in the fall elections, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration has pulled an unprecedented move that appears intent to undermine a proposed constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights.

Florida’s Department of State has sent requests to supervisors of elections in four ...Read more

As Greece attempts to recover from the recent destructive wildfires around Athens, Southern Californians facing our own heat wave should take note of the pattern that enabled them. It should be well-known by now: sprawl into the urban-wildland interface where development collides with nature, the corresponding replacement of grass, shrubs and ...Read more

Like clockwork, as we return to school, our classrooms will fall into gender pronoun controversies. The inclusive impulse on Day One is to have everyone in class introduce themselves and share their pronouns, so nobody is singled out. But many don’t think about pronouns. Even for me, as a nonbinary law professor who uses “they,” it’s ...Read more

In Los Angeles and elsewhere across the country, your home’s square footage used to be the ultimate reflection of wealth and status. But with soaring energy costs, skyrocketing insurance premiums and other factors moving buyers toward more modest homes, there’s another measure of prosperity: the number of children you can afford.

Since 2018...Read more

Facing budget shortfalls, an ongoing public safety crisis and a contract negotiation with the Chicago Teachers Union underscoring how in thrall Brandon Johnson is to his political benefactors, Chicago’s mayor should take a page from his New York counterpart.

Big Apple Mayor Eric Adams has had a rocky tenure in office, too, but at least he has...Read more

There was no fanfare, no flackery. Not even a whispered leak of advance self-promotion.

But on Wednesday, in an auditorium at Duke University, a very specific type of news was matter-of-factly made by a very conservative Republican hardliner who once was one of Washington’s biggest newsmakers.

Frankly, Liz Cheney hasn’t been heard from ...Read more

Whatever his many failings and outrages, you have to give Donald Trump credit for picking a sound running mate — someone with experience in government, a mild temperament, a belief in democracy and the backbone to stand up to Trump himself. Unfortunately, that was eight years ago, when Mike Pence joined the Republican ticket.

This year, Trump...Read more

You know what the problem is with California?

Democrats — or so I'm told.

If I write about broken sidewalks in Los Angeles, readers write to say it's the fault of Democrats.

Homelessness, crime on public transit, poverty — in every case, blame the Dems.

Recently, I wrote about the owner of Langer's Deli, who's considering retirement ...Read more

As someone who has covered way too many presidential campaign rallies, I can attest that popular music at political gatherings is a powerful mood enhancer.

I will never forget one of then-President Obama's last campaign rallies of 2012, in a crowded University of Cincinnati gym on election eve. The already pumped-up crowd erupted when they ...Read more

I don’t care if you are an Independent, Republican or Democratic candidate — my brother’s grave is not your campaign trail.

Sgt. Maj. Jerry Patton was a highly decorated Army Special Forces soldier who died in service to our country. He is buried in Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery, alongside others who gave their lives for our ...Read more

Candidates for president of the United States typically run for office as though they were running for prime minister in a parliamentary democracy where their own party would have a clear majority in parliament. In such systems, which make up the vast majority of democracies in the world, the prime minister has enormous power to set policy.

In ...Read more

Every year, I ask my political science students, “What is your earliest political memory?”

I pose the question to figure out what political and cultural moments have shaped them. Over the years, their answers have served mainly to help me think about the mix of perspectives in my classroom. But lately my students’ responses have made me ...Read more

The abortion debate is about more than just abortion. Ending a pregnancy is just one option in the continuum of choices under the heading of reproductive health. Taking away that option inevitably undermines others, including contraception, in vitro fertilization, and even more basic health care issues for women and families.

That Missouri’s ...Read more

At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last month, Vice President Kamala Harris did not say much about China. But we did hear her say she intended to ensure “that America, not China, wins the competition for the 21st century and that we strengthen, not abdicate, our global leadership.”

So why, we wonder, is the administration in ...Read more

It might be easier for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to list the parts of his biography that he hasn’t fabricated or exaggerated.

Walz was relatively unknown nationally when Vice President Kamala Harris tabbed him as her presidential running mate. On the surface, his background seemed impressive. He’s a sitting governor. He was a National Guard ...Read more

Federal workers have scored a significant victory in their standoff with President Joe Biden. More than a year after his chief of staff called for agencies to “aggressively execute” a return-to-office plan, the administration appears to have relented. The goal now is for eligible teams to “move towards” appearing in person — at least ...Read more

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have both shown themselves skilled at avoiding questions they don't want to answer. The former president does it by burying questioners under a barrage of unrelated assertions, many of them false. The vice president does it the old-fashioned way, by taking refuge in vague talking points.

If they succeed at dodging...Read more

Cellphones and guns got mixed up together in a curious way last week after the school shooting in Georgia, which left two students and two teachers dead.

In fact, the shooting may represent a setback for growing initiatives by school districts and state legislatures to ban cellphones entirely from classrooms. This effort is based on the theory ...Read more