When he was president, Donald Trump was above all an enemy of immigrants: a Mexican-bashing, Muslim-banning, border-wall-building mogul.

Now, Democrats have a chance to be immigrants’ champions. But nine months into the Biden administration, with control of both chambers of Congress, they have yet to protect millions of undocumented people ...Read more

Queen Elizabeth II was caught on a hot mic last week declaring it “irritating” that global leaders who talk the talk regarding climate change won’t walk the walk. It’s a royally accurate assessment. “I’ve been hearing all about COP,” the queen said, referring to the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, or ...Read more

The “Saturday Night Live” sketch writes itself: Rahm Emanuel, the famously profane and blunt former mayor of knuckle-tough Chicago, charged with running U.S. diplomacy in the nation where politeness and decorum matters more than anywhere else in the world.

The people of Japan bow to show respect; Emanuel screams on the phone or hangs up on ...Read more

At one time, it was fashionable to advocate for zero tolerance policing on the grounds that cracking down on minor offenses prevents worse ones from happening. In more recent years, however, the adverse consequences of this approach — including high rates of incarceration of people of color and deep distrust of police in cities like Baltimore ...Read more

Is freedom of speech evaporating from the world of comedy? We hear a familiar mantra whenever someone like Dave Chappelle comes under fire: You can’t joke about anything anymore. PC police. Cancel culture. People are too sensitive. But does this premise hold up to scrutiny? Studying history, it seems clear comedians have more freedom of speech...Read more

Facebook Inc. may be preparing a fresh coat of paint for itself. A report in technology news site The Verge, citing a source with direct knowledge, says that the company is planning to change its name next week to reflect its new focus on building the metaverse — a new digital network for connecting to others through augmented reality and ...Read more

The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over. The delta variant that devastated India has spread worldwide — and the next variant could be even more deadly. The pandemic will continue unchecked unless we support campaigns in fragile states such as South Sudan and Yemen to get more people vaccinated.

But vaccine availability does not automatically ...Read more

Polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are a class of man-made chemicals that break down slowly in the environment, can accumulate in the human body and have been linked to all manner of negative health effects from cancer to high cholesterol.

But these “forever chemicals” are nearly impossible to avoid. They are, quite ...Read more

You’re not smart enough to be trusted with basic COVID-19 numbers. Not just you, but all regular Floridians. How many Pinellas residents died from the virus? How many Hillsborough nursing home residents went to the hospital with COVID? How many white or Black people got vaccinated in Pasco County? Don’t look for that information in the ...Read more

Earlier this year, I joined in the work of Urban Rural Action, founded by Joe Bubman. URA's primary mission is to bring together Americans across geographic, political, racial and generational divides to build relationships, strengthen collaboration skills, explore different perspectives and tackle issues that impact all communities.

Being ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Sunday night, I flew into LAX from San Francisco and boarded a shuttle to the airport's newish pickup spot for ground transportation just east of Terminal 1. I found myself standing amid an unhappy crowd of restless travelers who had been waiting as long as 30 minutes to be picked up by their Lyft drivers.

Weird, I thought. Not ...Read more

On Oct. 26, 2001, Congress passed the U.S. PATRIOT Act. As a member of the U.S. Senate at the time, I cast the lone vote against it.

Twenty years of hindsight confirm that expanded government surveillance comes at a steep price for civil rights, our democratic legitimacy and marginalized populations. Congress has a unique opportunity to begin ...Read more

How lean can we make the U.S. Army before it’s unable to do its job?

Army Secretary Christine Wormuth recently declared her service must “ruthlessly prioritize” its “transformation” efforts.” To that end, she said, the Army is “going to have to look hard at everything we do and everything about how we do it.”

That sounds ...Read more

It only makes sense that the three white Georgia men accused of murdering Ahmaud Arbery would turn to a Civil War-era law as their defense. The video footage of them hunting and killing the 25-year-old Black man looks like a clip from a slave patrol training video.

For those who don't know what I'm talking about, slave patrols were militia ...Read more

The most vicious killer in South Florida history will spend the rest of his life in prison for the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018.

“You will not come out until you are no longer alive,” Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer told Nikolas Cruz Wednesday before accepting his guilty pleas at a hearing in Fort ...Read more

The Biden administration is hypocritical in simultaneously imposing a moratorium on the federal death penalty and urging that the Supreme Court reinstate the death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Indeed, the Biden administration’s choice to defend capital punishment for Tsarnaev reflects the inherently arbitrary nature ...Read more

Could it be that pundits and political scientists are framing the fight about the infrastructure and reconciliation bills all wrong? I think there is a smarter political solution right in front of everyone’s eyes.

Read any newspaper, watch any television news show, or scroll Twitter and you will hear the following arguments for why the Biden ...Read more

Repeat violent offender. You hear those three words and likely make a common assumption: Some muddle-headed judge gave a criminal defendant a light sentence that allowed him to get out of prison too soon and commit more violence — murder, rape or assault.

Or maybe you assume that an overworked prosecutor negotiated a plea agreement that ...Read more