The other day, I triggered Fox News when, in talking to MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace about the state of the Republican Party, I compared the GOP to terrorists. I said: "The damage that this party is doing to our democracy, the damage that they are doing to our elections, to our integrity, to the entire foundation of our system is worse than ...Read more

In early 1961, I considered myself an unremarkable, shy seventh-grader except for the fact I made straight A's, wore thick prescription glasses and had recently won the Alabama state spelling bee on the word "cloisonné."

But after the Freedom Riders arrived in my small hometown of Anniston, Ala., I became famous — or infamous — as the 12-...Read more

The U.S. Senate parliamentarian opened the door last month for Democrats to push through at least one more major bill this year without facing a filibuster. That's made it possible — not likely, but possible — for Democrats to deliver on one of their progressive wing's top priorities: forgiving student loan debt of up to $50,000 per person. ...Read more

Fellow House Republicans have booted Liz Cheney from GOP leadership, punishment for her having the stones to challenge Donald Trump’s poisonous and anti-democratic falsehoods about the 2020 election.

Cheney is no longer conference chair. But until Wyoming voters repudiate her, she will remain an independently elected representative in the ...Read more

Bo Obama had a wonderful life. Over the weekend, many of us mourned his death from cancer at the age of 12.

We met Bo when he was only 6 months old. Perhaps seeing him grow up in the White House alongside two little girls is what created a bond that lasted years after the family moved away. Then again, it’s probably because he was so darn ...Read more

The Biden administration on Tuesday granted permission for what is described as the first utility-scale offshore wind farm near Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, the first step in delivering on its promise to goose development of wind energy — a significant part of ending our reliance on fossil fuels.

President Joe Biden said in March that he ...Read more

A ransomware attack on Scripps Health that began last weekend had the health care provider scrambling to regain access to vital electronic records that had been targeted by malicious software. Reports showed Scripps hospitals were getting by through use of "established back-up processes" to keep patients safe at its five hospitals and 19 ...Read more

There’s something slightly ridiculous about feeling the need to praise Maryland’s Republican governor for taking rational steps and making reasonable statements before national media, as if his actions represent some sort of singular, unicorn moment. But given that much of that party’s faithful has, in just the past five months, tried to: ...Read more

With the vaccine rollout well under way and hospitalizations declining, it's time to put personal health choices back in the hands of citizens.

While the Michigan Legislature is considering a ban of "vaccine passports," we understand why some businesses and campuses may call for proof of shots.

The government shouldn't punish anyone or deny ...Read more

“Hey, Jude, don’t make it bad. Take a sad song and make it better.” I could not get the words from the beautiful Beatles song “Hey Jude” from my mind as I read about the crippling cyberattack that shut down the Colonial Pipeline. Federal regulatory constraints have been interfering with the use of alternate ways to move gasoline from ...Read more

There are a lot of unanswered questions in the case of a Baltimore County man killed by police after he fatally shot three of his neighbors and injured a fourth. Among them: Did 56-year-old Everton Brown have a mental condition that caused him to lash out? So far, all we know now is that people in his Woodlawn neighborhood speculated that was ...Read more

Regardless of whether you agree with his agenda or not, it is now clear that President Joe Biden does not merely want to tinker with the economy or with social welfare spending. He wants to go big.

If you are a mainstream Democrat, you probably think the president’s agenda is moving in the right direction (though more programs to help the ...Read more

There’s no denying that Florida’s COVID numbers are better compared to the winter. There’s also no denying that the virus is still sickening and killing too many people in the state. And, unfortunately, there are too many denialists at both ends of the coronavirus spectrum who won’t accept reality — the overwrought who still want ...Read more

The proponents of the California gubernatorial recall dispute the idea that it is a Republican effort, claiming that lots of Democrats want Gov. Gavin Newsom out of a job as well.

It may be true that a significant number of Democrats signed the petition to trigger the special election (it also may not be true; petitions are not public record ...Read more

The far right's undermining of American elections is an ongoing threat to the nation's future. An Arizona state Senate-commissioned "audit" of November ballots is not just a regional farce, but an escalation against democratic processes.

Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman correctly sounded the alarm last week that this mishandling of ...Read more

Does anybody hate California quite as much as Trump-supporting Republicans hate California?

On Saturday, Devin Nunes, the California congressman who has not held an open town hall meeting for constituents in his Central Valley district in more than a decade, hosted about 1,700 paying supporters at the first of what he hopes will be an annual ...Read more

The United States has a crisis of representation in government. Women are 51 percent of the population, yet only hold 27 percent of seats in the House of Representatives. Over the last decades, a myriad of training programs, including leadership development solutions, have been created specifically to get more women elected. Even with these ...Read more

As if to assuage a bottomless public appetite for bad news, every advance in the fight against COVID-19 seems to inspire a surge in pessimistic prophecies.

The latest example involves the prospects of reaching "herd immunity" — that is, a level of vaccinations and natural recoveries that will render the virus no longer a threat to public ...Read more

The more complicated a story gets, the more important it is for journalists to ask themselves what they know to be true about it, and focus on that. That’s not necessarily what an expert tells them is true, or what they think is true. But what they know to the best of their knowledge to be true.

There have been few stories as big and ...Read more