In the midst of the greatest threat to public health in our lifetimes, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his Republican colleagues are proposing to grant schools, businesses and health care providers immunity from coronavirus-related lawsuits for any and all claims arising from December 2019 through 2024.

Under their plan, students, ...Read more

As the dog days of summer drag on, schools throughout the country need to make decisions regarding their reopening procedures. In general, schools should err on the side of reopening with in-person learning as much as possible.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, "AAP strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming...Read more

Presidential debates do not always pack a punch, despite efforts by debate questioners to provoke a rhetorical fight. Or two or three.

But memorable provocations from various Democratic debate stages last year included the exchange on school busing between candidates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. A product of community busing to desegregate ...Read more

Behold the destruction of Seattle's fine reputation for civic progress and national leadership on police reform.

Police Chief Carmen Best, the city's first Black chief, resigned Tuesday because of mistreatment by the City Council. That highlights how far the council has fallen and how poorly it's responding to the call for bold progress against...Read more

Last Saturday, in the clubhouse of his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, President Donald Trump sat at a small table and signed four orders that he said would "take care of pretty much this entire situation" -- his euphemism for the coronavirus recession that has thrown millions of Americans out of work.

Club members in Bermuda shorts and ...Read more

Since Hong Kong's return to China in 1997, after a century of British rule, the Chinese Communist Party has always had the authority to intervene in the semiautonomous city. This summer that authority has been exercised with utter ruthlessness.

Historians will mark it as the season when free speech officially died in Hong Kong.

On June 30, ...Read more

Sumner Redstone, the swashbuckling billionaire who built what is now ViacomCBS Inc., died on Tuesday at 97. He used to say that he would never have a legacy because he planned to live forever. News reports would qualify it as a joke, though with Redstone no one could be entirely sure.

His hard-charging leadership style and deal-making were of a...Read more

We now know that many schools in California and other states won't reopen for in-person classes this year. While this is judged necessary to slow the spread of the coronavirus, it has frightening implications for the psychological and physical well-being of vulnerable children.

School closures have led to a dramatic fall in reports of child ...Read more

You almost got the feeling these past few days that the so-called Power 5 college athletic conferences -- the Big Ten, the Big 12, the ACC, the SEC and the Pac-12 -- were playing a game of chicken. Which would be the first to cancel the coming football season because of COVID-19? They all knew that whoever went first would bear the brunt of ...Read more

After months of protests and civil unrest over the police shooting of George Floyd, Chicagoans were tested Monday on what we have learned.

We failed miserably.

In our collective anger over the looting that occurred in the aftermath of a police shooting in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, we lost focus on the most important ...Read more

Across America, as public schools are choosing to not reopen or to only provide a partial in-person experience this fall, families are struggling to figure out how to ensure their kids get a good education and don't fall further behind.

The good news is, there has never been another time in America so ripe for school choice. Wouldn't it make ...Read more

The core of American democracy -- the separation of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches -- is under assault like never before. The biggest transgressor by far is President Donald Trump. His assertion Saturday that he could use executive orders to provide tens of billions of dollars to unemployed Americans and could ...Read more

With media coverage of the Democratic National Convention scheduled to start Monday, most of the advance reporting and analyses are about the ways in which COVID-19 will change it. There is nothing wrong with that. Changes in what viewers will see and hear is certainly one of the bigger stories in advance of an event that has been televised ...Read more

The worst mistake Democrats could make now is overconfidence.

Four years ago, polls showed Hillary Clinton comfortably ahead. She didn't even campaign in Wisconsin or Michigan. Certainly, her supporters thought, Pennsylvania's Blacks and women overwhelmingly would support the first female standard-bearer for a major party. But she lost all ...Read more

Former Vice President Joe Biden's choice of Sen. Kamala Harris, the daughter of a Jamaican father and Indian mother, as his running mate made history. She is the first woman of color named to a national ticket for a major party. But it is just the latest honor in a list of firsts for the Democratic senator from the West Coast, who is also the ...Read more

It's fitting that California, arguably the nation's most diverse state, would produce the first woman of color to be placed on a major party presidential ticket.

We're always ahead of the curve, right? At least that's what we tell ourselves. In this instance, we clearly are -- a historic feat that deserves celebration by all Americans, ...Read more

If Joe Biden beats Donald Trump in November, Kamala Harris will be America's first female, first Black and first South Asian American vice president.

"This is one step in a much larger fight for representation towards the multiracial democracy women of color have dreamed of, fought for and bled for, for generations," Aimee Allison, founder of ...Read more

Joe Biden's selection Tuesday of U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris as his vice-presidential running mate was a smart and safe pick that breaks barriers while maintaining the centrist positioning critical for carrying swing states in the election less than three months away.

Harris is the first Black woman and first person of Indian descent on a major ...Read more

Kamala D. Harris did it.

Whether you love her or doubt her, you have to hand it to her: She has repeatedly proven she is an unstoppable politician with a talent for making history.

From her very first race, when she defeated her former boss to become the district attorney of San Francisco, Harris has defied expectations. This made her a ...Read more