Her husband was murdered in front of her eyes.

Then they shot her.

She went to the police, testified against the killers, and watched as they were convicted and sentenced to prison.

And then the threats started, against her mother and father, her grandparents, her children.

In Honduras, naming your persecutor, even one who is in solitary ...Read more

Social Security is structured so that average benefits grow from one class of retirees to the next. We could bring the program a long way toward solvency without cutting benefits from their current levels. Merely moderating the growth of benefits, so that tomorrow's retirees do not get as large an increase over today's retirees as the current ...Read more

Why are Americans still fighting over toilets?

I often wonder how that little porcelain receptacle we all use to take care of our most intimate personal business found its way to the core of our social consciousness.

The toilet has managed to remain one of the most divisive issues in our culture for more than half a century, tweaking itself ...Read more

Demonstrators on Tuesday continued to demand the firing of a Rittenhouse Square Starbucks manager whose 911 call led to two African American men who wouldn't make a purchase being detained by police after they refused to leave the coffeehouse.

Whether the manager is fired is a corporate decision that won't address the roots of a problem that ...Read more

In July 1971, President Richard Nixon jolted the international status quo -- and set diplomatic nerves worldwide fluttering -- by announcing he would visit China. "Never in history, to our knowledge, have diplomatic relations progressed so fast from the Ping-Pong table to the Presidency," this page breathlessly observed.

Nixon's bold overture ...Read more

Congressional lawmakers tried to put on a good show while grilling Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg about the misappropriation of detailed personal data from as many as 87 million users by Cambridge Analytica, the political consulting firm linked to the Trump campaign.

But after 10 hours of testimony by Zuckerberg spread over two days last week, it...Read more

President Donald Trump's vow that he will not interfere with Colorado's pot industry is welcome news for all states that have legalized marijuana, including Washington.

Yet state officials are wise to view this new development with caution. Sadly, it's too soon to tell what Trump's pledge really means. Will he stay the course in reversing the ...Read more

Former NFL star and Washington State Cougar Steve Gleason has made an even bigger impact off the field, as an advocate for health research and helping individuals with neuromuscular diseases live full lives.

U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell want to show this Spokane native how proud his home state is of his accomplishments by ...Read more

If only Nixon could go to China, as the saying goes, then maybe only Republicans can legalize weed.

Marijuana has now been legalized for medical use in many states -- only Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota still prohibit use in any form. Nine states allow recreational marijuana use, and 13 others have decriminalized recreational use to ...Read more

Something odd is happening in the relationship between Congress and the executive branch regarding the use of military force. For decades, or even longer, countless senators and representatives have complained that presidents are not properly respectful of their constitutional prerogatives in making decisions on employing U.S. military power. ...Read more

It's well past time for Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to stand up and protect special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian sabotage of the 2016 presidential election.

McConnell this week said that even if a bipartisan bill to protect Mueller emerges from the Senate Judiciary Committee, ...Read more

Finally, the shipping industry will be asked to do its part to fight climate change. The United Nations' International Maritime Organization, which regulates the industry, agreed in London last week to set a 2050 goal of reducing emissions from oceangoing cargo ships to 50 percent below the 2008 level.

It's an ambitious goal, and the details on...Read more

In 45 states, pulling out your wallet and buying something is (with some exceptions) a taxable event. No matter where you buy that book, tool or toy, you owe an additional sum to your state and, in many cases, to your local government as well.

Thanks to decades-old Supreme Court decisions regarding mail-order catalogs, however, only a retailer ...Read more

According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, taking into account the recent tax cuts and latest spending bill, the federal budget deficit will surpass $1 trillion by 2020, and the national debt will rise to a staggering $29 trillion by 2028.

One would think that such an enormous level of deficit spending would befit a nation with ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- New national polls show voters are more upbeat about President Donald Trump's performance and more pessimistic about the Democrats' chances of taking back the House. Or not.

An April 8-11 Washington Post-ABC News poll showed Trump's job approval rating at 40 percent, while 56 percent disapproved of his performance.

An April 8-11 ...Read more

A century after airplanes first took to the skies, the concept of flying confounds. Even though air travel is routine, leaving earth to float in an engine-powered tube still feels -- at some level, to most commercial air passengers -- mysterious or scary.

Any sense of terror is misplaced. Flying is safer than driving. Say it with us: Flying is ...Read more

MOSCOW -- The weather was gloriously sunny here on Monday and Tuesday, as if to celebrate the release of tension over the possibility that Saturday's U.S. missile strike in Syria would lead to U.S.-Russia fighting. Perhaps the most significant lesson of the strike is that the military de-confliction channels between Washington and Moscow still ...Read more

How convenient. The Washington Post broke the news this week that the CIA director, Mike Pompeo, met two weeks ago with North Korea's dictator. This revelation came just as Senate Democrats' opposition to his nomination to be secretary of state was mounting.

The argument now from the White House is that a vote not to confirm Pompeo would be a ...Read more