The more you learn about PFAS — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — the worse it gets. Though improvements in monitoring and remediation techniques are welcome, what the world needs first and foremost is a universal ban on the chemicals. In fact, we needed it yesterday.

There are more than 10,000 PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,...Read more

The message from the Trump administration to working-class Americans who want to go to college is: You’re on your own. It is part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s broad effort to scale back spending on the poor and middle class in order to finance tax breaks for the rich.

It’s also a dramatic reversal in the American compact with ...Read more

During the Great Depression, my great grandfather and other farmers in Wisconsin organized penny auctions to help prevent some of his neighbors from losing their property to foreclosure.

On the day a farm was put on the auction block, farmers in the area closed down the roads around the farm — the only people allowed to enter were the farmer ...Read more

President Donald Trump has taken to routinely maligning Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell as “too late” because interest rates have been on hold at 4.25%-4.5% since he took office.

On Tuesday alone, he characteristically took to social media to demand three percentage points of rate cuts — something that is never going to happen ...Read more

As temperatures soar into the triple digits and roads buckle beneath our tires, the United States finds itself locked under a suffocating heat dome. But this isn’t just another scorching summer. It’s a consequence. So, please, let’s go vegan.

Animal agriculture is disastrously unsustainable. Methane from cows, deforestation and water-...Read more

The summer job, for decades a stepping stone toward adulthood and independence, may be going the way of the VCR for a great many teens. Progressive efforts to outlaw many entry-level jobs aren’t helping.

The New York Times reported last week that the unemployment rate for teens hit 13.4 percent in May, up a full percentage point from a year ...Read more

In an early episode of the TV series “Lost,” the plane crash survivors stranded on a mysterious island are running low on water. A fight breaks out, until emerging leader Jack Shephard admonishes everyone to work together.

“If we can’t live together, we’re gonna die alone,” he says.

California lawmakers contemplating our climate ...Read more

When a country like Armenia sends a film out into the world, it’s not just art. It’s a way to preserve memory, to reach a scattered diaspora. Each film offers the world stories that might otherwise be forgotten. So when President Trump proposes a 100% tariff on all films “produced in foreign lands,” the damage isn’t limited to foreign ...Read more

After believing in Russian leader Vladimir Putin for the last 10 years as trustworthy old Vlad, President Donald Trump has now correctly decided that Putin may not be the most honest of interlocutors on the world stage.

Trump made this startling discovery — decades after practically everyone else — as Putin continues pummeling Ukraine ...Read more

You may have detected a cautious note of relief among worker advocates when President Donald Trump named Lori Chavez-DeRemer as his secretary of Labor.

During her sole term as a Republican member of Congress from Oregon (2023-25), Chavez-DeRemer was one of only three House Republicans to vote in favor of the so-called PRO Act, which would ...Read more

OK, I’ll say it. I’m sick of superheroes. I blame the Marvel Cinematic Universe (36 movies and counting over 17 years) and the DC Extended Universe (43 movies and counting, mostly since the late 1970s). Maybe Earth’s not big enough for two universes. They’re running pretty thin these days, down to rebooting reboots, making sequels for ...Read more

There’s a lot President Donald Trump has failed to do to pressure Russia into genuine peace talks on Ukraine. But it's now being reported he asked President Volodymyr Zelenskyy if he could do the one thing that nobody in their right mind would suggest: bomb Moscow, the capital city of a paranoid nuclear superpower, using U.S. long-range ...Read more

California is having a bummer of a political summer.

With the state under daily siege by the Trump administration, Los Angeles occupied by federal troops and our gallivanting governor busy running for president, is it really any surprise?

A recent UC Irvine poll found that residents, by a 2-to-1 margin, believe California is headed on the ...Read more

President Donald Trump never stays still for very long. He makes decisions, only to delay their implementation. He listens to pretty much everybody before he settles on a course of action, only to change his mind at the last minute. Whether it’s withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria during his first term or settling on a tariff regime in his ...Read more

LONDON — In case anyone believes President Donald Trump has revised his policy toward Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, don’t be fooled.

True, the president is piqued because Putin refuses to agree to Trump’s Nobel Peace Prize plan for a ceasefire with Ukraine. The Russian leader has been deluging Ukraine’s cities with drones and ...Read more

Early this month, the U.S. military and masked federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and from Customs and Border Protection invaded a park near downtown Los Angeles — ironically, a park named after Gen. Douglas MacArthur. They came ready for battle, dressed in tactical gear and camouflage, with some arriving on horseback, ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — If there were more people like George Steffes in politics, the public wouldn’t hold the institution in such low esteem.

There’d be a lot less bull and much more thoughtful debate.

Paralytic polarization would give way to problem solving.

Steffes was the kind of person who people profess to want in the halls of ...Read more

Despite losing $235 billion, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell somehow still has a job—for now. His mismanagement of the Fed has not only badly hamstrung monetary policy for years but has stuck the taxpayer with a massive bill atop a general cost-of-living crisis. It’s no wonder calls for his resignation are growing.

While at the Fed�...Read more

New York City’s subway system is mainly known for moving millions of riders every day and scaring the U.S. transportation secretary. But every so often it also becomes the world’s least-popular water park.

Instagram was rife this week with unnerving videos of subway riders watching high waters churn outside their train cars after a brief ...Read more