In feudal times, it was expected that vassals would kiss the ring of the lord of the manor to show loyalty and subservience to his power, to make it clear that they understood they belonged to him. I had thought those times were long gone, but apparently, they are with us again.

Across America, politicians, businesspeople and media tycoons are ...Read more

President Donald Trump’s silencing of the Voice of America serves him two ways: Attacking the press and doing a favor for dictators around the world he so admires.

Since World War II, people worldwide have relied on the Voice of America for not only information about the United States but the world, as a news organization that has taken great...Read more

When we moved to a small town several years ago, I was delighted to find that families of ducks and geese lived on the local pond and that a mom-and-pop shop across the street sold little paper bags full of food for them. It felt like something out of a storybook, until the store closed.

People started tossing the birds bread instead, but ...Read more

FRANKLIN MOUNTAINS, Texas — Two big rams bolted from the steel trailer, took a few hesitant steps and glanced around nervously at their new home: dramatic mountains in west Texas more than 200 miles from where they grew up. Within seconds of looking in all directions, they scrambled into the crevices of peaks that reach 7,000 feet above sea ...Read more

Almost 30 years ago, toward the end of President Bill Clinton’s first term in office, Republicans in Congress forced a government shutdown that led some 800,000 nonessential federal workers to be furloughed. At the time, I was the director of the Voice of America, and VOA was broadcasting in more than 45 languages reaching more than 200 ...Read more

The fight in Federal Judge James Boasberg’s D.C. courtroom over whether President Donald Trump can use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to summarily fly Venezuelan immigrants to a Salvadoran mega-prison without trial or charge is a fight over the strength of our constitutional system. The phrase constitutional crisis has been getting a lot of air...Read more

Public-sector unions have long supported American workers, championing fair wages, reasonable hours and safe working conditions.

While recent challenges — like Utah’s repeal of collective bargaining rights for government employees — may seem daunting, they also present an opportunity for us to unite, educate the public and strengthen our...Read more

When Gov. Spencer Cox signed Utah’s public labor union bill, the state became the third to ban public-sector unions from collective bargaining. This bold move will bring tax savings to Utahns while restoring fairness and accountability in government employment. Other states should take note.

While private-sector unions negotiate with ...Read more

In the avalanche of President Donald Trump news, the March 6 announcement by Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler that she was closing the Seattle office as part of a national effort to relocate facilities "out of sanctuary cities" seems like small potatoes.

But it underscores the common denominators found in so many of ...Read more

President Donald Trump has claimed a mandate following his electoral victory, using it to justify “bold and profound change.” However, there is one substantial group of Americans who didn’t cast a single vote for the president — or any Republicans for that matter. They didn’t vote for any Democrats either. Yet, they will feel the ...Read more

Gavin Newsom's new podcast, "This is Gavin Newsom," has Democrats in a tizzy. Republicans too.

It has been nearly universally panned (or celebrated, depending on your political stripes) for being fawning toward his far-right guests — Charlie Kirk, Michael Savage and Steve Bannon — leaving pundits asking, why is Gavin Newsom handing Steve ...Read more

Offshore wind, one of many energy sources that was going to help New York meet incredibly ambitious goals to decarbonize its power grid, is now dangling in the breeze, with President Donald Trump halting new federal leases and permits for offshore projects while the feds look deeper into their environmental and economic impacts.

It’s a ...Read more

Reading the obituaries for former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.), who died at 93 on March 14, you would think he was a pleasure to have around — a life-and-soul-of-the-party man and a perfect scream, as P.G. Wodehouse might have described him.

The Washington Post said Simpson was known for his "barbed wit" and "feistiness." The New York Times ...Read more

It’s a shame that Chief Justice John Roberts had to take the extraordinary step of chiding President Donald Trump and his cheerleaders for their demands that federal judges who stand in the way of the administration’s decrees be impeached. No, that sort of behavior isn’t new; the insistence by politicians that judges stand aside and let ...Read more

What’s actually in the beer you’re drinking? Currently, there’s no guarantee that you’ll receive a good answer to that question.

Even though 62% of American adults consume alcohol, alcoholic beverages aren’t required to disclose basic nutritional information like calories, ingredients, or allergens.

This makes alcohol one of the few...Read more

I thought they might be angry.

Over the past quarter century, I’ve spent big chunks of time in Canada — Montreal and Toronto on occasion, but mostly Vancouver and the South Shore of Nova Scotia. Vancouver is beautiful, but Nova Scotia has a unique hold on me; for a few years my wife and I owned a 200-year-old cottage there. So I was curious...Read more

This will always be the month that President Donald Trump broke my heart.

There have been many blows before then — Jan. 6, 2021, among them. But coming to the realization that an American president has aligned our national interests and foreign policy with Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, over our own allies was just too much to take...Read more

Do not mistake the results of Tuesday’s phone call between President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin for progress toward peace in Ukraine. Instead, it marks one further step in Trump’s alliance with the Kremlin against the security interests of Ukraine, Europe, and the United States.

Putin did not even agree to the unconditional and ...Read more

President Donald Trump was about to be blindsided. Yet he seemed clueless that a Social Security political bombshell was about to be detonated from within – one perhaps powerful enough to shatter the trust of many of his MAGA faithful.

But then, just in the nick of time, a most unlikely and unexpected rescuer appeared on March 12. And for a ...Read more

When President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14151, titled "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing," on January 20, 2025, he didn't just eliminate diversity initiatives from federal agencies — he set in motion a sweeping transformation of the federal workforce.

The order, which terminated all Diversity, ...Read more