A couple of notable events occurred during the month of February in California's three-year war with the Trump administration over White House efforts to impose retrograde policies on the Golden State and other jurisdictions.

On Feb. 7, word leaked out that the administration had dropped an antitrust investigation of BMW, Ford, Honda and ...Read more

For part two (or is it three, now?) of the saga "Bernie Sanders Exalts the Silver Lining of Repression in Cuba," cue in partisan Miami politics of exile.

Everybody, to your corner!

Here comes one of our illustrious leaders, Republican Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, a relative by marriage of the late Fidel Castro, with a resolution to condemn ...Read more

For the good of the country, Congress and the White House need to rise above their usual partisan sniping and name-calling and show a little unified leadership as the United States readies itself for the spread of the new coronavirus, COVID-19.

We know it will be hard, given the level of bitter polarization in Washington, but Democrats and ...Read more

Even with the no-longer flailing Joe Biden finally coming back in South Carolina's primary, wise Democrats are looking warily ahead to the uncertainties of next week's 14 state Super Tuesday primaries.

And what they are seeing frightens the bejabbers out of many of them.

They see that Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont still remains best-...Read more

The rise of Bernie Sanders to front-runner status in the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination may have scrambled conventional wisdom, but one thing is crystal clear: Along with Sanders, voter concern over the nation's soaring economic inequality has ascended to top-tier status.

A January poll by the Pew Research Center found that...Read more

America is said to be enraged. But on the debate stage Tuesday night in South Carolina we didn't hear much righteous indignation or revolutionary anger. Instead, the candidates seemed irritable.

Huffy. Crotchety. The kitsch version of outrage.

And the ones who best nailed the crotchety shtick were the trio of geezers: former Vice President Joe...Read more

A few years ago, an LGBTQ couple approached Bethany Christian Services and expressed an interest in becoming foster parents. Bethany Christian, which maintained a contract with the city of Philadelphia to provide foster care, turned them down based on a religious opposition to same-sex unions. The Inquirer ran a story on the incident and ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- If you're a California Democrat freaked out about the prospect of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders dragging the party into a disastrous pummeling by President Donald Trump, you should closely watch South Carolina's primary.

Maybe Democrats shouldn't be freaked. Perhaps it's overreacting.

But if you are, hold on to your ...Read more

Bernie Sanders is not just a problematic Democratic nominee because of his $60 trillion (and rising) spending plans. In a matchup with the incumbent, he's looking increasingly weak in the crucial Electoral College target of Florida.

In less than a week, Sanders has managed to offend two important voting Sunshine State blocs. On "60 Minutes," he...Read more

In an affront to common decency and the rule of law, the Supreme Court this week shut the courthouse door to the family of a 15-year-old Mexican boy killed in Mexico by a Border Patrol officer who shot at him from the other side of the U.S.-Mexico border.

But the 5-4 decision by the court's conservative majority is more than just a denial of ...Read more

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals made an important and necessary point again on Wednesday when it threw out a lawsuit that claimed YouTube violated the Constitution's free-speech protections by restricting access to videos and advertising on its platform. As big as YouTube may be, it is simply not a public space run by the government, and ...Read more

CHICAGO -- Millennium Park's website calls the spectacular downtown Chicago public space "a new kind of town square." It is indeed a new kind of town square -- one where aesthetic busybodies from the city of Chicago and the foundation that supports the park are trying to severely limit the time-honored right to free speech in public spaces.

...Read more

Put down the cellphone. Live a little. That phone is stealing your life away.

Recent surveys show the average American spends about three to four hours each day on their cellphones. That's more than a month a year, depending on an individual's usage.

A Deloitte survey found that people check their phones nearly 50 times a day, including at ...Read more

Barney's odds weren't good.

He was one of 30 hooded Norway rats in my friend's experimental psychology project, some of whom would be poisoned in order to dull their considerable learning abilities. After they were put in an "avoidance box" to see how long they took to cross from one chamber to another -- more than five seconds and they'd get a...Read more

The email from Mr. B did not particularly stand out. Like many, he took issue with a column I had written explaining why African Americans would vote for Mike Bloomberg over Donald Trump in a presidential matchup.

"Im glad your the voice for all of the American colored population. #TRUMP2020," he wrote, exactly how it is printed.

After reading...Read more