The epiphany of common sense came late in an otherwise tedious congressional subcommittee hearing, and from a Democrat, Representative Jim Costa. He gets that Republicans and the administration of Donald Trump take pride in exerting “maximum pressure” on Iran, Costa made clear. But at this “seminal moment in American and world history,” ...Read more

The U.S. population includes an estimated 65.2 million Latinos, nearly a quarter of whom call California home. For over a century, Latinos were absent from the state’s two U.S. Senate seats.

In 2022, Sen. Alex Padilla reversed the willful neglect of Latino senatorial candidates by both major political parties, winning 61.1% of the vote, more...Read more

Rep. Melissa Hortman, former speaker of the Minnesota House, and her husband, Mark, were killed in their home early Saturday morning by someone impersonating a police officer. Several miles away, state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were shot multiple times by someone also presenting themselves as an officer of the law. As of this ...Read more

President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill is indeed Big. But Beautiful it is not. The massive bill he is touting as the best thing to ever happen to America would be, no exaggeration, one of the worst pieces of legislation to come along in the modern era.

Take a seat if you don’t already have one so we can count the ways.

Many prior ...Read more

President Donald Trump wants a war.

If he can’t get a trade war with Canada or China or all of Europe, he’ll settle for a war on democracy by deploying troops on American soil to punish peaceful protesters.

And, as if that was not enough, Trump was determined on Saturday to waste taxpayer money on a jingoistic military parade, like the ...Read more

Last year, students on college and university campuses across the country gathered to protest military actions by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza. Fearing retribution and targeting by universities, police and others for their speech, many of the students donned masks to cover their faces.

In response, state and local legislators introduced...Read more

In a world where we enjoy more comforts and freedoms than any generation before us, why do so many of us feel like victims? Our ancestors fought for the rights we now take for granted — facing slavery, segregation and disenfranchisement with courage and resolve.

Yet today, the language of victimhood blankets everything from micro-aggressions ...Read more

Events in Los Angeles have justifiably raised concerns about demonstrations spreading across the country, and Chicago must be prepared for the possibility of violent protests opposed to Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions. To avoid repeating the mistakes of 2020, the city, county and state governments must take proactive steps to ensure ...Read more

Apart from feeding ourselves and procreating, is there any compulsion more fundamental to our human character than fighting among ourselves?

Sure, religion urges us to beat our swords into ploughshares and our spears into pruning hooks, and Jesus said to “Love your enemies,” but somehow, more often than not, our instincts take over, and we...Read more

SACRAMENTO — Sen. Alex Padilla had heard all he could stand from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. For good reason. She was sounding like a military dictator and brushing off California voters.

So the California senator interrupted her. He tried to ask a question — and wound up being shoved out of the room by federal bodyguards, ...Read more

Iran has been stringing along international watchdogs and civilized nations for years regarding its nuclear program. The nation has now paid a steep price for its deceit and deception.

Early Friday, Israel launched a series of audacious attacks deep inside Iran in an effort to destroy the nation’s military and nuclear infrastructure. ...Read more

Means certain things are set in stone

Who we are, what we'll do, and what we won't

–Bruce Springsteen from the Song “Long Walk Home”

In a time when we hear “America First!” or “Make America Great Again!” as a mantra, the question goes to the lyrics above. For a long time, certain things were set in stone. That seems to have ...Read more

It was exactly 10 years ago today that Donald Trump rode the escalator from the lobby of Trump Tower into the basement and changed the country forever.

Having known him well for decades as a local real estate promoter who was cast into a reality TV show where he of multi-bankruptcies played at being a business genius, we were not impressed by ...Read more

Israel’s attack on Iran opens the next phase of the Great Middle Eastern War that began on Oct. 7, 2023. Over the past 20 months, that war has played out on fronts across the region and has drawn in actors from around the globe.

There is much we don’t yet know about what has happened, let alone what will happen. But it is clear that Iran ...Read more

Promising an apocalypse by the ayatollahs who were getting ever closer to obtaining a nuclear weapon to carry out that diabolical wish, Israel had every right to hit Iran to disable its uranium enrichment facilities and its ballistic missile infrastructure.

The Friday strikes were not the start of a war by Israel, but hopefully the first blows ...Read more

When I was 18, I found myself in a relationship that rapidly oscillated between affection and abuse. That experience helped me to understand, years later, the cycle of power and control inherent to domestic violence, enabling me to avoid future abusive relationships and foster healthy connections.

I owe this understanding to the support and ...Read more

The world is raining on Donald Trump’s parade. That’s not only the meteorological forecast — the president’s caudillo-style military spectacle in Washington on his (and the army’s) birthday, Jun. 14, may be a downer owing to bad weather. It’s also the case metaphorically, now that Israel has started attacking Iran, possibly causing ...Read more

It’s one step forward, two steps back.

That’s the state of public safety in Chicago. Summer fun is here, but in recent years, that’s been overshadowed by the specter of escalating crime.

This year, however, Chicago is enjoying a desperately needed retreat from surging violent crime.

That’s the step forward. This May, the city suffered...Read more

There are three immediate questions to answer about the war that Israel has started with Iran, all of which lead to the most important of all: Can this achieve Israel’s stated goal of ensuring, once and for all, that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon?

If it can, then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to launch Israeli jets against...Read more

Heading into the final stretch of the 2024 election, it seemed every cable news program had a segment dedicated to this one question: What will Black men do?

Progressives on the ground were voicing concerns about Black male voter turnout long before the 2022 midterms. But because the overturning of Roe vs. Wade enabled Democrats to avoid a “...Read more