Politics
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Patricia Lopez: Minnesota is about to give a crash course in bipartisanship
Minnesota is about to embark on an intense, high-stakes experiment in forced bipartisanship. The North Star state could show a way forward for a closely divided U.S. Congress — if politicians in D.C. are paying attention.
Minnesota came out of the 2024 election with a statehouse that slid from solid Democratic control to one divided ...Read more
Justin Fox: Health-care spending is sinking the federal budget
The $1.8 trillion federal budget deficit in the fiscal year that ended in September was the third biggest ever in dollar terms, trailing only the pandemic deficits of the 2020 and 2021 fiscal years. As a share of gross domestic product, a better gauge for historical comparisons, it was, at 6.4%, the biggest ever outside of a large war or global ...Read more
Commentary: How Democrats could use the lame duck to save medication abortions
Before Democrats lose the White House and the Senate, they should push through legislation to repeal the Comstock Act, which could be used to prevent legal medically induced abortions everywhere in the United States. Given the success of ballot initiatives that protect the right to abortion in even conservative states in last month's election, ...Read more
Lisa Jarvis: The Supreme Court should stand up for transgender teens
The U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority appears likely to guarantee a bleak future for the nation’s transgender adolescents — one where politically motivated lawmakers, not parents and physicians, are allowed to make health care decisions for them.
The case before the court, United States v. Skrmetti, originated with three ...Read more
Commentary: Can California fix the disconnect between public education and the modern workforce?
If Democrats want to change their fortunes in future national elections, acknowledging that our public education system is disconnected from the modern workforce would be a good place to start.
President-elect Donald Trump won 56% of voters without college degrees, a reversal of historical trends in which Democrats have been the clear choice ...Read more
Commentary: America needs to retake Econ 101
Exit polling suggests that the dominating issue for voters in the presidential election was the economy. Americans can barely afford groceries, rent and child care. Voters perceived President-elect Donald Trump and Republicans to be more capable of addressing the woes of inflation and globalization, but Democrats have been hawking a similar ...Read more
Editorial: Two years after the University of Virginia's shooting, the report about the tragedy remains secret
In the Virginia Statute for Establishing Religious Freedom, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Truth is great, and will prevail if left to herself, that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons free argument and debate, errors ceasing to...Read more
Editorial: Still guilty -- Trump's Manhattan convictions should stand
Once more, Donald Trump’s lawyers are attempting to override the guilty verdict of a jury in the Manhattan hush money case, asking the court to toss it while slinging invective at the office of District Attorney Alvin Bragg, which successfully won Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts this year.
With Trump’s second White House term ...Read more
Editorial: The people vented, making oligarchs even richer
If voters delivered any certain message on Nov. 5, it’s that they were angry enough not to take it any longer.
There’s much to be angry about, but it’s harder to tell just what voters were protesting.
To some so-called experts, they were angry at the “elites,” narrowly defined as people with college degrees and liberal social views ...Read more
Editorial: Musk and Ramaswamy have their work cut out for them
It’s an abiding promise of newly elected American presidents: The executive branch henceforth will be liberated from the perils of waste, fraud and abuse.
President-elect Donald Trump, in his contribution to the canon, has announced he’ll create the Department of Government Efficiency, led by tech impresarios Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. ...Read more
Commentary: 'Morning Joe' hosts forgot their viewers on MSNBC when they visited Trump
Joe Scarborough of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” is still trying to figure out how loyal and adoring fans quit watching him and Mika Brzezinski after the couple flew to Mar-a-Lago to kiss Donald Trump’s ring after the election.
I was not a regular consumer of the show, but when I did watch, Scarborough would drone on forever, oftentimes ...Read more
Commentary: No dog should freeze on the end of a chain
Imagine standing outside as winter winds bite your skin and snowflakes sting your face, with nowhere to find warmth or comfort. Buddy — an elderly dog whose owners reportedly chained him outside 24/7 — endured these conditions every day. His “shelter,” an uninsulated plastic igloo, did little to protect his frail, old frame. One Sunday ...Read more
Commentary: A prayer for civility and uplift
This year's electoral rhetoric exposed the deep fissures in our body politic, leaving many feeling disillusioned and even fractured. In this moment of potential discord, people of faith have a profound opportunity to model a different path forward — one anchored in the timeless principles of civility, justice and a fierce commitment to our ...Read more
Tyler Cowen: The sad decline of the public hangout
You can learn something about a city by just walking through it. Most of New York City’s Manhattan core feels bustling, whereas a San Francisco block can seem dormant. In Rome, it is common to see groups of men standing around, chatting or arguing.
We are all familiar with such casual generalizations, but what might the data show more ...Read more
Editorial: Miami was lucky this hurricane season, but so many others were not
Whew. Miami made it through another hurricane season more or less unscathed, but our relief at Mother Nature’s mercy on our little burg this year is tempered by the painful knowledge that so many others in this state and beyond didn’t fare anywhere near as well. It’ll be a long time before Florida’s West Coast and Panhandle can put the ...Read more
Editorial: America can only hope Trump's not serious about blowing up trade partnerships
It’s telling that virtually the only positive spin economists of every political persuasion are putting on Donald Trump’s latest vow to ignite a global tariff war is the possibility that he doesn’t actually mean it. This is one instance in which Trump’s well-established tendency to say things he knows aren’t true is America’s best ...Read more
Commentary: K-12 digital education must involve inclusion and accessible design
A new report highlights the urgent need to expand access to K-12 computer science education in the United States, as millions of students still lack these opportunities in a technology-driven world.
Only 60% of U.S. public high schools offer a foundational computer science course. While some underrepresented students lack access to these ...Read more
Editorial: Trump sends a clear message to Hamas terrorists
Donald Trump’s blustery diplomacy ignores the usual protocols — and that’s the point. Our adversaries are never sure what to make of his huffing. Uncertainty can lead to caution.
Consider the terrorists who attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and still hold dozens of innocent hostages they seized during their barbaric rampage. On Monday, ...Read more
Commentary: A new hill to take -- How veterans can lead America's fight for unity
As America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan came to a close, thousands of courageous men and women who risked their lives fighting for years to protect our country and our way of life began coming home and transitioning into civilian life. For so many of them, that transition left a gaping hole.
Just a few weeks earlier, they had been a ...Read more
Editorial: Destructive hurricanes this year highlight the need to fund resilience
The 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season ended on Sunday. For many in the eastern United States, who endured the devastating destruction caused by powerful storms this year, that’s not a moment too soon.
This year’s hurricane season was uncommon in many ways, but it also followed a pattern in recent years of the Atlantic producing more powerful, ...Read more