In the same week that Iowa's governor signed a law stripping Medicaid payments for sex-change surgery from transgender Iowans, the state also lost a 57-year-old activist who 21 years ago broke down walls by sharing his story of living on the boundary between male and female.

There's a phrase in journalism about "putting a human face" on a topic...Read more

The demand of Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee for live testimony by former White House Counsel Donald McGahn reminds me of the questions from college students that drive professors nuts -- such as, "How much does the final exam count for?"

Generations of long-suffering instructors have responded with the same answer: "It's in the ...Read more

If you're looking for real news, Twitter is the place to find it. But if you prefer the fake variety, your Facebook feed is the more promising source.

That's the implication of a new study of European social media traffic by Oxford University's Internet Institute. The authors looked at more than 580,000 tweets related to this week's European ...Read more

Recent reports in The New York Times and The San Diego Union-Tribune indicate President Donald Trump is considering pardons for several American military members accused or convicted of war crimes. One of them is San Diego-based Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher, charged with killing an injured, unarmed enemy combatant in Iraq in 2017. His case hasn't ...Read more

ROME -- In the plaza in front of the Tiburtina train station on the eastern half of this city, 100 African migrants huddle at night in rough blankets and sleeping bags provided by sympathetic citizens. Two scared, skinny Eritrean teenagers who've just arrived by boat from Libya cling to each other on a bench.

They are the visible symbols of the...Read more

Talk about chutzpah.

Kris Kobach, the former Kansas secretary of state who helped lead the inane Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity (which discovered diddly), delivered a list of 10 demands to the White House to be met if he were to assume the role of President Trump's immigration czar, a position under consideration but yet...Read more

Get out your rakes. President Trump is attacking California's forest fire management again.

Wildfire season is almost here and, in an ongoing effort to make sure California is punished each and every day for not being a handmaiden to the daily calamity in Washington, Trump's Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Forest Service are playing ...Read more

Decisions about admission into college are based on a gamut of factors. Potentially among them: a student's understanding of parabolas, perihelions and the Reconstruction -- that is, his or her academic preparation and performance. But should those decisions also take into account the resourcefulness shown in learning amid challenging ...Read more

At worst, Justin Amash will be the answer to a trivia question about which House member bucked a president of his own party to call for impeachment. At best, Amash will someday be hailed as prescient in trying to save the Republican Party from being Donald Trump's devoted, yet unprincipled, enablers.

Amash's decision to endorse impeachment was ...Read more

There was a moment during Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot's inauguration speech at Wintrust Arena when she turned her back to the crowd and faced the risers of aldermen seated behind her. It was right after she said this about aldermanic corruption:

"The family with the bungalow. The lady who runs the hair salon. The guy who owns the store on the ...Read more

Social conservatives cheering the rash of state laws limiting legal abortion might want to be careful what they wish for.

That's because Democratic prospects for 2020 are likely to improve as uncertainty about the future of Roe v. Wade grows. And uncertainty will grow as more and more states impose restrictions on legal abortion.

Republicans ...Read more

When the University of California threatened to drop the SAT as a college entrance requirement more than 15 years ago, the College Board eliminated the analogy questions and introduced a new essay portion. The changes helped keep the test in business but didn't necessarily make it a stronger predictor of whether students would succeed in college...Read more

Apprehensions about an imminent military confrontation between Iran and the United States have subsided for the time being, after a tense period in which the Trump administration, citing heightened threats, sent an aircraft carrier and bombers to the region and the Pentagon reviewed contingency plans for war.

It now appears possible that ...Read more

As commencement speeches go, this one was definitely not a snoozer. Billionaire investor Robert F. Smith told the Morehouse College graduating class of 396 seniors -- to their total surprise -- that he and his family would wipe out their student debt. The graduates of the all-male historically black college in Atlanta took a minute to process ...Read more

It's the worst day of your life. You've been told that your unborn baby is dying inside of you and you are presented with two horrible options: medically induce labor to deliver her early or carry the dangerous pregnancy to term, when your baby will suffocate outside of your womb.

At that gruesome moment, your state representative, a 63-year-...Read more

Three months ago, President Donald Trump declared his love for legal immigration and said he wanted people coming to the U.S. "in the largest numbers ever." Last week the administration revealed exactly what he meant by that -- and it is disappointing, to say the least.

Trump's February promise may have sounded odd to those who see him as ...Read more

Imagine walking into your doctor's or dentist's office for an appointment and being refused service because there's something about you the receptionist just doesn't like. All the receptionist has to do is cite a religious objection, and her rights trump yours.

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump announced a 440-page plan to protect ...Read more

California Gov. Gavin Newsom's revised state budget summary is 114 pages long, but only one line will still matter in 20 years: "The May Revision also recognizes the need for careful study and planning to decrease demand and supply of fossil fuels."

With these few words, Newsom made it clear: The era of reliance on dangerous and polluting ...Read more

Along with resurgent identity politics in the United States and Europe, there is a growing inclination to frame the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in terms of race. According to this narrative, Israel was established as a refuge for oppressed white European Jews who in turn became oppressors of people of color, the Palestinians.

As an Israeli, ...Read more