Politics
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Commentary: The Fed's credibility depends on resisting politics, not playing it
At Jackson Hole last month, all eyes were on Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh in his first speech at the Fed’s annual conference. But all thoughts were about the Fed’s rate decision next week.
Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard economist who was at Jackson Hole as a lunchtime speaker, offered this advice to a New York Times journalist: “If they ...Read more
Abby McCloskey: MAHA's strange pivot to its least-popular ideas
“Bobby Unleashed” is the West Wing’s midterms motto, according to reporting by Politico. But what exactly is Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. being unleashed to do? Because the biggest MAHA policy reforms have run into that familiar Washington foe: old-fashioned bureaucracy. And while many Americans still do want to “Make America ...Read more
Commentary: The country that vaccinated the world is unlearning how
On Aug. 10, in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order telling American parents to break the measles, mumps, and rubella shot into three separate injections and to space childhood vaccines across many more trips to the doctor.
He said the change would "align the United States with other advanced and developed nations....Read more
Mark Z. Barabak: California's recall system is a mess. Voters can do something about it
Is a hissy fit worth $200 million?
That was the tab in 2021, when California held a recall election less than a year before Gov. Gavin Newsom was set to face voters.
There was angst — the COVID-19 pandemic was raging. There was anger — the lifesaving restrictions imposed by Washington and Sacramento made daily living a chore and drove many...Read more
Commentary: How schools are remembering -- or forgetting -- Sept. 11
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, yet lawmakers in just half of states require teaching about the terrorist event. This is an improvement over just three years ago, but lawmakers cannot afford to allow this remembrance to pass each year without making the event and its aftermath part of classroom instruction.
In 2023...Read more
Commentary: NYC finally starts coming clean on secret WTC records
NEW YORK – With the start of the release of hidden World Trade Center 9/11 documents held by New York City, we can begin to understand the critical questions of who knew what and when about the environmental health disaster released when the twin towers fell and the soaring plume of white dust rose, covering Downtown.
Mayor Mamdani and the ...Read more
Editorial: Stars and Stripes paper the latest casualty of 'friendly' fire
Dwight D. Eisenhower and Pete Hegseth, it appears, would not have gotten along well. They almost certainly would have disagreed on one particular military matter — the editorial independence of the venerable Star and Stripes newspaper.
As the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and others have recounted in recent days, the latest ...Read more
Editorial: Don't overlook California's role in Nevada's high gas prices
The biggest long-term problem facing Nevada drivers isn’t what happens in the Strait of Hormuz. It’s California’s war on fossil fuels.
On Labor Day, the average price of gas in Nevada was almost $5 a gallon. According to AAA, that’s well above the previous Labor Day record of $3.82, set in 2012. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Aaron ...Read more
Editorial: Beyond scandal, big questions about Hope Florida
By now, dozens of journalists have taken a turn writing about the so-called “Hope Florida” scandal, a bizarre waltz in which $10 million meant to repay Medicaid overcharges was instead two-stepped through a quasi-state agency/charity affiliated with first lady Casey DeSantis, and then twirled through a back door where the cash was dumped ...Read more
John M. Crisp: With Trump, the trivial things do matter
President Donald Trump has renamed the lake formerly known as Ontario as Lake America. He’s also renamed the Gulf of Mexico and has posted about renaming the Strait of Hormuz as Trump Strait. He’s even mused aloud about renaming one or two oceans.
So what? What’s in a name?
This is just the sort of thing that comedian Bill Maher and ...Read more
Commentary: The Trump administration is claiming success in drug strikes. Not so fast
Last Wednesday came and went as if it was an ordinary day. But the date held significance: It marked the one-year anniversary of Operation Southern Spear, the Trump administration’s military campaign against drug trafficking organizations based in Latin America.
That campaign, which includes airstrikes against alleged drug-carrying vessels on...Read more
Commentary: Let livestock clear hard-to-reach shrubs and grasses before the next wildfire
In grasslands across the American West, four-legged fire prevention crews are busy at work, helping keep wildfire risk under control. These cattle, goats and sheep stomp down tall grasses as they munch their way through plants that could otherwise burn, lowering the risk of catastrophic fires.
When livestock are intentionally used for wildfire ...Read more
James Stavridis: Hegseth has turned the Army into a rudderless ship
The sudden departure of Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll, following months of tension with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, is a serious blow to American security. Worse, his resignation follows the forcing out of several top Army generals, including Chief of Staff Randy George, Vice Chief James Mingus and the highly regarded combat ...Read more
Chris Bryant: Germany is in a very dark place, and time's running out
The far-right Alternative for Germany’s dramatic election win in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday is a watershed in the country’s postwar history. In a nation known in the modern era for stability, Germans in this small federal region have embraced populist, nationalist ideas in large numbers.
Whether this electoral censure ...Read more
Michael Hiltzik: Today's tycoons learn a lesson from history -- public esteem for rich entrepreneurs inevitably sours
It's a story that seems almost as old as time itself: business tycoons forced to make a public defense — whether before a jury or a congressional committee or in the court of public opinion — of products that made them billionaires but turned out to exert hidden harm on society.
They often betray their shock at being brought to public book ...Read more
Commentary: How one person can change the world this Jewish New Year
Fifty years ago, in September 1976, my parents Rabbi Daniel and Esther Moscowitz moved to Chicago to establish the first Chabad Jewish outreach center in Illinois. Until his passing in 2014, my father served as the regional director of Lubavitch-Chabad of Illinois, overseeing the development of what became the Chabad network of over 50 Jewish ...Read more
George Skelton: Wildfire bill flameout sad for California
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — It was unprecedented and stunning: California’s governor and top two legislative leaders negotiated a compromise on a big bill — and one house rebelled, refusing to bring it to a vote.
Not just any bill, but this year’s biggest in the state Legislature, dealing with catastrophic wildfires, arguably the state’s ...Read more
Anita Chabria: What we learned about AI last week should terrify all of us
Last week, more alarming details were revealed about a recent safety incident involving the company OpenAI, and the unexpected actions taken by an artificial intelligence product it was testing.
I'll dive into those details in a minute, but the takeaway from inside the industry is basically this: Uh-oh.
Even many of those creating artificial ...Read more
Mark Z. Barabak: Integrity on the ballot: Election deniers target secretary of state races in key states
Free and fair elections are foundational to our representative democracy. A government intended to reflect and honor the will of the people works only if the people can express their will. That's why we have elections.
But don't take the word of your friendly political columnist.
John Lewis, the late Georgia congressman and hero of the civil ...Read more
Lorraine Ali: Trump's vanity arch is coming and it's no triumph for taxpayers
The president has called it an “arc.” Others, such as the rest of the English-speaking world, refer to it as an “arch.”
Whatever you choose to call Donald Trump’s latest vanity project, construction crews will soon break ground on the bigliest and most beautiful monument ever in the history of America, the Great Triumphal Arch.
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