For the last month, Americans have viewed their lunchtime salads or even a single, crisp leaf of iceberg on their burger as a possible threat. Could it harbor cyclospora, the explosive-diarrhea-causing parasite that by early August had sickened thousands, hospitalized hundreds, and led to two deaths?

In Michigan, the epicenter of the cyclospora...Read more

Brunswick and Echelon Insights asked registered voters in late June what they would tell America's chief executive officers if they had the chance. Only three percent said anything about politics. Before any CEOs breathe a sigh of relief, the same poll asked about contributing to the president's new White House ballroom. That was the most ...Read more

It is an odd confession to make about a statistic, I realize, but then again I am an economist, so I am just going to go ahead: I love GDP. There. I said it.

GDP — for gross domestic product, the total market value of all final goods and services produced within a county’s borders — is in many ways the ideal economic statistic, both for ...Read more

Math can mean different things to different people. It’s simple sums for children or sophisticated models for hedge fund managers. For mathematicians, it is an act of discovery. Many spend years trying to find new mathematical truths or “proofs,” work that can underpin everything from cryptography and computing to finance and engineering. ...Read more

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — There is nothing wrong with this country that cannot be cured by what's right with it. This state's most famous native, William Jefferson Clinton, said so in his first inaugural speech as president back in 1993. That sentiment permeates his presidential library, which locals told me he still visits regularly. In ...Read more

In the best tradition of New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Attorney General Tish James are teaming up to help unaccompanied minors facing deportation proceedings without attorneys, a cruel and inhumane situation exacerbated by President Donald Trump’s relentless attacks against immigrants.

There will be $7.25 million in ...Read more

Parents deserve clarity when making decisions about childhood vaccines. They should not have to choose between political pronouncements and public-health institutions whose credibility has itself been tested in recent years.

The White House’s decision to reduce the number of recommended childhood vaccines has reignited an important debate ...Read more

While the world is focused on the failures of President Donald Trump’s warmongering in Iran and “peacemaking” in Gaza, too little attention is being paid to a potential new Mideast flash point sparked by messianic Israeli settlers on the occupied West Bank.

Escalating settler violence against Palestinians — attacking their villages, ...Read more

Two key questions are shaping up in Michigan's U.S. Senate race, and both center on Abdul El-Sayed's embrace of the accused antisemitic Internet influencer Hasan Piker.

First, can a political candidate throw his arms around a hater without being tainted by the hate? And second, why is someone who is as purportedly smart as El-Sayed allowing his...Read more

The surprise defeat of a far left fringe Democrat in Wisconsin could signal that socialists have finally jumped the shark, paving the way for more electable moderates in the general election.

Francesca Hong, who advocated for abolishing the police and canceling Thanksgiving, lost the Wisconsin gubernatorial primary on Tuesday last week, ...Read more

In the grand buffet of problems explaining President Donald Trump's abysmal approval ratings, reserve a tray for Mexican food.

Americans are rightfully frustrated with the myriad consequences of the war with Iran he plunged us into, the rising cost of living, his pharaonic obsession with monuments to himself and his overall doddering state of ...Read more

Need another metric to show that, for President Donald Trump, "Make America Great Again" means regressing to a 1950s-style white patriarchy? Probably not. But here's a good-bad one for you, marking the deplorable progress of Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's war on diversity in the leadership ranks of the nation's military:

Hegseth's ...Read more

Recently, a middle school teacher took to an online forum to share her grief after two students dumped soap into classroom fish tanks, killing 11 baby fish and seriously injuring two larger fish and two frogs. The students’ only consequence was to apologize.

Other educators weighed in with their own stories about animals who were victims of ...Read more

Many private liberal arts colleges are entering death throes, even as education in the humanities in our tumultuous world is more important than ever. There may be ways to save the tradition, if not all the ivied brick-and-mortar campuses.

There are about 200 “national liberal arts colleges” in the popular U.S. News & World Report ...Read more

By no coincidence, Black August and Black Philanthropy Month are observed at the same time. Both are rooted in a simple truth: Our liberation is never granted; it is built, protected and sustained.

The Black liberation movement commemorated by Black August gave us the blueprint for organizing people who had been deliberately and systematically ...Read more

The average human being can’t survive more than 72 hours without water. In Puerto Rico, hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens are being forced to go 48 hours without running water in their homes during a hot, dry summer while also enduring a shaky electrical grid.

If such things were happening to a mainland population of similar size — ...Read more

Recent reporting says Russian leader Vladimir Putin is considering testing the resolve and combat responses of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) over the next couple of years. Despite being outgunned in defense spending and seemingly having its hands full in Ukraine, the Russian Federation already appears to be probing the alliance. ...Read more

Sculptor Amanda Matthews arrived at the Kentucky COVID Memorial earlier this month prepared, ready to repair her work. Located on the grounds of the state capitol in Frankfort, the sculpture features several figures positioned around a giant silver sphere emblazoned with the state seal and motto: “United We Stand, Divided We Fall.” It’s ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — It’s hard being a global titan these days, when despite beaucoup bucks spent bending government to your will, any little ant of a state attorney general can crawl up your pant leg and bite.

Just ask David Ellison.

After, well, the world seemingly fell in line with his long-planned $110 billion merger of Paramount ...Read more

Some encouraging blows for common sense were struck by primary voters to our north on Tuesday, on both sides of the aisle.

But those looking for compelling evidence that uber-lefty politics won’t play in the Upper Midwest outside of gentrified urban neighborhoods and college towns won’t find it in Francesca Hong’s narrow defeat for the ...Read more