At the heart of the crisis facing journalism — and hence democracy, too — is the question of bias. Can journalists ever really be intellectually independent and open-minded?

Take your pick of surveys. Most Americans think the press is rife with slant. According to a 2024 survey by a research center at the University of Chicago, roughly 7 in...Read more

In this last year, the University of California has been dismantling support systems that help underrepresented students succeed, while simultaneously debating whether to raise the barrier through standardized testing for those same students to even get in the door. This combination, which is a direct result of the UC system’s silent ...Read more

The nation just learned that last month, when we thought President Donald Trump had fled his Qatari-donated luxury plane for the relative safety of a proper Air Force One, he was actually on a third plane out of Turkey. Fearing an Iranian assassination attempt, military and security officials had secreted him off the official aircraft and onto ...Read more

The rise of Donald Trump could have been a plus for Harley-Davidson, given that many of its longtime customers are proud fans of the Republican president. When the GOP held its National Convention in Harley’s hometown of Milwaukee two summers ago, Republican delegates streamed in by the busload to the local Harley-Davidson Museum.

Yet Trump�...Read more

It’s prime season for weddings, graduations, showers and family reunions. But some of these memory-making moments include staged “send-offs” that come at a hidden cost. Behind every butterfly and dove release is an animal who was bred, shipped, confined and treated like a disposable party favor. For many, the celebration ends in injury, ...Read more

If the bad news is that members of Generation Z can’t afford to buy a house until they are middle-aged — which isn’t really bad news, honestly, but anyway — then the good news is that at least they are investing their money in high-performing assets. Or so we thought.

Now we are learning that they might not be very good investors, or ...Read more

A nation will be measured by how it treats the vulnerable. Governors who aspire to lead this country will be measured the same way. As pastors in Illinois and Pennsylvania, we urge Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro to answer this urgent call to action. Black and brown families need access to schools that are safe, ...Read more

In the early 18th century, Ireland was a terrible place to be Irish.

A small class of English landlords owned 90% of the soil and exported most of the island’s productive capacity while locals starved. For 10 years an anonymous writer published a series of earnest objections. His arguments were forceful, reasonable and largely ignored.

In ...Read more

On June 30, the vast Jatiwaringin landfill outside the Indonesian capital of Jakarta caught fire. Large fires were smoldering for about 10 days on this open dump site that has been receiving hundreds of thousands of tons of trash every year since 1993.

Authorities worked hard to extinguish this multisite fire while toxic fumes were engulfing ...Read more

The nation’s service industry has been fueled in lock step with the digital economy. In such an environment, data has become a monetizable asset, a driver for innovation and economic growth. And with the spread and growth of artificial intelligence across numerous sectors of society, the collection, storage and analysis of data has ...Read more

Mere hours after the Trump administration's latest tariff scheme launched on July 24, the government was sued again by the same small businesses that had already defeated prior White House tariff shenanigans, most notably at the Supreme Court. As Bloomberg Law reported, these companies are part of an “increasingly vocal cohort of business ...Read more

The good news is that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is preparing to provide officers with body cameras over the next few months. The bad news is that agency officials don’t sound enthusiastic about actually releasing any video.

ICE has been embroiled in controversy for most of President Donald Trump’s second term, as opponents of ...Read more

Parents are all too familiar with the ongoing battle to get their kids to eat a vegetable or two.

This summer, they’ve been fighting it themselves.

Just weeks ago, every bite of greens came with the fear of exposure to cyclosporiasis, a parasite many of us were blissfully unaware of until it began triggering stomach problems that leave no ...Read more

For a half-century, Congress has been offering middle- and working-class Americans options for tax-advantaged individual retirement savings, largely to compensate for the disappearance of traditional pensions.

But the transition from so-called defined benefit pensions to defined contribution accounts such as 401(k) plans and individual ...Read more

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