We spend tens of billions of dollars each year on K-12 public education in Illinois. We argue endlessly about how best to invest that money to improve student outcomes, and we despair when those investments don’t produce an adequately literate and numerate student population.

But our fixation on budgets and balance sheets may be obscuring ...Read more

The men you see in masks on your television savagely arresting people may not seem like your affair. But they are your affair and mine, and that of every other American.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operates outside of the law. It doesn’t disclose charges, and no one arrested sees a court of law.

ICE agents are also the affair of...Read more

When Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered all top brass to assemble in Quantico in September, he declared women could either meet male standards for combat roles or get cut.

Strong message, except the military was already doing that, so Hegseth was either oblivious or ignoring decades of history. Confusion aside, it reaffirmed a goal Hegseth...Read more

You may have missed it due to the firehose of international news over the last week. But in between the CIA director traveling to Venezuela to meet deposed dictator Nicolás Maduro’s replacement and President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again flirtation with bombing Iran, the White House made a pretty big announcement on Gaza: The 20-point ...Read more

The 405 Freeway through the Sepulveda Pass is an infamous stretch of roadway known around the world for all the wrong reasons. It’s a mountainous choke point that can bring traffic between the Valley and the Westside to a grinding halt at any time of day. Drivers attempting to connect to the 405 often find themselves trapped, and the main ...Read more

Envy produces terrible public policy.

The Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, a major California union, is currently pushing a wealth tax initiative. Unlike an income or sales tax, a wealth tax would confiscate 5 percent of the net worth of California’s billionaires, whether they’ve actually realized the ...Read more

There is nothing inherently wrong with President Donald Trump’s pursuit of Greenland. But threatening to seize the island through military force is ridiculous, counterproductive and anathema to America’s values.

U.S. attempts to purchase Greenland — an autonomous territory of Denmark, a NATO ally — date to the 19th century. The United ...Read more

Step back and try to make sense of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy and national security objectives when it comes to acquiring Greenland.

It's not easy.

If stopping Russia and China are the objectives for taking control of Greenland, there are much smarter ways to do it, including increasing U.S. support for the NATO and backing ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — People often ask me how things have changed at the state Capitol since I began covering news there many decades ago. My latest short answer: Look at the new California Senate leader.

In fact, look at the entire Senate. Actually, the other legislative house, too, the Assembly.

There was only one female legislator when I ...Read more

The sun is shining, the fire threat is low and for the first time in 25 years, no part of California is experiencing drought. Except of course in the hope and joy department.

It’s the middle of January, which means the holidays are well and truly over and whatever fanciful shine the prospect of a “new” year held as it approached has ...Read more

Nearly 70% of American adults polled recently said that the central promise of the American Dream — that hard work can earn a good life — is no longer true or never was.

It’s easy to understand why. Decades of policy choices, rising costs and stagnant wages have eroded the path that once led from work to security. An affordability crisis ...Read more

When I heard President Donald Trump boast early this month that Cuba, without the aid of a decapitated Venezuela, appears “ready to fall,” I immediately thought of Joseito, a Cuban man in his mid-30s I got to know a few years ago while doing research for a book. He lived in Havana with his wife and two young daughters in the rooms adjacent ...Read more

The need to address the high cost of prescription drugs is one of the rare areas of concordance in our divided country. Americans across the political spectrum can agree that seniors shouldn’t have to ration pills, cancer patients shouldn’t need a GoFundMe campaign to afford treatment, and that too many Americans are making steep sacrifices ...Read more

On Jan. 8, in the White House press room, Vice President JD Vance declared that the ICE officer who shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7 “is protected by absolute immunity.” His assertion came before any investigation was conducted and before all the facts were known.

“Absolute immunity”? In the United States? In a ...Read more

Getting old can be a touch terrifying — if you don’t embrace it. So the morning I turned 65, I was desperate to ease the sting by rolling up my sleeve and donating blood for a good cause.

I hatched this feel-good scheme months earlier as the perfect way to mark the moment and show some gratitude for being here. Giving blood offers people ...Read more

Wish them well. Next month, four astronauts are expected to board a space capsule called Orion, blast off on a rocket known as the Space Launch System, and exit low-Earth orbit for the first time since 1972, en route to a 10-day flyby of the moon. Unfortunately, their mission will be riskier than it should be.

The planned flight is a crucial ...Read more

In the aftermath of the U.S. military strike that seized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3, the Trump administration has emphasized its desire for unfettered access to Venezuela’s oil more than conventional foreign policy objectives, such as combating drug trafficking or bolstering democracy and regional stability.

During his ...Read more

To say Harry Reid and Jon Ralston had a fraught relationship is like suggesting Arabs and Israelis haven't always been on the best of terms.

Or there's a wee bit of tension between fans of the L.A. Dodgers and San Francisco Giants.

Reid, the former Senate majority leader and most powerful and important lawmaker ever to emerge from Nevada, went...Read more

President Donald Trump’s second inauguration one year ago found our nation more divided and apprehensive than at any time since the Civil War.

For his followers, it was a time for jubilation. For others, it foreshadowed grave danger for our republic.

The fears weren’t idle after Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election he had lost and ...Read more

Here’s the glaring sign of how drunk President Donald Trump has become on his own power: his ongoing threat to seize Greenland for security reasons, “whether they like it or not.” Anything else is “unacceptable,” Trump ranted last week.

Never mind that this icebound island is an autonomous territory of Denmark, one of our longest-...Read more