Last week, I found myself in a situation that could soon be familiar to a lot more Americans: sliding into a CT scanner with a smattering of electrodes attached to my chest and ribs, my arms raised over my head. A serene voice asked me to take a small breath and hold it. A loudish whirring from the machine, a few shifts of the table, and another...Read more

If the deal the U.S. has struck with Iran to end hostilities in the Persian Gulf is welcome, it’s far from a victory. Any hopes of achieving more rest on whether the White House is willing to learn from this self-created mess.

According to the text of a memorandum of understanding disclosed to reporters by a senior administration official on ...Read more

When Graciela Dela Torre developed chronic pain while on the job at a freight company in the Chicago area, she did what millions of Americans have done: She filed a disability claim.

After a couple of years, her company’s insurance carrier decided she no longer qualified for compensation. Again, Dela Torre did what millions of Americans have ...Read more

During National Pollinator Week (June 22–28), people across the country will celebrate bees and other pollinators while learning how to help protect them. As a master’s student in entomology, I’m doing some reflecting of my own after an assignment that left me questioning what “protection” really means.

My professor asked me to plan ...Read more

When Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs met Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, he brought an unusual gift: a check for $8.65.

The money came from an old PayPal account that had been turned over to Illinois as unclaimed property before Robert Prevost, an Illinois native, became the pope. The amount was insignificant. The publicity was priceless.

...Read more

On the anniversary of D-Day, I sat down to watch a movie and found myself unexpectedly in tears.

But that's what Pressure did to me. The new war film was directed and edited by Anthony Maras, written by Maras and David Haig, and starred Andrew Scott as the Scottish meteorologist James Stagg and Brendan Fraser as the burdened General Dwight D. ...Read more

Earlier this year a short, viral video stopped me in my tracks. It featured Steve Harvey, who said your father is really the only man on earth who genuinely wants you to do better than him.

It hit me hard as a dad and a son. It is truer than it's comfortable to admit. As a man, it really seems that most men who love you tend to have a ceiling. ...Read more

“Eat real food,” the slogan behind the USDA’s new food pyramid, has been one of the most popular, bipartisan ideas hammered home by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Health and Human Services secretary. But the administration Kennedy serves is making it more expensive for families to do that.

Grocery prices are 26% higher than they were five ...Read more

There is a powerful force that affects politics as much as it affects individual lives. It is fatigue.

We just get darn tired of something, be it a job, a relationship, a hobby or a routine. We have been devoted to it for years, and suddenly we want out; we want to do something else. What we loved doing has become boring and tedious. More work ...Read more

Social Security is the bedrock of nearly every American’s retirement plan — the steady, dependable stream of income they can count on to guarantee them a basic standard of living in old age.

That foundation is now in jeopardy. According to the Social Security trustees, the program’s primary trust fund is on track to be depleted before ...Read more

President Donald Trump has given his “Complete and Total Endorsement” to the hard right-wing candidate for president in Colombia, Abelardo de la Espriella, for the second round of the presidential election coming Sunday. More than expressing his personal preference, the U.S. president also noted that the “results of this Election are very ...Read more

New York Attorney General Tish James, along with AG counterparts in 17 other states, have prevailed over Donald Trump’s capricious attempts to derail offshore wind energy projects all around the country by imposing a moratorium on approvals and even the issuance permits or leases for already-approved projects.

Having lost before a federal ...Read more

The latest Social Security trustees report underscores the urgency of reform. The Social Security retirement trust fund is now projected to be depleted in late 2032, one year sooner than previously forecast. At that point, the system would be able to pay only 78% of scheduled benefits, resulting in an automatic 22% reduction in benefits for ...Read more

Up to now, images of government-sponsored cruelty involving men in cages were the stuff of “Alligator Alcatraz,” Florida’s billion-dollar boondoggle of an immigrant detention center.

The new venue is the White House lawn.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship “America 250” on Sunday showcased men beating each other bloody for the ...Read more

Today, we discuss political jockeying, litigation and Hail Mary passes.

There's so much going on these days ...

Indeed.

Between the war with Iran , the World Cup and President Donald Trump slapping his filigreed ( emphasis greed ) name on everything in sight, I've completely lost track of the fight for control of Congress.

Well, now that ...Read more

Ebola, a deadly virus, is spreading rapidly through parts of central Africa. By the time the outbreak was confirmed in mid-May, hundreds of potential cases had been identified, suggesting the strain had been circulating for months undetected. Although the U.S.’s retreat from global health initiatives isn’t directly to blame for this crisis, ...Read more

There have been so many statements about an impending peace deal with Iran, without any agreement actually materializing, that it’s hard to take seriously President Donald Trump’s claims of imminent success. But for the first time in four months, it appears we finally have a settlement — or, more accurately, a short-term placeholder to ...Read more

In today’s America, one of the rites of passage that marks the transition to full adulthood is paying your own phone bill. By this standard, many people — even those well into middle age — are stuck in an extended adolescence.

A survey released this month by the insurance firm Northwestern Mutual says that many Americans, including some ...Read more

The air is thick with schadenfreude in the wake of Graham Platner’s impressive victory in the Democratic primary for U.S. senator from Maine.

Columnist Bret Stephens, writing in The New York Times just before the election, said that Maine Democrats who choose Platner while continuing to object to President Donald Trump’s putative moral ...Read more

SpaceX’s initial public offering made Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire. You might think there’s not much you can buy with a hundred (or a thousand) billion dollars that you can’t buy with one billion dollars. But there is: Absolute power.

The world’s top 10 wealthiest individuals all have fortunes of around $150 billion or ...Read more