The Democratic establishment, shaken by the rise of progressive socialists, is right to wonder where this wave might lead. The similarly populist movement of Tea Party Republicans, however muddled, foreshadowed President Donald Trump.

Republican candidates for Congress backed by the GOP establishment were pushed to the limit beginning in the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- On my way through Skid Row to meet up with Estela Lopez, things looked pretty much as they did when I spent time there more than 20 years ago and first heard the promises that things would be better soon.

Tents lined some of the sidewalks, making them unpassable. Some people wore the damage of physical or mental disease, ...Read more

A secret shopper survey conducted by researchers at Yale University and published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association offers an alarming, if unsurprising, glimpse into the world of telehealth purveyors of GLP-1 medicines. It confirms what doctors have worried about for years: The popular obesity drugs are being ...Read more

The nation's largest retirement program will reach a cliff in six years unless Congress acts. Social Security is going bankrupt, facing a structural imbalance between promised benefits and dedicated revenues.

The 2026 Social Security Administration Trustees' report predicts the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance trust fund that ...Read more

The Supreme Court has recognized the Federal Reserve as a special case among the government’s numerous independent agencies — one that requires protection from White House interference. The distinction is less than clear-cut in legal terms. As a practical matter, however, preserving the central bank’s independence in monetary policy is ...Read more

Not many historians have seen their work referenced on “The Simpsons” and “The Sopranos.” Not many historians have been condemned by name by a president on the White House lawn for the “crime” of researching and writing about this nation’s history. And not many historians have taught countless people that this country’s past ...Read more

Modern politics in many quarters is more performance art than serious policy, a never-ending quest to generate votes rather than address substantive issues. This was on full display last week with the introduction in the Senate of the so-called Living Wage for All Act.

The legislation is sponsored by Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from ...Read more

I never thought I’d be writing a column that led off with an analysis of soccer.

I’d planned to write about the lessons our nation’s 250th birthday party provided for Americans about the real meaning of “patriotic values.” But as it turns out, an examination of the scandal that ensued after President Donald Trump’s shameful World ...Read more

The University of California Board of Regents is being asked to consider whether to bring back the SAT and ACT for admissions, a debate so hot even New York is weighing in on this Golden State dilemma.

Despite dire warnings from our right-coast friends and thousands (yes, thousands) of professors who claim incoming students lack necessary ...Read more

For the past 11 years, I've waited for a scandal, a slip up, a moment of clarity that would finally make President Donald Trump's supporters realize that their man is charlatan.

My fellow Americans, I think we finally found it.

Earlier this week, Trump appears to have successfully lobbied FIFA to allow U.S. striker Folarin Balogun to play in ...Read more

Every four years when the World Cup rolls around, no matter where in the world I am watching — in a pub in England, in a crowded restaurant in Spain or in a bar in Chicago — my mind always conjures up images of that night in Senegal where I saw my first match on a portable black-and-white TV hooked up to a truck battery.

I had barely made ...Read more

The Supreme Court is destroying originalism in order to save it. In Trump v. Cook, Chief Justice John Roberts, a supposed originalist, bypassed the theory in favor of a five-year-old doctrine known as “history and tradition.” That allowed the court to preserve the independence of the Federal Reserve — even as, in a separate decision issued...Read more

On June 28, the 55th annual Chicago Pride Parade stepped off from Grace Street and Broadway under this year’s theme, “Free to Be Proud.” Leading the procession as one of the parade’s community grand marshals was the Alliance of Illinois Judges, the state’s association of LGBTQ+ judges.

I marched as a judicial extern with the Cook ...Read more

As the chair of the governor’s Minnesota Truth Council, retired Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill has inviolable ground rules.

“I’m there to run a good meeting,” Cahill said. “I think that’s basically what it is, and having experience with politically charged hearings, my job is procedural fairness.”

When he isn’t in a black ...Read more

On the surface, the Supreme Court's June 30 opinion upholding state laws barring transgender girls from women's and girl's sports teams looks like a victory for women's rights.

The 6-3 opinion by Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh certainly presents itself that way. "Females and males have inherent physical differences relevant to athletic performance,...Read more

It’s budget season, and advocates are once again mobilizing to steer public funds toward communities with the greatest needs — even as budgets are rushed through the process with little analysis of who benefits and who bears the cost.

But across the country, leading cities are transforming budgeting into something far different: They are ...Read more

The Trump administration is asking Congress to pay for the consequences of a war with Iran that Congress never authorized. Before lawmakers write that check, they should require a serious accounting of what the war has already cost — and what the administration is asking them to pay for.

In addition to the tragic loss of 13 American ...Read more

For more than two decades, I, a Black woman, lived with my family in a small Illinois town filled with white residents, many with a staunch fidelity to God, country and guns.

Although I don’t live there anymore, it was a delightful place because our family and several others in our small subdivision — particularly the family next door — ...Read more