Joe Biden famously ran a basement campaign during his successful 2020 presidential bid. But he emerged to participate in two debates with his opponent, Donald Trump. Will he agree to share the stage this fall? He’d better.

Last week, five major TV networks — ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and Fox — sent a joint letter to Biden and Trump urging the ...Read more

Arizona’s Supreme Court opened a new front in the war on women’s reproductive rights last week when it resurrected an obscure 1864 law that bans abortion in almost all cases. Critics of the ruling say the court has thrown Arizona back into the 19th century.

That isn’t entirely fair to the 19th century.

The irony of last week’s ...Read more

ST. LOUIS -- The closure of some St. Louis Walgreens stores is just one of the unintended consequences of the “defunding the police’’ rhetoric and policies as well as the culture of allowing crime without consequence. It also serves as an example that de-policing — or even the idea of de-policing — hurts the very people it is trying to...Read more

For too long, communities of color have borne the brunt of environmental degradation, suffering the consequences of pollution and toxic industries that too often find their place in our neighborhoods. That’s why, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced its decision to limit tailpipe emissions and gas-powered cars, it was ...Read more

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority appeared skeptical that prosecutors could use the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to go after Jan. 6 rioters. It’s a closely watched case in part because Special Counsel Jack Smith also cited this statute in his criminal charges against former President Donald Trump.

As a matter of statutory ...Read more

In a refreshing twist on what had been starting to look like a depressing U-turn to the days when coup d’etats were all too present in postcolonial Africa, 80 political parties and nongovernmental organizations in Mali joined forces this week to demand new elections after nearly four years of rule by a military junta.

Still, the “coup ...Read more

The 49 Senate Republicans spent Wednesday afternoon furiously sputtering that they weren’t allowed to debate if Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, duly and formally impeached by the House, should be tried in the upper chamber.

It’s their own fault, having blocked a chance to engage in several hours of debate, so they ...Read more

The first criminal trial of a former U.S. president hadn't started this week, and already Donald Trump found himself behind bars. It wasn't a good look for Candidate Trump.

Whenever he enters or leaves the Manhattan courtroom in the case of People of New York State vs. Donald J. Trump, Defendant Trump makes a beeline for the cameras, to rant ...Read more

USC’s decision to rescind valedictorian Asna Tabassum’s invitation to speak at its commencement no doubt resulted from a range of pressures from inside and outside the university, particularly the outcry over the student’s expressions of support for Palestinians. Provost Andrew T. Guzman wrote that he acted in the face of “substantial ...Read more

Asna Tabassum has a GPA of at least 3.98, with a major in the challenging field of biomedical engineering, and a record sterling enough to be picked as USC’s valedictorian from about 100 qualified candidates. For that accomplishment, this is her “reward”: having the traditional valedictory speech canceled at the May 10 commencement over ...Read more

In 2022, at the University of Southern California commencement, valedictorian Adam Karelin delivered a stirring poem against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In 2021, valedictorian Tianna Shaw Wakeman spoke of living in a world rife with racial injustice.

In 2020, valedictorian Isabella Hauptman spoke about COVID, which we seem to remember was a...Read more

In a striking departure from recent voting and polling trends, health care has tumbled to the 16th most important problem facing Americans today, according to new Gallup data.

At first glance, this shift is bewildering, especially considering the central role health care played in the 2018, 2020 and 2022 election cycles.

Americans now list the...Read more

It’s to America’s shame that Ukrainian civilians are dying in Russian missile and drone attacks for lack of defensive weaponry due, at least in part, to the inability so far of the U.S. House of Representatives to approve military aid. Just Wednesday, three Russian missiles hit an eight-story apartment building in the northern Ukrainian city...Read more

We often hear from politicians that they are “against illegal immigration but in favor of legal immigration.”

Although this refrain may sound safely moderate, it actually ducks the critical policy questions related to immigration: Who may come? How many? And how do we enforce the limits we set?

Even as a record level of legal and illegal ...Read more

What’s behind the wage gap between men and women?

It has narrowed recently. In 2023, women’s median weekly wages of $1,005 equaled 84% of men’s $1,202 in weekly wages. That’s an all-time high, and a distinct uptick from a fairly steady 80% to 82% between 2004 and 2020.

Yet 84% is still not 100%, even though equal pay for equal work has...Read more

Many state capitol buildings feel unapproachable, tucked away downtown or barricaded behind lanes of noisy traffic. Not so in Salt Lake City. The Utah Capitol sits at the mouth of a verdant canyon, flanked by parks and neighborhoods, perched below the Wasatch Mountains and presiding over the city with authority. It’s a grand building, just ...Read more

With the death of singer-songwriter Eric Carmen last month and Earth Day coming up, I got to thinking about Carmen’s song “All By Myself” and how deeper forms of activism are both essential to making change and a powerful antidote to our growing epidemic of loneliness.

In a New York Times essay last year, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy...Read more

At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Pennsylvania delegate James Wilson brought up a seemingly un-American idea. He said the executive branch of America’s government should be headed by a single person: a president.

Several constitutional delegates objected. A single leader at the helm? Virginia delegate Edmund Randolph said this was the...Read more

Given former President Donald Trump’s rhetoric during the Republican primaries, we can expect immigration enforcement on our southern border to be a major focus of his presidential campaign.

However, any solution to our border difficulties must entail reforms that make legal immigration a more plausible option for would-be migrants.

In a ...Read more

Chicago police recovered 76 casings after the Saturday night massacre in the 2000 block of West 52nd Street in Chicago. They did not recover the life of Ariana Molina, 9.

Nor did they prevent the sprayed bullets from an automatic weapon from wounding two young boys, ages 8 and 9.

Nor could they prevent the shooting of a 1-year-old baby, who ...Read more