The Chicago Teachers Union has suffered another very public blow, this time at the hands of its own members.

CTU officials looking for extra money for politics had asked union members to approve a plan that was projected to yield about $8.5 million in new dues money for the CTU. Union leadership wrote that “with about 80 percent of schools ...Read more

Even as the U.S. and Iran wrestle over an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, surging gas prices have turned the government’s attention to a perennially popular fiscal scam: Ease the pressure on household budgets with a gas tax holiday. In reality, such a plan to curry favor with voters would make them, all things considered, worse off. ...Read more

Supporters of Washington state’s impending 9.9% millionaire tax celebrated the state Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling blocking a voter referendum on the measure. However, if proponents better understood the potential economic damage this tax is likely to inflict, they might adopt a more cautious stance.

The public could ...Read more

President Donald Trump’s grip on the Republican Party is slipping. Sort of. Because even though the president’s support among GOP voters has diminished, his demonstrable strength is still swaying the party’s primary contests.

The Indiana state senators who quashed the president’s redistricting scheme there? Several were defeated for ...Read more

The Trump administration’s recent decision to dissolve the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of English Language Acquisition has received little public attention. But for more than 5 million English learners in America’s public schools, the consequences could be life-altering.

The Office of English Language Acquisition, known as OELA,...Read more

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his deputy mayor, Leila Bozorg, get solid grades for addressing the biggest issue in New York City: the lack of housing.

The Block by Block report is a comprehensive approach covering market-priced units, affordable apartments, rent-stabilized dwellings, distressed properties and NYCHA and even the possibility of using ...Read more

On May 16, the United States found and killed Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, a top Islamic State commander, in Nigeria. The precision operation in the northeast of Africa’s most populous country came about a week after President Donald Trump’s administration released its new counterterrorism strategy.

As one might expect, combating the Islamic State ...Read more

American political party organizations have imploded in the post-World War II era, largely replaced by dark money from unknown donors. The party vacuum is ominous for a healthy democracy, because voters are left without stable cues about how to vote. There are options that could — it won’t be easy — strengthen parties and diminish the ...Read more

The catalog of unrequited hopes and hearts is a long one.

Captain Ahab went mad in his vengeful search for "Moby Dick." Jay Gatsby's ostentatious fortune failed to win the love of Daisy Buchanan. Charlie Brown never kicked the football.

Then there's Texas, the land of broken Democratic dreams.

It's been half a century since the party carried...Read more

First the good news, such as it is. Chicago suffered the lowest number of shooting deaths in a Memorial Day weekend in more than 15 years.

The one known fatality was the tragic case of 2-year-old Jamonte Shaw, who died after accidentally shooting himself on Sunday at his home in the South Side Pullman neighborhood.

But the dearth of shooting ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Spencer Pratt, please give me a call.

We should talk.

You say you want to be mayor of Los Angeles, but do you really?

I know that being a candidate has rescued you from anonymity after your career in reality TV went off a cliff. You've got CEOs backing you, and fans raving, and you've managed to milk social media attention.

...Read more

In the end Tulsi Gabbard wasn’t pushed out of her job as Director of National Intelligence, as Washington’s cognoscenti were expecting (they had started punning that DNI stood for “Do Not Invite”). Instead, Gabbard is leaving for a good and noble reason: to stand by her husband, who has been diagnosed with an “extremely rare form of ...Read more

Former Vice President Kamala Harris turned heads with a video earlier this month in which she argued Democrats need an “expanded playbook” to explore structural reforms to the institutions of American government, including the Supreme Court.

Her comments reflected soaring Democratic frustration with the court after its recent Callais ruling...Read more

Voters have lost faith in just about every institution right now — with the exception of the military, according to Gallup’s annual survey. So Democrats, in their quest to win back a majority in the U.S. House, are recruiting military veterans. Their appeal boils down to one thing: courage. Voters want to see it. Few Republicans in Congress ...Read more

The outcome of the Los Angeles mayor’s race will determine how many people opt to escape from the city.

During the tenure of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, the City of Angels suffered through hellfire that enveloped the Pacific Palisades. The January 2025 inferno killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of structures. More than 100,000 were ...Read more

Earlier this spring, the House Ways and Means Committee confronted hospital CEOs with horror stories Americans know far too well. Chairman Jason Smith highlighted outrageous bills detached from reality, remarking that “patients [are] at the mercy of hospital empires.”

A family in California was charged $300,000 for a toddler’s snake bite....Read more

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, but awareness alone cannot save us. Men of color are already painfully aware that something is wrong. We feel it in our sleeplessness. In our blood pressure. In the marriages that strain under emotional distance. In the fathers who never learned how to say “I’m not OK.” In the sons trying to inherit ...Read more

When the University of Chicago announced this month that students whose families earn less than $250,000 will no longer pay tuition starting next year, they were taking a big gamble.

The prestigious university recently was hit with a credit downgrade, is saddled with debt tied to building campaigns, and has laid off staff.

Given these ...Read more