As someone who remembers when Columbia University students took over Hamilton Hall 56 years ago, let me say that 2024 is not 1968.

Back then, our whole country was engaged in debate over the justice of a Vietnam War that involved tens of thousands of American troops. Today, students are setting up tent encampments to protest a war that is not ...Read more

There is no artificial intelligence without the fruits of human inquiry.

Today’s generative AI applications were built on a foundation of such information, drawn from across the internet and from various databases totaling, according to at least one estimate, somewhere around 300 billion words.

That’s a lot of intellectual property, much ...Read more

A reckoning is happening on college campuses across the country.

In the last few weeks, students at dozens of colleges and universities have camped out to protest Israel’s U.S.-backed war on Gaza — and often their schools’ investments in companies that profit from that war.

These students have been met with incredible repression. As of ...Read more

She’s already written an entire book about the racist history of Kentucky’s state song.

But now, Louisville historian Emily Bingham is trying another tack: a social media campaign to encourage folks to stop singing “My Old Kentucky Home” on Derby Day.

On Saturday, Bingham will be at Churchill Downs with guests, and when they play “My...Read more

United States drug policy this week moved one step closer to sanity. It’s got much further to go.

We are not cannabis enthusiasts, nor do we love what legal and regulated substances like alcohol and tobacco do to human and public health. But dealing with those who sold and used pot through arrest, prosecution and occasional incarceration was ...Read more

The news Tuesday that the Justice Department plans to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug is most welcome. But very, very late in coming.

President Biden promised during the 2020 presidential campaign that he would decriminalize cannabis. Moving the substance from Schedule I, for the most dangerous and abused drugs, to Schedule III as...Read more

It is never OK to use physical violence against people with whom you disagree. This should be obvious, but the events that unfolded on the UCLA campus early Wednesday show the consequences when that message is lost.

Late Tuesday night, a large group of people attacked the anti-war encampment on the Westwood campus. They weren’t campus ...Read more

On April 25, former President Donald Trump argued to the United States Supreme Court that the Constitution crowned him absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for acts taken during his presidency. The facially alarming argument made startling headway with conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and ...Read more

Donald Trump is in court right now. But not everyone understands that this is not a “hush money” case. He isn’t charged with being unfaithful to his wife or even with paying a woman to keep quiet about his affair. He is charged with falsifying business records, which is illegal, no matter who you are.

I have read about the case, but I don...Read more

It has been nearly seven years since the #MeToo movement rocked social media, with millions of women posting publicly about their experiences of sexual assault in response to allegations that Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein had committed predatory acts.

As a former New York sex crimes prosecutor and legal director for a Chicago nonprofit ...Read more

We've all come to recognize that committee hearings conducted by the Republican House majority are almost invariably clown shows featuring spittle-flecked posturing by members intent on displaying their ignorance to an appreciative crowd.

Wednesday's hearing by the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic was a crystalline example of the...Read more

Since the opening of the Donald Trump’s New York trial — when the former president’s counsel told the jury that the prosecution’s star witness “cannot be trusted” — the defense has telegraphed its principal strategy: Eviscerate Michael Cohen.

As Trump’s fixer and attack dog at the time of the alleged crimes, Cohen was more ...Read more

Acting Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan held Donald Trump in contempt for his violations of a gag order in his criminal hush money case. The penalty? A paltry $9,000. Nonetheless, the judge cautioned the former president that continued violations might result in “incarceratory punishment,” just as they might for any other ...Read more

By the end of the decade, new cars and trucks in the United States will be required to have automatic emergency braking systems that can save hundreds of lives each year.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which announced the requirement Monday, called it the most significant safety rule in two decades. This is an important ...Read more

Florida abortion providers began turning patients away from their clinics this week, even before the state’s six-week ban took effect Wednesday.

The state’s mandatory 24-hour waiting period, combined with the ban, effectively ended 50 years of reproductive freedom in Florida, where more than 84,000 abortions were performed last year. ...Read more

As the magnitude of the bird flu outbreak in cattle becomes clearer, so does the need to quickly get a firmer grip on some basic facts. Namely, how far this H5N1 virus has spread, how it is spreading, and where this situation is likely to go next. The COVID-weary public also wants to know whether humans are at risk.

Public agencies must move ...Read more

Tuesday night, the world watched on live TV as the NYPD cleared out pro-Palestinian student protesters who’d taken over Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall and the quad at City College, arresting hundreds of people.

The protesters at Columbia had made the campus situation even more untenable by breaking and entering into a locked building, ...Read more