Last year, a report compiled at one of California’s most prestigious public universities revealed that a significant percentage of incoming freshmen struggled with basic math. Others lacked elementary writing and language skills.

A recent revolt by University of California faculty members now indicates the rot is systemwide.

In October, a ...Read more

Public outrage and sustained pressure from dedicated advocates helped secure the release of 1,500 beagles from Ridglan Farms, a Wisconsin facility that for decades bred and sold dogs to laboratories for painful and deadly experiments.

People around the world celebrated while watching the dogs feel sunshine, grass and tummy rubs for the first ...Read more

In September 2014, I was working as a watch officer in the U.S. State Department’s Operations Center, the 24/7 nerve center that monitors world events and responds to global crises. This meant I had a front row seat to the expansive U.S. government response to the Ebola epidemic that rocked West Africa that year. It was the biggest outbreak of...Read more

What does the closure of a longtime manufacturing company in northern Minnesota have in common with the hapless Boston Red Sox? According to critics, private equity management ruined both, and their communities paid the price. The political reckoning may affect this year’s midterm elections.

Minnesota Twist Drill in Chisholm and Hibbing, Minn...Read more

The Trump administration has made strides in chopping away at the corpulent federal administrative state. Nevertheless, the Competitive Enterprise Institute estimates that government regulations still pile $2 trillion in annual costs on American consumers, or nearly $16,000 per household.

“Businesses and citizens spend too much time and money...Read more

Artificial intelligence is fundamentally reshaping human life in ways that can be beneficial and harmful while also posing many unknowns as the technology leaps forward by the day.

AI has already impacted every corner of our world, from big and small businesses to healthcare, government, education, and human relationships. While some have ...Read more

Virginia just made history as the first Southern state to provide workers with paid family and medical leave to tend to their serious medical needs, welcome a child into their lives, or care for an ill family member.

The new legislation has been described as a win for the state’s new Democratic governor, Abigail D. Spanberger, who was voted ...Read more

Could there be a better metaphor for the plight of the out-of-power Democratic Party than the fact that it's now a week into debating how the party screwed up an "autopsy" about how the party screwed up the 2024 presidential election?

Or that the Democratic National Committee's forced release of that 2024 autopsy last Thursday, after its leak ...Read more

Just one of the nine Supreme Court justices thought it was appropriate for Roger Goodell — whose primary job as NFL commissioner is to protect the league — to decide whether the NFL's hiring practices are still racist.

And it happens to be the same justice whose close friend is an NFL owner.

In fact, the friendship between Justice Brett ...Read more

After a decade of Trumpism, it should come as no surprise that President Donald Trump’s ethos (presenting scandal as strength, outrage as authenticity and public disgrace as evidence you’re a “fighter”) has trickled down into congressional campaigns of both parties.

In Maine, for example, controversial oysterman and veteran Graham ...Read more

Continuing President Donald Trump’s abuse of government power against his perceived enemies, his hatchet men in the Justice Department have reportedly launched a criminal investigation into the nonprofit American Future Republic, run by LinkedIn co-founder billionaire Reid Hoffman.

The supposed offense revolves around supporting the legal ...Read more

Our tech titans keep telling us that AI is humankind’s most cutting-edge technology ever, with Google CEO Sundar Pichai going so far as to describe its arrival as “more profound” than either the discovery of fire or the invention of electricity. Not to be outdone, entrepreneur Marc Andreessen said AI is “possibly the most revolutionary ...Read more

With the United States’ attention fixed on Iran, Venezuela and other crises, the Trump administration’s increasing pressure campaign against Cuba has largely unfolded in the background. That may be why it has drawn less attention than other major foreign policy efforts. But the pieces add up to something larger than routine sanctions policy....Read more

My family’s faith tradition is what you might call All Over The Place.

My father, an Armenian American from Fresno, identified with Zorba the Greek, who lived life passionately and with wonder, but was highly skeptical of religion and religious institutions.

My mother, a WASPy Mayflower descendant, was a member of the Vedanta Society, an ...Read more

As advocates for progressive social policy, we found it rare and promising good news when New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced in April that he plans to create a city-owned grocery in East Harlem, Manhattan.

The East Harlem store will be the first of five planned city-owned stores, one in each borough. And Mamdani aims to do it right �...Read more

Every culture has art or artifacts that become symbols, like Russia’s “stacking” or “nesting” dolls known as Matryoshka.

Every country has symbols, too. For the Soviet Union it was posters.

“The entire path that the Soviet Union walked is shown through the lens of poster design,” explained Maria Zavialova, the curator and head of...Read more

Democrats should come up with better cultural icons than aging, washed up multi-millionaire former talk show hosts.

Liberal hero Stephen Colbert’s long swan song into podcast oblivion showed how clueless Democrats are who worship the rich TV host who lost his job because his show lost $40 million a year for CBS.

Despite all the fanfare and ...Read more

When Congress passed the big, ugly bill known as HR 1 last year, most Americans understood it meant cuts to Medicaid, the safety net program millions rely on for medical insurance.

But few Californians realized just how much it will affect the Golden State when its provisions really kick in, starting after the midterms (the Republicans aren’t...Read more

If anyone still believes President Donald Trump is the ultimate dealmaker, his erratic efforts to exit his failed Iran war should shred that illusion.

Whether or not a tenuous ceasefire holds, or if it is extended yet again, Iran looks set to emerge as the strategic winner of Trump’s ill-conceived “military operation.”

Tehran’s rulers,...Read more

The man who boasted that he could get away with murder on Fifth Avenue is pulling off something just as brazen. The $1.8 billion slush fund from which President Donald Trump intends to reward people who tried to steal the 2020 election for him is the biggest heist in our history.

It’s like breaking into Fort Knox and driving off with a ...Read more