Anyone who has visited Chicago has heard locals loudly praise the city — with good reason. This summer alone, we’re flooded with visitors excited to see the new Obama Presidential Center, enjoy Taste of Chicago and Lollapalooza, or just visit the museums and hang out by the lake.

While it rarely makes the cut for Instagram posts, O’Hare ...Read more

All policy wonks worth their salt know there are a few ways to kill a government program. One is for Congress to abolish it. If the lawmakers aren't so inclined, a hostile administration can get its way by starving the program of resources or making it harder for people to sign up or stay enrolled.

That's been the Trump White House's approach ...Read more

Whatever you think of New York’s so-called pied-à-terre tax — a plan to plug a $500 million city budget hole with property taxes on those who own a valuable dwelling in the city but don’t make it their primary residence — there is no question that the administration of Mayor Zohran Mamdani bungled its rollout.

And, in so doing, they ...Read more

Ronald Reagan promoted his philosophy of “trust by verify” in negotiations with the Soviets. President Donald Trump would be wise to apply the same caution in the Middle East.

Last week, Trump announced that his Board of Peace had negotiated a deal with Hamas that includes members of the terror group agreeing to lay down their arms. If so, ...Read more

The last at bat for my mom, Helen Callaghan, in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was in 1949. She was a speedy center fielder playing for the Kenosha Comets, and sports writers of the ’40s called her the “Feminine Ted Williams.”

On Saturday, in the debut of the Women’s Pro Baseball League, I watched a new generation ...Read more

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s assurance to senators about the $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” and President Donald Trump’s immunity with the Internal Revenue Service is nothing more than a hollow gesture.

With Blanche’s confirmation to permanently lead the Department of Justice in jeopardy, he provided written ...Read more

President Donald Trump could desperately use a foreign policy win in the Middle East. A war with Iran that was supposed to last four to six weeks is now in its sixth month with no end in sight as Tehran leverages the Strait of Hormuz for its own ends and Trump vacillates between renewed negotiations and more bombing. His peace efforts in Lebanon...Read more

In his campaign to remake the Federal Reserve, Chair Kevin Warsh has engaged what he calls the “very best minds.” Yet there is a conspicuous absence from the various task forces he has created: anyone representing regular people or labor organizations.

Fortunately, the Fed does not need a new task force to hear from the public — it just ...Read more

It’s been a miserably hot summer across most of the country, but for animals exploited on the rodeo circuit, the worst is still to come.

August is a busy month of the summer rodeo season, and some animals forced to participate likely won’t live to see September. A horse recently collapsed and suffered from violent seizures before dying at ...Read more

Politics has always been about emotions as well as reason and self-interest. Great politicians such as Winston Churchill have been able to stir our most profound feelings. Great political moments such as Nelson Mandela’s walk to freedom from Robben Island have moved people to their core.

Yet emotions can sometimes get out of control, and in ...Read more

Late last year, I became CEO of The Mobile Voting Project. Previously, I served as chief of staff to two United States senators, chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Education, and chief of staff for Vice President Kamala Harris's presidential campaign. At every step in my public service career, I have always had one clear goal: making ...Read more

If you build a house in the United States today, there’s a good chance you’ll be living under the dictates of a neighborhood homeowners association. Roughly two out of every three new homes are in an HOA, as are a third of existing homes.

Some of these HOAs have evolved to encourage environmentally friendly yards, particularly in the desert...Read more

The Trump administration has jettisoned the way thousands of immigrant children receive legal help. On Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services ended the contract with the Acacia Center for Justice after nearly two decades, leaving more than 20,000 unaccompanied kids in legal limbo.

Federal officials claim it’s a contract dispute. ...Read more

That’s the problem with the Fifth Amendment: It tends to make you look guilty.

So I cringed a little the first two or three times Dr. Anthony Fauci invoked his constitutional protection against self-incrimination when he appeared last week before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

But as he continued to ...Read more

Every day, across Florida, people see things their government is doing that they find objectionable, even outrageous.

It could be a new site for a homeless shelter near their kids’ school. A law that puts new and burdensome restrictions on people who want to register to vote. A court decision that allows people to carry guns into places they ...Read more

American drinking habits are changing.

Nearly half of American adults say they don’t touch alcohol, according to a 2025 Gallup survey. At 54%, the share of the population that drinks has reached its lowest level since the survey started in 1939.

Earlier this year, federal officials replaced the longstanding recommendation that adults limit ...Read more

We’ve all got the same problem these days. No matter which news screen we are watching – or which news silo site our screen is tuned to – we are finding it is harder than ever to tell the trustworthy newsmakers from the news-fakers.

Everyone on every news screen seems to have an angle these days. And we need to admit there’s one thing ...Read more

For more than 50 years, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) has been a critical lifeline for millions of pregnant and postpartum women, infants and young children.

The federal program provides healthy food, nutrition education, breastfeeding support and connections to healthcare. WIC helps families ...Read more

Most Americans don’t want a state-run economy. But increasingly, there’s not a political party that reflects this mainline view.

On the left, democratic socialism is gaining traction. Two-thirds of Democrats view socialism positively, according to Gallup. On the right, although the vast majority of GOP voters (74%) still support capitalism...Read more

Elon Musk, the world’s first trillionaire, told The Economist editor-in-chief Zanny Minto Beddoes in a recent interview that money won’t matter in 2036. He invoked a Star Trek-like future where robots and artificial intelligence will make us so wealthy that work will become a hobby like gardening and not a necessity.

We’ve seen such ...Read more