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

Questioning apocalyptic climate forecasts is now the conventional wisdom.

For years, radical climate activists have painted a bleak view of the future. Most scientists believe that burning fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases, which remain in the atmosphere, and that these gases trap additional heat, which warms the planet. This has led to ...Read more

Billionaires and their closest allies recently launched a full-court press against California’s proposed wealth tax, which would levy a one-time 5% tax on billionaires’ net worth. Google co-founder Sergey Brin, now worth nearly $300 billion, likens the tax to Soviet oppression and has spent roughly $57 million to oppose it. He and a few ...Read more

Sometimes it seems as though the only thing that stands between a functioning democracy and a full-on Trump autocracy is a thin, black-robed line.

Although the Supreme Court, in general, and conservative appellate courts, in particular, have bowed and granted President Donald Trump permission to do pretty much anything he wants, they haven't ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Like millions of Californians, I haven’t voted yet in the primary election. That’s because I can’t decide who should be our governor. Here’s what I’m thinking:

It’s an underwhelming field. But one of these Democratic contenders will very likely replace Gov. Gavin Newsom in January.

Based on the latest ...Read more

Frenzied congressional gerrymandering across the states has become a circular firing squad. Both parties mow down the other’s representation, with Lady Democracy and the public caught in the crossfire.

Readers of editorial pages by now know the arguments. To recap, extreme gerrymandering:

• Makes the primary of the dominant party the ...Read more

Americans were forecast to spend a record $38 billion on Mother’s Day and $24 billion on Father’s Day gifts this year, but they can be difficult holidays for adult children given the estrangement epidemic. Just ask Britney Spears, Prince Harry, Shiloh Jolie or any number of average folks: A YouGov poll showed 38% of U.S. adults refused ...Read more

The debate over health insurance in the United States has returned to the forefront as the Affordable Care Act faces political pressure, insurance premiums continue to climb and physicians experience increasing restrictions from insurance companies. A recent poll shows that roughly 62% to 68% of Americans believe the government has a ...Read more

My Manhattan apartment is about 800 square feet, the same size as my upstairs neighbors’ — except they’re a family of four plus a large dog. Much as that blows my mind, I also realize that, not so long ago, an 800-square-foot apartment for a family of four in New York would have counted as luxurious.

How far we’ve come. A married couple...Read more

We love space, but not as an abstraction. For my twin sons, it is a tradition. Their birthday themes have evolved from “Two the Moon” for their second birthday, featured on NASA.gov, to “From Space to the Farm,” with the boys in those iconic orange astronaut suits, standing in a cornfield. In the year of Inspiration4, we went all in with...Read more

My friend Emma Cooksey dozed off driving her 7-month-old baby home one day. She narrowly avoided a catastrophic crash.

Her lousy sleep was the problem. It haunted her nearly her entire adult life. She talked to doctors about it over and over again, but to no avail. After this near miss, she knew she desperately needed an answer.

Because she ...Read more