Once again, Congress seems to be barreling toward a government shutdown. Once again, the process is likely to be costly, counterproductive and completely unnecessary.

As so often in recent years, Congress has yet to pass all 12 appropriations bills needed to fund the government on time. Unless a deal materializes, the lights will go out on Oct....Read more

Hate and beauty have this much in common: Often, they’re in the eye of the beholder.

That’s what makes criminalizing hate so fraught, particularly regarding hate speech. One person’s mean and damaging remark is another person’s exercise of the natural right to free expression. Republicans were on board with that when they rose to defend...Read more

The six Emmy wins for the Netflix series “Adolescence” — including one for 15-year-old Owen Cooper, the youngest male ever to receive best supporting actor — couldn’t have happened at a more relevant time.

The four-part fictional series tells the story of a schoolboy named Jamie, played by Cooper, who is accused of murdering a female ...Read more

Take it from a guy who made more than $30 million last year: Low-income consumers are “living on the edge.”

So says Charlie Scharf, chief executive of the Wells Fargo bank, citing data that indicate most American consumers are spending down their ready cash. For many, the rainy day they’ve been dreading has arrived.

A recent survey shows...Read more

We think a sensible rule of thumb when considering whether to post something online is to ask yourself: Would I say this to someone’s face? If not, it’s time to hit the delete button.

Many people, in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, aren’t taking a beat before posting vile comments online.

It’s starting to cost some people ...Read more

The cheers that greeted State Surgeon General Joseph Ladopo’s announcement that Florida would become the first state to end vaccine mandates reminded us of a moment captured on film 70 years ago when Dr. Thomas Francis announced to a waiting nation that Dr. Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine had been found to be “safe, effective and potent.”

...Read more

“Defense is too defensive,” noted President Donald Trump recently, as he announced that the Department of Defense would be renamed the Department of War.

More aggressive rhetoric can lead to more aggressive action, and this is a serious concern. But Trump’s move away from the word “defense” is also an opportunity for Americans to ...Read more

California’s air is under attack — by the very companies that promised to clean it up.

In 2023, truck manufacturers struck a deal with the California Air Resources Board to drastically reduce emissions and invest in electric trucks. This summer, however, several of the companies — Daimler Truck, Volvo Group, Paccar and Traton — backed ...Read more

Last week, I began teaching a new undergraduate course on “Dissent and Democracy in the World.” I started developing the course over a year ago, convinced that the subject is not only essential to well-functioning communities, but also not well understood or appreciated in American society today.

When the class began, our country looked ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — John Burton was the unique sort of political leader we need much more of in today’s hate-spewing politics.

First, he dedicated his life to fighting for a cause that earned him only personal satisfaction and absolutely no political gain: the powerless poor, particularly the aged, blind and disabled.

These aren’t ...Read more

Former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg dropped a bombshell on Democrats last week, one lost in the chaotic news cycle following Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

He was responding to a passage in former Vice President Kamala Harris’ forthcoming book “107 Days” in which she said Buttigieg was her first choice for a running mate ...Read more

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices met last week at a meeting of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It linked 25 unverified reports of child deaths to COVID-19 vaccines as they consider further limiting access to this and other immunizations, like those for hepatitis B and MMRV. But they aren’t just playing politics....Read more

President Donald Trump is taking yet another gamble on immigration, betting that he can force companies to compete for skilled American engineers and tech workers rather than hire foreign workers through the popular H-1B visa program. Employers won’t like it — but reform of the program is long overdue.

The overhaul, signed by the president ...Read more

It’s not easy, but please look at the photograph accompanying this editorial. It shows a formerly enslaved man in Louisiana displaying whipping scars on his back during the Civil War.

Made in May 1863 and widely published two months later, it presented gruesome evidence of slavery’s inhumanity for countless Americans who didn’t ...Read more

John Hauser was a Chicagoland student working toward becoming a commercial pilot. He’d long wanted to be a pilot and was pursuing that dream. But Hauser had been experiencing depression and was discouraged from seeking the treatment he needed due to outdated aviation laws that would prevent him from flying.

In his messages to his family ...Read more

A handful of seats are all that keep Republicans in control of the House, giving President Donald Trump untrammeled sway over, well, pretty much everything, from the economy to the jokes on late-night TV to the design of the Cracker Barrel logo.

It's a number that's both tantalizing and fraught, depending on your political perspective.

For ...Read more

The first refugees were French. That’s not to say there weren’t people — long before the existence of France — who were forced to flee their native lands for safety abroad. The word derives from réfugié — someone seeking a hiding place — which became “refugee” in English after thousands of Huguenots crossed the Channel to flee ...Read more

Americans long ago decided to trade bullets for ballots. But this exchange isn’t the norm around the world — and isn’t inevitable here either.

The shooting of Charlie Kirk is more than just a horrible tragedy for his family and friends. It was an attack on civil discourse itself. That’s a grave threat to the country’s constitutional ...Read more

Donald Trump’s destructive onslaught against the fair administration of justice and his politicization of prosecutorial power continues. That is what dictators do, which is one of the reasons Trump so admires them.

Trump has now fired Erik Siebert as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia for refusing to gin up phony mortgage ...Read more

“Grace is the enduring legacy of Charlie Kirk,” Vice President JD Vance said Sunday at a Glendale, Arizona, memorial for the assassinated conservative youth leader, not long before Kirk’s widow Erika built on that legacy, saying of the young Utah man who killed the father of her two young children, “I forgive him.”

If grace is Kirk’...Read more