Despite taking an oath (twice) to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” Donald Trump clearly hasn’t read it. Article I, Section 8 gives Congress, not the president, the “Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises.”

So just as it did before with his first round of worldwide tariffs, the ...Read more

Before peace comes to President Donald Trump’s unwon Iran war and the world’s unopened Strait of Hormuz, global media’s big eye will be focusing this week on another of Asia’s militarily dire straits – the forever-tense Taiwan Strait.

On Thursday and Friday, Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping plan to finally meet in Beijing’s ...Read more

California Gov. Gavin Newsom won’t admit it, but a move by President Donald Trump is especially helpful to drivers in California — and Nevada.

Gasoline prices are pressuring consumers around the country. On Friday, the average U.S. price was $4.55 a gallon. In California, that would be a bargain. The average there was $6.16 a gallon. Nevada...Read more

Forget about the $25 billion. That’s the estimate the Pentagon has tentatively picked for the direct cost of the Iran conflict, a sum that analysts consider laughably lowballed. The true expense of this U.S.-Israeli war of choice is much higher. It must include not just the global economic and humanitarian fallout, but the strategic ...Read more

Economists may disagree about how important the issue of wealth inequality is, but politicians don’t. With a majority of Americans saying the gap between rich and poor is a very big problem, punitive wealth taxes are gaining in popularity and some elected officials are feuding with their wealthiest citizens.

Now the wealthy are responding —...Read more

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy told the nation, “We choose to go to the moon.” It’s often remembered as a moment of national ambition. In reality, the United States was locked in a Cold War with the Soviet Union, and the fear of falling behind in technological dominance made the mission unavoidable.

Today’s space race is driven by a...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Here’s what the Democratic candidates for governor aren’t telling us: While promising the moon, they’ve avoided saying how they would keep paying for all of Sacramento’s current costly programs.

Termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Democratic-controlled Legislature have dug the state into a deep financial hole, ...Read more

In Tehran today, a single fried egg costs a million rials. This staggering price tag is not just an economic anomaly; it is the sound of a regime’s foundation cracking. While the world’s attention remains fixed on the military hardware of Iran’s regional proxies, the Islamic Republic’s greatest threat to survival has proved to be not the...Read more

Against the advice of leading medical societies, federal health officials recently upended a key component of newborn care: the universal recommendation that all infants receive the hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of birth.

The move came in December under the dubious leadership of U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. ...Read more

President Donald Trump does not like Chicago. That is obvious. He regularly belittles elected officials — calling Chicago’s mayor a “low IQ” person — and gleefully trumpets gun violence in our city. A feature of Trump’s obsession with public safety in Chicago has been the repeated claim that he can fix the city’s public safety ...Read more

I put my 100% original paper into an AI checker, only to receive a stunning 38% AI review. My heart raced, but my brain reasoned that I had not used AI at all on this assignment. But how would I prove that? I quickly began swapping words for less intelligent synonyms to make the writing sound less “academic.” After getting the percentage ...Read more

Since the brutal Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in 2023, Israel has won a series of remarkable tactical victories against its enemies. If it continues to foreclose any pathway to peace with the Palestinians, though, it’s going to find itself without friends.

Israeli forces adopted an aggressive new posture after Oct. 7, aiming to eliminate threats they...Read more

Once upon a time, a little-known agency within the U.S. Department of Education known as the Office of Special Education Programs was able to help students with disabilities whose access to schooling had been compromised. Agency officials would enforce the law and teach schools how to correct behaviors in an appropriate and supportive manner.

...Read more

In 2009, I wrote a column about Sir Edward Downes and his wife, Lady Joan.

They were remarkable people. Sir Edward, 85, had a long career as a conductor with the Royal Opera House, and he led symphony orchestras worldwide. His specialty was opera, particularly Verdi. Lady Joan, 74, was a dancer with the Royal Ballet, as well as a choreographer ...Read more

Economist Milton Friedman is often credited with noting, “If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there’d be a shortage of sand.”

State governments haven’t done much better managing the Colorado River.

On Thursday, the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center, which is part of the National Weather ...Read more

In discussions with senior Chinese officials over the years, the tone has always been the same: measured, courteous, almost studiously neutral. They never criticized the United States directly. Instead, they would ask a different question: Why should the global system continue to revolve around a single country?

That’s why President Donald ...Read more

An amendment to the Virginia Constitution that would temporarily change how the commonwealth draws congressional districts twice passed the General Assembly, with an intervening election separating those votes.

The measure was put before the voters, 1.6 million of whom cast ballots in favor, compared to 1.5 million against. It earned nearly as ...Read more

Pity poor California.

It's not just the eye-watering price of gasoline, the absurd cost of housing, the rising price of utilities and groceries, the Trump-led assault on the state's immigrant population and his attack on California's long-cherished values of tolerance and diversity.

No, on top of all that voters have been subjected to — the ...Read more

What am I looking for in a new California governor?

Like a big chunk of the state's voters, I'm not exactly sure. But I've been watching and listening to their spate of debates in the last week, and I'm actually shocked by who I am leaning toward.

I know who I don't like, though.

Every time I see Republican Riverside County Sheriff Chad ...Read more