I have just one thing to say about President Donald Trump's proposal to reopen Alcatraz as a prison for ruthless offenders.

What took you so long?

The "Rock," as it has sometimes been referred to, sits uselessly in the middle of the San Francisco Bay, criminally underutilized as a tourist destination. I've been there, and the beauty of the ...Read more

The journey of Bob Prevost of the South Side of Chicago to Pope Leo XIV of the Holy See could not have been foreseen when the new pope was a Chicago kid in the 1960s or when he was a math major at Villanova in the 1970s. Every pope since 1523 — 45 men sitting as successors to St. Peter as bishop of Rome — had been Italians.

But the Church ...Read more

One of the central weaknesses of the Biden administration’s national security policies was its reliance on the concept of “integrated deterrence” to prevent aggressive actions by the People’s Republic of China.

The strategy entailed building robust alliances in the Indo-Pacific, forward-deploying greater numbers of U.S. military assets ...Read more

For decades, we have watched America wrestle with its demons. Sometimes, she has successfully pinned them down. Other times, the demons have slipped beyond her grasp. Yet, America has always remained in the ring. There is no difference right now, and the stakes couldn't be higher.

Across America, from small-town council meetings to state ...Read more

Ever since those two mushroom clouds darkened the skies above the fiery hell that was Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the world’s two nuclear superpowers somehow found ways to work together – even in times of intense conflict – to prevent the world from plunging itself into all out nuclear war.

Yet, although we have gone 80 years without another ...Read more

It has been a painful few months watching federal support for health and human services, museums, libraries, public broadcasting, science, education, diplomacy and environmental protection be intentionally and indiscriminately gutted by President Donald Trump. What’s more troubling is that neither Congress nor the courts have meaningfully ...Read more

Americans have become woefully familiar with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the purveyor of flagrant misinformation about medical treatments. And with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the minimizer of health crises such as the spreading measles outbreak. And with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the antivaccine crusader.

Now let's meet ...Read more

President Donald Trump’s goal of more manufacturing in the United States is laudable. However, the approach of using tariffs as a weapon is reckless and will lead to price hikes and supply chain disruptions and destroy the backbone of America — small businesses.

As a small business owner, I know firsthand the pain of tariffs imposed on ...Read more

The "Newsom for president" bandwagon hit another rut this week.

A new poll by the L.A. Times and UC Berkeley found California's registered voters believe — by a margin of more than 2 to 1 — the state's gallivanting governor is more focused on boosting his chances of winning the White House than fixing the multitude of problems facing him ...Read more

The election of an American pope, Leo XIV, is a fitting culmination of a conclave that had the feel of an American presidential election, except shrouded in secrecy and mercifully brief.

Conservatives and liberals rallied around their favorite candidates, dished dirt on the opposition and adopted slogans (“unity” and “diversity”) aimed...Read more

By all indications, the pharmaceutical industry won’t be spared from tariffs. In April, the Commerce Department took its first step toward imposing levies on drug imports. The goal, according to the White House, is to encourage companies to manufacture in the U.S.

Yet tariffs are unlikely to increase American self-sufficiency anytime soon. ...Read more

Since the early 2000s, governors and legislators from both parties have signed onto a climate agenda in California that is making energy steadily unaffordable.

Gasoline in California, according to AAA, which tracks national gas prices daily, costs an average of about $4.78, compared with $3.16 nationally. The cost of electricity in the state is...Read more

Ahead of Mother’s Day this year, the White House has been exploring various policies to boost America’s low birth rate, including a baby bonus (i.e. government cash transfers at the time of a child’s birth).

This may sound like a strong incentive to have more children, but even though quite a few countries have attempted this (Canada, ...Read more

A family of seagulls — two adults feeding a chick — had gathered by the papal chimney a couple of minutes before white smoke billowed out to announce the election of a new pope. The Holy Spirit is usually represented by a dove, so what to make of this trinity?

In any case, it’s just one small detail in a poignant day. There are already ...Read more

In picking a new leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, the Vatican had a chance to honor the late Pope Francis’ legacy as the greenest pope in modern history. In choosing the American (and Peruvian) Cardinal Robert Prevost — henceforth known as Pope Leo XIV — his fellow cardinals appear to have seized that opportunity. Humanity’...Read more

Nearly four months into his second term, it’s becoming clear that President Donald Trump’s xenophobic views on immigration are reshaping what it means to become a U.S. citizen.

His vision tilts heavily toward the wealthy and well-to-do, with special shortcuts for them and barriers to entry for the rest — particularly the world’s ...Read more

During the past few weeks, President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again tariff wars have rattled the stock market, decimated many Americans’ retirement funds and promised to send grocery prices soaring — and his administration hasn’t even gotten to critical pharmaceutical tariffs yet. But that will likely be the next shoe to drop.

Trump...Read more

New York Times Opinion Columnist David Brooks recently published a column with a title pointing to “Trump’s Single Stroke of Genius.”

This immediately caught my attention. Brooks is not a great fan of President Donald Trump, to say the least, yet, he conceded that the administration exudes relentless energy, noting “I don’t know ...Read more

When President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week cutting federal funding for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, he was right about one thing: We do live in a moment of media abundance.

But his market-based notion of abundance fundamentally misunderstands the purpose of public broadcasting, which is not ...Read more

At the end of March, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case about religious freedom. In late April, it heard two more. By summer, the Court could decide to give religious employers another tax break, let religious parents excuse their children from classes that mention queer people, and give religious charter schools access to public ...Read more