Faced with more drought and increasingly frequent wildfires, Southern Californians have been encouraged, for years, to rip out water-guzzling lawns. They have also been urged to forgo nonnative, aggressively growing, highly flammable plants that take over space from native species, particularly after fires.

But no expert believes even a Los ...Read more

In 2018, Vox commissioned me to write a story about medieval Catholic ideas and the radical transformation of American politics that had vaulted Donald Trump to the presidency. I thought it would be provocative to include some call-out boxes at the top that named names.

Exploring the vectors to these Catholic ideas invariably led to places such...Read more

Los Angeles is being investigated, pilloried and derided over the horrific loss of life and property in the 2025 fires. Certainly, Mayor Karen Bass, the City Council and the county Board of Supervisors, and many of their recent predecessors, have not convinced the world that L.A. is a governable city.

Fire preparedness isn’t the only problem....Read more

If it wasn’t already clear — after nearly 250 years — that the pardon power is a standing invitation to abuse and corruption, two presidents confirmed it on the same day this week.

On his way out of office, Joe Biden issued a “preemptive” clemency for his siblings and their spouses; for a raft of public officials, including former ...Read more

It is hard enough to promote or save democracy when the public is relatively united in its desire to do so. The experience of the “color revolutions” in former Soviet Republics offers powerful evidence for that proposition. It may seem almost impossible to do so when much of the public is disillusioned with the democratic system in which ...Read more

President Donald Trump’s swift move to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization will compromise global health — and is no way to Make America Healthy Again.

Trump is picking up a task he started back in 2020, when he first tried to pull out of the WHO. At the time, he claimed the organization helped China cover up the extent and...Read more

Consent of the governed is one of the founding principles of our country. Embedded in the Declaration of Independence, it harks to the frustrations of American colonists over unjust laws and levies placed upon them by the mad king, King George III. Simply put, it is a reaction against the tyranny of centralized government and the ignorance of ...Read more

A good indication on how church-state issues will play out in Donald Trump’s second presidential term can be found in his shameless hawking of an “Inauguration Day Bible,” part of a merch promotion from which he’s personally receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties. In marketing this book ($69.99, not including shipping) ...Read more

Declaring the start of a new “golden age” for America, Donald Trump has returned to the White House. Even as his record of lies, division, and criminality continues to tarnish the office of the presidency.

Trump was sworn in at the U.S. Capitol on Monday, four years and 14 days after a mob of armed supporters stormed and desecrated the same...Read more

Greenland is one of the few places on Earth where climate change is sometimes referred to as an opportunity by making it less inhabitable for those who live there and more accessible to those who don’t, a point not missed by leaders elsewhere. With the landmass no longer safely insulated by sea ice, the world is knocking on Greenland’s door....Read more

Promises made, promises kept, President Donald Trump liked to crow during his first term, sometimes deservedly.

He's only days into his second term and already he's making that claim after a torrent of executive orders. In no case is his boast more justified, if shameful, than for his Day 1 blanket order pardoning 1,583 rioters who stormed the ...Read more

During his first term, Donald Trump pledged to kill two federal regulations for each new one imposed. In the spirit of the president’s hyperbolic manner, he now proposes during his second term to eliminate 10 federal rules for each new regulation.

“Already, preparations are underway to slash massive numbers of job-killing regulations — ...Read more

With a few exceptions, I agree with the objectives of nearly all of the executive orders President Donald Trump has signed during his first few days in the White House.

From declaring an emergency on the porous southern border to ending former President Joe Biden’s restrictions on energy production, most of the orders reflect things that need...Read more

President Donald Trump, who ignored the sound advice of his strongest and closest allies not to pardon the cop-assaulting felons of Jan. 6, should have his wild instincts curbed by the Republican Senate in saying no to the worst of his Cabinet nominees.

We are looking at you, Pete Hegetsh for defense and Bobby Kennedy Jr. for health and human ...Read more

Donald Trump's flurry of first-day executive orders aimed at remaking American government in his image may have Americans' heads spinning, but one stands out from the rest for its sheer audacity.

That's the order to rescind "birthright citizenship," which is constitutionally granted to almost all children born within the U.S. borders.

...Read more

For those of us who stiffened at Elon Musk’s stiff-armed salute, who saw the billionaires seated in First Class and felt sorry for the true believers in steerage, who took in Melania Trump’s hat and thought, “Well I would hide my face, too,” Monday did not scream “golden age” but “golden calf.”

From the open grift of the fill-my...Read more

When the Rev. Father Francis Mann read the last benediction at Donald Trump's inaugural ceremony, he ended by saying, "Americans kneel to God and to God alone."

But in President Donald Trump's second inaugural speech, and in the executive orders he's issued since, it is clear he expects Americans and the world to kneel to him.

Not since George...Read more

Oct. 21, 2007, is a day many of us in San Diego will never forget. I was at Ocean Beach enjoying a warm sunny day with my family when we saw thick black smoke in the distance. At the time I had an infant 7 months old.

Within hours, the county was up in flames. One fire grew to four, including the Harris Fire near the U.S.-Mexico border where I ...Read more

Since the start of the new year, the bond market has been urging Congress to come to terms with America’s spiraling budget problems. Soon it might be demanding immediate action.

Long-term yields have hovered around 5%. If they stay there, the government’s inflation-adjusted cost of borrowing will likely exceed the economy’s rate of growth...Read more

Artificial intelligence is rapidly disrupting America’s job market. Within the next decade, positions such as administrative assistants, cashiers, postal clerks, and data entry workers could be fully automated.

Although the World Economic Forum expects a net increase of 78 million jobs, significant policy efforts will be required to support ...Read more