“The court finds that the defendant is irretrievably depraved, permanently incorrigible, irreparably corrupt and beyond any rehabilitation.”

Anything unclear about that?

The statement made Thursday by Lake County Judge Victoria Rossetti about Robert Crimo III, the man convicted of killing seven people and wounding 48 others when he opened ...Read more

President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order intended to ensure that only eligible citizens can vote in U.S. elections. While we laud the purpose of the order, a better approach would be to look at how states are using data that they already possess to determine a voter’s citizenship, and identify ways that the federal government ...Read more

There is something particularly American about the way we're dismantling our democracy these days – we are doing it with paperwork. While the world watches our grand political theater, immigration agents are quietly canceling visas, filling out deportation orders, and reshaping the boundaries of acceptable speech without firing a single shot. ...Read more

I had a nightmare that my mom was being deported. I dreamed of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents coming to our home and taking her away. The current climate has unlocked a childhood fear. My mom did not become a citizen until 1997, and in my early years, I was afraid that I would go to school and never see her again. I was afraid ...Read more

President Donald Trump’s disregard for the rule of law is as clear as it could be. Consider that the three justices he appointed to the Supreme Court all joined a middle-of-the-night emergency decision blocking the unlawful deportation of more Venezuelan nationals to El Salvador — after the court had already ruled 9-0 that no one should be ...Read more

President Donald Trump’s ICE Age has created a glacial array of unintended immigration and customs enforcement consequences. And there may be far more beneath the surface that we haven’t yet discovered.

For example, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, his wife and three children with special needs weren’t the only individuals who suffered when the ...Read more

I had been falling a lot. It was almost as if my small feet were suddenly too big. Then my symptoms took a darker turn.

“I can’t see!” I gasped one frigid January morning in 1997. Beside me, my boyfriend asked, “What do you mean you can’t see?”

I couldn’t catch enough breath to speak normally. My left eye hurt, and I could only ...Read more

In between handling “emergency” appeals regarding President Donald Trump’s frenetic agenda, the U.S. Supreme Court must address its regular docket. The panel’s latest case deserves attention for a number of reasons.

On Tuesday, the justices heard arguments in a dispute between parents and a Maryland school district that uses LGBTQ-...Read more

President Donald Trump proposed eliminating the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the entire staff was laid off on March 31. This is not the first time he suggested this as a cost-saving measure. His proposal was rejected in 2019, and it must be rejected again. The IMLS only accounts for 0.0046% of the federal budget, yet its ...Read more

Student loan borrowers are learning a harsh lesson familiar to most adults: when you take out a loan and agree to pay it back, there are consequences if you don’t.

Cue the outrage.

The Department of Education announced that it will restart collecting federal student loans in default on May 5, ending a years-long pandemic-era pause, according...Read more

After President Donald Trump brought global economics to the brink of meltdown with his erratic unilateral tariff decrees, Tyler Page and Maggie Haberman reported in the New York Times that Trump told Republicans “I know what the hell I’m doing!” and, after reversing himself, his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said he was acting “...Read more

In a country bitterly divided on virtually everything, from the major to the mundane, there’s one issue that could unite Republicans and Democrats: age limits.

An uncomfortable conversation about the acuity of aging politicians, from Republicans Strom Thurmond of South Carolina and Thad Cochran of Mississippi to Democrats Robert C. Byrd of ...Read more

Are the United States and Iran, adversaries for more than 45 years, on the cusp of striking a new nuclear agreement?

After two rounds of indirect diplomacy between high-ranking officials of the two powers, it’s still too early to answer that question with confidence. What is abundantly clear is that Washington and Tehran are at least trying ...Read more

On Sept. 11, 2014, at the annual meeting of the Jewish Federation of Chicago, Cardinal Francis George told the audience: “Before I went to the Conclave of the College of Cardinals this past February to elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI, I asked Rabbi Poupko, ‘What would the Jewish community like to see in the next pope?’ He answered: ...Read more

In a time roiled with fear, division and rancor, the loss of Pope Francis is a cruel and stunning blow. The pontiff — who died early Monday morning at the age of 88, after celebrating Holy Week — made a deep and profound impact on the face of Catholicism worldwide and was a voice for healing and justice that resonated beyond the boundaries ...Read more

Donald Trump announced his first run for president on June 16, 2015. He lashed out against Mexican immigrants, environmentalists and other supposed enemies foreign and domestic.

Two days later, Pope Francis clapped back.

Francis’ landmark climate change encyclical, “Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home,” wasn’t meant as a response ...Read more

If I believed in miracles as strongly as I did as a Catholic school student, I could hope that Vice President JD Vance would be transformed by his audience with Pope Francis on Easter Sunday just hours before the pope died, that he'd embrace Francis' compassionate views on the world's migrants. But I don't much believe in miracles anymore, ...Read more