It's probably safe to say that almost no one following the news believes that Donald Trump has a solid, defensible reason to fire Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook, as he purported to do Monday, notwithstanding his assertion that she is guilty of "potentially criminal conduct."

It's not only that the charge she falsified information on ...Read more

Like the White Queen in Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass," I am capable of believing as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

But my credulity is strained past the breaking point by the charges of federal mortgage fraud laid against three leading adversaries of President Donald Trump—Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, New York ...Read more

And so the purge continues. Some of us used to think, or hope, that President Donald Trump’s campaign of “retribution” would prove brutal but short, leaving American statecraft bruised but functional. The news flow suggests a different direction. As Senator Mark Warner puts it, “when expertise is cast aside and intelligence is distorted ...Read more

When it comes to lawsuits against the Trump administration for unlawfully terminating government grants and contracts, Justice Amy Coney Barrett has become the deciding voice at the Supreme Court.

In an important decision concerning the National Institutes of Health’s termination of grants related to gender, DEI and COVID, Barrett held that ...Read more

In nearly every part of modern life, technology works for us. You can check in for a flight with your phone, track your heart rate in real time or get personalized grocery suggestions based on your habits.

But when it comes to managing your health? You’re often stuck printing records, repeating your medical history at every new appointment ...Read more

Remember when loyalty oaths were used to ferret out and punish people suspected of being Communists? They were a potent and terrifying tool, designed to produce conformity and compliance at the height of the late 1940s, early 1950s Red Scare.

Today, they are back, but in more subtle, if no less coercive, forms. The Trump administration is using...Read more

From MAGA Republicans to progressive Democrats to those of us in the middle, Americans want real change – and they’re tired of politics as usual.

They’re craving authenticity, real reform, and an end to the status quo. More and more, voters seem to be embracing disruption over the empty promises of establishment politicians, who too ...Read more

Genetic information can be life-saving in a medical emergency, yet it’s still rarely collected from adults — even when doctors are struggling to make a diagnosis. New research shows Americans need both greater access to genetic testing and stronger legal protections against genetic discrimination.

Some rare and devastating genetic disorders...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — There are “Wizard of Oz” echoes in the retaliatory redistricting fight being waged by California Democrats against President Donald Trump and Texas Republicans.

That’s mainly because of the script being followed by Republican opponents. But Democrats seem to be parroting some Oz lines, too.

That was evident last ...Read more

As President Donald Trump and his compliant Republican partners take more and more control of America—the economy, law enforcement, education, foreign policy, voting, even libraries—museums are inevitably going to drift into the intersection of Trump’s crosshairs.

Of course. Museums are an obvious target. By memorializing what we wish to ...Read more

There are two actions that are both anti-democratic and anti-Democratic that Texas Republican state lawmakers and Gov. Greg Abbott are doing in messing around with the lines of the Lone Star State’s 38 congressional districts and both are bad. And the Texans’ moves are causing other states, notably California, to respond.

It’s an eye for ...Read more

For Patricia Sinay, one of the highlights of her life was serving on the California Citizens Redistricting Commission, which spent well over a year painstakingly plotting out the state's political boundaries.

"I got to witness democracy at its core," said Sinay, 58, who lives in Encinitas and works as a consultant in the world of nonprofits.

"...Read more

As the Democratic Party searches for direction in the post-2024 landscape, its leaders seem bent on alienating their own base over Gaza. This is not a matter of nuance or tactical positioning; it’s a profound moral and political miscalculation.

That failure is on vivid display in the decision by House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (...Read more

In the fields around the Quad Cities in northwest Illinois, the state’s biggest cash crops look amazing these days. The corn stands tall, and the soybeans are green and lush. But nearby, at the headquarters of Deere & Co. in Moline, a bumper harvest can’t make up for hostile policies from Washington, D.C.

Tariffs will cost the farm ...Read more

Latinos unleashed a political earthquake after voting for President Donald Trump, who has long painted the country's largest minority as an existential threat, in unexpectedly large numbers in the fall.

This swing to MAGA helped Trump win, kicked Democrats into the political wilderness, launched a thousand thought pieces and showed politicians ...Read more

When the second Donald Trump administration began, many worried that it would abandon America’s long-standing, bipartisan commitment to human rights around the world.

This was the concern during the first administration, too, but career foreign affairs professionals continued much of the day-to-day work that has supported human rights for ...Read more

There’s an officer in the Catholic Church colloquially known as the Devil’s Advocate. His duty, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, is to make “all possible arguments, even at times seemingly slight” against candidates for sainthood. No canonization is legal without his input.

The church’s example is worth following by the ...Read more

Wary of inflation, Americans have been watching the prices of everyday items such as eggs and gasoline. A less-noticed expense should cause greater alarm: rising premiums for health insurance. They have been trending upward for years and are now rising faster than ever.

Consider that, from 2000 to 2020, egg prices fluctuated between just under ...Read more

The return of school has us focused on education, and with that in mind we believe it’s worth weighing in on two major changes in the way the state of Illinois measures proficiency in reading, math and science.

First, the scores needed to be considered “proficient” are going down for math and reading.

For high schoolers, these scores ...Read more

Public projects typically aren’t known for coming in on time and under budget. A report released last month highlights the extent to which delays and overruns are costing American taxpayers.

According to the Senate DOGE Caucus, more than a dozen federal infrastructure projects have bled a combined $162 billion. Fox News reports that this ...Read more