As the government shutdown drags on, the widespread destruction of the country under Donald Trump and the Republicans who control all three branches of the federal bureaucracy is coming into full view.

Roughly 42 million Americans — including nearly two million in Pennsylvania — won’t receive SNAP benefits in November if the shutdown ...Read more

Just over a decade ago, when Congress was taking its periodic look at the food stamp program, House Republicans lined up with their legislative hatchets.

Their plan was to slice some $40 billion out of the program over 10 years, a benefit reduction of more than 5%. Among the promoters of the cut was Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a Republican from the far ...Read more

This past weekend, President Donald Trump landed in Malaysia to kick off a tour in Southeast Asia that could either make or break his trade agenda. Ever the showman, Trump inaugurated the week’s events by presiding over a ceremonial signing of a ceasefire agreement between Thailand and Cambodia that he helped broker during the summer. Next, he...Read more

What if the federal government shut down and few people noticed — or cared? Nearly one month since the lights went out in Washington, most Americans don’t seem all that aware, let alone upset. Perhaps that’s why Democrats and Republicans in Congress, and President Donald Trump, are showing little interest in supporting compromise ...Read more

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the firebrand Georgia Republican, has been breaking ranks with President Donald Trump and the GOP leadership in Congress on an increasingly long list of issues.

She wants Congress to end the government shutdown by agreeing to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits. She has demanded the release of the Jeffrey Epstein...Read more

November is a season of change—trees let go of their leaves, geese fly south and we settle into early nights and cozy blankets. It’s only fitting that it’s also World Vegan Month, reminding us that changing the world starts with our plates. So let the “no” in November stand for “no” to meat, eggs and dairy—and instead, say a ...Read more

Today we're taking a tour through the mythical Land of Election Fraud, where President Donald Trump has built a palace of lies, imprisoning both truth and democracy.

I put it in fairy tale terms because the idea that American elections are corrupt should hold about as much credence as a magical beanstalk growing into the sky. Countless lawsuits...Read more

The country once celebrated those who scaled mountains. Now bureaucrats seek to prosecute them.

Michelino Sunseri is a trail runner. Last year, he set a record for running up and down Wyoming’s Grand Teton mountain. It’s an imposing route of 13.1 miles out and back with 7,000 feet of elevation gain. His time of 2 hours, 50 minutes and 50 ...Read more

The massive outage that crippled Amazon Web Services last week sent shockwaves through the digital world. Overnight, the invisible backbone of our online lives buckled: Websites went dark, apps froze, transactions stalled, and billions of dollars in productivity and trust evaporated. For a few hours, the modern economy’s nervous system failed....Read more

Friday lunchtime, a guy was walking his fluffy dog at the corner of Henderson and Lakewood streets in Chicago’s leafy Lakeview neighborhood. On any other sunny, autumnal Friday, such a stroll would have been as calming and uneventful as the city gets.

But on this most recent one, the man found himself at what looked like a scene from the TV ...Read more

I may be revealing a secret cherished by columnists the world over, but I admit that among the columns we relish writing the most fall into the "I told you so" genre.

Case in point: In April last year, in a column about the gambling mess ensnaring Shohei Ohtani's then-interpreter, I warned that the pro sports leagues' enthusiastic embrace of ...Read more

Over the course of just three days recently, five scientists affiliated with the University of California won Nobel prizes for discoveries that can help us more effectively treat conditions such as multiple sclerosis and arthritis, clean pollutants from the atmosphere, capture drinking water from desert air, and help build the world’s most ...Read more

A great many Americans today wonder, with good reason, whether America’s democracy can survive Donald Trump’s presidency.

Now it’s becoming increasingly clear that another question we should all be asking is whether America can afford Trump’s presidency.

The latest stunt from the most corruptly self-dealing president in U.S. history is...Read more

I’m old enough to remember when there was no annual open enrollment. You got health insurance through your employer, and unless you changed jobs or had a major life event, you kept the same plan. Year after year. Simple. Stable. Sane.

Today, we’ve built a multibillion-dollar theater production called “open enrollment” that costs more to...Read more

Every morning as I bring my daughter to school, I worry for her safety. Like many parents, I would do anything to protect her. Yet the fact is that gun violence in the United States is not an avoidable problem — it is woven into our daily lives, a constant source of stress and vigilance.

Just a few weeks ago, my 6-year-old daughter came home ...Read more

Starbucks has declared itself “all in on protein.” Beginning this month, customers can order Protein Lattes and Protein Matchas, or add Protein Cold Foam to their cold brews and Frappuccinos, turning a daily caffeine ritual into something resembling a workout supplement.

This isn’t simply about menu items. It signals how deeply the ...Read more

Barbara Boxer decided she was done. Entering her 70s, fresh off reelection to the U.S. Senate, she determined her fourth term would be her last.

"I just felt it was time," Boxer said. "I wanted to do other things."

Besides, she knew the Democratic bench was amply stocked with many bright prospects, including California's then-attorney general,...Read more

In recent weeks, American politics have stopped resembling a democracy and started looking more like a Manson family group chat, with a flag emoji right next to the “pile of poo” emoji in our bio.

First it was the Young Republicans (you know, the nerds who used to wear ill-fitting sports jackets and drone on about budgets) who were caught ...Read more

Upheaval is threatening the stabilizing course of China-U.S. relations. On Oct. 10, U.S. President Donald Trump published an unusually long post on Truth Social, threatening to impose 100% tariffs on all Chinese products and restrict China-bound exports of critical software starting Nov. 1, in retaliation for what he calls “extremely hostile�...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom’s anti-Trump, anti-Texas congressional redistricting gamble seems about to pay off.

Newsom’s bet on Proposition 50 is looking like a winner, although we won’t really know until the vote count is released starting election night Nov. 4.

Insiders closely watching the high-stakes campaign would be ...Read more