Everyone has a stake in keeping the unemployment rate low. A single percentage point increase in unemployment is tied to a jump in the poverty rate of about 0.4 to 0.7 percentage points. Higher rates of unemployment are likewise associated with an increase in rates of depression among the unemployed and, in some cases, reduced mental health ...Read more

I first met Frank O. Gehry, who died Dec. 5 at his California home, in November of 1982 when I was an undergraduate architecture student at the University of Virginia. He was known at the time for his own home in Santa Monica — a roller coaster of a design that slashed plywood, corrugated metal and chain link through the carcass of a modest ...Read more

On a recent French language immersion course in Nice, I got to know one of my classmates, an academic from Russia. On the final day of class, I gathered the courage to bring up the war between Russia and Ukraine.

This conflict is deeply personal for me. Though I am a Swedish American based in the U.S., my family originates from Lviv, Ukraine, ...Read more

Most Americans would be overjoyed if politicians and political activists would cool their rhetoric. Despite the claims of activists on both the left and right, all policy questions aren’t “life or death,” and those on the “other side” aren’t necessarily ignorant and evil.

Although political conflict is inevitable, we each have the ...Read more

Politicians and policy experts like to talk about the “root causes” of crime, homelessness, poverty, rising prices and other problems. If they want to understand the root cause of political polarization, they might want to consider the whole picture and look in the mirror.

In a book published 40 years ago, economist and political ...Read more

Military life is a family mission anchored in shared purpose, sacrifice, and service. Every deployment, relocation, and empty chair at the dinner table reflects not only the service member’s duty to the country, but also the family’s quiet endurance. Together, they live a calling few outside the military will ever fully understand.

That ...Read more

The Trump administration’s latest outrage is firing immigration judges and replacing them with military lawyers who lack experience in immigration law. The move combines two of President Donald Trump’s signature initiatives: It’s part of his war on immigrants and also part of his effort to make civil servants obey the administration’s ...Read more

Physician-assisted suicide is legal in 11 U.S states and Washington, D.C.—and Illinois might join the list by the end of December. The state recently passed a bill that would allow doctors to prescribe a lethal dose of medication to terminally ill patients. Gov. JB Pritzker has until year’s end to sign, ignore (in which case it automatically...Read more

Here we go again. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has again broken promises and betrayed his responsibilities as a public health official, this time by altering the CDC’s webpage on vaccines and autism. And that’s not all.

It originally contained the scientifically supported statement that there is “no link ...Read more

Nothing about the Trump administration’s new National Security Strategy should shock European leaders, still less the enthusiastic welcome that this confirmation of a revolution in U.S. foreign policy has received from Moscow.

It calls, after all, for a rupture in the Transatlantic Alliance that every Kremlin leader — with brief exceptions...Read more

It has been a turbulent couple of weeks in national security, highlighted by continuing strikes on high-speed boats in the Caribbean that are, according to the Trump administration, carrying drugs headed to the U.S. Whether that doctrine of “shoot-to-kill,” carried out without warning or any opportunity for surrender, stands up under ...Read more

This page has long supported the responsible use of nuclear power to generate electricity. Illinois was the birthplace of the first-ever reactor at the University of Chicago, after all, and now has more reactors than any other state.

Today, we’re optimistic that modern nukes using up-to-date technology could pull off a comeback. America needs...Read more

Immigrants who waited for years, had taken classes, paid rising fees, passed background checks, and aced the new U.S. citizenship test, found themselves being pulled from the line last week before they could take the oath of allegiance at their naturalization ceremony.

Why? Because one individual from their home country (out of the 80,000 ...Read more

During the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood, five major studios competed for actors, directors, scripts and audiences. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Radio-Keith-Orpheum, Paramount, Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox all had clout.

Still, some in Hollywood worried about the consolidation of power, which explains why Charlie Chaplin, D. W. Griffith, Mary...Read more

How do people used to basic freedoms acquiesce to regimes of domination? When government authorities use the formidable violence at their disposal, it’s no wonder that citizens obey. More surprising are the broad patterns of submission by people who suffer no direct threats, and yet they get used to cooperating with a brutal government.

I see...Read more

If you’re a parent — or considering becoming one — you likely understand that it’s a pricey prospect. Consider: The annual cost of raising a child in Illinois is an estimated $23,821 — nearly $430,000 over 18 years — according to a 2024 SmartAsset study. Saving and investing for these children is a good thing, and something many ...Read more

The Supreme Court will decide numerous politically and socially important cases throughout this term, with implications for redrafting congressional maps, campaign finance rules, the death penalty, transgender rights and much more on the docket. But do not expect the court’s decisions on these cases to honor the past.

Under Chief Justice John...Read more

While many people will be enjoying the next few weeks surrounded by friends and family, many of our neighbors will be isolated, especially those in their senior years.

This isolation can contribute to depression and other disorders, which in turn can contribute to the rising levels of suicide or suicide attempts among the senior population.

A ...Read more

Picture this: You’re looking to buy a place to live, and you have two options.

Option A is a beautiful home in California near good schools and job opportunities. But it goes for nearly a million dollars — the median California home sells for $906,500— and you’d be paying a mortgage that’s risen 82% since January 2020.

Option B is a ...Read more

The new Ken Burns documentary, "The American Revolution," provides a special opportunity to learn why our nation’s founders chose liberty and built a democracy based on three branches of government that would serve as a system of checks and balances on one another.

Today, that system is being challenged and is at a dangerous tipping point. ...Read more