Politics
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Mark Z. Barabak: A governor for red California, blue California or both? Redistricting fight poses that question
We now have an estimated price tag for California's special election and Gov. Gavin Newsom's presidential rollout: $282.6 million.
The Nov. 4 vote involves Proposition 50, which would gerrymander the state to boost Democratic chances of winning as many as five added House seats in the 2026 midterm election. The intent is to partially compensate...Read more

Stephen L. Carter: Presidents can't sue their way out of criticism
There’s a certain irony in the fact that President Donald Trump announced his silly $15 billion defamation suit against The New York Times scant days after a federal appellate court dismissed a similar claim against Fox News. That lawsuit was filed by Nina Jankowicz, the former head of the Biden administration’s short-lived Disinformation ...Read more

Commentary: NATO rose to the challenge and passed Russia's test in Poland
It’s not every day when NATO, arguably the world’s strongest military alliance, is shooting down hostile aircraft in its airspace. Yet that’s exactly what occurred last week after more than a dozen Russian drones breached Poland’s airspace, which forced NATO to scramble jets to defend a member state from a potential threat. Days later, ...Read more

Gustavo Arellano: Empathy is the only way forward after Charlie Kirk's death
It wasn't the greeting I was expecting from my dad when I stopped by for lunch Wednesday at his Anaheim home.
"¿Quién es Charlie Kirk?"
Papi still has a flip phone, so he hasn't sunk into an endless stream of YouTube and podcasts like some of his friends. His sources of news are Univisión and the top-of-the-hour bulletins on Mexican oldies ...Read more

Stephen L. Carter: There's no easy way to unmask ICE agents
I don’t quite see the endgame in the increasing calls for state and local action to unmask federal immigration officers. Yes, I’m as disturbed as most people by the images of ICE agents, faces covered, loading individuals into their vans — people who might or might not be in the country illegally, especially since we know that many of them...Read more

Commentary: A criminal conviction doesn't make an immigrant 'the worst of the worst'
In 2022, my husband, Rob, and I adopted three sisters from foster care. Shortly before the youngest was born in 2016, their father, Kelvin, was incarcerated for armed robbery.
Foster parents facilitate relationships with birth families, and Kelvin made me nervous. We were told he had gang ties and had been a heavy drug user. Incarceration, ...Read more

Commentary: The Federal Reserve's century-long power grab
In 1913, Congress gave the Federal Reserve a clear and narrow mission: Safeguard the value of our money and support stable employment. More than a century later, the Fed has mutated into a sprawling political empire — so bloated that it spends $7 billion a year and employs almost 24,000 people and still managed to lose $114 billion of taxpayer...Read more

Martin Schram: Presidential leadership – discovered!
Once again, an assassin’s hate ripped a hole in America’s heartland. Once again, we heard wise heads warning us this one may be the worst – the start of the civil war that finally shreds the democracy that has united our states.
So, shaken once again, after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, hero and leader of our right-wing youth, we ...Read more

Commentary: Now is not the time for universities to retreat from the humanities
In his seminal 1950 essay “The Idea of a College,” Robert Maynard Hutchins, then president of the University of Chicago, made the case for the humanizing influence of a liberal arts education in the face of midcentury nuclear terror. “Now at last we shall have to think,” he wrote. “Now we must apply ourselves to the task of creating a ...Read more

Commentary: School coaches shouldn't be pushing religion
As a former Division I football player and Team USA bobsledder who has gone on to become a state lawmaker in Oklahoma, I’ve seen it myself — coaches imposing their religious beliefs on players. This can involve pressuring players to engage in prayer or religious discussion, under threat of being sidelined.
Faith should be a personal choice....Read more

Commentary: Presidential incapacity and the limits of the 25th Amendment
The authors of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution established and explained the complete order of presidential succession, as well as a series of contingency plans to fill any executive vacancies. It was written as a response to the weaknesses found in Article II after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and what was learned about...Read more

Lisa Jarvis: This crackdown on drug ads is long overdue
The Trump administration’s crackdown on pharmaceutical ads is a welcome step toward lessening Big Pharma’s influence over conversations between patients and their doctors.
Americans are among the few people in the world bombarded with advertisements for medications most of us don’t need — New Zealand is the only other country that ...Read more

Editorial: A Palestinian state isn't a reality. It must remain a possibility
Even as its forces prepare to launch a full-scale offensive into Gaza City, several long-standing supporters of Israel — including Australia, Canada, France and the UK — are threatening to recognize a Palestinian state, joining nearly 150 other nations. Israeli leaders have reacted furiously, taking steps to render any such entity unviable. ...Read more

Editorial: Tent cities don't belong in Chicago's parks
Like most big American cities, Chicago has a homelessness problem. It is writ large in our public parks.
Take the situation in the 39th Ward, where Ald. Samantha Nugent has grown so frustrated with burgeoning tent cities that she marched into our office with a multicolored timeline going back to 2022, reflecting her efforts to restore her ...Read more

Commentary: No country for young politicians -- and how to fix that
In democracies around the world, young people have started new political parties whenever the establishment has sidelined their views or excluded them from policymaking. These parties have sometimes reinvigorated political competition, compelled established parties to take previously neglected issues seriously, or encouraged incumbent leaders to...Read more

Editorial: Don't bust the filibuster: Keep Senate's remaining check on Trump's power grab
U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune is very wrong to weaken the Senate’s historic filibuster procedure — which allows legislation and nominations to be slowed or blocked in the absence of 60 votes. Thune, pushed by fellow Republican President Trump, is taking this damaging and drastic step over frustrations at Senate Democrats, who have ...Read more

Editorial: Banning those Rx ads: Why are Trump and RFK Jr. targeting pharma ads?
There are plenty of good reasons to ban the TV advertising of prescription drugs, but coming from the anti-science, anti-medicine Trump administration and the dangerous anti-vaccine crackpot Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the motivation is suspect.
It is aimed to attack the pharmaceutical companies? Or hurt the ...Read more

Commentary: From TikTok to telehealth -- 3 ways medicine must evolve to reach Gen Z
Ask people how much they expect to change over the next 10 years, and most will say “not much.” Ask them how much they’ve changed in the past decade, and the answer flips. Regardless of age, the past always feels more transformative than the future.
This blind spot has a name: the end-of-history illusion. The result is a persistent ...Read more

Anita Chabria: Wait, what happened to saving the children? California congressmen dodge the issue
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Pigs are flying and Satan has on a puffer jacket. I know these things because the impossible is happening — I am writing about why Marjorie Taylor Greene, Nancy Mace and Lauren Boebert are right.
And why California’s Republican congressional representatives should be ashamed and shamed.
You may know these women as ...Read more

Commentary: Three years after 'Woman, Life, Freedom' protests, Iran remains in a deadlock
This week marks the third anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death in police custody — an event that ignited one of the most powerful protest movements in Iran since 1979. “ Woman, Life, Freedom” became not just a slogan but a rallying cry that cut across gender, class and ethnic lines.
Three years on, Iran’s political system is in deeper ...Read more