The census data just released brought fantastic news for us hale and hearty Midwesterners: We’re growing.

It’s true. Our mighty region, overlooked — and often looked down upon, particularly by our coastal compatriots — was the one region in the U.S. where all states saw population growth from July 2024 to July 2025.

The region’s ...Read more

American politics has become so nationalized that many people—especially students—no longer know where their participation ought to be focused. Every issue feels federal, every fight existential, and every outcome distant.

The result isn’t apathy so much as exhaustion: a sense that politics is something to watch, not something to ...Read more

At the end of last year, Los Angeles County adopted a new target to remove and replace 1,600 acres of pavement with green infrastructure including trees, plants and rain gardens by 2045 as part of its ongoing Sustainability Plan. In doing so, the county aims to join a growing number of cities worldwide that are ditching pavement to respond to ...Read more

Imagine opening a history textbook and not seeing the faces of key contributors to America's story. Every February, America observes Black History Month. It started in 1926 as Negro History Week, founded by historian Carter G. Woodson, and was never meant to be just a ceremony. Its purpose was to make the nation face the truth after erasing ...Read more

If health is the new wealth, luxury brands need to command a share of this spending.

From billionaires wanting to live forever to $300,000 facelifts, the uber-rich are splurging more than ever on what they put inside their bodies and how they exercise, rather than simply splashing out on clothes and accessories. This outlay competes with ...Read more

Do President Donald Trump’s policies have staying power? Conventional Beltway wisdom would suggest no. But we are not in conventional times.

It’s long been assumed that legislative actions have more sticking power than executive ones. That’s by design. The legislative process is cumbersome and messy, but ultimately it is shaped by 535 ...Read more

The Trump administration’s response to the two recent killings in Minneapolis has achieved the peculiar distinction of being both horrifying and ridiculous at the same time — like watching “The Death of Stalin,” except without the self-awareness or the courtesy of being fiction.

One of the faces of this farce is that of Kristi Noem, the...Read more

Some of the prominent Democrats interested in pursuing the presidency appear confused about what it takes to win the White House.

How else to explain their ducking and dissembling on the politically charged issue of transgender rights, helpfully reported by the “Axios 2028” newsletter. Reporters Alex Thompson and Holly Otterbein asked ...Read more

A recent IBM survey of 2,000 executives on their expectations for artificial intelligence in 2030 revealed something noteworthy. They unsurprisingly predict that AI investment will surge (from already high levels) and that 79% expect AI will contribute significantly to their revenue. But strikingly, only 24% “clearly see” where that revenue ...Read more

Life-or-death decisions in thousands of cases are made every year by immigration judges— but don’t let their title give you the wrong idea about their position.

In America we have the expectation that judges are independent, allowing them to rule without “fear or favor” in the cases that come before them. But immigration judges have ...Read more

Congress and the courts have all but destroyed the thing that made college sports so special, the idea of amateur student athletes competing for their schools in exchange for a free education and the opportunity to display their skills on a stage that could lead them to the professional sports leagues.

Now, with the NCAA increasingly losing ...Read more

Despite widespread pushback, the Trump administration and the National Park Service removed exhibits on slavery from the President’s House, a recreation of the executive residence that once housed George Washington and John Adams.

The exhibits detailed facts about slavery in early America, including how Washington engaged in a human shell ...Read more

President Donald Trump and his supporters like to think of their MAGA movement as an unstoppable locomotive. After Border Patrol agents brutally beat, shot and killed Alex Pretti this weekend in Minneapolis, we're seeing the Trump Train derail in a way it never has.

Already, Border Patrol commander at large Gregory Bovino seems to have been ...Read more

Millions of us saw what the killers did to Renee Good and Alex Pretti on the icy streets of Minneapolis. Millions of us are witnesses to the violence.

Like it or not, this forces us to make a decision. We know what happened — what are we going to do about it?

For many thousands, the answer is to keep showing up and speaking out. The good ...Read more

The attack on Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., at a Minneapolis town hall Tuesday was both reprehensible and inevitable.

In an age when polarized politics have whipped extremists into a frenzy and disagreeing with someone’s views justifies physical assault among fringe elements, the assault on Omar is a new abysmal milestone of societal degradation....Read more

Sometimes a view of the bigger picture is born in small moments. The other day, I and my little pug, Lily, were at a friend’s house visiting her and her pug, Olive. The two dogs were crawling all over us on the couch, when Olive abruptly jumped off, ran to a corner of the room and hit a bell. Surprised, I asked my friend what that was about. ...Read more

It can hardly be disputed that science and medicine today are awash in disinformation.

It's why respected scientists get physically assaulted and hauled before partisan committees in Congress to be smeared. It's why childhood vaccine rates in some places are plummeting and measles is on the rampage across the country.

Therefore, it behooves us...Read more

In a country as wealthy as the United States, it is a bitter irony that millions of people still fall through the cracks of a social safety net meant to protect them.

Welfare programs exist, but they are fragmented, riddled with arbitrary rules and built around abrupt cutoffs that punish progress. Missing a form, filing late or earning slightly...Read more

As the Twin Cities reel from this month’s killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal immigration agents, the city’s business community responded with a call for common sense and common ground.

On Jan. 25, the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce called for de-escalation, peace and cooperation, in a brief, carefully neutral notice signed by...Read more

Attorney General Pam Bondi’s letter to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz — offering to scale back ICE operations in exchange for the state’s compliance with her demands — is inappropriate and reads as a thinly veiled attempt at extortion.

“Operation Metro Surge,” involving the deployment of some 3,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement ...Read more