Politics
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Steve Lopez: Trump's order on homelessness gets it all wrong, and here's why
President Trump has the answer to homelessness.
Forcibly clear the streets.
On Thursday, he signed an executive order to address "endemic vagrancy" and end "crime and disorder on our streets." He called for the use of "civil commitments" to get those who suffer from mental illness or addiction into "humane treatment."
This comes after last ...Read more

Editorial: Republicans missed a shot at serious Medicaid reform
Every decade since the 1970s, Congress has tried and failed to reform Medicaid, the health entitlement for the poor. Republican lawmakers’ latest effort — as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — appears to be no different. Instead of addressing the program’s core deficiencies, the party instead fixated on shrinking it. The likely ...Read more

Lisa Jarvis: The quiet Obamacare overhaul needs a loud reveal
The unprecedented cuts to Medicaid in President Donald Trump’s tax bill rightfully garnered headlines in recent months. After all, the latest estimates from the Congressional Budget Office predict some 10 million people eventually will lose their public insurance.
But attention now should turn to the less visible ways his policies are ...Read more

Commentary: Beware, leaders -- AI is the ultimate yes-man
I grew up watching the tennis greats of yesteryear with my dad, but have only returned to the sport recently thanks to another family superfan, my wife. So perhaps it’s understandable that to my adult eyes, it seemed like the current crop of stars, as awe-inspiring as they are, don’t serve quite as hard as Pete Sampras or Goran Ivanisevic. I...Read more

Editorial: Slots at Chicago O'Hare airport? A tacky choice
Pop quiz: How many U.S. airports have slot machines operating among the departure and arrival gates?
The answer is two: Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas and Reno-Tahoe International Airport in Reno. Those airports are in Nevada. Gambling is central to the zeitgeist of that state. People expect the chance to feed bills into slots as...Read more

Stephen Mihm: Summer camps are returning to their elitist roots
“What are we going to do with the kids this summer?”
More than halfway through July, some iteration of that question continues to be raised in homes across the nation as harried parents scramble to keep their kids occupied in the post-school-year months. Vacation can only go so far. And while some parents may deliberately let their kids “...Read more

Editorial: Why did DeSantis veto a common-sense ethics law?
It can make you dizzy, trying to figure out what is going on inside Gov. Ron DeSantis’ head, particularly when it comes to ethics laws meant to hold Florida’s leaders accountable and in balance.
Throughout his tenure, the governor has made a great show of removing elected officials from public office, often scolding them for ethical ...Read more

Steve Lopez: I took a week off to escape the steady hum of grim news. It didn't go as planned
LOS ANGELES — I took a week of vacation to relax, clear my head and stop obsessing over depressing news.
I hear frequently from people who say that, for their peace of mind, they're tuning out the news altogether, so I tried it for a couple of days. Opened a book. Walked the dog.
But I'm in the news business, and I felt like a hypocrite, so ...Read more

Commentary: Rethink sanctions. They're killing as many people as war does
Broad economic sanctions, most of which are imposed by the U.S. government, kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people each year — disproportionately children. This week the Lancet Global Health journal published an article that estimated that number at about 564,000 annually over a decade. This is comparable to the annual deaths around the...Read more

Commentary: 'I'm an American before I am a Republican' -- Rep. Don Bacon reflects on his tenure
As a self-proclaimed "Reagan conservative," Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon proposes a return to normalcy.
Amidst a retirement announcement, voting in favor of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and dealing with criticism both offline and online. Bacon reflects on his tenure as a congressman.
“I never thought I’d run for Congress,” said Bacon about...Read more

Commentary: America's truckers need a place to park -- before it's too late
Every day, more than 3.5 million professional truck drivers keep America’s economy on the move. They haul more than 73% of the nation’s freight, ensuring that food reaches our shelves, medicine arrives at hospitals and manufacturers stay in business. But there’s one thing many drivers can’t count on at the end of a long shift: a safe ...Read more

Editorial: NIH budget cuts are a setback for American science
White House budgets, generally speaking, aren’t serious governing documents. Even so, they’re a declaration of national priorities — and by that measure, the latest blueprint is deeply troubling. What sort of administration aspires to shrink its budget for scientific discovery by 40%?
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy ...Read more

Jackie Calmes: Trump finds a new way to taint the office of the presidency
Donald Trump has now thoroughly sullied the office of the presidency.
I'm not talking about the Oval Office, with its new, gaudy gilt trappings that seem to spread by the day, as if the famously nocturnal president multitasks there while others sleep, tapping out his nasty late-night social media screeds between applying more layers of the gold...Read more
Anita Chabria: 3 things that should scare us about Trump's fake video of Obama
On Sunday, our thoughtful and reserved president reposted on his Truth Social site a video generated by artificial intelligence that falsely showed former President Barack Obama being arrested and imprisoned.
There are those among you who think this is high humor; those among you who find it as tiresome as it is offensive; and those among you ...Read more

Mark Z. Barabak: Gavin Newsom is threatening to end-run California voters. It reflects a terrible trend
In 2010, California voters drove the foxes from the henhouse, seeing to it that lawmakers in Washington and Sacramento would no longer have the power to draw congressional districts to suit themselves.
It wasn't close.
Proposition 20 passed by a lopsided 61%-to-38% margin, giving congressional line-drawing authority to an independent mapmaking...Read more

Commentary: The Supreme Court owes you an explanation
“Because I said so” never is persuasive or satisfying. And it certainly should not be regarded as acceptable when it is the Supreme Court resolving important issues — up to and including matters of life and death — without the slightest explanation. Yet, that has been the pattern in recent weeks, as in a series of significant cases the ...Read more

Commentary: Anti-Zionism is antisemitism -- University leaders settle the question
For too long, the debate over antisemitism on college campuses has bogged down over whether anti-Zionism is antisemitism. Endless ink has been spilled over the distinction (or not) between the two.
Last week, in their testimony to the House Committee on Education & Workforce, UC Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons, City University of New York ...Read more

Editorial: Open season on Big Bird
Missouri’s airwaves are about to get a lot dumber. For that, we can all thank President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans — Missouri’s own Sen. Eric Schmitt in particular.
Schmitt was the Senate sponsor of legislation passed last week yanking more than $1 billion in federal funding for National Public Radio and the Corporation ...Read more

COUNTERPOINT: Worry about the economy, not the debt
The size of the national debt has become a preoccupation across the political spectrum. Democrats have complained about the $3.4 trillion increase in the debt projected to result from President Donald Trump’s tax cut.
This represents 10 percent of the projected gross domestic product for 2035. Republicans also scream about the debt, even as ...Read more

Commentary: A promise in the making -- Thirty-five years of the ADA
One July morning in 1990, a crowd gathered on the White House lawn, some in wheelchairs, others holding signs, many with tears in their eyes. President George H.W. Bush lifted his pen and signed his name to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)—the most sweeping civil rights law for people with disabilities in the nation's history.
It ...Read more