Sex registries are in the news again thanks to a couple of high-profile child sex abuse cases. (Think multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein and singer R. Kelly.) Keeping track of ex-cons who have sexually preyed on others sounds like a good idea. But do these registries really help keep us ...
As someone who was lucky enough to cover the 1992 presidential campaign —involving Republican incumbent President George W. Bush, Democratic challenger Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and the independent maverick, Texas billionaire businessman Ross Perot — from start to finish, allow me to make ...
A 29-story office building at 123 Mission St. illustrates the policy puzzles that fester because of these facts: For centuries, tobacco has been a widely used legal consumer good that does serious and often lethal harm when used as it is intended to be used. And its harmfulness has been a ...
On a high wall overlooking the central court of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., the words of novelist James Baldwin are etched in stone: “The great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by ...
When it comes to examining the immigration crisis dominating the news cycle, Americans must question why there was no public outrage — or widespread media coverage — when the Obama administration deported 3 million illegal immigrants. It’s not long ago that the former Democratic ...
For almost a year, I’ve thought about writing this column, in this week. In four days, I will turn 62, which was the age of my mother when she died. If you’ve lost a beloved parent too young, I doubt I need to describe for you my roiling mix of emotions. If you haven’t, please forgive ...
Democrats in Congress have again brought the minimum wage to the national political stage. Legislation moving forward in the House, H.R. 582, the Raise the Wage Act, would increase the national minimum wage from the current $7.25 per hour to $15 per hour in increments spanning the next five ...
Paul Ryan is getting the hate treatment — again. The former GOP House speaker and 2012 vice presidential candidate is a unifying figure these days. Liberals have long despised him — unfairly in my mind. Anti-Trump conservatives are infuriated by his “surrender to Trumpism,” in the ...
Dear Donald Trump: Years ago, I got to visit Kwethluk, an Alaskan town of fewer than 900 souls. It is an isolated place where the people, most of them Yup’ik and Eskimo, live on what the tundra provides: ptarmigan, moose, seal, salmonberries. I remember standing upon that snowbound ...
To be American is a wonderful thing most of the time. There are moments, however, when it is downright humiliating. Can you imagine a more pitiful scene than a busload of Americans traveling 815 miles from Minneapolis to a Walmart in London, Ontario, Canada, to buy insulin at a 10th — a 10th! ...
Here’s a suggestion. How about setting up some high school rifle clubs? Students would bring their own rifles to school, store them with the team coach and, after classes, collect them for practice. You say: “Williams, you must be crazy! To prevent gun violence, we must do all we can to ...
I keep hearing that the Democratic Party has moved “left” and that some Democratic candidates may be “too far left.” But in this era of unprecedented concentration of wealth and political power at the top, I can’t help wondering what it means to be “left.” A half-century ago, ...
From Little Red Riding Hood’s terrifying encounter with the Big Bad Wolf to Kevin Costner’s balletic romance with some kindred, four-legged spirit in “Dances With Wolves,” Americans have long had a love-hate relationship with the ancestral predecessor of our favorite family pet. Some ...
We live in a country where justice is supposed to be blind. Citizens expect that people who bad things will be caught and arrested and spend an appropriate period behind bars. Not so if you are an uber-wealthy guy named Jeffrey Epstein. He got away with a lot. Until now. Jeffrey Epstein is ...
It’s not clear if President Donald Trump can win the legal battle to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census, but he’s already won in the court of public opinion. A ScottRasmussen.com poll found that 73% of voters nationwide believe it is appropriate for the U.S. Census Bureau ...
With a disgust commensurate with the fact, Michael Bennet, the Colorado Democrat, says that during 40% of his 10 Senate years the government has been run on “continuing resolutions.” Congress passes these in order to spare itself the torture of performing its primary function, which is to ...
The Claremont Institute was part of the flowering of intellectual conservatism that graced America in the 1970s and ‘80s. Founded by students of Lincoln scholar Harry Jaffa, the California think tank was devoted to teaching “the principles of the American Founding to the future thinkers and ...
For the past few years, much of the American news media has bombarded the world with hysteria about purported Russian election interference. Millions of dollars and a 448-page report later, we’re left with a few tone-deaf ads purchased by Russians on social media and some online trolls in St. ...
“Partisan gerrymandering is nothing new,” writes Chief Justice John Roberts near the beginning of his opinion in Rucho v. Common Cause. “Nor is frustration with it.” The question is what, if anything, federal courts ought to do about it. The answer the chief justice and the four other ...
The women of the U.S. national soccer team are famous for being extraordinary athletes, repeat world champions — and plaintiffs. The team’s lawsuit alleging pay discrimination against the U.S. Soccer Federation has done much to define its identity. A nearly perfect run through the World ...