As President Donald Trump and his compliant Republican partners take more and more control of America—the economy, law enforcement, education, foreign policy, voting, even libraries—museums are inevitably going to drift into the intersection of Trump’s crosshairs.

Of course. Museums are an obvious target. By memorializing what we wish to ...Read more

There are two actions that are both anti-democratic and anti-Democratic that Texas Republican state lawmakers and Gov. Greg Abbott are doing in messing around with the lines of the Lone Star State’s 38 congressional districts and both are bad. And the Texans’ moves are causing other states, notably California, to respond.

It’s an eye for ...Read more

For Patricia Sinay, one of the highlights of her life was serving on the California Citizens Redistricting Commission, which spent well over a year painstakingly plotting out the state's political boundaries.

"I got to witness democracy at its core," said Sinay, 58, who lives in Encinitas and works as a consultant in the world of nonprofits.

"...Read more

As the Democratic Party searches for direction in the post-2024 landscape, its leaders seem bent on alienating their own base over Gaza. This is not a matter of nuance or tactical positioning; it’s a profound moral and political miscalculation.

That failure is on vivid display in the decision by House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (...Read more

In the fields around the Quad Cities in northwest Illinois, the state’s biggest cash crops look amazing these days. The corn stands tall, and the soybeans are green and lush. But nearby, at the headquarters of Deere & Co. in Moline, a bumper harvest can’t make up for hostile policies from Washington, D.C.

Tariffs will cost the farm ...Read more

Latinos unleashed a political earthquake after voting for President Donald Trump, who has long painted the country's largest minority as an existential threat, in unexpectedly large numbers in the fall.

This swing to MAGA helped Trump win, kicked Democrats into the political wilderness, launched a thousand thought pieces and showed politicians ...Read more

When the second Donald Trump administration began, many worried that it would abandon America’s long-standing, bipartisan commitment to human rights around the world.

This was the concern during the first administration, too, but career foreign affairs professionals continued much of the day-to-day work that has supported human rights for ...Read more

There’s an officer in the Catholic Church colloquially known as the Devil’s Advocate. His duty, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, is to make “all possible arguments, even at times seemingly slight” against candidates for sainthood. No canonization is legal without his input.

The church’s example is worth following by the ...Read more

Wary of inflation, Americans have been watching the prices of everyday items such as eggs and gasoline. A less-noticed expense should cause greater alarm: rising premiums for health insurance. They have been trending upward for years and are now rising faster than ever.

Consider that, from 2000 to 2020, egg prices fluctuated between just under ...Read more

The return of school has us focused on education, and with that in mind we believe it’s worth weighing in on two major changes in the way the state of Illinois measures proficiency in reading, math and science.

First, the scores needed to be considered “proficient” are going down for math and reading.

For high schoolers, these scores ...Read more

Public projects typically aren’t known for coming in on time and under budget. A report released last month highlights the extent to which delays and overruns are costing American taxpayers.

According to the Senate DOGE Caucus, more than a dozen federal infrastructure projects have bled a combined $162 billion. Fox News reports that this ...Read more

As the Trump administration continues to ramp up immigration enforcement actions, a group of lawmakers is suing Immigration and Customs Enforcement for placing restrictions on detention center visits — obstructing Congress’ role in overseeing government functions.

Twelve House Democrats filed a lawsuit challenging new guidelines that ...Read more

The Trump administration has abruptly eliminated $1.3 million in federal funding for Washington’s Regional Fisheries Enhancement Groups, jeopardizing salmon restoration across the state. The administration should reverse course.

The 14 community-based RFEGs have been a linchpin in the fight to save salmon for three decades. Bringing together ...Read more

On Aug. 8, as the White House hosted the trilateral signing of a peace agreement between Armenia, Azerbaijan and the United States, I spoke to a group of Armenian high school students from Los Angeles.

We paused to watch the news conference on a laptop in the corner of our crowded room. Their faces — curious, cautious and skeptical — ...Read more

For families with school children, the summer is coming to a close, and it’s time to start thinking about—school shopping! New clothes, shoes, daypacks, and school supplies are topmost of mind, making sure your little Einsteins and Rembrandts are ready to take on the new school year.

But this year, it’s coming with a twist—not only are ...Read more

We were raised in the middle of a political hurricane.

Our childhoods came with breaking news alerts: lockdowns, impeachments, mass shootings, a pandemic, and presidents tweeting threats in real time. We never saw the so-called “good old days.” We learned early that politics wasn’t some distant, dignified machine—it was messy, volatile,...Read more

A paper from researchers at hedge fund AQR Capital Management and Yale University addresses one of the most important questions in finance: Will artificial intelligence and machine learning replace human researchers and traders?

In 44 pages of densely written theory and empirical results under the title “The Virtue of Complexity in Return ...Read more

The Trump administration, seemingly determined to dismantle the National Institutes of Health, continues to devise new and insidious ways to politicize what has long been considered the crown jewel of U.S. research.

The latest move? An effort to codify political oversight of the agency’s operations and impose abrupt and far-reaching changes ...Read more

President Donald Trump’s support among Hispanics was always more fragile than he thought. Now his immigration and economic policies have all but obliterated the gains Republicans made with this group — gains they had started to count on for the midterms and beyond.

A new Pew Research Center Poll shows that Trump’s disapproval rating among...Read more