The images are jarring. Across the country, federal law enforcement officers in plain clothes and wearing ski masks and balaclavas are seizing and detaining protesters, students and even elected officials. These scenes evoke images of government thugs in violent regimes disappearing opponents.

This is not how policing should look in a ...Read more

TAHOE CITY, Calif. — Today I offer boating tips for Lake Tahoe — actually, for any body of water.

That's not one of my usual column topics. Normally I write about California government and politics.

But this time I'm writing about boating because I've been wincing after reading and watching news reports of the horrific accident on Tahoe ...Read more

A sitting U.S. congressman in Tennessee has sent a formal request to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi that Zohran Mamdani be stripped of his American citizenship and deported. In a saner world, Rep. Andy Ogles would be run out of office at the earliest possible opportunity for abusing his power in the most un-American way imaginable.

President ...Read more

In a landmark 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court upheld age-verification requirements for accessing online pornography sites, effectively overturning a precedent that had stood for more than 20 years. Alongside its January decision on TikTok, the ruling marks a new era in the court’s online First Amendment jurisprudence: the justices are ...Read more

The Supreme Court on Friday dealt a grievous blow to separation of powers by holding that federal courts cannot issue nationwide injunctions to halt unconstitutional actions by the president and the federal government. At a time when President Trump is asserting unprecedented powers, the court made it far more difficult to restrain his ...Read more

I’m a finance professor at UCLA, so let’s talk finance. Which numbers are more meaningful to you?

Having $50 to $100 cash in your pocket (rough average for an American) or knowing the total U.S. currency in circulation is $2.4 trillion?

Owing $7,300 on your credit card (average balance of those who don’t pay it off every month) or ...Read more

The promise of taxing the rich to fund social services propelled Zohran Mamdani to victory in Tuesday’s New York City Democratic mayoral primary. His campaign vows to reverse decades of social service cuts and tackle NYC’s pervasive unaffordability.

Taxing the rich for the sake of the poor, however, contains an inherent contradiction. The ...Read more

As international attention turns away from missile strikes and toward diplomacy following the recent ceasefire between Iran and Israel, a deeper, longer-term struggle is quietly taking shape inside the Islamic Republic — one that will define the country’s political future.

For the first time in his 36 years in power, Supreme Leader ...Read more

The very name of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is both silly and revealing. The more provisions Congress crams into a single piece of legislation, the harder it is to focus public debate on any one component. So it’s worth asking: What is this big bill trying to hide?

A lot, in my view, but one of the most egregious parts is the spectacular ...Read more

Support for imposing term limits on the U.S. Congress is gaining steam, with at least half a dozen state legislatures approving resolutions urging a cap on service in the House of Representatives and the Senate. It stands to reason.

Congress’ job approval ratings are perennially in the tank, and a fresh Quinnipiac University poll reveals more...Read more

The world is getting more dangerous. Trust in diplomacy has been deeply undermined, making greater reliance on military might inevitable. Meanwhile, America’s leaders are more focused on declaring war at home than deterring it abroad.

The one positive thing I thought we could count on from Donald Trump’s second administration was his ...Read more

An interesting question has emerged after socialist Zohran Mamdani’s primary triumph in the race for New York City mayor.

Is the primary electorate simply unreceptive to centrist points of view? In that case, Democrats nationally are likely to spend a good long while in the political wilderness.

Or, is this high-profile loss, and others of ...Read more

Let’s see: Did the United States ever let good storytelling interfere with rigorous intelligence gathering in making the case for war in the Middle East? Well, there was the prologue to that war in 2003, when the White House told the country, the world and itself that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, which turned out not to exist. Surely,...Read more

Underlying the demonstrations and street clashes of recent weeks is a dysfunctional system of immigration enforcement that needs to be fixed. With a bit of goodwill — from both the president and his opponents — that shouldn’t be too much to ask.

To much public outcry, federal immigration authorities have been detaining unauthorized ...Read more

For more than a decade, President Donald Trump has been scapegoating immigrants, decrying them as criminals and vermin and vowing to deport them by the millions.

The American people, by and large, aren’t buying it, nor should they.

A new Pew Charitable Trust poll shows that 65% of Americans support having undocumented immigrants stay legally...Read more

Earlier this week, Tesla unveiled a small fleet of robotaxis in Austin, marking the first time the EV powerhouse’s driverless vehicles transported paying passengers. For now, Elon Musk’s company is charging a flat fee under $5 for rides.

We can’t imagine this price tag will stick around forever, but it establishes a competitively low ...Read more

Historians will judge the massive U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities by trying to answer two questions, which ultimately become inseparable. Was the intervention wise? And was it legitimate?

It’s far too early to assess the wisdom of Operation Midnight Hammer — that is, whether it will make the world safer. Stunning as its ...Read more

When I asked John Savage, the retired co-founder of the Department of Computer Science at Brown University, what the essential ingredient in research is, he responded with one word: “Passion.”

It is passion that keeps scientists going, dead end after dead end, until there is a breakthrough. It is passion that keeps them at the bench or ...Read more

It is cruel and nonsensical to deport people, not back to their countries of origin, but to third countries without proper notice or any way to appeal. But that’s what the Trump administration wants to do and that’s what the Supreme Court this week wrongly OKed in a one-paragraph order.

One of these cases involved a group of men the ...Read more

Here’s a quick quiz: Who made this comment about the U.S. military?

“The soldier on the battlefield deserves to have and must have utmost confidence in his fellow soldiers. They must eat together, sleep together, and all too frequently die together. There can be no friction in their everyday living that might bring on failure in battle.” ...Read more