Here’s why I think the Supreme Court might be on to something in its Friday decision allowing a group of Muslim and Christian parents to opt their young children out of public-school lessons that feature “LGBTQ+-inclusive texts”: my wife and I sent our kids to private school.

How does B lead to A? Let me explain.

The case before the ...Read more

Every Fourth of July, Erwin Knoll, the late editor of The Progressive magazine, would host a party. He’d grill burgers and brats and tack copies of the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights to trees in his backyard in Madison, Wis.

The U.S. government has never had a fiercer critic than Knoll. And yet, having come to New York City as...Read more

It’s difficult to determine who was more enthusiastic about the results of New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary last week, the party’s progressive extremists or national Republicans.

Those on the far left swooned over the victory by Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old state lawmaker who surprised most observers by defeating former Gov. ...Read more

Given the choice between an f-bomb on live TV and a 30,000-pound bunker buster that can penetrate 60 feet of concrete and 200 feet of earth before exploding, I’d choose the f-bomb every time,

Yet, days after President Donald Trump unleashed the thunder with a bombing campaign that “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear weapons arsenal, many pearl...Read more

There are plenty of reasons to dislike Carl DeMaio, if you so choose.

The first-term San Diego assembly member is MAGA to his marrow, bringing President Donald Trump's noxious politics and personal approach to Sacramento. For Democrats, the mere mention of his name has the same effect as nails applied to a chalkboard.

Fellow Republicans aren't...Read more

One year from now, the nation will mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. I fear it could be a shame, even possibly a sham.

Don’t get me wrong. Our founding principles of freedom, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are worth celebrating. The optimist in me still thinks most Americans will find ways to do just that. ...Read more

Just two and a half years after OpenAI stunned the world with ChatGPT, AI is no longer only answering questions — it is taking actions. We are now entering the era of AI agents, in which AI large language models don’t just passively provide information in response to your queries, they actively go into the world and do things for — or ...Read more

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is the preeminent center for pediatric medicine in Southern California. For three decades, it’s also been one of the world’s leading destinations for trans care for minors. Don’t take my word for it: CHLA boasts about its record of providing “high-quality, evidence-based, medically essential care for ...Read more

When President Donald Trump declared that the U.S. strikes “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program, it wasn’t just a policy claim—it was an exercise in narrative control.

Predictably, his assertion was met with both support and skepticism. Yet more than a comment on military efficacy, the statement falls into a broader pattern that ...Read more

Bruce Scott’s only obituary was published in the Tribune on Dec. 30, 2001. A meager recounting of his family, friends and neighborhood, the final sentence bluntly tells readers, “No services will be held.”

It’s a sparse account for the plaintiff in one of the first successful cases in U.S. history defending gay Americans from ...Read more

There’s plenty not to like about President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” now being hashed out in the Senate, not least of which is that it would enlarge the national debt. But at least one part of the budget bill stands to help the less fortunate, while still bringing smiles to the faces of the investor class.

Introduced in Trump�...Read more

In their efforts to offset tax cuts and exert more control over the Federal Reserve, some U.S. legislators have lately focused attention on an otherwise obscure element of monetary policy: The Fed, they argue, should stop paying interest on the cash reserves that banks hold at the central bank.

It's a bad idea, in more ways than one.

The ...Read more

The masters of the universe were in a lather last week after New York City Democrats nominated Zohran Mamdani — an honest-to-God, dyed-in-the-wool socialist — to be mayor of the finance capital of the country.

There’s now audible chatter in New York from that city’s numerous titans of finance about doing what would have been ...Read more

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