Politics
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Jonathan Levin: Trump's tariff mistake isn't easily cured. Not even by the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court’s decision that President Donald Trump illegally imposed tariffs on U.S. trading partners under the guise that America’s trade deficit amounts to a national emergency is a victory for the rule of law. As such, it’s also a win for the country’s reputation as a destination for global capital. Financial markets should ...Read more
Noah Feldman: The Supreme Court's ruling on tariffs marks a turning point
It took almost a decade, but Chief Justice John Roberts and the Supreme Court finally found a way to stand up to President Donald Trump’s executive power overreach, striking down the tariffs that are the signature initiative of his presidency. Not since the Supreme Court struck down the first New Deal in 1935 has the court reversed a policy of...Read more
David M. Drucker: All these new independents are making politics more partisan
Disenchanted voters are fleeing the Democratic and Republican parties in droves. Their exodus is perpetuating the skyrocketing partisanship they seek to escape.
Gallup published polling in January showing that as of last year, 45% of U.S. adults identified as political independents, a record high. The migration began around 2008, with the ...Read more
Editorial: Californians deserve better than economic fairy tales
California, like a careless heir who squanders a fortune, keeps menacing its top taxpayers. Unless lawmakers start showing some restraint, the state’s many economic strengths are likely to further erode.
An emblematic example is the recent campaign — orchestrated by a health-care workers union — to levy a supposedly one-time 5% wealth tax...Read more
Gustavo Arellano: (opinion)
Gustavo Arellano: Chipotle just saw its worst year ever. It may not get any better
Before me was a lunch as big and hefty as a brick, wrapped in gold-colored foil that gleamed with the promise of a delicious meal.
What I was about to try was no culinary treasure, though; it was a burrito from Chipotle.
Chicken al pastor smushed into cilantro ...Read more
Commentary: Hegseth's war on diversity is eroding America's military edge
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has returned again and again to a familiar target: the military’s long-standing refrain that “our diversity is our strength.” Last week, at Bath Iron Works in Maine, he dismissed it as “the dumbest phrase in military history” and mocked the generals who had repeated it “with a straight face.” Some ...Read more
Editorial: On Barack Obama and the aliens
We got a kick out of an old chestnut among conspiracy theorists — whether intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe and whether any of those aliens have visited Earth — that rose to the surface earlier this week thanks to the musings of none other than former President Barack Obama.
Obama’s off-the-cuff remarks to a podcast host ...Read more
Michael Hiltzik: The missing quality that defines the flaws in our business and government leadership -- character
The best lesson I learned during my formative years in journalism came from the editor at my first daily newspaper job, Doug Turner of the late Buffalo Courier-Express.
I had told him that the councilmen at the suburban town I was covering were trying to bully me out of writing a critical story. Turner, who had spent a career covering local- ...Read more
Commentary: We're all entrepreneurs now -- Learning, pivoting, and thriving the age of AI
What do a recent grad, a disenchanted employee, and a parent returning to the workforce all have in common?
They’re each trying to determine which skills are in demand and how they can convince employers that they are competent in those fields. This is easier said than done.
Recent grads point to transcripts lined with As to persuade firms ...Read more
Commentary: Europe debates the bomb
Last weekend, Secretary of State Marco Rubio traveled to Germany for the annual Munich Security Conference, where he delivered a speech that was both reassuring to the European dignitaries in the audience and nerve-wracking because of its references to the kind of MAGA culture-inspired war themes that Europe generally shivers at. After the ...Read more
Commentary: Property tax reforms can bring racial justice
Every February, Black History Month provides an opportunity for us to remember the past and confront how history continues to shape our future. One place where the legacy of the past is hiding in plain sight is the property tax system — a foundation of local government finance that is not as fair as it needs to be.
As lawmakers across the ...Read more
Commentary: Why aren't we talking about the harm AI is doing to students?
“I think, therefore I am,” philosopher René Descartes famously said in 1637. To think means to be alive. Learning how to think is why students go to to school.
As a high school student and high school teacher in different parts of the country, we believe education can still serve that purpose — but we’re worried.
Thinking was still a ...Read more
Commentary: Democrats must call out GOP on Trump's drug failures
Democrats are on the verge of making affordability the defining and winning issue of the 2026 midterm election. The optics surrounding this failure of a Trump administration would be laughable if the consequences for working families weren’t so serious.
President Donald Trump and his cronies boast endlessly about a supposedly “stellar” ...Read more
Jackie Calmes: Clinton, Bush, Obama and Biden, please speak out against Trump
Where are the statesmen when the state is under siege by the current head of state?
I've been mulling that question, hardly for the first time, but on three occasions just in the last few days.
On Monday, the federal holiday celebrating George Washington's birth, former President George W. Bush posted an essay on the first U.S. president as ...Read more
Commentary: My parents were interned in camps for Japanese Americans. We are repeating that national sin
My parents were just children when they were wrested from their homes into tarpaper barracks surrounded by barbed wire. The message: They were not welcome.
On Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, authorizing the incarceration of more than 120,000 people of Japanese descent — an entire group of people ...Read more
Michael Hiltzik: RFK Jr.'s attacks on vaccines could undermine American science for generations
During the postwar decades, American medical science reached a sort of financial equilibrium: The government would fund basic scientific research with billions of dollars in academic grants, then entrust the subsequent development of health-giving products to private enterprise.
The arrangement hasn't always worked in the public's interest — ...Read more
Editorial: Charged with carrying on Dr. King's legacy, Jesse Jackson proved to be a titan of civil rights on his own accord
There’s an old saying that “only the good die young.” Not true, of course, but the sentiment is understandable given the complex twists and turns of any life, including that of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights titan and noteworthy presidential candidate, who at age 84 died Tuesday at his home in Chicago.
The Rev. Jackson’s rise ...Read more
Lisa Jarvis: One year of RFK Jr. has left public health devastated
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a lot of promises on his way to becoming health secretary. He pledged to Make America Healthy Again, of course, and to restore trust in embattled health agencies. And he said he wouldn’t “take away anybody’s vaccines.”
In his first year in office, he’s already broken most of these promises.
The sweeping, ...Read more
Editorial: What would defunding ICE look like? Remember 9/11
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey wouldn’t be a progressive Democrat if she didn’t want to eliminate the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
She made it clear in a Sunday WCVB “On the Record” interview when asked if ICE should be defunded. “Yes,” she answered, adding that the agency has “more funding than all state and...Read more
POINT: Trump is making America boom again
One year ago, Donald Trump returned to office with four clear priorities: secure the border, lower costs for working-class Americans, restore economic growth and put good-paying American jobs first.
As he prepares to deliver his State of the Union address, measurable results are not just visible, they are undeniable. And the second phase is ...Read more




















































