History will be kinder to Joe Biden than the pollsters
Now that pollsters are declaring President Joe Biden a “failure,” historians will reckon with too many economic signals rendering the prevailing narrative little more than media noise.
Trump lawsuits, threats a clear and wrongheaded effort to bully the press
It’s wrong for the incoming president to start suing newspapers and it’s a transparent effort to bully the press, but there Donald Trump stood last Monday, proclaiming that “we have to straighten out the press. Our press is very corrupt. Almost as corrupt as our elections.”
Your Views for December 22
Regarding fracking, aquifers and earthquakes
Trump is guilty and not immune — His Stormy Daniels hush money conviction remains
Even a terribly wrong-headed decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on a president’s post-White House criminal immunity can’t undo Donald Trump’s 34 felony convictions correctly ruled Acting Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan.
Biden’s ‘kids for cash’ clemency is offensive to victims, and to justice
The commutation of the prison sentence of former Luzerne County judge Michael Conahan by President Joe Biden is a disgraceful act that dishonors the children and families victimized by the judge and his accomplice, Mark Ciavarella, during the notorious “kids for cash” scandal two decades ago.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has irked billionaires, but it serves the public well
The billionaire Elon Musk and the California venture capitalist Marc Andreessen have started a debate about the role of government that we should be having — but it might not go the way they would hope. They don’t like government agencies that stop corporations like theirs from ripping off consumers.
Solve the drone mystery: What is causing all these UFO sightings?
If you’re seeing and hearing drones or other such flying things flashing in the sky, it’s absolutely certain that you are not imagining it and you are not alone. However, what remains troublingly uncertain is what is actually going on and it’s a question that government has done a lousy job answering.
How to make the drone panic so very much worse
In 1954, a few people in the town of Bellingham, Washington, reported seeing pits and dings on their windshields — perhaps the work of vandals. Roadblocks were quickly set up. This became front-page news in nearby Seattle, prompting people to rush to check their own windshields. Thousands then reported that they, too, had mysterious dings, in an ever-widening area from Seattle to Vancouver, British Columbia.
A spineless Senate abandons a qualified judge
After more than a year of twisting in the wind, it is official: Adeel Mangi, President Joe Biden’s nominee to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, will not become the nation’s first Muslim federal appellate judge. This was perhaps inevitable. Sen. Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, cut a deal with Republicans last month to abandon four appeals court nominees who didn’t have the votes to win in exchange for not obstructing the confirmation of about a dozen circuit court justices.
Texas attacks NY law: Attorney General Ken Paxton must fail in going after New York doc for abortion pills
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the once-indicted and once-impeached attack dog for right-wing causes, is trying to use the courts to impose his state’s harsh abortion limits elsewhere with his specious state lawsuit against New Paltz Dr. Margaret Daley Carpenter for prescribing and sending abortion medications to a woman in Texas. He needs to lose this case.
Your Views for December 19
E. Hawaii needs more options for flights
Keep Kash Patel away from the FBI: Departing Director Chris Wray is the right kind of leader
FBI Director Chris Wray is resigning several years before the end of his statutory 10-year term for one, terrible reason: Donald Trump had promised to fire Wray when he’s sworn in as president next month and install the unqualified and unfit Kash Patel, a real disaster for justice.
Romania is fighting back against Russia’s election interference
Romania’s presidential election last month shocked the country and its government when Calin Georgescu, an obscure far-right candidate, secured the most votes in the first round.
Your Views for December 17
Using length of residency as a measuring stick
Suspected killer Mangione is not a hero — stop treating him as one
Luigi Mangione, the accused killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is being hailed by many as a hero.
Those battlin’ Republicans are back at it
Republicans should be enjoying a blissful post-election honeymoon, if only they could stop bickering long enough to bask in that loving feeling.
The Penny case & mental health law — Too many sick people are left on the streets and subways without care
Daniel Penny has been acquitted of the subway killing of Jordan Neely, but the New York City criminal justice and mental-health-care establishment is guilty of creating the conditions whereby a deeply disturbed man known to be in the throes of psychological crisis wound up melting down on a subway car, hurling threats at passengers. Should Penny, a Marine trained in hand-to-hand combat, really have absolved of any penalties after placing Neely in an asphyxiating chokehold, and keeping him in it even after he was debilitated? From where we sit, it feels wrong to endorse his actions and its consequences.
I’m a longtime family caregiver. It makes me a better person
Thirty-one years ago, my husband, Bruce, and I took on the role of a lifetime. I became the legal guardian, and Bruce the caregiver, for my nephew Dan Bivins, who was 7 years old at the time and born with Down syndrome. That still stands as one of the luckiest days of my life.
Irwin: The importance of holding space
When people here learn that I have spent about half my life in Illinois, the usual reaction is “I bet you do not miss the winters!” To be sure, there is a lot about winter to dread: shoveling the driveway; scraping or chipping ice off the car; wearing bulky clothing; having the hair in one’s nose freeze; skidding on foot or in a car on the ice; etc. However, there is also something magical about winter and especially about the first real snowfall of the year. Blanketed by white, everything looks clean, and, as snowflakes flutter down silently, “the world seems new,” as the Christmas carol goes.
With pardon promise, Trump tries to rewrite Jan. 6 history but he cannot erase it
Just days after a former Proud Boy from Miami was sentenced to a year in prison for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, President-elect Donald Trump vowed to pardon people involved in the attack meant to overturn his 2020 defeat.