Last week, the Federal Reserve did the right thing by leaving well enough alone, keeping the benchmark interest rate at about 5.4%. With the acute pressure that the board and Chair Jay Powell in particular have faced in the past several months, we’re glad they’ve had the wisdom to know when to step back.

On Oct. 10, days after Hamas launched its depraved attack on Israel, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about some progressive members in Congress who were calling for a cease-fire and de-escalation. She did not try to hide her disgust.

Getting the nation’s soaring debt under control should be a national priority. But many special-interest groups don’t agree.

In case you forgot, this Saturday, Nov. 11, is Veterans Day, although the federal holiday will be on Friday the 10th. And if I ask why we celebrate veterans on Nov. 11, do you know? Maybe not, so here’s the answer: The Armistice ending World War I was signed at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918.

When the COVID pandemic cast its dark cloud over the United States, there was an unexpected silver lining: Child poverty was all but wiped out.

Washington seems determined to ignore the country’s rapidly worsening fiscal picture, but sooner or later policymakers will be forced to pay attention. When they do, they’ll find that changes to Social Security are unavoidable.

Over the last two weeks, Jenna Ellis, Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, three lawyers central to Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election, pleaded guilty in the Georgia racketeering case against the former president and 18 co-defendants. All admitted significantly lesser crimes than charged and escaped prison time.

Israel, under attack from murderous Hamas terrorists, needs American financial and military support, even as the beleaguered civilian population of Gaza deserves humanitarian help: Republicans in Congress entirely agree with President Biden and Democrats there. They are all together on the urgency to send assistance to Israel battling against Hamas.

For centuries, the quest for new elements was a driving force in many scientific disciplines. Understanding an atom’s structure and the development of nuclear science allowed scientists to accomplish the old goal of alchemists – turning one element into another.

“Oh, I see,” says the business manager conducting a job interview, “you were in one of those 31 or so screaming, absurdist pro-Hamas groups at Harvard. Sorry, but we neither trust nor like people who think it’s OK for terrorists to decapitate Israeli babies, rape teenage girls at a music festival, murder families in their homes and shoot sobbing children hiding in bushes after missiles introduced their energetic arrival, all the better to get even.”

It started as a typical rebound relationship. I was drowning in grief, and to say my judgment was impaired is an understatement. Tovi had died two weeks prior, breeding an impulsivity in me that no intervention could interrupt. I was sure adopting another dog would sedate my debilitating pain.

It’s a rare issue that can bring 41 states together for a bipartisan fight. This week, state attorneys general across the political spectrum joined forces in suing Facebook parent company Meta for allegedly using features on Instagram and other platforms that hook young users, while denying or downplaying the risks to their mental health.

It’s not officially over yet, but the United Auto Workers appear to have won a significant victory. The union, which began rolling strikes on Sept. 15, now has tentative agreements with Ford, Stellantis (which I still think of as Chrysler) and, finally, General Motors.

The House Republican spasm that began with bomb thrower Matt Gaetz’s vendetta against Speaker Kevin McCarthy and saw the conference’s civil war cycle through five leaders in three exhausting weeks seems to have cooled with Wednesday’s election by the unanimous GOP members of new Speaker Mike Johnson (or is it Mike Jackson)? We were so unfamiliar with this Louisianan from Shreveport that we didn’t know his name or his face before he rose to the top Tuesday night after Speaker-designate Tom Emmer’s tenure died after four hours.

More than 11 years ago, Barack Obama drew his “red line” in the sand. Will the Biden administration make the same mistake?

We are impacted every day by the depth of the health care system disconnects on Hawaii Island — starting with shortages of providers, lack of patient access and barriers to workforce recruitment and retention. Dig a little deeper, and long-standing inequities in health outcomes and access to care within our Hawaii Island community become apparent. The COVID pandemic, which pushed our health care system and our community to the limit, exposed and exacerbated these issues.