In August, abortion advocates in Texas celebrated a significant victory in a lawsuit challenging Texas’s ban of the procedure. The Texas law, like nearly all current statewide bans, includes an exception for abortions that are necessary to save the life of the pregnant person or protect them from serious injury. This means that, in theory, a person experiencing a miscarriage or another serious problem with their pregnancy can receive an abortion even if the state in which they live has banned it.

The United Auto Workers union isn’t backing down as it bargains for more compensation and better benefits in its new contracts with General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. Under the deft leadership of its president, Shawn Fain, and other officials elected in March 2023, the union has thrown the three companies off balance with a strike that began on Sept. 15 – the minute its prior contracts expired.

It’s difficult to summon much sympathy for former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who lost his dream job Tuesday when eight Republican dissidents turned on him. Although the Bakersfield Republican did the right thing last week in supporting a measure to avert a government shutdown that received bipartisan support, his record before then is less worthy of admiration.

In January, after 14 failed roll call votes — during each of which he got fewer votes than Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — Republican Kevin McCarthy came into the office of speaker of the House in an historic fashion, showing his extraordinary weakness among his own conference. Instead of the normal date and time for a speaker to assume the office, Jan. 3 at noon, according to when the Constitution says the term of the Congress begins and ends, McCarthy limped to victory just after midnight on Jan. 7, at 12:37 a.m. As we said, historic.

Efforts to use the 14th Amendment to keep Donald Trump off the 2024 ballot are moving forward across the country. Lawsuits have been filed in Colorado, New Hampshire, Minnesota and California; lawmakers in California have asked the state attorney general to seek a court opinion on the subject.

This year is on pace to set the record for the highest number of attempted book bans since the American Library Association began compiling data on library censorship more than 20 years ago. Last year, there were demands to censor more than 2,500 library books.

It says something about the state of our political discourse that we were shocked — and pleasantly surprised — by the reaction of senior Kansas and Missouri Republicans when Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat, died last week.

It’s nearly impossible to have a conversation about inflation without mentioning food prices. And no wonder, as they are up 24% since the start of the pandemic and account for one-sixth of the increase in consumer prices overall. After last week’s monetary policy meeting, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank is “aware that high inflation imposes significant hardship… especially for those least able to meet the higher costs of essentials like food, housing, and transportation.”

“Defund the police” may go down as the most misguided and foolish political slogan in American political history. After the events of the last week, is it finally dead and buried?

The 2023 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine will go to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for their discovery that modifying mRNA – a form of genetic material your body uses to produce proteins – could reduce unwanted inflammatory responses and allow it to be delivered into cells. While the impact of their findings may not have been apparent at the time of their breakthrough over a decade ago, their work paved the way for the development of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, as well as many other therapeutic applications currently in development.

Many Americans drowning in debt did not get there by spending irresponsibly on televisions, cars or pricey goodies. Medical bills have become the largest source of debt in collections — more than credit cards, utilities and auto loans combined — which is why the Biden administration’s plan to keep unpaid medical bills from affecting a person’s credit score would be a life-altering change for millions.

As the first Monday of October nears, the U.S. Supreme Court prepares for another term. On the docket in coming months are cases touching on a variety of important subjects, including the First Amendment, the separation of powers, immigration, gun rights and the reach of the federal bureaucracy.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton returned to work last week, saying his staff “has redoubled our focus on countless issues facing the state.”

Getting old is no picnic. Believe me, I know.

Hello? HELLO? Can you hear me? Can you hear me now? We’re going deep on the topic of the telephone in hopes that you win a free basket of wings at your local trivia night. Here’s something I learned recently:

The Federal Reserve’s policy-setting meeting in late September brought the expected news on interest rates: no change for now, but a possible increase before 2024 as the Fed feels its way toward the vaunted “soft landing” that cools inflation without driving the economy into recession. But before making any further decisions on rates, the Fed should consider who will experience this hypothetical soft landing and who will suffer through a crash landing.

While federal and state regulators have spent years nibbling around the edges of unrestrained tech industry power, a lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission and 17 states, targeting e-commerce giant Amazon’s fundamental business practices, puts us in a different ballgame.