After six weeks on the picket line, Hollywood writers could soon be joined by actors, whose union, SAG-AFTRA, voted to authorize a walkout if it can’t reach a deal with studios by the end of the month.

California officials are considering filing civil and criminal charges for what they call “state-sanctioned kidnapping” against whoever is responsible for flying migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border region to Sacramento on two planes the last few days.

When the nation’s No. 1 and No. 4 property and casualty insurance companies – State Farm and Allstate – confirmed that they would stop issuing new home insurance policies in California, it may have been a shock but shouldn’t have been a surprise. It’s a trend Florida and other hurricane- and flood-prone states know well.

Joe Biden had much experience in foreign policy before being elected president, but he is certainly no Richard Nixon. Although Nixon had to resign because of domestic corruption linked to the U.S. war in Southeast Asia, he was masterful in driving a wedge between the two communist great powers—Maoist China and the Soviet Union—to achieve more peaceful relations with both countries. Nixon cleverly created a competition between the two countries to better relations with the United States or be isolated on the wrong side of the triangle. Regrettably, Biden, despite his prior foreign policy chops, is doing the opposite by driving China and Russia closer together in opposition to the United States.

More than 40% of American adults are obese, costing the health-care system $173 billion a year. Related conditions including heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and some cancers are among the leading causes of preventable death in the U.S. But while drugmakers have developed astonishingly effective medications for weight loss, they’re not covered by Medicare.

Considering the awful alternative — default on the nation’s debts and the possibility of a recession — the White House and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy deserve credit for cobbling together a compromise to suspend the nation’s debt ceiling. But the agreement, approved by the House on Wednesday and by the Senate late Thursday, shouldn’t have been necessary, and its curbs on federal spending are relatively inconsequential and anticlimactic.

The prefix “pro-“ means to support a cause. The noun “life” is defined as an organism composed of cells that can grow, learn and respond to stimuli preceding death. It stands to reason that a pro-lifer is a radical proponent that from cell development until death — everyone — is supported. Everyone!

The last century is often referred to as “the American Century,” largely because of our country’s economic strength that provided unprecedented prosperity for millions of American families. Today, one of the critical questions we’re facing is who will be the economic and innovation leader of the 21st century: America or China?

The 2023 Homeless Point in Time Count conducted from Jan. 23-29 asked, “Where did you sleep on Sunday, January 22?”

Many people’s understanding of the CIA comes from entertainment (Hollywood) and infotainment (social media, high-bias “news” television channels). For others, an occasional documentary (of varying credibility) or a solid news report (typically highlighting the odd operational failure) round out their knowledge of an organization that is — by necessity — secretive, closed to public inspection.

We can finally exhale. The House of Representatives passed an agreement to suspend the debt ceiling until 2025, and the Senate is expected to approve the measure in the coming days. Congress — Republicans in Congress — aren’t going to blow up the economy. This time.

The president America needs is, unfortunately, Czech, and the Constitution rules him out. He is also, sadly for the world, dead. Václav Havel, playwright and leader of those who opposed the Czechoslovakian communist regime — and went to prison for it several times — was elected the free nation’s first president after the 1989 “velvet revolution,” in which the regime just gave up. He served his nation as president from 1989 to 2003, and died in 2011.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis packed up his petty fight with Disney and took it on the road this week, heading to Iowa as he launched his campaign for the GOP nomination for president.

The world is experiencing an energy revolution. Over the past 15 years or so, huge technological progress has, in many cases, made it cheaper to generate electricity from solar and wind power than by burning fossil fuels. The Inflation Reduction Act — which is, despite its name, mainly a climate bill — aims to accelerate the transition to renewables and also to electrify as much of the economy as possible; this effort, if it works quickly enough and is emulated by other countries, could help us avert climate catastrophe.

For decades, Republican lawmakers have sought to deny benefits to people experiencing poverty unless they can prove they are either working or actively looking for work. Now those efforts have been ramped into overdrive.

Disastrous. There’s no other word to describe the state of civic education in the U.S. In the wake of the latest test results released by the National Assessment of Educational Progress it would be hard for anyone to conclude otherwise.

When Carrie C. is released from Missouri Department of Corrections’ Chillicothe Correctional Center, she will be leaving with more than just the clothes she was wearing when she entered. She’ll be carrying a college degree.

Child labor hasn’t gone away. Instead, it’s taking the graveyard shift.