In approving more than $50 billion to move away from energy sources that spew carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the nation’s largest state just took a significant step forward in the battle to curb climate change.

“The Queen is dead. Long live the King.”

Health officials are forecasting a fall COVID-19 surge, but one with fewer fatalities than past coronavirus spikes. The good news: A variant-specific booster has just been authorized to cope with the expected rise in cases.

A federal judge issued a ruling on Labor Day that is, unfortunately, no longer surprising even though it should be shocking to all but the most MAGA-blinded Americans. Judge Aileen Cannon, a Donald Trump appointee, ruled that executive privilege might apply in the case of the government-owned documents that the ex-president unlawfully secreted away to his Mar-a-Lago lair.

What’s wrong with this picture? A federal appeals court in Mississippi, in recently considering whether to overturn an 1890 law that makes it almost impossible for ex-convicts to ever vote again, wrote that the law was “steeped in racism” from its very inception.

Congress is on the verge of passing a major federal data privacy law that will finally put some guardrails on what information companies can gather from Americans and how they can use it.

The 9/11 hijackers and Osama bin Laden, all deservedly dead, planned a coordinated attack with multiple strikes, killing thousands. They made no distinction between victims at the World Trade Center or at the Pentagon or at the likely target of the Capitol, which was saved when heroic passengers brought down Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

This summer, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered back-to-back rulings ending the constitutional right to abortion in the United States and undercutting the federal government’s ability to regulate carbon pollution.

After the FBI search for classified records at former President Donald Trump’s Florida home, his chorus of sycophants kept singing the same tune: The search was unnecessary. The government should have just asked him to return the documents. Trump had declassified them anyway. But new court filings devastate each of those arguments. The public should insist that those who lambasted law enforcement in their eagerness to defend Trump before any facts were known explain where they stand now.

There’s not much good to say about the U.S. economy today, with out-of-control inflation eroding household incomes and Americans bracing for a recession after gross domestic output shrunk in the first half of 2022.

Oprah Winfrey said her fourth-grade teacher created a “spark for learning” and is why she had a talk show. Lin Manuel-Miranda said arts education “saved his life” and cited his sixth-grade music teacher. John Legend said his English teacher pushed him to apply for a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania, which led to his becoming a successful songwriter.

Some would say the 20th century ended at midnight on Jan. 1, 2000. Others would say that, as a historical phenomenon, it extended until the shock of Sept. 11, 2001. And others still might cite the election of Donald Trump as the real end of the long 20th century. Whichever one you subscribe to, Aug. 30, 2022, should be considered the end of the end — the death of the last personal link to the defining world conflict of the latter half of the 20th century. It is the day Mikhail Gorbachev, the last premier of the Soviet Union, died in Moscow. He was 91.

In January, my husband blindsided me with divorce. Not for a moment during the prior 36 years did I doubt that we would spend the rest of our lives together. It was clear to everyone that we were meant to be — bashert, as my Jewish friends would say.

Jolting as it was, President Joe Biden’s description last week of the “extreme MAGA philosophy” as being “like semi-fascism” was somewhat mild compared to the routinely heated rhetoric from the right calling any Democratic policy they don’t like “socialist” or “communist.” Republicans have nonetheless come unglued over the comment — even as they continue saying things that make Biden’s case.

The COVID-19 virus’s course and evolution remain unpredictable. But this far into the pandemic, there are some safe assumptions. One of them is a fall-winter spike in cases. Colder weather’s return, schools resuming and holiday gatherings contribute to the crowded indoor conditions that fuel viral spread. A look back at case counts since the pandemic’s 2020 start confirms this, with hospitalizations and deaths rising during this time frame. The pandemic’s third autumn is looming. That reality makes this an alarming time for Congress to let one of the best tools to fight COVID-19’s spread — rapid, at-home tests — become less accessible and affordable. The nation’s policymakers need to reverse this mistake as soon as possible.

Consider this for an illustration of just how much society has changed in the past few generations: New data shows that, for the first time ever, more Americans use marijuana than tobacco. It’s positive news from a public health standpoint. Whatever the legitimate concerns about the U.S. becoming a pot-head nation, weed is demonstrably safer than cigarettes.

The examples abound of America’s lurch toward greater extremism on both the right and left. It’s getting to the point where free speech is being stifled by self-righteous word police on the left and screaming, armed lunatics on the far right. Each side uses the other’s examples as justification for even more extreme behavior, as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis so aptly demonstrated with his derisive reference to Dr. Anthony Fauci, saying, “Someone needs to grab that little elf and chuck him across the Potomac.”