Rickey Henderson was about so much more than the stolen bases
When Kevin Towers was the San Diego Padres’ general manager, he received a voicemail delivered in a high-pitched, high-energy voice then familiar to most baseball people: “KT! It’s Rickey! Calling about Rickey! Rickey wants to play baseball!” Rickey Henderson, in 2001, became a Padre again.
How US schoolchildren can stop trailing their international peers
U.S. educators better hope Santa doesn’t check test results. New results from an international comparison of K-12 students showed they continue to fall behind their peers around the world. If American students are to bounce back, policymakers nationwide need to ignore the calls for lower—yes, lower—standards coming from some sectors and reject claims that more spending in education is the answer.
Here’s what is so unusual about the Wisconsin school shooting — and what isn’t
The Dec. 16 shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, has shocked the nation, not only for its horror but for its unique profile. This time, a teenage girl opened fire inside her school, killing a teacher, another student, and apparently herself, and injuring six others. Although female school shooters are exceedingly rare, the patterns that lead to such tragedies are painfully familiar.
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 Monday, proclaiming that “we have to straighten out the press. Our press is very corrupt. Almost as corrupt as our elections.”
How to approach Trump’s second presidency
The resistance to Donald Trump has failed. He has now shaped American politics for nearly a decade, with four more years — at least — to go. A hard truth his opponents must accept: Trump is the most dominant American politician since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
FAA needs a leader just like the one it’s losing
The aerospace industry was relieved last year when the Federal Aviation Administration, the main regulator for all things that fly, finally got an administrator after an 18-month vacancy.
The trouble began when #MeToo became #ChurchToo
When did we know that the #MeToo moment was truly over?
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.
‘It’s 5 o’clock somewhere’ is no joke if you’ve seen alcohol’s toll
It’s been a hard, hard 18 months. Mom got sick and died. The election was crazy. Job security diminished.
How Democrats could use the lame duck to save medication abortions
Before Democrats lose the White House and the Senate, they should push through legislation to repeal the Comstock Act, which could be used to prevent legal medically induced abortions everywhere in the United States. Given the success of ballot initiatives that protect the right to abortion in even conservative states in last month’s election, the politics could be right to repeal that 1873 law.
No one should go hungry in America
It is an astonishingly large number: 5.3 billion. That’s how many meals were distributed by the nation’s largest domestic hunger relief organization, Feeding America, in 2023 alone. In a country of more than 330 million people, it is evidence of how widespread and persistent food insecurity remains in the United States.
No way on Pete Hegseth — Trump’s Defense Department nominee is not fit
Donald Trump’s defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth, already under fire from revelations about his scant qualifications, is facing the heat of an in-depth New Yorker magazine piece detailing his drunken mismanagement of the organizations Vets for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America.
How do you like that filibuster now?
As Republicans prepare to take control of both chambers of Congress and the presidency, Sen. Joe Manchin, the conservative West Virginia Democrat turned independent, has a question for his former Democratic teammates: “How do you like that filibuster now?”
‘I was a stranger and you invited me in’
I won’t forget the first time I volunteered for a Nashville, Tennessee, homeless ministry called Room in the Inn. It was decades ago, in 1990, on a cold night in the dead of winter. I drove to my church, walked into the kitchen and immediately started cooking more food than I’d ever made in my life. We were making lasagna for roughly 20 men who were due to arrive at the church at any moment.
RFK Jr. was just the start of Trump’s bad public health picks
President-elect Donald Trump’s stunning appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services has given way to a slate of nominees for key health agencies that portend worrisome changes in how the US approaches public health.
Why I voted third party and I’m not sorry
I’m a progressive Californian, a Black man, and I did not vote for Democratic presidential contender Kamala Harris this year or Donald Trump. I voted for Claudia De La Cruz, the Peace and Freedom Party candidate for president.
Gift ideas that push back the darkness
Forget the necktie that will sit in Dad’s closet or the perfume that your sister Sue will soon regift, for I have some better ideas.
Musk hopes to make budget cutting cool
If Donald Trump doesn’t kill Elon Musk before Musk offs Vivek Ramaswamy, together the three best bros have a chance to achieve something every administration promises, but none has delivered: Rid the federal budget of waste, fraud and inefficiency.
Donald Trump is already starting to fail
That was quick.
Rubio as secretary of state — Will he be able to rein in Trump’s isolationist impulses?
President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of Florida’s U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio to be secretary of state on Wednesday will elevate the Miami native and son of Cuban exiles to the post of America’s chief diplomat.
