Though it hasn’t drawn the attention of other far-reaching proposals to achieve economic and racial equity, President Joe Biden has taken a historic step to overcome severe inequality in educational opportunity. His budget request for the coming year increases federal spending on schools by about 41%. Of that, a lion’s share boosts Title I funding for high-poverty schools from about $16 billion to $36.5 billion — an unprecedented expansion.

When it comes to UFOs, we don’t know the right answer. The truth is still out there.

In an abrupt but appropriate reversal of Trump administration policies, President Joe Biden’s Justice Department last week halted federal executions pending a review of protocols put in place under former President Donald Trump. Late in Trump’s term, the federal government carried out a spree of more than a dozen executions — an unconscionable rush job that was clearly aimed at stoking Trump’s political base. Given the virtual inevitability of innocent executions, along with the shift in public opinion away from use of the ultimate punishment, the new moratorium should be the first step toward permanent abolition of the death penalty in America.

The security situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating, prompting many to second-guess President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops by Sept. 11. This is an understandable emotional reaction, but it isn’t supported by facts. More time won’t change the outcome. If U.S. troops left Afghanistan five years ago or five years from now, it was always going to end this way.

The political maneuvering about infrastructure is getting pretty strange, what with President Joe Biden first cheering a bipartisan bill, then threatening to veto it, and then taking back the veto threat in the span of two days. When the action on stage gets hard to follow, it can be helpful to review the main characters and their motivations.

President Joe Biden remembers when Congress worked differently. He’s not alone. And now, thanks to some old-fashioned political bargaining, the nation stands to benefit with a long-needed federal infrastructure plan.

Israel has a new government — but how much difference this will make to the prospects for peace is in doubt. In Gaza, Hamas emerged from its recent 11-day clash with Israel eager for confrontation, repeatedly launching incendiary balloons across the border. Israel has retaliated with airstrikes. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, nearly 17 years into what was meant to be a four-year term, recently suspended elections yet again. Beset by corruption and infighting, Palestinian leaders have offered no realistic proposals and little sign they could uphold a deal if one was struck.

When Pennsylvania student Brandi Levy failed to make her high school’s varsity cheerleading team in 2017, she reacted with typical teenage melodrama. She cursed school, she cursed cheer, and she raised her middle finger for good measure.

Thursday, the Supreme Court issued two significant rulings on the sanctity and openness of our democratic republic, doing so along ideological lines, with the conservative 6-3 majority twice prevailing. It got one decision very wrong and one just right.

As colleges and universities prepare for a fall semester of in-person classes and the return of extracurricular activities and events, some still are weighing the option of requiring students and staff to receive a COVID-19 vaccination. Already more than 500 institutions nationwide have made the decision that a vaccine will be required to return to campus.

In just the past six months, more than 110 bills have been introduced in state legislatures attempting to roll back transgender rights, most of them targeting transgender youth. At the same time, legislative efforts to actively protect the rights of LGBTQ young people have virtually ground to a halt.

For the past decade Big Tech leaders have failed to address issues of mounting public concern about the industry: monopolistic practices, privacy invasion, disinformation and misinformation, and election interference.

In a short but significant opinion, the Supreme Court reinstated a lawsuit against police officers who held down a St. Louis man named Nicholas Gilbert in a prone position for 15 minutes, until he died. Gilbert was in handcuffs and leg irons in a cell at a police station when it all happened. He tried to raise his chest and said: “It hurts. Stop.”

The Biden administration last week upped the ante in the struggle over voting rights, announcing it is suing the state of Georgia to prevent it from enacting draconian new restrictions. Given the filibuster roadblock that Senate Republicans imposed, just days earlier, against legislative attempts to address vote-suppression schemes in Georgia and other red states, the lawsuit is appropriate — and should be the first of many.

As much as political leaders and pundits like to cite scientific consensus as unarguable fact, consensus can change. New classification schemes can emerge. New information can shake loose even the most firmly held beliefs as the scientific method is impartial to politics or patronage. This flexibility and willingness to learn is key to discovery and to human knowledge.

The automaker Toyota appears determined to take the adage that “money talks” to extremes.

Water has been generating conflicts and controversies in the U.S. for centuries, but the American West could be heading toward the most severe water shortages and skirmishes in the nation’s history.

The U.S. doesn’t have an official national sport, but it does have a national pastime. Baseball may not draw the raw numbers that football does anymore, but its historical significance and cultural value still give it a hallowed place among this country’s recreational offerings.

In a 5-4 decision with important implications for class actions and for Congress’s ability to authorize lawsuits of all kinds, the Supreme Court has rejected the idea that violation of a statute can ever be enough grounds for a lawsuit unless it comes with a more concrete “injury in fact” to potential plaintiffs.