ArcaMax

Our country's magnificent National Park System has been called "America's greatest idea."

These 433 treasures -- along with our rich diversity of national museums and historical sites -- each have their own stories to tell. But the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, for together they express America's egalitarian spirit and "little-d...Read more

In his first nine months back in office, President Donald Trump has abused his power to attack our neighbors and communities, suppress free speech and create a climate of fear. The president has deployed military troops and federal agents into our cities. He has threatened nonprofit organizations, universities and political opponents who don't ...Read more

In 1940, then U.S. Attorney General Robert Jackson gathered the nation's federal prosecutors in the Justice Department's Great Hall to remind them of the solemn role their morality and disregard of politics in decision-making played in protecting American democracy. The responsible, apolitical exercise of prosecutorial power, he emphasized, is...Read more

At a 2018 press conference in New York City, Trump said of American farmers, "I love them, and they voted for me, and they love me. ... And they said, 'We don't care if we get hurt, he's doing the right thing.'"

During his 2025 joint address to Congress, Trump said, "Our new trade policy will also be great for the American farmer -- I love ...Read more

Too much suffering on both sides. Too much division. Too much danger for Israel to be as isolated and stigmatized as it has become. Too big a rift between American Jews and the homeland we love.

Do President Donald Trump and his team deserve credit for taking a major step?

Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal said it best. He told reporters ...Read more

My darling daughter gave me two dramatic blinks of her Aryan-blue eyes and flipped back her pure, naturally blonde pigtails. "What did you do during the Trump Wars, daddy?"

It felt like a fever dream.

What's that, evil libtard? I don't have a "Children of the Corn" daughter? Or any daughter at all? Who are you to say that ...Read more

When it rains, like it's raining today, I think about the people working the trash trucks in my neighborhood.

The town I live in does not provide or require a uniform trash container. You can put your trash out in any kind of container, and the container doesn't have to have a lid.

When it rains, the barrels without lids get water in the ...Read more

Erma Bombeck famously said, "It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else." This quote really resonates with me. Last fall, I quit my job as a newspaper editor to put my effort into writing stories that lift up the good in this world. I wrote in my column announcement that "I want to be part of a gentler, kinder world, hopefully...Read more

In the course of three days, six U.S.-based scientists have won Nobel Prizes. Every one of them studied or now works at America's public universities. Five were affiliated with or educated by California's system for higher education.

President Donald Trump's assault on universities, both public and private, targets the engines of American ...Read more

There is a special place in hell for phony victims who take money from settlements meant for the legitimate victims of sexual abuse. Ahead of them, however, come the lawyers who make such scams work and pocket as much as half the settlements themselves.

If an investigation conducted by the Los Angeles Times holds up, hell will have to make room...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Nobody home. Gone fishing. The lights are out in the federal government.

The House of Representatives chamber is deserted and silent as a tomb. It's almost as if its Republican leaders don't care if the country is in crisis.

While the president carries out a bloody plot to snuff out the federal government like a brief candle, ...Read more

Sometimes, cosmic oddities come together in comic ways. For example, Google positions the biography of right-wing Texas governor Greg Abbott right under the one for yesteryear's slapstick comedians, Abbott and Costello.

It's almost cruel for Gov. Greg to be juxtaposed with that quick-witted duo, for he's a dour, slow-witted, plutocratic pol, ...Read more

"Sunrise at the festival is the greatest moment," recalls one survivor of the Nova Music Festival that drew 4,000 young people to a spot in southern Israel about three miles from Gaza's border the first weekend of October 2023. "People just came to dance," she said. "It felt like nothing could go wrong."

Something did.

After two years of ...Read more

Exactly why are the Democrats trying to save Republicans from a drubbing in the midterms? Their shutdown of the government to stop cuts in health coverage does not work to their political advantage -- or ultimately help those they purport to be protecting.

Republicans running for reelection know that their One Big Beautiful Bill will cause ...Read more

The Trump administration continues to escalate its deployment of military troops and federal law enforcement to cities across the country. We are witnessing the build-out of a national paramilitary policing force that could be used to intimidate people and consolidate President Donald Trump's power.

This week alone, the administration placed ...Read more