by jpitney | Jul 26, 2025 | Civil Rights, Disabilities
President George H.W. Bush on signing the Americans with Disabilities Act, 35 years ago today: Our success with this act proves that we are keeping faith with the spirit of our courageous forefathers who wrote in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these...
by jpitney | Jul 25, 2025 | Journalism, Journalists, Newspapers
Justin Baragona at The Independent: The flood of high-profile editorial talent fleeing the Washington Post as the storied newspaper revamps its opinion section to focus exclusively on “personal liberties and free markets” continued to grow this week as Pulitzer...
by jpitney | Jul 24, 2025 | California Politics, Higher Education
Mikhail Zinshteyn at CalMatters: California State University says it’s short $2.3 billion, a staggering budget gap that’s grown sharply since the system first revealed two years ago that it didn’t have the money to properly educate its students. How the nation’s...
by jpitney | Jul 23, 2025 | Congress, House of Representatives, Public Service, Violence
Jade Walker at CNN: The House of Representatives is increasing funding and resources for lawmakers to provide them with additional security options. The “pilot program,” which is meant to assist lawmakers returning to their districts for the five-week recess, was...
by jpitney | Jul 22, 2025 | Canada, Economic Policy, Reagan, Trade
Robert Zoellick at WSJ: After the Trump-Biden era fades into history, which party will offer an alternative to costly, backward-looking industrial policies? While Vice President JD Vance lectures Europeans on democracy and philosophizes about state-led capitalism,...
by jpitney | Jul 21, 2025 | Economic Policy, Trade
Tariffs aren’t instant inflation. Goods take a month at sea, another in customs, and more time in storage. Then you work through the storerooms that businesses filled ahead of time. Only then do new costs hit shelves. So yes, tariffs raise prices—just not right away....
by jpitney | Jul 20, 2025 | Budget, California Politics
Dan Walters at CalMatters: When Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders were drafting a more-or-less final 2025-26 state budget last month, they were closing what they described as a $12 billion deficit, a number that the state’s media repeatedly cited. It...
by jpitney | Jul 19, 2025 | Polarization, Public Opinion
Megan Brenan at Gallup: Americans’ average confidence in major U.S. institutions is unchanged since last year, with a near-record-low 28% of U.S. adults expressing “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in nine institutions...
by jpitney | Jul 18, 2025 | Military, Presidency, Separation of Powers
Don Wolfensberger: As we have relearned recently, members are reluctant to go against presidents of their own party, and minority party opposition, while expected, seldom has legs. Presidents since Nixon have uniformly ignored or denounced the War Powers Resolution...
by jpitney | Jul 17, 2025 | Congress, Economic Policy
From CBO: In this report, the Congressional Budget Office assesses its economic forecasts over the first two years and five years of each baseline period from as early as 1976. (The baseline period is the time frame covered by the agency’s annual baseline...
