Is an inexperienced manager with no history running anything, no less the biggest single federal government agency, the right person to be in charge of the Pentagon? Say hello to Donald Trump’s nomination of Pete Hegseth to be secretary of defense.

Senators — majority Republicans, newly led by John Thune of South Dakota, and minority ...Read more

When I was offered an internship at a sanctuary for farmed animals some years ago, I jumped at the chance. I’ve always had an affinity for animals, and I imagined myself cuddling cows and brushing goats— and I did get to do those things. But what took me most by surprise was meeting the turkeys. I had given little thought to these birds, ...Read more

They still don’t get it.

While President-elect Donald Trump is working overtime assembling his White House Cabinet, Democrats in some circles are still concocting ways to elevate Kamala Harris.

They need to follow the advice of ice queen Elsa from the movie “Frozen.”

Let it go.

One nutty idea has President Joe Biden resigning from ...Read more

Of the many ways Donald Trump’s return to the White House promises to upend federal policy, few are more predictable or damaging than the U-turn he and his allies threaten to take on climate change and environmental protection. Fortunately, California has considerable power to counter the onslaught.

Trump’s first administration rolled back ...Read more

Donald Trump is promising to relieve the American automobile industry of the pressure from Washington to rapidly deliver an all-electric-vehicle future.

That starts with getting the government out of the auto industry.

The Trump administration has the opportunity to streamline industry regulations, make fuel emissions standards more reasonable...Read more

When most people think about grief, they associate it with the death of a loved one. They reflect on past memories, shared experiences and precious moments of life. It is natural for one to yearn for the past, the comfort and safety of familiar times and stability.

Now, with the promise of a second term for Donald Trump and the suggested ...Read more

The Democrats have some tough choices in front of them. With Vice President Kamala Harris, they ran a very strong candidate in an incredibly well-resourced campaign, in which hundreds of prominent members of the opposing party endorsed their nominee — and still lost. Now, they are thinking about which direction to move next, and that ...Read more

The Middle East has long been a source of misery for Washington. It could be a land of opportunity for Donald Trump.

In his first term as president, Trump brokered diplomatic détentes between Israel and several Arab states. In his second, he’ll encounter a region in which Israeli military successes have dramatically reset the balance of ...Read more

My children are going through a "Mary Poppins" phase — the 1964 version starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. Especially during these rainy days, we've found ourselves inside on weekend afternoons, singing along to the musical's Sherman Brothers-penned classics.

I've been indulging my kids, as our oldest dog just passed away, and the ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — The Moms Bonded By Grief Botanical Garden of Healing is officially open.

The rectangular patch of donated space memorializing Philadelphians lost to gun violence stands at the corner of 51st Street and Woodland Avenue, an intersection of grief and hope.

I wrote about the garden’s groundbreaking last year. Last week, I went ...Read more

As Donald Trump rolled out his Cabinet choices last week, the strategy that consigliere Steve Bannon described during the president-elect's first term naturally popped to mind: "Flood the zone with s—." Overwhelm the media, the public and political opponents, including fellow Republicans, so fully that they can't process it all, and some crap ...Read more

Throughout the presidential campaign, voters consistently told pollsters that they were sick and tired of America’s broken immigration system and its porous border. And to the surprise of many Democrats, that number included many Latino voters and naturalized citizens in cities like Chicago that historically built their populations by ...Read more

At first glance, President-elect Donald Trump's most controversial Cabinet nominees — Matt Gaetz, Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — are an odd list of ideologues and eccentrics chosen for political loyalty more than any substantive qualifications.

But there's a more important and potentially more dangerous factor that ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The state Legislature will convene a new two-year session on Dec. 2, and hopefully lawmakers have been reading the messages California voters sent them on election day.

The messages were straightforward and concise, although many elected officials who inhabit Sacramento's political cocoon tend to be tone-deaf to voices ...Read more

In a fitting and just outcome, Infowars, the hateful tool of the odious Alex Jones, who profited from horrid lies about the murdered of children of the Sandy Hook school massacre, is now the property of The Onion, with the backing of the families of the slain boys and girls.

So now the world’s leading “fake news” site, a place where ...Read more

Count me among the many who have carefully observed Donald Trump’s first days as president-elect for hints about what his presidency will be like.

It’s odd that this question is still on the table after Trump’s near-decade close to the center of American political life and his four years in the White House. And during the campaign, Trump ...Read more

It is hardly BREAKING NEWS to report that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump’s choice for secretary of Health and Human Services, has for years been a fountain of conspiracy theories ranging from dangerous and evil to just plain wacky.

But today, while we are about to report what was one of his all-time worst, we are also going to spread ...Read more

It’s been nearly eight months since avian flu was first detected in U.S. dairy herds, and cases in both cows and humans continue to pile up.

That slow burn of infections through our nation’s livestock, a new vessel for the virus, has never been good for public health. It creates more chances for the H5N1 virus to change in ways that put ...Read more

In choosing South Dakota’s John Thune as their new leader, Senate Republicans appear to have recognized a crucial truth: It is in their party’s interest to be led by a Donald Trump supporter but not a sycophant. The fate of Trump’s second term hinges in no small part on whether Thune proves to have at least as much fortitude as the man he�...Read more

After spending $118 million of his personal wealth on the campaign to reelect Donald Trump as president, billionaire Elon Musk has been tapped to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency in the new administration with Vivek Ramaswamy, the chief executive officer of a pharmaceutical company and (very) brief Republican presidential candidate...Read more