Politics
Getting disability benefits got harder after the Social Security Administration’s staff was slashed and program rules were changed by Trump
Researchers learned from dozens of interviews that the usual ways of resolving complex cases, escalating issues and holding the authorities accountable no longer work.
Colorado voted to end forced prison labor in 2018 – so why are incarcerated people in the state still working for less than $2 an hour?
Many jails and prisons are dependent on incarcerated labor to keep costs low.
Chilling effects of Trump’s war on free speech extend far beyond campus walls – and that’s the point
A persistent government strategy to sow fear through punitive measures has corroded freedom and democracy.
To ‘86’ occasionally means to kill but usually doesn’t: A linguistic investigation into the Instagram threat charge against James Comey
Does a seashell arrangement in the form of the numerals ‘86 47’ amount to a criminal threat to assassinate President Donald Trump, as prosecutors suggest?
Shutting down federal bee labs threatens bees, beekeepers and the US food system
When honey bees get sick, their beekeepers turn to the nation’s premier bee research and disease diagnosis lab for help. That crucial resource is now disappearing.
The ‘warrior ethos’ promises victory — history says it leads to defeat
Loyalty outranks expertise, and reality bends to the leader’s word. From Nazi Germany to Imperial Japan, fascist war machines collapse on the same contradictions.
When a president settles his own lawsuit to create a fund for allies, fundamental questions about justice arise
Donald Trump’s suit against the IRS and the settlement creating a $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund to compensate his allies raise important moral and constitutional issues.
Where will money for the ‘Anti‑Weaponization Fund’ come from? This man has been warning of Judgment Fund abuse for years
The Judgment Fund’s likely use as a slush fund to pay Trump allies comes after more than a decade of repeated warnings by one scholar that the pot of taxpayer money was vulnerable to political misuse.
Trump’s Cabinet dramatically changed American foreign policy while the president made noise – a scholar of presidential rhetoric explains
The president’s barrage of pronouncements on foreign policy mean his Cabinet members’ statements on foreign policy have become more reliable indicators of administration positions.
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson disagreed about the American Revolution’s meaning even as they lay dying
The founding generation in America was not of one mind. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson differed on crucial ideas, but exemplify the capacity for people to disagree and yet work for a common cause.