57Recent Stories
This Independence Day, Remember Fighting Back is America’s Great Tradition
I told my son recently that we’re descendants of the youngest combatant in the battle of Lexington and Concord. Our ancestor’s teenage ears were among the first to hear “the shot heard ‘round the world.”
American Democracy is at a Pivotal Moment and None of Us Should be Silent
None of us should be silent about the recent use of federal agents by this administration to bully, arrest, and investigate political opponents. Just as none of us should accept as normal or okay its use of the military against Americans exercising their First Amendment rights.
In Iowa, a Pipeline Fight Shows What the People Can Do
It is easy to be cynical about politics these days. More than cynical. The rise of political violence, fueled by partisan division and anti-democracy extremism, continues to leave Americans of every race, religion, state, and political stripe horrified.
The Truth Makes Us Free
My grandmother taught me we are all born into a great, unfinished struggle. She meant the struggle for justice. For truth. For dignity.
Are Any of Us Really Ready for Fire Season?
The smoke has already arrived. This past week, thick plumes from wildfires in Manitoba and Saskatchewan have drifted into the US, triggering air quality alerts across the Midwest. Cities like Milwaukee, Madison, and Chicago are experiencing hazy skies and dangerous air conditions, with the Air Quality Index reaching levels unhealthy for sensitive groups.
When Demagogues Blame the Vulnerable, We All Lose
In hard times, people look for answers. The decimation of American manufacturing starting in the 1990s with trade agreements like NAFTA led to decades of downward economic mobility for working families. That creates ripe conditions for demagogues to come out of the woodwork offering an easy answer for people’s pain. And if history teaches us anything, that answer is usually someone else to blame.
Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Cruelty is a National Scourge – And Would Be Made Worse by the MAGA Budget Bill
“Our neighbors are living in fear. And that’s what the administration wants. They want people to be scared. So, we’re combatting that by bringing the neighborhood together and saying, ‘you’re not going to frighten us into complicity; you’re not going to frighten us into hiding; we’re one neighborhood, regardless of anyone’s immigration status, and we’re going to stay one neighborhood.’”
Cutting Energy Star Hurts Americans – And Helps No One But Polluters
“Look for the Energy Star.” Most Americans know that is excellent advice to anyone appliance shopping. That little blue label saves American consumers roughly $40 billion a year in energy costs every year.
Poisoning Our Future: The Trump Administration's Dangerous Coal Exemptions
Another day, another deadly move that defies logic, morality, and economic common sense.
The New “Great Dying” Deserves Our Attention and Action
My childhood growing up in Pacific Grove, California was blessed with the kind of exposure to and immersion in nature that all kids deserve. We played among towering redwood trees that seemed to reach all the way to heaven. We surfed at Asilomar Beach, and marveled at both how small we are in our place in nature yet how connected we all are. And, a privilege of living in Pacific Grove specifically, we got to witness the migration of western monarch butterflies.