If the Joe Biden who showed up to deliver the State of the Union address last week is the Joe Biden who shows up for the rest of the campaign, you’re not going to have any more of those weak-kneed pundits suggesting he’s not up to running for reelection. Here’s hoping he does.

When salespeople knocked on my door a year ago attempting to sell me solar panels, I declined, explaining that I couldn’t afford them and that I was already doing my part to combat the climate catastrophe by being vegan. But when they asked if I’d be open to hearing more information, I agreed, mostly out of curiosity. Six months later, I had solar panels installed on my home.

Two years ago, America saw its youngest voters turn out for the midterm elections at rates not seen since 2018, when there was a historic high.

Simple question: Are you happy that inflation has stabilized? The economic indicators don’t and can’t capture everyone’s circumstances, but real wages have gone up and costs have held steady. We’re certainly much better situated than the recession that many economists had predicted would be engulfing the nation by now. The soft landing that had seemed like a significant reach has come to pass without even a blip of economic strife.

The same week that a University of California, Berkeley protest ended in violence, with doors broken, people allegedly injured, a guest lecture organized by Jewish students canceled and attendees evacuated by the police through an underground passageway, a group of academics gathered across the bay at Stanford to discuss restoring inclusive civil discourse on campus. The underlying question: In today’s heated political environment, is that even possible?

I’ve been losing sleep, feeling helpless in the face of present-day atrocities that are much like the ones committed against my ancestors.

“That’s the wrong question.”

In ruling that Colorado — and other states — may not bar Donald Trump from the ballot, the Supreme Court has provided necessary clarity about the reach of a once-obscure section of the 14th Amendment aimed at preventing insurrectionists from holding public office.

About 18 months ago, Donald Trump suffered one of his worst political defeats, when many of his loyalists and hand-picked candidates were defeated in a midterm landscape that clearly favored the Republicans. A lot of people — I was one of them — thought that this might be the beginning of the end for him, a stark indicator of political weakness that would encourage GOP voters to abandon him or set him up for a decisive general election defeat.

What is Mitch McConnell’s legacy as leader of Senate Republicans? A lot of procedurally astute but brazenly hypocritical moves to strengthen the power of his party in the chamber.

A child’s hug at the end of a long workday is a happy moment for any parent. But it’s extra emotional for Liz McLoone Dybvig of St. Paul, Minnesota, because her path to motherhood wasn’t an easy one.

In dueling visits to the Texas-Mexico border, President Joe Biden and Donald Trump each tried to make the case that they’re the person best positioned to handle immigration amid polls showing voters trust the latter more despite his chaotic and sadistic tenure presiding over the nation’s enforcement infrastructure.

Whether or not we’re older adults, we all are being bombarded with a blunt political narrative about aging that is as wrong as it is dangerous. In essence, the message is that “old” equals “bad” and that if a person is going to be a leader, they had better do it while they are young. Headlines, campaign messages and political cartoons, often across party affiliations, draw upon ageist tropes, painting older people as inherently deficient.

Vladimir Putin wants the world to believe that Russia’s economy is doing fine, and that he has the wherewithal to prosecute the war in Ukraine indefinitely.

The Supreme Court announced on Wednesday that it will consider Donald Trump’s claim that as a former president he enjoys immunity from prosecution for alleged crimes connected to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. By taking the case and scheduling oral argument for the week of April 22, the court has further complicated the timeline for a Trump trial, which a district judge originally scheduled for March 4.

When Wake Forest University’s Demon Deacons defeated Duke University’s Blue Devils on Saturday, Wake Forest students stormed the court, celebrating their team’s victory over a much-maligned in-state rival. Duke player Kyle Filipowski got injured during the exuberant on-court celebration and chaos, which prompted calls to end court storming, with an eye on protecting the players.

Democrats can’t have it both ways, casting violent incidents as either signs of societal collapse or no big deal, depending on the agenda.

I’ve recently been reading about Warren Buffett’s father, Howard Buffett, a four-term Republican congressman from Nebraska. He seems to have been a very good father, but his political worldview was predicated on a deep pessimism. He was so convinced that federal spending was ruining the country that he bought a farm so that his family could feed itself while everyone else starved. He predicted that all government bonds would soon be worthless and bought his daughters gold jewelry so that they would have something of value after the dollar became worthless.

In April 2023, Betty Glover, a 91-year-old grocery store clerk in Oregon, was finally able to retire after a GoFundMe campaign raised $82,000 for her. After seven decades in the workforce, Glover couldn’t save enough to retire and cover basic expenses such as for food and medicine.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid is known by high school seniors, college students and their parents, as well as everyone else by its acronym, FAFSA.