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Does social media really addict us?

National Columnists

Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are running content very harmful to children. So said a jury in New Mexico that just slapped their owner, Meta, with a $375 million fine. The state accused the company of spreading pornographic images and helping adults contact vulnerable children. Meta faces thousands of suits, but in a landmark case decided in California on Wednesday, the company was told to pay 20-year-old plaintiff Kaley G.M. $4.2 million in combined compensatory and punitive damages. Kaley blamed its products on a variety of mental health issues, including depression and ...

Are we safe anymore?

National Columnists

It's time to ask some serious questions. As spring travel ramps up, a record 171 million Americans are expected to take to the skies. Airports will be crowded, security lines long, and for many travelers, a fundamental question will linger: Are we safe? That question extends far beyond the airport terminal. It surfaces at the southern border, in major American cities, and in the wake of tragedies like the killing of 18-year-old Sheridan Gorman in Chicago. Gorman, a student at Loyola University, was shot and killed while walking with friends along a pier in Rogers Park. ...

Restoration of explorer's statue is gratifying

National Columnists

Sometimes Humpty Dumpty can be put back together again. Back in 2020, during the spasm of violence in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, vandals in Baltimore, Maryland, tore down a statue of Christopher Columbus. They shattered the figure of the iconic explorer and tossed the pieces into the Inner Harbor, including the severed head. That seemed to bring to a decisive end a statue that had stood since 1984. This act of iconoclasm, though, has a happy ending. A replica now stands in front of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, courtesy of a White House committed to ...

Economists who got it right

National Columnists

Politicians say they can "make the economy work better." I once believed they could. But years of reporting taught me that politicians' attempts to "fix" the economy usually make things worse. Twenty years ago, Republicans and Democrats helped create the Great Recession by telling government-backed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy more peoples' mortgages because, as President George W. Bush put it, "Owning a home is a part of (the American) dream." But that guarantee inspired lenders to approve dubious mortgages, given to riskier borrowers. Housing prices shot up ...

Don't count ballots after Election Day

National Columnists

This week the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that hinges on the meaning of Election Day. The case, Watson v. Republican National Committee, challenges a Mississippi law that allows mail-in ballots received long after Election Day to be counted. It's one of 14 states, including populous ones like California and New York, that allows a post-Election Day "grace period" (five business days in Mississippi but longer elsewhere) for ballots to be returned. That law is being challenged by the RNC. Taking a states' rights stance, Mississippi's defenders argue ...

Time to leave Social Security plantation

National Columnists

To repeat what Americans have heard a lot recently, our Social Security system is in very bad shape. Per the most recent report, in 2025, of the Social Security and Medicare board of trustees, Social Security is capable of paying out the entirety of promised benefits through 2033. After that, there is only capability of paying out 77% of promised benefits. That's seven years from now. Anyone who got a letter from their investment fund or insurance program that said "We're sorry but in another seven years we won't be able to pay out what was promised" would immediately be ...