Opinion

LEAVING THE STATE to block restrictive voting legislation isn’t any more outrageous than requiring people to wait in line for 17 hours to testify on that same legislation at 3 o’clock on a Sunday morning.

IF YOU WERE SURPRISED by the recently completed legislative session’s focus on far-right social issues—permitless gun carry, fetal heartbeat abortion restrictions, curbs on teaching race in public schools, transgender athletes, and voting restrictions—and not on definitive solutions to the breakdown of our energy grid, be prepared for even more in July’s special session.

IN A DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC, it’s essential that voters have confidence in the system by which they, democratically with one vote each, choose their representatives. Without that trust, voter turnout will keep falling, the system won’t be truly representative, and elections can be more easily manipulated.

This morning, the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a series of emails and documents that show just how hard former president Trump worked to overturn the 2020 election and retain an illegal grip on power.

A YEAR OF PROTEST Through public protests, rallies and marches since the May 2020 death of George Floyd, we have seen a revived, frank—and yes, at times, confrontational—national conversation over racial injustice, policing and other issues. Most events were peaceful and many marked a continuation of the Black Lives Matter movement of recent years, calling society to account over the ongoing tragedy of the deaths of Black men and women at the hands of police.

The following is an excerpt from a Jan. 19, 1989, speech by President Ronald Reagan as he awarded the Presidential Freedome to Mike Mansfield, former U.S. ambassador to Japan, and George Shultz, former secretary of state. It was his final speech to the nation as president.

TEXAS REPUBLICANS FEAR ballots more than bullets. State lawmakers passed permitless carry legislation during their recently ended regular session—letting most adults carry guns in public without licenses, permits, or training—and sent it to Gov.

Memorial Day (originally Decoration Day) honors the over one million military personnel killed in all our wars since our revolutionary war. From 1868 to 1970, Memorial Day was observed on May 30. Now Memorial Day is the last Monday of May, making it a long weekend holiday that doubles as the beginning of summer vacation season.