Checkout lane at a Target store in Chicago, Ill., in 2016. (Kamil Krzaczynski/Reuters) Workers at Target stores are struggling to pay their bills after the company cut the total amount of employee working hours in preparation for raising its minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020, according to a report from CNN. “I got

Beto O’Rourke speaks at the 2019 California Democratic Party State Convention in San Francisco, June 1, 2019. (Gage Skidmore) Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg have both distanced themselves from fellow candidate Beto O’Rourke’s call to revoke the tax-exempt status afforded to religious institutions that oppose same-sex marriage. “There can be no reward,

Statue of Christopher Columbus in Madrid, Spain. (Paul Hanna/Reuters) The great Genoese explorer was not a perfect man, but his legacy has been unfairly tarnished by his revisionist critics. ‛Let those who are fond of blaming and finding fault, while they sit safely at home, ask, ‘Why did you not do thus and so?’” wrote

Salesforce chairman and CEO Marc Benioff at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in 2017. (Ruben Sprich/Reuters) The line connecting Donald Trump with Marc Benioff One enduring thing of value that ought to come out of the Trump administration — ought, but apparently won’t — would be to finally drive a stake into the

Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller testifies before a House Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., July 24, 2019. (Leah Millis/Reuters) Former special counsel Robert Mueller said during congressional testimony Wednesday afternoon that President Trump’s expressed support for WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign was beyond “problematic.” During Mueller’s appearance before the House Intelligence Committee, Democratic representative Mike

A member of the NYPD Bomb Squad walks through the 42nd Street subway station beneath the New York Port Authority Bus Terminal following an attempted detonation during the morning rush hour, in New York City, December 11, 2017. (Andrew Kelly/Reuters) Father and son paint a grim picture of an America where racist officers lurk on

(Unsplash) In an era of heightened partisan rancor, Republican and Democratic leaders in Washington still managed to come together in a spirit of bipartisanship this week to do that thing they do best — spend. Party leaders in Congress and the Trump administration reached a tentative budget agreement on Monday to increase federal spending by $320

(Brian Snyder/Reuters) Federal law prohibits employers from simply presuming that Christians are bigots. If you stay in the legal trenches long enough, you learn a central fact of our cultural conflict: Intolerant overreach often breaks the law. An effective legal response to such intolerance often takes time to generate, but when it comes, it can

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) at a town hall at the Peterborough Town House in Peterborough, N.H., July 8, 2019. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters) Senator Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) warned Monday of a looming economic crisis that can only be avoided if Congress acts now to more stringently regulate the financial sector and reduce middle-class and corporate

President Donald Trump answers questions on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., July 15, 2019. (Leah Millis/Reuters) Chinese investment in the U.S. has plummeted 88 percent since President Trump took office, from its record level of $46.5 billion in 2016 to just $5.4 billion last year, according to the Rhodium Group, an

Jeffrey Epstein during a a bail hearing in this court sketch in New York, July 15, 2019. (Jane Rosenberg/Reuters) A federal judge in Manhattan denied billionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s bail request on Thursday, ruling that he must remain behind bars until his sex trafficking trial begins. U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman denied the $77 million

People celebrate the passage of the minimum wage for fast-food workers by the New York State Fast Food Wage Board during a rally in New York, July 22, 2015. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters) The Democratically-controlled House passed legislation Thursday to increase the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour. The Raise the Wage Act, which passed 231-199

Pro-life marchers rally at the Supreme Court during the 46th annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., January 18, 2019. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters ) While reversing the precedent would be a huge victory for the movement, it would have only a modest impact on the nationwide abortion rate. Ever since I’ve been part of the pro-life

Arturo Toscanini (New York Times Co. / Getty Images) Doing some reading about nationalism and how it might apply specifically to the United States, I thought of Arturo Toscanini, the great conductor (and WFB’s boyhood hero). (“I worshiped him,” WFB wrote.) Obviously, Toscanini had conducted orchestras all over Europe: Italian ones, of course; French ones,

Planned Parenthood president Dr. Leana Wen speaks at a protest at the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., May 21, 2019. (James Lawler Duggan/Reuters) If performing a significant share of the country’s abortions were merely incidental to its mission, Planned Parenthood would gladly give it up. Poor Leana Wen. She took Planned Parenthood’s propaganda a little

Flowers are left on names on the National 9/11 Memorial in N.Y., September 11, 2018. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters) FDNY firefighter Richard Driscoll died on Wednesday, becoming the 200th New York firefighter to pass away from a 9/11-related illness just as the Senate was attempting to agree on an extension of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.

(Carlos Barria/Reuters) 38 percent of Democrats say they do not believe they will achieve the American dream in their lifetimes, compared to just 11 percent of Republicans, according to a new Gallup poll. Two-thirds of independents said they see the dream as attainable, compared to 31 percent who said they do not. Overall, about 70

President Donald Trump delivers remarks on America’s environmental leadership at the White House, July 8, 2019. (Tia Dufour/White House) Whether the movement can survive the ideological schisms in its ranks is an open question, but a potential path to success is there. Discerning the existence of an “intellectual Trumpism” has been a preoccupation of the

Emergency crews search for survivors after the attack against U. S. Marines in Beirut, Lebanon, October 23, 1983. (USMC) The House on Wednesday passed a bipartisan measure freeing up access to over a billion dollars in Iranian funds for the families of over 200 U.S. Marines killed during an Iran-backed terror attack in 1983. The

Rep Ilhan Omar speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill, July 15, 2019. (Erin Scott/Reuters) Representative Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) will introduce a resolution this week declaring support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to elevate the Palestinian negotiating position vis-a-vis Israel through an international pressure campaign. “We are introducing

(Mike Segar/Reuters) For too many, particularly on the left, patriotism has become contingent on the country’s ability to produce specific political outcomes. Oikophilia, Sir Roger Scruton writes, “is the love of the oikos, which means not only the home but the people contained in it, and the surrounding settlements that endow that home with lasting

(Pixabay) New York has raised the legal age to 21 for purchases of tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes, the latest step in the state’s efforts to curb youth smoking. Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday signed the bill, which raises the minimum age to buy cigarettes from 18 to 21 in an attempt to combat “irresponsible corporate

Demonstrators protest at 1 Police Plaza in New York City, June 6, 2019. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters) Democratic presidential candidates condemned the Justice Department’s decision Tuesday not to bring federal charges against the NYPD officer who caused the death of Eric Garner by putting him in a chokehold. Five years after cell-phone video appeared to show white NYPD Officer Daniel

United States women’s soccer team players Megan Rapinoe (left), Alex Morgan, and Carli Lloyd stand during the national anthem at a ceremony at City Hall in New York City, July 10, 2019. (Vincent Carchietta/USA TODAY Sports) But the team, led by foul-mouthed Megan Rapinoe, disgraced itself. For the first time in my life, I did

First responders stand by a car that was struck when another car drove through a group of counter-protesters at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., August 12, 2017. (Justin Ide/Reuters) The man who killed one woman and injured dozens of others when he rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters at a 2017

(Carlos Barria/Reuters) In 2016 Speaker Paul Ryan called Donald Trump’s attacks on Judge Alonzo Curiel — Trump had called the American-born judge “Mexican” and claimed he was therefore too biased to preside over the Trump University litigation — the “textbook definition of a racist comment.” That critique also applies to Trump’s tweet thread yesterday, a

Attendees at the Women’s March in Washington, D.C., January 21, 2017. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters) The notion that all you need to know about a person is his or her skin color seems close to the definition of racism. Conservatives talk a lot about how we don’t like identity politics. But it’s not always clear what people

(Pixabay) As athletic conferences embrace radical new policies, female athletes lose opportunities to compete fairly. Three young female track athletes in Connecticut have submitted a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Education, asking for an investigation of allegedly illegal Title IX discrimination against them. Due to a Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic

(Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) In a 220–197 vote, the House passed the National Defense Authorization Act on Friday, giving a win to Democratic leaders who’d spent months coaxing progressives to vote for the defense-funding package. Progressive lawmakers had expressed distaste for the high price tag of the $733 billion measure and argued unsuccessfully for imposing stricter guidelines

(Noah Berger/Reuters) The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for the Trump administration Friday in a case concerning the withholding of federal funds for local policing from so-called sanctuary cities. A three-judge panel of the court ruled 2–1 that the Justice Department could deny Community Oriented Policing Services grants to cities and states that have “sanctuary” policies prohibiting