ArcaMax

Since 1871, a federal statute has authorized Americans to sue state and local officials for violating their constitutional rights. But since 1982, thanks to the court-invented doctrine of qualified immunity, such claims have been allowed only when they allege violations of "clearly established" law.

Because courts often require plaintiffs to ...Read more

Technology has enabled a new breed of bullying, and it’s nastier than ever.

Bullying transformation

In 1972, when I was 10, Franky Leper busted my handmade go-cart into pieces, then shoved me into the mud.

Leper was in his teens, then — a big, fat, man-sized kid — and I stood no chance.

But my older sister, Kris — then 5 feet tall ...Read more

There was a bit of good news at the end of September, when the Census Bureau released its 2025 poverty report. Last year, 34.5 million Americans lived in poverty, a rate of 10.2%. Although this was a historic low, the Census Bureau's supplemental poverty measure was slightly higher at 13.1%. The supplemental poverty measure includes refundable...Read more

Dear Lindsey,

Your body had not long been in the grave when your pal Donald Trump made the anti-Russia legislation that carried your name a nullity. Wondering how you'd feel about this if you were around to see it. The whole point of your last decade of life was the belief (or was it a rationalization?) that by truckling to Trump you could do...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- In the 2026 midterm elections, ICE is on the ballot. So it makes sense that -- in states where Republicans expect to take a beating -- the Trump administration has ramped up ICE enforcement to scare voters away from the ballot box.

A recent poll by the University of San Diego showed that 40% of Americans believe that ICE agents ...Read more

Back in 1983, the Supreme Court declared that "a person traveling in an automobile on public thoroughfares has no reasonable expectation of privacy in his movements from one place to another." That increasingly doubtful proposition underpins a nationwide network of more than 144,000 AI-assisted cameras that track the travels of innocent ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- The California governor's race was supposed to be about the cost of living. Instead, it became a group therapy session about the price of identity.

Here in my home state, with three weeks to go until the polls open on Nov. 3, we should be discussing inflation, gas prices, and the lack of affordable housing. Instead, we're ...Read more

At the beginning of October, my pastor held a special program that we called our version of "Octoberfest," spelling it differently from the traditional German folk Oktoberfest held in September. Oktoberfest activities in Columbus, Ohio, included live entertainment, kids' games and a paint-and-sip session. For our church festivities, we ...Read more

I got to my 89-year-old mother’s home just in the nick of time.

She’d been using her computer when her screen locked and a large image appeared:

“You’ve been compromised,” the red letters said. “Call Microsoft immediately at 800-xxx-xxxx!”

She was on the phone with the fake tech support agent when I arrived.

New era of AI scams...Read more

Trayon White, a member of the city council in the District of Columbia, just walked away from a hung jury in a bribery trial. The facts were kind of wild. Though White admitted to accepting $35,000 in cash from a city contractor (who turned out to be an FBI informant), and the prosecution presented evidence that he tucked white envelopes full ...Read more

After Tennessee unsuccessfully tried to execute Christa Pike last week, an ambulance whisked her to a Nashville hospital, where the condemned murderer became a patient in urgent need of lifesaving care. Should Pike recover from two botched administrations of pentobarbital, which left her unconscious and unable to breathe on her own, she might ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- Cornell University obviously doesn't offer students a course on how to make good decisions. Because based on what we know about an alleged gang rape of a young woman in the fall of 2024 by members of a fraternity on the Ivy League campus, it's obvious that all the students involved behaved badly.

This story isn't just disgusting....Read more

I shared the September PBS NewsHour report "Is the American Dream still achievable for younger generations?" with my English composition students this week as we begin our Gen Z and the Workplace theme for their second research essay. I found this report, which is part of PBS senior correspondent Judy Woodruff's continuing "Crossroads: America...Read more

More high schools across America are requiring students to pass the U.S. citizenship test to receive their diploma.

This fall Iowa began giving its version — a multiple-choice test drawn from the same exam immigrants must pass.

Only 60% of the more than 100 Burlington students who took it passed on the first try. In surveys, the average ...Read more

As predictions of a blue wave swell, it's worthwhile to remember that polls are sometimes wrong, that surveys have tended to undercount Trump voters (though they have been better in midterms), that professional prognosticators can err, and that Allan Lichtman is only right when he's lucky. And yet, if there has ever been a politician who has ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- This week's California gubernatorial debate on CNN wasn't just dreadful. At times, it was downright painful.

As a native of the Golden State, I have to ask: With 33 days until the Nov. 3 election, is it too late to consider more applicants?

In a state that is home to nearly 40 million people, and which boasts the world's fourth-...Read more