ArcaMax

When you visit Mark Twain's house in Hartford, Connecticut, you may be told about his telephone. It was one of the first phones in the country, so he could neither call nor be called. He had faith in a phone-ful future. Also, he had invested in AT&T. Someone had to be first.

Alexander Graham Bell -- Twain's buddy -- was American. The ...Read more

The black-footed ferret exhibit at American Prairie's National Discovery Center in Lewistown, Montana, just opened to the public on Nov. 14. When I went to Montana in September to visit American Prairie, their newest ambassador had just arrived from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center in ...Read more

"Yo! Fat Girl! C'mere. Are ya ticklish?"

So rapped the late rapper Humpty Hump, describing a good opening line to use on women who aren't a Size 4.

Maybe it worked for him. Who knows?

And, yo, if you can't say stuff like that, are you really a rapper, are you really a gangsta, are you really the leader of the free world, are you really a ...Read more

The central scandal in the Epstein's sex abuse ring targeting children is not the sex. It's the children.

What powerful men do with grown-up women -- that is, females 18 or older -- bothers me little. I never cared much about Donald Trump's assignation with porn star Stormy Daniels. Other Trump critics tried to pile on another layer of ...Read more

It took three weeks for President Donald Trump to speak up. In the meantime, Tucker Carlson's chummy interview with white nationalist and outspoken anti-Semite Nick Fuentes was tearing Trump's MAGA crowd apart. And when he finally did speak up, it was to defend Tucker Carlson -- and Nick Fuentes.

"We've had some great interviews with Tucker ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Seeking spiritual solace, I washed ashore at the John F. Kennedy Center's concert hall.

Yes, I loved the crashing chords of the "Organ Symphony" by Saint-Saens and the lyrical light notes of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1.

"The Star-Spangled Banner," not so much.

Readers, President Donald Trump's new regime at the beloved ...Read more

Years ago, Woody Guthrie wrote "Mean Talking Blues," a stinging satire of malicious right-wing officials who take perverse pleasure in demonizing, holding down, and punishing poor people:

"I'm a big disaster / Just goin' some place to happen / I'm an organized famine / Studying how I can be a little bit meaner / I laugh my loudest / When ...Read more

It's a pretty reliable rule of thumb that when President Donald Trump calls something a "hoax," it's true. He insists that the strong indication, which seems likelier by the week, that he participated in Jeffrey Epstein's exploitative exploits is another hoax.

Assume that on this one, he's telling the truth. If so, he sure isn't acting like it....Read more

The election of Zohran Mamdani as New York City mayor set off -- for his fan base, anyway -- great expectations of a more "affordable" city. But the Democratic Socialist hasn't even been sworn in, and some of his marquee promises are already history.

Start with free buses. For a city dependent on public transportation, free buses are a nice ...Read more

The First Amendment is a cornerstone of American democracy. It allows us to express our views, challenge authority and engage in public debate. In recent years, however, these freedoms have come under intense scrutiny, from debates over protests on college campuses to concerns about government retaliation against journalists and activists. ...Read more

*Names have been changed to protect identities

Shackled and chained while miscarrying, denied prenatal care, given inadequate food and water -- these are the conditions that pregnant women in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention must endure.

Despite its own directive advising against detaining pregnant individuals, ICE has ...Read more

On April 23, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at narrowing civil rights protections and directing federal agencies to roll back the use of the disparate impact standard in "all contexts to the maximum degree," including across housing, lending, employment, education and health care. The order represents a major reversal ...Read more

When Louisiana finally won a second majority-Black district in 2024, I felt a weight lift from my shoulders. For decades, Black voters like me knew that having only one voting district where we could be heard was not enough to reflect a third of the state's population. So when the state gained a second seat, I thought of those who fought ...Read more