Outside the Beltway

The evidence is pretty clear: vaccinations are key, not weather (but that won’t stop people from trying to say otherwise).

It’s happening again. This time, it was easily preventable.

The cost of raising a university’s profile.

The two-time Pulitzer winner is considering a career change.

Most aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on.

COVID vaccine hesitancy is just the tip of the iceberg.

President Trump’s destruction of longstanding norms continues under his successor.

The long shift of population from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt continues—with the unusual exception of California.

The law is out of sync with modern realities.

A truly silly characterization from Senator Mike Lee.

The beloved author of children’s books had died days short of her 105th birthday.

Historical precedents fall apart when we’re in a truly unprecedented time.

The Republican Party is not really a thing.

Does online performance logically devolve into rage and violence?

Lots of places in the US don’t make it easy.

Injecting data into the conversation.

A defense of the indefensible.

Yet another twist in an ongoing saga.

Trump appears to have been shamed into doing part of his job.

The President has hit rock bottom.

Framing matters.

A great character actor is gone.

The ‘outside agitators’ trope strikes again.

A thought experiment on what we have seen in Portland.

Pentagon officials are speaking out about the militarization of police.

Portland may be a preview of what’s to come.

More dominoes are falling. They won’t be the last.

The GA14 House race.

Hypocrisy, lies, and dangerous rhetoric from Trump and his allies on mail-in voting.

This is more about structural conditions than it is about the GOP.

Jo Rae Perkins may be a nut, but she won a four-person primary.

Donald Trump is once again trying to deflect reality.

Bowing to Immense political pressure to pay college athletes will dramatically change the game.

A Federal Judge in Virginia has found the terrorist watch list unconstitutional.

A wedding venue in Mississippi is citing religious beliefs in support of its decision not to allow an interracial couple to utilize their facilities.

A Federal Court has ruled once again in favor of a transgender student in Virginia who was prevented from using the bathroom conforming to their gender identity.

Less than twelve hours after the mass shooting in Texas, another one occurred overnight in Dayton, Ohio.

He could lose the popular vote by an even larger margin in 2020—and still coast to re-election.

Various federal and state agencies are enforcing existing laws while Congress scrambles to update them.

The Supreme Court declined to rule on the merits in a case dealing with a Oregon baker who refused to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding reception.

Maine has become the eighth state to pass a law allowing terminally ill the choice to bring their lives to a dignified end.

Further progress for advocates of marijuana legalization from the Land of Lincoln.

The Supreme Court let a ruling against students opposed to a school district policy allowing transgender students to use the bathroom corresponding to their gender identity stand.

In a first of its kind move, voters in Denver have voted to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms.

Ballot measures across the country would deny access to those who refuse to release tax returns.

US higher education is made up of far more than just the Ivies and other elite schools.

Per-student investment in public colleges has not recovered from the Great Recession.

Are people fleeing blue states to avoid repressive taxes? It depends who you’re asking.

The consolidation of Super Tuesday makes the current system even more broken than before.

Mandatory vaccination laws raise personal liberty issues that ought to be taken seriously, but in the end, public health concerns weigh heavily in favor of laws mandating vaccination.