These are bad times for democracy. Strongmen, from Vladimir Putin in Russia to Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, are flexing their muscles. In America and India democratically elected leaders are flirting with more personalized leadership,…

As oceans rise, glaciers melt and some parts of the world flood while others bake in drought, good news about climate change is scarce. Thus, a report last week from Ember Energy Research is worth…

As the partial government shutdown rolls into its third week, some Republicans are floating the idea of getting rid of the Senate filibuster to overcome Democratic recalcitrance. GOP leaders have been wise to rule it…

On my home office wall hangs a framed poster with the word peace in English, Arabic, and Hebrew. I acquired it in Jerusalem in November 1977 when I was covering Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s historic…

You do not have to care about climate change to believe that clean energy is an important and strategic resource. Solar and wind power are now cheaper than coal in many places and sometimes cheaper…

There’s a reason they call election time “the silly season.” But it doesn’t get much sillier than what’s going on with campaign finance in the Wichita City Council 1st District race. Supporters of candidate LaWanda…

For decades, Americans have been sold a slick fantasy, that if your eggs don’t slide out of a pan like a Vegas card trick, you’re doing it wrong. It began in the 1960s and 1970s,…

I was talking to a teenage girl in Afghanistan last week. She was on her laptop and I was on mine. She was explaining to me how she came to understand that women don’t have…

The elimination of around 80 positions at Gates Corporation’s Iola plant is a bitter pill to swallow. 80 families lose a wage earner, many of whom had spent decades at the facility. They’ll leave behind…

If a U.S. president was just itching to militarize the streets of a politically unfriendly American city like some blustery third-world despot, how would he go about it? First, he might start with a pretense…