“It was February in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Maria Gonzalez was leaving her hotel cleaning job. Thirty minutes later, a co-worker uploaded a video in their group chat that showed ICE agents storming the hotel and searching for Latino people as part of Operation Metro Surge. They eventually grabbed three of her colleagues and took them away; she believes that, had she still been at work, she likely would have been detained. … The hotel business tends to be weak in winter months, she said, but it nosedived starting in December as the surge began, which meant she was called in to work less. Then a week after the hotel incident, ICE showed up at her own door while she was at home with her husband and two teenage children, pounding and kicking it, demanding to be let in.” (06/10/26)
“British author Josh Ireland’s account of Josef Stalin’s quest to liquidate Leon Trotsky is a story of pathology and politics. Ireland doesn’t spend much time on Lenin, who makes only spectral appearances, or on the ideological quarrels between Mensheviks, Leninists, Stalinists, and Trotskyists. He is preoccupied with the two personalities at the centre of his story: Stalin the obsessive hater and the hapless and suicidally negligent Trotsky.” (06/10/26)
“For more than 30 years, nurse practitioner Marcy Markes has cared for patients in intensive care units and small-town clinics across Missouri. She holds degrees from the University of Missouri and runs an allergy and asthma clinic in Columbia, Missouri. The state has a serious health care access problem, and its residents would be better off if experienced providers like Markes were free to provide the care they are licensed to give. Instead, a state law requires nurse practitioners to contract with a physician, which by some estimates can cost an average of $7,000 per year. The price tag for Markes to practice? $50,000 a year. … Courts have increasingly been willing to reassess occupational licensing laws that appear to serve entrenched economic interests more than consumer protection. Missouri’s CPA regime presents a fairly clear case …” (06/10/26)
“Buried deep within the thousands of pages of the annual U.S. National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a single provision labeled Section 224 has quietly become one of the hottest political flashpoints in Washington this year. On the surface, it looks like standard bureaucratic language — just another push to strengthen technological and military cooperation between the United States and Israel. But the intensity of the reactions it’s sparked, from both supporters and fierce critics, reveals something much bigger at play. For many watchers, Section 224 isn’t merely a technical tweak; it’s become a symbol of larger, often uncomfortable questions about Israel’s role in U.S. foreign policy, how far America’s security commitments should go, and where the Republican Party is headed in this new era.” (06/10/26)
“The House Freedom Caucus, a group of former congressional rebels who have over the past few years evolved into Trump lackeys, is on the verge of total irrelevance. In a scenario where House Republicans become the minority, the caucus will lose whatever semblance of leverage it has, and current members know it; half a dozen of them will be leaving Congress at the end of the year.” (06/09/26)
“When discussions turn to free expression in higher education, a common assumption is that those with the lowest amount of job security feel the least free to speak. Junior faculty, adjunct instructors, and others without tenure are often presumed to be the most cautious, while senior professors are presumed to enjoy and exercise greater freedom to study, teach, or debate whatever they want without fear of reprisal. And survey data does support this. For example, among faculty in the academy at large non-tenured faculty are more likely to self-censor than tenured/tenure-track faculty. But results from FIRE’s 2026 survey of nearly 2,000 law faculty suggest the reality may be more complicated.” (06/09/26)
“The Apostle Paul once wrote that leadership requires ‘a good conscience.’ Whether one approaches that idea through faith, philosophy, or simple common sense, the principle remains timeless: public officials carry a moral obligation to protect the people entrusted to their care. That responsibility should come before ideology, political image, or partisan loyalty. Too often in Illinois, it does not. My daughter, Katie Abraham, was killed in Urbana, Illinois, by an intoxicated illegal [sic] immigrant with a troubling background and serious health issues; circumstances that, in my view, were enabled by reckless sanctuary policies that lacked meaningful vetting and prioritized ideology over public safety. But what permanently divided me from many Illinois leaders was not only the policy failure itself. It was the response afterward.” (06/10/26)
“Donald Trump’s policies, especially his war on Iran, are having the unintended effect of accelerating the very green transition project he scorns. The Left must ensure the renewable energy build-out advances the well-being of the US working class.” (06/09/26)
“Kennedy facilitated important changes in U.S.-Soviet relations. Less than two months later, the two nations and Great Britain signed the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which prohibited weapons testing in the atmosphere and in the water. The signatories agreed to work toward ending the arms race and, ultimately, complete disarmament. The treaty didn’t succeed — but that doesn’t mean it didn’t matter. Kennedy’s efforts showed how bitter rivals could nevertheless work toward a common goal. Though he wouldn’t live to see them, future diplomatic efforts enabled even the most ideologically opposed regimes to build institutions that constrained humanity’s worst impulses.” (06/09/26)
