ReportWire

Tag: Opinion

  • Opinion | End U.S. Energy Dependence

    The Trump administration’s renewed focus on securing critical minerals highlights an urgent truth, reinforced in “China Aims to Keep U.S. Military From Obtaining Its Rare Earths” (U.S. News, Nov. 12): America’s energy future depends on what we build and where we build it.

    For too long, we have relied on foreign sources for the rare-earth elements and advanced materials that power everything from electric grids and defense systems to the data centers fueling artificial intelligence. Even with the rare-earths deal Mr. Trump struck with China last month, more action is required to diversify supplies and strengthen domestic production as an essential step toward energy security.

    Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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  • Opinion: Taunted for Being a Jew on the Day I Buried My Mother – Houston Press

    The sky in “sunny” San Diego was atypically cloudy as it drizzled on a family gathered last Friday to bury its 92-year-old matriarch in the southwestern city’s only stand-alone Jewish cemetery.

    The mourners wore mostly black and dark-colored dresses and suits. Their attire stood out against the gray heavens like silhouettes.

    The matriarch’s 15-year-old son had been buried there. The mortuary attendant placed a biodegradable urn in the excavated grave.

    After the rabbi finished the service, the rain began to fall heavier on the men’s yarmulkes, the traditional head-covering worn by orthodox Jews and often donned by secular Jews on religious and woeful occasions. Her other three sons and their children each tossed a handful of dirt and flowers over the urn.

    I became that matriarch’s middle son on the day my eldest brother died as the result of a car accident in 1972.

    My wife and I had taken our daughters, ages 12 and 13, out of Meyerland Middle School on Thursday so we could fly from Houston to southern California to attend the service and the memorial to be held last Sunday. The government shutdown made the trip all the more nerve-racking.

    When the Friday funeral was over, my wife and I decided to take our children to a Chick Fil-a for a comfort-food meal. They deserved it after spending two and half hours in the drizzle, sitting in silence as a rabbi spoke about the meaning of life, love, and death. They were exhausted from the trip and the growing line of adults whom they had never met but who each shared their condolences with the bewildered and weary teen and pre-teen.

    We entered the carline in our rented 2024 Jeep Compass. Our children, sitting in the back seat, placed their orders for chicken nuggets and fries. My wife ordered a wrap.

    “May I have a name for the order?” said the “team member.”

    It’s a phrase my children have heard countless times, when Chick Fil-a might be a Saturday night treat or an improvised dinner on that rare weekday evening when their parents are too busy to cook a proper dinner.

    “Jeremy,” I told her.

    Once we completed our order, we inched forward to the drive-through window where the team member asked for the “name on the order.”

    “Jeremy,” I told her.

    “This is an order for Joshua,” she explained.

    “I’m so sorry,” I offered. “But my name is Jeremy.”

    “But the order is correct,” she insisted. “Please take your car around and park. We’ll bring you your order when it’s ready.”

    After roughly 10 minutes had passed, all four of us remarked on how long it was taking to get our food. On the myriad occasions when we’ve patronized the brand, this never happens, we all thought.

    When the team member, yet a third person with whom we interacted that day, arrived at our car after the extended wait, I rolled down the window.

    “I have an order for Jew,” she said plainly.

    “I beg your pardon,” I queried.

    “It’s an order for Jew,” she repeated. “The order is correct. Do you want it or not?”

    It was in that moment that I realized I hadn’t taken my yarmulke off. I was also wearing a black suit and a white dress shirt. My apparel wasn’t unusual for a secular Jew like me attending a family funeral.

    But it occurred to me: Did I look like a Hasid? The black-clad and “black hat[ted]” orthodox Jews more likely seen on the streets of Williamsburg not far from where I used to live in New York City.

    On any other day, I would have politely but passionately addressed all three of them and insisted that they apologize to my family.

    But I couldn’t do that on the day I buried my mother.

    My children, wife, and I had no other choice but to endure the humiliation of their taunt — their refusal to say my name.

    For what must have been a window of 25 minutes, those team members had power over me and my family and they decided to use it like waiters and waitresses at a lunch counter in the Deep South of the 1950s.

    Yesterday, two days after my mother’s memorial and four days after her funeral, I called the Chick Fil-a corporate office to complain. Their anodyne, corporate answer was an offer of free food that arrived via email around 10 p.m. last night.

    I also succeeded in getting the restaurant’s manager on the phone, a reasonable person who took my complaint seriously. I sent him my credit card receipt and he confirmed that someone had written “Ju” (sic) on our order.

    “I don’t know how you get to ‘Ju’ from ‘Jeremy,’” he concurred. “Something went wrong here and we are terribly sorry.” He said he would get back to me as he investigated the incident and addressed the authors of the insult.

    As the girls ate their food, we talked about how we had just experienced something that our black and brown friends experience often daily. We talked about how our “white eligible” skin shields us from the indignities that so many members of our community must navigate.

    I’m not an observant Jew. My wife is a Gentile and my children, while aware of their paternal and maternal families’ origins, have never practiced Judaism.

    But on that day, the habits of grief — the black suit and the broad black yarmulke — had reduced me to a totem. Little did they know that I would rise up from my grief like a Golem.

    In a few weeks, my wife Tracie and I are heading back to San Diego, without the kids. We’ll spend the weekend with my two brothers as we sort through my mom’s apartment.

    The manager offered to have us in for a complimentary dinner. I declined his generosity. But I did suggest that he organize a meeting between me and the team members we interacted with that day. We’ll see what happens.

    In the meantime, a yahrzeit candle burns on our dining room table. May my mother’s memory be a blessing.  

    This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.

    Jeremy Parzen

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  • Family Recipe Box: Remedies for coughs ‘n colds

    Whatever sniffles and coughs come our way, Lord knows it’s not as bad as some of the deadly bugs that have plagued humanity since time immemorial, such as smallpox. Speaking of which, did you know there is a local hero in North Worcester County who probably saved hundreds of lives from this dread disease?

    Among the events worth celebrating in our country’s 250th year will be a local hero: Dr. Thaddeus Maccarty, Fitchburg’s first physician. This brave soul was appalled by the death toll of small pox — but intrigued by what was called “the Sutton method.” This practice meant inoculating the patient with the disease, and Dr. Maccarty travelled to a Great Barrington hospital and presented himself as both patient and doctor.

    He survived the disease, and returned to Fitchburg. There, a fearful populace was ready to tar and feather the young clinician, but fortunately, Dr. MacCarty was able to meet with Deacon Ebenezer Goodridge, a member of the “Committee of Safety.” According to Doris Kirkpatrick’s masterful “The City and the River,” because of MacCarty’s ability to explain the brand new idea of inoculation, and his “open and fearless frankness the doctor succeeded in quieting the Deacon’s suspicion and avoided a coat of tar.”

    By August 15, 1776, Fitchburg built a hospital for the care of people suffering from small pox and this hospital continued for several years and built a strong reputation. More than 800 residents from all the area towns came to the hospital where they were charged one pound, one shilling, or 10 days labor, or 10 bushels of corn for treatment.

    This was a hospital with security — there was a guard at the gate who made sure no one entered without paying, and no one left without a “certificate of cleanliness.” The full treatment ended with the patient receiving a bath in a solution of rum and vinegar.

    ‘There’s a cure for that’

    For most of human history, getting from zero to age two was a struggle, but it was only until 1802, and the Paris-based Hôpital des Enfants Malades, was there a hospital designed exclusively for children. The Brits soon followed suit, and the famous Great Ormond Street Hospital opened in London in 1855, the same year as Philadelphia’s “Children’s Hospital” opened in the US, the first in our country to do so.

    Children’s hospitals emerged out of volunteers’ efforts and were independent from other hospitals. If you were a member of the “undeserving poor,” you’d end up in a workhouse infirmary. Locally, Fitchburg’s beloved Burbank Hospital opened in 1901 with 16 beds atop Prospect Hill in the site known as Nichols Farm. By 1912, there was a children’s ward on-site. The tradition for hospitals treating children was to admit those with short-term, rather than long-term illness, for fear of contagion. Records do not reveal ingredients or medicines used for children at the hospital. However, during the late 19th century, the patent-medicine world was forever expanding.

    These well-trained nurses were ready to care for you at Burbank Hospital in Fitchburg in the earlier part of the 20th century. (COURTESY FITCHBURG HISTORICAL SOCIETY)

    A particularly noxious product became infamous: “Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup.” Touted as a medicine to help soothe an infant during teething pain, the bottle contained alcohol and morphine (unlabelled) and caused many infant deaths. The Prohibitionists took up these “medicines” and public protest created a fertile ground for legislation.

    Local suggestions

    Family Recipe Box put out the call across North Worcester County and the suggestions poured in: hint, if you don’t have lemons and honey in your pantry, consider yourself understocked.

    For sore throats: Several readers suggested: gargle frequently with salt water, as much salt as you can stand, as hot as you can stand.

    For ear aches: From Leominster, Donna Dap suggested “Put on a hat — your body heat is soothing,” while Rachel Rhada swears by putting garlic oil in your ears as it  “works every time!”

    For random ailments: Cramps — a heating pad, or soaking towels in hot water and laying over abdomen. Rachel Armington suggests: “for headaches or eyestrain: a few drops of peppermint oil on a folded tea towel that’s been run under warm/hot water and wrung damp. Just hold over the area until the towel cools.”

    For “the bug that’s going around”: Barb Boraski Vosburgh of Fitchburg urges all readers to consume “homemade chicken soup. My grandma, my mom, me, and now my daughter believes it is the best for colds, flu, etc.”

    Bring on the honey

    Rum has been the basis for curatives for centuries (and not just bathing in it). So has honey. But it’s the exotic spices that draw interest in the world of Ayurvedic and Holistic healing. Finally, after two weeks, I became higher functioning after the “back to school bug.” And so I decided to crank up my anti-oxidant and Vitamin C game. Couldn’t hurt, right?

    I did some experimenting, and came up with the following — this recipe makes enough to last in the fridge for about a week  — and I’ve been drinking this every day for the past two weeks. And washing my hands — a lot!

    G & T Shot

    INGREDIENTS:

    2 tsp ground ginger powder

    2 tsp ground turmeric powder

    1 tsp Fresh ground black pepper

    1/3 cup honey

    Juice of one lemon

    DIRECTIONS:

    Put a couple teaspoons of honey into your storage jar (I like a one-cup jam jar). Mix in your spices until you have a thick syrup. Add the lemon juice and honey, mix thoroughly. It’s really thick, and I used a small milk-frother. Store in the refrigerator, add 2 teaspoons of syrup into a cup, and pour in water that’s hot, but not hot enough for tea. This brings out the aroma. You can drink this hot, or let it cool.

    Notes: I like to make the Shot hot, but then let it cool in an Atlas jar, and then put the lid on and refrigerate. When it’s cold, shake it up vigorously — that’s your “G & T Shot.” Happy healing!

    Sally Cragin would love to read your family recipes and stories. Write to: sallycragin@gmail.com

    Sally Cragin is an award-winning writer/journalist and Fitchburg City Councilor-at-Large. (CHERYL CUDDAHY)
    Sally Cragin is an award-winning writer/journalist and Fitchburg City Councilor-at-Large. (CHERYL CUDDAHY)

    Sally Cragin

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  • Editorial: Despite building spurt, home ownership still remains elusive goal

    It’s a recurring, discouraging statistic that no aspiring first-time homebuyer wants to hear.

    Despite enduring some of the highest monthly expenses nationwide, only one in seven renter households in Greater Boston can afford an “entry level” home, according to the 2025 Greater Boston Housing Report Card released Wednesday.

    The share of renter households with the means to buy a starter home fell from 30% in 2021 to 15% in 2025, the report shows.

    That’s despite a period of increased housing construction activity.

    “While new data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows a significant uptick in new home completions in recent years, the increase has not significantly helped home affordability, and a decline in the number of new housing permits statewide suggests any construction uptick could be short-lived,” said Luc Schuster, executive director of the research arm of the Boston Foundation.

    The annual housing report found that Massachusetts created just under 98,000 housing units from April 2020 to July 2025, with about 71,000 in Greater Boston.

    The pace marks a “meaningful increase” and “would put Massachusetts within striking distance” of meeting the state’s goal of building 222,000 new units by 2035, the report stated.

    “But permits, which signal future housing construction, are way down,” the report states. “New permits as of July 2025 are running 44% below levels for the same period in 2021.”

    Despite the modest increase in housing construction, “Greater Boston’s housing affordability crisis has only worsened since the pandemic,” the report shows.

    In 2025, home prices and rents have broadly leveled off but remain at unaffordable levels, the data shows.

    Whereas in 2021, a household earning about $98,000 could buy a home at the low end of the market with a $2,520 monthly payment, a household this year would need to earn over $162,000 to afford the $4,200 monthly payment on the starter homes.

    While Greater Boston encompasses communities with the state’s highest housing costs, it’s not an insignificant sample.

    The Metropolitan Area Planning Council defines Greater Boston as an area made up of 101 communities — 22 cities and 79 towns — that includes a mix of coastal communities, older industrial centers, rural towns, and urban neighborhoods.

    And while housing costs do moderate somewhat beyond that region, so do the incomes of those who live there.

    And in many cases, incomes haven’t kept pace with housing prices, even in Gateway Cities.

    For example, since 2021, housing prices in Lawrence have climbed nearly 70% to a median of $500,000.

    Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll spoke on the report’s finding Wednesday, citing the administration’s work in passing the $5.2 billion Affordable Homes Act in 2024, and the MBTA Communities Law requiring zoning for multifamily housing in the 177 communities served by that transportation system.

    Despite the government’s efforts to spur housing construction, market forces — primarily the high cost of land and building materials — have conspired against it.

    As the lieutenant governor stated, building sufficient housing shouldn’t be this hard.

    But in Massachusetts, that’s the inescapable norm.

    DPU continues exemplary pipeline safety performance

    Building on the protocols incorporated in the wake of the catastrophic 2018 pipeline explosions in three Merrimack Valley communities, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities has received another perfect score from the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration for its oversight safety program in 2024.

    On Sept. 13, 2018, a series of natural gas pipeline explosions in Lawrence, Andover and North Andover killed one man and injured dozens more.

    The explosions and fires occurred after high-pressure natural gas was released into a low-pressure gas distribution system, causing damage to more than 130 structures, and destroying five homes.

    Firefighters fought more than 80 blazes and thousands of people were evacuated from their homes.

    Columbia Gas of Massachusetts, the company held responsible for the disaster, pleaded guilty in federal court to pipeline safety law violations and negligence and agreed to pay a fine of $53 million.

    The events ultimately cost the company more than $1 billion.

    This evaluation marks the third consecutive year that the DPU’s Pipeline Safety Division has received a perfect score for the enforcement and implementation of federal pipeline safety standards.

    Through rigorous enforcement, the Division now ensures that the investor-owned gas utilities, municipal gas departments, steam distribution companies, and operators of intrastate Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) facilities comply with both state and federal safety laws.

    The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration regulates the safety of the transportation of energy and other hazardous materials. It must review annual progress reports, pipeline program procedures and records, and observe on-site inspections done by state safety regulators to adequately assess each state’s pipeline safety program when conducting evaluations.

    Since 2022, the Pipeline Safety Division has scored the maximum possible points for both portions of PHMSA’s evaluation.

    With legislative changes increasing penalties for gas operators that violate pipeline safety laws and regulations, the Pipeline Safety Division drove the reduction in damages through its enforcement, an increased field presence, and education.

    The series of safety reforms resulting from the 2018 pipeline disaster that tragically took one life should ensure that nothing approaching the scale of that cataclysmic event will ever occur again.

    Editorial

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  • Opinion | What Does ‘White Guilt’ Mean in 2025?

    Victim politics gave us pro-Hamas activism and a powerful reaction in the form of Donald Trump, argue Shelby Steele and his son, Eli.

    Tunku Varadarajan

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  • Opinion | Maduro Caused the Disaster

    Regarding Quico Toro’s essay “ Another U.S. Attempt to Topple Maduro Would Be a Disaster” (Review, Nov. 8): Venezuela’s economic collapse and migratory crisis began in 2013, at least four years before the U.S. imposed broad U.S. sanctions. From 2013 onward, Venezuela experienced the highest inflation rate in the world and a precipitous decline in gross domestic product, driven directly by the devastating economic policies of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, including widespread nationalizations, reckless monetary and fiscal policies and the implementation of universal price and currency controls.

    Mr. Toro neglects the consequences of the Biden administration’s policy of accommodation. Far from improving conditions, diplomatic passivity has allowed the government to dig in its heels, intensifying repression and exacerbating the humanitarian crisis.

    Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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  • Who was really to blame for the government shutdown?

    The U.S. government shutdown has finally come to an end after 43 days that resulted in thousands of flights being cancelled or delayed, food aid benefits for millions of Americans being jeopardized and hundreds of thousands of federal workers being furloughed. 

    But the question is: Which party bears responsibility for this shutdown? Let’s look at the facts as to who bears responsibility, not the misleading rhetoric.

    First, the shutdown’s genesis resulted from the Congress’ inability to timely pass the required 12 appropriations bills necessary to fund the government for the next fiscal year that began on October 1.  Neither party has been timely in passing a budget: 1997 was the last time that Congress passed a budget on time.

    Accordingly, on September 19, the House Republicans passed a continuing resolution to temporarily fund the government at current levels until November 21 to allow more time for budget negotiations.

    Senate Democrats, however, refused to support a bill that would have allowed the government to remain open during negotiations, instead conditioning their vote to keep the government open only if the “temporary” additional tax credits for Obamacare that had been enacted during the COVID pandemic were extended. 

    According to the Cato Institute, these “subsidies cover health insurance premiums for the roughly 7% of Americans who use the government-run Obamacare insurance marketplace.”  The Cato Institute estimates that approximately one-third of these enhanced subsidies went to people with incomes above 400% of the poverty level, or above $62,600 for a single person. 

    In short, in return for keeping the government open during budget negotiations, Senate Democrats insisted that Republicans first capitulate on an item that was part of those budget negotiations.  

    Moreover, extending these “temporary” subsidies for Obamacare was a significant budget item over which to condition keeping the government open. The Congressional Budget Office has recently estimated that permanently extending these enhanced COVID-19 subsidies for Obamacare would increase the U.S. budget deficit by $350 billion over the next 10 years. 

    According to the Economic Innovation Center, this additional cost is more than Congress would spend on either the FBI, the national parks service, NASA or the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over the next 10 years.

    More critically, even without the cost of these enhanced subsidies, the U.S. is already on track to run a deficit of $1.8 trillion this year and a public debt of 124% of its entire Gross National Product — which is higher than the debt immediately after World War II. 

    Millennials and Generation Z should understand that they will end up paying for this financial irresponsibility via future taxes, so they need to think carefully about supporting the extension of “temporary” subsidies for insurance policy enhancements that they do not need. More on that in a moment.

    In short, Senate Democrats’ insistence on continuing what were intended as temporary subsidies during a pandemic as a condition for reopening the government after the pandemic had ended is pure extortion, that is, it seeks to obtain an objective “by coercive means.” Senate Majority Leader John Thune even offered Senate Democrats a vote on extending the Obamacare subsidies as part of a deal to end the shutdown, which Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer rejected as insufficient. 

    However, on November 9, eight Senate Democrats ultimately agreed to end the filibuster in return for a vote on the tax credits in December. This deal has nonetheless been criticized by those who insisted on their way (enact the tax credits now) or the highway (a continued shutdown).  Among those who took the “my way or the highway” approach were House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Representative Ro Khanna and Gov. Gavin Newsom, who called the deal to end the pain from the shutdown “pathetic.”

    However, there is a more responsible route to address the rising cost of Obamacare premiums than extending temporary tax credits enacted because of the pandemic: Agree to the formation of a bipartisan commission of respected elder statesmen to propose measures to reduce the costs of Obamacare, which would be subject to an up-or-down vote. 

    Daniel Kolkey

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  • Opinion | Escape From Zohran Mamdani’s New York

    Arnold Toynbee’s “Cities on the Move” (1970) documents the history of big cities around the world becoming impoverished and insolvent—some never to recover. Many of the patterns he describes apply to New York now.

    Real estate contributed roughly $35 billion of the $80 billion in city tax receipts in fiscal 2025, and personal taxes another $18 billion. The financial sector, real estate, construction, tourism and retail trade sectors are the major contributors to these revenues.

    Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

    Reuven Brenner

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  • Editorial: Legislature, take baby steps with poverty-lifting bills

    First the BabySteps Savings Plan, and now the Baby Bonds program?

    The latter is distinct from the former, an operational opt-in strategy providing a $50 seed deposit into a 529 college savings account for all state newborns.

    As of September 2023, the most recent data available, more than 26,000 families had started saving for their children’s education and vocational training since the program’s inception in January 2020.

    The two initiatives also differ in eligibility criteria. While the BabySteps plan covers every newborn, Baby Bond legislation targets the socially and economically disadvantaged.

    Multiple Baby Bond bills have been introduced in the state Legislature, where they’ve remained without gaining any traction.

    Several related bills have been filed, including S.1999, “An Act Addressing the Racial Wealth Gap,” and H.3429 / H.48, “An Act establishing a Massachusetts Baby Bonds program.”

    Currently, “An Act establishing a Massachusetts Baby Bonds program” has been filed by House Bill H.3429 (and related H.48) and Senate Bill S.2146.

    The legislation’s sponsors include state Rep. Andres Vargas, state Sen. Paul Feeney, and supported by State Treasurer Deb Goldberg.

    A virtual hearing for the Senate bill before the Joint Committee on Financial Services occurred Wednesday.

    In 2022, Treasurer Goldberg established a Baby Bonds Task Force, a diverse group of experts, advocates, and community leaders, to research and develop recommendations for how a baby bonds program could be most effectively structured and implemented.

    The task force’s findings have served as a foundation for the treasurer’s ongoing policy discussions.

    If enacted, the proposal would work as follows, based on task force recommendations and bills’ details:

    Children born on or after a specific date — tentatively July 1, 2024 — whose families receive Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children or are in the custody of the Department of Children and Families, would automatically be enrolled in the program.

    Individual, government-managed trust accounts would be created, with an initial state investment — amount to be determined — that would accrue interest over time.

    Funds would become accessible to the beneficiaries when they turn 18 up until age 35, provided they still reside, work, or pay taxes in Massachusetts at the time of withdrawal.

    A Baby Bonds Trust Fund Advisory Board would assist the treasurer in policy development and fraud prevention.

    If beneficiaries don’t claim their funds by age 35 or die before that age, the money will return to the trust.

    Funds could be used for specific wealth-building purposes, such as post-secondary education, job training, purchasing a home in Massachusetts, investing in a Massachusetts-based business, and other wealth-generating investments as defined by the legislation.

    The funds in the account would not be considered an asset when determining eligibility for other government benefits.

    The legislation aims to reduce economic disparities and provide long-term financial opportunities for disadvantaged children in Massachusetts.

    The legislation would align Massachusetts with Connecticut and Washington, D.C., where similar bills have been passed.

    Treasurer Goldberg testified last week before the Joint Committee on Financial Services in support of Baby Bonds legislation, emphasizing the positive opportunities it would provide.

    “Baby Bonds will narrow the racial wealth gap and provide our youngest generation with a foundation for success,” said Goldberg. “By investing early in the lives of every child, we can help ensure that more young people enter adulthood with the resources they need to build a stable financial future.”

    The concept of Baby Bonds, first developed by economist Dr. Darrick Hamilton, advances the idea as a way to address structural inequities in wealth accumulation. His work has helped shape national conversations on how publicly funded child trust accounts can promote economic mobility and reduce racial wealth disparities.

    During her testimony, Goldberg highlighted the need for a fiscally responsible and equitable program that builds on her office’s ongoing economic empowerment work. She emphasized the importance of collaboration among state leaders, community organizations, and private partners to create a program that meaningfully supports children and families across Massachusetts.

    Beyond the individual benefits, Goldberg stressed that Baby Bonds represent a smart investment in the overall Massachusetts economy. By helping more young adults pursue higher education, start businesses, and become homeowners, the program would stimulate economic growth and strengthen local communities.

    Research indicates that reducing wealth inequality enhances productivity, innovation, and long-term economic stability, benefiting not only individual families but also the state’s workforce and competitiveness.

    Goldberg invited the joint panel and her fellow policymakers to collaborate with her office to develop a model that’s both impactful and operationally feasible, ensuring accountability and strong outcomes for children and families.

    While no one can argue with the altruistic intent of this legislation, as with many well-intentioned measures, they come with bedeviling details, with the funding source being the most obvious.

    Will this be a line item in annual fiscal year state budgets, come from the treasury as needed, or be funded through some private endowment?

    Can that initial investment — $6,500 has been mentioned — guarantee a return that will significantly improve someone’s economic prospects as they enter adulthood?

    These and many other questions will need an answer before we can expect lawmakers to make an informed Baby Bonds decision.

    Editorial

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  • Opinion | The ‘Human Right’ to Smoke in Prison

    If you want to see what a “living constitution” looks like, go to Europe. On Tuesday, in Vainik v. Estonia, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that four longtime prisoners in Estonia were due restitution from the state for “weight gain, sleeping problems, depression, and anxiety” caused by not being allowed to smoke in prison.

    The decision was grounded on Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The text of Article 8 doesn’t mention any right to enjoy a cigarette whenever one pleases. Rather, it protects a broad “right to private life,” which the court accused Estonia of violating in the Vainik case. “The Court,” the judges wrote, “was sensitive to the context of the already limited personal autonomy of prisoners, and that the freedom for them to decide for themselves—such as whether to smoke—was all the more precious.” An odd ruling, but perhaps Europe loves its cigarettes that much?

    Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

    John Masko

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  • ICE is lawlessly detaining Coloradans, the judicial branch is our only hope (Editorial)

    Federal immigration officials are out of control, and America’s third branch of government needs to rein in the gross abuse of power on display in Colorado and across the nation.

    Gregory Davies, a high-level federal official overseeing deportation arrests in Colorado, told a judge last month that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials did not have a warrant to arrest Fernando Jaramillo-Solano. But the agents arrested Jaramillo-Solano anyway after mistakenly pulling the Durango man over while he was on his way to drop off his 12-year-old and 15-year-old children at school. ICE officials detained all three, and they spent weeks in Durango before they were shipped to Dilley, Texas.

    This is no simple mistake that is easily rectified.

    ICE is causing real harm to contributing members of our community  — teachers, nurses, mothers and fathers. And children are traumatized in the wake of these unjustified detainments.

    President Donald Trump has upended the mission at ICE, a part of Homeland Security that was once dedicated to keeping Americans safe by deporting criminals. The president has said he plans to deport the more than 13 million people who live in the United States without legal immigration status, regardless of whether they have committed other crimes. But he has gone farther than that, and his agents are now detaining people who do have legal status. The intent is clear — push out immigrants even who are doing everything right.

    Trump’s intent is that the people his agents wrongfully detain will either self-deport becasue conditions are so poor in the federal facilities or that if a judge orders their release, they will be silenced by their fear of reprisal, after all, they were detained once; who can protect these individuals from being detained again?

    But Trump has calculated wrong. These brave victims of Trump’s mass deportation policy are speaking out, and have filed a lawsuit together to try and prevent ICE from terrorizing people.

    Caroline Dias Goncalves, the 19-year-old college student who was detained in Grand Junction and held for almost three weeks in a detention center in Aurora because a sheriff’s deputy thought her perfect English was broken by an accent, testified that her detainment has dramatically affected her life.

    She lost her driver’s license, moved back home and has reduced her course load at the University of Utah.

    To Davies she might be “collateral” damage, but to us she is an injured kid trying to rebuild her life. Her arrest was completely unnecessary and likely illegal. If people like Davies don’t step up to make sure that ICE agents are doing their jobs – targeting and arresting criminals for deportation – then who will?

    The answer of course is that the judicial branch must act as a strong check on the abuses of the executive branch.

    Trump’s immigration enforcement squad cannot just smash and grab Coloradans because they suspect someone might be here illegally. And if these agents do, there must be legal consequences for them and their bosses, no matter how high the orders have come from.

    Gonclaves was lucky. She was released.

    The Denver Post Editorial Board

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  • Opinion | The Brains Behind Ukraine’s Pink Flamingo Cruise Missile

    Kyiv, Ukraine

    If politics makes strange bedfellows, war sometimes makes strange career paths. In her 20s, Iryna Terekh was a “very artsy” architect who viewed the arms industry as “something destructive.” Now Ms. Terekh, 33, is chief technical officer and the public face of Fire Point, a Ukrainian defense company. She and her team developed the Flamingo, a long-range cruise missile that President Volodymyr Zelensky has called “our most successful missile.”

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    Jillian Kay Melchior

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  • Opinion | Evangelical Support for Israel Is About More Than Theology

    Tucker Carlson calls it a ‘heresy,’ but it’s rooted in a belief that freedom and faith are inseparable.

    Ralph Reed

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  • Opinion | When Irish Eyes Are Glaring

    Tensions with the U.S. will heighten under the new left-wing president.

    Robert C. O’Brien

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  • Opinion | Trump Changed the Stakes in the Middle East

    In the 77 years since the formation of the Jewish state, and for the 2,000 years since the destruction of the Second Temple, the West has understood peace in the Middle East—peace between Arabs and Jews—as impossible.

    Semantically, the “Peace Process” was the continuing enjoyment of a process which could be ended only by peace. What, then, have the West, the world and the United Nations been doing in regard to the Mideast since 1948?

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    David Mamet

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  • Student Engagement Is Key, Defining and Measuring it Is the Challenge


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    Student engagement is critical to student success: The more deeply students connect with their learning, the more they see learning as relevant and motivating, and the more likely they are to succeed. But as Discovery Education’s Education Insights 2025–2026 report reveals, engagement is not a simple concept — and often viewed differently depending on point of view and context. 

    Drawing on the responses of 1,400 K–12 superintendents, principals, teachers, parents and students across the United States, the Insights report spotlights the promise and the challenge of keeping students connected to learning.

    More than 90% of teachers, principals, and superintendents agree that engagement is one of the most important predictors of student success. Nearly all students (92%) say that engaging lessons make school more enjoyable. And 99% of superintendents rank engagement as one of the top indicators of achievement. 

    But they don’t agree on how to measure engagement – or even how to define it. For example, students report higher levels of engagement than teachers do, but even then, only 63% of students say they feel “highly engaged” in class. There is an almost 20-point gap between students reporting being highly engaged and what teachers believe. 

    And teachers overwhelmingly point to outward indicators of engagement, such as asking thoughtful questions or contributing to discussions. Less obvious signs, like persistence, are often overlooked. 

    This gap in the perceptions between students and teachers is an essential challenge to address. When educators miss the signals of engagement, they may misinterpret students as being disengaged, even when they are fully vested in learning. 

    Superintendents, unsurprisingly, view student engagement from a lens focused on student outcomes. Nearly all surveyed superintendents rate engagement as a top predictor of success and are far more likely than teachers to see test performance as a leading sign of engagement. 

    These differences — leaders equating engagement with performance, teachers seeking observable behaviors and students experiencing quiet or compliance-based engagement — undercut the effectiveness of efforts to increase student engagement. Often, leaders’ emphasis on systems of measurement collides with teachers’ limited time and tools to enact engaging, personalized learning at scale. 

    Students are clear about what fuels their motivation. They want relevance: learning that connects with their lives and future plans. Across all groups surveyed, relevance consistently ranked as one of the most critical factors impacting engagement. Students also seek challenge. Somewhat surprisingly, nearly four out of five say that school often feels easy, while wanting deeper, more meaningful work. Students report that challenging lessons can spark curiosity and engagement, which is consistent with teachers’ views.  

    Educators are aware of the obstacles to greater student engagement. One of the biggest is that engagement can vary by learner, subject and even the day of the week. Teachers also point to the lack of time and resources as a barrier to creating the right conditions.  

    In the Insights report, teachers identify a concern around the lack of tools to measure engagement. While nearly all superintendents say their district has a system for measuring it, only about 60% of teachers agree. This disconnect is a tall hurdle to overcome in fostering more engagement for all students.  

    Alignment across teachers, principals and district leaders can create the clarity needed to recognize different forms of engagement and respond effectively. Students thrive when teachers have the time they need to prepare and personalize lessons.  

    The report’s findings emphasize that engagement isn’t a “nice to have.” It is a precondition for student success. Without it, students may comply but not necessarily thrive. With it, they are more motivated, ready for challenges and more likely to succeed in the present and the future. 

    It is imperative that districts build more coherent strategies that move beyond encouraging engagement to shared definitions, frameworks and measurement. The approach should recognize that quiet, reflective or multilingual learners may demonstrate engagement differently than more outwardly expressive students do. Districts should also provide the time, tools and training for teachers to design relevant, personalized lessons; and harness engaging multimodal content and digital tools to support, not distract from, engagement. 

    Engagement is a prerequisite to learning. However, as the Insights eport shows, engagement doesn’t just happen, and it doesn’t have a widely or universally accepted definition or measurement. Instead, fostering and sustaining engagement requires clarity, alignment, intentional strategies and purposeful resources. Garnering widespread agreement on a definition — and adoption of that definition — will enable engaging and successful learning experiences for all students. 


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    Grace Maliska

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  • Written in Granite: Historic buildings and our connection to them

    People, places and things…

    It’s not unusual for individuals to feel attached to certain historical sites and buildings and have an emotional connection to them.

    Maybe that is why many of us shed a tear when a wrecking ball recently tore a huge hole into the White House, decimating the entire iconic East Wing and ruining the elegant symmetry of the building for the construction of an oversized ballroom for President Trump.

    I’m not going to get into the politics of the undertaking, the legalities or the ethics of this estimated $300 million project, but historic urban places have their own unique “personalities,” and individuals can often feel very strongly about them.

    Nashua City Hall Plaza is one of these special sites for me. When it was first installed in 1965, a bronze bust of the late President John F. Kennedy stood directly in the center of the plaza, Nashua City Hall’s brick facade and its cement staircase. The symmetry was perfect as one’s eyes would travel straight from the monument all the way up to the cupola and gold eagle statue perched atop City Hall.

    A school field trip once took us to visit the famous monument. I recall circling the bust mounted on top of a black granite base with my fellow classmates and gazing upward at JFK’s head. Years later, this very spot became a favorite as a reassuring sign for me whenever I drove down Main Street and was stopped at the lights at the East Hollis and West Hollis streets intersection. I know it sounds corny, but I would look over to my right and see the late president’s handsome face looking eastward to traffic and keeping a watchful eye over the city.

    When the plaza was redesigned in 2016, the JFK bust was curiously moved off-center a few yards to the left and repositioned, and he now forever faces northward. Yeah, I freaked out. It’s not the end of the world, but some of us took exception to the decision.

    Another site many Nashuans feel a connection to is the Hunt Memorial Building atop Main Street’s Library Hill. As a little girl, I saw the Gothic Revival design with its three-story square tower as a princess’s castle. Whenever my parents drove by it, I marveled at its unique beauty, and I still feel this way today.

    At the moment, this former public library, built in 1903 by Cram and Ferguson Architects, is undergoing tower window replacement. It’s a delicate process, and a crane is handling the heavy lifting. From what I understand, these elegant, stately windows are coming from Quebec and will retain the integrity of the original Gothic wooden framing design.

    Cram and Ferguson Architects, based out of Concord, MA, has an impressive background, especially in traditionally inspired religious architecture. It’s fantastic that the city has retained these gifted artists under the direction of Ethan Anthony for the Hunt’s ongoing restoration and preservation projects over the years.

    The Hunt Memorial Building is a treasure and has been listed on the National Registry of Historic Places since 1971. Mayor Jim Donchess calls it “one of Nashua’s iconic pieces of history.”

    But what if the Hunt building was torn down in the name of progress, as so many old buildings meet this fate?

    Well, that almost happened. In the 1990s, the Board of Aldermen decided to sell the Hunt building to Grace Fellowship Church for $50,000. Then-Mayor Rob Wagner said “No way” and vetoed the sale.

    Here’s to the preservation of historic buildings!

    Joan T. Stylianos

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  • The president has no ‘foreign policy’ discretion to impose sweeping global tariffs

    On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments to scrutinize the tariffs President Trump’s sweeping levied against every nation on earth. Trump invoked emergency powers from an obscure law to justify this move. Those now petitioning the Supreme Court to declare the tariffs unconstitutional have argued that whatever that obscure law says, Congress cannot delegate its exclusive powers — including the power to tax and to regulate foreign commerce — to the president. If that law delegates these powers, it is unconstitutional.

    The petitioners have a point: Trump claims that his tariffs are not unconstitutional, because his unique discretion over foreign policy means Congress has not delegated away its powers. But in its attempt to sanction unprecedented authoritarian powers over domestic affairs, this argument distorts the meaning of the president’s actual foreign policy power. The president’s discretion over trade applies only in wartime against specific belligerents — not in perpetuity or even against our allies.

    Trump’s argument’s kernel of truth is that the Constitution makes the president the commander in chief of the armed forces and chief negotiator of treaties. He does need discretion to repel imminent threats of force by foreign powers and to make alliances against them. In genuine crisis situations, he cannot wait for Congress to debate if he’s to defend the lives, liberties, and property of American citizens.

    The law Trump cites to justify his tariff power, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), in fact bears the mark of this constitutional legacy. As a useful amicus brief (by Aditya Bamzai of the UVA  School of Law) in the current tariffs case indicates, the law is heir to the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917, passed in World War I to allow the president to cut off all trade with an enemy nation in the event of a declared war against it. Obviously, to conduct a war, the commander in chief needs to be able to embargo trade that supplies material support to the enemy.

    At first blush it might seem that if the law empowers the president to cut off all trade, it should allow him to regulate trade through tariffs. Jill Homan of the America First Policy Institute makes just the argument in another amicus brief in support of the president. But it is a slipshod argument. The IEEPA arises from the need to allow the president to impose powerful embargoes against specific military belligerents during declared wars. That is a more powerful use of force, but against a specific, threatening target. Trump’s tariffs, by contrast, have been imposed indefinitely against the whole world — including closely allied peaceful nations such as the UK, Canada, and France — in response to a merely “economic” threat.

    The idea of a tariff on commerce with an enemy in wartime makes little sense. If an “enemy” can safely be traded with as long as he pays an extra bribe, he must not be very threatening. A truly threatening enemy, such as Germany or Japan during World War II, is one you’d embargo entirely to cut off fuel for their war effort.

    Professor Bamzai points out that most of history leading up to the Trading with the Enemy Act involves total embargoes. The few exceptions are revealing. A fee was imposed on trade in cotton with Tennessee during the U.S. Civil War, but only when Tennessee had been militarily occupied and hostilities were ceasing. He also notes that fees were imposed on trade with Mexican ports during the Mexican-American War. But as another amicus brief against the tariffs points out, they were only against Mexican nationals ­— not U.S. citizens who pay tariffs ­— and only in ports that were occupied by the American military.

    Whatever the trade restrictions in wars that were part of the president’s genuine foreign policy power, they applied only to trade with belligerent or occupied nations and only for the duration of the war. Contrast that with Trump’s tariffs: in the name of “foreign policy,” President Trump is, in effect, declaring economic “war” against the entire world, enemies and allies alike. But a real American foreign policy does recognize allies, like the United Kingdom and Canada.

    The idea that the president is due some deference to manage his sweeping global tariffs in the name of “foreign policy” is a complete sham.

    Ben Bayer

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  • Opinion | The U.K. Stabbing Is Every Commuter’s Nightmare

    For those of us who ride the commuter rails and subways daily, Saturday night’s mass stabbing on a London-bound train is a nightmare brought to life. In such confined and well-lit spaces, there isn’t any way to do what the experts say you should: run, hide and, as a last resort, fight.

    A train car moving at high speed with the doors and windows closed is a violent psychopath’s dream—a veritable barrel full of unarmed, unsuspecting fish. Most of us have our heads buried in our phones, our ears distracted by music or podcasts. Some of us are poring over newspapers or dreamily watching the countryside fly by. Rarely do any of us do a threat assessment of those nearby. We are in our own little in-between place—not home, not at work. En route. Vulnerable.

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    Matthew Hennessey

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  • Sen. Tom Umberg: Protecting the right to vote in the face of intimidation

    Voter intimidation, unfortunately, is nothing new. I saw it 37 years ago, on Election Day in 1988, when I was an Assistant U.S. Attorney on duty at a local polling place. A person dressed as a police officer, carrying a large sign that said “Non-Citizens May Not Vote,” was questioning a Latino couple and asking for proof of citizenshipas they approached the polling station. I called the FBI, and it turns out this bad actor wasn’t acting alone – he was part of an orchestrated effort to intimidate Latino voters at 20 polling locations across Santa Ana.

    The candidate who was the beneficiary of this racist and illegal effort went on to narrowly win the election, and that moment ultimately shaped my career and my commitment to protecting every American’s fundamental right to participate in our democracy.

    Today, we are facing a similar and no less serious threat. The Trump administration’s ICE raids have had a devastating impact on thousands of people here in Orange County and across California. Images of masked ICE agents arresting or harassing community members simply because of their language, skin color or occupation as they go about their daily lives – including U.S. citizens and legal residents – has created a real and understandable fear among too many of our families, friends, neighbors and communities. This intimidation campaign has deterred kids from going to school, kept families from attending church, and stopped workers from doing their essential jobs.

    Adding to this heightened state of fear, President Trump now plans to send federal poll watchers to California to “monitor” the election. Given his record of trying to overturn legitimate elections and spreading false accusations about undocumented Latinos voting, his intentions are clear: to control and suppress the vote. Combined with Republicans’ reckless and debunked rhetoric about widespread voter fraud, these actions are a thinly veiled attempt to justify the sort of voter intimidation that you see in authoritarian regimes around the world.

    As we approach our next Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 4, we cannot allow these intimidation tactics to prevent Californians from exercising their constitutional right to vote.

    A recent article from the Daily News underscores this exact fear, particularly among Latino and immigrant populations, about the safety of showing up at the polls amid ICE’s ongoing raids. In fact, two out of three U.S.-born, registered Latino voters in a recent California survey said they were concerned about encountering immigration enforcement agents at a polling location in next week’s election.

    To be clear: Legal U.S. citizens fear that simply going to a polling place could put them at risk of physical harm or unlawful detention.

    Thankfully, in California, we have a safeguard.

    Tom Umberg

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