The ultimate weakness of an organization's tightly closed leadership system is that it limits beliefs and information outside its control. Hence, leaders quickly discount input from others as invalid or unworthy of evaluation.

"Despite ubiquitous depictions of moms on the verge of collapse, only a third in a Pew poll said parenting was stressful all or most of the time. The data was a far cry from a miserable portrait.” Why do we privilege the grim narratives?

We could be looking at a new era of ballot initiative politics, in which conservatives routinely force statewide votes to rein in the more progressive inclinations of Democratic lawmakers and governors.

It was Englishman Charles Barkley who in 1787 finally sailed into the mysterious strait and named it for Juan de Fuca.

The action is welcome, a correction of what many in the laity think to be a clerical error. It will also be unsettling to influential and entrenched conservatives in the American Catholic hierarchy.

It’s an extraordinary presence, a creature with a 50-million-year history, far longer than ours. In death a whale is still a leviathan asking us to approach with respect. When I saw it up close, my mind went toward humility, not comedy. Its emaciated body was an indictment.

“This is a budget that is changing lives. There are some numbers attached to it but these numbers aren’t important,” Inslee said at an afternoon news conference. “What’s important are the lives.”

He clearly knew the town's cultural landscape and the groups to help, so his shortchanged career is another reason for the town to miss this effective, buoyant leader.

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., ranking Democrat on the House Rules Committee, kicked off floor debate Wednesday, saying: “We are here for one reason and one reason alone: Donald Trump demanded that Republicans impeach and they are going to impeach.”

The rock-ribbed Wyoming conservative has written a compelling first-hand account of the January 6 assault on the U. S. Capitol and the investigation that followed.

Technology, generational change, pandemic recovery, money, and meddling were the major trends in higher education this past year.

As I have written here before, framing everything in terms of the oppressor/oppressed binary is a dangerous game to play, now coming back to haunt progressives.

Over the years I’ve seen many slings and arrows aimed at writers of wine tasting notes. I’ve seen half-baked attempts at ‘modernizing’ tasting terms...

The United Arab Emirates and Germany both committed $100 million, but the United States pledged just $17 million. To place that in context, that contribution is approximately half of the annual compensation of ExxonMobil’s CEO, DW Woods.

It will take pragmatic and bold leadership to halt this slide into a society that will not be seen as a land of the free. 

They will be seen as the rose atop the slag heap. Dorothy prevailing over the Wicked Witch. Ferris Bueller prevailing over his day off.

James Agee suspects we are unworthy of reading his book, just as he suspects himself unworthy of writing it. He does not allow us to meet a single member of his families until a third of the way through.

The "CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite" reached nearly 30 million viewers every night when the US population was 200 million. That’s more than the audience for all three network news broadcasts today.

With an estate of more than $12 million after her husband’s death, Agnes Healy Anderson was a focal point of philanthropy, both traditional and off-beat. 

This year I felt it was especially important to participate in this symbolic community event. The recent antisemitic incidents that have occurred right here on Mercer Island and elsewhere have been deeply disturbing.

"Traces of the old era are disappearing. Turning our head, we find ourselves in a different era of turbulent winds and clouds."

If you’ve never been a fan of Shane MacGowan, I get it. Like most genuine geniuses, he was an acquired taste. For one thing, he was supremely slovenly, the patron saint of dishevelment.

One expects brilliance from any musician associated with Miles’s bands. What they don’t expect is a chance to drive said artist back to their hotel after the gig.

Fears about democracy's fragility should be tempered with a recognition of its essential and demonstrated malleability – its capacity for adaptation, improvement, and expanding inclusivity.

Signs of progress: By 1979, more women than men were enrolled in America’s colleges and universities. Currently, across all academic disciplines, women are about 59 percent of the student population but still only 48 percent of the faculty.

In yet another example of why the attorney general’s office is a great place to be if you’re running for governor, Ferguson used fishy visual aids this past week to announce that money is on its way to 402,200 low-income Washington households whom the AG’s office determined paid the most for the sins of Big Tuna and Big Chicken.

“Short people got no reason to live” sang Randy Newman in the song of the same name. Short bottles got no chance to live... they simply disappear.

The parents, each holding their own little cellphone camera light in the darkness, stood dazzled and awe-struck by what their progeny were managing to pull off.

District elections are touted to help elect minorities and to bind the candidates closer to a district. In fact, they might discourage voting and lock in incumbents.

Under even the most generous assumptions, it is extremely unlikely that any Cascadia HSR system will be built. So why do we keep wasting time, energy and money studying it?