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Botched executions reached ‘astonishing’ high in 2022, report finds
Two death row prisoners were exonerated in 2022 as society’s ultimate sanction became more geographically isolated, with only a handful of states carrying out executions in the last year, according to a new report. The number of botched executions also reached an “astonishing” level, according to the research by the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington […]
The next Jan. 6 should worry us more | Opinion
A version of this commentary originally appeared in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. One year ago on this day, U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle was at his desk at the Longworth House Office Building, near the U.S. Capitol, when he heard an enraged mob, fueled by a former president’s false claims of fraud, making its way up Independence Avenue. Boyle, a […]
My 9/11 prayer: The lessons we can learn from the great silence | Opinion
For my column this week, one that comes the day before the 20-year observance of the Sept. 11 attacks, I want to tell you a story. Two decades ago, my sister was teaching English at the Hosaka English Academy, in Numazu, Japan, about two hours southwest of Tokyo. Sometime in the dark hours after the attack, as […]
Everything we know about work is wrong. The pandemic proved it | Opinion
So what can the plight of a little cafe tell you about the state of the American economy and the changing face of work? A lot, as it turns out. The other week, the bistro where my family and I have been grabbing brunch every Sunday since the start of the pandemic announced that it […]
In our mad, polarized, COVID surge summer, the only way out is through
It all kind of piled up this week: COVID hospitalizations and deaths are up. We’re still trying to convince the unvaccinated to get vaccinated, even as intensive care units fill beyond capacity. As the Delta variant of the implacable virus attacks our children. Florida’s governor threatens the withhold the wages of educators who want to […]
What the Dems need to do about their Manchin problem
As a Democrat from a staunchly Republican state, U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, is a vanishing breed, not only in contemporary American politics, but in a Democratic Party that is steadily tacking to the left. The senator from the Mountain State has tied his party in knots this year with an insistence on bipartisanship with Republicans […]