Opinion

$113.6 Billion: Congress Appropriated 3 Times as Much in Response to Ukraine as

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From February 2022 to December 2023, Congress appropriated about three times as much money for its response to the conflict in Ukraine as the federal government spent on Customs and Border Protection. Congress approved approximately $113.4 billion in spending related to the Ukraine conflict during this period, while the government spent only $37.82 billion on Customs and Border Protection.

Social Security and You

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That’s Not What I Meant To Say I’ve always taken pride in the fact that I do a pretty good job of explaining Social Security rules in simple and easy-to-understand language. But every once in a while, I’m reminded that something I say or write that I think is pretty clear and simple can be misinterpreted.

The Culture of Gun Violence

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“Turn on the TV,” my friend Annie said. No hello -- it has to be something bad. “The Super Bowl.” At first I thought Las Vegas. But no, this must be Kansas City. A shooting. One woman dead. Twenty-two people shot. Eleven children. Here we go again. What could be more American? The schools were closed. A million people gathered to celebrate. And this.

Dear Annie

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Dear Annie: My husband and I have been having a rough time. He cheated on me with a young woman and got her pregnant. I think this was her goal, secretly. She knew he had a wife and wanted him to leave me.

Dear Annie

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Dear Annie: I was close to all my brothers when we were growing up, especially because we had no extended family around. Our grandparents and aunts and uncles were quite a distance away. All of us really felt it, and the siblings always wanted spouses who could provide what we never had -- a close relationship with our family.

Contraception limits are foolhardy. Let’s not turn it into the next anti-abortion battleground.

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Oklahoma’s male-dominated Legislature wants it both ways: Lawmakers decided women should have to carry most pregnancies to term, regardless of whether they want to. Now they want to make it harder for women to take medication that would keep them from getting pregnant in the first place.

The Liberal Media Bubble Is Thick on How to Cover Campaign 2024

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Whenever you set up a liberal journalist or panel of liberal journalists to address “the role of the media in the 2024 election,” it’s going to reflect the questions inside their bubble, so it’s mostly about Donald Trump. How does he get away with so much? How does he gain advantage from 91 felony indictments? Can we cover his speeches live? Do we quote his social media posts?

Dear Annie

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Dear Annie: We have a very close friend whose 16-yearold daughter, “Lily,” babysits for us quite often. There have been a couple of times, however, that Lily has not had her phone with her when she comes to babysit.