Commentary: Biden latest attack on American energy is costing your family

Want to pay more for energy? If so, President Joe Biden’s new drilling prohibition in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is good news for you. The rest of us, though, are less than thrilled with his efforts to throttle the energy sector. They’re needlessly costing American families an extra $2,400 on their annual energy bills.

Commentary: Yes, I’ve heard a thousand Burning Man jokes. Here’s what I got out of this year’s epic mud event

Sock, bag, sock: That’s the unlikely mantra that got me through Burning Man 2023, when heavy rains stranded tens of thousands of us in the Nevada desert. This was my sixth time going to this not-quite music festival, not-quite outdoor art exposition, not-quite social experiment (it’s all of that and more). I help lead a “theme camp,” which means I organize a group of campers and we build a shared space that all Burners can enjoy.

Editorial: Steps toward accountability on Indigenous issues

On Aug. 24, the state Department of Public Safety released a report on missing Indigenous people in Alaska, with statistics and names of those who have yet to be found. A week later, the nonprofit National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition did its own reporting on another pertinent issue — the government boarding schools across the U.S., including in Alaska, where American Indians and Alaska Native children were sent in an attempt to attempt to assimilate them into Western culture.

Editorial: Group identity drives American division

Social scientists believe they know why America has become so divided along political lines. “The human brain in many circumstances is more suited to tribalism and conflict than to civility and reasoned debate,” The Wall Street Journal reported last month in a piece headlined “Why Tribalism Took Over Our Politics.”

Commentary: History shows the path between ‘woke’ economics and nationalism on stilts

The U.S. economy and economies worldwide are out of balance and still adjusting to the effects of COVID-19, the Russia-Ukraine war, higher energy prices, persistent inflation and the rapid rise of high-tech global firms. As a result, Germany’s longstanding manufacturing boom has ended, China’s economic growth is headed south and America is registering just pale GDP growth assisted by COVID stimulus spending and large government subsidies designed to make the nation less dependent on fossil fuels and imports from other countries (especially China).

Are electric and self-driving cars really a good idea?

Politicians and pundits get excited about new technology they barely or don’t even understand. Too often their pronouncements are based on, or taken literally from press releases. I’m not against new technology, but someone has to cool off the hype before we corner ourselves based on belief that exceeds possibility.

Biden’s Medicare drug price plan is good medicine for Americans

The federal government operates three gigantic systems providing health care to millions of Americans. The VA takes care of veterans, Medicaid (whose costs are shared with states and localities) is coverage for the poor and Medicare is health insurance for seniors and people with disabilities.

Bob Barker: Goodbye to a national treasure

The world has lost a true legend, and animals — as well as PETA—have lost a dear friend. Bob Barker was known for a lot of things, but what meant the most to him and what he spent most of his life pursuing was justice for animals.

Our addiction to fossil fuels is killing baby penguins

Around parts of Antarctica last year, whole colonies of emperor penguins lost the all chicks they stoically incubated through weeks of darkness, -50C temperatures, and 100 miles-per-hour winds. This sad discovery came via a combination of commercial and government satellites that scientists adapted to spy on the penguins. These iconic birds depend on sea ice as a platform for breeding and raising chicks, but as the globe is warming, the ice is melting too early. The chicks, too young to swim, are drowning.