As it confronts an epochal series of decisions about how we conduct our presidential elections, the U.S. Supreme Court is skating on thin ice. Monday’s unanimous decision restoring Donald Trump to the Maine ballot just before in-person voting in Tuesday’s presidential primary was not unexpected, but its sweeping nature certainly was. The court agreed that […]

Get this: Men and women’s brains are different. Using a powerful, first-of-its-kind artificial intelligence model, Stanford Medicine was able to determine with a 90% success rate whether or not an MRI scan of human brain activity was coming from a male brain or a female brain. “The findings, the investigators suggest, help to resolve a […]

THE CONVERSATION — The local news crisis has led to no end of policy proposals, funding initiatives and angry denunciations of the harm done to journalism by the likes of Craigslist, Google and Facebook. Ideas for responding to the crisis include paying recent journalism school graduates with state tax revenues to cover underserved communities, as in […]

THE CONVERSATION — The months since Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, have been excruciating ones for Israeli peace activists. As the country rallies behind the war effort, critics have been arrested and condemned by opponents who say the attacks proved how misguided the peace movement is. But in activists’ eyes, the horrific violence of Oct. […]

THE CONVERSATION — They may be the most important government officials you can’t name. Their decisions have the potential to alter election results. Scholars have referred to them as the “guardians of the democratic process.” Who are these unknown, but essential, officials? State secretaries of state. You probably know only one person with the title […]

Vladimir Putin has lost in Ukraine. Has the U.S., Ukraine’s major backer, won? Putin stated Russia’s goals, has not met them and has no chance of success. The U.S. has not stated America’s goals in intervening in the Ukraine War. Simply saying that the U.S. backs Ukraine has proved to be inadequate. Putin has had […]

Living in the Midcoast, one of our greatest joys is being able to walk the shoreline. Whether it’s in brisk winter weather or the warm summer sun, our coastline is a wonder to behold. I think that’s a big part of why the devastating storms in December and January felt so brutal. People’s homes and […]