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Senator-elect El-Sayed prevails despite false attacks

Letters To The Editor

To the Journal editor: Some weeks ago, The Mining Journal made the decision to stop publishing political Letters to the Editor in the run-up to the midterm election. I support this decision. With that in mind, I was very disappointed to see a political “cartoon” on the Opinion page of the Journal on Nov. 3 (Election Day). This “cartoon” featured a caricature of U.S. senatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed that could only be described as, at best, a negative stereotype of an Arab person and at worst a racist attack. The “cartoon” implied the El-Sayed was somehow associated with ...

A wipeout for Republicans

Columns

In 2010, President Obama described those midterm elections as a "shellacking" for Democrats, who lost 60 seats in the House. Then, as now, the economy was the top issue. If Republicans could have had a worse night, I don't know what it would be. From Maine to Michigan to Texas, Republicans ...

Dems have opportunity

Letters To The Editor

To the Journal editor: Democrats have been entrusted with a unique opportunity to give life to the promises that persuaded voters to put them in charge of both houses of Congress. They should not be distracted by a desire for revenge, nor is it necessary to dwell at length on exposing corruption, much of which occurred in plain view. Legislation should be directed at lowering the cost of health care, housing and education, shifting the tax burden from middle and working class families to wealthy corporations and the super rich and getting dark money out of politics. The threat of ...

What has the government done to our freedoms?

Columns

Does the government work for us, or do we work for the government? We pay its taxes, obey its laws and regulations, finance its wars and submit to its surveillance. We are told that all of this is necessary for personal safety, collective prosperity and national security. Yet the government ...

Democrats won. More importantly, democracy won

Columns

Stop the talk about a triumphal arch at the gates of Arlington Cemetery. Stop bullying the Kennedy Center into putting the Trump name on its front. Stop obsessing over the Reflecting Pool. Stop cutting down trees at a public golf course in Washington to make a championship course. These ...

One life, or the paperwork

Columns

To the Journal editor: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission keeps a price for a human life. By its own numbers, a year of savings from its newest rule is worth less than one of those lives. The rule, proposed in July under a 2025 executive order, drops a 50-year-old principle called ALARA: keep radiation “as low as reasonably achievable.” The NRC’s analysis puts the savings at about $10.5 million a year, counted “to the nearest 1,000 dollars,” mostly from less paperwork. The agency values one statistical life at roughly $12 million. The case for the change is fair. ALARA’s ...