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Families urged to vaccinate before the school year starts

Editorial

With Michigan classrooms set to reopen in a matter of weeks, doctors and public health leaders Thursday urged parents to check their children's immunization records and catch up on any missed vaccines before the first day of school. The call comes as the U.S. logs its worst measles year in 35 years, and as vaccine-preventable diseases such as whooping cough and chickenpox continue to circulate in the state, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services reports in a news release. As of July 22, the U.S. had recorded 2,321 measles cases nationwide, according to the Johns Hopkins ...

AI bots are busting loose - have we seen this movie before?

Columns

As an old-school newshound — meaning I can remember typewriters — I am familiar with the old newsroom saying, "If you don't like the news, just wait a few minutes." Lately, I find myself waiting more than a few minutes for another shoe to drop in a present-day saga widely referred to as ...

Houston Chronicle: Feds are still blocking an independent investigation into ICE shooting death

Editorial

More than two weeks after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo dead on a Houston street, the U.S. federal government stands in the way of an independent, transparent investigation. ICE hasn’t cooperated with local law enforcement, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare told a Congressional forum in Houston on Friday. In fact, at the same time that Teare was answering representatives’ questions, his key witness was in a federal hearing about whether or not he’d even get to stay in the country. Salgado’s brother, Victor, is “by all accounts ...

Trump was never funny

Columns

In a display of Stockholm Syndrome, the White House Correspondents' Association invited Donald Trump to be the keynote speaker at their annual festival of self-appreciation. Because he is who he is, he did not take the opportunity to do the kind of gentle press ribbing that past presidents ...

US-Saudi nuclear agreement further erodes international safeguards

Editorial

Even as he threatened to escalate an unlawful war sold in part as preventing Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon, Donald Trump opened the door to proliferation in the region on Wednesday. The US announced that it had signed a deal with Saudi Arabia which would potentially allow the kingdom to enrich uranium in future and to avoid the fullest inspection rights for the international watchdog. Experts have long warned that a civilian nuclear programme could create a path towards a nuclear-armed Riyadh. Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince and de facto leader, has said that if Tehran ...

Ending the filibuster with one-party rule - Blame the Democrats

Columns

One of the biggest "insider" congressional battles occurring today has to do with the elimination of the Senate filibuster. Using a simple majority vote in the chamber which can give just "one-party" control was not an original idea of President Donald Trump. It was the brainchild of ...