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NBA reminds us that America has a serious gambling issue

Columns

Terry Rozier of the Miami Heat has built a respectable NBA career, averaging about 20 points per game some years. In all likelihood, though, the Miami Heat point guard will now be remembered less for what he did on the court than as another data point in how runaway sports betting is corrupting major athletics. Rozier stands accused of tipping off gamblers that he would leave a game early in March 2023 based on a supposed injury. This allowed his co-conspirators to bet the “under” on his performance and profit handsomely, sharing the proceeds with Rozier. A former NBA ...

Shining Light in the Dark

Editorials

October marks Domestic Violence Awareness Month, but the truth is this crisis does not disappear when the calendar turns. As St. Clairsville Mayor Kathryn Thalman noted in her proclamation, the fight to end domestic violence must be year-round. Few understand this more than Sheila Abbott. Abbott founded Leah’s Wing in 2024 after her daughter, Leah Hines, was murdered in her sleep by an abusive partner. In sharing Leah’s story, Abbott has turned her pain into a mission to help others. Her message is simple but urgent: no one should suffer abuse in silence or feel they have no way ...

Will we soon have deposit insurance for billionaires?

Columns

Politicians in Washington have the shortest memories. Maybe that’s why they so seldom learn from their sometimes catastrophic mistakes. It was less than 20 years ago that the U.S. economy was flattened by the mortgage and banking crisis. Anyone remember? The experts said that the odds were tiny that the housing market could crash; that the federal housing agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would never need a bailout; that mortgage-backed securities were as good as gold. Then they crashed overnight spectacularly and devastatingly. Banks made riskier and riskier housing ...

Several strange paths to not talking about the news

Columns

Are you, like me, kind of freaking out a little bit? Do masked men patrol your city streets, snatching people up and throwing them into vans headed for overcrowded detention centers where they will be held incommunicado and pressured to sign self-deportation orders that abrogate their rights to a fair trial? Have your lawmakers all seemingly gone on an extended vacation, lolling around their favorite lobbyist’s vacation home, swilling free Chateau Lafite Rothschild and fielding job offers to consult in the industries they’re regulating? Did your commander-in-chief recently ...

There’s nothing guaranteed in our lives

Columns

This week, as I was going through my online news feeds, which included updates on the government shutdown, I came across several stories about furloughed federal workers and contractors standing in line at food banks in Maryland and the D.C. area. In Landover, Md., the lines were extremely long, with numerous cars parked on the street near the Capital Area Food Bank. Just over 4 miles away in Hyattsville, Md., photos captured the expressions of apprehension of those patiently waiting for food that mostly consisted of dried, processed and shelf-stable items. Some in line, probably wanting ...

So, who’s afraid of big, bad Bari Weiss?

Columns

There’s something bonkers in the hard left’s hysteria over Bari Weiss becoming editor-in-chief of CBS News. A psych eval comes toward the end. John Oliver recently delivered an unhinged tirade against Weiss as a right-wing tool of MAGA. Oliver was his usual self — frantic hands, googly eyes and a rapid-fire string of quips that seldom rose above the merely cute. (His producers had the laugh track in fifth gear. You can tell by the repeated “wall of laughter” that suddenly stops.) Weiss resigned from her columnist post at The New York Times and proceeded to launch The Free ...