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AI not yet ready for the courtroom

“Pro se” is a legal phrase that speaks to how an individual is represented in court. It is Latin, meaning “for self.” It refers to a party acting as his or her own advocate in a legal proceeding. While a lawyer may be the smart move, a person isn’t obligated to hire someone to do the job. There are obvious problems with this. Lawyers go to school for years to learn the ins and outs of the court system. Law school can have a high bar of entry to start. The education is a combination of grueling memorization, precise writing and creative problem solving. Even after all ...

Deposit insurance for billionaires?

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 loans to ...

What world’s richest country can’t afford

Undermining the principles that made America wealthy is no way to fix poverty. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently participated in a CNN Town Hall. Sanders appears to be passing the socialist leadership torch to AOC. Don’t expect her to support collective ownership of that prize. You shouldn’t discount her ability to one day win the presidency either. As seen by the ascension of Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic Party is increasingly comfortable with socialism. Many young people are, too. During their town hall, Sanders articulated the appeal. ...

Term-limits ordinance should respect principles

To understand where Williamsport is today, it may be helpful to reflect on where America was nearly 75 years ago. When the 22nd Amendment was passed to limit future presidents to two terms, President Harry S. Truman had not yet decided whether he would seek a third term. Nobody doubted he had the right to, or pretended he didn’t, because of what was then a deeply engrained principle of our democratic republic. Laws should not be applied retroactively. Attempting to entrap somebody who was engaged in an activity or behavior that had been legal should be recognized as an ...

My sister’s confidence boosted my self-assurance

I would not make the trip by myself, but I also would not pass up the opportunity. I texted my sister Erica, who lives on the West Coast, “How do you feel about Montana?” Let me back up. When I started writing about conservationists protecting our American landscapes, I knew travel was part of the package. I enjoyed walk-and-talk interviews in the woods, but Montana was different. This was no three-hour excursion but a weeklong scouting trip in America’s Serengeti. It included camping in the middle of nowhere without cell reception and setting up a tent on a platform so bison ...

Louvre heist encapsulates a culture that will not defend itself

I write from a quiet, mountainous part of Central Europe. The scenery is idyllic, and the fall air is crisp. But much as the case has been in my other recent trips to the European continent, the sights I see and the conversations I hear are all underscored by a similar haunting concern: Will there even be a Europe, in any cognizable sense of the term, a century from now? All across the continent, fertility rates have plummeted, and the Christianity that defined the civilization for two millennia is viewed as a quaint relic of a bygone era. The combination of modern European Union ...