Opinion

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told the media on Friday that for the “desired effects” to lower US inflation, it was worth considering taking steps to reduce the tariffs on Chinese goods.

When Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February, trampling on the sovereignty of a neighbor, international sanctions were the best path forward for the United States and its allies to take. The ruthlessness and grave atrocities toward civilians that have ensued since only reinforce that call.

The Biden Administration this week announced another installment in its student-loan forgiveness plan to “fix longstanding failures” in the program. Translation: Taxpayers will pay again for the mistakes of Congress and the Obama Administration.

The eyes of the world were upon Texas this week, looking to see if the state would execute a woman who very well may be innocent of the crime for which she was sentenced to die. The scales of justice have weighed against Melissa Lucio since 2007.

Thumbs down — In heated conversation, an analogy invoking Hitler or the Nazis is often considered a disqualifying breach of rhetorical etiquette. These days, maybe the same should go for the word pandemic. While we all agree that the fake paper license tags proliferating around the state and the nation are a problem, we’re not sure it’s a full blown “tagdemic,” as Travis County Sgt. Jose Escribano was quoted saying this week in the Chronicle. Sure, the fake tags by latest count may end up having cost Harris County taxpayers $80 million in lost revenue over the past five years, but that doesn’t seem quite comparable to the 6.2 million people who have died in the global pandemic. Besides, ‘tag-mageddon’ rolls off the tongue much easier. The false tag problem stems from changes to the Texas DMV online system for creating temporary tags that allowed people claiming to be dealers to gain access often under fake names and addresses and harvest millions of tags. The ordeal, and the DMV’s slow response to fixing it, has angered lawmakers and already led to the ouster of longtime agency head Whitney Brewster, who Chronicle reporter Dug Begley wryly noted in a February story “will not be renewing her tag for a spot in the employee parking lot.” We imagine she left the building with a slight smile of relief, turning to bewildered subordinates and delivering those profound, parting words, ‘tag, you’re it!’

As if there were not enough challenges facing the United States right now, Americans have to be on alert for a resurgence of book-banning campaigns at their local libraries. Across the nation, groups of mostly White conservatives are demanding that books be locked up or taken off the shelves entirely. Their main targets? Books about Black and LGBTQ people.