The reputation of foster care has become so bad that few may have noticed when New York City’s Department of Investigation reported last month that the Administration for Children’s Services was failing to ensure the safety of foster children. Of course, it is not hard to find headlines about foster parents accused of abusing kids. […]

To the Editor: Re “Spanking Is Ineffective and Harmful to Children, Pediatricians’ Group Says” (news article, nytimes.com, Nov. 5): Parents have been disciplining their children by spanking for generations, and it might be tempting for some adults who were spanked themselves as children to give short shrift to the recent policy statement of the American […]

My spouse and I are the parents of newly minted preschoolers, so we were excited for their school’s annual Thanksgiving luncheon a couple of weeks ago. When we dropped off our twins at school one morning, the head teacher was busily working a pair of craft scissors. “Don’t look!” she exclaimed. “It’s a surprise for […]

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.) Good morning. Here’s what you need to know: Trump stands with Saudis over Khashoggi killing In a remarkable statement on Tuesday, President Trump brushed aside the conclusions of American intelligence officials and a growing body of evidence linking Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi […]

At the start of every semester, before we dive into the course’s syllabus, I stand before my university students and let them ask me anything. Some ask about my writing career, grill me on the meaning of my tattoos or request pictures of my dog. But at least a few students each year ask me […]

The pilgrim William Bradford tells us about the first Thanksgiving. Winter was brutal. Snowbound in their hastily built houses, nearly every settler got sick; all were hungry, and half died. Spring followed, and with the help of Indians, the survivors reaped their first American harvest. English hunters went fowling in the woods, Massasoit brought in […]

At a Beto O’Rourke rally near Dallas shortly before the midterms, Sonia Qutob, 41, turned to her friend and asked what was clearly the most pressing question about the candidate. “Do you think,” she said, “that he needs a second wife?” O’Rourke seems to me plenty happy with the first. But a fangirl can dream. […]

President Trump confirmed the harshest caricatures drawn by America’s most cynical critics on Tuesday when he portrayed its central objectives in the world as panting after money and narrow self-interest. Ignoring the findings of the C.I.A., Mr. Trump said in a muddled statement released by the White House that, in effect, no matter how wrong […]

(Reuters) – Canadian gaming and entertainment operator Gateway Casinos & Entertainment Ltd on Tuesday filed for an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “GTWY”. The company set a placeholder amount of $100 million to indicate the size of […]

Gail Collins: Whole new world, Bret. Got a new Congress coming in, and a new … Well, there are some new governors. Same old president. And I do want to ask you about the dreaded wall, among other Trumpisms. But first, any particular election takeaways? Bret Stephens: The good news, Gail, is that Democrats had […]