Dear readers: It was pretty much a given that special counsel Robert Mueller’s account of his two-year investigation would be spun by partisans on both sides. Still, in the run-up to the report’s release, there was hope that the meticulously documented, 448-page tome would finally provide us with at least a common set of facts. That it might stand as an impartial, evidence-based delineation of Trump campaign officials’ awareness of and involvement in the Russian interference campaign during the 2016 election, as well as the president’s subsequent efforts to impede the investigation. Nope. ...

Wed, 24 Apr 2019 17:54:52 -0400

“Which shows you what a knucklehead I was,” says Dr. Maull, who was caught and convicted in 1985 and given the mandatory minimum sentence that altered his life. This aim to uphold the humanity and minimize the pain of those who have committed heinous acts is not a natural impulse for most people. But as a Buddhist spiritual adviser and a prisoners’ rights activist who founded the National Prison Hospice Association while serving his sentence, Dr. Maull sees this goal as springing from an important principle. This year, as a newly constituted Supreme Court has begun to readdress capital punishment, the tension between the principle of human dignity and the practical needs of justice has come into focus in a way the United States has not seen for decades, experts say.

Wed, 24 Apr 2019 16:02:31 -0400

The Mueller report is bringing questions of ethics and morality in government once again to the forefront of a vigorous public debate. Jammed with primary sources, special counsel Robert Mueller’s 448-page journey into the inner workings of the Trump campaign and early presidency pops with detail: It is a tale of palace intrigue, deceit, and attempts to collaborate with a foreign power and hinder a federal investigation. The report lays bare copious contacts between Russians and Trump associates during the campaign, though it finds no criminal conspiracy.

Wed, 24 Apr 2019 15:24:41 -0400

Ms. Creech is a former Air Force nurse and part of a growing effort across the United States to help veterans become farmers. This effort began a decade ago when a California farm manager named Michael O’Gorman assembled a small group of vets and started the Farmer Veteran Coalition. Ms. Creech has been both a beneficiary and a leader of this mobilization, a node in an expanding web of veteran farmers and would-be farmers.

Wed, 24 Apr 2019 14:30:03 -0400