InsideSources, Washington D.C., DC (2026)

02/25/2026

When the FDA Moves the Goalposts, Children with Rare Diseases Lose by Jessica Haywood.

"For families with children who have Sanfilippo syndrome, a terminal type of childhood dementia, time is not measured in years or presidential cycles. It is measured in lost words, hospital visits, seizures and skills slipping away. Birthdays are bittersweet because we know there will be far too few of them.

"This community is not alone. Children suffering from thousands of rare and debilitating childhood diseases, such as Hunter syndrome, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and many others, are declining every day.

"However, they don’t have to. The Food and Drug Administration can move today to prioritize therapies that have made a measurable difference for these children, such as the Sanfilippo type A gene therapy UX111, which has been helping patients for almost 10 years.

"My niece, Sadie, is almost 10 years old and is full of life despite her struggles with Sanfilippo syndrome. Sadie was diagnosed early, at only 3 months old. Around the same time, the first child was dosed with UX111. We have been watching this drug’s development for Sadie’s entire life. We have longed for it to reach approval so she could receive it.

"Unfortunately, the application has been delayed twice due to manufacturing documentation, not safety or efficacy concerns. For diseases with a life expectancy of 15 years, accelerated approval and regulatory flexibility must operate as intended.

"We’ve spoken to parents of children who have been treated with UX111 at varying ages. Their kids are running when they should be wheelchair bound. They’re eating by mouth when otherwise they should have a feeding tube. After seeing such promise, the FDA’s rejection last summer was devastating. And we weren’t alone, as many rare degenerative disease patients watched approvals for diseases like Duchenne and Spinocerebellar ataxia slow or come to a screeching regulatory halt. ..."

For families with children who have Sanfilippo syndrome, a terminal type of childhood dementia, time is not measured in years or presidential cycles. It

02/25/2026

Career Education Is the Future of Learning by Ben Seymour.

"Throughout February, Career and Technical Education Month invites us to reflect on how schools prepare young people for life beyond graduation. Too often, conversations about education frame students as choosing between college and career readiness, as if intellectual rigor and practical skills exist in separate worlds.

"Career and technical education represents a vital evolution in how we define student success in a modern economy. Across industries, employers need adaptable graduates who can think critically and collaborate effectively. These qualities are not cultivated through theory alone; they grow when students engage with real problems, real tools and real expectations.

"This is why high-quality, career-focused programs have become essential partners in workforce development and economic growth. They allow students to connect academic content to tangible outcomes, increasing motivation and deepening understanding.

"A recent WestEd study across five U.S. high schools offering the International Baccalaureate’s Career-related Program (CP) found that strong community partnerships, clear postsecondary pathways, and the integration of real-world career learning in instruction are key indicators of student success in college and the workforce.

"The CP was built for students seeking an education that blends academic rigor with professional competency building and exploration. At Huron High School in Ann Arbor, Mich., CP students participate in a homebuilding project that transforms a classroom concept into a community asset. Students collaborate to construct a real house from the ground up, applying principles of engineering, architecture, budgeting and teamwork. They work with industry professionals, seeing firsthand how planning translates into structure.

"By the time the home is complete, students have gained technical expertise and confidence in their ability to solve complex problems. Experiences like this illustrate that career education is most powerful when it is immersive and community-based. ..."

Throughout February, Career and Technical Education Month invites us to reflect on how schools prepare young people for life beyond graduation. Too often,

02/24/2026

SOTU: Trump Has Much to Brag About by Inez Stepman.

"Today, President Trump will deliver the annual State of the Union address. Underneath the pyrotechnics, the president has a strong case to make that the country is better off than before he took office.

"The political left and its allies have gone on offense on the immigration issue, painting a picture of heartless and out-of-control ICE agents snatching people minding their own business off the streets. The president should counter that narrative with hard facts.

"The stories, for example, of teens Brady Heiling and his girlfriend Hallie Helgeson, who had their lives tragically stolen by an undocumented drunk driver from Honduras, who never should have been in their native Wisconsin. Or the unnamed minor victim of the transgender-identifying illegal alien from Colombia charged with child rape in New York, set free by the state’s sanctuary laws. President Trump should invite the families of the victims of open border policies to his State of the Union.

"By contrast, under Trump, for the first time in more than 30 years, the United States has an orderly border. Potential undocumented immigrants have lost easy access to the country, and we have made enormous progress toward deporting the millions here illegally. Voters have demanded this restoration of law and order for decades, but it has been ignored by both parties until Trump came into office.

"The president should point out that it is blue states’ sanctuary policies that lead to more dangerous confrontations with deranged protesters and more widespread community raids, instead of the low-risk jail and courthouse pickups in red states.

"These tactics are forced by Democrats’ refusal to cooperate with law enforcement, but they leave the worst of the worst released back onto our streets, just to make things harder for ICE.

"Perhaps second only to immigration in terms of domestic importance is this president’s restoration of democratic accountability over the administrative state and its army of bureaucrats. Trump has spent his first year reasserting control over the burgeoning agencies that have long been running American life with little accountability. The unitary executive theory is the only long-term solution to the deep state; we the people must control, through the election of our president, the bureaucrats that staff our government, or they control us. Under Trump, the unconstitutional 'fourth branch' has suffered its first body blow in a century. ..."

Today, President Trump will deliver the annual State of the Union address. Underneath the pyrotechnics, the president has a strong case to make that the

02/24/2026

SOTU: State of Disunion by Don Kusler.

"The State of the Union speech has taken many forms over the more than 200 years since it was first delivered as written reports in the late 1700s. While some basic reporting of national progress and policy enactment has survived, the address has largely been a national policy pep rally for the president’s party.

"The address has also been an opportunity that most modern presidents have used to bring the nation together and at least create some unity in the Union.

"Unfortunately, unity is not a strength of the current administration, or of a president who values himself above all else.

"If I were to suggest a more realistic and perhaps unifying State of the Union for President Trump, I would have to begin with apologies and some pivoting on damaging policies. While this approach will never make it into a Trump speech, here’s attempt. ..."

The State of the Union speech has taken many forms over the more than 200 years since it was first delivered as written reports in the late 1700s. While

02/24/2026

From Truman to Trump: How Licensing Replaced Unions as Labor’s Gatekeeper by Morris M. Kleiner.

"Ask a room of labor economics students or politicians which two U.S. presidents were union members and subject to occupational licensing, and most will hesitate.

"The answers — Harry Truman and Donald Trump — bookend a profound shift in how entry into the workforce is controlled in America. That shift is among the reasons Trump now grapples with the fallout of everyday services becoming costlier and harder to access.

"Truman was a dues-paying member of the railroad workers’ union and worked in jobs that today require a license: as a pharmacy assistant and as a municipal judge. Trump joined the Screen Actors Guild through his television work and earlier held a real estate broker’s license in New York.

"During Truman’s era, as most people know, unions were the dominant force in the labor market. Manufacturing accounted for more than one-third of U.S. employment in the mid‑1950s, and the National Labor Relations Act had recently strengthened collective bargaining. Wages, access to jobs, and workplace rules were negotiated between labor and management, with federal law attempting to balance power on both sides.

"Before and during Trump’s time in unions, things changed. As manufacturing famously declined and the economy shifted toward services, the regulatory center of gravity shifted with it. Today, 70 percent of Americans work in service-sector jobs — from accountants to estheticians — while private-industry unionization has fallen to 6 percent and overall unionization stands at 10 percent.

"Occupational licensing became the labor market’s new gatekeeper, surging from 5 percent of workers in Truman’s time to nearly 25 percent today. This quiet revolution has reshaped the labor market far more than most Americans realize.

"Unlike unions, which operate at the workplace level, licensing is imposed by state governments and enforced by their licensing boards. In many cases, these boards wield powers that exceed those of unions, backed by the state’s legal and policing infrastructure. ..."

Ask a room of labor economics students or politicians which two U.S. presidents were union members and subject to occupational licensing, and most will

02/24/2026

Judges Should Leave the Political Rhetoric to Pundits by Alex Xenos.

"Judges are expected to be neutral arbiters of the law, not partisan commentators or political combatants. Increasingly, certain parts of the judiciary are abandoning this standard. In their zeal to oppose President Trump, some judges have adopted inflammatory language drenched in political animus, threatening the credibility of the judiciary.

"Consider the behavior of Judge William Young of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Last fall, in AAUP v. Rubio, Young did not merely criticize a policy; he launched a personal tirade against Trump. 'I fear President Trump believes the American people are so divided that today they will not stand up, fight for, and defend our most precious constitutional values so long as they are lulled into thinking their own personal interests are not affected.'

"He even cited a remark from his wife, who said Trump 'ignores everything' and 'keeps bullying ahead.' The judge went on to deride Trump’s 'hollow bragging' and political 'messaging.'

"Of course, none of that has anything to do with the law.

"Another example of this type of rhetorical flourish came from a March 2025 decision in Wilcox v. United States, in which Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia launched into a scathing critique of Trump, declaring: 'A president who touts an image of himself as a ‘king’ or a ‘dictator,’ perhaps as his vision of effective leadership, fundamentally misapprehends the role under Article II of the U.S. Constitution.'

"This is not legal reasoning; it’s political theater. We don’t need the judiciary to analyze the president’s social media trolling. ..."

Judges are expected to be neutral arbiters of the law, not partisan commentators or political combatants. Increasingly, certain parts of the judiciary are

02/24/2026

The Conservative Case for President Trump’s Decision to Reschedule Marijuana by Ryan Fournier.

"Personally, I’m no fan of marijuana. I don’t care if other people use it in the privacy of their own home, but it’s not for me. But here’s the inconvenient truth that my fellow conservatives need to hear about President Trump’s recent decision to reschedule marijuana: keeping cannabis classified alongside heroin as a Schedule I drug wasn’t protecting anyone. It was preventing us from gathering the very evidence we need to make informed decisions about public health and safety.

"President Trump made the right decision to reschedule marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III. This isn’t about going soft on drugs or embracing some liberal agenda. It’s about doing what conservatives have always championed: basing policy on facts, not feelings.

"For decades, marijuana has sat in Schedule I, a category the federal government reserves for substances with 'no accepted medical use.' Yet millions of Americans, including veterans suffering from PTSD and seniors managing chronic pain, use cannabis under their doctors’ supervision in states that have legalized medical marijuana. Leaving marijuana under the Schedule I classification created an absurd contradiction where the federal government was telling these patients and their physicians that they’re wrong about what helps them. That’s not what conservatives are about.

"More troubling is what Schedule I status does to research. Federal restrictions make it extraordinarily difficult for scientists to study marijuana’s effects comprehensively. It prevents us from developing more accurate roadside impairment tests. We can’t definitively quantify the risks critics claim exist. We can’t establish proper dosing guidelines or quality standards. If marijuana truly is as dangerous as some claim, let’s prove it scientifically and then decide if more regulations are really needed.

"This is where the argument for rescheduling becomes ironclad, even for skeptics like me. Moving cannabis to Schedule III doesn’t legalize recreational use. It doesn’t change state or local laws. What it does is remove bureaucratic barriers that prevent legitimate research. It allows the Food and Drug Administration to establish proper oversight. It enables law enforcement to develop better tools for detecting impairment. It brings cannabis under the same regulatory framework we use for countless prescription medications that also carry risks. ..."

Personally, I'm no fan of marijuana. I don’t care if other people use it in the privacy of their own home, but it’s not for me. But here's the

02/18/2026

When Electricity Becomes a Weapon of War by Ken Silverstein.

"It’s tempting to dismiss peace talks between Russia and Ukraine when missiles and drones continue targeting power plants, leaving people to freeze with no lights.

"That is the reality in Ukraine today. Over a recent weekend, Russia launched dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones, many aimed not at military positions but energy infrastructure — power stations, substations, transmission lines, and the workers who repair them. The intent is clear: turn electricity into a weapon, and civilian life into the pressure point.

"Maxim Timchenko, the CEO of DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, underscored that point in an interview. War has taken a toll on his country’s power plants. Crews work day and night to repair the damage and often at personal risk.

"'What I see every day is not fear, but determination,' Timchenko said. 'People go back to work after sleepless nights filled with attacks, working in freezing temperatures, and under the risk of further strikes. And yet, every day they return.'

"Electricity has become one of the central battlegrounds of modern war. Disrupt power, and hospitals falter, water systems fail, and communications go dark. Daily life grinds to a halt. The suffering is immediate and borne almost entirely by civilians.

"Russia has been refining this approach for years. Long before missiles routinely smashed transformers and turbines, Russian hackers infiltrated Ukraine’s power grid in 2015 and 2016, briefly cutting off electricity to hundreds of thousands of people. Those cyberattacks were covert and experimental, meant to test vulnerabilities without escalating the conflict. Now, that caution is gone. Cyber sabotage has shifted to open destruction via air strikes.

"Winter has become a force multiplier. Today’s strikes are timed to cold snaps, turning outages into humanitarian crises. In this sense, Ukraine is not just fighting an invasion — it is enduring a campaign designed to make life unbearable.

"Whether Ukraine can keep the lights on increasingly depends on what it can stop in the sky. Air-defense systems don’t just protect military targets; they shield power plants, substations, and the crews who rush to repair them. When interceptors run short, more missiles get through. When more missiles get through, the grid takes more damage — and blackouts last longer. Delays in U.S. weapons deliveries translate into colder homes, darker hospitals and longer disruptions. ..."

It’s tempting to dismiss peace talks between Russia and Ukraine when missiles and drones continue targeting power plants, leaving people to freeze with no

02/18/2026

The Danger of Being Inured to the Status Quo by Llewellyn King.

"We have all had the experience of staying a few days in a hotel — say on holiday — which becomes home; quickly, it becomes familiar. Individuals adjust to change. People who come into money get used to being well-off, and people who lose everything get used to that.

"So, too, with nations. They adjust with this attitude: That is just the way it is.

"The danger to America is that we will adjust, take the aberrations of today as the norm, and that after this period of presidential excess, we will be inured to presidential excess.

"We will expect future presidents to skirt the Constitution or ignore it, and to consolidate the dangerous concept of a unitary executive — where the president is all-powerful and Congress is a functionary, often subservient.

"The danger is acceptance. When something is accepted, it becomes the new normal, ensconced and hard to remove. The status quo ante isn’t a guaranteed consequence of the next election. ..."

We have all had the experience of staying a few days in a hotel — say on holiday — which becomes home; quickly, it becomes familiar. Individuals adjust to

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