EDITORIAL: Judicial conduct panel can shore up sagging prestige of our federal judiciary

Republicans, Democrats and legal scholars were right to call foul last week when U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lambasted the idea of a "faker" such as Donald Trump becoming president. While the gifted jurist created the same ire that her late friend and fellow justice, the equally outspoken Antonin Scalia, quite often provoked, critics' outrage is justified.

Bill Whitaker: Can Republicans heal our nation’s festering racial wounds?

Whatever one thinks of his embattled and often erratic presidency, President Obama remains unrivaled as an orator. And America's first black president put both law enforcement and the African-American community on notice during his 40-minute address at Tuesday's memorial service for five Dallas police officers slain by a Black Lives Matter sympathizer bent on cold-blooded murder during an otherwise peaceful protest regarding, ironically, police use of deadly force nationwide.

Securing flights to Havana opens doors for Tampa Bay region

It is heartening to see the Tampa Bay region come together for a cause and win, as happened this month with the announcement that Tampa International Airport will likely host daily commercial flights to Havana as early as this fall. The list of those who should take a bow is long.

Ruth: Big names staying away from Republican convention

Normally a presidential nominating convention takes on all the trappings of a coronation, at least until Clint Eastwood shows up to stage a seance with an empty chair. Four years ago, the Republicans were in hot and sticky Tampa to crown Mitt Romney as their standard-bearer, who was easily defeated by President Barack Obama.

Kathleen Parker, Washington Post: So whose life most matters among us?

These fractured thoughts were all I could muster upon waking Friday to news of the ambush on Dallas police. They were still fresh in my mind from the night before when I'd turned in early, exhausted by the images of 32-year-old Philando Castile dying in Minnesota after a police officer shot him.

Moulitsas: Stuck with Trump

For a party that pretentiously parades around with pocket Constitutions, it was funny seeing the Republican standard-bearer betray his ignorance of the most foundational of American documents: "Not only will I stand up for Article I, I'll stand up for Article II, Article 12 [sic], you name it, of the Constitution." You name it! Because Donald Trump Clinton ally: Secret GOP donor issues challenge to Trump WATCH LIVE: Trump campaigns with Pence amid VP speculation Budowsky: If Trump were black MORE This is who Republicans have running their show.

Davis: What the facts tell us about Clinton’s ‘carelessness’

Hillary Rodham Clinton Clinton ally: Secret GOP donor issues challenge to Trump Budowsky: If Trump were black Davis: What the facts tell us about Clinton's 'carelessness' MORE has acknowledged, with the wisdom of hindsight, that she made a mistake in using one device for sending personal and business emails rather than using two when she was secretary of State, and in sending all of her emails to a private server. I respect and agree with FBI Director James Comey's conclusion, speaking on behalf of a unanimous team of FBI professionals, investigators and expert technologists, that there was no criminal conduct.

Budowsky: If Trump were black

As voters hunger for a healing of racial wounds in a nation that comes together, the Republican Congress is preparing to take a lengthy vacation between its endless partisan witch hunts of Hillary Rodham Clinton Budowsky: If Trump were black Davis: What the facts tell us about Clinton's 'carelessness' Moulitsas: Stuck with Trump MORE , which remind voters why they hold this Congress in contempt, and the coming Republican National Convention, which is shaping up as a Woodstock festival for Clinton haters who will nominate one of the most bitterly divisive candidates in American history for president. Successful politics is about addition - of voters and groups to create a governing majority for a governing party.

Thomas: The ongoing race narrative

In just the last few days, two African-American men were shot and killed by non-African-American police officers in Minnesota and Louisiana and five non-African-American police officers were shot and killed in Dallas by an African-American man who declared he "wanted to kill white people, especially white officers." The gap in our racially divided country has never been wider.

A Warning On Drug Pricing From Bill Gates

One of the most popular punching bags on the presidential campaign trail this year is America's bio-pharmaceutical industry. Bashing drug companies was telegraphed early on as a key Democratic strategy to shift the blame for the failure of Obamacare to contain health care costs away from the Democratic/insurance industry alliance that wrote the law.

Concerned about safety on campuses

As an incoming college freshman, the glamorous independence and opportunity that await me in the coming fall are being dulled by growing concerns regarding sexual assault on college campuses. According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center 2016 database, an estimated percentage of 20-25 percent of collegiate women nationally fell victim to "completed or attempted rape".

Benefits of trade

Democratic strategists are alarmed at how well Donald Trump's anti-free trade rhetoric is playing with normally Democratic union members -- even though it is accompanied by explicit attacks on presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton as being the candidate of the "people who rigged" the U.S. economy to favor the wealthiest 1 percent. A recent analysis in The Washington Post noted that the anti-trade themes laid out in Trump's scripted June 28 speech played so well in Pennsylvania that he was winning praise from Katie McGinty, the Democrats' nominee for Senate in the swing state.