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Welcome to summer time. Changing clocks is good even though you hate it

Welcome to summer time. Changing clocks is good even though you hate it
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Davies is a journalist and podcaster. He runs the podcast consultancy, DaviesContent and co-hosts “How Do We Fix It?” and “Let’s Find Common Ground.”

Every six months I’m reminded of the helpful saying: “fall back, spring forward.” And so it was on Sunday when we lost an hour of sleep and had to wander around the house and change the time on all of our non-internet-connected watches, appliances and clocks.


Such a drag, right? Opinion polls report widespread support for a proposal to lock the clock and scrap our biannual winding ritual. Last year, by unanimous consent, the U.S. Senate passed “The Sunshine Protection Bill” to make Daylight Saving Time permanent.

The current practice “makes no sense,” proclaimed the bill’s sponsor, Marco Rubio. “It’s time to end it.” Not one of his fellow Senators stood up to object.

“I am 100% anti-time change,” wrote Bloomberg View columnist, economist Allison Schrager last week. “The economic arguments for the change were always questionable, but our modern lifestyles make jumping back and forth by an hour more nonsensical than ever.”

But is it really such a big deal to be a bit confused or irritated for a day to two each year?

And be careful what you wish for. Often the only thing worse than a widely ridiculed tradition is what we decide to replace it with.

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If Senator Rubio gets his way, he may become the most unpopular politician in America on early winter mornings after Standard Time is done away with. If he has ambitions to run for president again, Rubio should remember that the primary season begins early in the year.

Farmers aren’t the only ones who’ll be furious. Commuters and parents will also want to change back to the time change. Imagine driving to work on a dark icy January morning, or shivering with the kids waiting for the school bus when it is pitch black at 7:30 a.m.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine— stern guardians of our right to spend more than seven hours each night in bed— supports ending the time change, but wants permanent standard time instead of daylight saving time.

“Standard time is closely aligned with the position of the sun, which is important for the body because sunlight is the most powerful external cue for the human circadian rhythm,” the Academy said in a recent statement opposing Senator Rubio’s bill. “This internal ‘body clock’ regulates the timing of alertness, sleepiness, and other biological functions.”

While that might make scientific sense, all-year-round standard time will be a bummer in the summer. One of the pleasures of late June and early July is sitting outside and enjoying the warm air and evening light.

Unlike most of my fellow citizens, I kind of enjoy the inconvenient ritual of changing clocks— especially spring forward. At this time of year we have a quirky yet welcome reminder of longer, warmer days to come.

Let’s accept that whatever change we adopt, it will make some folks howling mad. In this case it may be much better to stay with what we have.

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The American Schism in 2025: The New Cultural Revolution

A street vendor selling public domain Donald Trump paraphernalia and souvenirs. The souvenirs are located right across the street from the White House and taken on the afternoon of July 21, 2019 near Pennslyvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.

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The American Schism in 2025: The New Cultural Revolution

A common point of bewilderment today among many of Trump’s “establishment” critics is the all too tepid response to Trump’s increasingly brazen shattering of democratic norms. True, he started this during his first term, but in his second, Trump seems to relish the weaponization of his presidency to go after his enemies and to brandish his corrupt dealings, all under the Trump banner (e.g. cyber currency, Mideast business dealings, the Boeing 747 gift from Qatar). Not only does Trump conduct himself with impunity but Fox News and other mainstream media outlets barely cover them at all. (And when left-leaning media do, the interest seems to wane quickly.)

Here may be the source of the puzzlement: the left intelligentsia continues to view and characterize MAGA as a political movement, without grasping its transcendence into a new dominant cultural order. MAGA rose as a counter-establishment partisan drive during Trump’s 2016 campaign and subsequent first administration; however, by the 2024 election, it became evident that MAGA was but the eye of a full-fledged cultural shift, in some ways akin to Mao’s Cultural Revolution.

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The U.S. Is Rushing To Make AI Deals With Gulf Countries, But Who Will Help Keep Children Safe?

A child's hand holding an adult's hand.

Getty Images, LaylaBird

The U.S. Is Rushing To Make AI Deals With Gulf Countries, But Who Will Help Keep Children Safe?

As the United States deepens its investments in artificial intelligence (AI) partnerships abroad, it is moving fast — signing deals, building labs, and exporting tools. Recently, President Donald Trump announced sweeping AI collaborations with Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. These agreements, worth billions, are being hailed as historic moments for digital diplomacy and technological leadership.

But amid the headlines and handshakes, I keep asking the same question: where is child protection in all of this?

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Illinois Residents Grapple With Urban Flooding

Rear view of a person standing in the street flooded with water

Getty Images//Stock Photo

Illinois Residents Grapple With Urban Flooding

Following months of research, canvassing, and listening to community needs, journalists, including Britton Struthers-Lugo, produced solutions-based stories about the challenges faced by the Berwyn, Illinois, community.

In Part 1, Struthers-Lugo examines the issue of urban flooding, a growing concern for residents and infrastructure in Berwyn.

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Proposed Proof-of-Citizenship Bill Could Impact All Registered Voters in Texas

Opponents of a proof-of-citizenship bill before Texas lawmakers say many women in rural areas, who could get targeted by the bill, do not have a birth certificate matching their current last name.

Golib Tolibov/Adobe Stock AI

Proposed Proof-of-Citizenship Bill Could Impact All Registered Voters in Texas

Voting rights advocates in Texas are speaking out against a proof-of-citizenship bill before lawmakers.

Senate Bill 16 would require new registrants and some existing registered voters to prove they are U.S. citizens.

Amber Mills, issue advocacy director for the Move Texas Civic Fund, said the requirement would be in addition to what the state already does to check someone's eligibility.

"When you're completing a voter form, you do also have to submit either your driver's license number or your Social Security number," Mills pointed out. "That's really important because that is how the state verifies who you are, and that's a key indicator that they use to protect their databases on the back end."

Even if you were born in the U.S., the bill could require you to show proof of citizenship with a passport or birth certificate matching your current name. According to the Secure Democracy Foundation, more than 38% percent of rural and small-town Texans do not have a passport.

Anyone who cannot prove citizenship would be placed on a separate voter roll and could only cast ballots in the U.S. House and Senate races.

Emily French, policy director for the advocacy group Common Cause Texas, said the additional barriers could prevent many residents from casting their votes in local, state and presidential races.

"All the DPS systems, all the immigration systems which say that they are citizens, but there can still be mistakes that mark them as noncitizens and could throw them off the voter rolls until they come in with these documents that they don't have," French explained.

The bill directs the Texas Secretary of State's Office to check all registered voters' status by the end of the year and send the names of registered voters who have not proven their citizenship before September 2025 to county elections offices.

Mills noted if you are flagged, there is no online system to comply with the request and all paperwork must be submitted in person.

"We are not disputing the goal of having only eligible citizens on the voter rolls, but we know that Texas already has strong systems in place," Mills emphasized. "It's ultimately the state's responsibility, the county's responsibility to do these voter roll checks, but what SB 16 would do is not change any of that, not improve any of that. It would just add an additional burden."

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