Daily news coverage of politics, policy, and issues shaping the nation.
Virginia’s Gloucester County School Board will appeal a federal judge’s finding that its bathroom policy unlawfully discriminates against transgender students. U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen ruled Aug. 9 that the district’s decision violates constitutional equal protection principles and Title IX, the federal law governing sex discrimination in education. Former President Barack Obama appointed Allen to the…
A White House lawyer nominated for a federal judgeship sharply defended himself Friday from accusations based on a 2010 law review article that he, the son and grandson of Jewish immigrants, is an advocate of “racial purity.” President Donald Trump nominated Steven Menashi on Wednesday to a seat on the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit…
Why bother with a liberal arts education? Some students at a Washington university wanted to know, but their school administrators canceled a panel scheduled to debate the question. The cancellation, with no reason given, was one of the five biggest incidents of censorship of conservatives on college campuses in the past 12 months, Charlie Copeland,…
Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib has decided not to go to Israel because of “oppressive conditions” after being approved by the Israli government to visit her grandmother. Tlaib of Michigan sent a letter asking permission to enter Israel on the premise she would not promote boycotts against the country, according to the interior ministry. The letter also…
Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar’s cancelled trip to Israel was sponsored by a Palestinian-based organization whose members have expressed sympathy for terrorist activities and support the BDS movement. The Israeli government announced Thursday it would not allow Tlaib, D-Mich., and Omar, D-Minn., to enter its borders for a planned trip into Palestinian territory, citing the two…
POHNPEI, Federated States of Micronesia—A twin-engine, blue-and-white U.S. Air Force transport jet carrying Secretary of State Mike Pompeo descended to land on Pohnpei, one of four Pacific island states that comprise the Federated States of Micronesia. Onboard the jet during approach, the remote island’s aquamarine coastal waters and lush green tropical forests appeared as an…
Fifteen years ago, Bernie and Debbie Penkin adopted two older children from Liberia. Their story bears similarities to many other adoption narratives, but with a few significant differences. The Penkins, who live in Washington state, began to think about adopting from Liberia after talking with some Liberian friends. They were interested in adopting older children because,…
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced Wednesday he is forming a counter-domestic terrorism task force in the aftermath of the shooting at a Walmart in El Paso. He also instructed the Texas Department of Public Safety to assist in preventing domestic terrorism by having agents cooperate with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and bolstering…
President Donald Trump weighed in Thursday after reports that Israel planned to ban Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan from entering the country for a trip scheduled to start Friday. “It would show great weakness if Israel allowed Rep. Omar and Rep. Tlaib to visit. They hate Israel [and] all…
The Labor Department on Wednesday announced a new rule to grant the “broadest protection permitted by law” to religious organizations contracting with the federal government. The proposed rule to clarify civil rights protections for religious groups will be added to the Federal Register on Thursday, but is now open to public comment. “Today’s proposed…
A California school district will not allow parents to opt their children out of classes containing LGBTQ content, figures, or historical references, emails show. Murrieta School District says parents have the ability to opt their children out of comprehensive sexual health, but parents are still not able to opt their children out of LGBTQ content…
An Anchorage civil rights panel cannot enforce an anti-discrimination ordinance against a battered women’s shelter that refused to admit a trans woman, a federal court in Alaska ruled. “Downtown Hope Center serves everyone, but women deserve a safe place to stay overnight,” said lawyer Kate Anderson of the Alliance Defending Freedom, a public interest law practice…
A substantial increase in medical and humanitarian care has followed the surge of illegal immigrants at the U.S.-Mexican border, according to Department of Homeland Security statistics. As of July, the department had deployed about 200 more medical professionals to the southwest border than it had at the end of 2018. Amid sharp criticism of U.S….
MIDDLETOWN, Pennsylvania—Staffers who took down pro-union signs posted without authorization in their hospital were injured by staples “turned around backward” and “held in place by mustard,” nurses say. The nurses, who spoke with The Daily Signal about a union rally last week near the entrance to St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, said the…
“Unplanned,” a movie about an abortion clinic director who left her job at Planned Parenthood, is the No. 1 DVD in Amazon sales after surpassing expectations in movie theaters. “You know, without being trite, I think the people have spoken,” Cary Solomon, who directed the movie with Chuck Konzelman, told The Daily Signal in a…
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia—Days after President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, then-Mayor Michael Signer held a press conference at this city’s outdoor downtown mall that turned into a political rally drawing hundreds. That’s where the mayor declared to a cheering crowd that Charlottesville was a “capital of the resistance.” Signer’s stand that Jan. 31 was in…
The Trump administration is applying new regulations to protect endangered species, rolling back some requirements to ground the policy in scientific and economic factors, the Interior Department announced Monday. The regulations, based on the 1973 Endangered Species Act, will “increase transparency and effectiveness and bring the administration of the Act into the 21st century,” the…
Federal officials will consider an immigrant’s use of welfare benefits such as food stamps and Medicaid as a negative factor in deciding on the eligibility of the immigrant’s permanent legal residency or on a temporary visa. “It will also help promote immigrant success in the United States as they seek opportunity here,” Ken Cuccinelli, acting…
Attorney General William Barr said Monday that he was “appalled” by Jeffrey Epstein’s apparent suicide over the weekend, but urged that the millionaire pedophile’s co-conspirators “should not rest easy.” “This sex trafficking case was very important to the Department of Justice and to me personally,” Barr said during a speech before the National Fraternal Order…
An Arizona man whose son was shot and killed by an illegal immigrant says he doesn’t want another parent to experience the loss he still feels nearly five years later. “It's devastating,” Steve Ronnebeck, who lives in Phoenix, says in an interview about the loss of his son Grant, who was killed at age 21…