Daily news coverage of politics, policy, and issues shaping the nation.
Democrats in the House of Representatives introduced a resolution to block President Donald Trump’s national emergency that could allow him to build a wall on the southern border. Democratic Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro introduced the resolution, which he said will pass the House, as 222 co-sponsors have jumped on board. Castro sent out a tweet saying…
Ed Gillespie, the Republican candidate who lost the 2017 Virginia governor’s race to Ralph Northam, said Virginia has much healing to do. “For Virginians, this is a very painful time to see these images splashed up on television screens and newspapers, and it doesn’t reflect the Virginia that I know and fellow Virginians know,” Gillespie…
At age 14, Melissa Ohden learned that her biological mother was forced to have a saline abortion, one that she defied the odds by surviving despite being in the womb only an estimated 31 weeks. Years later, a nurse who cared for her in the NICU told Ohden: “A tall blond nurse rushed me in,…
West Virginia teachers are tasting victory after a two-day strike, putting to rest state legislation that would have allowed the opening of charter schools and 1,000 education savings accounts for special-needs or bullied students to use toward a private education option. The teachers strike ended Wednesday with the adjournment of state lawmakers who failed to…
Fed-up California parents participated in a “Sexxx Ed Sit Out” Tuesday morning to protest the state’s sex education curriculum, calling it “pornographic,” “age-inappropriate,” “highly biased and medically inaccurate instruction.” In an open letter to principals, lawmakers, and state Department of Education officials, the grassroots effort organized by Informed Parents of California rebuked what’s being taught…
Kentucky teenager Nick Sandmann’s lawsuit against The Washington Post over its depiction of him and Covington Catholic High School is still fresh, but recent libel cases might offer guidance as to how this case might end. Litigants have done quite well in recent high-profile libel cases, notwithstanding the high legal bar set in place by…
A bill to repeal the estate tax, often called the death tax, has the support of about 150 national business and trade associations that signed on to an open letter to the sponsors of the legislation. “We appreciate your work to lead the country towards a commonsense tax code that does not impose a destructive…
President Donald Trump weighed in on Twitter after actor Jussie Smollett was arrested Thursday and charged with felony disorderly conduct for filing a false police report following an alleged hate crime hoax. “[Jussie Smollett]—what about MAGA and the tens of millions of people you insulted with your racist and dangerous comments!? #MAGA,” Trump wrote on Twitter Thursday….
A coal-fired power plan that’s operated for more than 100 years is shutting down, and its owners say Obama-era regulations are to blame. Alabama Power’s Plant Gorgas will officially close in April. It’s only the latest coal industry casualty, driven by Environmental Protection Agency regulations and market forces. “We recognize that Plant Gorgas and the…
A day after Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas signaled it might be time to review a landmark ruling on libel law, President Donald Trump cheered the libel lawsuit of a Covington, Kentucky, high school student against The Washington Post. Although Trump has repeatedly insisted that Congress change existing libel laws to make it easier to…
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday the United States would not allow an American-born woman who joined the Islamic State terrorist group back into the country. In 2015, Hoda Muthana, then 19, gained national attention for leaving her family in Birmingham, Alabama, to join the Sunni Muslim extremist group. Now, the remorseful 24-year-old is…
By invoking a law regulating foreign agents to pursue prosecution of former Trump campaign officials, special counsel Robert Mueller opened the door to more intense scrutiny of some U.S. environmental groups, according to legal analysts who say China and Russia use such groups to influence America’s energy policy. But these legal analysts said they also…
A young Texas boy faced both praise and ridicule from adults after he opened a hot chocolate stand to raise money for President Donald Trumps’ border wall. Benton Stevens—a 7-year-old from Austin, Texas—wanted to help raise funds for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border after watching Trump deliver the State of the Union address earlier…
Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandmann is suing The Washington Post over its coverage of a January incident involving himself and Native American protester Nathan Phillips. Attorneys for Sandmann filed the lawsuit Tuesday, accusing the Washington newspaper of engaging in a “modern-day form of McCarthyism.” The lawsuit also blames CNN and NBC, “among others,” for taking…
The push for a border barrier marks President Donald Trump’s fourth declaration of a national emergency—about a third as many as his three immediate predecessors in their two terms. The number of declared emergencies puts Trump on a par with Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. President Gerald Ford, who signed the 1976 National…
Can a nation survive ignorant of its past? We are testing that very question right now. According to a recent survey by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, most Americans would fail a basic citizenship test. Axios published a roundup of how participants performed. The results weren’t good. People did relatively well on the most…
The movement for freedom in Venezuela reveals that the “twilight hour of socialism has arrived in our hemisphere,” President Donald Trump said Monday night in a speech in Miami. “The Venezuelan people have spoken, and the world has heard their beautiful voice,” Trump said in his remarks at Florida International University to an audience that…
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg took the bench at the Supreme Court Tuesday, the first time she has heard arguments since her treatment for lung cancer in December 2018. The justice’s presence at Tuesday’s arguments was expected—the high court’s public information office announced Friday that Ginsburg would participate in a private conference among the justices to discuss pending…
Jussie Smollett’s case about an alleged attack in January could be headed to a grand jury. Law official sources reported the case could be headed to a grand jury sometime this week, according to TMZ Sunday. Law enforcement is allegedly making sure Smollett is not in contact with the two Nigerian brothers who were first arrested Wednesday,…
The New York City Council passed a resolution by a full vote Wednesday that will edge the state Assembly and Senate toward passing legislation allowing illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, according to a report by Columbia University’s student-led NY City Lens. City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, a Democrat representing the 10th Council District, introduced the…