Daily news coverage of politics, policy, and issues shaping the nation.
KYIV, Ukraine—In a familiar cycle of brinksmanship, Russia and Ukraine once again edged toward the brink of open war last week, only for the bellicose rhetoric and military posturing to dissipate rapidly, leaving the conflict in eastern Ukraine no closer to a long-term solution. Russia’s successor spy agency to the KGB, the Federal Security Service,…
A new state law in Maine went into effect last month prohibiting welfare recipients from purchasing items like alcohol, lottery tickets, and tattoos with their welfare funds. Alongside Kansas, Maine has been one of the leading states reforming welfare, and nearly half of the states have already taken action. Maine Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican,…
The owner of three Michigan funeral homes is defending his right to require employees to dress on the job according to their biological sex, in a federal case brought on behalf of a transgender woman who used to work as a funeral director. “Mr. Rost feels called by his faith to serve the grieving.” —@doug_wardlow…
Judge Wayne Mack, a justice of the peace in Montgomery County, Texas, recalls several people telling him they were initially worried about coming before his court, but after the chaplain’s prayer opened the proceedings, they felt better. “It was clear it would be a solemn event and they knew I would be fair,” Mack told…
An illegal immigrant living in Philadelphia has been charged with raping a child, spurring opponents of the city’s “sanctuary” policy to use his arrest to bolster their argument that such practices leave dangerous criminals on the streets. Pennsylvania state Rep. Martina White, a Republican, says the alleged rapist, Ramon Aguirre-Ochoa, a 45-year-old Honduran national, avoided…
As the number of Zika virus cases in the United States continues to rise, residents in South Florida are in a unique position to become the testing ground for a promising new experiment that could dramatically reduce the number of Zika-infected mosquitoes. But due to concerns that the proposal to release millions of genetically modified…
Arguing that internet freedom and the constitutional power of the purse are at risk, a coalition of more than two dozen civil society groups and activists are calling on Congress to lawyer up and sue the Obama administration. The Commerce Department has violated federal law, the coalition of groups argued in an Aug. 10 letter…
Adding to the handful of lawsuits involving transgender students across the country, lawyers representing a group of 51 families in a Chicago suburb asked a federal judge to temporarily suspend a school policy that grants a transgender student access to the girls’ restrooms and locker rooms. “Every parent sends their kids to school expecting that…
Rep. Dave Reichert is quick to let you know why he has the life experiences to be the GOP’s authority on addressing historic tensions between the police and the people they serve. “I have been there before, where your life is threatened and you have to make a split decision,” said Reichert, R-Wash. “I have…
The shifting of $81 million to combat Zika is overdue and demonstrates the Obama administration has had untapped resources to fight the mosquito-borne illness, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., said. “For over six months we have been calling on the administration to use every existing resource at their disposal to address this crisis,”…
California conservatives won a surprise victory this week, changing a state assembly bill that would have curtailed the freedom of private religious colleges. “We literally were able to see tens of thousands of people mobilize to make calls and to write their legislators, and to participate in the political process,” William Jessup University President John…
While Republican leadership insists that the next president will nominate the ninth justice to the Supreme Court, a cadre of Republican senators is pushing a plan to confirm Merrick Garland if their party fails to take the White House this November. The best contingency plan in case Republicans lose, supporters of the plan argue, is…
In 1985, Lata Jagtiani immigrated to New York City from India with a dream to be her own boss by opening her own salon. But because money was tight, Jagtiani made ends meet by working as a bookkeeper for various New York businesses before becoming a stay-at-home mom. While raising her two children, Jagtiani continued…
In President Barack Obama’s final year in office, the administration’s annual draft report to Congress on new federal regulations is later than usual and on track to arrive at least as late as last year. When the report does land, it likely will show Obama far outpaced his immediate predecessors by imposing a tangle of…
With the District of Columbia’s new $15 an hour minimum wage law slated to go into effect over the next four years, many local businesses are still figuring out how they can pay workers more and remain profitable. On the one hand, many local business owners think that an employee working full time should be…
Two complaints of vote buying, four complaints of felons voting or registering to vote, and a voter registration under the name of a dead person are among the matters Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s office is reviewing. Many of the 18 complaints filed in 2016 came through the office’s “Stop Voter Fraud” website and…
Three professors are fighting a Texas law that allows students to carry concealed handguns in their college classrooms. Senate Bill 11, allowing concealed handgun license holders 21 and older (or 18 if active military) to carry in campus buildings, was signed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, in June 2015. The law went into…
The decision by the seniors group AARP to drop its membership in an influential legislative reform coalition is the latest example of the left’s successful pressure on corporations and other organizations to disown the group. “People should be concerned when any group believes solutions come from intimidation rather than discussion,” @ALEC_states says. As of December, according…
A major knives manufacturer from central California says his company was denied access to an internet payment processing service because they sell weapons online, raising questions about whether an anti-fraud program called Operation Choke Point is continuing to block legal businesses in the firearms and weapons industries from accessing basic banking services. “It was pretty…
The IRS has not stopped targeting conservative groups seeking nonprofit status, a federal appeals court has ruled in deciding to reinstate a lawsuit against the agency. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned a decision by a lower court that threw out the lawsuit because the Internal Revenue Service had promised…