Daily news coverage of politics, policy, and issues shaping the nation.
The censorship of free speech on a college campus has caused a legal fight to brew in California A lawsuit filed Thursday against numerous staff at California State University-Los Angeles claims that the university discriminated against free speech by trying to silence Ben Shapiro, 32, a prominent conservative voice who has spoken on college campuses…
Conservatives are considering a budget compromise that would reduce spending by $30 billion unless the House is able to pass at least 10 appropriations bills. The “trigger” proposal, first reported by Roll Call, is the latest spending suggestion designed to break a stalemate in the ongoing budget battle. A long shot and a bit of…
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A group of North Carolina parents are joining forces to fight the Obama administration over its policy that forces public schools to allow transgender students into restrooms, showers, and locker rooms that are opposite from their biological sex. “It’s not safe for my daughter,” Tammy Covil, a mother from Wilmington, N.C. told…
The Republican mobilization against the White House’s transgender bathroom directive has started. A bill introduced by Rep. Luke Messer, R-Ind., would block the Obama administration’s guidance pushing public schools to allow students to use the restrooms of their choice. The bill, Messer told The Daily Signal, would return control of the issue to the state…
A key component of the Obama administration’s response to a crisis of Central Americans fleeing violence before illegally crossing the U.S. southern border is not operational more than four months after it was announced. On Jan. 13, Secretary of State John Kerry introduced a program to allow Central American children and families to apply for…
The Obama administration’s directive that public schools give transgender students access to the bathrooms and locker rooms of their choice will not stand in Texas, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said. “We are going to look at every pathway to resist the federal government,” Patrick, a Republican, said in a Wednesday interview with The Daily Signal….
For the last few years, opponents of civil forfeiture have been calling on Congress to make it more difficult for law enforcement to take property, cash, and vehicles from innocent Americans through a process known as civil asset forfeiture. Now, a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers on Capitol Hill is taking action. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis.,…
The largest conservative congressional caucus is calling into question the legality of President Barack Obama’s transgender bathroom directive for schools. Chairman Bill Flores, R-Texas, is encouraging Republican Study Committee members to sign on to a letter, pushing the Departments of Education and Justice to detail how, and on what authority, they plan to enforce the…
As insurance companies begin submitting their rates for health care coverage next year, consumers are seeing changes in the number of insurers selling plans on Obamacare’s exchanges. And in some places, fewer choices on the exchanges can mean higher premiums. So far, three states—Alabama, Alaska, and Wyoming—have just one insurer selling coverage on their Obamacare…
Instead of following transgender student guidelines pushed by the Obama administration, some Utah district school board members have plans to create a budget that would be free from federal funding, according to reports. Brian Halladay, Wendy Hart, and Paula Hill, school board members in the Alpine School District, penned an open letter to Utah state…
As a Muslim with a dream to be a police officer, Sharif Hidayat stood out in the Jesuit high school he attended in Maryland’s Montgomery County. “I was the only Muslim,” says Hidayat, 42, who is the community services officer for Montgomery County Police Department’s 4th district. “I was the only one in my family…
RALEIGH, N.C.—Republicans are falsely being accused of instigating the transgender bathroom debate, state Rep. Dan Bishop from Charlotte, North Carolina, told The Daily Signal. “This controversy nationwide has been a media-driven, ideological carpet bombing,” he said. “And I think a very dishonest one across the board. Everything that we’ve done has been distorted—so many falsehoods,…
The Obama administration’s bathroom directive, ordering local school districts to allow transgender students to use the restrooms of their choice, has caught congressional Republicans off guard. The response has been a mix of pessimism, frustration, and a call for the states to defy the directive at the local level. Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., ventured into…
A group of Mississippi state lawmakers have joined the governor in calling for a top state education official to reject the Obama administration’s transgender student guidelines or resign. “Now Obama is threatening our school funding to force his liberal ideologies of immorality on our nation at the expense of our helpless children,” Mississippi state Rep….
MOSUL FRONT, Iraq—The old peshmerga general smiled at the sound of the U.S. fighter jets. “That’s the sound of God,” he said. Gen. Omar Hama Ali Farag held a pair of binoculars to his eyes, scanning Islamic State positions about a mile away, across the Great Zab River in the direction of Mosul. “There’s two…
The Senate confirmed Paula Xinis for a federal judgeship in Maryland by a vote of 53-34, over the protests of major state police unions and outside conservative groups. Xinis, a partner and senior trial attorney at the Baltimore law firm representing the family of Freddie Gray, will serve in what is in effect a lifetime…
A lawsuit filed in Arizona claims a city ordinance forces local artists to use their talents to promote same-sex weddings and does not allow them to express freely their belief that marriage is between one man and one woman. Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative, Christian legal organization, filed a pre-enforcement challenge to Phoenix’s city code…
Though a federal judge recently ruled that a conservative nonprofit group doesn’t have to disclose its donor list to California’s Democratic attorney general, conservatives believe this case is just the latest in an ongoing fight related to political activity and free speech. “This was a great victory for free speech for everyone in this country,”…
Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas addressed the 2016 graduating class at Hillsdale College in Michigan, telling the graduates to lead by example and to not hide their faith and beliefs. Thomas, 67, appointed to the Supreme Court by President George H.W. Bush, gave the commencement address to 353 Hillsdale graduates. Here are 15…
While the unusual coalition of President Barack Obama and conservative groups hold out hope for the chance at what they call the most meaningful reform to criminal sentencing laws in a generation, frontline law enforcement officials are debating what the changes would mean for their communities. Steven Cook, whose organization represents more than 5,500 assistant…