Daily news coverage of politics, policy, and issues shaping the nation.
Conservatives don’t want to ground a lame-duck Congress altogether. They just want to clip its wings and keep bad policy from taking flight during the frantic last months of the year. Part of every congressional lifespan, the lame-duck session refers to the window after the November election but before newly elected representatives take their…
The stories of two businessmen who recently were denied banking services because they sell firearms suggest a secretive government program called Operation Choke Point still affects industries across the nation that the Obama administration considered undesirable. In one case, a large bank in New England denied a line of credit to a former police officer…
Despite the lack of a definitive ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court on the constitutionality of mandatory union dues, workers across the nation have ample opportunity to challenge why they’re forced to pay for political activism they don’t support. That’s clear from a state-by-state map that measures the current level of worker freedom in both…
The sponsors of the religious liberty bill vetoed by Georgia’s governor say they are disappointed and disheartened by his action. Gov. Nathan Deal, a Republican, vetoed the legislation—called the Free Exercise Protection Act—on Monday, saying the bill did not reflect Georgia’s image as a state full of “warm, friendly, and loving people.” Sponsors said they…
Republicans, Democrats, and Wall Street investors agree that lawmakers must do more work on a plan to save Puerto Rico from looming fiscal disaster. They just disagree on the direction Congress should take to tackle the problems plaguing the U.S. territory. A rough draft released Tuesday by House Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop, R-Utah, wasn’t…
A new report from the Justice Department found that a police department located in a Chicago suburb used nearly $1 million it received from a controversial government program to buy items including motorcycles, a Chevy Camaro, and a boat, raising further questions about whether the program should exist at all. According to an audit conducted…
The Labor Department is imposing regulations requiring more information to be disclosed about agreements between employers and labor relations consultants. The new “persuader” rule, which takes effect April 25, interprets a section of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 covering employers and the consultants they hire. The House Committee on Government Oversight and…
Drivers in Chicago who received tickets from the city’s red light and speed camera systems might see refunds. City officials are currently embattled in a lawsuit with three motorists who charge that Chicago has failed to provide sufficient notice for individuals to contest or pay for tickets before deeming them liable. If Chicago loses the…
House Republicans released draft legislation Tuesday designed to help Puerto Rico weather a fiscal storm through comprehensive audits of the protectorate’s finances and restructuring of its debts. Released as a “discussion draft” by Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop, R-Utah, the bill addresses Puerto Rico’s ballooning $70 billion debt. The bill “will change,” Bishop said in a…
Two years after California teacher Rebecca Friedrichs first mounted her challenge to public-sector unions, she’s hearing the same thing today that she’s heard from fellow teachers all along: Keep fighting. The Supreme Court ruled 4-4 Tuesday in the case that bears her name, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, leaving in place agency fees public employees pay…
The war on poverty is a war on work, the authors of a new book that criticizes the nation’s welfare system assert. Phil Harvey, chief sponsor of the DKT Liberty Project, and Lisa Conyers, a policy analyst for the project, conducted a nationwide study of anti-poverty programs for their book, “The Human Cost of Welfare:…
Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah are accusing the Justice Department of pursuing “frivolous prosecutions” against the pro-life movement and having, according to the senators’ offices, “what appears to be an exceptionally heavy bias” in favor of abortion clinics over houses of worship in a letter sent to U.S. Attorney General…
Chicago teachers voted to approve a one-day strike this Friday in protest of “unfair” labor practices, an action that affects about 400,000 public school students as schools plan to shut down for the day. Administrators call the move illegal. “As you may have heard, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) has declared a ‘Day of Action’…
With much attention on how the Supreme Court could overturn major cases dealing with religion, campaign finance, and the Second Amendment if a liberal were to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, conservatives hoping for one of their own to assume the bench are quietly angling for the court to revisit a decision dealing with executive power….
KYIV, Ukraine—Seventy-four years later, I reached up and broke off a small piece of a branch that was long and gray. It was bent in the strange, contorted ways it had blindly grown to look for light here at the cold bottom of the ravine, where the forest canopy above had turned the sunny spring…
Criticism of Merrick Garland’s record on the Second Amendment hasn’t stopped four pro-gun Senate Democrats from calling on Republicans to begin the confirmation process for the Supreme Court nominee. If he is confirmed, conservatives fear that Garland could shift the court to the left for decades and potentially provide the deciding vote to overturn landmark gun…
California lawmakers and labor leaders are cheering a new deal that, if passed, raises the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, making the Golden State the first in the country to do so. But labor experts are already warning that such a wage hike could lead to higher prices for consumers, more automation, and…
Maine Gov. Paul LePage is fighting a bipartisan proposal designed to boost solar power development in the state by a factor of 12, arguing that it would benefit only the wealthy. At a business expo Thursday in central Maine, LePage, a Republican, warned that the solar power bill would increase electricity costs to 22 cents per kilowatt-hour. “If…
While group of nuns have become the de facto face of the Supreme Court case challenging the Affordable Care Act’s so-called “contraceptive mandate,” another community is set to be similarly affected by the court’s ruling: religiously affiliated colleges and universities. Schools like Oklahoma Wesleyan University, an evangelical Christian university of the Wesleyan Church, are also…
A bipartisan group of lawmakers on the House Ways and Means Committee is urging the Justice Department, Treasury Department, and Internal Revenue Service to return money “inappropriately” seized by the IRS under civil asset forfeiture. Led by Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Peter Roskam, R-Ill., and Ranking Member John Lewis, D-Ga., the group of 14 lawmakers also…