Daily news coverage of politics, policy, and issues shaping the nation.
YAVORIV, Ukraine—At a former Soviet military base outside of the western Ukrainian town of Lviv, about 300 U.S. Army paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade, which is based in Vicenza, Italy, are training the Ukrainian National Guard. The six-month U.S. training exercise, called Fearless Guardian, officially began on April 20. The training is focused both…
The intensifying debate over the Export-Import Bank’s future spilled over to Twitter yesterday after a top official with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce took to the social media site to criticize Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., for his opposition to the contested agency. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is one of the bank’s most vocal supporters,…
To hear Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia tell it, America’s freedoms don’t come from freedom of speech or freedom of the press. It’s not the right to bear arms that keeps us free, nor is it the right to “be secure … against unreasonable search and seizure” or to a “speedy and public trial, by…
WINDSOR, N.Y.—Marian’s Pizza Shack sits 10 miles north of the Pennsylvania line, an invisible boundary that separates this small business from economic opportunity. After 23 years in business, owner Marian Szarejko has decided to sell her pizza shack. “There are no jobs here,” Szarejko said. “Business has gone down so much that I am dipping into my…
The feelings expressed during Baltimore’s recent protests—of being trapped in poverty and circumstance—have roots in a first-of-its-kind policy enacted more than 100 years ago. In 1910, the Baltimore City Council passed a residential segregation ordinance. It was the first citywide law in the United States that mandated the segregation of each residential block. “For me…
The Wild West couldn’t be tamed without mothers. At least according to Ronald Reagan. In his radio address to the nation on Mother’s Day in 1983, he told Americans: “[The] Wild West could never have been tamed, the vast prairies never plowed, nor God and learning brought to the corners of our continent without the…
It may seem like one of the smaller, less consequential clashes as environmental fights go, but the battle taking shape over a pipeline that would take natural gas from eastern Pennsylvania to the Trenton, N.J., area is fast becoming a proxy war for larger forces that could threaten the shale revolution on the East Coast…
LVIV, Ukraine—On Friday, a hush fell over the dozen or so customers in a coffee shop in this western Ukrainian city as President Petro Poroshenko appeared on television to give a speech commemorating the 70th anniversary of World War II. "On May 8, for the first time, the people of Ukraine will join the European…
As Congress prepares to resume a debate over whether late-term abortions should be allowed in the U.S., a groundbreaking new study finds that infants are able to survive outside the womb earlier on in a pregnancy than the medical community once thought. The study, which examined thousands of premature infants, may bolster a national effort…
Rewind 70 years ago. It is May 8, 1945, and Germany has just surrendered. World War II is over in Europe. The day, formally now referred to as “Victory in Europe Day” or "V-E Day," marks the acceptance of Nazi Germany’s surrender to the Allies of World War II. Today, we join with countries across the…
Natalie Bennett, the leader of the Green Party of England, recently suggested that her party is “open” to granting legal status to marriages or civil unions involving more than two people. In a question-and-answer session with readers of PinkNews, which describes itself as “Europe’s largest gay news service,” Bennett said her party is “open to…
For weeks now, Scott Walker has attracted attention from politicos and pundits with his statements on illegal and legal immigration. Whether they like or loathe what they hear the Wisconsin governor saying on processing illegal immigrants and curbing legal immigration, tuned-in activists want him to spell out his thinking if he seeks the Republican nomination…
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus is gearing up for 2016 as more than a dozen presidential candidates are considering a run for the White House. And one of his top priorities is reaching out to communities that traditionally don’t vote for Republicans. How will he do it? Just show up. In an interview with…
The Heritage Foundation has awarded its 2015 Salvatori Prize for American Citizenship to the American Council of Trustees and Alumni for their “What Will They Learn” initiative, which aims to promote rigorous academic standards in higher education. “What ACTA did—and what earned them the Salvatori Prize—is to find a way to circumvent the tenured professors…
Russ Caswell, owner of Motel Caswell in Tewksbury, Mass., fought the law and won. Now, he’s reflecting on his experiences with a law enforcement tool known as civil asset forfeiture as policymakers in Washington, D.C., and across states from coast to coast, debate the practice. “The government tried to take [Motel Caswell] based on just…
In the past week alone, we’ve watched three GOP contenders enter the 2016 presidential race: Carly Fiorina, Dr. Ben Carson, and most recently, Mike Huckabee. In this infographic, we break down each declared (and likely) candidate’s age, state, phase, experience, signature issue and, because it is the 2016 election, Twitter following.
The Senate overwhelmingly passed a bill Thursday to give Congress at least some voice over a proposed nuclear deal with Iran. The bill, which passed 98-1, would allow Congress to prevent the removal of legislative sanctions against Iran and force the Obama administration to periodically show that Tehran is following the terms of any nuclear…
Bobby Jindal has become the latest Republican presidential hopeful to call for the end of a federal agency that makes taxpayer-backed loans to foreign businesses and countries to buy U.S. products. “I don’t like … the federal government saying we’re going to decide which companies, which countries to select to help,” the Louisiana governor said,…
CHERNOBYL, Ukraine—On April 28, two days after the 29th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, a forest fire near the retired nuclear power plant threatened to send radioactive particles into the air. The Ukrainian Interior Ministry issued a statement assuring the public that there was no risk of radioactive contamination spreading out of the 30-kilometer…
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry is calling for an end to the Export-Import Bank—a reversal from the position he held as governor. In an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal published Monday, Perry, a likely 2016 Republican presidential candidate, wrote that he has changed his mind. Perry wrote that during his time as governor, Texas “became…