Daily news coverage of politics, policy, and issues shaping the nation.
MIAMI—At a recent meeting of Latin American leaders in Costa Rica, Cuban President Raúl Castro outlined his conditions for normalized relations with the United States. One was returning the Guantanamo Bay naval station to Havana. The other was ending “radio and television broadcasts, which violate international norms.” That was a direct shot at U.S.-funded Radio…
There are a growing number of medical marijuana dispensaries across the United States and a majority of Americans who support legalization. But two critics of the drug said the science points to serious problems with pot. Speaking at a Heritage Foundation event Monday, former drug czar William J. Bennett and federal prosecutor Robert A. White…
Remember the EPA bureaucrat who got caught receiving $900,000 in pay without working because he claimed he also was employed by the CIA? According to a report from the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the man, former climate policy expert John Beale, “retired” when questions arose about his spotty attendance and expense records. Only he…
If he runs for president, Bobby Jindal says he’ll be ready to make the case that conservative policies help the most Americans. The way the Louisiana governor sees it, by the time Republican and Democratic voters choose their 2016 presidential nominees, a crowded field of GOP candidates needs to have thoroughly aired issues of consequence to…
MIAMI—Carlos García-Pérez, who heads the U.S. government’s Office of Cuba Broadcasting, is used to his news station being a target. The Miami headquarters of Radio and TV Martí is protected as if it is one. Located randomly off the side of an expressway, the building is guarded by a barbed-wire gate. Signage outside confirms the…
While promoting his new education platform today in Washington, D.C., Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said more moms than ever are speaking out against the national education standards known as Common Core. Of those moms, Jindal said, “I wouldn’t bet against them.” The Republican governor took on the issue of Common Core while speaking to a…
The owners of an Oregon bakery who declined to make a cake for a same-sex couple’s wedding celebration were found guilty last week of violating the state’s anti-discrimination law. The bakery owners, Aaron and Melissa Klein of Sweet Cakes By Melissa, contend they were adhering to their Christian beliefs that marriage is between a man…
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, hoping that a push for education reform can set him apart among prospective Republican candidates for president, today begins to tout a national plan he says would create “an ecosystem of freedom and choice” for parents, students and teachers. His proposals, Jindal says in the plan to be released this morning,…
After receiving $2.5 billion in taxpayer dollars from the federal government, the vast majority of nonprofit insurance companies created under the Affordable Care Act recorded losses in revenue, an analysis by The Daily Signal found. Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans, or co-ops, are nonprofit insurance companies created by the Affordable Care Act. Though the concept…
It was a cold and cloudy day with poor visibility on the side of a mountain in Colorado when Dr. Pat Castle first encountered Padre Pio, the canonized Roman Catholic priest from Southern Italy, who was known for his healing powers and connection with supernatural occurrences. It was 2006, and Castle was about 10 minutes…
Most people associate the words “drop box,” with the online file-sharing tool that allows users to share data across computers and smartphones from anywhere, instantly. But for Jong-rak Lee, a pastor from Seoul, South Korea, the term has a very different meaning. For Lee, a drop box is a way to save hundreds of unwanted…
Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., traveled to Texas this weekend for a first-hand look at the security at the U.S. border with Mexico. The trip comes as Congress wrestles with how to fund the Department of Homeland Security with a deadline of Feb. 27. Conservatives hope to use the funding measure as leverage to attack President…
Gen. John Allen, the president’s special envoy for the coalition against ISIS, told ABC News on Sunday that the terrorist group “is at an entirely different level than al-Qaeda was.” ISIS is “better organized” and its “command and control is better,” Allen told ABC. He added that ISIS has a “situational awareness of a broader…
In an interview Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the deadline for Iranian nuclear talks was unlikely to be extended. “If we’re not able to make the fundamental decisions that have to be made over the course of the next weeks, literally, I think it would be impossible to…
A new Associated Press-GFK poll shows that more Americans favor legalizing same-sex marriage, but a majority believe businesses that provide wedding services shouldn’t have to participate in a same-sex marriage if they have a religious objection. According to the poll, 44 percent of Americans favor legalizing same-sex marriage, 39 percent oppose it, and 15 percent…
MADISON, Wis.—More than 35,000 public employees would be removed from state government rolls if Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposal stays intact through the legislative process. Walker’s 2015-17 budget proposal, which was introduced Tuesday, makes major changes to the operation of the state’s University of Wisconsin System. The second-term governor’s plan would split off the system…
A gun and ammo shop in New York blames the state’s strict regulations on firearms for bringing an end to its business. “The SAFE Act killed us in terms of business,” Kordell Jackson, owner of Jackson Guns and Ammo Shop in Henrietta, N.Y., told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. “It was very difficult with sales and regulations…
In the movie “Back to the Future Part II,” Marty McFly travels in a DeLorean to 2015 to keep his son out of jail. Now that the date has actually arrived, two policy groups, Americans for Tax Reform and Digital Liberty, are leveraging the movie to bring attention to the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The…
The Obama administration’s student loan program came up $21.8 billion short last year because of unpaid and forgiven loans. According to Politico, which found the number buried in President Obama’s 2016 budget proposal this week, the shortfall is “the largest ever recorded for any government credit program.” The president’s student loan initiative limits student loan payments to…
How does Josh Earnest balance being the White House press secretary and a father? This week at the Center for American Progress, President Obama’s spokesman shared his thoughts about balancing a high-profile career with the job of raising a small child in Washington, D.C. “Men feel pressure to have a genuine home life,” Earnest told…