Daily news coverage of politics, policy, and issues shaping the nation.
Yesterday on The O’Reilly Factor, Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer discussed building a fence as a viable solution toward reducing the illegal immigration rate in light of the current immigration crisis taking place at the U.S.-Mexico border. >>>On the Texas-Mexico Border: The View From The Front Line >>>Obama Asks for $2 Billion in Emergency Funds…
A recent study labeled Mississippi as the nation’s most corrupt state, but state auditor Stacey Pickering says it should get credit for its efforts in fighting corruption. The study by researchers Cheol Liu from the City University of Hong Kong and Indiana University’s John L. Mikesell found corruption in Mississippi was tops among the states…
Facebook is facing backlash from users and researchers over the ethics and legality of a recently revealed week-long experiment, which the company conducted in January 2012. The company secretly manipulated the news feeds of nearly 700,000 users and found that the information posted by a user’s friends can influence that user’s mood. The experiment took…
DICKINSON, N.D.—As policymakers in Washington, D.C., debate raising the federal minimum wage, entry-level workers in North Dakota enjoy pay levels nearly twice the current federal minimum. “Effectively, our minimum wage in town is $14 an hour,” claims Shawn Kessel, administrator for the City of Dickinson, a community in North Dakota’s booming oil fields. Kessel isn’t…
Last month, the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles ordered rideshare companies Uber and Lyft to stop operating. But that doesn’t mean the companies or consumers are cooperating. A groundswell of support for the companies is growing, pressuring officials in Virginia to allow them to compete with traditional taxicab companies. Even though taxicab companies have the…
Speaking in New York City last week, Wall Street billionaire Tom Steyer outlined his vision for penalizing people whose actions may contribute to climate change. “We need to reward people whose behavior reduces climate risk and penalize people who add to it,” Steyer said. “If we can get this right, I think there’s no doubt…
Union leaders based in Chicago racked up more than $13,000 in hotel charges to attend President Obama’s second inauguration and more than $6,000 to purchase booze for a Christmas party the month before. If the bosses of the Service Employees International Union plan to continue spending in that fashion, though, they may have to find…
Yesterday the Supreme Court ruled that “closely held” companies can have a religious right to decline coverage for drugs and devices that can act as abortifacients. Already one Kentucky company has canceled coverage of the morning-after pill, and experts predict many more will follow suit. On the same day as the court’s decision, Rich Gimmel,…
Although caricatured as anti-contraception, Hobby Lobby already provides coverage for 16 of the 20 drugs mandated by Obamacare. Outside the Supreme Court yesterday, The Daily Signal asked supporters of the HHS mandate exactly what drugs or devices were in dispute. Related: >>> What These Americans Think of the Hobby Lobby Ruling >>> Supreme Court Upholds Religious Freedom in…
With 26 legislative days left before the Export-Import Bank’s charter expires Sept. 30, a preliminary count of the agency’s supporters and opponents finds that 40 percent of House Republicans are against extending its life. According to an analysis conducted by The Hill newspaper, four in 10 House Republicans — 93 or so of the chamber’s 233 majority…
Confronting a crisis on the Texas-Mexico border and a Congress that he said won’t work with him, President Obama this afternoon announced he will pursue reform to the nation’s immigration laws with executive action. In passionate remarks from the Rose Garden, Obama left the door open to work with skeptical House Republicans on an immigration…
Today, in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that employers with religious objections cannot be forced to provide abortion-inducing drugs and devices to their employees under Obamacare. The Daily Signal went to the steps of the nation’s highest court to ask activists on both sides of the debate about the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby decision—one of…
President Obama will nominate former Procter & Gamble chief executive Bob McDonald as the next secretary of veterans affairs, calculating that a corporate manager and outsider can turn around the beleaguered department. If confirmed by the Senate, McDonald, a 61-year-old Army veteran, would be tasked with overcoming a scandal over long wait times at Veterans…
President Obama asked Congress today for more than $2 billion in emergency funds to manage the surge of illegal Central American immigrants at the South Texas border, and to speed the deportation of those already here. The president, in a letter sent to Congress, asks lawmakers to revise existing immigration law to give the Department of…
This morning, #SCOTUS (aka U.S. Supreme Court) went viral. As the high court handed down its decision on the Obamacare mandate, politicians, pundits and private citizens took to Twitter to spread the news. Since the announcement, democracy’s digital forum continues to explode with tweets about the decision. We curated a few below: HOBBY LOBBY WINS AT…
President Obama says he is “not going to apologize” for sidestepping Congress through his multiple executive orders. In an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, Obama said if House Speaker John Boehner wants him to stop asserting so much executive power, then Congress should “try getting something done.”
Frustrated with the IRS’ inability to produce Lois Lerner’s emails, two Texas congressmen have opted for the “carrot and stick” approach—a $1 million reward for the recovery of those messages. Rep. Bill Flores and Louie Gohmert proposed the bill to track down Lerner’s emails, which were sent at the time of the IRS’ tea party…
The government can’t compel a “closely held” business such as the Hobby Lobby chain to cover abortion-inducing drugs or devices in employee health plans if doing so would violate the employer’s moral and religious beliefs, the Supreme Court ruled today. In a much-anticipated decision, the justices decided 5-4 that the Obamacare provision mandating such coverage…
In a move that surprised some conservative allies, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal recently vetoed legislation authorizing the state to implement the federal REAL ID Act. The Republican governor called the measure “unnecessary federal oversight of our driver’s licenses,” although advocates say they are concerned Jindal doesn’t fully appreciate the benefits of the anti-terrorism measure. Congress passed the REAL ID…
With the rapid advance in Iraq of the deadly terrorist group calling itself the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), political leaders and policy analysts are concerned not only with regional security in the Middle East but with new threats to America’s national security. In Part 1 of this interview, The Heritage Foundation’s expert…