The same lawmakers who exploded the federal deficit by gifting millionaires and billionaires a favorable corporate tax bill are now telling the public that the way to fix the deficit is to shred the social safety net. On Tuesday, after the Treasury Department released figures showing the federal deficit for Fiscal Year 2018 rose 17 […]
Lambda Legal has filed a lawsuit on behalf of four transgender individuals and a transgender rights organization challenging Kansas’ arbitrary ban on allowing birth certificates to be updated to reflect gender transitions. Currently, only Kansas, Ohio, and Tennessee block people born in the state from ever updating the sex marker on their birth certificates under […]
What happened to dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi after he was last seen stepping into his country’s consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 is now clear: He was interrogated, tortured, and, ultimately, killed. After a meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman (a.k.a. MBS) on Tuesday, it is still […]
Caught between recovering from a devastating, unprecedented hurricane and an ongoing algae crisis, Florida Republicans are increasingly facing pressure to address climate change from constituents as election day draws near — but many have found themselves floundering on the issue. Pressure to discuss climate change has accelerated in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, which has killed […]
At least five children in Maryland may have contracted a “polio-like” disease known as acute flaccid myelitis (AFM), Maryland Department of Health officials said this week. The children are among several dozen others across the United States who have exhibited possible symptoms of AFM, and who are currently being investigated by the Centers for Disease […]
In an apparent effort to push back on suggestions his soft stance toward Saudi Arabia is a result of his business dealings with Saudis, President Trump on Tuesday tweeted, “For the record, I have no financial interests in Saudi Arabia (or Russia, for that matter). Any suggestion that I have is just more FAKE NEWS […]
Organizers of the upcoming #WalkAway March in Washington, D.C. are billing their event as an opportunity to rally all those who use the #WalkAway hashtag, indicating they’ve walked away from the Democratic Party. They’re calling on supporters to come to the nation’s capital and prove their hashtag wasn’t amplified by Russian bots, but represents real […]
Hate crimes in the U.K. have more than doubled over the last five years and rose 17 percent in the last year alone, according to new information released by the British Home Office. The figures, which focus on England and Wales, show there were 94,098 hate crimes between March 2017 and March 2018, compared to […]
Thousands of Marriott hotel workers in Hawaii say they want better wages, sexual harassment protections, and a promise not to be replaced by automation. They have been on strike for more than a week, but it doesn’t appear the strike will end anytime soon. Hotel workers who are members of Unite Here Local 5 have […]
Is President Trump quietly giving up on coal power, even as he noisily supports it? The Trump administration appears to be backing away from its widely criticized plan to bail out coal. At the same time, U.S. coal power generation hits a 35-year low, and coal company bankruptcies are increasing. Candidate Trump campaigned on ending […]
The Department of the Interior has selected Karen Budd-Falen, an anti-public lands advocate, for a senior legal position at the department. The move is controversial: Budd-Falen is an ally of right-wing extremist Cliven Bundy, who is best known for leading an armed 2014 standoff with federal officials in Nevada after he refused to pay his grazing fees. […]
Four months after President Donald Trump halted his administration’s policy of separating immigrant families at the border, dozens of children remain in the custody of the federal government. According to a recent court filing, 66 children, including one under the age of 5, are currently in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) and […]
Discovering a far-right group stationed on a rooftop with a stockpile of weapons, overlooking a major demonstration, might rattle most people, especially if that group has a documented history of clashing with counterprotestors. But evidently not the Portland Police Bureau. On Monday it was revealed that, prior to a major protest in the city on August 4 — which […]
The Trump administration is putting the health insurance of millions of Americans in the hands of a former Maine official best known for undermining the public health infrastructure in her state to put low-income families at risk. Mary Mayhew, Maine’s former health commissioner, was tapped on Monday to run the national Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance […]
During an interview on Tuesday’s edition of Fox & Friends, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) responded to Elizabeth Warren’s announcement that she has Native American ancestry by announcing that he too is planning to take a DNA test. Hosts concluded the interview by urging Graham to come back on the show soon to reveal the results […]
Ahead of the midterm elections, Republicans are positioning themselves as members of the party that will protect people with pre-existing conditions. But this campaign strategy simply doesn’t match up with their voting record on health care. “Republicans only will always protect patients with pre-existing conditions,” said President Donald Trump during a campaign rally for Rep. Andy […]
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was dispatched by President Trump to Riyadh as part of the president’s purported effort to “investigate” what happened to Virginia resident, Washington Post columnist, and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi — who entered a Saudi consulate in Turkey on October 2 and hasn’t been seen since. Hours before Pompeo’s arrival on […]
There are scenes in On Her Shoulders that reveal Nadia Murad’s astounding strength, and that show us the price she pays for it. In one scene, she is among a crowd of grieving fellow Yazidis — a religious and ethnic minority group savagely targeted by the self-proclaimed Islamic State (ISIS) with a genocidal campaign — […]
The Florida Department of Health announced Monday that a child who hadn’t received a flu vaccination was the first confirmed fatality of flu season in the United States. The unidentified child was said to be healthy before testing positive for influenza, according to the state’s Bureau of Epidemiology. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate […]
President Donald Trump’s Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has “quietly” spent millions of dollars on private security for Confederate cemeteries since the violent “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017. The effort is “aimed at preventing the kind of damage that befell Confederate memorials across the U.S. in the aftermath of the […]
If some white supremacists have their way, there will soon be not one Texas, but many. That’s the dream of a handful of vocal white nationalists, who see fracturing Texas as a potential rebuttal to Democratic calls to back statehood for Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Prominent voices on the left have increasingly […]