In The News

WASHINGTON — COVID has taken a toll on student learning and wellbeing, but a coalition of community schools advocates believes they have the answer to correcting academic learning loss and supporting the holistic development of young people. They say their... Read More

DES MOINES, Iowa - Residents of Iowa will have to wait until next week to learn if dramatic changes are going to be made to how they participate in future elections.  Earlier this week, both houses of the State Legislature... Read More

BOISE, Idaho – To the outsider, it seems like a movie that has a bizarre twist just as the heroine should be taking her victory lap.  Lauren Stein McLean, an entrepreneur who had served on Boise, Idaho’s city council for... Read More

The failure of the prison system to provide adequate mental health care is causing people to kill themselves at high rates, according to a new report.  The report, published in February in the peer-reviewed journal The Lancet, reviewed data from... Read More

WASHINGTON -- A congressional panel wants to cut off funding for the kind of White supremacists who raided the U.S. Capitol building Jan. 6. They described the attack as the first of many against government targets unless they act promptly... Read More

Congress needs to create mandates to curb the abusive power exerted by a handful of online platforms, according to all six witnesses at a Capitol Hill hearing on Thursday. During the hearing, members of a House Judiciary subcommittee grappled with... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Senate cloture rule might be the biggest Legislative obstacle in front of President Joe Biden’s policy agenda.  Simply put, the cloture rule is a debate-limiting procedure that requires 60 Senators to agree before moving on to a... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are ready to shove a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package through the House on Friday, despite a setback that means a minimum wage boost is unlikely to be in the final version that reaches President Joe... Read More

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Josh Venable, a longtime Michigan GOP operative and chief of staff to former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, can trace the arc of the state's Republican Party clearly."This was the state where to be Republican was... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democratic-led House passed a bill Thursday that would enshrine LGBTQ protections in the nation's labor and civil rights laws, a top priority of President Joe Biden, though the legislation faces an uphill battle in the Senate.The... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell sharply last week but remained high by historical standards.  Applications for benefits declined 111,000 from the previous week to a seasonally adjusted 730,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. It... Read More

WASHINGTON — Dr. Anthony Fauci says if a coronavirus vaccine is available, regardless of which one, take it. The top U.S. infectious disease expert told NBC on Thursday a third vaccine becoming available “is nothing but good news” and would... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans rallied solidly against Democrats' proposed $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill as lawmakers awaited a decision by the Senate's parliamentarian that could bolster or potentially kill a pivotal provision hiking the federal minimum wage.  Despite their paper-thin congressional majorities,... Read More

WASHINGTON - Reps. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Penn., have launched an effort to untangle the increasingly common deadlocks at the Federal Elections Commission and enable it to more effectively carry out its mission to oversee and enforce campaign... Read More

Retailers and restaurants are taking control of their future by adapting to evolving consumer behaviors via technology use and operating efficiencies says a new study released from Square Inc. Square’s “Future of Retail” and “Future of Restaurants” reports provide a... Read More

WASHINGTON -- The news media fell under attack Wednesday in Congress for exacerbating the COVID-19 pandemic, encouraging the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and irresponsibly downplaying threats of global warming. The criticisms were hurled during a House Energy... Read More

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said during a virtual meeting with essential workers on Wednesday that the administration plans to distribute millions of cloth face masks beginning early next month. According to a statement from the White House, the reusable, American-made masks... Read More

WASHINGTON - If ever there was a sign that a new sheriff is in town in the nation's Capitol, it was the tenor of President Joe Biden's first bilateral meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Though the coronavirus forced... Read More

WASHINGTON -- Any policy aiming to truly address the nation’s broadband access crisis must be accompanied by robust federal funding to ensure these efforts are sustainable, according to one of the country’s top telecom executives. Speaking at the AT&T Policy... Read More

Although 2020 was an economically woeful year due to the coronavirus pandemic, a joint report by BloombergNEF and the Business Council for Sustainable Energy indicates renewable energy sources made record contributions to the country’s power grid.  The annual report, called... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Johnson & Johnson's single-dose vaccine protects against COVID-19, according to an analysis by U.S. regulators Wednesday that sets the stage for a final decision on a new and easier-to-use shot to help tame the pandemic.  The Food... Read More

ATLANTA (AP) — With her children struggling in many classes last spring, Kelli Rivera became so frustrated with how her suburban Atlanta district was handling the coronavirus pandemic that she withdrew them to home-school them. They're back in public school... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is preparing to sign an executive order to review U.S. supply chains for large-capacity batteries, pharmaceuticals, critical minerals and semiconductors that power cars, phones, military equipment and other goods.  The United States has become... Read More

WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers repeated their conviction at a Senate hearing Tuesday that never again should insurrectionists be allowed to attack the U.S. Capitol like they did on Jan. 6 while acknowledging huge security lapses. They reviewed failures in intelligence reports,... Read More

Four panelists warned today that proposed legislative reforms for more aggressive antitrust enforcement in Big Tech would likely spill over across all industries, hindering innovation and harming consumers. Strengthening the antitrust laws - federal and state statutes that restrict the... Read More

AUSTIN, Texas - Saturday, May 1, will be the day of the special election to fill the Texas 6th Congressional District seat recently vacated due to the death of Rep. Ron Wright. Gov. Greg Abbott made the announcement Tuesday, adding... Read More

WASHINGTON - Two former chairs of the Federal Elections Commission -- one a Democrat, the other a Republican -- have thrown their support behind the election reform provisions of the For the People Act. In a letter to the leaders... Read More

WASHINGTON - In the near future, cellular networks, particularly in advancing 5G, need to evolve away from their previously hardware-driven functions and become more virtual or software-based, the acting head of the Federal Communications Commissions believes. To advance those beliefs,... Read More

NEW YORK (AP) — Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. fought for a year and a half to get access to former President Donald Trump's tax records.Now, thanks to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, he will soon have them.... Read More

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — For Native Americans, Deb Haaland is more than an elected official on track to become the first Indigenous secretary of the Interior Department. She is a sister, an auntie and a fierce pueblo woman whose political... Read More