WASHINGTON — The Senate has passed both the $1.5 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill and the framework of the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill made up largely of potential investments in social programs and climate policy. While these massive budgetary items move through the House, Democrats continue to tout how these economic plans can boost households, [&... Read More

WASHINGTON — A man who claimed to have a bomb in a pickup truck outside the Library of Congress surrendered to the police Thursday afternoon, after hours of negotiations and evacuations of several government buildings in the area. The man, identified as Floyd Ray Roseberry, 49, of Grover, North Carolina, surrendered peacefully, according to ... Read More

The once-a-decade battle over redistricting is set to be a showdown over the suburbs, as new census data showed rapid growth around some of the nation’s largest cities and shrinking population in many rural counties.  From Texas to Florida, some of the biggest gains reported Thursday came in states where ... Read More

GULF SHORES, Ala. (AP) — Tourists and servers alike dance atop tables and in the aisles at one restaurant on the “Redneck Riviera,” a beloved stretch of towns along the northern Gulf Coast where beaches, bars and stores are packed. Yet just a few miles away, a hospital is running out of critical ... Read More

U.S. Census Bureau computer servers were exploited last year during a cybersecurity attack, but it didn’t involve the 2020 census, and hackers’ attempts to keep access to the system were unsuccessful, according to a watchdog report released Wednesday. The attack took place in January 2020 on the bureau’s remote access servers. ... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden says even with the Taliban in power in Afghanistan, he sees a greater threat from outposts of al-Qaida and its affiliated groups in other countries, and that it was no longer “rational” to continue to focus U.S. military power there. “We should be focusing on where ... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of people seeking unemployment benefits fell last week for a fourth straight time to a pandemic low, the latest sign that America’s job market is rebounding from the pandemic recession as employers boost hiring to meet a surge in consumer demand. The Labor Department reported Thursday that ... Read More

WASHINGTON — Three former Netflix software engineers and two close associates have been charged with generating over $3 million in profits by trading on confidential information about Netflix’s subscriber growth, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced Wednesday. According to a complaint filed in federal court in Seattle, former software engineer Sung Mo “Jay” ... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Department of Education will invoke its civil rights enforcement authority to prevent states from imposing universal bans on wearing face masks in classrooms, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said on Wednesday. The decision represents a dramatic escalation of the battle between the White House and Republican governors who have blocked local ... Read More

This article is by Warren Cornwall and was originally published by Anthropocene magazine. At a time when the word “microbiome” has made it into the popular lexicon and people extol the benefits of yogurt, kombucha and other fermented foods, there could be another beneficiary of bacterial infusions: coral. In recent years, scientists ... Read More

A recent paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reviews decades of efforts by scientists to get arsenic out of rice.  Arsenic, in inorganic form, is a pollutant which can stem from industrial processes and pesticides, and chronic exposure can lead to health conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular ... Read More

WASHINGTON — U.S. Defense Department officials on Wednesday afternoon acknowledged the kind of surprise about the fall of Afghanistan mentioned in a new inspector general’s report. “No, I did not see a collapse of an army of that size in 11 days,” Army Gen. Mark Milley said about the takeover of Afghanistan ... Read More

Costs associated with the United States’ “Global War on Terror” have mounted significantly in the nearly 20 years following the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attacks. The underlying mission of the Global War on Terror in 2001 was to fortify the U.S.’s national security against future attacks by al Qaeda and other terrorist ... Read More

WASHINGTON — Americans who got the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccines will be able to obtain booster shots eight months after the date of their second doses, the Biden administration announced Wednesday. Because of the timing element, those who were first in line for the vaccines the first time around will also be ... Read More

While suburban congressional districts are swelling with new residents, lawmakers in large swaths of rural America and some Rust Belt cities are in need of more people to represent.  In rural Illinois, Republican Rep. Mary Miller’s district is short 73,000 people. In northeastern Ohio, Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan needs an additional 88,000 ... Read More

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Two California voters are suing to block a recall vote against Gov. Gavin Newsom that they say violates the U.S. Constitution. The planned Sept. 14 vote comes amid a backlash against some Democrats, such as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as he is forced from office amid sexual harassment allegations. ... Read More

A recent report from the National Council on Compensation Insurance finds that there are now 3 million fewer Americans in the labor force than there were before the pandemic.  “At the pandemics onset, there were 18 million people on temporary layoff and now that’s 1.8 million, so, a lot of the job recovery ... Read More

MADISON, Wis. — Congressional and legislative district maps that have been used in electoral contests for the past decade should not be used as the starting point for drawing new boundaries using 2020 census data, Wisconsin Democrats say in a federal lawsuit. The complaint was filed Friday in the U.S. District Court in ... Read More

TOOELE, Utah (AP) — The sound of the helicopter propeller thundered across the horizon as it dipped down toward mustangs dotting the golden brown plain. The horses burst into a gallop at the machine’s approach, their high-pitched whinnies rising into the dry air.  That helicopter roundup in the mountains of western ... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Taliban have agreed to allow “safe passage” from Afghanistan for civilians struggling to join a U.S.-directed airlift from the capital, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser said, although a timetable for completing the evacuation of Americans, Afghan allies and others has yet to be worked out ... Read More

This article is by Sarah DeWeerdt and was originally published by Anthropocene magazine. Experiencing unusual weather events does not change people’s climate policy preferences, according to an analysis of German survey data. Neither climate deniers nor acceptors are moved by local weather, the researchers found. Past studies have shown that experiencing ... Read More

Seven diversity organizations have joined the call for Congress to revive a tax certificate program intended to encourage minority and women ownership of broadcast stations. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., and Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., introduced the bill to reestablish the Minority Tax Certificate Program at the Federal Communications Commission during ... Read More

A recently released report on the status of illegal online wildlife trafficking has revealed thousands of endangered or illegal animals, parts and trophies are being digitally advertised in the U.S. The report, dubbed Digital Markets: Wildlife Trafficking Hidden in Plain Sight, found 1,400 advertisements working to sell 2,400 animals on 34 different online platforms ... Read More

AUSTIN, Texas — The Supreme Court of Texas issued a ruling on Sunday voiding temporary restraining orders issued by separate District Court judges that impeded Gov. Greg Abbott’s edict prohibiting local officials from requiring masks to be worn indoors. Local governments and school districts began defying Abbott’s executive order from July 29 ... Read More

In the wake of a powerful earthquake, the U.S. has sent rescue personnel and air support to assist with the search and rescue efforts in Haiti. On Sunday, the U.S. Agency for International Development said it had sent a 65-member urban search and rescue team to help Haiti with the ... Read More

As a record number of children are being hospitalized with COVID-19, pediatric hospitals are reporting heightened outbreaks of respiratory syncytial virus which can be life-threatening to infants and young adults. Usually, outbreaks of RSV hit their peak between December and February, according to Department of Health and Human Services data. However, pediatric ... Read More

Federal regulators on Monday declared the first-ever water shortage at Lake Mead, a reservoir that feeds into the Colorado River and serves approximately 40 million people in the West. The declaration, issued as part of an outlook for the river for the next 24 months, triggers cuts in water supply that will mostly affect ... Read More

The great contradiction of Boston’s Old North Church is that a site pivotal to the freedom of the nation is the same place where slave owners and traders once worshiped. Now, with a $75,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities announced Tuesday, the foundation responsible for the preservation of the ... Read More

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban declared an “amnesty” across Afghanistan and urged women to join their government Tuesday, seeking to convince a wary population that they have changed a day after deadly chaos gripped the main airport as desperate crowds tried to flee their rule. Following a blitz across Afghanistan that saw ... Read More

Stocks are dropping on Wall Street early Tuesday amid turmoil in Afghanistan and unease about a weaker economic outlook in China. The S&P 500 lost 0.6% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.7%. A report showed Americans cut back their spending last month far more than expected as a surge in COVID-19 ... Read More