News

Wars have a way of producing two very different kinds of numbers: the numbers leaders say out loud, and the numbers intelligence officers say behind closed doors. When those sets of numbers clash, the Constitution is not just background reading. It is the measuring stick. After roughly a month of...

House GOP Pushes New DHS Funding Plan as Shutdown Drags On

A government shutdown is often described like a weather event, something that simply arrives and then passes. But constitutionally, it is not weather. It is a choice. And this week, the choice hardened into a familiar shape: the House and Senate moving in opposite directions, each insisting the...

When Congress toys with a government shutdown, plenty of people say it is about principle. But a harder question keeps coming up: is this a moral stand, or a bargaining chip? That question surfaced again on Friday, when House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was asked by an interviewer whether a...

De Niro and Springsteen Join ‘No Kings’ Protests

Actor Robert De Niro and musician Bruce Springsteen appeared at separate “No Kings” rallies and spoke to crowds, as shown in circulating video. Their appearances added celebrity attention to a protest slogan that different participants and viewers can interpret in different ways. What is...

Pro-Hamas Grads and the Civics Vacuum

In some campus settings, you can imagine a familiar scene even without a headline attached. A commencement ceremony tends to follow its set rhythms: speeches about gratitude, gowns that never fit quite right, and a symbolic handoff from student to citizen. In some disputes, an additional layer...

No Kings Protests and the Celebrity Megaphone

Americans do not need celebrities to tell them what a monarchy is. We wrote our national origin story by rejecting one. But when famous voices show up at mass rallies, they do something the Constitution cannot do by itself. They make a civics argument loud enough to compete with everything else in...

Jayapal Floats ‘Reparations’ for Illegal Migrants

When Americans hear the word reparations , they usually think of historic wrongdoing and a national attempt to make amends. That framing matters, because it quietly answers a prior question: who, exactly, is owed what by whom? At a March 27 “shadow hearing” focused on immigration enforcement,...

MAGA Lawmaker Calls for Thune Ouster

Amid shutdown turmoil, a MAGA lawmaker is calling for Sen. John Thune to be ousted from leadership.

MAGA Lawmaker Demands Thune Ouster Amid Shutdown Chaos

Washington talks about shutdowns like they are weather. Storm clouds. Looming deadlines. Last-minute rescues. But shutdowns are not acts of God. They are choices. And right now, one headline framed around “shutdown chaos” is doing the work of a warning flare: a MAGA lawmaker is demanding John...

Baltimore Turns Cold on Musk Inc.

Baltimore has spent the last decade absorbing a basic rule of local power: even when a billionaire shows up with a big promise, City Hall still decides what flies. This week made that point twice. First came a burst of interest in a no-cost tunnel concept around the Ravens’ stadium, tied to early...

House GOP Blocks Senate Bill to Pay Airport Screeners

When most Americans think about a government shutdown, they picture locked museum doors and darkened office buildings. But this week’s standoff is playing out in a place you can’t avoid if you need to travel: the airport security line. On Friday, House Republican leaders refused to take up a...

Verizon Waives Late Fees for Federal Workers During DHS Shutdown

A government shutdown is usually described in the language of “appropriations,” “continuing resolutions,” and “funding gaps.” But the lived reality is far less abstract: missed paychecks, late rent, and everyday bills that do not pause just because Congress did. In that gap, private...

Idaho Makes the Firing Squad the Default

July 1 is a turning point in how Idaho intends to carry out death sentences. The state is elevating the firing squad from a backup plan to the first option . Until now, Idaho law put lethal injection at the top and the firing squad behind it. Beginning July 1, Idaho flips that order and becomes the...

Former Frontex Chief Under French Probe Over Migrant Pushbacks

When governments enforce borders, somebody always wants a courtroom to be the final word. France has reportedly opened a judicial investigation targeting Fabrice Leggeri, the former head of the European Union border agency Frontex and a current Member of the European Parliament. The allegation is...

Will TSA Workers Be Paid During a Shutdown?

When the federal government shuts down, the question travelers ask is usually practical: Will airport security still run? The question TSA employees ask is more personal: Will I get a paycheck while I keep showing up? Shutdowns are not just political theater. They are what happens when Congress...

House GOP Passes DHS Patch as Shutdown Drags Toward a Record

Washington has reached that familiar point where procedure starts to look like punishment. Late Friday, House Republicans approved a short-term funding extension for the Department of Homeland Security, a move meant to break a standoff that has already stretched into a 42-day partial shutdown. The...

The Turbulent History of U.S.-Cuban Relations

The United States and Cuba sit less than 100 miles apart, but their political relationship has often felt like an ocean wide. Across two centuries, the story repeats in different forms: American leaders see Cuba as strategically essential, Cuban leaders resist outside control, and everyday people...

Medicare Drug Price Suits Move Through Lower Courts

The Biden administration is defending the Medicare drug price negotiation program created by the Inflation Reduction Act, but the fight is playing out where many major federal programs are tested first: in the lower courts. Drugmakers and industry groups have filed multiple lawsuits in federal...

House GOP Rejects Senate Deal, Shutdown Drags On

House Republicans turned down a Senate continuing resolution, prolonging a partial shutdown. A plain-English guide to CRs, the Antideficiency Act, and what stops first.

DHS Funding Standoff

Washington loves to talk about “national security” in the abstract. But the Department of Homeland Security shutdown has a way of stripping the abstraction off. When the White House has to reach for existing funds to keep about 50,000 TSA agents from missing yet another paycheck, you are not...