Politics

Eric Thayer/Getty Images (WASHINGTON) — The White House on Friday announced the next list of recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, gun control advocate Gabrielle Giffords and actor Denzel Washington are among the 17 individuals chosen to receive the nation’s highest civilian honor. The ceremony will take place at the White […]

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images (WASHINGTON) — Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra told reporters Friday that the upcoming launch of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline’s new three-digit number, 988, on July 16, “will work, if the states are committed to it.” The new number, which advocates envision as the mental health equivalent to 911, Becerra said, […]

Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images (WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Friday met virtually with Democratic governors to talk reproductive health care amid some party disappointment over the administration’s response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. New York’s Kathy Hochul provided a list to Biden of potential actions, including additional funding for family planning services more broadly […]

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images (WASHINGTON) — Republican lawmakers are proposing what they call “pro-family” platforms following the Supreme Court’s scrapping of the constitutional protections around abortion to try to help people who, in some states, could now be forced to carry a pregnancy to term. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio put out a sprawling framework last week, […]

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images (WASHINGTON) — Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas took aim at Sesame Street’s “Elmo” after the popular children’s show puppet promoted COVID-19 vaccines for children on Twitter. A minute-long clip posted on the show’s Twitter page showed Elmo speaking with his loving TV puppet dad, Louie, about feeling “a little pinch” when got […]

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images (WASHINGTON) – The Supreme Court announced Thursday it will hear a case this fall that could upend state election laws across the country. Moore v. Harper focuses on a new North Carolina voting map created by court-appointed experts after earlier maps proposed by the Republican-led state legislature were struck down. The North Carolina […]

Brandon Bell/Getty Images (WASHINGTON) — White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s dramatic testimony this week has provided not only a new account of the actions of then-President Donald Trump and chief of staff Mark Meadows before and on Jan. 6, 2021, but it’s also raised questions about where the House select committee’s investigation will go next, including […]

Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images (WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court on Thursday limited the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to fight climate change. The case involved how far the federal government could go in regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The court held that Congress did not grant EPA in Section […]

Kevin Lamarque-Pool/Getty Images (WASHINGTON) — When Justice Stephen Breyer retires from the U.S. Supreme Court at noon on Thursday, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, his former law clerk, will mark a milestone in American representation when she is sworn in as the first Black woman in history to sit on the nation’s highest court. “It has […]

Spencer Platt/Getty Images, FILE (ALBANY, N.Y.) — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday detailed what is in gun safety legislation she will propose during a special state legislative session scheduled for Thursday.Hochul is set to propose a slew of ideas in response to last week’s Supreme Court decision to strike down a state law […]