SALEM, Ore. — Oregon Senate Democrats plan to start fining their absent colleagues amid a month-long Republican walkout, a move they hope will pressure boycotting lawmakers to return to the chamber as hundreds of bills languish amid the partisan stalemate. In a procedural move Thursday, Democrats voted to fine senators $325 every time their absence…
Several states are banning books and criminalizing the teaching of controversial topics. What’s become verboten? Here’s everything you need to know: Is censorship growing? Yes. Recently passed state and local legislation is dictating what schools may or may not teach and what students may or may not read. A record 2,571 different titles were banned…
Several states are banning books and criminalizing the teaching of controversial topics. What’s become verboten? Here’s everything you need to know: Is censorship growing? Yes. Recently passed state and local legislation is dictating what schools may or may not teach and what students may or may not read. A record 2,571 different titles were banned…
Debt talks run down to the wire: Does it have to be like this? | View caption Hide caption In recent years, budget measures have been passed largely along party lines, using a congressional loophole to get around the filibuster. Although the budget process still leaves some room for bipartisan negotiating in a divided government, recent…
The Republican-led Texas House could vote as soon as Friday on 20 articles of impeachment against Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) filed Thursday night by the House General Investigating Committee. The panel’s three Republicans and two Democrats voted unanimously to recommend impeaching Paxton, and if a simple majority of their colleagues agree, the attorney general would…
When Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was elected speaker of the House after a grueling series of votes to solidify his fractious congressional majority, he did so thanks in part to a negotiated agreement that empowered his party’s most extreme conservatives to oust him from his leadership perch at a moment’s notice through a process called…
Among all the reasons Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in 2020 but Hillary Clinton didn’t four years earlier, one looms especially large for the coming presidential election: the share of the third-party vote. In 2016, 6% of all voters cast ballots for third-party and write-in candidates, with Libertarian Gary Johnson getting more than 3% of…
WASHINGTON — Key negotiators struck an agreement in principle Saturday night to extend the debt ceiling and avert a catastrophic default, just days before the Treasury Department said the U.S. could run out of money, Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Saturday. The deal — which is expected to raise the country’s borrowing authority in exchange for…
LOS ANGELES — California Gov. Gavin Newsom may soon earn the rare distinction of having selected both of his state’s senators — but he’s not happy about the prospect, according to those close to him. As Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 89, charts an uncertain path in Washington after having returned to work following a health…
Fifty years ago this August, Time magazine ran the cover story “The Good Life in Minnesota,” proclaiming it “a state that works” where “a residual American secret still seems to operate.” The article, complete with a full-page splash of then-Governor Wendell Anderson holding an impressive looking (if relatively small) northern pike, presented the state as…