Politics

Reporting Highlights Less Gun Enforcement: The ATF referred 30% fewer gun-trafficking charges during Trump’s first year than the year prior. The number of referrals prosecutors declined also rose. ATF to ICE: Large numbers of ATF agents have been shifted from enforcing gun laws to helping ICE in its campaigns against undocumented immigrants. Undoing a Crackdown:

Judges, state public defenders and city officials in Albuquerque, New Mexico, are taking steps to curb a cycle of missed court dates and arrest warrants for crimes related to living outside that has led to a county jail population that’s about half homeless. Eighteen months ago, judges in Bernalillo County, which includes Albuquerque, noticed an

Alaska would more than triple the funding it devotes to school construction and maintenance projects next year under a budget approved this month by the state Legislature. The funding, which awaits Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s signature, follows reporting by KYUK, ProPublica and NPR last year that documented a severe health and safety crisis inside the

Dozens of doctors are routinely performing risky vascular procedures in medical offices, generating tens of millions of dollars in Medicare payments for potentially unnecessary procedures, according to a federal report released earlier this month. The review, completed by the Office of the Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services, flagged nearly 140

There’s an old line, sometimes attributed to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, that the best way to solve a difficult problem is to make it bigger. That might be the most generous interpretation of how the Trump administration is approaching its ongoing peace talks with Iran. View Source Here

When the Pentagon announced a $620 million loan last year to a small North Carolina startup linked to Donald Trump Jr., defense officials and the company tried to tamp down suspicions of cronyism.  The president’s eldest son said through a spokesperson that he wasn’t involved. The Pentagon said Trump Jr. played no role in the

Both sides want the war over, but the gap between their basic requirements is wide. View Source Here

Three U.S. senators have called for an overhaul of federal agents’ use of tear gas and pepper spray, citing a ProPublica investigation that found at least 79 children were left screaming, coughing or hurt by these chemicals during President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. Lawmakers said the findings showed more restrictions are needed to avoid injuring

Donald Trump has made just about everything he’s touched worse. He’s going to spend this week bragging about his peace deal with Iran, but please remember that in 2018 he tore up the Barack Obama-negotiated deal that was working, which led Iran to start enriching far more uranium, which then made Trump decide to go

Reporting Highlights Treated as a Liability: Emily Waldorf was denied care for a risky miscarriage due to Arkansas’ abortion ban, even after she met the hospital’s CEO, called the governor’s office and got a lawyer. Lawyers, Not Doctors: Medical standards say it’s necessary for doctors to offer abortion. Women have died without it. But in

Reporting Highlights Pushing Boundaries: Texas’ attorney general has sued big businesses in counties with weak links to the cases, despite lawmakers’ efforts to crack down on the practice, called forum shopping. Once a Critic: Paxton urged the Supreme Court to limit forum shopping. But his office has since pursued at least 30 cases with tenuous

As a Christian, I believe in miracles. I have already seen one; now, I am praying for one more. View Source Here

When Tommy Fisher set out to build a section of border wall in South Texas during the first Trump administration, the project quickly became ensnared in controversy. Experts raised concerns about shoddy construction and signs of erosion. Beyond that, Fisher’s company had received funding from a group called We Build the Wall, an influential conservative

Barney Frank believed his party is heading toward a political cliff, and he deserves great credit for using his last breath to warn it. However, Democrats don’t seem inclined to heed him, unlike the last time he issued a similar warning, in that long-ago era when this remarkable political figure was still in the prime

The day after a shooting last month killed a teenager and injured five people at the Mall of Louisiana, Gov. Jeff Landry blasted what he referred to as “hug-a-thug” policies — reforms put in place prior to his tenure when the state was trying to shed its reputation as the nation’s incarceration capital. He also