by Gabrielle Bienasz | Mar 21, 2019 | Featured, Politics
WASHINGTON — The six senators are running for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president are on the campaign trail railing against big corporations in Brooklyn and pumping iron in Iowa, but they also are creating legislative records in the Senate that often will...
by Gabrielle Bienasz | Mar 13, 2019 | Featured, Politics
In 2009, Carrboro, North Carolina Alderman Lydia Lavelle asked the state legislature for permission to include LGBTQ people in Carrboro’s laws banning housing discrimination. Lawmakers said no. North Carolina’s statewide anti-discrimination law does not include...
by Gabrielle Bienasz | Mar 7, 2019 | Featured, Politics
WASHINGTON—Democrats and Republicans agree that reauthorizing the landmark 1994 Violence Against Women Act is a priority but disagree on whether to pass the bill with major changes. Ranking Member John Ratcliffe, R-TX., called a request for increased resources and new...
by Gabrielle Bienasz | Mar 6, 2019 | Featured, Politics
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday that House Democrats’ sweeping government and election reform bill will not be debated or voted on in the Senate. Speaking at a news conference with other Republicans, McConnell said, “This is a...
by Gabrielle Bienasz | Feb 26, 2019 | National Security
WASHINGTON—In a hearing before the House Permanent Select Intelligence Committee, former national security officials called for a return to post-World War II ideals of U.S. foreign policy: transatlantic Democratic alliances, taking a stand against Russia and China and...
by Gabrielle Bienasz | Feb 19, 2019 | Politics
WASHINGTON–Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was back on the bench Tuesday for the first time since early January after undergoing surgery in late December to remove cancerous growths from her left lung, but she was quieter than usual. Ginsburg spoke six times during...
by Gabrielle Bienasz | Feb 15, 2019 | Health & Science, National Security, Politics, Topics
Gays Against Guns chanted “How many more have to die?” and “Pass HR8″ throughout the capitol on Valentine’s Day. The New York-based organization began in the wake of the 2016 shooting at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. Members from the group...
by Gabrielle Bienasz | Feb 14, 2019 | Featured, Politics
WASHINGTON — Valentine’s Day is a good day to buy Colombian roses — and so is any day, according to Colombian President Iván Duque Marquez. “Columbia is open for business,” he told the crowd at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Thursday. “We will fulfill that promise...
by Gabrielle Bienasz | Feb 7, 2019 | Featured, Living
WASHINGTON—Voter rights and campaign finance were at the center of the House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on Wednesday. Democrats promoted the For the People Act, also known as H.R. 1, which would create extensive reforms to the election system, including...
by Gabrielle Bienasz | Jan 30, 2019 | Business, Featured
WASHINGTON —The Paycheck Fairness Act was reintroduced in the 116th congress Wednesday by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other Democrats from the House and Senate. If passed, it would protect employee’s ability to discuss their salaries, require employers...
by Gabrielle Bienasz | Jan 23, 2019 | Living
WASHINGTON – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday told a meeting of U.S. mayors that President Donald Trump is holding 800,000 federal workers “hostage” to fulfill a campaign promise to build a border wall and urged Republican mayors to stop their party from rubber...
by Gabrielle Bienasz | Jan 16, 2019 | Featured, Politics
WASHINGTON — Civil rights groups, legal experts and former colleagues offered contradictory accounts of Attorney General nominee William Barr’s views and temperament during the second day of his Senate confirmation hearings – with civil rights leaders criticizing his...