conservative

A majority of the books being challenged in school and community libraries are written by authors who are people of color, LGBTQ, Black and Indigenous, and feature characters from marginalized groups. (Getty Images)

First Amendment advocates fight growing number of U.S. book bans

BY: - October 4, 2023

WASHINGTON — One of Thomasina Brown’s favorite books is a memoir about a girl who deals with the grief of losing her father and struggles with her sexual identity. Brown, a 16-year-old student at Nixa High School in Nixa, Missouri, said in an interview that she felt a connection with the book, as she grieved […]

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks to reporters in the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 14, 2023, as action in the chamber on spending bills got sidetracked ahead of a Sept. 30 deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown. (Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

With two weeks until the money runs out, Congress grinds to halt on spending bills 

BY: - September 14, 2023

WASHINGTON — Amid rising tensions and an approaching hard deadline, the U.S. House and Senate ended their work week on Thursday without a deal to fund the federal government past the end of the month. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who has been struggling to build consensus among the members of his Republican Conference, pledged that […]

Former Vice President Mike Pence launched his 2024 presidential campaign in Ankeny Wednesday, June 7. (Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

Former VP Mike Pence launches 2024 bid, criticizes Trump’s Jan. 6 actions

BY: - June 7, 2023

Former Vice President Mike Pence announced his candidacy for president to a crowd at Des Moines Area Community College in Ankeny, focusing on the differences between him and former President Donald Trump, who is also running again in 2024. While Pence praised the conservative successes he and Trump achieved in office, he said he is […]

An exterior photo of a McDonald's restaurant with the street sign predominant.

At a McDonald’s in Kentucky, 10-year-olds worked past midnight, Department of Labor finds

BY: - May 3, 2023

WASHINGTON — Children as young as 10 were found working past midnight at a McDonald’s restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky, the U.S. Department of Labor said in announcing numerous civil penalties levied on fast-food franchises. As part of an investigation into federal child labor law violations in the Southeast, the Labor Department said three separate franchises […]

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas accepted luxury trips from a billionaire for more than 20 years without disclosing them on financial reporting forms. He's seen here seated next to his wife and conservative activist Virginia "Ginni" Thomas while he waits to speak at the Heritage Foundation on Oct. 21, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Clarence Thomas secretly accepted luxury trips from a billionaire GOP donor

BY: , and - April 6, 2023

In late June 2019, right after the U.S. Supreme Court released its final opinion of the term, Justice Clarence Thomas boarded a large private jet headed to Indonesia. He and his wife were going on vacation: nine days of island-hopping in a volcanic archipelago on a super yacht staffed by a coterie of attendants and […]

Birth control abortion drug, morning after pill

Suspect science and claims at center of abortion-pill lawsuit

BY: - February 13, 2023

Emergency rooms across America are teeming with women and girls bleeding from abortion drugs in such copious amounts that it’s exacerbating the national blood shortage.  Or, at least, that’s the grim – but false – narrative a group of small conservative Christian medical associations have painted for a federal judge in Texas. Their mountain of […]

Students from Louisana prepare to join the 50th annual March for Life rally on Jan. 20, 2023, in Washington, DC. Anti-abortion activists attended the annual march, the first to occur in a “post-Roe nation” since the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs vs Jackson Women's Health ruling that overturned 50 years of federal protections for abortion health care. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Abortion debate ramps up in states as Congress deadlocks

BY: - January 23, 2023

Anti-abortion advocates are pressing for expanded abortion bans and tighter restrictions since the Supreme Court overturned the national right to abortion. But with the debate mostly deadlocked in Washington, the focus is shifting to states convening their first full legislative sessions since Roe v. Wade was overturned. Although some state GOP lawmakers have filed bills […]

Former Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal, left, and Allison Riggs, co-executive director of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, right, in front of the Supreme Court Dec. 7, 2022, after arguments in a pivotal North Carolina case dealing with election law. (Photo by Kira Lerner/States Newsroom)

Future of U.S. election law at stake as Supreme Court hears North Carolina case

BY: and - December 7, 2022

WASHINGTON — North Carolina Republicans appeared to have at least three of the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative justices on their side Wednesday in a case that could determine the future of elections nationwide and leave decisions about federal elections in the hands of state legislatures and beyond the reach of state courts.  The Supreme Court […]

COMMENTARY
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson speaks Nov. 30, 2022, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. (Screen grab from YouTube video)

Will Hutchinson’s Reagan-like stance persuade GOP voters?

BY: - December 6, 2022

As Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s term nears its end, he’s taking nearly every advantage to polish his presidential bona fides. Just last week, former President Donald Trump gave Hutchinson an excellent opportunity to remind his party, and the nation, that true leaders don’t take meetings with public racists or antisemites. In an appearance on CNN’s […]

U.S. Supreme Court wrestles over Biden’s immigration enforcement policy

BY: - November 29, 2022

“U.S. Supreme Court wrestles over Biden’s immigration enforcement policy” was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.   The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday on whether the Biden administration has the right to […]

COMMENTARY
People visit a makeshift memorial near the Club Q nightclub on Nov. 21, 2022 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. On Saturday evening, a 22-year-old gunman entered the LGBTQ nightclub and opened fire, killing five people and injuring 25 others before being stopped by club patrons. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Another mind-numbing mass murder brings reflection

BY: - November 23, 2022

Shocked? No. Resigned? Maybe. Numb? I hope not. The slaughter continues. On the heels of two multiple murders on or near college campuses in Virginia and Idaho the week of Nov. 12 comes news of a mass shooting at a Colorado Springs nightclub catering to the LGBTQ+ community on Nov. 19. A gunman entered Club […]

Student loan borrowers stage a rally Aug. 25, 2022, in front of The White House to celebrate President Biden's plan to cancel student debt and to begin the fight to cancel any remaining debt. (Paul Morigi/Getty Images for We the 45m)

Biden student debt relief plan thrown out by Texas judge; new applications halted

BY: - November 11, 2022

WASHINGTON — Late Thursday a federal judge in Texas struck down the Biden administration’s student debt relief plan, ruling that the program is unlawful, in a blow to 16 million student debt borrowers already approved for relief. The U.S. Department of Education now is no longer accepting applications for the program, according to the student […]