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Control of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is on the ballot this year, with three Democratic justices up for retention elections.This article was originally published by Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access.These yes-or-no elections are normally sleepy and almost never result in a justice being forced off the court. But Republican operatives, who have chafed at the Democratic-majority court’s decisions for a decade, say

Dear President Zelensky:What America’s barely-elected president is trying to do to Ukraine and the world order is a disgrace, and I want you to know that most Americans are horrified. Even as Trump/Musk/Putin conspire to force their

A little over a month into Donald Trump's second presidency, Democratic voters are expressing their frustration for a variety of reasons — from mass government layoffs to controversial administration appointees to Trump describing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a "dictator." But Democratic voters, according to New York Times reporters Katie Glueck and Reid J. Epstein, are also expressing frustration with Democratic leaders — who they believe aren't doing enough

Some private schools have shut down because of a rapidly escalating measles outbreak in West Texas. Local health departments are overstretched, pausing other important work as they race to limit the spread of this highly contagious virus. Since the outbreak emerged three weeks ago, the Texas health department has confirmed 90 cases with 16 hospitalizations, as of Feb. 21. Most of those infected are under age 18. Officials suspect that nine additional measles cases reported in New Mexico, across the border from the epicenter of the Texas outbreak in Gaines County, are linked to the Texas outbreak. Ongoing investigations seek to confirm that connection.Health officials worry they’re missing cases. Undet

During his first presidency, Donald Trump often clashed with the more traditional conservatives in his administration — from former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to former White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly. And some ex-Trump Administration officials voiced their support for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, including former and Trump White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham and former Mike Pence national security aide Olivia Troye. But Trump's second presidency is turning out to be much different, and many of his appointees are staunch MAGA loyalists — from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to FBI Director Kash Patel. And devotion to Trump is equally obvious in both bra

In October, Stanford University professor Jay Bhattacharya hosted a conference on the lessons of covid-19 in order “to do better in the next pandemic.” He invited scholars, journalists, and policy wonks who, like him, have criticized the U.S. management of the crisis as overly draconian. Bhattacharya also invited public health authorities who had considered his alternative approach reckless. None of them showed up.Now, the “contrarians” are seizing the reins: President Donald Trump has nominated Bhattacharya to lead the National Institutes of Health and Johns Hopkins University surgeon Marty Makary to run the Food and Drug Administration. Yet the polarized disagreements abou

Former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger asks a question no current Republican politician appears willing to say out loud for fear that Musk, Trump, or other rightwing billionaires will use the corrupt Citizens United decision to blow them out of the water politically with a multimillion-dollar primary challenge:“[A]s I watch the behavior of our political leaders, the comments of an ever-increasingly unhinged Trump, and the growing indifference of many Americans toward our role in the world, I have to ask a painful question: Are we now the bad guys?”It’s a helluva question.Our nation’s Founders overthrew a

On Thursday, February 20 — before the U.S. Senate voted on President Donald Trump's nomination of Kash Patel for FBI director — a group of Democratic senators gathered outside the FBI building in Washington, DC to express their vehement opposition to the far-right Trump loyalist and MAGA conspiracy theorist. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) made it clear that he considers Patel flat-out dangerous, warning, "My predict

An Ohio Republican Rep. said President Donald Trump’s executive orders are “getting out of control” Thursday, the Columbus Dispatch reported. Rep. Troy Balderson (R-Ohio) emphasized that there are some actions that only Congress can carry out. He made the comments at a Westerville Area Chamber business luncheon. "Congress has to decide whether or not the Department of Education goes away," Balderson said. "Not the president, not Elon Musk. Congress decides."READ MORE:

Well, that was alarming. A representative-on-representative confrontation in the Kansas House led to suspension of business, a private caucus among Democrats and precious little clarity about what happened. In short, Republican Nick Hoheisel apparently had words with Democrat Ford Carr. Both men are from Wichita. During the caucus, Carr suggested that Hoheisel might have been carrying a firearm: “He got up, he came over to me, and he made attacks. I can’t honestly see how someone of his stature would feel comfortable making those kind of attacks at me unless, of course, he f