President Joe Biden

A voter shows identification to an election judge during primary voting on May 3, 2022, in Lordstown, Ohio. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

Red and blue state divide grows even wider in 2023’s top voting and election laws

BY: - June 24, 2023

Next year’s elections are still 16 months away. But for voters, perhaps the most important developments took place during the first half of this year — when states drafted and passed the legislation that will shape how those contests are run. “The rules that will govern the 2024 election are being written today,” said Megan […]

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer at the U.S. Capitol following a meeting on the debt limit with President Joe Biden and other congressional leaders at the White House on May 9, 2023. (Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

U.S. risks debt default in early June, congressional budget office agrees

BY: - May 12, 2023

WASHINGTON — The federal government could default on its debt during the first two weeks of June without action on bipartisan legislation, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The nonpartisan budget scorekeeper issued an updated report Friday, warning that “if the debt limit remains unchanged, there is a significant risk that at some point in the first […]

Abortion rights activist Rachel Bailey, center, chants during an International Women's Day abortion rights demonstration at the Texas State Capitol on March 8, 2023, in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

U.S. Department of Justice asks appeals court to pause abortion pill ruling

BY: - April 10, 2023

WASHINGTON — The federal government on Monday asked the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to place on hold a Texas judge’s ruling that would otherwise overturn U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of the abortion pill. The Department of Justice’s request for an administrative stay asks the New Orleans-based appeals court to decide before noon […]

An apartment complex on the Rosebud Reservation has drifts of snow blocking the doors and windows on Dec. 27, 2022. (Joshua Haiar/SD Searchlight)

Disaster declarations for tribes land as two-part storm looms

BY: - February 21, 2023

President Joe Biden declared major disasters for two tribal communities in South Dakota on Tuesday for a pair of deadly December storms.  News of the declarations for the Rosebud and Oglala Sioux tribes arrived as snowflakes began to fall in the first of two more winter storms expected to blanket the state. This week’s storms […]

An aerial view of the American flags flying over an international bridge as immigrants line up next to the U.S.-Mexico border fence to seek asylum on Dec. 22, 2022, in El Paso, Texas. (John Moore/Getty Images)

Democrats in Congress condemn Biden administration expansion of Title 42

BY: - January 26, 2023

WASHINGTON — Nearly 80 Democratic members of Congress sent a letter to the White House expressing their “great concern” that the Biden administration is walking back on its promise to restore migrants’ access to asylum. In the letter, they also condemned the administration’s expansion of a controversial policy that immediately turns away migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, […]

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Wave of mass shootings prompts Biden to call yet again for assault weapons ban

BY: - January 24, 2023

WASHINGTON — Following a mass shooting on the eve of Lunar New Year in which 11 people in a predominantly Asian neighborhood in California were killed, President Joe Biden again urged Congress to pass legislation banning assault weapons. Communities across America “have been struck by tragedy after tragedy, including mass shootings from Colorado Springs to […]

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks to mayors from across the country during an event at the East Room of the White House on Jan. 20, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

White House says DOJ had ‘unprecedented access’ to Biden home during search

BY: - January 24, 2023

WASHINGTON — Department of Justice officials had “unprecedented access” to every room in President Joe Biden’s Delaware home Friday during a search that followed several days of disclosures that classified material from the Obama era had been found in Biden’s garage and think tank office, White House officials said Monday. The historic 13-hour search of […]

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Biden’s marijuana pardons are a seismic shift

BY: - November 25, 2022

Fulfilling a high-profile campaign pledge, President Joe Biden recently announced that his office will be issuing pardons to several thousand Americans with federal convictions for marijuana possession offenses. “There are thousands of people who have prior federal convictions for marijuana possession, who may be denied employment, housing, or educational opportunities as a result,” the president said. “My […]

Veterans and supporters of the PACT act demonstrate outside the U.S. Capitol Building on August 02, 2022 in Washington, DC. Demonstrators from veterans-rights groups including the Wounded Warrior Project, Burn Pit 360 and the American Legion, have stood outside the Capitol Building in protest to call on the U.S. Senate to pass the PACT Act, a bill to expand health care benefits for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Thousands of veterans deluge VA with claims for toxic exposure benefits, health care

BY: - November 23, 2022

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is processing claims at the fastest rate in its history, hoping to avoid a significant backlog as hundreds of thousands of veterans apply for health care and benefits under the landmark toxic exposure law Congress passed earlier this year. The day after President Joe Biden signed the […]

Activists call on President Biden to not resume student loan payments and to cancel student debt near the White House on Dec. 15, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Paul Morigi/Getty Images for We, The 45 Million)

Student loan repayment pause extended by White House amid legal battles over relief plan

BY: - November 22, 2022

WASHINGTON — The Department of Education announced on Tuesday it is extending the pandemic-era pause on federal student loan repayments until June 30 while legal challenges to the administration’s student debt relief program are fought over in the courts. The agency said if the student debt relief program has not been put in place by […]