A few weeks back, the Kansas City Star published excerpts from a December speech, made by Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley (R), in which he blamed human trafficking on the sexual revolution of the 1960s. His dubious take on history, made at a Missouri Renewal Project event featuring a who’s who of theocrats, Islamophobes, and anti-LGBTQ extremists, became national news because Hawley is currently the frontrunner for the GOP nomination to take on Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill this N...
politics
Grassroots women, guns, and organized labor: How Conor Lamb plans to win in Trump country
MOON TOWNSHIP, PENNSYLVANIA — If you’re wondering who Conor Lamb is, United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts offers this summary: a “God-fearing, union-supporting, gun-owning, job-protecting, pension-defending, social-security-believing, healthcare-greeting, sending-drug-dealers-to-jail Democrat.”
At a Sunday afternoon rally at the Greene County Fairgrounds, Roberts was on hand to generate enthusiasm for Lamb, who’s running in the special elec...
Grassroots women, guns, and organized labor: How Conor Lamb plans to win in Trump country
MOON TOWNSHIP, PENNSYLVANIA — If you’re wondering who Conor Lamb is, United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts offers this summary: a “God-fearing, union-supporting, gun-owning, job-protecting, pension-defending, social-security-believing, healthcare-greeting, sending-drug-dealers-to-jail Democrat.”
At a Sunday afternoon rally at the Greene County Fairgrounds, Roberts was on hand to generate enthusiasm for Lamb, who’s running in the special elec...
Surprise! The Trump administration just admitted it has to follow Obamacare
In an unexpected development, the Department of Health and Human Services sent a letter to Idaho Gov. Butch Otter (R) on Thursday reluctantly conceding that Obamacare “remains the law and we have a duty to enforce and uphold the law.”
The letter, from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma, informs Idaho that insurers will not be allowed to sell illegal plans within that state which threatened to destabilize Idaho’s insurance markets...
West Virginia lawmakers reach a deal granting teachers a 5 percent pay raise
After nine school days of strikes, West Virginia lawmakers reached a deal Tuesday to provide a 5 percent pay increase to teachers, with both chambers of the state legislature voting unanimously to pass the agreement.
We have reached a deal. I stood rock solid on the 5% Teacher pay raise and delivered. Not only this, but my staff and I made additional cuts which will give all State employees 5% as well. All the focus should have always been on fairness and gettin...
Kansas Secretary of State seeks to deliver a devastating blow to voting rights
When Tad Stricker moved to Kansas from Illinois in 2013, he procrastinated getting a new driver’s license. He was busy with work and settling into his new city, and wasn’t eager to spend a day at the Department of Motor Vehicles. But when the registration deadline for the upcoming gubernatorial election approached, he decided it was time.
When he first arrived at the local DMV, he was told he didn’t have the proper documentation to get his license, so he hurried home to collect seve...
Senator apologizes for calling Obamacare fans the ‘stupidest, dumbass people’
He apologized a day after using choice words about the bill and its supporters.
Echo of Obamacare: Dems divided over vow to repeal tax law
Echo of Obamacare: Do Democrats really want to repeal the new tax law? Not all of them
A new bipartisan Senate bill tackling the opioid crisis still falls short of what’s actually needed
A bipartisan group of eight senators unveiled legislation Tuesday that addresses an opioid epidemic that killed nearly 64,000 people in 2016 alone and shortened life expectancy by about three months.
CARA 2.0 — advertised as a sequel to the last major bill to address the opioid epidemic, the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of late 2016 — would impose new rules to prescribing opioids and dedicate $1 billion to addiction treatment and recovery programs. The bill a...
‘They’re hungry for it’: Democrat Randy Bryce says Medicare for All will help him defeat Paul Ryan
Randy Bryce has a plan to take down House Speaker Paul Ryan. It all boils down to this: be everything Ryan isn’t and promote everything he refuses to promote.
“I’m the kind of person that we need to get rid of him… I’m the opposite of what he is,” Bryce, a Democrat who’s challenging Ryan in Wisconsin’s first district, told ThinkProgress on Tuesday.
Bryce outlined what he sees as the path to unseating the speaker, touting a new, 18-point po...