In The News

ROCKFORD, Ill.—Illinois Rep.  Cheri Bustos  is the only member of Democratic Party leadership from the Midwest, and now she has a new job: tutoring her fellow House Democrats on talking to the rural voters that her party has lost to Republicans.

As one of just 12 Democratic House lawmakers representing a district carried by President Donald Trump in last year’s election, the future of Ms. Bustos’s party may depend on her instruction.

Under "Trumpcare," formally known as the American Health Care Act, Republicans want to strip the "essential health benefits" provision, according to TIME's Money feature. Under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, those essential benefits covered 10 categories that included coverage of maternity and newborn care. If eliminated, insurers could once more sell plans that do not cover pregnancy-related costs — which is bad news for moms, families, and babies.

Reports suggest that President Trump has finally decided to pull out of the 2015 Paris climate agreement after many weeks of a back and forth administration tug-of-war. Trump himself has tweeted that he will make an official announcement in the coming days. I have followed the ups and downs of this debate more closely than most, and weighed in where I could, because, as the U.S. special envoy for climate change, I led the U.S. negotiating effort from the start of the Obama administration through and beyond the Paris talks.

When Kyrin Falcetti dropped her 4-year old son Cole off at the babysitter, she had no idea it would be the last time she'd see him.

One hour in, the young boy somehow got his hands on a loaded gun at the sitter's house and shot himself to death.

"I don't want to be burying my son," Falcetti. "He didn't do anything wrong."Cole's babysitter shared a home with her fiancé who is a sheriff's deputy in training.

Expanding the Mexico City Policy; cutting the US’s contribution to the United Nations Population Fund budget; proposing a health care reform plan that would significantly reduce women’s access

Students protested the campus carry bill at the University of Georgia in April. Credit John Roark/Athens Banner-Herald, via Associated Press
Two more states — Arkansas and Georgia — have passed “campus carry” laws permitting licensed gun owners to pack concealed firearms at public universities, on the bizarre premise that students will be more secure from the nation’s epidemic of gun violence if there are more guns.

3 Reasons the Johnson Amendment Should Not Be Repealed

100 Days of Trump’s Disregard for Women’s Health and Safety

 — and He’s Not Done

These first 100 days have made it clear that the Trump administration will treat women’s health and lives as disposable. It has acted with clear disregard for women’s health and safety, and the health and safety of their families.

On just day three of his time on the Supreme Court, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch will hear arguments in a case that could reshape the landscape of government funding to religious institutions.   

Associate Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch will have been on the job three whole days when he hears arguments in what could be one of the most significant separation of church and state cases to come before the U.S. Supreme Court in decades.

As Republicans struggle to craft a sweeping tax package — a process already rife with political land mines — they are preparing to add another volatile element to the mix: a provision that would end a six-decade-old ban on churches and other tax-exempt organizations supporting political candidates.

The repeal of the “Johnson amendment” is being written into tax legislation developed in the House of Representatives, according to aides. President Trump has vowed to “totally destroy” the provision at the behest of evangelical Christians who helped elect him.