The Biden administration has been working hard to make the Affordable Care Act, and health insurance in general, work better. They’ve lowered premium payments all the way down to zero for many people in Obamacare (a measure that needs to be passed again before the November election to avoid a bad October surprise of premium hike notifications).
“I was afraid of people like you growing up,” state Rep. Ian Mackey told state Rep. Chuck Basye.
The GOP governor, Greg Abbott, has raised eyebrows for the deals he’s made with Mexican state governors.
After video showed a Grand Rapids officer fatally shooting Lyoya, an unarmed Black man, questions arose about the missing details.
“It is time for the entire MAGA movement, the greatest in the history of our Country, to unite behind J.D.’s campaign,” the former president said in a statement.
Look, it’s right there in the name: Senate, borrowed from the Romans and meaning a “council of elders.” More than ever, the label fits. This is the oldest Senate, by average age, in American history, at 64 years. Jim Inhofe and Richard Shelby, both 87, have announced plans to retire. Chuck Grassley, 88, is running for reelection this fall. But even he is a shade younger than Dianne Feinstein, also 88.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, the writer and photographer Yevgenia Belorusets began to journal about her experience living in Kyiv. The resulting account, which she published online in real time, provides insight into the conflict that more straightforward news coverage has failed to capture. It is, as she put it in an interview with my colleague Gal Beckerman, “a very complex picture of reality at a moment when war has turned everything incredibly awful.
Almost exactly 12 months ago, America’s pandemic curve hit a pivot point. Case counts peaked—and then dipped, and dipped, and dipped, on a slow but sure grade, until, somewhere around the end of May, the numbers flattened and settled, for several brief, wonderful weeks, into their lowest nadir so far.I refuse to use the term hot vax summer (oops, just did), but its sentiment isn’t exactly wrong.
As the United States reels from an epidemic of mass shootings in schools, trains and other public places, we speak with Mark Follman, national affairs editor at Mother Jones, where he covers gun violence. Follman says mass shootings are typically planned over a period of time and follow a “robust trail of behavioral warning signs” that offer opportunities in community-based violence prevention to stop the crime before it happens.
As the Russian invasion in Ukraine enters its 50th day, we look at the war’s impact around the world with Vijay Prashad, author and director of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. “When food prices go up, the political crisis is almost immediate,” says Prashad, who calls the U.S. pressure on Global South countries to cut off essential imports from Russia after a 30-year globalization campaign a double standard. He says if the U.S.
This week the Pentagon met with leading U.S. weapons manufacturers as Russia warned the Biden administration to stop arming Ukraine, claiming it was “adding fuel” to the conflict. This comes as a Russian warship sank in the Black Sea hours after Ukraine claimed to have attacked it with cruise missiles, and as Sweden and Finland say they may join NATO, which would require more weapons spending.
Kyiv is halfway normal now. Burnt-out Russian tanks have been removed from the roads leading into the city, traffic lights work, the subway runs, oranges are available for purchase. A cheerful balalaika orchestra was performing for returning refugees at the main rail station earlier this week, on the day we arrived to meet Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine.The normality is deceiving.
The agency’s upheaval marks another challenge in the already-difficult work of boosting vaccinations around the world.
The latest figures follow Congress’ decision last month to provide far less funding to sexual health clinics that provide free and subsidized testing.
The move to tighten restrictions could be a sign that leaders across the country will reimpose mask mandates if cases continue to rise.
The FDA’s rodent problem worsened during the pandemic, forcing the agency to assign some employees returning to the campus after two years to temporary desks and ask others to continue to telework.
“The protocols to protect the president are pretty strong,” he said.
The GOP is openly discussing tying Biden administration’s scrapping of Title 42, a Trump-era pandemic border policy, to a range of other voter concerns.
The Fed’s campaign to raise interest rates — designed to reduce spending and curb inflation — will slow growth, which will have consequences for American workers.
Prices have been driven up by bottlenecked supply chains, robust consumer demand and disruptions to global food and energy markets worsened by Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The Biden administration recently extended a Covid-related pause on repayments.
White House officials deny any sense of panic over the economy or their midterm chances.
The administration’s difficulties in getting bank cop nominees through a Democratic-controlled Senate underscore the fault lines within the party over how to approach financial regulation.
We speak with Starbucks Workers United organizer and barista Jaz Brisack on the growing Starbucks union drive that has swept across 30 U.S. states since she helped successfully organize the first U.S. unionized location in Buffalo, New York, last December. Starbucks Workers United has now successfully unionized over a dozen Starbucks shops, and about 200 stores have filed for union elections, covering 5,000 workers in 30 states.
All 13 female state senators in the Nebraska legislature issued a statement recognizing the “highly credible” allegations against GOP gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster.
Russia’s state-owned news agency has now confirmed that the Russian warship Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, has sunk. The heavily damaged ship reportedly sank during an attempt to tow it back to port. Russia is being less forthcoming about the fate of the crew, thought to number over 500, the number claimed to have been successfully evacuated is far less.
On Wednesday, the Ukrainian government circulated images of a destroyed bridge somewhere in the Donbas region—a bridge that had been taken down by Ukrainian special forces. Not only was the bridge itself destroyed, it was taken down as a Russian convoy was passing over, destroying four large trucks and a Tigr-M (sort of the Russian equivalent of a Humvee).
Daily Kos was born on May 26, 2002. That makes 2022 our 20th anniversary year, and just one of the ways we’re celebrating is by bringing back the Koscars! One of the things that makes Daily Kos special is our open platform, where community members can publish stories alongside staff. The Koscars seek to acknowledge and honor outstanding writing contributions from everyone. The entire Daily Kos membership is “the Academy,” so your votes decide the winners.
Some days I think about renaming this missive “This Week in EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE AND WE’RE DOOMED.”
But that’s not always true, and the terribleness I describe in this space is statehouse-specific, so …
I guess we’re all stuck with the name I came up with almost 10 (!!!) years ago.
How is it possible that Donald Trump has harshly criticized everyone from Twilight actress Kristen Stewart to a Gold Star mother, but he still hasn’t—as far as anyone can determine—even mildly rebuked murderous despot Vladimir Putin?
Fox News host Sean Hannity is such a shameless sycophant he has to check into a Motel 6 whenever Trump gets a colonoscopy, but even he couldn’t get the big ocher disgrace to trash Russia’s bumbling Hitler.