Politics

When the coronavirus pandemic forced states to lock down last year, they suspended a long-standing requirement that the unemployed have to be looking for work in order to receive jobless benefits. Now, as the economy and hiring pick up, a growing number of states are resuming the mandate. North Carolina, South Carolina, Nevada and Idaho

Donald Trump has left the White House, but the Republican Party just can’t quit his stunt politics. As President Joe Biden sells a popular Covid-19 rescue plan, highlights a quickening national vaccine effort, positions himself to benefit from an economic growth spurt after the pandemic and tackles economic inequity in American society, the GOP seems

The number of people arrested and deported for being in the US illegally has dropped under President Joe Biden after his administration narrowed its enforcement focus to those who may pose a threat or have criminal backgrounds, marking a shift from the policies under the Trump administration. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the Biden administration

Rep. Matt Gaetz privately sought blanket preemptive pardons for himself and his congressional allies during the final weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency, two people familiar with the discussions told The New York Times. The Florida Republican’s request was viewed by White House officials as a nonstarter, the people told the Times, and was ultimately never

It’s been one week since the federal investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz burst into the public sphere, and almost all of Gaetz’s colleagues in the House Republican conference are keeping quiet. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said he’d speak to Gaetz about the matter, though it’s not clear that’s happened. The Republicans Gaetz has attacked

Justice Stephen Breyer, who may be nearing the end of his Supreme Court tenure, expressed concern on Tuesday about the standing of the high court and the possible erosion of public confidence in its decisions. In an expansive, two-hour lecture at Harvard Law School, Breyer bemoaned the common practice — by journalists, senators and others

Walking around my Brooklyn neighborhood as the country comes out of a long, Covid-depressed winter, I notice nearly everyone engaging in a curious pandemic ritual: as we stroll past brownstones, we all pull our masks up as soon as we see one another coming. “Science is real,” the yard signs on the block declare, and

The Biden administration has yet to name a point person for the $178 billion Provider Relief Fund, according to a senior administration official. Congress created the fund last year to help hospitals and other health care providers struggling due to the coronavirus pandemic. Under the previous administration, the role fell to a deputy secretary, but

Less than one week after perhaps the most egregiously anti-transgender bill in modern US history passed the Arkansas legislature, it was vetoed in a surprise move by Governor Asa Hutchinson, a staunch Republican with a poor record on LGBTQ and civil rights. Less than one day later, the General Assembly voted Tuesday to override the