Politics

July 14, 2017 - Two years ago this week Sandra Bland was found dead inside a Texas jail cell. Last month Texas passed a law named in her honor, but it focuses on mental health issues in jails and ignores the other factors that contributed to her suicide.

July 14, 2017 - When the North Carolina legislature passed its so-called "raise the age" law last month, it became the last state to stop automatically treating 16- and 17-year-olds as adults in the criminal justice system. But some still will be, and that puts them at risk of serious harm.

July 14, 2017 - After the controversial commission requested voter data from all 50 states, it faced an onslaught of resistance and lawsuits. Meanwhile, rattled voters have been contacting elections officials to get their names off of the rolls.

July 14, 2017 - A ballot initiative campaign in Florida and a lawsuit against Louisiana seek to restore voting rights to people convicted of felonies after they're released from prison. The efforts are parts of a broader movement to overturn felony disenfranchisement laws rooted in white-supremacist politics.

July 12, 2017 - A perennial bill to create a national single-payer public health insurance program has record support in this Congress. Though none of the cosponsors are Republicans, they include a growing number of conservative Southern Democrats, signaling a shift in health care politics.

June 30, 2017 - In his famous July 4 speech delivered 165 years ago, abolitionist Frederick Douglass said, "With brave men, there is always a remedy for oppression." Now is the time for Congress to be brave for democracy and vote to restore the eviscerated Voting Rights Act.

June 29, 2017 - President Trump wants to open an area from Delaware to Florida to seismic airgun blasting for offshore oil and gas reserves, a plan that carries risks for coastal communities while benefiting mostly foreign firms. Federal officials are accepting public comments on the proposal through July 6.