In a photo from 2004, Illinois state Sen. Barack Obama, right, speaks with a fellow legislator on the floor of the state Senate chamber.
AP photo/Randy Squires
Congress and the White House are trying to wrap up negotiations on a nearly $1 trillion coronavirus bailout, but Senate Republican demands for a liability shield has been a key obstacle.
‘Tug-of-words’ posts debating the merits of socialism versus capitalism are all over social media platforms.
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Robert Kozinets, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
An analysis of social media commentary about socialism versus capitalism shows that people are talking past each other, but some are engaging in more nuanced discussions as well.
The Biden administration can make significant changes in health care for Americans.
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The US economy historically does better under Democratic presidents than Republicans, with far fewer months spent in recession
Amy Coney Barrett, Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, is one of relatively few women appointed to the federal judiciary by the current administration.
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Amy Coney Barrett may be a woman, but Trump’s other judicial appointments are 85% white and 76% male – the least diverse group of federal judges since Ronald Reagan.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell with reporters, July 30, 2020.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death has sparked a battle over the future of the Supreme Court. Against that backdrop, a nominee faces prescribed steps towards a confirmation vote in the Senate.
Most states struggle to meet pension funding needs – and the pandemic will make it worse.
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Many of the public employee pension plans run by states don’t have enough money in them to make upcoming pension payments to retired state workers. The pandemic could make that problem much worse.
Workers leave Ford’s Chicago Assembly Plant on May 20, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois.
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Jeb Barnes, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and Thomas F. Burke, Wellesley College
American ambivalence about government has left the courts to play an outsized role responding to public health crises like lead poisoning, asbestos-related illnesses and now, the coronavirus pandemic.
Taking reasonable precautions such as wearing gloves can help businesses avoid civil liability.
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Some members of Congress want to grant businesses total immunity from coronavirus-related civil liability. A legal scholar explains why it’s unnecessary – and may be counterproductive.
Trump hugs the American flag at a 2019 convention of political conservatives.
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
President Trump’s impeachment defense that the will of the president is no different from the will of the state and the good of the people has echoes in the decline of ancient Rome’s democracy.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., during debate over rules for the Senate impeachment trial against President Donald Trump, Jan. 21, 2020.
Senate Television via AP
Certain words are being used over and over during the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump. One of them is ‘precedent.’ What does it really mean?
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., fields questions from reporters about an impeachment trial in the Senate, Dec. 10, 2019.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Democrats blasted Senate leader Mitch McConnell for saying the GOP would run an impeachment trial as President Trump wished. But senators are not held to a juror’s neutrality standard during a trial.
US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi speaks during her weekly press briefing on October 8, 2019. She accused the White House of an “unlawful attempt to hide the facts” after it ruled out cooperating with an impeachment probe of President Donald Trump.
Andrew Caballero/AFP
The impeachment investigation of US president Donald Trump has formally started, but much has changed since 1974, when Richard Nixon was forced out of office.
Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell, the senate majority leader, has a lot of power.
AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is known as a master of Senate rules. If the House impeaches President Trump, what could he do to influence the process – and outcome – of a trial?
The filibuster is like a stoplight that’s always red.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite