The FDA has largely lost its ability to regulate the myriad pills, powders and potions that promise to grow muscle, shed body fat and improve your focus.
The aftermath of the Tulsa Race Massacre, during which mobs of white residents attacked Black residents and businesses of the Greenwood District in June 1921.
Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
Digging deeply into the nation’s past can help illuminate the racial struggles facing the U.S. today.
Democrats and Republicans in Congress have asked sharp questions of social media CEOs as lawmakers consider changes to landmark internet legislation.
Michael Reynolds/Pool via AP
A terse piece of legislation from 1996 has been credited with creating the internet as we know it – and blamed for the flood of misinformation and other ills that have come with it.
The aftermath of a U.S. drone strike in January 2020 that killed Iranian Gen. Qassim Soleimani.
Iraqi Prime Minister Press Office, via AP
A new proposal also puts pressure on presidents to evaluate their foreign policy objectives more clearly to determine whether military action is, in fact, appropriate.
A lot of coastal infrastructure wasn’t designed for the frequent flooding and crashing waves brought by rising seas.
Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
The federal government sent a lot of money to states to help with an anticipated COVID-related economic downturn. Turns out, states did not need that much money – but they may spend it anyway.
The new government report describes 144 sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena.
U.S. Navy
A new nine-page report, requested by Congress, doesn’t say what the 144 UFO sightings from 2004 to 2021 are, but does say that the government wants to learn more.
Draftees are sworn into the U.S. Army in 1940.
AP Photo
Since Tyre Nichols’ death there are renewed calls for Congress to pass police reform legislation. But the federal government has almost no control over state and local police departments.
Bills have a long journey that includes going through the parliamentarian’s office in the Senate. Here, a corridor in the Senate.
dkfielding/iStock/Getty Images Plus
The Senate has a lot of rules, and its parliamentarian interprets what those rules allow – and what they don’t. That can mean a bill will face either huge obstacles, or very few obstacles to passage.
Biden laid out an ambitious agenda to Congress with a historic backdrop.
Melina Mara/The Washington Post via AP
With the country’s vaccine rollout succeeding where pandemic management failed, and Biden moving boldly on climate and immigration, his presidency is off to a promising start.
The seats in the House chamber will be filled according to elections in the 50 states.
U.S. House of Representatives
The US Census Bureau has announced which states will gain and lose representation in Congress as a result of the 2020 census. Here’s how it makes the calculations.
Consider the bill known as the Stark Naked Act of 1997, one of many pieces of legislation with curious, perhaps manipulative, names.
After mass shootings, there are more calls for gun control. Here’s one in Boulder, Colo., where 10 people died in a shooting.
Jason Connolly / AFP/Getty Images
After mass shootings, politicians in Washington have failed to pass new gun control legislation, despite public pressure. But laws are being passed at the state level, largely to loosen restrictions.
U.S. taxpayers spend more than $2 billion annually in tax preparation fees.
Nora Carol Photography/Getty Images
Dozens of prosperous countries save billions of dollars and hours annually by not requiring residents to fill out tax returns, so what is the United States waiting for?
President Joe Biden signs the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill into law Thursday.
Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images
Jeb Barnes, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
The idea that Washington, D.C., is paralyzed by gridlock rests on half-truths about the legislative process and a basic misunderstanding of how contemporary policymaking works.
Democrats celebrate passing the first big legislation of the Biden presidency.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon