Author: Reporter

Republican lawmakers are moving quickly in the opening days of the legislative session to work around Wisconsin’s Democratic Governor Tony Evers, who vetoed a record number of bills from the GOP-controlled Legislature in his first term. Four constitutional amendments primarily supported by Republicans could be put before voters as soon as April. Republican backers of the measures are pushing for a final vote on at least two proposed amendments in the Legislature in the opening weeks of the session so they could make it onto the April 4 ballot, which will also have a pivotal state Supreme Court race...

In the days after a gunman killed five people at a gay nightclub in Colorado last month, much of social media lit up with the now familiar expressions of grief, mourning and disbelief. But on some online message boards and platforms, the tone was celebratory. “I love waking up to great news,” wrote one user on Gab, a platform popular with far-right groups. Other users on the site called for more violence. The hate is not limited to fringe sites. On Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, researchers and LGBTQ advocates have tracked an increase in hate speech and threats of...

As monks chanted evening prayers in the dimly lit Saint John’s University church, members of the student LGBTQ organization, QPLUS, were meeting in a dedicated, Pride flag-lined lounge at the institution’s sister Benedictine college, a few miles away across Minnesota farmland. To Sean Fisher, a senior who identifies as non-binary and helps lead QPLUS, its official recognition and funding by Saint John’s and the College of Saint Benedict is welcome proof of the Catholic schools’ “acknowledging queer students exist.” But tensions endure here and at many of the hundreds of U.S. Catholic and Protestant universities. The Christian teachings they...

Donald Trump began 2022 on a high. Primary candidates were flocking to Florida to court the former president for a coveted endorsement. His rallies were drawing thousands. A bevy of investigations remained largely under the radar. One year later, Trump is facing a very different reality. He is mired in criminal investigations that could end with indictments. He has been blamed for Republicans’ disappointing performance in the November elections. And while he is now a declared presidential candidate, the six weeks since he announced have been marked by self-inflicted crises. Trump has not held a single campaign event and...

The House January 6 committee released its final report at the end of December on the “unimaginable” 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, a mob assault by supporters of the defeated president, Donald Trump, that shook the nation and exposed the fragility of American democracy. The 814-page account provides a gripping narrative of Trump’s monthslong effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and spells out 11 recommendations for Congress and others to consider to bolster the nation’s institutions against any future attempts to incite insurrection. The panel set out to compile a record for history. Along with the report,...

The one time-honored specialty of Washington, memorializing and coming together over national trauma, is not what it used to be. Such are the fractures in the country, between the political parties and inside the Republican Party itself. The moment of silence at the Capitol to contemplate the January 6, 2021, assault on it was expected to draw mostly Democrats. At the White House, few Republicans were expected for a ceremony at which President Joe Biden will award Presidential Citizens Medals to a dozen state and local officials, election workers and police officers for their “exemplary deeds of service for...