Author: Reporter

The man who bludgeoned former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband with a hammer last year consumed a steady diet of right-wing conspiracy theories before an attack that took place with the midterm elections less than two weeks away. As the 2024 presidential campaign heats up, experts on extremism fear the threat of politically motivated violence will intensify. From “Pizzagate” to QAnon and to “Stop the Steal,” conspiracy theories that demonized Donald Trump’s enemies are morphing and spreading as the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination aims for a return to the White House. “No longer are these conspiracy theories...

After parents in a rural and staunchly conservative Wyoming county joined nationwide pressure on librarians to pull books they considered harmful to youngsters. The local library board obliged with new policies making such books a higher priority for removal, and keeping out of collections. But that is not all the library board has done. Campbell County also withdrew from the American Library Association, in what’s become a movement against the professional organization that has fought against book bans. This summer, the state libraries in Montana, Missouri, and Texas and the local library in Midland, Texas, announced they’re leaving the...

The U.S. Census Bureau is thinking about how to ask about sex. People have opinions. Dozens of health officials, civil rights groups, individuals, and businesses have weighed in about how the statistical agency should ask about sexual orientation and gender identity for the first time on its most comprehensive survey of American life. A review of the 91 written public comments posted in January shows them to be largely supportive of the proposed additions, though not without constructive criticism. The proposed questions geared toward people age 15 and older will be tested sometime this year. If given final approval,...