Author: Reporter

How the guise of parental rights elevates the legal status of parents over individuals without children

Billboards with the words “STOP Child Gender Surgery.” Pamphlets warning about endangering minors. “PROTECT PARENT RIGHTS” plastered on church bulletins. As voters in nine states determined whether to enshrine abortion rights in their state constitutions, opponents used flawed arguements of parental rights to try and undermine support for the ballot proposals. The issue of parental rights and the potential for a constitutional amendment specifically addressing those rights raised significant concerns about equality and the distribution of legal protections. Advocates for a parental rights amendment often argue that parents should have the primary authority to direct their children’s upbringing, education,...

Read More

Political comeback: What a Trump win means for the half of America who did not vote for him

Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States on November6, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who refused to accept defeat four years ago, sparked a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, was convicted of felony charges and survived two brushes with gun violence. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. The victory validates his offensive and bare-knuckle approach to politics. He attacked his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, in deeply personal – often misogynistic and racist – terms as he pushed an apocalyptic picture of a...

Read More

Another January 6: Judges punishing allies of Trump’s failed coup fear more violence after Election Day

Over the past four years, judges at Washington’s federal courthouse have punished hundreds of rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol in an unprecedented assault on the nation’s democracy. On the cusp of the next presidential election, some of those judges fear another burst of political violence could be coming. Before recently sentencing a rioter to prison, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton said he prays Americans accept the outcome of November’s election. But the veteran judge expressed concern that convicted felon Donald Trump and his allies are spreading the same sort of conspiracy theories that fueled the mob’s January 6,...

Read More

Trump signals his plan to steal the presidency by prematurely declaring victory on election night

Convicted felon Donald Trump is stepping up his demands that the winner of the presidential race be declared shortly after polls close on November 5, well before all the votes are counted. Trump set the pattern in 2020, when he declared that he had won during the early morning hours after Election Day. That led his allies to demand that officials “stop the count!” He and many other conservatives have spent the past four years falsely claiming that fraud cost him that election and bemoaning how long it takes to count ballots in the U.S. But one of many...

Read More

Ancient techniques: Swing-state priests are teaching how to survive America’s political turmoil

The Rev. David Peck knows first-hand how divided communities wracked by violence can be gutted by that repeated devastation. In his previous work as an Anglican church representative for international development, Peck saw on his trips to Africa how religious groups could be part of the problem — but also part of the solution. Now, Peck is a pastor in the heartland of Pennsylvania — a state that is the epicenter of a bitterly contested presidential campaign that has stoked deep anxiety, conflicts among families and friends, even fears of election-related violence. Opposing groups can find reconciliation by drawing...

Read More

Just 4 states are home to half of all foreign-born people in U.S. and half of them are naturalized citizens

More than half of the foreign-born population in the United States lives in just four states, California, Texas, Florida, and New York, and their numbers grew older and more educated over the past dozen years, according to a report released in April by the U.S. Census Bureau. In 2022, the foreign-born population was estimated to be 46.2 million people, or almost 14% of the U.S. population, with most states seeing double-digit percentage increases in the last dozen years, according to the figures from the bureau’s American Community Survey. In California, New Jersey, New York and Florida, foreign-born individuals comprised...

Read More