An attendee looks at a series of banners for National Crime Victims’ Rights Week Candlelight Vigil on the National Mall on April 24, 2024, in Washington, D.C. The Justice Department’s Office for Victims of Crime held the event to pay tribute to victims and survivors of crime and individuals who provide service and support. (Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images) WASHINGTON – States and local organizations that aid victims of sexual assault and other crimes are raising the alarm about a multi-year plunge in funds, a major problem they say Congress must fix soon or programs will be forced to set up wa ..read more

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra testifies at his 2021 confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. HHS published a final rule Friday to expand health care access to DACA recipients. (Michael Reynolds | Pool-Getty Images) WASHINGTON – The Biden administration will publish a final rule Friday that will allow about 100,000 uninsured people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to enroll in state-run or private health insurance plans provided under the Affordable Care Act, administration officials said. The new rule from the U.S. Department of Healt ..read more

"The influx of federal COVID-19 funding helped to sustain our health care system through the pandemic, but also served to mask this critical problem." (Getty Images) A second public health emergency of this decade is beginning to take shape in New Hampshire. While the emergency does not involve an infectious disease, the health and well-being of New Hampshire residents are no less at risk. Health care organizations across the state are incurring unsustainable losses. Community Health Centers, among others, are being challenged like never before as they recover from the effects of the COVID-19 ..read more

The House voted, 188-177, Thursday to table Senate Bill 563, which passed the Senate in March along party lines. Here, people stand at at a gap in the U.S.-Mexico border wall after having traveled from South America to the United States on Dec. 10, 2021, in Yuma, Arizona. (John Moore | Getty Images) New Hampshire Republicans appear on track to lose their latest attempt to prohibit so-called “sanctuary city” policies and require local police to help federal immigration agents detain undocumented individuals, even those not facing criminal charges. The House voted, 188-177, Thursday to table Se ..read more

University of Wisconsin-Madison protesters sit around tents on May 1, 2024, as police work to dismantle their encampment on Library Mall. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner) WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden responded Thursday to weeks of protest on college campuses calling for a ceasefire in Gaza with a brief statement that the right to protest should be protected, but “not the right to cause chaos.” “We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent,” Biden said from the White House’s Roosevelt Room. “In fact, peaceful protest is in the best tradition of how Ameri ..read more

Mel Kiper Jr. (left) is the most recognizable NFL draft analyst in the business. Here, he sits with Chris Mortensen (center) and Keyshawn Johnson during ESPN's boradcast of the 2007 NFL Draft on April 28, 2007, at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. (Chris McGrath | Getty Images) Every year, I watch as much NFL draft coverage as I can. I don’t follow college football very closely, so it’s a chance for me to get to know the players a little bit and then, on draft day, to see where they land. The draft also appeals to my predilection for order. After each NFL team plays their final game of ..read more

David Burr demonstrates removing leaves on marijuana plants to allow more light for growth at Essence Vegas’ 54,000-square-foot marijuana cultivation facility on July 6, 2017, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Ethan Miller | Getty Images) The Biden administration plans to remove marijuana from a list of the most dangerous and highly regulated drugs, the Department of Justice said Tuesday.  The Drug Enforcement Administration will propose moving the drug from a Schedule I substance, which also includes heroin and methamphetamine, to Schedule III, which is the category for regulated-but-legal drugs i ..read more

California Highway Patrol officers patrol at a pro-Palestinian encampment, the morning after it was attacked by counter-protesters at the University of California, Los Angeles campus, on May 1, 2024, in Los Angeles, California. (Mario Tama | Getty Images) WASHINGTON – U.S. House Republicans Wednesday passed a bill, with heavy support from Democrats, that would define antisemitism for the Department of Education, amid nationwide college campus protests in which students are calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The 320-91 vote would codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definiti ..read more

Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks during a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, May 1, 2024, about removing U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson from the leadership office. Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, who supports the effort, stands to her left.  (Jennifer Shutt | States Newsroom) WASHINGTON – Two U.S. House Republicans, aggrieved by Speaker Mike Johnson’s bipartisanship amid divided government, said Wednesday they plan to force a vote next week on removing him from the leadership office – despite the extremely long odds of success. Geor ..read more

Demonstrators supporting Palestinians in Gaza barricade themselves inside Hamilton Hall, an academic building at Columbia University which has been occupied in past student movements, on April 30, 2024, in New York City. (Alex Kent | Getty Images) WASHINGTON — U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson argued Tuesday protests on college campuses calling for a ceasefire in Gaza have crossed the line and represent a threat to Jewish students – one day before lawmakers in that chamber are set to vote on a bipartisan bill that would define antisemitism for the Department of Education. Johnson, a Louisiana R ..read more