The president announces an aggressive, controversial policy. Large groups of protesters take to the streets. Government agents open fire and kill protesters.

All of these events, familiar from Minneapolis in 2026, also played out at Ohio’s Kent State University in 1970. In my academic writing about the First Amendment, I have ...Read more

“Humble” is not a word my colleagues would use to describe me, especially early in my career.

In fact, when word got around that I was researching humility, I suspect more than a few choked on their coffee.

And even though I have spent over a decade exploring the concept as an attribute and as a practice, it wasn’t until...Read more

Michelangelo’s fresco of “The Last Judgment,” covering the wall behind the altar of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, is being restored. The work, which started on Feb. 1, 2026, is expected to continue for three months.

The Sistine Chapel is one of the great masterpieces of Renaissance art. As the setting where the College of ...Read more

For the first time in more than half a century, there are no binding restraints on the buildup of the largest nuclear forces on Earth. The New START treaty expired on Feb. 5, 2026, ending the last agreed limits on U.S. and Russian nuclear forces.

New START limited the number of strategic nuclear weapons the United States and Russia ...Read more

One year after taking charge of the nation’s health department, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hasn’t held true to many of the promises he made while appealing to U.S. senators concerned about the longtime anti-vaccine activist’s plans for the nation’s care.

Kennedy squeaked through a narrow Senate vote to be ...Read more

When Oklahoma Republican state Sen. Todd Gollihare introduced a bill last year to strengthen state law protecting places of worship from protesters, it stalled.

This year, his church protest bill sailed through the legislature. Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed it into law three days after Gollihare reintroduced it.

In recent weeks, ...Read more

Despite immigration detention numbers receding from recent highs and even as conservative judges are opting to release more detainees by rejecting President Donald Trump’s mass detention policy, tools for detainees to seek release or appeal cases are disappearing.

A proposed federal rule will make it harder to appeal immigration cases ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The EPA’s decision last week to repeal the 2009 endangerment finding establishing that greenhouse gas emissions are air pollutants harmful to public health will have immediate impacts on vehicle tailpipe emissions limits and start-stop technology incentives.

That finding, which required the agency to regulate the emissions as ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — In December, Katrina Williams watched as the man who killed her brother was sentenced to decades in prison and felt, she said, as if a two-year nightmare was coming to an end.

But weeks later, another shooting took the life of her only son.

Williams’ brother, Lashyd Merritt, 21, was one of five people killed in a mass ...Read more

More states are requiring their Medicaid programs and health insurance companies to cover non-opioid pain medications as an alternative to opioids, which can be cheaper for insurers but also more addictive for patients.

Advocates, providers, medical associations and state lawmakers are pushing for parity in coverage. That means prohibiting ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Within the serpentine halls and stairways of Olivet Covenant Presbyterian Church, congregants have established several private, off-limits rooms ― each a potential last-stand space where members would try to shield immigrants from ICE, should agents breach the sanctuary.

Church leaders call them Fourth Amendment areas, named ...Read more

CARACAS, Venezuela — Traditional media outlets in Venezuela that have been censored for years are daring to take a new direction following Nicolás Maduro’s capture by U.S. forces in early January.

After years of harsh repression, television channels and social media accounts have begun to include the voices of opposition figures and ...Read more

The Food and Drug Administration’s decision, made public on Feb. 10, 2026, to not review an application to approve Moderna’s proposed mRNA-based flu vaccine set off a firestorm of criticism from public health experts.

But just a week later, on Feb. 18, the FDA backtracked on its decision, saying that it will indeed review the ...Read more

The general in charge of U.S. Southern Command, charged with overseeing the military buildup in the Western Hemisphere and an ongoing campaign of strikes against alleged drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, made a surprise visit to Venezuela on Wednesday.

Marine Corps General Francis Donovan, who took over the command ...Read more

A handful of Democratic candidates running for governor addressed how they would make life for Californians more affordable by outlining their ideas to lower costs for necessities like child care and health care.

The Democratic Legislative Women’s Caucus held a forum Wednesday for gubernatorial candidates on women’s economic security, ...Read more

Grammy-winning rock band U2 released a new EP on Wednesday with an opening track that pays homage to Renee Good, a Minneapolis mother who was killed by federal agents on Jan. 7 while opposing ICE operations in her state.

The six-track EP, titled “Days of Ash,” kicks off with a song called “American Obituary.”

Its lyrics include the ...Read more

The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating whether three public school districts in Michigan, including Detroit Public Schools Community District, have been teaching students about sexual orientation and gender ideology without parental consent.

The probe involves Detroit Public Schools Community District, Lansing School District and ...Read more

The St. Paul City Council voted Wednesday, Feb. 18, to require law enforcement officers – including ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents – to show their faces on the job.

The measure comes as immigration enforcement has slowed in the Twin Cities, but St. Paul leaders said they would keep working to pass city laws governing federal ...Read more

Haitians in Florida with Temporary Protected Status can continue renewing their driver licenses, Miami-Dade County said, citing updated state guidance.

But the directive only applies until March 15 or when a court makes a decision in the ongoing appeal process filed by the Trump administration following the decision by a federal judge earlier ...Read more