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A federal investigation seeks to uncover the painful history of Native American boarding schools
WASHINGTON — The Native American children travelled on trains, thousands of miles from their homes, to Pennsylvania’s Carlisle Indian Industrial School in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Many had been forcibly taken from their parents and communities. Once there, they had to hand over their belongings, put on uniforms, cut off their braids, adopt […]
Endangered species to get a reprieve under Biden administration plans
WASHINGTON — The lesser prairie-chicken, a rare dancing grouse once abundant on the Great Plains, could benefit again soon from the protection of the U.S. government. So could the rusty patched bumblebee, a black-headed pollinator that at one time ranged from Georgia to Maine and across the Midwest. The Biden administration is rewriting how it protects endangered species—making […]
New funding to curb wildfires pushed in Congress, as another fire season looms
WASHINGTON — As wildfires across the United States grow in size, intensity and duration each summer, members of Congress from the West are pushing for massive new investments in ecosystem management and wildfire mitigation. House lawmakers called for more attention to wildfire management and support for wildland firefighters at a hearing Thursday before a House […]
American Indian tribes ‘very close to reaching a breaking point’ in COVID-19 response
WASHINGTON — Native American tribes are facing a dire situation from the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing some of them to a breaking point, American Indian health leaders told members of Congress Wednesday. In many places, tribal leaders are scrambling to respond to disproportional illness and death in their communities. Confirmed COVID-19 cases among American Indians and Alaska […]
Record number of women running for Congress this year with Kansas leading the way
WASHINGTON — More women from across the nation are running for Congress this year than ever before, and Kansas is leading the way in making history on the ballot. For the first time ever, there will be a female candidate in each of Kansas’ U.S. House and Senate races in November. All of the Democratic […]
Top Homeland Security official vows federal agents ‘will not back away’ from violent protests
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s number two at the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday defended federal law enforcement officers’ intervention in protests in Portland, Oregon, and other cities this summer. Characterizing some of the protests as “mob rule,” Acting Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli told lawmakers that federal agents could exert force in […]
Vaccine makers deny political pressure in race for safe, effective shot
Leaders of the companies working on some of the top candidates for COVID-19 vaccines predict they should have shots available by early 2021, but said they will rely on the federal government to determine how to distribute them. The heads of five biopharmaceutical companies with promising vaccine candidates told members of Congress Tuesday that they […]
Coronavirus pandemic has worsened racial disparities in education, lawmakers told
WASHINGTON — The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated racial inequities in education, a disparity that Congress needs to help rectify, the former education chief under President Barack Obama told lawmakers Monday. “Our education system is fraught with inequities that existed before COVID-19,” John King Jr., who served as Secretary of Education in 2016-2017, told lawmakers on […]
Lawmakers: Trump’s environmental rollbacks threaten minority communities
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is suspending key environmental reviews during the pandemic that critics warn could further harm poor and minority neighborhoods around the country. Lawmakers and activists say the administration’s actions — meant to boost the lagging economy — could have disproportionate effects on minority communities that live near pipeline and power projects. […]
Governors warn Congress more federal help is needed to avoid COVID-19 resurgence
WASHINGTON — The federal government needs to assist states with a national strategy for distribution of COVID-19 tests and medical equipment or risk a second surge of the disease, Democratic governors told lawmakers Tuesday on Capitol Hill. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis asked Congress for more federal help as states try […]
‘People of color want freedom … from infection, freedom from death’
WASHINGTON — The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately harmed communities of color, laying bare the systemic racial disparities across the United States, experts have told lawmakers across the country. Early evidence suggests there are elevated rates of infection and death from COVID-19 in African American populations and other communities of color. Nationwide, Black Americans are dying […]
Fauci warns reopening too soon could cause ‘suffering and death’
WASHINGTON — A top Trump administration health official warned U.S. senators Tuesday that reopening the economy too quickly could cause suffering, death and an even longer economic setback. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, told lawmakers there could be a surge […]