Patricia McCloskey and her husband Mark McCloskey draw their firearms in St. Louis, Miss., June 28, 2020. (Lawrence Bryant/Reuters) Republican members of Congress on Thursday demanded that the Justice Department investigate “rogue prosecutors,” including the prosecutor leading the case against the St. Louis couple who pointed guns at protesters outside their house last month. “Criminals

Joe Biden speaks during a visit to the Bethel AME Church in Wilmington, Del., June 1, 2020. (Jim Bourg/Reuters) The presumptive Democrat nominee, former senator, and, so says Politico, “devout Catholic [who] has recited Scripture on the 2020 campaign trail and is known to carry rosary beads in his pocket,” has been challenged by CatholicVote

Earlier this week, proponents of a new pro-life bill in the Nebraska legislature overcame the filibuster to proceed to the next stage of debate. Legislative bill 814 would ban dilation and evacuation abortions, in which an unborn child is dismembered and removed from the womb in pieces. Almost all second-trimester abortions performed in the U.S.

A woman holds a small coronavirus vaccine bottle, April 10, 2020. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters) As many as one in three Americans say they would not get a vaccine for the coronavirus even if it were approved by the FDA and available for free. About 35 percent of Americans say they would not receive such a vaccine

Imagine this: You have a friend who has never saved a penny for his retirement. You ask him about it when he is in his twenties, and he says, “No problem — I’m going to win the lottery.” Years go by. You ask him about it in his thirties, in his forties, in his fifties,

National Rifle Association merchandise at the Iowa straw poll in Ames, Iowa, in 2011. (Daniel Acker/Reuters) The latest bananas news from the banana republic that is the State of New York: The attorney general, a political enemy of the National Rifle Association, is seeking to have the advocacy organization legally dissolved. The pretext is financial

Federal Protective Service officers gather outside the federal courthouse as jury selection begins for Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, two of his sons and co-defendant Ryan Payne, in Las Vegas, Nevada, October 30, 2017. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun/Reuters) Politically charged prosecutions — even ones that are thoroughly justified — often end badly for the justice system.

A worker cleans a Kodak booth at a convention center in Las Vegas, Nev., January 6, 2019. (Steve Marcus/Reuters) My beef with cronyism, or what my colleague Matthew Mitchell calls government granted privilege, is well known the readers of this blog. Today, I would like to talk about another government entity with crony aspirations and

New York State Attorney General, Letitia James, announces a lawsuit by the state of New York against e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc in New York City, November 19, 2019. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters) New York attorney general Letitia James sued to dissolve the National Rifle Association on Wednesday, accusing senior members of the organization of fraud stretching

Beachgoers at Huntington Beach, Calif., July 23, 2020. (Mike Blake/Reuters) We need to begin differentiating between individual risk and risk for outbreaks as we think about public-health policy. NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE E arly in the COVID pandemic, there was much discussion of super-spreaders — a single individual attending a routine and harmless event such as

New York City mayor Bill De Blasio in the Queens borough of New York, May 16, 2020 (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters) New York mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Wednesday that checkpoints will be set up at major entrances to the city to screen for out-of-state travelers who may be violating quarantine rules. Currently, travelers from 35

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer addresses the media in Midland, Mich., about the flooding along the Tittabawassee River, May 20, 2020. (Rebecca Cook) Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, signed an executive directive on Wednesday ordering state employees to undergo “implicit bias training.” Executive directives allow the Michigan governor to establish procedures or basic policy for

A woman wearing a face mask at a bus stop in Stockholm, Sweden, June 26, 2020. (Stina Stjernkvist/TT News Agency/via Reuters) As discussed in the latest Capital Note over on Capital Matters, Sweden came out with (under the circumstances), bearable economic numbers today. Quarter-on-quarter GDP fell by 8.6 percent (and 8.2 percent year-on-year). While these

Police car lights at night. (Photo via Getty Images) Most black Americans say they want police to continue their current presence in local areas, even as protests against racism and police brutality sweep the nation, and calls to reform and even defund police departments persist. Close to two-thirds, 61 percent, of black Americans said they

(Carlos Barria/Reuters) In New York magazine’s The Cut, writer Hannah Gold takes issue with the fact that pregnancy-resource centers — or, to use her term, “anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers” — received small-business loans from the CARES Act’s Paycheck Protection Program. Gold defines these centers as “religiously affiliated and faith-based nonprofits” when in fact several major networks of

Workers rope a container ship at a port in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China, February 11, 2020. (China Daily via Reuters) As Sino–American relations continue to deteriorate, liberal democracies need to unite against China’s ever-expanding economic influence. NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE O ver the past few months, the United States and China have clashed over technology, territory,

President Trump speaks during an executive order signing event in Washington, D.C., August 3, 2020. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) I think John Yoo sets up a false choice when he asks rhetorically: “Is Trump a dictator or a cypher?” It is possible to undermine constitutional and democratic norms without having grand Napoleonic ambitions. For example, President Trump’s

You would like to think that everybody, Left, Right, and center, would recognize that public-health officials such as Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx have a really difficult job right now. We’re dealing with a novel coronavirus, and medical researchers are still not sure why people react so differently, how … Read More

Republican gubernatorial candidate Kris Kobach greets supporters in Topeka, Kan., November 6, 2018. (Dave Kaup/Reuters) If you want a job done, don’t hire Kris Kobach. You may get some excuses, but you will never get results. The polls in Kansas are open for in-person voting today in the state’s primaries. Republicans will choose the party’s

You would like to think that everybody, Left, Right, and center, would recognize that public-health officials such as Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx have a really difficult job right now. We’re dealing with a novel coronavirus, and medical researchers are still not sure why people react so differently, how … Read More

Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden departs after speaking about his plans to combat racial inequality at a campaign event in Wilmington, Del., July 28, 2020. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) Why is there this sudden enthusiasm for canceling the presidential debates? Tom Friedman, back on July 7: “Biden should declare that he will take

President Trump speaks during an executive order signing event in Washington, D.C., August 3, 2020. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) President Trump signed an executive order on Monday preventing federal agencies from laying off U.S. citizens and green card holders and replacing them with temporary foreign workers. The order will increase oversight of federal agencies’ use of employees

President Donald Trump walks toward reporters as he departs for travel to Atlanta, Georgia from the White House in Washington, D.C., July 15, 2020. (Carlos Barria/Reuters) A new federal court filing Monday from the Manhattan district attorney suggests the prosecutor’s office may be investigating President Trump and his company for bank and insurance fraud. The filing, from

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies via video conference before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law on “Online Platforms and Market Power” in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on July 29, 2020. (Graeme Jennings/Pool/Reuters) Whether out of opportunism or sincere concern for Internet freedom, the social-media

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Washington, D.C., September 27, 2018 (Tom Williams/Pool via Reuters) Whitehouse’s conspiratorial bent runs deep. When Democrats want to threaten or delegitimize the federal judiciary, they know whom to call first: Sheldon Whitehouse, the Rhode Island senator The Hill calls “the Democratic Party’s leading voice on the

If Joe Biden announces his running mate in the second week of August, as the Washington Post is reporting, he will be a bit on the later side, considering recent history. Donald Trump announced the selection of Mike Pence on July 15, 2016. Hillary Clinton announced the selection of Tim Kaine July 22, 2016. Mitt

White House coronavirus coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx addresses the daily coronavirus task force briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C., April 17, 2020. (Leah Millis/Reuters) Dr. Deborah Birx, the Trump administration’s coronavirus response coordinator warned Sunday that the coronavirus epidemic has entered a “new phase” in the U.S., saying that the pathogen is present

Actress Olivia de Havilland looks on after she was awarded with the Legion d’honneur at the Elysee Palace, France, September 9, 2010. (Philippe Wojazer/Reuters) After discovering the true nature of a Communist front group, she worked as a double agent to help bring them down. When Olivia de Havilland, the grande dame of the Golden

A man passes a sign at MGM National Harbor as the hotel and casino opens its doors to guests after an easing of restrictions imposed to control the spread of the coronavirus in Oxon Hill, Md., June 29, 2020. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) Businesses large and small face crippling lawsuits. Will the GOP step up to protect

Boston Marathon Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston/Reuters) A federal appeals court has overturned the death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev detonated two pressure-cooker bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon in April 2013, killing three and injuring over 260 bystanders. Tamerlan was killed