advocacy

President Donald Trump has signed a bill that makes certain acts of animal cruelty a federal felony, saying it’s important for the nation to combat “heinous and sadistic acts of cruelty.” The Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act prohibits extreme acts of cruelty when they occur in interstate commerce or on federal property. The legislation expands on a 2010 law...

At least 60% of U.S. Superfund sites are in areas vulnerable to flooding or other worsening disasters of climate change, and the Trump administration’s reluctance to directly acknowledge global warming is deterring efforts to safeguard them, a congressional watchdog agency says. In a report being released Monday, the Government Accountability Office called on Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler to...

When the U.S. Census Bureau counts residents of Milwaukee’s poorest neighborhoods next year, a significant portion of their population will be missing: prisoners. For these predominantly black areas, with incarceration rates among the highest in the nation, the government’s longstanding policy to count inmates as residents of the prison where they are held diminishes their political power back home. “When...

Venice is experiencing continuous high tide levels this week, which is jeopardizing many of the city’s iconic treasures.

“Pose” and “Batwoman” are among the shows contributing to a surge in LGBTQ and gender inclusiveness on television, according to a new study by the advocacy group GLAAD.

Congress has passed a bill making certain types of animal cruelty a federal felony. The bill would expand a 2010 law that made creation or distribution of so-called “animal crushing” videos illegal. The new bill would make the underlying acts of cruelty a federal crime. The Senate unanimously passed the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act on Tuesday, two weeks...

How much are a college athlete’s name, image and likeness worth? And who would want to pay for them? The questions are front and center now that the NCAA, pressured by individual states that have started acting on their own, has taken a major step toward allowing athletes to make money off their fame. Deciding to reverse the prohibition on...

A girls’ high school varsity soccer team in Vermont is taking a page out of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team’s playbook, by mixing sports and social activism. “We want to show that we’re all going to stand behind this issue and we’re all going to fight for it together,” Burlington High School freshman Lydia Sheeser said of her team’s...

California will be the first state to ban the sale and manufacture of new fur products and the third to bar most animals from circus performances under a pair of bills signed Saturday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

When President Donald Trump dramatically slashed the number of refugees allowed into the U.S., he also gave state and local governments the authority to refuse to accept them for the first time in history. Last week’s move could further undermine a program that has seen an 80% drop in the number of refugees allowed in under Trump, who has pushed...

When back-to-back mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, jolted the nation earlier this month, Trump again spoke of “building new facilities” for the mentally ill as a way to reduce mass shootings. “We don’t have those institutions anymore and people can’t get proper care,” Trump lamented at a New Hampshire campaign rally not long after the latest...

The Trump administration moved Thursday to revoke Obama-era regulations on climate-changing methane leaks from oil facilities, a proposal that environmental advocates said would renounce key federal legal authority to regulate the gas’s outsize damage to the climate. The proposed rule follows President Donald Trump’s directions to remove “unnecessary and duplicative regulatory burdens from the oil and gas industry,” Environmental Protection...

A new lawsuit filed this week against the Boy Scouts of America claims to have uncovered hundreds of previously undisclosed cases of sexual abuse involving scout leaders that do not appear in the organization’s disciplinary files.

Tom Steyer, the billionaire investor and activist, said Tuesday he’s joining the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, reversing course after deciding earlier this year that he would forgo a run.

A transgender woman from El Salvador seeking asylum in the U.S. died on Saturday in a Texas hospital four days after being released from custody, officials and advocates said. Johana Medina Leon, 25, complained of chest pains and was brought to Del Sol Medical Center in El Paso, Texas, on Tuesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said. That same day, ICE...

A Republican redistricting expert advocated for adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census to give an electoral edge to white people and Republicans, opponents of the move alleged in a court filing Thursday. The filing in Manhattan federal court said a trove of newly discovered documents revealed that Thomas Hofeller, a longtime Republican gerrymandering guru, played a key role...

An autistic man walks out of a store without paying for a toy he picked up. He’s followed by a storekeeper demanding he come back inside. The situation quickly escalates, and police are called. Officers arrive, their patrol car’s lights flashing and sirens blaring, to find the man in the parking lot, yelling and not responding to their commands. They...

Paz Lopez was set to spend Mother’s Day behind bars. The 42-year-old mother of six had been locked up in a Phoenix jail for the past month on forgery and other charges. She couldn’t post her $2,050 bail. But on Thursday night she walked out and into a car waiting to give her a ride home, thanks to a drive...

The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday over the Trump administration’s plan to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. There was a divide between the court’s liberal and conservative justices during arguments in the case that could affect how many seats states have in the House of Representatives, as well as their share of federal funds for the next...

Monthly shots of HIV drugs worked as well as daily pills to control the virus that causes AIDS in two large international tests, researchers reported Thursday. If approved by regulators in the United States and Europe, the shots would be a new option for people with HIV and could help some stay on treatment. Instead of having to remember to...