When the Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing on the U.S. military’s sexual assault crisis, lawmakers grilled Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine officials on the alarmingly high number of rapes and other sexual abuses in their ranks. Read more»

As the White House considers proposals to allocate federal money for armed guards in schools, prominent school-discipline reform groups have issued a report denouncing the idea as a misguided reaction to the Newtown school shooting. Read more»

The debate on women's rights has shifted to the contraceptive-coverage mandate, as the President Obama's administration faces criticism from the Catholic church and Republicans. Read more» 1

A substantial number of public schools on military bases are in either poor or failing condition, and many are overcrowded, a new report card by the Defense Department shows. Read more»

Last week, we outlined the admitted (and denied) criminal allegations at News Corp and issued a first-in-the-nation call for an FBI investigation. Since, calls for a U.S. look at Murdoch’s media empire have exploded, public outrage is unabated, and the FBI is looking at News Corp. Read more»

Congress is set to consider the DREAM Act in the lame duck session. The bill would provide legal status to undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children provided they meet strict conditions. The bill, supported across the political spectrum, promotes hard work and the notion that you can be successful no matter where you were born or who your parents are. Read more»

In the name of job creation and clean energy, the Obama administration has doled out billions of dollars in stimulus money to some of the nation’s biggest polluters and granted them sweeping exemptions from the most basic form of environmental oversight, a Center for Public Integrity investigation has found. Read more»

Many Democrats, concerned that voters view health care reform in a negative light, continue to not mention it. Republicans, predicted to take control of the House and increase their ranks in the Senate, continue to criticize the law as too large and too expensive. Read more»

One group of Republican candidates is performing poorly in races from coast to coast. Why did Republicans choose such a weak bunch of women? Read more» 1

Democrats are gaining ground in campaign polling, but Republicans still hold a lead, buoyed in part by their stance on health care as the November midterm elections near. Read more»

The administration’s raging against BP is not going to get the oil to stop flowing or get it cleaned up any faster. It is rank populism for political purposes and is not something the president of the United States, or Congress, should provoke. Read more»