State lawmakers in California introduced legislation Wednesday that would require children to be fully vaccinated before going to school, a response to a measles outbreak that started in Southern California and has reached 107 cases in 14 states. Read more»

Senator Dianne Feinstein said “the evidence is clear: the ban worked.” Except there’s no evidence it saved lives – and the researcher behind the key statistic Feinstein cites says it’s an outdated figure that was based on a false assumption. Read more»

Based on a statistical analysis of unaccompanied children arrivals data, border security statistics, and violence levels in Central America, it is clear that violence in countries such as Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador—rather than deferred action or lax U.S. border enforcement—is driving the increase in unaccompanied children. Read more» 1

A lot of gray area surrounds the political rhetoric about the White House’s decision to swap Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five Taliban figures detained at Guantanamo. Read more»

Last week saw revelations that the FBI and the National Security Agency have been collecting Americans’ phone records en masse and that the agencies have access to data from nine tech companies. But secrecy around the programs has meant even basic questions are still unanswered. Here’s what we still don’t know. Read more»

Both sides in the gun debate are misusing academic reports on the impact of the 1994 assault weapons ban, cherry-picking portions out of context to suit their arguments. Read more»

Tucson lawyer David Hardy told a Senate committee that limiting semiautomatic weapons would be a misguided response to mass shootings that have sparked renewed calls for gun control. Others at the often-contentious hearing said something must be done. Read more»

As parents and loved ones struggle to come to terms with unimaginable grief, a nation, with its president in the forefront, is trying to understand what in its makeup leads so regularly to scenes of mayhem and death. The answers will not be easy to uncover, but at last, it seems, Americans have the will to begin. Read more»

A Senate committee is close to putting the final stamp on a massive, 6,000-page report on the CIA’s detention, interrogation and rendition of terror suspects. But it’s unclear how much, if any, of the review you might get to read. Read more»

The Senate Tuesday unanimously approved the nomination of Arizona Supreme Court Justice Andrew Hurwitz to a vacant seat on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Read more»

On Oct. 6 the Senate took such a step by passing S.R. 201 and moving it to the House. The resolution expresses regret for the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the six decades of anti-Chinese American persecution that followed. It also reaffirms America’s commitment to protecting civil rights. Read more»

Arizona has had more than 90 illegal tunnels under its border with Mexico, the most discovered in any state in the Southwest, law enforcement officials told senators this week. Read more»

It's mostly illegal to import foreign-made assault weapons, but Century Arms has found a way to legally market these guns in the U.S. Many make their way south, to be used by Mexican drug cartels. Read more» 1

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»