Kery Murakami

Dems’ ‘human infrastructure’ plan takes aim at fixing racial disparities

Democrats say President Biden's "human infrastructure" bill is a once-in-a-generation chance to deal with racial disparities by creating a slew of subsidies.

July 6, 2021

Teachers union vows to defend critical race theory in classrooms: ‘Truth is not radical’

One of the nation's largest teachers unions vowed Tuesday to go to court to allow the teaching of critical race theory.

July 6, 2021

IRS answered only 3% of calls on hotline during past tax-filing season, report says

The IRS answered only 3% of the 85 million calls to its toll-free number for questions about individual tax returns and stimulus checks during the past tax-filing season, the agency's independent watchdog wrote in an annual report to Congress.

July 1, 2021

Sen. Cotton says critical race theory threatens cohesion in military units

Sen. Tom Cotton said Thursday that the U.S. military's incorporation of critical race theory concepts in its training will weaken the bond between soldiers who rely on each other for their lives.

July 1, 2021

House Dems boot Taney, Confederates from Capitol; McCarthy blasts embrace of CRT ‘racism’

The House in a largely partisan vote Tuesday ordered that the bust of former Supreme Court Justice Roger Brooke Taney be removed from the U.S. Capitol.

June 29, 2021

Tim Scott: Democrats back down on qualified immunity in policing-bill talks

Congressional negotiators crafting a bipartisan proposal to change policing in America have reached agreement on a key sticking point, with Democrats abandoning one key demand of making it easier to sue individual police officers, a lead Republican senator said Monday.

June 28, 2021

Lawmakers make progress on policing overhaul but strike no deal before Senate vacation

Congress's attempt at a racial-justice overhaul of policing in America was stuck in limbo Thursday lawmakers failed to strike a bipartisan agreement before senators left Washington for a two-week Independence Day holiday.

June 24, 2021

Pelosi creates committee to probe Jan. 6 riot, links to ‘white supremacy,’ ‘Islamophobia’

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday that she is creating a select committee to investigate the causes of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and recommend ways to prevent what she termed an "insurrection" from happening again.

June 24, 2021

‘Just need agree on the actual language’: Tim Scott says Congress is close to deal on policing

Sen. Tim Scott said Wednesday that a bipartisan group of lawmakers has worked out their main differences over a bill that will propose changes in policing and could reach a deal as soon as Thursday.

June 23, 2021

Demise of Democrats’ voting law makeover fires up the left’s quest to kill the filibuster

It didn't take long for the Democrats' demoralizing failure to pass their sweeping elections bill to spur Bernard Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and other liberal senators to call for ending the filibuster.

June 23, 2021

Democrats’ massive rewrite of America’s election laws dies in GOP filibuster

Democrats' sweeping attempt to overhaul the nation's election system fell to a whimpering defeat Tuesday, dealing President Biden his first major legislative loss.

June 22, 2021

Manchin agrees to join Democrats in supporting voting bill

The Democrats' sweeping elections bill is still expected to die within hours. But they won a small victory Tuesday when Sen. Joe Manchin agreed to join his fellow Democrats in voting for a procedural measure to bring the measure to the floor.

June 22, 2021

Voters not sold on Dems’ 800-plus page rewrite of election laws; bill doomed in Senate

Democrats have labeled their major election overhaul the "For the People Act" -- but when pollsters talk to the people themselves, many of them say they would rather take a pass.

June 21, 2021

‘An agenda designed to fail’: Democrats give their election bill ‘almost zero’ chance of passing

Democrats know their massive bill to rewrite the county's election laws has almost no chance of passing Congress this year, despite forcing a Senate vote on it Tuesday, said a Senate Democratic aide.

June 21, 2021

Liberal groups push for undoing filibuster in advance of expected defeat of voting bill

A coalition of liberal groups on Monday prodded Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona to support eliminating the filibuster to pass the Democrats' voting overhaul bill without any Republican opposition.

June 21, 2021

Raphael Warnock says he ‘never opposed’ voter ID laws but once called them ‘discriminatory’

Sen. Raphael Warnock turned heads this week when he denied that he had ever opposed laws requiring voters to produce IDs to cast ballots.

June 18, 2021

Trial lawyers, unions seen hobbling U.S. in race to beat China on driverless cars

The U.S. is in a battle with China over who will dominate the market when automated vehicles transport people and goods without anyone behind the steering wheel or even without steering wheels at all.

June 18, 2021

Republican senators dampen Democratic hopes for voting bill

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell threw cold water on Democrats' hopes of finding enough bipartisan support to pass their massive voting bill next Tuesday.

June 17, 2021

House overwhelmingly approves new federal holiday: Juneteenth

Democrats and Republicans in the House, despite the divisive debates in the nation over race, came together on Wednesday to overwhelmingly approve the creation of a federal holiday to mark the end of slavery.

June 16, 2021

‘Revolutionizing a culture’: How critical race theory grew from law school thesis to K-12 trend

Middle school students in Buffalo, New York, were assigned to read an essay as part of the district's "emancipation curriculum" this year that "the United States was founded as a racist society."

June 16, 2021