Poli Alert Politics & Civics

The U.S. government’s gross national debt has topped $37 trillion for the first time, according to new Treasury Department figures released Tuesday, marking a historic milestone that has arrived years earlier than budget forecasters once predicted. The record, driven by pandemic-era borrowing and fresh spending measures, underscores the mounting cost …

Former U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown is planning to challenge U.S. Sen. Jon Husted next year for one of Ohio’s two seats in the Senate, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported Tuesday. The race would surely take on a national profile as Democrats try to take control of a closely divided chamber …

Black civil rights leaders and mayors of several major U.S. cities sharply criticized President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, labeling the move a “federal coup” and an act of “racially divisive politics.” The White House defended the action as a lawful, necessary measure …

The Trump administration on Tuesday advanced its unprecedented federal takeover of Washington, D.C.’s police force, convening top federal and city leaders to coordinate crime-fighting efforts as hundreds of National Guard troops and federal agents move into the city. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Police Chief Pamela Smith met with Attorney General …

U.S. consumer prices were unchanged in July from the previous month, as falling gas and grocery costs offset tariff-driven increases for some imports, the Labor Department reported Tuesday. The Consumer Price Index rose 2.7% in July from a year earlier, matching June’s pace and up from a post-pandemic low of …

President Donald Trump on Monday nominated E.J. Antoni, chief economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation, to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the agency that compiles and releases the nation’s key employment and inflation data. “Our economy is booming, and E.J. will ensure that the numbers released are HONEST and …

President Donald Trump on Monday extended a trade truce with China for another 90 days, postponing a potentially damaging tariff escalation between the world’s two largest economies. Trump announced on his Truth Social platform that he had signed an executive order continuing the current arrangement, saying “all other elements of …

Ten years after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, the justices will soon decide whether to hear a case explicitly seeking to reverse that precedent. Kim Davis, the former Rowan County, Kentucky, clerk who was jailed for six days in 2015 after defying court orders to issue marriage …

President Donald Trump on Monday invoked a decades-old provision of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to take temporary control of the city’s police force, a move he framed as a “historic action” to restore public safety but that opponents denounced as executive overreach. Speaking at a White House …

President Donald Trump on Monday announced that he is federalizing Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department and deploying roughly 800 National Guard troops to the nation’s capital, a move he framed as a decisive step to combat crime but which comes amid federal data showing a sharp drop in violent offenses. …

A federal judge on Monday denied the Justice Department’s request to unseal grand jury materials from Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal case, ruling that the transcripts would reveal no meaningful new information about her or Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes. U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, issued …

President Donald Trump on Saturday announced he will nominate State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce to serve as the next deputy representative to the United Nations. “Since the beginning of my Second Term, Tammy has been serving with distinction as Spokesperson of the State Department, where she did a fantastic job,” …

President Donald Trump on Friday removed Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Billy Long, just two months after he was sworn in, and temporarily assigned Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to lead the tax agency, according to three sources familiar with the decision. The abrupt shake-up comes days after Trump’s latest tariffs took …

Fueled by President Donald Trump’s aims to bolster the U.S. House’s razor-thin GOP majority in the 2026 midterm elections, a rare mid-decade redistricting fight in Texas grew increasingly bitter in recent days and engulfed other states. As Democratic legislators in the Lone Star State fled to block a new congressional map, …

Two U.S. senators are calling on Meta to immediately scrap Instagram’s new Map feature, warning that the tool poses serious privacy and safety risks — particularly for children. In a letter sent Friday to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., urged the company to …