Political Issues

A new U.S. president is under pressure to produce in those first 100 days in office. Why is that and does it really matter?

By Dave Roos

Born Melanija Knavs in Yugoslavia, the former model is only the second foreign-born first lady of the United States.

By Christopher Hassiotis

Donald Trump proposed stripping flag burners of citizenship. Regardless of the fact that flag-burning is legal, whether the United States can even do that is tricky.

By Patrick J. Kiger

The intelligence community has been keeping the U.S. president up to date on world events since 1946 with the President's Daily Brief. Why would a president skip it?

By John Donovan

The powers wielded by the U.S. president have waxed and waned over the years.

By Oisin Curran

The law actually says 'yes', but precedent says 'no.' Here's why.

By Dave Roos

Democracy requires citizen participation. But sometimes emailing and signing petitions can feel like shouting into a black hole. What's your best strategy to be heard?

By Patrick J. Kiger

Donald Trump may be the most prominent Trump, but he's not the only one. His polarizing candidacy is affecting ordinary people who share the surname.

By Christopher Hassiotis

A new study says you may get different treatment options depending on your doctors' political beliefs? What's a patient to do?

By Dave Roos

Think that a debate is intense? When tempers rise, elected officials can land more than metaphorical blows, as these examples from the past year alone show.

By Chris Opfer

A low-level cabinet member becomes U.S. president when everyone else is killed during a State of the Union address. It's the plot of a new TV show — and based in reality.

By Dave Roos

Think you have an original idea for a Constitutional amendment? Are you sure it hasn't been brought up one of the other 11,000 times?

By Clint Pumphrey

If the millennial generation is behind some of the most innovative developments in tech and business, why not hand these young citizens the keys to the country, too?

By Chris Opfer

What started as a hashtag has gone global. Is the group's loose, ever-evolving structure a benefit or a drawback — or both?

By Chris Opfer

How did the idea of "don't kill the messenger" turn into a modern international standard?

By Laurie L. Dove

Cell phone video has inspired millions of people to rally against issues of police brutality. It's a powerful tool for exposing injustices. And it's not going anywhere.

By Dave Roos

After all, every president who could have lived there has, but is it mandatory?

By John Donovan

Why does health care cost so much in the U.S.? And why, for all that money, isn't the population any healthier? These are just some of the big questions in the debate over health care costs.

By Melanie Radzicki McManus

We often think of the civil rights movement as just part of the 1960s. On Martin Luther King Day, we explore some civil rights issues going on in the U.S. today.

By Alia Hoyt

Ever felt a pang of guilt on, say, Election Day when you skipped the voting booth to go to dinner? The 'bread and circuses' concept of being pacified by food and entertainment — and forgoing civic duty — goes back to Roman times.

By Laurie L. Dove

Thousands of think tanks dot the globe, and if you think they don't affect you, you're wrong. The scholars at these high-brow thought factories have a much bigger agenda than merely sitting around looking contemplative.

By John Perritano

Thanks to the First Amendment, people in the U.S. can say whatever they want, wherever they want without fear of prosecution. Er ... not quite.

By Dave Roos

It's the U.S.'s primary public health insurance program, but who pays for it and who qualifies for coverage? Get the scoop on the ins and outs of Medicaid's rules and benefits.

By Maria Trimarchi

Throughout history, charismatic leaders have emerged and changed the world — for better and for worse.

By Melanie Radzicki McManus

Right-to-work legislation lately has received a ton of attention in the U.S. Why are people so divided on these controversial laws?

By Melanie Radzicki McManus