Author: Gabrielle M. Etzel

At least 10 people are dead and dozens more have been injured after a man in a white pickup truck drove into a crowd of people on New Year’s Eve on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Louisiana, early Wednesday morning. The assailant displayed “very intentional behavior,” driving past barricades as well as shooting into the…

President-elect Donald Trump announced a slate of new appointees to his administration on Saturday, less than one month before he is to be sworn into office on January 20 next year.  The three posts announced on Saturday, including Chief of Staff at the Department of Justice, Head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Policy,…

The highest-ranking uniformed officer of the New York Police Department abruptly stepped down late Friday night over allegations that he demanded sexual favors from subordinates in exchange for overtime pay. Chief of Department Jeffry Maddrey resigned his position after claims from Lt. Quathisha Epps surfaced that Maddrey routinely solicited sexual favors from her at NYPD…

Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine recently traveled to Mar-a-Lago in Florida to meet with Trump administration officials regarding his impending appointment of a new Senator to replace Vice President-elect J.D. Vance.  A spokesperson for DeWine’s office responded to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment on reports that DeWine met with President-elect Donald Trump and Vance…

Senate Democrats on Saturday morning concluded a nearly two-year-long investigation into the ethical practices of the Supreme Court, issuing a final report that focused on the court’s conservative members, identifying rampant impropriety such as accepting lavish gifts and failing to recuse amidst conflicts of interests.  “Now more than ever before, as a result of information…

Supreme Court justices on Wednesday used the preferred honorific of the first openly transgender-identifying person to argue before the high court during oral arguments in a landmark case on the ability of states to regulate hormone-based therapies for minors with gender dysphoria. Chase Strangio, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT & HIV Rights…

Georgia officials dismissed all members of a state maternal health panel after information about the deaths of two women with abortion pill complications was leaked to the press earlier this fall. The dismissal comes two months after the deaths of Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller, two Georgia women who suffered from severe complications after…

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued a new report on Tuesday with new evidence showing that minorities and people with lower economic status are more likely to suffer from tobacco-related chronic disease and death. Although cigarette smoking has declined by more than 70% since the first surgeon general report on the dangers of tobacco in 1965, the full…

Anti-abortion advocates are looking to one goal to combat abortion-rights amendments at the state level in the 2026 elections: recruit high-profile Republican officeholders who are willing to spend political capital and risk their own reputations, as did Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL).  During the 2024 elections, anti-abortion advocates successfully defeated measures in three states: Florida, South…

Leaders at the National Institutes of Health launched a yearlong project Tuesday to rework the organization’s mission and structure, an exercise carried out under the shadow of the impending sweeping changes to federal public health infrastructure of the incoming Trump administration.  NIH Director Monica Bertagnolli, appointed by President Joe Biden to rebrand the agency following the COVID-19 pandemic, told a…