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House Passes Bill That Lets Government Contractors Fire People For Being LGBT

The House passed a massive National Defense Authorization Act late Wednesday, and tucked inside of it, a provision that would allow federal contractors to fire employees for being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.The language, slipped into the bill by Rep. Steve Russell (R-Okla.), would dismantle President Barack Obama’s 2014 executive action that makes it illegal for government contractors to fire or harass employees based on their sexual orientation or gender identity

Trump in the White House: An Interview With Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky warned years ago that the political climate in the US was ripe for the rise of an authoritarian figure. Chomsky shares his thoughts on this election, the state of the US political system and why Donald Trump is a threat to the world.

Defiant LAPD chief says department will refuse to help Donald Trump’s deportation efforts

Donald Trump has pledged to begin deporting millions of undocumented immigrants as soon as he takes office next year. For now, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck has no plans to help him do it. “We’re going to maintain the same posture we always have,” Beck told KNX 1070 Monday. “We don’t make detentions or arrests based solely on status, whether that’s immigration status or any other status.”

Trump’s Health Secretary Pick Leaves Nation’s Doctors Divided

Donald Trump picks another controversial figure to head the health department. Tom Price, a physician, has conservative opinions on healthcare and favors “patient choice and market-based solutions” and wants to reduce “excessive regulatory burdens” on doctors. But Mr. Price is criticized for opposing affordable care act, contraception and gay rights as well as medicare and medicaid as it stands!

Republican Lawmakers in Five States Propose Bills to Criminalize Peaceful Protest

On Saturday, the Women’s March on Washington will kick off what opponents of the incoming administration hope will be a new era of  demonstrations against the Republican agenda. But in some states, nonviolent demonstrating may soon carry increased legal risks — including punishing fines and significant prison terms — for people who participate in protests involving civil disobedience.

Trump National Security Team Gets a Slow Start

The Obama administration has written 275 briefing papers for the  incoming Trump administration: nearly 1,000 pages of classified material  on North Korea’s nuclear program, the military campaign against the Islamic State, tensions in the South China Sea, and every other kind of threat the new team could face in its first weeks in office.

In Break With Precedent, Obama Envoys Are Denied Extensions Past Inauguration Day

The mandate — issued “without exceptions,” according to a terse State Department cable sent on Dec. 23, diplomats who saw it said — threatens to leave the United States without Senate-confirmed envoys for months in  critical nations like Germany, Canada and Britain. In the past, administrations of both parties have often granted extensions on a case-by-case basis to allow a handful of ambassadors, particularly those with school-age children, to remain in place for weeks or months.

After meeting with pharma lobbyists, Trump drops promise to negotiate drug prices

A lot happened in the 2016 campaign, but one of the things Donald Trump did to win the election was shift to the left on a number of key issues — promising to avoid cuts in Social Security and Medicare benefits and adopting a longstanding Democratic pledge to let Medicare negotiate bulk discounts in the price it pays for prescription drugs.