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Kentuckians and their senior senator diverge on democracy reform, poll finds

Perhaps Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is not as invulnerable as he sometimes seems, especially when it comes to the politics of opposing the "democracy reform" movement.

Kentucky, where McConnell is asking for a seventh term next year, seems none too happy with him at the moment. A survey out Monday from the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling found the most powerful Republican in Congress is underwater back home: 39 percent approve of his job performance and 51 percent do not. The same poll, by contrast, showed a 55 percent approval rating in the state for President Trump.


McConnell has vowed to prevent any Senate consideration of HR 1, the comprehensive political process overhaul that Democrats labeled their top legislative priority after reclaiming control of the House and pushing it through that chamber this winter. More regulation of money in politics is at the heart of the bill, something McConnell once mocked as ranking up there with "static cling" in the minds of voters.

But the poll (commissioned by the campaign finance advocacy group End Citizens United) found 23 percent of Kentuckians choosing "ending political corruption" as the most important issue facing the country. Only lowering the cost of health care and drugs finished higher, at 25 percent. And 71 percent of those polled said they supported the concepts embodied in HR 1.


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"That’s where I became 100% Israeli": Zionism through the eyes of a Holocaust survivor

Irene Shashar, Holocaust Survivor

"That’s where I became 100% Israeli": Zionism through the eyes of a Holocaust survivor

Irene Shashar walked hand in hand with her mother through the streets of the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw, Poland, surrounded by three‑meter‑high walls with electric wires, lifeless bodies, and German soldiers — their mission was to look for food to bring back and share with her father.

“They’re coming! They’re coming!” a crowd shouted in Polish when they saw Irene (then named Ruth) and her mother returning from their errand. Her mother pulled her quickly by the arm, and they ran up the stairs. When they reached the top, they saw that the kitchen floor was no longer white — it was covered with her father’s blood after a German soldier shot him in the neck.

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The Founders Built Safeguards. Our Politics Rendered Them Useless
selective focus photo of U.S.A. flag
Photo by Andrew Ruiz on Unsplash

The Founders Built Safeguards. Our Politics Rendered Them Useless

The men who gathered in Philadelphia in 1787 were students of history, and it taught them a singular lesson: power corrupts, and unchecked power can destroy a republic.

They designed our experiment with overlapping safeguards to ensure that no single faction, branch, or man could hold the nation hostage. What remained unresolved was agency: who, exactly, can determine when to trigger those safeguards? History has since exposed this as the system's deepest vulnerability.

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As Middle East Wars Rage, Georgetown Gaza Lecture Series Highlights Conversations on Campuses

Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, located within the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service is a co-host of the second annual Gaza Lecture Series.

Credit: Jacques Abou-Rizk/MNS

As Middle East Wars Rage, Georgetown Gaza Lecture Series Highlights Conversations on Campuses

WASHINGTON – One by one, students inside the intimate lounge of Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies on Wednesday called their family and friends across the Middle East.

The dozen students and faculty members watched TV screens tuned to Al Jazeera’s Arabic broadcast. The footage showed images of Israel’s strikes on Lebanon earlier that day.

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House Bill Pushes Bipartisan Effort to Tackle Federal Benefits Fraud, Refocusing from Immigration

Expert witnesses testify on the issues facing federal benefits programs run by states at a House Government Operations hearing on Wednesday, April 15, 2026.

(Photo by Naisha Roy | Medill News Service)

House Bill Pushes Bipartisan Effort to Tackle Federal Benefits Fraud, Refocusing from Immigration

WASHINGTON — Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, introduced a bill Wednesday morning that would create a permanent U.S. Treasury Inspector General position for fraud accountability as part of a broader effort to crack down on the misuse of federal benefits.

The bill would offer an alternative, bipartisan way to prevent federal benefits fraud, after several months of politically charged congressional hearings.

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