Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema has announced that she will leave the Democratic Party and officially register as an independent. “I’ve registered as an Arizona independent. I know some people might be a little bit surprised by this, but actually, I think it makes a lot of sense,” Sinema said in an interview Thursday with CNN’s…

Democrats lost control of the House but expanded their Senate majority, giving them greater power to issue subpoenas that party senators say they plan to use to investigate price gouging and other inequities in corporate America. Democratic committee and subcommittee chairs say they plan to call on corporations to provide more information about how…

The move by House Democratic leaders to fast-track a defense policy bill without tackling voting rights has ruffled some members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who saw the must-pass Pentagon package as their last best chance to address election protections for several years to come. The critics are grumbling that party leaders simply haven’t been…

The “pandemic pet” boom that captured headlines and the public imagination may have been more anecdote than fact, at least for the animal rescue community: Dog and cat adoptions actually declined in 2020. But the post-pandemic shelter crisis of 2022 looks very real. Shelters around the nation are packed to furry capacity. Animal rescues are…

The nation’s animal shelters are overcrowded and understaffed. Thousands of pets face possible euthanasia if no one steps forward to adopt them. Here are six ways to help. Adopt a pet. The national pet adoption network depends on a steady supply of humans to adopt cats and dogs other humans have given up. Surveys suggest…

The elimination of the Pentagon’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate as part of the defense policy bill represents a surprise concession by Democrats, and shows how the politics of the pandemic have changed. Vaccine mandates have been championed by the Biden administration, congressional Democrats and blue state governors as an important tool in the fight against the…

Lawmakers are digging in their heels in a high-stakes, end-of-the-year spending tug-of-war, with only a week now left before a government shutdown deadline. While leading negotiators say they’ve been exchanging topline figures for a potential omnibus funding bill that many are still optimistic could pass this month, members say it’s becoming clearer that negotiations will…

The continued drop in labor costs has economists pointing to private sector profits as a main driver of inflation, undercutting arguments from the Federal Reserve regarding its plan to bring down consumer prices that remain around 40-year highs. Unit labor costs, which are measured by the Labor Department to determine how much businesses are paying…