James Fite

Stable and sound – while those words may have once described most churches across Christendom, they're nowhere to be found in progressive religion today.

the 118th Congress was plagued by strife as Republican lawmakers fought over who would lead the new GOP majority in the House.

As the 119th Congress gets started today, January 3, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) prepares to run the gavel gauntlet again. In the days leading up to the vote, threats to his speakership seemed to multiply – and a new proposed rule drives the wedge deeper between Johnson and congressional Democrats, all but guaranteeing they won't come to his rescue. Can the Louisiana lawmaker grasp the gavel once again, or will his seat atop the conference be usurped?

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) to win re-election as speaker of the House after a single roll call vote – but he didn’t do it alone.

It won’t be America 2017 all over again on day one, but Trump certainly isn’t wasting any time getting the process started.

Prior to the drama of January 6, 2021, many Americans likely didn't give presidential elections much thought beyond Election Day. Now, however, the certification of electors leads the news cycle – and it has everyone's attention. Today, the joint session of the new 119th Congress will meet to count and certify the electors and confirm Donald Trump as the 47th president. But what, exactly, does that mean – and how does it work?

Border security, lower taxes, and a debt limit increase – can Trump have it all in one big, beautiful reconciliation bill? That has been the question of late, and congressional Republicans seemed uncertain in recent days whether it could – or should – be done all at once. With little in the way of direction from the president-elect himself, the GOP seems to have come up with a plan: try for one, settle for two if it doesn't work out.

House Republicans have once again introduced legislation to abolish the ATF. Are the days numbered for the alphabet agencies? Former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida introduced a similar bill in 2023 that went nowhere, but under the Biden administration and a Democrat majority in the Senate, what chance did the bill stand? Now, the political […]

The ERA would have become the 28th Amendment to the US Constitution had it been ratified by enough states. It was not.

At noon today, January 20, 2025, Donald J. Trump will once again take the oath of office, beginning his second term as president of the United States. After this 60th inauguration, Trump will officially become the 47th president. But what do those numbers mean, and why don't they match up? Come to think of it, shouldn't there have been more than 60 already, based on the number of times a president has taken the oath? What, precisely, is inauguration anyway? How does it work, and why? And finally, what should you expect today? If you find yourself wondering about this every four years, then you've come to the right place.