Outside the Beltway

With one week to go before Election Day, Democrats seem well-positioned to gain control of the House while Republicans seem likely to hold on to the Senate.

Just over a week before two states will be voting on referendums to legalize recreational marijuana, a new poll finds that two-thirds of Americans support legalization.

The vise is tightening on the Catholic Church.

With three weeks to go until Election Day, it’s looking like we’ll end up with a Congress divided between Democrats in the House and Republicans in the Senate.

One month before voters in several states head to the polls to vote on legalization referendums, a new poll shows that public support for legalization remains at record high levels.

A new round of Congressional Ballot polls seems to put Democrats in a strong position for the ‘blue wave’ they’ve been hoping for all year.

With the primaries over, we can say that it’s been quite a successful year for women in politics.

The nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh is, effectively, assured. Democrats should be careful about how much further they push their opposition.

The #MeToo movement brings down the head of a Fortune 500 company.

President Trump wants Jeff Sessions and the Justice Department to investigate the anonymous Op-Ed published earlier this week even though there doesn’t appear to have been a crime committed.

An Oregon state agency is suggesting that Walmart’s decision to restrict arms sales to bar people under 21, but over 18, from being able to purchase firearms violates state law.

The Ohio State University Board of Trustees has suspended football coach Urban Meyer for three games over his handling of allegations of domestic violence by an Assistant Coach dating back to 2015.

Another step forward in the seemingly unstoppable movement toward nationwide legalization.

Recent reports have indicated that doubts are growing about the wisdom of keeping California Democrat Nancy Pelosi at the top of House Leadership.

The head football coach at the University of Maryland has been suspended after reports of a “toxic environment” that led to the death of a student athlete in June.

Tuesday’s election results were a defeat for the progressive effort to remake the Democratic Party in their image.

Another milestone set to be crossed.

In a rare red-state victory for labor unions, Missouri voters rejected a right to work initiative by an overwhelming margin.

One of the biggest names in Hollywood stands accused of sexual misconduct by a number of women in yet another ground-breaking report by Ronan Farrow.

The Garden State has put a hold on marijuana prosecutions in anticipation of full legalization by the end of the year.

Notwithstanding his dismissive public rhetoric about the former Vice-President, Donald Trump apparently sees Joe Biden as his biggest potential threat in 2020.

With the President set to announce his Supreme Court pick Monday evening, another name has entered the game.

Jim Jordan, who heads the powerful House Freedom Caucus, is being accused of ignoring reports of sexual abuse by a team doctor while he was a coach at The Ohio State University.

In November, Michigan voters will be able to make their state the tenth state to legalize marijuana. This is just the latest step in what seems to be an irreversible trend.

What was once a rare symbol of national mourning has become so commonplace as to be meaningless.

California’s legislature has moved to block localities from imposing taxes on soda and other sugary drinks.

President Trump’s short list of potential Supreme Court nominees consists mostly of conventionally conservative, well-qualified, jurists.

In a case that pit the new rules of cyberspace against the old rules about when the Fourth Amendment protects privacy, the Supreme Court ruled today in a way that breathes new life into both privacy and the Fourth Amendment.

President Trump has reversed the family separation policy and replaced it with a family detention policy. This is likely to lead to Court challenges.

Trump’s former Campaign Manager mocked a ten-year-old girl with Down’s Syndrome who was taken away from her parents.

The President continues to enjoy enthusiastic support from the over-65 set.

Republicans are at least a bit more confident that they’ll hold on to the Senate this year.

Quietly, Mike Pence is seeking to create his own power base inside the GOP even as the White House pushes back.

Enforcing our immigration and drug laws comes at the cost of fundamental rights.

Republicans are trying to fight back against efforts to limit their ability to gerrymander Congressional and State Legislative Districts. It’s a fight they deserve to lose.

President Trump has told an astonishingly large number of lies since taking office.

Instead of attending the White House Correspondents Association Dinner last night, Donald Trump took his show on the road where he continued his long-standing attacks on the press. Unfortunately, it’s a message that resonates with his supporters.

As has often been the case, the White House Correspondent’s Dinner is arousing some degree of controversy, mostly because of the comedy or lack thereof.

With just over six months to go before the 2018 elections, the storm clouds are starting to gather for the Republican Party.

Barbara Bush, only the second woman in history to be the wife and mother of a U.S. President, has died at the age of 92.

Not surprisingly, a joint Senate Committee failed to really lay a glove on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at yesterday’s hearing.

Another lawsuit has been filed against Dick’s Sporting Goods over its policy barring gun sales based on age.

NRO’s David French offers “A Gun-Control Measure Conservatives Should Consider.”

Combining universal and mandatory (and free) college-board exams with a program for targeting college recruitment of disadvantaged groups could–if coupled with a commensurate financial commitment by the state to such groups–go some distance in bringing more qualified economically disadvantaged groups into higher education. 

Recent polls have caused Republicans to become more optimistic about their chances in this year’s midterms. That optimism is both premature and misplaced.

Two Amtrak crashes in less than a week is newsworthy. It is not, however, a trend.

A newly released poll has encouraging signs for Democrats in 2018, but there are several caveats.

The GOP’s potential troubles in 2018 don’t just exist at the Congressional level.

That “Romney for Senate” campaign seems pretty much inevitable.