WASHINGTON — The Biden administration said on Monday that it would take initial steps toward challenging a ban that Mexico has placed on shipments of genetically modified corn from the United States, restrictions that have rankled farmers and threatened a profitable export. Mexico has planned to phase out the use of genetically modified corn, as…
Tennessee on Thursday became the first state to sharply restrict drag performances as the state’s governor, Bill Lee, signed a bill banning the shows on public property and in places where they could be watched by minors. The law, which limits “adult cabaret” performances that feature “topless dancers, go-go dancers, exotic dancers, strippers, male or…
The action is one of several recent moves by the Biden administration to protect environmentally sensitive lands from commercial interests. Last week, the administration moved to establish a 20-year moratorium on mining near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota, effectively blocking a long-disputed proposal for a copper and nickel mine. And the administration…
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — For Dylan Brandt, a transgender teenager in Arkansas, two years on testosterone has meant that “my outside finally matches the way I feel on the inside.” But that sense of relief was jeopardized last year when Arkansas lawmakers passed the country’s first ban on physicians administering hormone therapy or puberty blockers…
Other Republicans echoed the complaints voiced during public testimony by anti-abortion residents, advocacy groups and religious leaders. They questioned how lawmakers who portrayed themselves to voters as staunch abortion opponents were now forgoing an opportunity to pass a ban without exceptions for rape and incest. Some abortion opponents have argued that rape and incest, while…
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that Maine may not exclude religious schools from a state tuition program. The decision, from a court that has grown exceptionally receptive to claims from religious people and groups in a variety of settings, was the latest in a series of rulings requiring the government to aid…