Tennessee’s Republican-dominant House on Wednesday spiked legislation that would have banned local governments from paying to either study or dispense money for reparations for slavery. The move marked a rare defeat on a GOP-backed proposal initially introduced nearly one year ago. It easily cleared the Republican-controlled Senate last April, but lawmakers eventually hit pause as the House became consumed with controversy over expelling two Black Democratic lawmakers for...

Top Democrats are pouncing on House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., after he gave an impassioned speech condemning the anti-Israel protests on Columbia University’s campus. “Why would I ever listen to a man that thinks he should have more say over my body than I do? NEXT,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., wrote on X under a photo of Johnson at Columbia. She responded to a report about students heckling...