Sen. James Lankford, Oklahoma’s senior senator, is making religious liberty a pillar of his political agenda and claims the White House is failing to enforce basic protections on the issue. The senator made the remarks in an interview with the Daily Mail published Tuesday. “My passion for religious liberty really draws from my personal faith, that I have the ability to be able to live my faith, practice my faith and speak about my faith,” Lankford told the outlet.

It’s a July 4th tradition every four years in Iowa and New Hampshire – White House hopefuls marching in Independence Day parades in the year before the presidential caucuses and primaries. Iowa and New Hampshire have led off both major parties’ presidential nominating calendars for half a century, and while the Democrats are upending their schedule, the two states will once again kick off the GOP lineup in 2024.

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom took time during a weekend trip to deep-red Idaho to celebrate a bookstore claiming it sells “banned” books. “Book bans are at a record high – there have been over 1,200 challenges in the last year, nearly double the (then-record) total from 2021,” Newsom tweeted on Sunday, including a video of his visit to Rediscovered Books in Boise. “Couldn’t leave Boise without dropping by this incredible bookstore.

A new Gallup poll released one day ahead of Independence Day shows confidence in the U.S. government to be the lowest across all countries in the G7. According to the poll, just 31% of American adults “have confidence” in the U.S. government, down from 56%, the highest in the G7, in 2006. A whopping 69% of Americans said they did not have confidence in the government. The U.S. was followed closely by the U.K., with just 33% of British adults having confidence in its government.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Monday named state Republican Party chairman and former federal prosecutor Cody Hiland to the Arkansas Supreme Court, giving it a conservative majority as justices prepare to take up a challenge to her education overhaul. Hiland was appointed to fill the vacancy created by the death of Justice Robin Wynne last month and will hold the seat until 2025 when a newly elected justice takes office.

The University System of Georgia spent millions on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts prior to cuts from the state budget approved earlier this year, according to a Monday report by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC). The report detailed a nearly 200-page response from system Chancellor Sonny Perdue to Georgia Republican Lt. Gov.

The swanky, celebrity-studded city of West Hollywood officially has the highest minimum wage of any U.S. city after pay zoomed to $19.08 an hour Saturday. Workers in West Hollywood welcomed the increase amid rising rent, gas and food prices, although employers grumbled about growing labor costs that they say could drive them out of business. Lucian Tudor, chief executive of upscale restaurant La Boheme, told the Los Angeles Times he has cut staff from 120 to 80 to trim costs.

Former President Donald Trump packed the house at his South Carolina rally on Saturday, drawing a massive crowd that was significantly larger than the population of the town which hosted it. The leading Republican presidential candidate barnstormed in Pickens, a town of about 3,400 residents, on Saturday, speaking to more than 50,000 people who gathered at the downtown venue and lined the surrounding streets, according to Pickens police chief Randal Beach.