Kids News - Civics Articles

The longest federal shutdown in US history has finally ended! At around midday on January 25, 2019, President Donald Trump and US Congressional leaders agreed to reopen the government, which has been partially shut since December 21, 2018, for three weeks until February 15, 2019. Lawmakers from both parties believe this will give them enough time to reach a compromise on President Trump’s $5.7 billion request to build a US – Mexico border wall, which has caused the lengthy shutdown....

If you have been paying any attention to the news, you probably know that the US Government has been partially shut since midnight December 21, 2018. More specifically, work at nine departments, as well as some agencies making up roughly 25 percent of the federal government, has either ground to a halt or is being conducted at a slower pace because the budget to fund their day-to-day operations has not been approved by Congress. As a result, a fraction of the 800,000 employees, who are considered “non-essential,” have been furloughed, or forced to take a leave of absence. The remaining “essential” employees are expected to report for duty as usual, but will not get paid until a budget has been approved....

Following a week of national mourning, America’s 41st President George H.W. Bush will be put to rest on December 6, 2018. He will be buried at the George Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M University alongside Barbara Bush, his wife of 73 years who died in April 2018, and Robin Bush, the daughter they lost to leukemia in 1953 at the age of 3. The 94-year-old former leader, who passed away on November 30, was the last veteran of World War II to serve as president and only the second one after John Adams to be the father of a president....

This past Saturday marked the first anniversary of US President Donald Trump’s inauguration. However, before the celebration could begin, came news that lawmakers had failed to garner the 60 votes needed to pass a short-term budget bill to fund government operations until February 16. As a result, at 12:01 am on January 20, the US government officially shut down! How did we get here and what happens next? Read on . . ....

On Tuesday, September 5, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program will be terminated in six months and urged the U.S. Congress to pass replacement legislation before March 2018. The program, the result of a 2012 executive order by former President Barack Obama, shields young undocumented immigrants from deportation....

On May 7, 39-year-old Emmanuel Macron became France’s youngest leader since 35-year-old Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned emperor in 1804. The former economy minister is also the first president in modern French history who does not belong to the country’s two mainstream political parties — the conservative Republicans and the left-wing Socialists. Macron, who quit the government in 2016 to form Centrist party “En Marche!” (“On the Move”), identifies himself as a radical outsider and promises to overhaul the country’s “failing” political system and revive the shrinking economy....

On Saturday, April 29, 2017, President Donald Trump celebrated his 100th day in office. The marker has become a perennial fixture on the American political calendar since Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945), the 32nd President of the United States, helped the country limp back from the Great Depression with a flurry of new legislation within his first 105 days in the White House....

While campaigning to be the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump often referred to global warming as a “hoax” and promised Americans that, if elected, he would lift all “job-killing (climate change) restrictions.” On Tuesday, March 29, the US leader made good on his promise with an executive order that reverses many of the regulations the Obama administration put in place to protect the environment....

On January 20, after eight years in office, President Barack Obama, his wife, Michelle, daughters, Malia and Sasha, and dogs, Bo and Sunny, will leave the White House to President-elect Donald Trump. In his January 10 farewell address, the US leader reflected on his legacy and encouraged Americans to remain optimistic about the country’s future....