Bill Moyers

They brought their sleeping bags –> Democrats began a sit-in yesterday on the House floor to protest Congress’s lack of action on gun control. As we go to press this morning they’re still at it — California Rep. Mark Takano is streaming it on Facebook from his smartphone. In the middle of the night, Republicans officially adjourned until July 5, but Democrats have pledged to continue.

The US Supreme Court on Monday made a "deeply flawed" decision on using evidence obtained in illegal searches to convict Americans, leading to a "remarkable dissent" by Justice Sotomayor.

"On Wednesday, Republican House leadership, as cruel and cold-of-heart as those Alabama state troopers [in 1965 Selma], gaveled the House out of session so the cameras of C-SPAN could not show the American people the courage of those House members sitting on the floor and telling the National Rifle Association and its bought-and-paid-for politicians to go to hell." -- Bill Moyers and Michael Winship ‪#‎NoBillNoBreak‬

Governments have increasingly criminalized activists, and many of the 185 who were killed faced assassination, torture or public execution.

Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), an icon of civil disobedience from the civil rights movement, is leading a sit-in with a number of his colleagues on the floor of the House to push for action on gun control. ‪#‎NoBillNoBreak‬

There has been remarkably little media interest in Trump’s finances and mob ties.

This year’s leading third party? –> The Libertarian Party is looking at the Democratic and Republican candidates, taking note of Clinton and Trump’s high unfavorables and calculating that this could be the year for their third party to shine. At 9 p.m., ET, tonight, CNN sponsors a town hall with the Libertarian presidential candidate, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, and his running mate, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld.

The NSA is receiving accessible information on our personal lives through technology we use daily.

In documents filed Monday, the NRA reported a $14 million campaign warchest.

Here's a blueprint for reining in the Wall Street banks that are too big to fail, too big to jail and too big to manage.

The Senate yesterday rejected four measures restricting gun sales, representing a serious setback to advocates who have failed to get even modest gun curbs through Congress despite repeated mass shootings.

Rethinking self-financing –> As of the beginning of June, Donald Trump’s campaign had only $1.3 million cash in hand. Compare that with Hillary Clinton’s $41 million. Nicholas Confessore and Rachel Shorey for The New York Times: “Mr. Trump’s fund-raising for May reflects his lag in assembling the core of a national finance team. In the same month that he clinched the Republican nomination, Mr. Trump raised just $3.1 million and was forced to lend himself $2 million to meet costs.”

But: Oddly enough, companies bearing the Trump name are being well paid by the campaign. ProPublica’s Derek Willis points out that the candidate has paid more than a million dollars to such vendors, including Trump hotels, restaurants and golf resorts.

We could save Americans millions with postal banking, writes The Nation's Bryce Covert.

At this year’s Democratic convention, we’re not likely to hear a version of FDR’s 1936 acceptance speech, but even 80 years later we still can act on his revolutionary words.

Charter schools are the latest source of dark money to political candidates, under the guise that it's "for the kids."

"On June 12, I joined C-SPAN’s Washington Journal for a discussion on the House GOP poverty plan released earlier in the week.

My conservative counterpart on the show — Robert Rector of the right-wing Heritage Foundation — made his views on poverty clear early on in the conversation when he lamented that our aid programs are “too generous.” Believe it or not, he went on, poor people in America have basic household appliances..." - Rebecca Vallas, Center for American Progress

Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) has had enough of the growing movement to drug test poor people who need government assistance. So on Tuesday, she’s introducing a bill that she says will make things fairer.

Her “Top 1% Accountability Act” would require anyone claiming itemized tax deductions of over $150,000 in a given year to submit a clean drug test.

Congress will vote on gun control measures –> Of the four measures, Gregory Korte reports for USA Today, two Democratic bills expand background checks and “allow the attorney general to deny a gun sale to anyone if she has a ‘reasonable belief’ — a lesser standard than ‘probable cause’ — that the buyer was likely to engage in terrorism. The proposal is popularly known as the ‘no-fly, no-buy’ amendment, but wouldn’t just apply to people on the ‘no fly’ terrorist watch list.”

A Republican alternative “would require that law enforcement be alerted when anyone on the terror watch list attempts to buy a weapon from a licensed dealer. If the buyer has been investigated for terrorism within the past five years, the attorney general could block a sale for up to three days while a court reviews the sale.”

Rick Shenkman, editor and founder of the popular History News Network, argues that in the voting booth, “contrary to what we tell ourselves, it’s our instincts rather than arguments appealing to reason that usually prevail.” In this excerpt from his latest book, he wonders what it would be like if voters made up their minds on the issues based on actual facts instead of what they assume to be true.

This week, Pew Research Center released their latest annual State of the News Media report. 2015 was perhaps the worst year for newspapers since the Great Recession and its immediate aftermath.