Post Reports

As midterm elections loom, Democrats scramble to hold on to their slim majority. Plus, what a redistricting debacle in Ohio tells us about the map-drawing process happening in states across the country.

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For Democrats in swing districts, the midterm elections are looming large. These “front-liners” especially need something to show for their two years in the majority come November. As Marianna Sotomayor reports, some of them are advocating a new strategy on the stalled Build Back Better spending bill — breaking off popular measures, such as extending the child tax credit and curbing prescription drug costs, and abandoning the big, sweeping package.

Based on the results of the 2020 Census, states are drawing up new maps that could dramatically affect how midterm elections go in the fall. One of the states going through this process right now is Ohio, where last week the state Supreme Court rejected a pair of proposed state legislative redistricting maps, saying they were gerrymandered favoring Republicans. 

Chief national politics correspondent Dan Balz tells us about the rules and processes in place to stop gerrymandering in Ohio, and why they’ve failed –– for now.

What we know about the 11-hour hostage crisis at a Texas synagogue. Plus, Australia sends tennis champion Novak Djokovic home because of his refusal to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. 

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On Saturday night, a gunman held four people hostage for more than 10 hours at a synagogue in Colleyville, Tex. The standoff ended with an FBI raid. The suspect has been confirmed dead, though Colleyville police would not say whether he had been killed by law enforcement or himself.

“The tragedy here is that a house of worship should be a place that people go to without a thought, that it is just simply assumed to be a safe and welcoming place,” says senior editor Marc Fisher. “But of course, in much of the world, synagogues are places that are very much targets.”

Meanwhile, tennis star Novak Djokovic left Australia on Sunday after losing his legal challenge to compete in the Australian Open despite not being vaccinated against the coronavirus. Reporter Liz Clarke on how the decision to send Djokovic home over his vaccination status could set precedent for future tournaments.

More than 1,700 congressmen once enslaved Black people. On today’s episode of “Post Reports,” the first database of those slaveholding congressmen. And how those politicians shaped the nation. 

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For the first seven decades of its existence, Congress returned again and again to one acrimonious topic: slavery. Many of the lawmakers arguing in Washington were enslavers themselves. But until recently, the world didn’t know how many. 

Last week, The Post published the first-ever list of every slaveholding member of the U.S. Congress. More than 1,700 of them were elected to Congress over a period of well over a century. 

To create the database, reporter Julie Zauzmer Weil combed through 18th- and 19th-century census records and other documents, including wills, journal articles and plantation records. And while she says that the work is not yet complete, it’s still useful, and powerful.

“You can look at a lot of issues through this prism of where we started as a country, and where the people who held power were so often the same people who held slaves,” Julie said. “And what does that mean for us now?”

President Biden says passing voting rights legislation is a top priority for his administration. But a couple of senators have the power to keep that from happening. And, an unlikely casualty of our supply chain blues.

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In Atlanta this week, President Biden pushed for the passage of two voting rights bills facing the Senate. But any meaningful change on voting reform would mean changing Senate rules on the filibuster. And two Democratic senators are holding out: Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.

On The Post’s politics podcast “Can He Do That?” national political reporter Cleve Wootson talks with host Allison Michaels about the state of voting legislation and the filibuster.

And, the pandemic claims an unlikely victim: the color blue. Reporter Kelsey Ables explains how breakdowns in the supply chain have led to a shortage of pigments like ultramarine blue and what it could mean for how we see and record the world now.

Inflation has hit a 40-year high in the U.S., driving up the cost of everything from groceries to housing. As the Fed prepares to raise interest rates, here’s what to watch out for.

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In December, inflation hit a staggering 7 percent. That’s far above the Federal Reserve’s target, and Chair Jerome H. Powell says action is needed to keep the economy from sliding into a recession. Economics reporter Rachel Siegel breaks down the impact of record inflation and what the Fed plans to do about it.

Interest rates have hovered near zero since the start of the pandemic, but now the Fed is looking at a series of raises over the next few months. Personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary explains what that means for borrowers.

Today on Post Reports: Why you’re seeing empty shelves at the grocery store — again. Plus, the sharp decline in the U.S. birthrate nine months after the pandemic began.

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A lot of people have been getting “March 2020 vibes” at the grocery store lately: Empty shelves, basic necessities missing and big price increases on certain foods. Reporter Laura Reiley explains there are several factors at play, including the omicron surge, supply chain woes and winter weather.

“Uncertainty is not good for fertility.” That’s what demographics reporter Tara Bahrampour heard from Phillip Levine, a professor of economics at Wellesley College and co-author of a recent report on the “baby bust” nine months after the pandemic began. That’s also what she heard from people about their decisions to delay or reconsider having a child. We talk about the many reasons for this trend, from the logistical to the philosophical.

Today the United States broke the record for covid hospitalizations. We talk about what overwhelmed hospitals mean for health-care workers and patients. Plus, a story about the power of reclaiming a name. 

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The United States today broke a record with more than 145,000 people sick with covid-19 in hospitals. Health reporter Dan Diamond explains what that means for health-care workers on the front lines, and for those of us who depend upon them.

Plus, editor Marian Chia-Ming Liu on why she started using her full name after a wave of anti-Asian violence. If you’ve ever struggled with your own name or felt pressure to Anglicize it, we want to hear from you. Go to wapo.st/telllusaboutyourname.

Today, we look at the toll of remote learning on kids. We’ll dive into what’s happening in school systems across the country during the omicron variant surge — and how the scars of remote school linger, even for kids who are learning in person again. 

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Reporter Laura Meckler talks with producer Bishop Sand about how a San Francisco school’s return to in-person learning revealed the toll virtual school took on students during the pandemic. Plus, an update on how schools across the country are operating — or trying to — amid the omicron surge.

As we reflect on the anniversary of Jan. 6, we wanted to share an episode from last year. We reconstructed the riot inside the U.S. Capitol — hearing from the lawmakers, journalists and law enforcement officials who were there, and answering lingering questions about how things went so wrong.

On Jan. 5, 2021, Rep. Jamie Raskin buried his only son. The next day he witnessed firsthand the attack on the Capitol. As we mark a year since the insurrection, we look at how Raskin dealt with his son’s death while serving on democracy’s front lines.

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A warning to listeners: This episode deals with suicide. If you or someone you know needs help now, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255. You can also reach a crisis counselor by texting HOME to 741-741.

A year ago this week, as Congress convened to certify the results of the presidential election, a mob breached the U.S. Capitol, attacked police and threatened lawmakers.

Later that night, Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) emerged as one of the day’s most forceful voices, condemning President Donald Trump and his supporters and speaking of his own unthinkable loss. He had recently lost his only son to suicide and had buried him just the day before.

As we mark a year since the Jan. 6 Insurrection, we talk to Washington Post features writer Caitlin Gibson about how Raskin dealt with his son’s death while serving on democracy’s front lines — and, in a year filled with trauma and grief, about why his story has resonated so deeply with so many.

Raskin’s memoir was published this week. It’s called “Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy.”

Caitlin Gibson’s profile of Raskin first appeared in The Washington Post Magazine.