Here are today's featured stories, posted by DU members and curated by the Administrators. More news items can be found in our Latest Breaking News forum, and for all the most up-to-the-minute stories that are being talked about by DU members, visit the Latest Discussions page.
May 16, 2026
Tennessee school district bans Alex Haley's Roots under 2022 state law
Fri 15 May 2026 17.01 EDT Last modified on Fri 15 May 2026 17.51 EDT A Tennessee school district has banned Roots, the author Alex Haleys groundbreaking novel and one of the most renowned and influential works about the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade. Knox county schools (KCS) took that step under a state law that has disappeared hundreds of titles from school libraries and alarmed advocates of free expression. First published in 1976, Roots: The Saga of an American Family tells t ...
Go to discussionMake-A-Wish Kash took girlfriend to $50,000 suite for concert
6h Kash Patel has reportedly turned another FBI work trip into a luxury date-night excursion. The embattled FBI director, 46, allegedly flew with girlfriend Alexis Wilkins, 27, aboard the bureaus Gulfstream V jet to a country music concert in May last year before returning later that same night. The lavish outing was revealed in a sweeping New York Times investigation into Patels increasingly controversial use of FBI resources for apparently personal travel and leisure activities, often i ...
Go to discussionGerman Chancellor Won't Advise His Own Children To Come To America For School Or Work
May 15, 2026, 05:00 PM EDT | Updated 11 hours ago German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had some harsh commentary for the United States amid President Donald Trumps second term on Friday, stating that he wouldnt recommend his own children to travel to the U.S. I would not advise my children today to go to the U.S., get educated there or work there, simply because a certain social climate has suddenly developed there, Merz said during a discussion at a Catholic gathering in Würzburg, The Guar ...
Go to discussionComer says he's planning on running for governor
05/15/26 5:03 PM ET Kentucky Rep. James Comer (R) signaled this week that he intends to run for governor in the Bluegrass State next year. I plan on running for governor in 2027, he told local outlet The Daily Independent on Thursday. Its not official yet; it will probably be official somewhere around December, he continued. The GOP lawmaker was first elected to Congress in 2016, and he has chaired the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee since 2023. As Oversight chair, ...
Go to discussionWhite House Reveals Secret New Hospital for Trump, 79
Updated May 16 2026 2:57AM EDT / Published May 16 2026 12:50AM EDT The White House has unleashed a frantic new push to move ahead with construction on President Donald Trumps ballroom, which they now say is also needed to give the aging president a state-of-the-art hospital and medical facilities. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche delivered the latest startling revelation in a court filing late Thursday that sounded as if much of it had been pulled straight from one of the 79-year-old ...
Go to discussion