Thank you all for your thoughtful responses. A list of a few news sources that were considered informative and empowering by respondents is the following:
Washington Post
NPR (read and audio versions)
CNN (read and audio versions)
NYT
Daily Beast
American Prospect (new to me)
The Atlantic
WSJ
The New Yorker
Time Magazine
Think Progress (new to me)
Economist Espresso (app/newsletter)
Foreign Policy Morning Brief
Foreign Policy
WTFJHT (naturally!)
I have found The Hill and the Guardian to be generally quite good also.