A U.S. appeals court on Friday ruled several government entities including the White House, the FBI, the Surgeon General and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention likely violated the First Amendment by pressuring social media companies to moderate their content on misinformation surrounding vaccines. In a decision issued Friday evening, the Fifth Circuit Court…
Author: Ian Swanson
White House issues new rule streamlining certain environmental reviews
A proposed rule issued by the White House Council on Environmental Quality would streamline the process of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews as part of the deal reached to raise the debt ceiling earlier this year. The rule streamlines the environmental review process under NEPA by allowing multiple agencies to develop joint categorical exclusions,…
Gaetz says he’ll offer bill to defund Jack Smith investigations of Trump
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) announced on his podcast Tuesday he is introducing legislation to defund investigations into President Trump led by Special Counsel Jack Smith. Gaetz made the announcement hours after Trump said he’d been notified he is a target of the Justice Department’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack and efforts to overturn the 2020…
Trump prosecution could stretch well beyond 2024 election
The Justice Department’s massive and complex legal case against Donald Trump is likely to dog the former president well into the 2024 presidential contest. The thorny issues raised in the classified documents battle combined with Trump’s penchant for aggressively challenging suits suggests a long-term fight that might not even end before Election Day next year….
Biden signs bill to raise debt ceiling
President Biden on Saturday signed legislation to raise the debt ceiling into 2025 and avert a default, marking a significant bipartisan accomplishment amid divided government in Washington, D.C. The president signed the bill just days before Treasury officials warned the department would run out of money to pay the nation’s bills, potentially triggering a recession…
Jordan issues subpoenas over school boards memo, DHS disinformation board
The House Judiciary Committee on Monday issued three subpoenas in an effort to forge ahead on two of its most controversial probes. The panel sent subpoenas to two figures previously connected with the National School Boards Association (NSBA), part of its ongoing investigation into a short-lived Justice Department memo encouraging the FBI to coordinate with school boards…
Five ways January transformed the political landscape
A new year and a new power structure at the Capitol with a House GOP majority eager to exert its influence is quickly transforming the political landscape. The year — barely a month old — has already been marked by at least one political happening not seen in more than a century: an electrifying House election that…
Five takeaways: How McCarthy won the Speakership
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is the new Speaker of the House after an extraordinary week of 15 votes on the House floor that laid the divisions of his conference out for all to see. It ended with the biggest political victory of McCarthy’s career, but the tumult raises questions over how he’ll lead fractious…
Trump Jr. details efforts to sway father on Jan. 6 in panel deposition
Donald Trump Jr. detailed his efforts to convince his father to take a more forceful stand against the Capitol riot in his deposition with the House Jan. 6 panel, a transcript of which was released on Thursday. Trump Jr.’s deposition in May was among nearly 20 near transcripts released from the committee’s sprawling investigation into the…
Biden celebrates Christmas with mass, Italian dinner at White House
President Biden is celebrating a chilly Christmas Eve in Washington, D.C., at the White House, where he will attend an evening mass with first lady Jill Biden and family. The White House said the Bidens would follow the mass with their traditional Christmas Eve Italian dinner. “There is a certain stillness at the center of…