The Trump-Russia collusion investigation just became more serious for President Donald Trump. In recent weeks, Special Counsel Robert Mueller impaneled a grand jury to examine potential Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, according to the Wall Street Journal. Shortly after this news broke, Reuters reported that the grand jury issued subpoenas related to the […]
At a White House press briefing Wednesday, senior Trump policy adviser Stephen Miller belittled the sonnet inscribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty, delighting white nationalists who have frequently disparaged the poem. But that wasn’t the only insult with a racial subtext Miller used during the briefing. When CNN White House correspondent Jim […]
The Maine Legislature on Wednesday came up a few votes short of overriding Gov. Paul LePage’s (R) veto of a bill that would have temporarily kept financial incentives in place for residents with rooftop solar panels. The veto override easily passed in the Senate in a 28-6 vote. In the House of Representatives, however, the […]
As players within President Donald Trump’s administration have come and gone, one institution has benefited perhaps more than any other — the military. On Tuesday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions named Gen. Mark S. Inch as the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), days after Gen. John Kelly moved from his position as secretary of Homeland […]
At every rally during the long months of the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump called from the podium, “We’re going to build a wall and who’s going to pay for it?” and was answered by a chorus of, “Mexico!” But no one actually thought Mexico was going to pay for the wall, at least not according […]
On Thursday, the Washington Post published transcripts of calls President Donald Trump had with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull shortly after the inauguration. The transcripts revealed a lot, like Trump’s inability to stop talking about his electoral victory even after he was inaugurated and his admission that he doesn’t really […]
White House adviser Sebastian Gorka thinks President Trump’s tweets are the key to solving the North Korea crisis. Gorka made his case in response to an editorial that ran in the China Daily newspaper on Wednesday that said, “Trump is wrong in his assumption that Beijing can single-handedly handle the matter. As Beijing has said, […]
The Washington Post on Thursday published several passages from newly-obtained transcripts of the president’s phone calls with foreign leaders. Specifically, the two transcripts contained conversations between President Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, and a call between Trump and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Both transcripts veer dramatically from Trump’s official statements, and expose the wide […]
Facebook wants to arm its users with facts. The social network announced on Thursday it will begin a broad roll out of a new feature called “Related Articles” which seeks to debunk posts that perpetuate hoaxes and conspiracy theories. In the never-ending battle to fight fake news, Facebook has set out to give users tools to […]
An Alabama federal judge ruled last week that the state does not have to educate former felons about a new law that extends the right to vote to tens of thousands of citizens who had previously been disenfranchised. On Wednesday, Alabama’s Republican secretary of state defended that decision, saying that he doesn’t know whether people […]
Peak oil demand can’t be far away when the CEO of one of the world’s largest oil companies says his next car will be an electric vehicle. Last week, Bloomberg TV asked Ben van Beurden, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell, what the implications of the electric vehicle revolution might be for the oil giant, with countries like the […]
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to approve the appointment of D.C.-based lawyer Jeffrey B. Clark as assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. Clark defended BP from charges brought as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, has cast doubt on established climate science, and has questioned the […]
On Thursday morning, President Trump retweeted a tweet from his favorite morning show about how “Insurers [are] seeking huge premium hikes on ObamaCare plans.” Had Trump read the article, however, he would’ve seen that the story Fox & Friends highlighted on its program actually blamed him for those rate hikes. The tweet Trump retweeted links […]
Chief immigration judge MaryBeth Keller issued a memo Tuesday calling on all immigration judges and court staff to prioritize the quick deportation of immigrants with pending court cases, according to a recent U.S. Department of Justice memo. In the memo, Keller provided guidance for immigration judges to efficiently adjudicate cases as quickly as possible to lessen […]
Federal prosecutors in New York subpoenaed the company of President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner late Wednesday over their use of the EB-5 federal visa program. The program issues green cards to immigrants who invest $500,000 in U.S.-based developments, 85 percent of which are Chinese. The irony of the subpoena is difficult to […]
Scientists have measured a dead zone the size of New Jersey in the Gulf of Mexico, making it the largest-ever dead zone recorded in the area, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. A dead zone occurs when nutrient pollution — largely from agricultural runoff like fertilizer and manure — makes its way into […]
President Donald Trump parroted Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev Thursday morning, blaming Congress for what he called a “very dangerous low” in U.S. Russia relations. Trump signed new sanctions, which passed Congress with a veto-proof majority, into law Wednesday. The White House lobbied against the sanctions after the bill passed the Senate, and when Trump […]
One day after getting sued by 15 states, the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday reversed course on its plans to delay implementation of Obama-era rules intended to reduce emissions of smog-causing air pollutants. The 15 states and the District of Columbia sued the EPA, saying that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s proposed one-year delay in compliance deadlines […]
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON — Last month, in the middle of the most important non-championship week in the 17-year history of the Seattle Storm, the team’s owners–former Olympic rower Ginny Gilder and former Microsoft executives Dawn Trudeau and Lisa Brummel–sat around a conference table in Gilder’s office building on the west shore of Lake Union in downtown Seattle and […]
President Donald Trump’s signature campaign promise — to build a sprawling, impenetrable wall along the U.S.-Mexico border — might be months away from groundbreaking and billions short in funding, but some border communities are already grappling with the environmental destruction that the wall’s eventual construction could portend. “They are using our city as ground-zero for […]
