The Department of Defense Inspector General will investigate the decision to house US Space Command headquarters at Redstone Arsenal in Hunstville, Alabama, announced Assistant Inspector General Randolph Stone Friday. The investigation will look at the extent to which the Air Force complied with Defense Department and Air Force policies in the selection process, used objective
Continue ReadingAn Arkansas state lawmaker, who is the nephew of Gov. Asa Hutchinson and was expected to run for governor next year, said he is leaving the Republican Party. State Sen. Jim Hendren, in a nine-minute video, cited former President Donald Trump’s incitement of the riot at the Capitol on January 6 as the “last straw.”
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States will receive more doses of Covid-19 vaccines than they “have ever received before” in the coming days, Andy Slavitt, a senior adviser to the White House Covid-19 response team, said Friday. Slavitt told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that after severe winter weather delayed shipments of vaccines, “things are moving back to normal,” and that 1.85
Continue ReadingDemocratic Sen. Joe Manchin announced Friday he will vote against Neera Tanden, President Joe Biden’s nominee for the director of the Office of Management and Budget, making her confirmation unlikely given Republican resistance to her nomination. Biden said, “No,” when asked if he planned to pull Tanden’s nomination because of Manchin’s announcement, adding, “I think
Continue ReadingSpeaking on television last week, Dr. Anthony Fauci predicted April would be “open season” for receiving the coronavirus vaccine, welcome news for a nation entering its second year under pandemic-forced lockdowns and ever-lingering fear of disease. “Virtually everybody and anybody in any category could start to get vaccinated,” Fauci said optimistically. A week later, the
Continue ReadingThe Justice Department unsealed an indictment Friday tying together nine alleged associates of the right-wing Oath Keepers in the largest insurrection conspiracy charged to date related to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. Prosecutors say the nine defendants from four states allegedly coordinated plans to travel to Washington to breach the Capitol and
Continue Reading A federal judge blocked South Carolina’s so-called “heartbeat” abortion ban on Friday, a day after it was signed into law. The South Carolina law — the first such restriction passed in 2021 as anti-abortion advocates seek to limit access to the procedure — would block the procedure at the detection of a fetal heartbeat, which
Continue ReadingWhile Sen. Ted Cruz was dealing with the fallout from his trip to Cancun, two of his Democratic political nemeses — Beto O’Rourke and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — raised money and offered resources to Texans hit hard by this week’s winter storm. Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic congresswoman from New York who has frequently sparred with Cruz,
Continue Reading Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis unveiled a slate of voting proposals Friday that he wants lawmakers to pass in their upcoming legislative session, including restricting the mass mailing of mail-in ballots and access to ballot drop boxes. At a news conference Friday in West Palm Beach, DeSantis, a Republican, argued that the legislation proposals will increase
Continue ReadingThis week, all eyes have been on Texas. An unprecedented winter storm left 4 million people without power across the state, and put nearly half of all Texans under a boil-water advisory. Initial reports from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which manages the state’s power grid, suggested frozen wind turbines were partially to
Continue ReadingHouse Democrats took another step Friday in their effort to advance a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill, releasing the full bill text, which includes an increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour, $1,400 direct checks for Americans making $75,000 or less a year, an extension of $400 federal unemployment benefits and more money
Continue Reading A married couple from Ohio with ties to the right-wing Oath Keepers are facing conspiracy charges in connection with the Capitol insurrection, according to court documents unsealed Friday. Federal prosecutors said Bennie Parker, 70, and Sandra Parker, 60, “planned their attack in advance and communicated with one another before, during, and after their attack on
Continue Reading House Democrats on Friday released the full text of their $1.9 Covid-19 relief bill, which includes an increase in the federal minimum wage, direct checks for Americans making $75,000 or less a year, an extension of $400 federal unemployment benefits and more money for small businesses struggling amid the pandemic. Read the bill:
Continue ReadingPresident Joe Biden said on Friday that he plans to travel to Texas but does not want a presidential trip to put any additional strain on a state grappling with an extreme weather crisis. “The answer is yes,” Biden said when asked if he would travel to Texas after he addressed the Munich Security Conference.
Continue Reading Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis unveiled a slate of voting proposals Friday that he wants lawmakers to pass in their upcoming legislative session, including restricting the mass mailing of mail-in ballots and access to ballot drop boxes. At a news conference Friday in West Palm Beach, DeSantis, a Republican, argued that the legislation proposals will increase
Continue ReadingGeorgia voting rights groups are denouncing a sweeping voting bill introduced this week by Republican state legislators as a “direct attack on democracy” and on Black voters. The bill comes as Georgia has become ground zero for election law changes in the wake of the 2020 election. Republicans in the state, citing baseless allegations of
Continue ReadingHouse investigators have received the first batch of documents they requested from the FBI and intelligence agencies as part of their ongoing probe into security failures around the January 6 US Capitol attack, according to an official from one of the committees investigating the matter. The FBI and the National Counterterrorism Center provided materials in
Continue ReadingSen. Lindsey Graham is heading to Mar-a-Lago this weekend to meet with Donald Trump in hopes of bridging a growing rift in the top echelon of the Republican Party, CNN has learned. According to a person familiar with his plans, Graham plans to spend his time on the golf course with Trump — ideally convincing
Continue ReadingSenior Republicans are split over how to treat former President Donald Trump, with the No. 2 House Republican making a personal pilgrimage to visit him the day before the top Senate Republican vowed never to “bend the knee” in that way. Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana met privately with Trump on Tuesday at the former
Continue ReadingThe United States on Friday officially rejoined the Paris Agreement, a landmark global climate accord, fulfilling a campaign promise President Joe Biden initiated on his first day in office. What is the Paris Agreement? An international agreement among nearly 200 nations to combat climate change. Participants are committed to keep global warming below two degrees
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