New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has asked state Attorney General Letitia James to review legal options after the state came just 89 residents short of maintaining all of its congressional districts in the 2020 US Census Bureau count. A Democratic stronghold in Congress, the state is set to lose one of its seats in the
Continue ReadingPresident Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will meet with former President Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter in their hometown of Plains, Georgia, on Thursday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday. The event will mark the first time the couples will meet in person since Biden became president. The
Continue ReadingThe State Department on Tuesday ordered the departure of government employees from the US Embassy in Kabul “whose functions can be performed elsewhere” as the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan gets underway. US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad told senators in a Tuesday hearing that some diplomats who “are not necessary to
Continue ReadingPresident Joe Biden will nominate Harris County, Texas, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, a critic of former President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, to serve as director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the White House announced Tuesday. Gonzalez, who was elected sheriff of Harris County in 2016, has a decades-long career in law enforcement, according to his biography.
Continue ReadingWhen President Joe Biden delivers his first address to Congress on Wednesday, two of the past year’s ground-shaking events will be hard to ignore. The room where he’ll deliver it is exactly where a riot of would-be insurrectionists tried to prevent him from becoming president. And for the first time in history, a pair of
Continue ReadingPresident Joe Biden will seek $80 billion to fund enhanced Internal Revenue Service enforcement of high-earners to help pay for his American Families Plan, which he is set to unveil later this week, two sources briefed on the proposal told CNN. The administration believes the enhanced measures to crack down on tax evasion will increase
Continue ReadingIran’s Navy once again harassed US ships operating in the Persian Gulf, this time coming within 68 yards of the ships on Monday night, prompting one of the American ships to fire warning shots, according to Cdr. Rebecca Rebarich, a spokeswoman for the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet. Three fast inshore attack craft from the Islamic
Continue ReadingThe Washington Metropolitan Police Department has been the subject of a ransomware attack, according to a source familiar with the incident. The attackers posted a ransom note claiming they had stolen more than 250 GB of data and threatening to publish the material if they were not paid. The ransomware group Babuk claimed credit for
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When cheerleader Brandi Levy posted a Snapchat of herself giving the middle digit salute with a profanity-laced caption, she likely never thought she’d become the center of a Supreme Court fight. On Wednesday, however, the nine justices will review her case and consider the authority of public school officials to discipline students for what they
Continue Reading Dozens of former Supreme Court clerks, Justice Department officials and law professors are throwing their support behind President Joe Biden’s highest-profile judicial nominee to date as the Senate Judiciary Committee gets set to consider his first batch of selections for the federal courts. The endorsements, in a series of letters obtained by CNN, show a
Continue ReadingHouse Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy pointedly declined an opportunity on Tuesday to say whether he believes Rep. Liz Cheney, the No. 3-ranking House Republican who has been a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump, was a “good fit” for the party’s leadership. Asked by Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman whether Cheney, the GOP conference chairwoman
Continue Reading Senate Democrats are using a lottery system to distribute the limited number of tickets available for members of the caucus who are interested in attending President Joe Biden’s address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, multiple senators — including Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz — and aides told CNN. The sources say the system
Continue ReadingWhen President Joe Biden speaks to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, it will look different than presidential addresses in years past with the event taking place amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and heightened security concerns in the wake of the January 6 Capitol attack. The joint session will be designated a National Special
Continue Reading The Biden administration announced Tuesday an operation focused on disrupting transnational criminal organizations, including human smugglers who have facilitated the illegal crossings of migrants at the US-Mexico border. The administration has been up against human smugglers who in some cases have marketed their services on Facebook, a platform critics say has failed to uphold its
Continue Reading “Amtrak Joe” is returning to his roots. President Joe Biden will commemorate the 50th anniversary of Amtrak’s founding when he travels to Philadelphia on Friday to make a push for his massive infrastructure proposal, a White House official confirmed to CNN. He will be visiting the William H. Gray III 30th Street Station in downtown
Continue ReadingFormer North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory acknowledged reality in 2020: former President Donald Trump lost. He then explained why — and objected to Trump’s baseless effort in Congress to overturn the election. Now a candidate for Senate, McCrory is facing the same threat as other Republicans in key races: a primary against challengers who vigorously
Continue ReadingAn Arizona Republican lawmaker on Friday defended a GOP-sponsored bill that would change the mail-in voting process by arguing that state lawmakers need to “correct problems” regardless of whether there was actual fraud in the 2020 election. Arizona GOP lawmakers have put forth a bill, SB 1485, that would revise the state’s permanent early voting
Continue ReadingAttorney General Merrick Garland on Monday announced a Justice Department investigation into the practices of the Louisville Police Department. The impending probe will come a little over a year after officers with the department shot and killed Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old aspiring nurse, in her own home during a botched raid. The department came under
Continue Reading Cheri Beasley, the first Black woman to be North Carolina Supreme Court chief justice, launched her 2022 Senate campaign on Tuesday, seeking to break another barrier as the state’s first Black senator. Beasley, 55, has won two statewide judicial elections: for the court of appeals in 2008 and for the Supreme Court in 2014. In
Continue Reading Four ships from the Navy of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps harassed the US Coast Guard operating in the Persian Gulf earlier this month, with one of the ships repeatedly crossing in front of the US patrol boats at very close range despite multiple warnings, the US Navy said. The Coast Guard cutters Wrangell and
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