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U.S. attorney general names special counsel for classified docs found in Biden’s garage
By: Jennifer Shutt and Jacob Fischler - January 12, 2023
WASHINGTON — The White House revealed Thursday morning that more classified documents from President Joe Biden’s time as vice president were discovered outside of secure government facilities, this time in the garage at his Wilmington, Delaware, home. The files have since been turned over to the U.S. Justice Department, which opened a special counsel investigation […]
U.S. House passes legislation barring sales of strategic reserve oil to China
By: Jacob Fischler - January 12, 2023
U.S. House Republicans wrapped up their first week in the majority Thursday by passing with bipartisan support a bill to prohibit the Energy Department from selling the nation’s stockpile of crude oil to China or affiliated entities. The bill, written by Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican from Washington, would prevent […]
Biden administration to rapidly expel more migrants at the border, add legal pathways
By: Jacob Fischler and Ariana Figueroa - January 5, 2023
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden on Thursday announced dual immigration strategies that would increase expulsions of migrants who attempt to cross the Southern border, while also expanding opportunities for migrants from several countries to legally enter the United States. But the sweeping new immigration plan brought condemnation from advocates who said he should not broaden […]
Trump fixation on Wisconsin, Ginni Thomas text regrets and more from the Jan. 6 panel
By: Jacob Fischler - January 5, 2023
In the final weeks of 2022, the Democrat-led U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6, attack on the Capitol disclosed thousands of pages of transcripts of interviews the panel’s members and staff conducted with key witnesses. The transcripts were central to a committee report released in December that held Donald Trump responsible for the 2021 […]
U.S. House Jan. 6 panel report finds Trump incited insurrection, demands accountability
By: Jacob Fischler and Ashley Murray - December 23, 2022
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House Jan. 6 committee late Thursday published its findings in a nearly 850-page report that accused former President Donald Trump of inciting an insurrection and recommended Congress consider how to determine whether those found to be insurrectionists should be barred from holding office ever again. The report caps 18 months of […]
TikTok ban for federal workers close to becoming law, following flurry of state bans
By: Jacob Fischler - December 21, 2022
A ban on federal employees using TikTok on their government-issued phones is on track to become law after Congress included the provision in the year-end government funding bill released early Tuesday. U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley’s legislation barring the popular social media platform from federal devices was one of several bills attached to the spending measure, the […]
U.S. House Jan. 6 panel refers Trump for criminal charges, including inciting insurrection
By: Jacob Fischler - December 19, 2022
The U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in a historic vote agreed unanimously Monday to refer former President Donald Trump and others to the Justice Department for potential criminal charges, including inciting or aiding an insurrection. Trump associates, including attorneys John Eastman and Kenneth Chesebro and White House Chief […]
FTX failure divides lawmakers on how tough to get with crypto regulation
By: Jacob Fischler - December 13, 2022
Members of a U.S. House committee disagreed at a Tuesday hearing about whether more aggressive federal regulation would have protected customers from the collapse of cryptocurrency firm FTX and the alleged fraud of its founder, Samuel Bankman-Fried. Lawmakers at the four-hour House Financial Services Committee hearing appeared to view the unfolding scandal around Bankman-Fried, arrested […]
Tribes seek U.S. help to curb Canadian mining threats to Northwestern states
By: Jacob Fischler - December 9, 2022
Indigenous leaders from the Northwest renewed their call this week for the federal government to pressure Canada to stop additional mining activity in British Columbia, which they say contaminates waters and threatens Native American ways of life in Alaska, Montana and Idaho. As British Columbia plans to expand its profitable coal, copper and gold mining […]
Attempt to help states ease banking for marijuana businesses stumbles in Congress
By: Jacob Fischler - December 8, 2022
The annual Defense Department policy bill members of Congress released late Tuesday did not include measures to loosen federal marijuana restrictions, to the disappointment of advocates. That leaves few avenues to pass marijuana measures seen as boons to states where the drug is legal before Congress adjourns for the year. As one of the last […]
Despite FTX fallout, some U.S. House members still skeptical about crypto regulation
By: Jacob Fischler - December 3, 2022
Nearly nine months after a bipartisan group of U.S. House members sent a letter questioning the Securities and Exchange Commission’s investigation into cryptocurrencies, including the failed FTX exchange, the lawmakers are maintaining their position that the agency’s approach to regulating crypto is deeply flawed. In public comments since FTX’s collapse last month, the congressmen, led […]
U.S. House votes to avert calamitous rail strike, but Senate prospects murky
By: Jacob Fischler - November 30, 2022
The U.S. House moved Wednesday to avoid an economically disastrous nationwide rail strike, voting to codify an agreement that members of some unions had already rejected and separately add paid sick leave that workers had demanded. The two-track approach allows Democrats to avert a strike that could cost the U.S. economy up to $2 billion […]