Housekeeping: Today is the first day of the 118th Congress—and the beginning of two years of Republican control of the House of Representatives. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is hoping to be elected speaker of the House but is facing opposition from a vocal minority of his party. With only four votes to spare, this small […]
Housekeeping: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the Biden administration can not end Title 42, a pandemic-era policy that allows border officials to quickly expel migrants and asylum-seekers on public health grounds. Background Title 42 is part of the Public Health Service Act of 1944 and gives the CDC the power to prevent entry […]
Reports of attempted attacks on the electrical grid are surfacing across the country after the shooting of two electrical substations cut power to 45,000 homes in central North Carolina. North Carolina Two electric substations in Moore County, located about 60 miles southwest of Raleigh, were damaged by gunfire on the night of December 3 in […]
The House passed the Respect for Marriage Act yesterday, requiring states to acknowledge same-sex marriages conducted in other states should the Supreme Court overturn Obergefell v. Hodges. 169 Republicans voted against the Respect for Marriage Act. The 39 House Republicans who voted for the bill include: Reps. Armstrong (ND), Bacon (NB), Calvert (CA), Cammack (FL), Carey (OH), Cheney (WY), […]
Grand juries A grand jury declined to indict Tennessee officers who beat and tased a Black man for alleged traffic violations. Video of the incident went viral over the summer. Two Colorado deputies involved in the death of a 22-year-old who called 911 for help after his car got stuck on a boulder were indicted by a grand jury last […]
LGBTQ+ rights The Supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, a case that pits Colorado’s anti-discrimination law against free speech. 303 Creative is a website design business owned by Lorie Smith. According to her brief, Smith wanted to tailor her business to wedding announcement websites, but with the explicit exclusion of […]
The House of Representatives passed two bills yesterday aimed at averting a potential freight rail strike. Background Railroad unions have been attempting to negotiate a new contract with U.S. rail companies since last winter. The main point of contention is the provision of paid leave: railroad workers are not guaranteed any sick paid leave. In […]
Inadequate medical care The death of a 51-year-old man denied medical treatment for diabetes in an Aberdeen, WA, jail has brought renewed attention to the state’s inadequate and negligent care of incarcerated individuals. [Clifford] Farrar, a 51-year-old with type 1 diabetes, had been insulin dependent since age 15. On the day he died, his medical records show, […]
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)—representing four Texas doctors and four anti-abortion groups—sued the FDA on Friday seeking to reverse the agency’s approval of mifepristone, the drug used in medication abortions. Mifepristone Mifepristone was first approved for early nonsurgical abortion by the FDA in 2000. Currently, it is commonly used for abortions up to 10 weeks […]
Rep. Clay Higgins Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) turned a House Homeland Security hearing into a circus on Tuesday by questioning Secretary Mayorkas but refusing to let him answer (video). Higgins: A major threat to the Homeland is clearly an arterial bleed at our Southern border and the disintegration of our sovereignty down there. And the […]
