Politics

President Joe Biden will sign an executive order on Friday renewing a White House initiative charged with advancing “equity, justice, and opportunity” for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, including coordinating a “comprehensive” federal response to the rise in anti-Asian violence and discrimination. “… For far too long, systemic barriers to equity, justice, and

The Pentagon’s watchdog found that the DC National Guard’s use of low-flying helicopters in response to protests in DC on June 1, 2020, over the death of George Floyd was “reasonable,” but the mission was mired in confusion. The report from the Department of Defense’s Inspector General, released Thursday, concluded the deployment of helicopters was

President Joe Biden’s instructions to the US intelligence community to redouble its efforts in investigating the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic came on the heels of intelligence officials informing the White House that they possessed unreviewed evidence necessitating greater computer analysis that could potentially provide answers, The New York Times reported Thursday. The paper cited

Documents due in DC Superior Court on Friday could clear the way for the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer to be deposed as part of a DC attorney general lawsuit that alleges former President Donald Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee abused non-profit funds. The CFO, Allen Weisselberg, is already at the center of two investigations in

Lawmakers in Louisiana sent a bill that would prohibit transgender girls and women in the state from competing on girls’ and womens’ public elementary, secondary and college sports teams to the state’s Democratic governor on Thursday, who will likely issue a veto of the measure, which he previously called “unnecessary and discriminatory.” The state’s Republican-led

The Biden administration will not seek to reenter the Open Skies Treaty with Russia in response to that country’s “failure to take any actions to return to compliance,” a State Department spokesperson said Thursday. The 1992 treaty allows member countries to conduct short notice, unarmed, reconnaissance flights over the other countries to collect data on

Federal prosecutors are investigating whether some Ukrainian officials helped execute a sweeping plan to meddle in the 2020 US election, people with knowledge of the matter told The New York Times. The investigation out of Brooklyn includes scrutiny of whether Ukrainian officials used Rudy Giuliani to spread misleading claims about then-candidate Joe Biden in an

Babak Namazi, whose brother and father are detained in Iran, is living in fear that his family members could be left behind again as the Biden administration is engaged in a diplomatic effort to salvage the Iran nuclear deal. Namazi’s deep concerns are not unfounded: While American prisoners have been released from Iran three times

The Justice Department is taking six immediate steps to improve its efforts to combat the spike in hate crimes, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced in a memo to department employees Thursday, including expanding access to different languages. Thursday’s memo follows a 30-day “expedited review” Garland ordered in March, shortly after he was confirmed, to figure

Idaho Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin issued an executive order on Thursday banning mask mandates while Gov. Brad Little was unaware and out of town. “The lieutenant governor did not make Gov. Little aware of her executive order ahead of time,” Marissa Morrison Hyer, Little’s press secretary, told CNN. Morrison Hyer said Little is out of

The top Republican in Wisconsin’s state Assembly is hiring retired police officers to investigate November’s election, joining a growing list of presidential battlegrounds where GOP state officials are looking for evidence to support former President Donald Trump’s lies about widespread voter fraud. State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel he is hiring