There are countervailing storylines that complicate the pandemic recovery. Millions of Americans remain unemployed while companies big and small are reporting extreme difficulty in finding workers. That’s prompted a push by Republican governors — 22 so far — to reject the $300-per-week unemployment benefits that were included in the Democrats’ Covid relief bill this past
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Federal authorities investigating alleged sex trafficking by GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz have secured the cooperation of the congressman’s ex-girlfriend, according to people familiar with the matter. The woman, a former Capitol Hill staffer, is seen as a critical witness, as she has been linked to Gaetz as far back as the summer of 2017, a
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President Joe Biden on Friday told CNN he would not let his Department of Justice seize phone records or emails from reporters. Following a joint presser with Korean President Moon Jae-In in the White House East Room, Biden told CNN: “We should absolutely, positively — it’s wrong, it’s simply, simply wrong,” adding, “I will not
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The US will provide Covid-19 vaccinations for 550,000 South Korean service members who work in close contact with American forces, President Joe Biden announced Friday. South Korean President Moon Jae-in thanked Biden at a joint news conference on Friday at the White House and said the move extended the two countries’ alliance “to the field
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President Joe Biden met with his South Korean counterpart President Moon Jae-in on Friday for the second in-person meeting with a world leader of his presidency as he seeks to turn his foreign policy focus back to East Asia. The two leaders spoke about their shared approach to North Korea and the hermit kingdom’s nuclear
Continue Reading A federal judge on Friday allowed the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline to continue operating, concluding he did not have the authority to side with a tribal request to shut it down while the Biden administration works on an environmental review. Judge James Boasberg placed the blame squarely on the Army Corps of Engineers for the
Continue Reading Since the early days of her time as Director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky has made comments and claims over Covid-19 guidance that her own agency, and sometimes the White House, have walked back or toned down. While some of Walensky’s comments might be explained by the gap between
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It was the investigation that never was. After months of talk, the independent commission to investigate the events surrounding January 6 is now on life support, likely to fail in the US Senate as soon as next week when Republicans are expected to filibuster the legislation. Behind the scenes, mistrust, disinterest and raw political considerations
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Nearly two months after President Joe Biden laid out his massive plan to upgrade the nation’s infrastructure, White House officials presented a slimmed-down version as a counteroffer to Republican lawmakers who are seeking a much smaller program. The new plan would reduce the size of Biden’s initial proposal, known as the American Jobs Plan, from
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When the House on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved legislation intended to counter a rise in anti-Asian hate crimes amid the coronavirus pandemic, 62 GOP members voted against the measure, which was also opposed by one Republican senator when it cleared that chamber last month. The bill, which is likely to be signed by President Joe Biden,
Continue Reading Senate Democrats will huddle privately next week to continue their internal deliberations over how to advance a sweeping voting rights, government ethics and campaign finance bill that is one of their party’s top legislative priorities but is currently doomed to fail in the Senate because it is opposed by one of their own members as
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Starting this week, the White House is hoping Americans swipe right for Covid vaccines, partnering with a series of prominent dating apps to offer incentives to customers who’ve been vaccinated against the coronavirus. Vaccinated users on Tinder, Hinge, OKCupid, BLK, Chispa, Plenty of Fish, Match, Bumble, and Badoo will gain access to premium content “like
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White House officials on Friday presented a counteroffer to Republican lawmakers on their infrastructure and jobs package that reduced the size of the proposal from $2.25 trillion to $1.7 trillion, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki. The revised proposal reduced the funding request for broadband to match the offer put forward by Republicans
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The Congressionally mandated commission established to recommend how to rename up to nine active-duty military bases and sites associated with the Confederacy will make its first site visit next week to the US Military Academy at West Point in New York. The visit was announced by retired Navy Adm. Admiral Michelle Howard who chairs the
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Ralph Puckett Jr. — a United States Army Ranger who led the defense against six Chinese assaults on a frozen hill in the Korean War — was presented with America’s highest military award, the Medal of Honor, by President Joe Biden on Friday. Biden said that Puckett’s initial reaction to receiving the Medal of Honor
Continue Reading A local clash over the audit of state legislative vote totals in a New Hampshire town of 14,000 has turned into one of the flashpoints in the attempts of former President Donald Trump and his supporters to cast doubt on the outcome of the 2020 election. The stakes, in terms of election outcomes, are low:
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The intern who helped save former US Rep. Gabrielle “Gabby” Giffords in the minutes after she was critically wounded in a 2011 shooting is running to represent her old Arizona district in Congress. Arizona Democratic state Rep. Daniel Hernandez announced his bid Thursday to represent Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District. Hernandez joins a growing competitive Democratic
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Former President Donald Trump plans to resume his signature campaign-style rallies in a series of battleground states this summer as he inches closer to a decision on whether to mount a comeback presidential bid in 2024. “We’ll be doing one in Florida, we’re going to do one in Ohio, we’re going to do one in
Continue Reading Federal student loan payments are set to resume on October 1, after an unprecedented 19-month suspension that was put in place to provide financial relief to borrowers during the pandemic. Borrower balances have effectively been frozen for more than a year, with no payments required on federal loans since March 2020, when Congress first authorized
Continue Reading More than 70 rank-and-file United States Capitol Police officers have resigned or retired since the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol building, their police union says. “What keeps me awake at night is not the challenge of hiring and training more police officers, but keeping the officers we have right now,” said USCP Labor Committee
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