National & World Headlines
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The Biden administration will send 1,500 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border amid an expected migrant surge following the end of coronavirus pandemic-era restrictions. The White House says the troops will be sent to focus on administrative tasks so that U.S. Customs and Border Protection can work in the field. The troops will not do law enforcement work. President Joe Biden’s actions follow similar moves by then-President Donald Trump, who deployed active-duty troops to the border to assist border patrol, on top of National Guard forces that were already there, in processing large migrant caravans.
May 02, 2023 The Biden administration will end the last remaining federal COVID-19 vaccine requirements next week when the national public health emergency for the coronavirus ends. Vaccine requirements for federal workers and federal contractors, as well as foreign air travelers to the U.S., will end May 11. The government is also beginning the process of lifting shot requirements for Head Start educators, healthcare workers, and noncitizens at U.S. land borders. The requirements are the last vestiges of some of the more coercive measures taken by the federal government to promote vaccination as the deadly virus raged. Their end marks the latest display of how President Joe Biden’s administration is moving to treat COVID-19 as a routine, endemic illness.
May 01, 2023Lawmakers grilled U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration chief Anne Milgram over millions of dollars in no-bid contracts that are the subject of a watchdog probe into whether the agency improperly hired some of her past associates. Mostly Republicans pressed her about an Associated Press report that the DEA spent $4.7 million on “strategic planning and communication” and other contracts to hire people Milgram knew from her days as New Jersey’s attorney general and as a law professor — at costs far exceeding pay for government officials. Milgram declined to comment, saying she didn't want to interfere with the inspector general's probe.
April 27, 2023-
Iranian hackers broke into to a system used by a U.S. municipal government to publish election results in 2020 but were discovered by cyber soldiers operating abroad and kicked out before an attack could be launched, according to U.S. military and cybersecurity officials. The system involved in the previously undisclosed breach was not for casting or counting ballots, but rather one that was used to report unofficial election results on a public website. The breach was revealed during a presentation Monday at the RSA Conference in San Francisco, which is focused on cybersecurity. Officials did not identify the municipality targeted.
April 25, 2023 -
The federal government will “not hesitate to crack down” on harmful business practices involving artificial intelligence, the head of the Federal Trade Commission warned Tuesday in a message partly directed at the developers of widely-used AI tools such as ChatGPT. FTC Chair Lina Khan joined top officials from U.S. civil rights and consumer protection agencies to put businesses on notice that regulators are working to track and stop illegal behavior in the use and development of biased or deceptive AI tools. Amid a fast-moving race between tech giants such as Google and Microsoft in selling advanced AI tools, Khan also raised the possibility of the FTC wielding its antitrust authority to protect competition.
April 25, 2023 -
One of the most important munitions of the Ukraine war comes from a historic factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Steel rods are brought in by train to the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant to be forged into the artillery shells Kyiv can’t get enough of. The plant is at the vanguard of a multibillion-dollar Pentagon plan to modernize and accelerate its production of ammunition and equipment. It is one of just two sites in the U.S. that make the steel bodies for the 155 mm howitzer rounds that the U.S. is rushing to Ukraine. The lack of 155 mm shells has alarmed U.S. military planners, who see it as a critical shortage.
April 23, 2023 -
President Joe Biden has signed an executive order that would create the White House Office of Environmental Justice. The president says ” The White House says the Democratic administration wants to ensure poverty, race and ethnic status don't lead to worse exposure to pollution and environmental harm. Biden wants to draw a contrast between his agenda and that of Republicans. GOP lawmakers have called for less regulation of oil production to lower energy prices. The Biden administration says the GOP's policies would surrender the renewable energy sector to the Chinese.
April 21, 2023 -
A senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary committee has demanded that U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration chief Anne Milgram address allegations of improper hiring and contracting of her past associates. The request Thursday by Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa follows an investigation by The Associated Press finding that a federal watchdog is investigating whether strict federal rules on no-bid contracting and hiring may have been violated to channel DEA work to Milgram’s associates. The scrutiny by the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General comes as the DEA is struggling with repeated revelations of agent misconduct and a fentanyl crisis claiming more than 100,000 overdose deaths a year.
April 20, 2023 -
A federal watchdog is investigating whether the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration under chief Anne Milgram improperly awarded millions of dollars in no-bid contracts to hire her past associates. Among the spending under scrutiny by the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General is $4.7 million for “strategic planning and communication” and other contracts that were used to hire people Milgram knew from her days as New Jersey’s attorney general and as a New York University law professor – at costs far exceeding pay for government officials. DEA declined to comment specifically but said in a statement it has acted to “set a new vision.”
April 19, 2023 -
President Joe Biden has signed an executive order containing more than 50 directives to increase access to child care and improve the work life of caregivers. But the White House said Tuesday the directives in the order would be funded out of existing commitments. That likely means the directives' impact would be limited and they'd carry more of a symbolic weight. The Democratic president was more ambitious in 2021 by calling to provide $425 billion to expand child care, improve its affordability and boost wages for caregivers. White House Domestic Policy Council director Susan Rice says the order shows Biden isn’t waiting on Congress to act.
April 18, 2023 -
Democrats’ efforts to temporarily replace California Sen. Dianne Feinstein on the Senate Judiciary Committee are meeting quick opposition from some Republicans. Feinstein last week asked to be temporarily replaced on the Senate Judiciary Committee while she recuperates in her home state from a case of the shingles. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday that he is moving forward, but it’s unclear if Democrats will have the votes. Republican Sens. Tom Cotton and Marsha Blackburn both indicated they would object. The Judiciary Committee handles nomination to the federal courts. Several of President Joe Biden's judicial nominees are on hold due to Feinstein's medical absence.
April 17, 2023 -
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is back at work in the U.S. Capitol, almost six weeks after a fall at a Washington-area hotel and undergoing extended treatment for a concussion. The 81-year-old Kentucky Republican has been recovering at home since he was released from a rehabilitation facility March 25. He fell after attending an event earlier that month, injuring his head and fracturing a rib. On Monday he criticized President Joe Biden for not doing enough to negotiate on the nation’s debt ceiling and thanked his colleagues for their well-wishes. He joked that "this wasn’t the first time that being hard-headed has served me very well.”
April 17, 2023 -
Step into a U.S. military recreation hall at a base almost anywhere in the world and you’re bound to see young troops immersed in the world of online games. The enthusiasm military personnel have for gaming — and the risk that carries — is in the spotlight after a 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman was charged with illegally taking and posting highly classified material on a social media platform that started as a hangout for gamers. Online gaming forums have long been a particular worry of the military because of their lure for young service members. And U.S. officials are limited in how closely they can monitor those forums to make sure nothing on them threatens national security.
April 14, 2023 -
The Supreme Court is allowing challenges to the structure of two federal agencies to go forward in federal court. The high court ruled unanimously Friday to allow challenges to the structures of the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission to go forward in federal court. In one case, the FTC had brought an enforcement action against Axon Enterprise, the Arizona-based company best known for developing the Taser, arguing that its purchase of its competitor Vievu for approximately $13 million was improper. The other case involved an SEC enforcement action against Michelle Cochran, a certified public accountant. Axon and Cochran responded by suing in federal court and arguing that the structure of the FTC and SEC respectively are unconstitutional.
April 14, 2023 The Supreme Court is allowing a roughly $6 billion legal settlement to go forward that will cancel student loans for hundreds of thousands of borrowers who say they were misled by their schools. The justices didn't comment in rejecting an emergency plea from Everglades College, Lincoln Educational Services Corp. and American National University. The schools had argued they were unfairly included on a list of more than 150 institutions, most of them for-profit, that were linked with alleged misconduct. The justices’ action comes as the high court is weighing what to do with the Biden administration’s plan to wipe away $400 billion in student debt held by more than 40 million people.
April 13, 2023