Month: September 2020

Former Republican National Committee (RNC) finance chairman Steve Wynn’s $7.5 million harassment settlement with a former employee included a paternity claim against him, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. Wynn, a wealthy casino mogul, paid the settlement in 2005 to a manicurist working for his Las Vegas hotel, who claims he forced her into having intercourse with him.  ADVERTISEMENT Wynn, who left the RNC on Saturday after sexual misconduct accusations from multiple women surfaced, did not reveal the settlement because he…

Continue reading

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson plans to shut down the U.S.’s office dedicated to advising his department on issues related to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, according to a new report by Foreign Policy. “This sends a strong signal to perpetrators of mass atrocities that the United States is not watching you anymore.” —David Scheffer, former diplomatA former U.S. official told Foreign Policy that Todd Buchwald, who currently heads the Office of Global…

Continue reading

A federal court issued another blow to the Trump administration’s aggressive deregulatory agenda when it ruled on Monday that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must immediately reinstate an Obama-era pollution rule that sets methane emission standards for the oil and natural gas industry. The Monday ruling, issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, was celebrated by green groups that filed a suit challenging an EPA attempt to delay implementation…

Continue reading

In the wake of a site-crashing interview with the founder and editor of The American Prospect—in which he talked about administration in-fighting, tensions with North Korea, looming economic war with China, and his high hopes for Democrat’s focus on identity politics—top Trump advisor Steve Bannon, according to responses gathered by Axios, is possibly in pretty deep(er) shit just about now with his White House colleagues. One person, described by Axios‘ Jonathan Swan as “not an…

Continue reading

House Democrats and a nonpartisan legal advocacy group are both pushing the federal government to challenge President Donald Trump’s pardon of former Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted last month of flouting a judge’s order to end his practice of racially profiling Latinos. Trump announced last week that he would pardon Arpaio, who was one of the president’s biggest supporters on the campaign trail and who faced a maximum penalty of six months in jail…

Continue reading

In a move that critics are calling “deeply disturbing,” the Trump administration announced on Wednesday a two-year delay to an Obama-era rule limiting wastewater pollution at coal plants. In 2015 the Obama administration developed new limits on metals including lead, mercury, and arsenic in coal-fired plants’ wastewater, set to go into effect in 2018. The pollutants in question “can cause severe health problems, including cancer and lowered I.Q. among children, as well as deformities and…

Continue reading

Civil rights advocates accused Attorney General Jeff Sessions of “turning back the clock” on criminal justice reforms after the Department of Justice rescinded Obama-era guidance that protected low-income defendants from being forced to pay gratuitous fees to local courts. “Profit-minded court policies targeting the most economically vulnerable Americans have resulted in a resurgence of unconstitutional but widespread practices penalizing the poor and people of color,” said Kristen Clarke, president of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil…

Continue reading

The House Republicans’ campaign arm added Rep. Keith RothfusKeith James RothfusLobbying world Conor Lamb gets 2020 challenger touted by Trump The 31 Trump districts that will determine the next House majority MORE (R-Pa.) to its list of endangered Republicans on Friday, moving to protect the congressman now that new congressional district lines threaten to give him a tough race in 2018.  Rep. Steve StiversSteven (Steve) Ernst StiversGOP lawmakers say Steve King’s loss could help them…

Continue reading

Democrats now have a 10-point lead in a new generic ballot poll for the 2018 midterm elections. Forty-eight percent of respondents in a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday said they wanted the Democrats to retake the House, while only 38 percent said they wanted Republicans to stay in the majority. A plurality of voters in the poll also wanted Democrats to win back the Senate, with 49 preferring a Democratic majority compared to 39 percent who wanted Republicans to maintain their…

Continue reading

Rebuking Republicans’ climate denial, survivors of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma occupied the office of Sen. Mitch McConnell on Wednesday morning to denounce the fossil fuel industry’s impacts on their communities and demand a just transition to a clean energy future. Led by leaders of two organizations from recently hard-hit states—the Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (t.e.j.a.s.) and the New Florida Majority—the group held a banner reading “Fossil Fuels → Stronger Hurricanes,” and delivered almost 200,000…

Continue reading