In the US, voters can register to vote in elections as an "independent," as opposed to a Republican or Democrat. Of course, there's little practical reason to go independent, because the two parties have had a stranglehold on US politics since the era of Civil War reconstruction. Yet as Independent Center senior advisor Adam Brandon , AI could be just the tool to shake things up.
The big picture: Homeland Security officials started broadcasting a plan to target sanctuary jurisdictions from the start of President Trump's second term. This has put local leaders - because of the law, past litigation and public sentiment - directly at odds with Trump's mass deportation campaign. Driving the news: Homeland Security officials are getting a cold shoulder from local leaders as they decamp to New Orleans for "Operation Catahoula Crunch."
If you haven't heard by now, the U.S. government has another economic stimulus package up its sleeve. President Trump in all his strategizing has unveiled a plan to return the revenue generated by his controversial tariff program to every American, with the exception of high-income earners. This has middle-class America already budgeting those checks into their holiday spending plans perhaps a bit prematurely as though it's already money in the bank. It's been four years since the last round of stimulus payments, and the new
Mr. Dickinson criticizes the East Bay Times for never publishing anything positive about the current president. I have no doubt the East Bay Times will publish such a story if and when such a situation occurs. The Times did report on the president's efforts in getting to a ceasefire and hostage release regarding the war in Israel and Gaza. Other than that, I honestly can't point to anything positive the president has done, especially given all his campaign promises of lowering prices and only deporting the "worst of the worst."
Kalshi and Polymarket maintain their platforms offer "event contracts" between private parties that should be regulated like commodities rather than traditional gambling subject to state oversight; an argument that has received pushback from government officials, NBC Chicago said. Companies like Kalshi and Polymarket should "package sports betting as events contracts" to circumvent established gaming regulations, state attorneys general claimed in a lawsuit in June.
The deadline for extending the Affordable Care Act subsidies is approaching this month. This is happening even as consumers who depend on the ACA Marketplace are faced with the tough decision. Should they forego health plans that will no longer be affordable for them once the subsidies expire or hope that Congress will reach a bipartisan agreement to extend the subsidies until workable alternatives can be hashed out and approved?
WEBSTER SPRINGS, WV. In West Virginia, many of the thousands of bridges spanning mountain valleys and gorges are named for local veterans and on Main Streets in small towns, banners feature hometown soldiers, some of whom fought and died in past conflicts. It's a state with one of the country's highest per-capita populations of veterans. Service in the military including the various branches of the National Guard has long been seen not just as a patriotic duty, but as an economic lifeline.
I have no doubt the East Bay Times will publish such a story if and when such a situation occurs. The Times did report on the president's efforts in getting to a ceasefire and hostage release regarding the war in Israel and Gaza. Other than that, I honestly can't point to anything positive the president has done, especially given all his campaign promises of lowering prices and only deporting the worst of the worst. His administration has been nothing but cruel and heartless decisions affecting millions of hard-working people who need economic help, health care, food, education and protection from ICE.
Republicans - who control the Senate and the House - joined Democrats in seeking answers from the Defense Department after The Washington Post reported last week that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had given a verbal order before the strike to kill all of the boat's crew members. But as of Friday evening, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Rep. Mike D. Rogers (R-Alabama), his counterpart inthe House, have yet to signal how they will proceed.
President Donald Trump has promised not only that America will be 'great again' but also that it will be ' healthy again,' ' wealthy again,' ' beautiful again,' and-crucially-' affordable again.' Now, as the country faces persistent inflation, a housing crisis, and rising prices on consumer goods, he claims that affordability is nothing more than a 'con job,' an opportunistic buzzword leveraged by a rival party. 'The word affordability is a Democrat scam,' he said during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
I couldn't decide where to start today, but since we've been reading about Pete Hegseth ordering U.S. military personnel to make sure every person aboard those boats in the Caribbean are killed, let's start with him. No, we're not discussing the war crimes and murders taking place in the islands. We're talking about "Scouting America," née Boy Scouts of America, who have reimagined themselves as an organization that not only welcomes gay men and boys, but also opens its arms to girls and transgender kids.
On Friday, a federal judge ordered Google to limit all default search and AI app contracts to one year, a setback for the long-term deals that have helped cement the company's dominance on billions of devices. The ruling, detailed in a December 2025 judgment, requires Alphabet's Google to renegotiate every default-placement agreement annually, including lucrative deals with Apple's iPhone and manufacturers like Samsung.
For babies born in the next few years, "Trump accounts" could be a financial game changer. And for the policymakers and advocates who conceived of the idea, the accounts have another potential benefit: Improving capitalism's reputation, especially among young people. "What I'm really excited about is, we are creating a new generation of capitalists," Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said at the White House on Tuesday. "Every child in America is going to be an owner of the biggest employers in this country."
"Vanity Fair and Olivia Nuzzi have mutually agreed, in the best interest of the magazine, to let her contract expire at the end of the year," according to a joint statement from spokespeople for Vanity Fair and Nuzzi provided to Business Insider. A third-party investigation into her reporting at New York magazine revealed no bias, but the magazine said at the time that her relationship with the ex-presidential candidate violated their conflict-of-interest standards.
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
Washington lawmakers had barely finished processing the news that Congress would not put a state AI law ban into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) when a new rumor began trickling out of the White House on Wednesday: President Donald Trump would, indeed, sign an executive order that would ostensibly assign the federal government the ability to punish states for writing their own AI laws.
The dairy industry sought a deal with President Richard Nixon to write a huge campaign check to his reelection campaign-in exchange for price supports that would artificially raise the cost of milk. But federal law strictly limited the amount it could donate. So Nixon's henchmen devised a workaround: Dairy companies would funnel $2 million through various Republican Party committees, which could then transfer the cash to Nixon's campaign.
"This is disturbing," Thompson said in a written statement. "It scared my wife, my granddaughter who lives with us, and my neighbor who is a single woman living alone. Given the terrible attack on Paul Pelosi and the increase in political violence against public officials recently, it's hard to believe that anyone would think this was okay. I'm grateful to the law enforcement who have helped ensure my family and neighbors are safe and I remain focused on serving our community."
With enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies due to expire within days, some Senate Democrats are scrambling to protect millions of Americans from getting the unpleasant holiday gift of spiking health insurance premiums. The CRFB says there's just one problem with the plan: it's not funded. "With the national debt as large as the economy and interest payments costing $1 trillion annually, it is absurd to suggest adding hundreds of billions more to the debt," CRFB President Maya MacGuineas wrote in a statement on Friday afternoon.
The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to take up the constitutionality of President Donald Trump's order on birthright citizenship declaring that children born to parents who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens. The justices will hear Trump's appeal of a lower-court ruling that struck down the citizenship restrictions. They have not taken effect anywhere in the country. The case will be argued in the spring. A definitive ruling is expected by early summer.
