US politics

US politics

Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) was indicted by a federal grand jury on Wednesday for allegedly stealing $5 million in FEMA funds and using a substantial portion of the dough to fund her 2022 campaign to join the House of Representatives. The Justice Department said Cherfilus-McCormick's family healthcare company received a $5 million overpay for a COVID-19 vaccination staffing contract in 2021. Rather than return the funds, the Democratic lawmaker routed it through multiple accounts to disguise its source, according to the Justice Department's announcement. She conspired with multiple people, including her older brother, Edwin Cherfilus, to pull off the scam.

On Wednesday morning, parents of kids attending West Oakland's Hoover Elementary School got a pretty alarming message on an app some use called ParentSquare. "We got confirmation that there is ICE activity in the neighborhood, the message said, according to KTVU. They are on 31st and Market Street knocking on doors. The kids are safe and secure at school. Please do not come to the school. We will alert you when things are quiet in the neighborhood again.

President Donald Trump's administration has been embroiled in scandal and sloppiness. His own party has defied his political pressure. His senior staff has been beset by infighting. He has sparred with reporters and offered over-the-top praise to an authoritarian with a dire human-rights record. A signature hard-line immigration policy has polled poorly. And Republicans have begun to brace themselves for a disastrous midterm election.

The proposal would've been the largest-ever cut to the program, per an analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. At the time, a spokesman for the Social Security Administration told the paper the agency was working on plans to "propose improvements to the disability adjudication process to ensure our disability program remains current and can be more efficiently administered."

First filed in August, the suit alleges the administration has used immigration policies to suppress protected speech by student activists and journalists. It names Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as defendants. The plaintiffs the newspaper and two individuals using aliases are challenging two provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act that they say let the government punish noncitizens for exercising protected speech.

On Tuesday, the city's leaders voted down a $2 million contract with Flock Safety, the company that operates Oakland's existing camera systems, after hundreds rallied against the threat of immigration authorities and other federal law enforcement spying on residents, bypassing the city's sanctuary policies. The issue has grown so contentious that two members of the local Privacy Advisory Commission resigned last week - and one subsequently filed a lawsuit against the Oakland Police Department.

Garcia recently chose to retire from the House due to distressing family and medical concerns, but he timed his announcement so close to the candidate filing deadline for the 2026 Democratic primary that only one would-be successor, his chief of staff, Patty Garcia (no relation to her boss), was able to file. This political-machine-type maneuver drew the attention of Washington Democratic congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, who sponsored a resolution of disapproval aimed at Chuy Garcia.

Tonight, a handful of Republicans took a dive on a vote to strip Stacy (sic) Plaskett of her position on House intel because of her ties to Epstein, wrote Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) on X. They did it to protect a Republican facing his own ethics issues from a similar vote. This backroom deal sh*t is swampy, wrong and always deserves to be called out.

Ethics says they are investigating Mills for failure to properly disclose information, violation of campaign finance laws, improperly soliciting or receiving gifts, receiving special favors and allegations of sexual misconduct. In October, a Florida judge granted a protective order against Mills after a former girlfriend accused him of threatening to release sexually explicit photos and videos of her. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) brushed off questions at the time about the order, but told reporters that Ethics would investigate Mills, "if it warrants that."

What is preventing American's youngest voters from turning out? While voter enthusiasm is certainly key, systemic mechanisms uniquely hold this constitutionally protected class of voters at bay. In Montana, when the state Supreme Court struck down a 2024 voter suppression law that eliminated same-day registration, banned the use of student identification cards for voting, and prevented those recently turned 18 years old from access to vote-by-mail, the legislature was undeterred, passing a new law requiring aspiring student

Among 1,291registered voters, 55% said they'd vote for the Democratic candidate in their Housedistrict, compared to 41% who said they'd back the Republican, according to a NPR/PBS News/Marist Poll national survey conducted last week. Another 3% said they would vote for another party's candidate, and 1% were unsure. When voters were last asked the question, back in November of last year, they were evenlydivided, 48% to 48%.

On Wednesday Sens. John Curtis (R-UT) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ) introduced the Algorithm Accountability Act, which amends Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to make platforms responsible for preventing their recommendation systems from causing certain foreseeable harms. Section 230 is the law that shields online platforms - including social media sites, digital forums, blogs with comment sections, and their users -

As a senior citizen on Medicare and SNAP, I feel like I can speak to both issues. Our country is now being run by a narcissistic president. He does not care about the poor, working people, homeless people or poor immigrants just trying to make a living. He is letting these people go hungry, and he is trying to take away medical assistance for them, and deporting almost all immigrants.

Again and again, President Trump's efforts to send National Guard troops to U.S. cities have been met with resistance in the courts. In his second term, Trump has continued to push the boundaries of military involvement in domestic matters, whether it comes to addressing public safety, quelling protests or safeguarding federal buildings and personnel, including ICE agents.

The survey of 1,443 adults, conducted from Nov. 10-13 found: Democrats holding their largest advantage, 14 points, on the question of who respondents would vote for if the midterm elections were held today; President Trump's approval rating is just 39%, his lowest since right after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol; A combined 6-in-10 blame congressional Republicans or Trump for the government shutdown; and Nearly 6-in-10 say Trump's top priority should be lowering prices and no other issue comes close.

Mace replied: I'm not part of the powerful, I'm not part of the elite. I'm an island of one. I don't get invited to parties, I don't have any friends, I have a dog. So it's not the kind of thing that I would have knowledge of, but nothing surprises me anymore. The kind of corruption that I see at all levels of government, the federal, state, and local level, nothing would surprise me.

"We have heard calls by members of congress to institutionalise all transgender people, comments referring to transgender people as mentally ill, and false suggestions by high-level political figures that transgender people are inherently violent and must be addressed as a national security threat," the signatories to the letter claimed. That language, along with a "rising number of legislative and administrative attacks" on the community, "is taking a real toll", they added.

The decision means PBS programming, which includes programs such as "Sesame Street," "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood," "Antiques Roadshow" and "PBS NewsHour" will remain on the state channel at least for the immediate future.