Scott Graves, budget director with the California Budget and Policy Center, said Proposition 36 is what is called a "ballot box budgeting measure". "The authors of the measure did not provide, as a part of Prop 36, any way to pay for these new services," Graves said. "As a result, they ended up putting state and local policy makers in a pretty tough position."
These days, American politics is a highly charged and dramatic landscape - and nowhere more so than in the White House press room, which can, on occasion, feel like part reality show, part bear pit. Rarely a day goes by where a press room moment doesn't go viral, for any number of reasons. And, as RTÉ's new Washington correspondent, Galwegian Jackie Fox cannot wait to immerse herself in the belly of the beast.
The US vice-president, JD Vance, was greeted by a chorus of boos when he appeared at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Milan on Friday, although American viewers watching NBC's coverage would have been unaware of the reception. As speedskater Erin Jackson led Team USA into the San Siro stadium she was greeted by cheers. But when the TV cameras cut to Vance and his wife, Usha, there were boos, jeers and a smattering of applause from the crowd.
The Washington Roundtable discusses Donald Trump's threats to "nationalize" elections in fifteen states, the recent F.B.I. raid to seize 2020 voting records at an election facility in Fulton County, Georgia, and the ways in which the Administration might meddle with a free and fair vote in 2026. Their guest, Richard Hasen, is the director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at U.C.L.A.'s School of Law.
FBI agents arrested Lemon last week in L.A. while he was covering the Grammy Awards. The administration targeted Lemon for covering an anti-ICE protest at a church in Minneapolis. Protesters gathered at the church because one of the pastors leads a local ICE field office. In total, nine people, including another journalist, were indicted on charges for interrupting a church service. The cases are all flimsy.
Rock band Shinedown is the latest act to pull out of Robert James Ritchie's MAGA-adjacent "Rock the Country" music festival. "We know this decision will create differences of opinion. But we do not want to participate in something we believe will create further division," the band wrote on Instagram February 6. "And to our fans, thank you for supporting and believing in us. We love and appreciate you always."
In some ways yes and in some ways no, referencing the recent bombshell Wall Street Journal story about investments from Abu Dhabi into the Trump family business just before he became president for a second time. If the name were Biden instead of Trump, people would be screaming bloody murder, Shapiro said, before adding that he's confident that the president will likely pardon himself and his children in the same way that [former President] Joe Biden did on his way out.
VELSHI: This what do you make of this business about nationalizing elections? Every every day Donald Trump sort of says it differently and then some Republicans say they don't like it, and the White House walks it back. But he is talking about not not changing our entire election system, just changing it in some places. He mentioned Detroit and Philadelphia and Atlanta. I wonder what they all have in common. It's dangerous talk. One can laugh about it, but it's really dangerous talk.
Driving the news: The 13-candidate Democratic primary to replace now-Gov. Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey's 11th congressional district ended in a dead heat between progressive organizer Analilia Mejia and former Rep. Tom Malinowski. With several thousand provisional and late mail-in still to be counted as of Friday, Mejia led Malinowski by 500 votes, 28.75% to 27.97%, according to the Associated Press. Mejia trailed many of her opponents in fundraising, bringing in just $420,000 to Malinowski's $1.2 million.
In October 2020, President Trump unveiled a plan to grant himself the power to fire vast numbers of civil servants for any reason should they get in the way of his agenda. Five and a half years later, that plan has come to fruition, despite vast public opposition. Starting March 9, an unspecified number of federal employees could lose their current job protections and be converted into at-will employees at Trump's discretion.
Yet through it all, Trump paid no mind to the person who sat directly across from him: the attorney general of the United States, Pam Bondi. Even with weighty Justice-relevant issues exploding across the country, Bondi sat silently through the entire 80-minute meeting. The next day, DOJ called a press conference to address the Epstein files, Minnesota, and other pressing matters; out to the podium walked deputy attorney general Todd Blanche without Bondi.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) voted against a $1.2 trillion 5-bill minibus to reopen the government after a nearly four-day partial shutdown. Boebert said the minibus included $1.3 billion for "child transgender surgeries." The minibus package, which also included a continuing resolution to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) until February 13, narrowly passed the U.S. House in a 217-214 vote. Trump signed it into law on February 3.
The New Jersey Democratic primary for the state's 11th Congressional District was plunged into uncertainty on Thursday night after Decision Desk HQ abruptly walked back its earlier projection calling a win for former congressman Tom Malinowski after a late surge by his progressive rival. The election analysis outlet had initially called the contest for Malinowski, only to retract its call hours later as election night data began cutting sharply against its assumptions.
For years, we've been subjected to an endless parade of hyperventilating claims about the Biden administration's supposed "censorship industrial complex." We were told, over and over again, that the government was weaponizing its power to silence conservative speech. The evidence for this? Some angry emails from White House staffers that Facebook ignored. That was basically it. The Supreme Court looked at it and said there was no standing because there was no evidence of coercion.
Many Portlanders have asked that question since federal officials and agents have become increasingly hostile to immigrants or those they perceive to be immigrants, as well as people protesting President Trump's draconian immigration crackdown.
Over 800 employees and contractors working for Google signed a petition this week calling on the company to disclose and cancel any contracts it may have with US immigration authorities. In a statement, the workers said they are "vehemently opposed" to Google's dealings with the Department of Homeland Security, which includes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Researchers at the University of Cambridge's Political Psychology Lab tracked shifts in Americans' views across nearly four decades and found that divisions were broadly stable through the 1990s and early 2000s, before rising steadily from 2008 onward. Using more than 35,000 responses from the American National Election Studies between 1988 and 2024, they estimate that issue polarization has increased 64% since the late 1980s, with almost all of that change occurring after 2008.
The briefing paper pointedly cites Newsom's veto of last year's Senate Bill 7, a union-backed bill to bar employers from using AI to make employee discipline and termination decisions. In rejecting it, Newsom said the measure was overly broad and would prevent even innocuous uses of AI. Newsom's veto exemplifies his efforts, as the AI industry explodes, to satisfy both the tech industry, with which he has decades-long political ties, and those who worry about AI's societal and economic impacts.
Serving the people of Nevada has been the honor of my lifetime. Nobody is prouder of our Nevada Congressional District than me. Thank you for the honor. Every achievement worth doing began with listening to Nevadans and fighting for our values. I came to Congress to solve problems and to make sure our State and Nation have strong voice in the federal policy and oversight processes. I look forward to finishing my term.
Roughly half of U.S. states now have their own rules for driverless cars, creating a patchwork of regulations. Lawmakers say that uneven oversight, combined with several high-profile incidents, underscores the need for uniform federal guardrails that don't stifle innovation yet ensure public safety. Senators cite safety issues, demand more transparency "We need more honesty from the industry so that there is in fact transparency in everything that they know that the American public should know as well," said Sen. Ed Markey, D-MA.
Former Sen. and current Alabama gubernatorial candidate Doug Jones (D) has vowed to replace members of the state's library board who banned trans books from children's and young adult sections in the state's public libraries. The board's former chairman, John Wahl, who is currently running for Alabama lieutenant governor, has fired back, accusing Jones of wanting to expose young people to "sexually explicit" material and "perversion."
Let me dissect what's going on - and why lawyers and boards should be paying rapt attention. For years, environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations were relegated to "nice to have" slide decks at annual meetings. Those days are over. Canadian companies are now operating in a climate where public perception and values‑based scrutiny moves markets, affects customer loyalty and triggers boycotts or protests, eroding brand equity.
Two amendments were ultimately added to the bill following the debate on the House floor: One would threaten up to life in prison for giving abortion pills to a pregnant person without their knowledge. (Administering drugs without consent is already a crime, but this amendment dramatically escalates the penalty.) The other makes it illegal to raise funds or distribute money to buy abortion pills, potentially destroying the crucial and life-saving work of abortion funds.
Do not use any information from a non-government source (e.g., an NGO, even if it is or has been funded by the U.S. government, or media) that advances policies inconsistent with presidential executive orders, including promotion of 'racial justice,' 'diversity, equity, and inclusion,' and gender ideology, the cable says, per . The department deems such sources not to be credible, the cable goes on. The extraordinary instruction could be applied widely, as Politico points out. Many major human rights groups like Amnesty International tout their investment in initiatives like DEI, as do many large news outlets like The New York Times.
There seems to be a little confusion, asked an off-camera reporter at the DOJ presser, adding: With DNI Gabbard, she was down in Atlanta last week for the Fulton County search. Originally, this office said that she was not part of the investigation. She put in a letter to Congress that President Trump directed her to do so, and then now President Trump yesterday said that it was at your insistence that she went down there. So what is the case here?
