In 2012, while Swalwell was serving on Dublin's City Council, he knocked off 40-year incumbent Congressman Pete Stark for an Alameda County seat in the House of Representatives. Swalwell entered Congress contemporaneously with Hakeem Jeffries, and both ascended House leadership. Swalwell is often interviewed in the media, was a Trump impeachment manager and is often attacked by Donald Trump. I had hoped that Swalwell would stay in Congress.
2025 was a tumultuous year that tested our resolve from federal funding cuts to local road safety and climate resilience projects, a lengthy government shutdown that caused federal workers to miss paychecks and suspended nutrition assistance programs and the loss of subsidies for health insurance premiums for those who buy their insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace. Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft is the mayor of Alameda.
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. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground.
There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs, Trump said as he met in Florida with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They load the boats up with drugs, so we hit all the boats, and now, we hit the area. It's the implementation area. That's where they implement. And that is no longer around.
CASE UPDATE: MINNESOTA FRAUD SCHEME The FBI is aware of recent social media reports in Minnesota. However, even before the public conversation escalated online, the FBI had surged personnel and investigative resources to Minnesota to dismantle large-scale fraud schemes exploiting federal programs. Fraud that steals from taxpayers and robs vulnerable children will remain a top FBI priority in Minnesota and nationwide.
The GTOs (FinCEN's geographic targeting orders) came in 2017. They started off kind of slow five boroughs in New York and a few counties in Florida. Fast forward to the current GTO, it affects transactions in 11 states, plus Washington, D.C., and about 58 or 59 counties or boroughs. The FinCEN reporting that is now going to be required is all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, about 3,600 recording jurisdictions. That gives you the magnitude of how much this will impact the industry.
Only days remain until Zohran Mamdani ascends the throne of New York City, and nearly all his great opponents have given up. Andrew Cuomo, vanquished. Financier Bill Ackman, reduced to congratulations for the mayor-elect and even offers of support. Donald Trump, singing his praises after inviting him over to hang. Maybe the great socialist boogeyman isn't so scary after all.
And we just clean out that whole thing I don't know, something has to happen, but it's literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything's demolished, and people are dying there, so I'd rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing in a different location where I think they could maybe live in peace for a change.
In 2025, people who built their careers by being some form of Very Online are now some of the most powerful people in the world. Topping the list-as we predicted he would last year-is Donald Trump. The 79-year-old president of the United States quite literally rules by decrees posted to his social network, Truth Social. The US government, meanwhile, is run by a ramshackle crew of former conspiracy theory podcasters, TV hosts, vaccine skeptics, and entertainment moguls.
Zoom in: The assassination of Charlie Kirk, the Turning Point USA co-founder, garnered the most search interest in Axios' analysis of the biggest stories of the year. His murder - which followed a string of political violence both this year and in 2024 - sparked calls for softened political rhetoric for some and prompted finger-pointing from the president and others. It also opened a new chapter - and exposed new fractures - in the MAGA media landscape.
Governor Gavin Newsom's (D-CA) notorious press office account spent 2025 repeatedly trolling Republicans, doing so in a style that unmistakably mimicked President Donald Trump's own social media playbook. From all-caps posts to meme-heavy graphics and personal taunts, @GovPressOffice leaned into provocation this year. Trump, in turn, fired back plenty of times on Truth Social, branding Newsom Newscum and incompetent for his handling of June protests against mass deportations in Los Angeles.
Two years ago, a $575 million battery factory planned in St. Louis, Missouri, was set to be the first large-scale lithium iron phosphate (LFP) facility in the U.S. This November, after the Trump administration withdrew a grant for the project, it was cancelled -becoming one of more than 50 major clean energy projects to be scrapped or scaled back in 2025.
The legislation, approved by the Council in November, carved out an 18-month "lookback" window for victims to file claims against abusers as well as institutions that may have shielded perpetrators from prosecution, even if the statute of limitations has lapsed. It would also allow plaintiffs to revive hundreds of cases that had been previously dismissed, including claims against the estate of now-deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz said the fund is intended to improve rural health outcomes that have worsened over decades, while avoiding costly new construction. "This is a massive effort to change the unfortunate reality that has overtaken rural healthcare in America, which is that your ZIP code has started to predict your life expectancy," Oz told reporters. He said the money will also support other pilot projects across the country.
It's the holiday season and John Lennon may be on the radio, but the MAGA civil war that has dominated headlines over the back half of 2025 is far from over. Indeed, the coalition put together by President Donald Trump is only continuing to fracture, as two of its most prominent principals podcaster Steve Bannon and Vice President JD Vance appear to be increasingly at odds. While Bannon and Vance both hail from the Republican Party's populist wing, Bannon World is accusing the VP of forming a fist inside of his velvet glove. Over the last few days, Grace Chong, the CFO and COO of Bannon's media company, has launched a series of stunning attacks on the odds-on frontrunner to succeed Trump as the GOP's standard bearer.
Twice as many Americans believe their financial security is getting worse than better, according to an exclusive new poll conducted for the Guardian, and they are increasingly blaming the White House. The poll, conducted by Harris, will be a further blow to Donald Trump's efforts to fight off criticism of his handling of the economy and contains some worrying findings for the president.
We're extending the deadline to submit Federal 100 nominations into 2026. Our final, no-extensions deadline is Jan. 14, 2026. This gives you an extra two weeks to finalize your nominations to make sure the superstars in the federal IT community get the recognition they deserve. Anyone in the federal IT community is eligible: career civil servants, political appointees, contractors, academics, members of Congress and congressional staff.
