Kim Janey made history Wednesday when she was sworn in as the first Black and first female mayor of the city of Boston. “To think that my teenage grandsons were born at a time when there never had been a black person on our city council,” Janey said. “Today is …

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Wednesday signed legislation that sets aside $577 million for Maryland’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The HBCU legislation becomes law after more than 15 years of court battles, protests, and political fighting. Alumni and boosters of the universities — Bowie State, Coppin State, Morgan State and the …

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has signed historic legislation abolishing the death penalty in Virginia. Northam scheduled a tour Wednesday of the death chamber at the Greensville Correction Center and signed the landmark legislation outside the facility. This makes Virginia the 23rd state and the first in the South to end …

Senator Chuck Schumer announced today that he will recommend three exceptional attorneys to serve as the United States Attorneys in the Southern, Eastern and Western District offices of New York. Schumer will forward the names of Damian Williams for the Southern District, Breon Peace for the Eastern District, and Trini …

Former President Donald Trump is said to be serious about launching a new social media platform to compete with the social networks that banned him earlier this year. “I’m doing things having to do with putting our own platform out there that you’ll be hearing about soon,” Trump told Fox News …

The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday urged Americans to avoid travel while warning of a possible “avoidable surge” in the coronavirus. “Much of the travel, we know, is related to people who are going on spring break,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said at a press …

President Joe Biden will hold his first fundraiser since being elected to support Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. Lance Bottoms endorsed Biden early in his candidacy. She campaigned for him in Iowa and spoke at the Democratic National Convention. The Mayor was rumored early on to be a potential vice …

Today, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Lina Khan for Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission. Khan is an associate professor of law at Columbia Law School, where she teaches and writes about antitrust law, infrastructure industries law, and the antimonopoly tradition. At 32, Khan would be the …

The Supreme Court has decided to review the Boston Marathon bomber’s death penalty case. A lower court opinion has just been brought back to the forefront, suggesting the death penalty as a sentence for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Tsarnaev is one of the brothers convicted in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. The …

Former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, has been partially closed after staff members tested positive for the coronavirus. That’s according to several people, including one familiar with club operations, who said Mar-a-Lago had “partially closed” a section of the club and quarantined some of its workers …

New York Republican Congressman John Katko has introduced a bill calling on President Joe Biden to declare a one-time federal holiday to raise awareness about the COVID-19 vaccine and encourage people to get the shot. Katko said “National COVID-19 Vaccination Awareness Day” would promote the rapid distribution of the shots, …

The House passed two immigration reform bills on Thursday that would provide a pathway to either citizenship or legal status for certain groups of immigrants in the U.S. One of the measures – the American Dream and Promise Act – would create a pathway to permanent residency and, eventually, citizenship for …

Today, U.S. Representatives Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) and Debbie Dingell (MI-12) introduced the Medicare for All Act of 2021. The transformative legislation would guarantee health care to everyone in America as a human right at a moment in which nearly 100 million people are uninsured or underinsured during a pandemic. Endorsed …

The House voted Wednesday to reauthorize the lapsed Violence Against Women Act, but the proposal was opposed by most Republicans because of provisions dealing with gun rights and LGBTQ victims’ access to services. The 244-172 vote sent the measure to the Senate for the second time since the law’s authorization …

Sen. Raphael Warnock, Georgia’s first Black Senator, used his first floor speech on Capitol Hill to urge his colleagues to pass voting rights legislation. Warnock, who is co-sponsoring the “For The People Act,” a sweeping elections reform bill that passed the House earlier this month, urged Congress to pass the …