The Biden administration says the government will protect gay and transgender people against sex discrimination in health care. This is a reversal of a Trump-era policy that sought to narrow the scope of legal rights in sensitive situations involving medical care. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said Monday …
Read More »Maryland Governor Posthumously Pardons 34 Lynching Victims
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan today issued a full posthumous pardon for 34 victims of racial lynching. The lynchings occurred in Maryland between 1854 and 1933. Hogan issued the pardons on the basis that the extrajudicial killings “violated fundamental rights to due process and equal protection of the law.” It is …
Read More »Federal Grand Jury Indicts Four Ex-Officers In George Floyd’s Death
A federal grand jury has indicted Derek Chauvin and three other former Minneapolis police officers involved in the death of George Floyd on charges of civil rights violations. The four officers were charged under a federal law that makes it a crime for a law enforcement officer to “willfully deprive …
Read More »FEC Drops Trump-Stormy Daniels Hush-Money Investigation
Two Democrats from the Federal Election Commission are criticizing Republican members after the commission decided not to punish former President Donald Trump over a payment to Stormy Daniels. The FEC vote split 2-2 on party lines, with one member not voting and one abstaining. The vote was taken last month, …
Read More »Capitol Police Report Threats To Congress Have Increased By 107%
Threats to members of Congress have increased by 107% this year compared to 2020, the U.S. Capitol Police revealed Friday. “As the department has previously reported, the number of threats made against Congress has increased significantly,” Capitol Police said in a statement. “This year alone, there has been a 107% …
Read More »Twitter Bans Account Posting Trump Blog Statements
Twitter on Thursday suspended a new account created to share statements from former President Donald Trump, saying it violated the social media company’s policy on banned users. The new account, @DJTDesk, appeared on Twitter this week, apparently as a way to get around the permanent ban on Trump in the wake …
Read More »DOJ Appeals Federal Judge’s Eviction Moratorium Ruling
The Biden administration is appealing a federal judge’s ruling that strikes down the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention‘s moratorium on evictions. On Wednesday, Judge Dabney Friedrich of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the CDC had exceeded its authority when it extended the …
Read More »Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms Will Not Seek Re-Election
On Thursday night, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced she would not seek a second term as Atlanta’s mayor during a private call with staffers and friends. Bottoms, the second Black woman to lead Atlanta, was first elected in 2017, beating then-Atlanta City Councilwoman Mary Norwood after the election went …
Read More »Biden Administration Supports Waiving Vaccine Intellectual Property Rules
The Biden administration on Wednesday announced its support for waiving intellectual property protections for coronavirus vaccines with the aim of getting “as many safe and effective vaccines to as many people as fast as possible.” U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai wrote in a statement that the coronavirus pandemic calls for …
Read More »Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Signs Voter Suppression Bill Into Law
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis went on Fox and Friends Thursday morning to sign into law a controversial voting restrictions bill passed last week by Florida lawmakers. The bill signing was closed to local media. The GOP-backed legislation, which the governor has also been a vocal supporter of, places new limits …
Read More »Cheney Doubles Down As House GOP Seeks To Remove Her From Leadership
Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, whose leadership role is under threat from her fellow Republicans, laid out a grim assessment for her party: The GOP has reached “a turning point,” and if it doesn’t break from former President Donald Trump‘s claims about the 2020 election, there will be long-lasting harm. In …
Read More »IRS To Start Sending Unemployment Benefit Tax Refunds This Month
The IRS will start issuing extra refund checks on 2020 unemployment benefits later this month. The American Rescue Plan, which President Joe Biden signed into law on March 11, retroactively waived federal taxes on the first $10,200 worth of unemployment aid received per person in 2020. Married taxpayers filing jointly …
Read More »Facebook Oversight Board Upholds Trump Suspension
Former President Donald Trump Is not returning to Facebook. Facebook’s Oversight Board on Wednesday said the company was justified in suspending then-President Donald Trump from its platform on Jan. 7 but added that the company needed to take further action to clarify its penalties. The board — an outside group …
Read More »President Biden Raises U.S. Refugee Cap to 62.5K for 2021
In a policy reversal Monday, President Joe Biden announced his administration will raise the refugee admissions cap to its previously announced goals of 62,500 for the fiscal year 2021 and 125,000 in 2022. Biden announced the decision after receiving widespread criticism over a move last month to leave the 2021 refugee …
Read More »Professional Sports Unions Come Together to Oppose New Voting Restrictions
Over the last few months, state legislators across the country have proposed bills and new legislation that if passed, could make it harder for ordinary citizens to cast their ballots in future election seasons. Yesterday, nine (9) major sports unions in North America announced their joint opposition to these legislative …
Read More »
Poli Alert Politics & Civics