Poli Alert Politics & Civics

The Internal Revenue Service was expected to furlough nearly half of its workforce on Wednesday as the federal government shutdown stretches into its second week, the agency announced in a newly updated contingency plan. According to the IRS, roughly 39,870 employees — or 53.6% of its current staff — will …

Israel and Hamas have agreed to a temporary pause in their two-year war and to exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners, a breakthrough greeted Thursday with relief and cautious optimism as details of the U.S.-brokered plan emerged. The ceasefire, pushed by President Donald Trump and mediated by Egypt, Qatar, and the …

Former FBI Director James Comey pleaded not guilty Wednesday to federal charges sought by President Donald Trump, marking a dramatic escalation in the president’s campaign to punish former officials tied to the Russia investigation. It was Comey’s first appearance as a criminal defendant in a case that has rattled the …

President Donald Trump this week repeatedly suggested he might invoke the Insurrection Act — a centuries-old law granting sweeping domestic powers to the commander in chief — to quell what he described as “lawlessness” in American cities, signaling a potential escalation in his administration’s approach to domestic unrest. “It’s been …

President Donald Trump escalated his war of words with two top Illinois Democrats on Wednesday, saying in a Truth Social post that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Gov. JB Pritzker “should be in jail” for opposing his administration’s deployment of federalized National Guard troops to the state. “Chicago Mayor should …

President Donald Trump said Tuesday he was open to extending the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) through a renegotiation or by pursuing “different deals,” as he met with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at the White House amid growing trade tensions. Carney’s second visit to Washington comes ahead of next year’s …

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi aimed heated rhetoric at Democratic senators on Capitol Hill Tuesday as she faced questions over the administration’s surge of federal agents to blue cities, as well as a litany of controversial issues surrounding the Department of Justice. In one fervid exchange during the routine oversight …

Speaker Mike Johnson is refusing to allow Democrats’ newest congresswoman-elect to be sworn in until her party agrees to end the government shutdown, escalating a partisan standoff that has left large parts of the federal government shuttered for more than a week and deepened distrust across the Capitol. The move …

A draft White House memo argues that furloughed federal employees may not be legally entitled to back pay once the government shutdown ends, press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Monday, setting off sharp pushback from unions and lawmakers who say the stance defies federal law. The memo, first reported by Axios, …

Authorities in South Carolina are investigating a weekend fire that injured at least three people at the Edisto Island home of Circuit Court Judge Diane Goodstein and her husband, former state Sen. Arnold Goodstein, officials said Monday. Mark Keel, chief of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED), said in …

Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Houston, entered the Republican primary for U.S. Senate on Monday, complicating an already contentious race between two of the biggest names in Texas Republican politics. Hunt, a close ally of President Donald Trump, has laid the groundwork for a potential run for months. While the second-term congressman …

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., broke with Republican leadership Monday by calling for Congress to act before year’s end to prevent Affordable Care Act subsidies from expiring — a move that could cause health insurance premiums to double for millions of Americans. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Greene …

Illinois officials filed a lawsuit Monday to stop the Trump administration from deploying federalized National Guard troops to Chicago, arguing that the move is unconstitutional and represents a dangerous overreach of presidential power. The complaint, filed in federal court by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul on behalf of the state …

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Ghislaine Maxwell’s appeal of her 2021 conviction and 20-year prison sentence for aiding Jeffrey Epstein in the sexual exploitation of underage girls, leaving her punishment intact and closing one of the final legal chapters in the decades-long Epstein saga. Maxwell, 63, had …

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has once again become the focus of controversy after publicly suggesting that the Court should revisit several major rulings tied to Americans’ personal privacy rights: including those protecting same-sex marriage and access to birth control. The comments stem from Thomas’s 2022 concurring opinion in Dobbs …