President Trump’s Veterans Affairs Secretary nominee, Dr. Ronny Jackson, allegedly provided a “large supply” of Percocet to a White House Military Office staff member, written himself prescriptions, and “wrecked a government vehicle” while intoxicated at a Secret Service going away party. Jackson has denied totalling the vehicle and the White House continues to back him. Trump nominating someone to a cabinet job on a whim is not going well.
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson wants to triple rent payments for over two million of the poorest American households who rely on federal housing assistance. This is the same guy who was cool with buying a $31,000 dining set for his office with taxpayer money.
Today Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced legislation that will require every post office to provide basic banking services, giving working-class Americans a place to obtain low-cost short-term loans, and (hopefully) driving a class of predatory lenders out of business. She first learned about the idea on an episode of Pod Save the People.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt wants to gut the agency’s reliance on sound science under the guise of transparency. Pruitt has announced he wants to ban the EPA from using studies that don’t publicly disclose all data, which would create enormous privacy concerns, drive away researchers, and dramatically reduce the amount of research agency officials can use to craft regulations. He proposed all of this from inside a solid-gold Rolls Royce.
Trump’s fixer Michael Cohen will plead the fifth in the civil suit against Stormy Daniels, to avoid incriminating himself in future criminal proceedings.
China wants to give every one of its 1.4 billion citizens a “personal score” based on their behavior in order to “purify society.” Please no one tell Trump about this Black Mirror episode come to life.
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the Muslim ban litigation today. A decision is expected by late June. Read more from Crooked contributor Julissa Arce →
Republican Debbie Lesko won the Arizona Special Election for the state’s eighth congressional district Tuesday night, but only by about 5 points. Trump won the district by over 20 points in 2016, and Lesko enjoyed a funding advantage thanks to more than $1 million in outside spending by GOP groups. Well over 100 districts are more competitive than AZ-08. Fortunately for Democrats, Breitbart wants its readers to think this is good news for Republicans.
The Department of Homeland Security is getting ready to cancel temporary residency permits for more than 9,000 Nepali immigrants who were granted temporary protected status in 2015 after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the country. They will have to return to Nepal within one year, and face deportation after June 2019.
Yesterday police used DNA evidence to arrest an ex-cop suspected to be the Golden State killer—a notorious serial murderer who, according to the FBI, is believed to be responsible for at least 12 murders and 50 rapes in California between 1979 and 1986.
MSNBC host Joy Reid keeps asserting that homophobic language in her old blog posts were the work of hackers. Many experts are skeptical of her claim.
The President of the Center for American Progress apologized today after she named the anonymous woman who came forward to report sexual harassment at the progressive think tank in an all-staff meeting.
The NFL held a confidential meeting in October about national anthem protests between several executives, players, and owners, which was naturally recorded and leaked in full to the New York Times. In the meeting, players questioned why the league has blackballed Colin Kaepernick, and Patriots owner Robert Kraft (a longtime supporter of Trump’s) shifted blame to the president, saying, “The problem we have is, we have a president who will use [kneeling] as fodder to do his mission that I don’t feel is in the best interests of America… It’s divisive and it’s horrible.” Hey Bob, maybe tell him that to his face during your next dinner together at Mar-a-Lago?
