Government

“It’s absolutely outrageous. Pardon me if I’m not impressed in any way by Rand Paul’s fiscal responsibility virtue signaling. At some point, we have to stand up for the people who have always stood up for us, and at this moment in time maybe cannot stand up for themselves due to their illnesses and their injuries. And what Rand Paul …

The Palm Beach Post reports: The city of West Palm Beach has launched a music offensive, playing torturous sound loops all night long of the children’s song “Baby Shark” to keep the homeless from lying about the patio of the city’s Lake Pavilion. The pavilion, a glass-walled events venue that overlooks the waterfront and downtown’s Great Lawn, hosted 164 events …

Broadcasting & Cable reports: The House Energy & Commerce Committee has voted unanimously to dramatically raise the per-violation fines for illegal robocalls. That was part of an omnibus bill, the “Stopping Bad Robocalls Act,” which also passed unanimously (48-0)* as part of a markup for a couple dozen bills. The bill, actually a combination of five bills, had passed unanimously …

NBC News reports: Power was restored to the heart of New York City after a major outage impacted an estimated 72,000 customers, mostly in Manhattan’s midtown and Upper West Side. Con Edison said it completed power restoration to all customers on the West Side of Manhattan shortly before midnight and the last of six electrical networks was back in service. …

Courthouse News reports: A federal judge sided with health advocacy groups in ruling that the Food and Drug Administration must stop electronic cigarette companies from selling their products until they win approval from the agency. In a lawsuit filed in March of last year, the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Heart Association, American Lung Association and other groups and physicians …

CNBC reports: The Food and Drug Administration said Monday it sent warning letters to more than a dozen companies the agency said are “illegally selling” products that claim to prevent or cure Alzheimer’s disease. Many of these products, which are often sold on websites and social media platforms, “have not been reviewed by the FDA and are not proven safe …

Reuters reports: President Trump is picking David Bernhardt, a former energy lobbyist, to be the Interior Department’s next secretary. Bernhardt, whose past clients include oil companies and others with business before the Interior Department, became the agency’s deputy secretary in 2017 and has led the department on an interim basis since former Secretary Ryan Zinke resigned amid ethics scandals in …

Buffalo’s ABC affiliate reports: The New York State Senate passed a series of historic reforms Monday that will allow victims of child sexual abuse to seek justice through the court system once they become adults. The Senate unanimously passed the long-awaited Child Victims Act as victims of priests from the Diocese of Buffalo and other institutions looked on. Victims of …

The Associated Press reports: After weeks of uncertainty amidst the partial government shutdown, President Donald Trump and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi have finally agreed on a day for the State of the Union Address before a joint session of Congress. According to a letter made public by Pelosi’s office, the two agreed on Feb. 5 to deliver the …

“She has just whipped the president of the United States. You know I’m an animated, energetic supporter of this president, but you’ve got to call it as it is. This president said it was going to be conditional, border security, building that wall, and he just reversed himself. That’s a victory for Nancy Pelosi. It will be perceived as such …

Bloomberg reports: President Trump insisted that he did not concede to Congressional Democrats by ending the government shutdown without getting money for his desired wall along the southern border in a Friday evening tweet. In remarks in the Rose Garden, Trump explained that if no border security deal was made by Feb. 15, the government could close down again or …

Roll Call reports: Yes, there is a deal to re-open the parts of the government shutdown since Dec. 22. No, we don’t know when the State of the Union will happen. “The State of the Union is not planned,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said. She reiterated what she said to President Donald Trump in her recent letters, that when the …

ABC News reports: President Donald Trump is expected to announce a proposal to temporarily reopen government, ending the 35-day shutdown with a clean bill to end the shutdown without obtaining any funding for his $5.7 billion border wall request, according to congressional and White House sources. Trump is expected to break the news in a statement in the Rose Garden, …

NBC New York reports: A ground stop has been ordered at LaGuardia airport due to staffing related issues, the Federal Aviation Administration said Friday. The stop was ordered shortly before 10 a.m. Some arriving flights are also being delayed. The government shutdown has entered its 35th day, the longest federal shutdown over. The New York Times reports: Significant flight delays …

The Washington Post reports: Republican senators clashed with one another and confronted Vice President Pence inside a private luncheon on Thursday, as anger hit a boiling point over the longest government shutdown in history. “This is your fault,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) told Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) at one point, according to two Republicans who attended the lunch and …

The Houston Chronicle reports: The 200 employees at NASA’s Johnson Space Center being asked to work without pay as shutdown surpasses the one month mark now are being asked to do something else for free: clean the bathrooms. A NASA manager tweeted Thursday a photo of a sign asking for volunteers to clean up the bathrooms once a week until …

The Hill reports: President Trump’s top economic advisor on Thursday said federal employees were “volunteering” to work amid the partial government shutdown in part because of their “allegiance to President Trump.” “They honor us and they do it because of their love for their country and the office of the presidency and presumably their allegiance to President Trump,” National Economic …

Axios reports: The Republican-backed Senate proposal to reopen the government, which included $5.7 billion to fund President Trump’s border wall, failed to garner the 60 votes needed in a procedural vote Thursday to advance the measure. The final tally for the Republican proposal was 50-47. Republican Sens. Mike Lee (Utah) and Tom Cotton (Ark.) — an immigration hardliner — voted …

The Washington Post reports: White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney has pressed agency leaders to provide him with a list of the highest-impact programs that will be jeopardized if the shutdown continues into March and April, people familiar with the directive said. Mulvaney wants the list no later than Friday, these people said, and it’s the firmest evidence …

Politico reports: The White House is expected to soon name Joe Grogan as the next head of its Domestic Policy Council, two sources with knowledge of the decision told POLITICO. The move would elevate Grogan, a top Office of Management and Budget health care official and ally of acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, to a role that …