Republicans

Ars Technica reports: Flu season is ramping up across the US, but Louisiana—the state that has reportedly barred its health department from promoting flu shots, as well as COVID-19 and mpox vaccines—is leading the country with an early and strong surge. Louisiana’s flu activity has reached the “Very High” category set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according …

Axios reports: The House Ethics Committee’s report into former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) had been poised to stay officially buried — until two centrist Republicans on the panel unexpectedly voted to release it, Axios has learned. Reps. Dave Joyce [photol (R-Ohio) and Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) sided with the committee’s five Democrats in voting to release the report, two sources familiar …

The Texas Tribune reports: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Sunday he sued the National Collegiate Athletic Association, accusing the organization of misleading college sports fans by allowing transgender women to participate in events marketed as women’s competitions. Paxton said the NCAA violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act by deceiving fans who want to support sporting events that only …

Tim Miller writes at The Bulwark: I was standing beside the step-and-repeat at James O’Keefe’s annual AmFest afterparty nursing a bourbon and coke when out of the corner-of-my-eye emerged a face that was mostly familiar, minus the signature sepia blur. The face was approaching fast. Wide TV-anchor smile. Caked-on makeup. Main-character energy. I quickly realized I was in its sights. …

“Once again, Democrats side with depraved criminals over their victims, public order, and common decency. Democrats can’t even defend Biden’s outrageous decision as some kind of principled, across-the-board opposition to the death penalty since he didn’t commute the three most politically toxic cases. Democrats are the party of politically convenient justice.” – Sen. Tom Cotton, after Biden commuted the death …

The House Ethics Committee writes: On December 23, 2024, the Committee on Ethics (Committee) released the attached Report regarding allegations relating to Representative Matt Gaetz. The Committee previously noted that there has been a significant and unusual amount of reporting on its activities during its review of the matter of Representative Gaetz, and much of that reporting has been inaccurate. …

Axios reports: Congress’ long-simmering debate over the age of its members has resurfaced over revelations that Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas) has been living in an independent living facility in Texas. Granger’s son Brandon told the Dallas Morning News that she has been “having some dementia issues late in the year.” Brandon Granger pushed back on a report from the Dallas …

“I watched him [Mike Johnson] make the number one priority of his Speakership funding Ukraine without any audit at all, at a time when the U.S. border was open, the United States itself was being invaded. And his priority was protecting the borders of a country whose language he doesn’t speak, he knows nothing about. It’s not the only country …

“Republican senators, we, the voters of this movement, will not accept the answer that you voted for Joe Biden’s nominees like Lloyd Austin but refuse Trump’s. “Many have asked which perch I will be fighting from next. And some of you throughout this conference have even given me a few suggestions. “My fellow Floridians have asked me to eye the …

“We have a president, we have a vice president, we have a speaker. It feels as if Elon Musk is our prime minister! And I spoke with Elon a couple of times this week. I think many of us — well, unelected – but he has a voice. And I think a large part of that voice is a reflection …

Truthout reports: After a record-breaking year for anti-trans legislation, 2025 is shaping up to be even more challenging for transgender and queer people across the United States. A legislative tracker maintained by Erin In The Morning and other volunteers has found that nearly 120 anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ bills have already been filed in states nationwide ahead of the 2025 legislative …

The Hill reports: Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio praised his son Anthony, a walk-on player for the Florida Gators, who scored his first touchdown in the school’s Gasparilla Bowl on Friday night. Anthony Rubio, a running back, scored in the waning minutes of the game against Tulane. Florida won, 33-8. The touchdown set off a frenzy among his teammates, with …

CNN reports: Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky called Speaker Mike Johnson’s handling of the situation “not that great,” saying he had a lack of “situational awareness” to know the first bill wouldn’t pass. He also expressed frustration at adding a debt limit increase into the bill, after President-elect Donald Trump demanded it on Thursday. “In some sense, there’s an institutional …

Axios reports: The MAGA-verse, with President-elect Trump and Elon Musk at the helm, continues to wield unprecedented power over Congress — but it has also found its limits. Three times now, the influential voices surrounding Trump — often organizing on X — have failed to get exactly what they want. John Thune was elected to be Senate majority leader, despite …

Cleveland’s ABC affiliate reports: Advocates condemned Ohio lawmakers for passing another anti-LGBTQ bill as the General Assembly wrapped up, urging Gov. Mike DeWine to veto the legislation, though DeWine has indicated he will sign it. The Ohio Senate passed House Bill 8 and the Ohio House concurred with changes made to the bill, sending it to DeWine’s desk. He will …

Politico reports: House Republicans voted in their closed-door conference meeting to pursue a funding plan that will require Democratic votes and strips out a debt limit measure President-elect Donald Trump is pushing, according to more than a dozen Republicans leaving the meeting. The plan will also include a one-year farm bill extension and the $110 billion disaster aid package Republicans …

The Washington Post reports: The relationship between billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and billionaire Tesla and SpaceX owner Elon Musk is warming up, a Friday morning exchange on Musk’s social media app X suggested. Two days after the tech titans dined together with President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Bezos broadcast his agreement with Musk’s opinion that it was necessary to …

“When I was speaker, we had two government shutdowns, one was pretty long, I think 20 some days. It convinced President Clinton that we were serious and it convinced the American people that we were going to keep our word even if it was hard. “I think that everybody misjudged what President Trump won when they bring in a 1,500 …

Florida Politics reports: New legislation could give the state government control over presidential libraries, in a move seemingly designed to stop local interference against a future facility for President-elect Donald Trump. Rep. Alex Andrade will carry the House version of the legislation. “I think it’s brilliant,” the Panhandle Republican told Florida Politics. Central to the legislative premise is the idea …

Amarillo’s ABC affiliate reports: The Bible is back on Canyon ISD shelves after being temporarily removed under a new state law banning sexually explicit material from school libraries. House Bill 900, known as the READER Act (Restricting Explicit and Adult Designated Educational Resources), states, “a library material vendor must perform a contextual analysis of the material to determine whether the …