Tag Archives: Trump administration

Melania Unveils “Be Best” Ambassadors To Help Kids

Newsweek reports: First lady Melania Trump on Monday announced new Be Best ambassadors to help “improve the lives of children,” at the same time as the Trump administration continues to receive heavy criticism for the conditions that migrant children face in border detention facilities. A White House press release stated that Trump was expanding her signature Be Best initiative aimed …

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Ross Aide Refused To Answer Questions On US Census

Politico reports: A former senior Commerce Department official refused to answer more than 100 questions during an interview with the House Oversight and Reform Committee that centered on the Trump administration’s controversial decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, according to a transcript released Tuesday. Commerce Department lawyers instructed James Uthmeier, who served as senior adviser and …

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Trump Admin Gave Stonewall’s Flagpole To New York So That A Rainbow Flag Would Not Fly On Federal Property

E & E News reports: After spending $66 to buy a new 3-by-5-foot nylon rainbow flag, the National Park Service flew it high at one of the agency’s newest monuments: the historic Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village, where a riot on June 28, 1969, launched the modern gay rights movement 50 years ago this week. But a trove …

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Treasury To Review Delay In Harriet Tubman $20 Bill

The New York Times reports: The Treasury Department’s internal watchdog has agreed to look into why designs of a new $20 bill featuring Harriet Tubman will not be unveiled next year. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, last week asked the Treasury Department’s inspector general to open an investigation following Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s announcement at a …

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USDA Buried Climate Change Crop Warning Reports

Politico reports: The Trump administration has refused to publicize dozens of government-funded studies that carry warnings about the effects of climate change, defying a longstanding practice of touting such findings by the Agriculture Department’s acclaimed in-house scientists. The studies range from a groundbreaking discovery that rice loses vitamins in a carbon-rich environment — a potentially serious health concern for the …

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Holocaust Museum Condemns Concentration Camp Analogies After Detention Centers Draw Comparisons

Just in via press release: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum unequivocally rejects efforts to create analogies between the Holocaust and other events, whether historical or contemporary. That position has repeatedly and unambiguously been made clear in the Museum’s official statement on the matter – a statement that is reiterated and reaffirmed now. The link to the Museum’s statement is …

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SCOTUS Okays FUCT, No Other Major Rulings Today

NPR reports: Dirty words make it to the U.S. Supreme Court only occasionally. One of those occasions came Monday, in a case involving a clothing line named “FUCT.” The issue is whether the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office acted unconstitutionally when it refused to grant trademark protection to the brand name. And, for the justices, the immediate problem was how …

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LEAKED: Trump Transition Vetting Docs Show Warnings Of Ties To White Supremacists, Ties To Russia, More

Axios reports: Nearly 100 internal Trump transition vetting documents leaked to “Axios on HBO” identify a host of “red flags” about officials who went on to get some of the most powerful jobs in the U.S. government. The first red flag for Rex Tillerson, who became Trump’s first Secretary of State, was about Russia. “Tillerson’s Russia ties go deep,” it …

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Major SCOTUS Rulings Due: Census, Gerrymandering

Reuters reports: The U.S. Supreme Court, approaching the end of its current term, is due to issue rulings in the coming days in major cases including the Trump administration’s bid to add a contentious citizenship question to the 2020 census and efforts by voters to curb the partisan manipulation of electoral district boundaries. The court, which has a 5-4 conservative …

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WH Unveils $50B Palestinian Investment Proposal

The Associated Press reports: The Trump administration on Sunday unveiled a $50 billion Palestinian investment and infrastructure proposal intended to be the economic engine to power its much-anticipated but still unreleased “deal of the century” Middle East peace plan. The scheme, which calls for a mix of public and private financing and intends to create at least a million new …

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Bolton To Iran: Don’t Mistake Discretion For Weakness

The New York Times reports: President Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, warned Tehran on Sunday not to “mistake U.S. prudence and discretion for weakness,” saying that military action against Iran remained very much an option even though the United States last week called off one military strike. Tensions between the two countries had brought Mr. Trump to the brink …

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Gallup: 71% Back Openly Transgender Military Service

Just in from Gallup: As President Donald Trump’s ban on most transgender military servicemembers continues to face legal challenges, 71% of Americans support allowing openly transgender men and women to serve in the military. These data are from a May 15-30 Gallup poll, which was conducted prior to a recent U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that allows the ban …

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Watchdog Group Files Hatch Act Complaint On Ivanka

The Hill reports: A watchdog group filed a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) on Thursday claiming Ivanka Trump, who is President Trump’s daughter and serves as his assistant, violated the Hatch Act, which bars federal employees from engaging in elections in their official capacity. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) cited a tweet from Ivanka …

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Barr Holds Pride Month Meeting With LGBT Staffers

Chris Johnson reports at the Washington Blade: In recognition of Pride Month, U.S. Attorney General William Barr held a closed-door meeting with LGBT attorneys and law enforcement officials who work for the U.S. Justice Department and heard about ongoing anti-LGBT workplace concerns within the FBI and the Bureau of Prisons, sources familiar with the meeting told the Washington Blade exclusively. …

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New York To Sue Over EPA’s New “Dirty Power” Rule

The Associated Press reports: New York’s attorney general says the state will sue to block the Trump administration’s rollback of an Obama-era rule designed to wean the nation’s electrical grid off coal-fired power plants and their climate-damaging pollution. Attorney General Letitia James announced the state’s intentions on Twitter shortly after the Environmental Protection Agency replaced the rule with a less …

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Poll: Only 24% Approve Of Trump’s LGBT Rights Policies

The Hill reports: Only 24 percent of U.S. adults approve of the Trump administration’ handling of LGBTQ rights while 38 percent disapprove, A Hill-YouGov poll has found. Republicans expressed stronger support than Democrats, but neither political party expressed overwhelming support for the administration’s LGBTQ policies. Just 8 percent of Democratic respondents either somewhat or strongly approve of the administration’s handling …

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EPA Rolls Back Obama-Era Plan To Cut Coal Emissions

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration on Wednesday finalized a package of new rules to replace the Clean Power Plan, former President Barack Obama’s signature effort to reduce planet-warming emissions from coal plants. The new measure, known as the Affordable Clean Energy rule, will very likely prompt a flurry of legal challenges from environmental groups that could have …

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Trump’s Secretary Of Defense Nominee Drops Out After Allegations Of 2010 Domestic Violence Incident [VIDEO]

Here’s what this is likely all about: Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan released a written statement Monday night, addressing a violent domestic dispute from nine years ago with his then-wife. The 2010 incident is part of an FBI background investigation ahead of his possible confirmation hearing to be President Trump’s permanent defense chief. “After having been confirmed for deputy secretary …

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Pompeo Overrides Own Experts, Blocks Saudi Arabia From US List Of Countries That Recruit Child Soldiers

Reuters reports: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has blocked the inclusion of Saudi Arabia on a U.S. list of countries that recruit child soldiers, dismissing his experts’ findings that a Saudi-led coalition has been using under-age fighters in Yemen’s civil war, according to four people familiar with the matter. The decision, which came after a fierce internal debate, could prompt …

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FAA Moves On Allowing Civilian Supersonic Air Travel

Reuters reports: The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Monday it is moving to rewrite testing rules to allow for the eventual return of civil supersonic air travel. At an event in Paris on Monday, Acting FAA Administrator Dan Elwell said the agency is working to “enable the return of civil supersonic travel, while ensuring the environmental impacts are …

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