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U.S. House passes Wounded Knee memorial bill
By: Jacob Fischler - September 21, 2023
The U.S. House approved by voice vote Wednesday a bill that would help protect land at the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre in South Dakota, where an estimated 350 Lakota were killed by U.S. soldiers. The site is within the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River […]
U.S. Senate confirms a military nominee, the first since Tuberville blockade began
By: Jacob Fischler - September 21, 2023
The U.S. Senate confirmed a nominee for a high-ranking military post Wednesday night and advanced another, the first votes on military nominations or promotions since Alabama Republican Tommy Tuberville started blocking them seven months ago to protest Defense Department abortion policies. Tuberville did not object to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, […]
U.S. Senate panel grapples with how to ensure access to water amid Western drought
By: Jacob Fischler - September 20, 2023
Decades of drought in the West has made water quality and quantity a major issue requiring government funding and innovation to fix, members of a U.S. Senate panel said Wednesday. Demand for water in growing municipalities is stretching agricultural and tribal communities, while shrinking availability is leading to higher water prices, witnesses told the Senate […]
Former U.S. Capitol Police chief blames intelligence failures, not Trump, for Jan. 6 attack
By: Jacob Fischler - September 20, 2023
The FBI and U.S. Department of Homeland Security failed to share intelligence with the U.S. Capitol Police ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, leaving the Capitol Police under-prepared for that day’s violence, the former chief of the Capitol Police told a U.S. House panel chaired by Georgia Republican Barry Loudermilk on Tuesday. But Democrats […]
Battles over spending, farm bill, Ukraine and yet more loom over a divided Congress
By: Jennifer Shutt, Jacob Fischler, Ariana Figueroa and Ashley Murray - September 14, 2023
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House and Senate were back in D.C. on Tuesday following a long summer recess, facing an overwhelming agenda of unfinished work — funding the federal government and reauthorizing major programs set to expire at the end of the month. Congressional leaders and President Joe Biden have only a few weeks to […]
Biden to nominate former FAA deputy to lead aviation agency
By: Jacob Fischler - September 7, 2023
President Joe Biden chose a new nominee to lead the Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday, months after the U.S. Senate blocked his first choice. Biden intends to nominate Michael G. Whitaker, an executive at Supernal, a company working on an electric air vehicle, and a former deputy FAA administrator during President Barack Obama’s administration, according […]
New federal water pollution rule draws mixed reaction
By: Jacob Fischler - August 30, 2023
A federal rule limiting agencies’ power to regulate water pollution will severely restrict protections for waters and wetlands throughout the country, but it could also be subject to challenges from conservative groups that maintain the new rule exerts more federal jurisdiction than the U.S. Supreme Court intended in a May decision. The rule published Tuesday […]
Labor leader Shuler touts union support as possible auto strikes loom
By: Jacob Fischler - August 29, 2023
Support for unions is growing amid shifting working conditions and labor disputes around the country, according to Liz Shuler, the president of the largest labor group in the country. In Shuler’s comments Tuesday at the AFL-CIO’s first State of the Unions event in Washington, she cited polling that showed support for unions cut across party […]
‘Hate will not prevail in America’: Biden marks 60 years since March on Washington
By: Jacob Fischler - August 28, 2023
The U.S. still hasn’t met the goals of the Civil Rights Movement, President Joe Biden said Monday, the 60th anniversary of one of the movement’s most iconic events. Six decades to the day after the 1963 March on Washington, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, Biden urged Americans not […]
Biden administration proposes $106 million for Western salmon and steelhead recovery
By: Jacob Fischler - August 17, 2023
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is recommending sending $106 million to 16 salmon and steelhead recovery efforts in five Western states, the federal agency said Thursday. NOAA and the Department of Commerce recommended grants to state agencies with salmon protection missions, tribes and tribal partnerships in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and California. The funding […]
Updated: The Trump indictments: a seven-year timeline of key developments
By: Jacob Fischler - August 9, 2023
Former President Donald Trump is a defendant in four criminal proceedings. Two cases are federal, brought after investigations by Special Counsel Jack Smith. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg brought the first indictment against Trump, charging him in New York state court. The most recent prosecution, in Georgia state court, is being led by Fulton County […]
Trump pleads not guilty to charges he sought to subvert 2020 election
By: Ashley Murray and Jacob Fischler - August 3, 2023
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to four felony charges Thursday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., after a federal grand jury handed up an indictment against the former chief executive. Trump, the front-runner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, was released under the conditions that he must not violate federal, […]