All posts in October 2021

A new bundle of reporting is out on what’s being branded as the “Facebook Papers,” a mountain of leaked internal company documents and communications currently being combed over by a variety of news outlets. There are several new revelations this time around, although we may be stretching the definition of “revelations” for anyone who has…

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated an already prevalent issue in our country, racism against Asian Americans. Reports indicating the surge in hate crimes against the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community continue as people report more often, allowing data to be more accurate. But while each report indicates alarming rates, newly republished data by the FBI…

President Joe Biden has picked roughly one-third of the nominees for positions in his administration that require Senate confirmation; 405 identified out of about 1,200 total slots. There are another 2,500+ positions that are political appointments not needing confirmation, many of which have burrowed Trumpers still hanging around. He’s been chipping away at it, and some of…

In the indictment, filed on Thursday, Riley was on active duty in the K-9 unit, and while he was not in the Capitol building on Jan. 6, he did respond to reports of an explosive device near the Capitol grounds. The obstruction comes after a new Facebook friendship Riley had begun with someone—identified as “Person 1”—posted “’selfie’-style photographs, videos, and other commentary on Facebook admitting his presence and conduct inside the U.S. Capitol on…

“This is very big, big deal. This is a signal like we’ve never had before in the United States about where we can go with offshore wind,” Dan Reicher, a former assistant secretary of energy who now works in the wind industry, told The New York Times. The Biden administration previously approved a wind farm offshore of Massachusetts…

Texas Republicans have tried over and over to force anti-trans student-athlete bills through the House, only to fall short of their goal. There have been three prior attempts to move bills like this forward. Rep. Valoree Swanson, who authored HB25, was gloating over her near-victory by the time lawmakers were set to vote. There wasn’t…

On the question of the White House documents, “President Biden has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States, and therefore is not justified as to any of the documents,” White House counsel Dana Remus wrote.  “Congress is examining an assault on our Constitution and democratic…

While everyone thought Trump was winning, his accounting firm, WeiserMazars LLP, disclosed the reality in confidential reports to GSA that the hotel lost nearly $73.9 million. The House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform called the discrepancy of the Trump International Hotel records “troubling.” The hotel is located in the historic Old Post Office building that the…

Before Mellon’s intervention, Abbott’s fund had a final destination of Flopsville, raising just $1.25 million as of mid-August. For context, the $2 billion swindled by the previous president would still only cover a portion of costs. “But on Aug. 27, a state website that tracks donations to the crowdfunding effort said the fund had jumped to nearly $19 million,”…