Confirmation Backlog Leaves Biden’s State Department Badly Understaffed

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Nine months after taking office, President Joe Biden has seen only 20 of his appointments to the State Department confirmed by the Senate, with nearly half of the 167 American ambassadorships empty and dozens of key policy positions staffed by unconfirmed officials serving in an “acting” role.  The number of empty desks at the State Department is partly Biden’s own fault, according to analysts. He was slow to nominate candidates for dozens of the 264 positions at State that require confirmation by the Senate, and still hasn’t named 57 of them. However, many of the key positions remain unfilled becausemore

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Biden Ties Legislative Agenda to MLK Push for Racial Justice

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President Joe Biden on Thursday tied his legislative priorities on voting rights, police reform and climate change to Martin Luther King Jr.’s push for racial justice as he marked the 10th anniversary of the opening of the civil rights leader’s memorial on the National Mall.  Biden, introduced by Vice President Kamala Harris, sought to reassure his supporters that he wouldn’t let up the fight as he works to muscle his massive social spending bill through a divided Congress. Invoking King, Biden said the country was still working to live up to those ideals as a nation and had reached anmore

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US House Votes to Hold Trump Adviser Bannon in Contempt

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The U.S. House of Representatives voted Thursday to hold Steve Bannon, one of former President Donald Trump’s longtime advisers, in contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with a congressional inquiry into the January 6 rioting at the U.S. Capitol.  The House voted 229-202, with a handful of Republican lawmakers, including Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, both members of the panel conducting the investigation, joining the Democratic majority in the House in voting against Bannon.  The citation will now be sent to the federal prosecutor in Washington for presentation to a grand jury for possible indictment of Bannon. Hemore

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Neuroscientist Leaves Rich Legacy for Students From Diverse Backgrounds

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A Pakistani neuroscientist who came to the U.S. as an international student has died at 43, leaving behind a movement of support for diverse and nontraditional young scientists. “My campaign will provide awards to young scientists from backgrounds that are diverse, under-resourced, marginalized or traditionally under-represented in psychological and neural sciences,” Nadia Chaudhri wrote in May, when she started a GoFundMe page to help students pay to attend the annual conference for the Research Society on Alcoholism. “I am targeting funds to these groups to provide a specific leg up to young scientists who may face hardship due to systemicmore

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