US House Democrats Pick Congressman Hakeem Jeffries as New Leader

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Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives picked a new leader Wednesday, New York Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, who will become the first Black person to lead either major political party in Congress when the new congressional session opens in January. The 52-year-old Jeffries, a House member for 10 years, has vowed to “get things done,” even though Democrats lost their narrow majority to opposition Republicans in the chamber in the November 8 elections. His selection, in a unanimous vote by acclamation at a caucus of party lawmakers, marks a generational shift for Democrats. Outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 82,more

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House Votes to Avert Rail Strike, Impose Deal on Unions

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The U.S. House moved urgently to head off the looming nationwide rail strike on Wednesday, passing a bill that would bind companies and workers to a proposed settlement that was reached in September but rejected by some of the 12 unions involved.  The measure passed by a vote of 290-137 and now heads to the Senate. If approved there, it will be quickly signed by President Joe Biden, who requested the action.  Biden on Monday asked Congress to intervene and avert the rail stoppage that could strike a devastating blow to the nation’s fragile economy by disrupting the transportation ofmore

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Biden Hails Semiconductor Plant as ‘Game Changer’ for American Manufacturing

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President Joe Biden on Tuesday toured a $300 million semiconductor manufacturing facility in Michigan that aims to create 150 jobs and said the U.S. was “not going to be held hostage anymore” by countries like China that dominate the industry.  “Instead of relying on chips made overseas in places like China, the supply chain for those chips will be here in America,” Biden said to a crowd of more than 400 people who gathered to see him at an SK Siltron CSS facility in Bay City. “In Michigan. It’s a game changer.”  The company is part of the South Koreanmore

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US Senate Votes to Protect Same-Sex, Interracial Marriages at Federal Level

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U.S. senators voted to protect same-sex and interracial marriages Tuesday, 61-36.  Twelve Republicans voted for the legislation, which will head to U.S. President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law after final passage in the U.S. House.     “Our community really needs a win, we have been through a lot,” said Kelley Robinson, the incoming president of Human Rights Campaign, which advocates on LGBTQ issues. “As a queer person who is married, I feel a sense of relief right now. I know my family is safe.”  The legislation repeals the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act that defines marriage as betweenmore

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Right-wing Oath Keepers Founder Convicted of Sedition in US Capitol Attack Plot

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Stewart Rhodes, founder of the right-wing Oath Keepers militia group, was convicted by a jury on Tuesday of seditious conspiracy for last year’s attack on the U.S. Capitol in a failed bid to overturn then-President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss — an important victory for the Justice Department. Rhodes, a Yale Law School-educated former Army paratrooper and disbarred attorney, was accused by prosecutors during an eight-week trial of fomenting a plot to use force to block Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s election victory over Trump. Rhodes was the best-known of the five defendants in the most significant of themore

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