Republican McConnell Says He Would Block a Biden Supreme Court Pick in 2024

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U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Monday that President Joe Biden would not get a Supreme Court nominee confirmed in 2024 if Republicans regain control of the chamber and a vacancy arises during that presidential election year. “It’s highly unlikely. In fact, no, I don’t think either party, if it were different from the president, would confirm a Supreme Court nominee in the middle of an election,” McConnell told syndicated conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. McConnell could return as majority leader if Republicans regain control of the Senate in the 2022 midterm elections. While serving as majority leader, McConnell blockedmore

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US Supreme Court Seeks Biden Views on Harvard Admissions Dispute

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The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday asked President Joe Biden’s administration to give its views on whether the justices should hear a challenge to Harvard University’s consideration of race in undergraduate student admissions. The case, should it be taken up by the court, would give the court’s conservative majority a chance to end affirmative action policies used to increase the number of Black and Hispanic students on American campuses. The action by the court signals the interest of at least some of the nine justices in considering an appeal brought by a group called Students for Fair Admissions, founded bymore

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US Attorney General Vows to Combat Efforts to Curb Voting Rights

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U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland warned Friday that the Justice Department would vigorously oppose state efforts to impose new curbs on voting rights for many Americans, particularly Blacks and other minorities.“We’re scrutinizing new laws that seek to curb access, and where we see violations, we will not hesitate to act,” Garland said in a speech at the Justice Department in which he announced his agency would double its voting rights enforcement staff over the next 30 days.“We’re also scrutinizing current laws and practices in order to determine whether they discriminate against Black voters and other voters of color,” Garland said, addingmore

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US Department of Justice Probes Secret Seizure of House Democrats’ Data

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The U.S. Department of Justice Office of Inspector General says it is beginning a review of the department’s use of subpoenas to obtain communication records of U.S. lawmakers and members of the media.The review comes after Democratic Representatives Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell were informed that the Justice Department had taken their metadata from Apple in 2018 as part of a crackdown on leaks in the Russia probe and other national security issues, according to The Associated Press. The news agency attributed the information to three sources with knowledge of the seizures.House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., talks tomore

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Oregon State Legislature Removes Republican Lawmaker for Helping Protesters Breach Capitol

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The legislature in the western U.S. state of Oregon Thursday voted 59-1 to remove a Republican lawmaker from office for his role in allowing right-wing protesters to breach the capitol during a demonstration against COVID-19 lockdowns in December.On the floor of the state House of Representatives late Thursday, Republicans voted with the majority Democrats to remove Representative Mike Nearman, with the unapologetic Nearman the only dissenting vote. He is the first legislator expelled from office in the state’s 162-year history.A special bipartisan committee appointed by Democratic House Speaker Tina Kotek to consider the expulsion had also voted earlier in themore

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Some Chinese Provinces Suspend College Mergers After Student Protests

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Education authorities in China’s eastern Jiangsu province have suspended a plan to merge independent colleges with vocational institutes after student protests led to a violent confrontation with the police.Such protests are rare in China because authorities tightly control mass movements to maintain social stability.The Jiangsu students attending independent colleges, and their parents, see the merger as devaluing their attainment. They view a bachelor’s degree from an independent college as worth more in China’s highly competitive job market than a so-called professional bachelor’s diploma from the less prestigious vocational colleges, according to a Communist Party-controlled media outlet, the Global Times.What themore

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Leak of IRS Data Reveals Tax Strategies of America’s Wealthiest 

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An unprecedented leak of the personal federal tax data of thousands of Americans has turbocharged a debate over wealth inequality in the United States and has tax reform advocates hopeful that a deeper public understanding of how the wealthy avoid taxes will lead to a restructuring of the U.S. tax code.The data, leaked to the nonprofit journalism organization ProPublica, includes detailed information on the tax filings of thousands of the wealthiest individuals in the country and extends over more than 15 years.This week, ProPublica used the data to give the nation its first detailed look at the extent to whichmore

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Trump Officials Seized Apple Data of 2 Democratic Lawmakers, NY Times Says

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Prosecutors in the U.S. Justice Department under former president Donald Trump seized data from Apple from two Democratic lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee, as well as that of their staff and family members, The New York Times reported Thursday.Subpoenas for the communications metadata targeted congressman Adam Schiff of California, a Trump foe who was then the panel’s top Democrat and now its chairman, the paper said.Congressman Eric Swalwell told CNN on Thursday he was the second Democratic lawmaker on the committee who was targeted.”I was notified… by Apple that they did seize my records. It’s wrong,” he said.According tomore

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China, Russia Military Budgets Combined Exceed US Spending, Top General Says

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China and Russia’s combined military spending exceeds that of the United States when adjusted for purchasing power, which has allowed China to shorten capability gaps in its quest to become the top superpower by midcentury, the top U.S. military officer said Thursday.”Combined, the Russian and Chinese budgets exceed our budgets if all the cards are put on the table,” Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley told the Senate Armed Services Committee. He called China’s increased spending trend “disturbing.”Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, left, and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, arrive for a Senate Armed Services budget hearing on Capitolmore

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Joe Manchin: The West Virginia Senator Blocking Joe Biden’s Agenda

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A long-simmering battle within the Democratic Party came to a head this week when  Democratic Senator Joe Manchin announced he will not support a sweeping package of voting rights reforms because no Republicans are willing to vote for it.   At the same time, he repeated his vow to vote to protect a Senate rule, called the filibuster, that allows a minority of the body to prevent pieces of legislation from receiving an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor.  FILE – Gov. Joe Manchin, left, is sworn into office for a second term at the Capitol in Charleston, West Virginia, Jan.more

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US Attorney General Warns Ransomware ‘Getting Worse and Worse’

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U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland warned Wednesday that ransom-motivated cyberattacks are “getting worse and worse,” echoing other top Biden administration officials who have sounded the alarm about the problem in recent weeks.  “We have to do everything we possibly can here,” Garland told lawmakers. “This is a very, very serious threat.”  The attorney general’s warning during a Senate hearing on the Justice Department’s fiscal 2022 budget request followed a pair of high-profile ransomware attacks over the past month that have rattled the U.S. national security and law enforcement establishment and sparked calls for beefed-up cyber defenses.  In a ransomware attack,more

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US University to Help Deaf Youth in Nigeria

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An American private university dedicated to the education of the deaf and hard of hearing says it will use a grant from the U.S. government to assist deaf youth in Nigeria.Gallaudet University in Washington said it will use the $2.05 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to help Nigeria develop programs for the education of deaf, deaf-blind and hard of hearing in the West African nation, which sends more students to the U.S. than any other on the continent.More than 400 languages are spoken in Nigeria, and the initiative intends to make Nigerian Sign Language “more widelymore

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Senate Passes Bill to Boost US Tech Industry, Counter Rivals

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The Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill Tuesday that aims to boost U.S. semiconductor production and the development of artificial intelligence and other technology in the face of growing international competition, most notably from China. The 68-32 vote for the bill demonstrates how confronting China economically is an issue that unites both parties in Congress. That’s a rarity in an era of division as pressure grows on Democrats to change Senate rules to push past Republican opposition and gridlock. The centerpiece of the bill is a $50 billion emergency allotment to the Commerce Department to stand up semiconductor development and manufacturing through researchmore

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Heart Disease Seen in Some Younger COVID-19 Patients

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Health professionals continue to see heart disease in some young people who have had COVID-19, those who have been vaccinated against the virus, and among student athletes, in general.Cardiomyopathy is an inflammation and weakening in the walls of the heart.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta has reviewed vaccine safety data weekly since the start of the U.S. vaccination program and cautions that cases among those who have received the COVID-19 vaccine are “mild and few.” The agency says the condition appears in males more than females, more often following the second shot in a two-dosemore

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Key Democratic Senator Voices Opposition to Voting Law Reforms

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A key U.S. centrist Democratic lawmaker, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, adamantly voiced his opposition Sunday to sweeping nationalization of voting laws favored by President Joe Biden and other Democrats.Manchin, perhaps the most conservative Democrat in the 100-member U.S. Senate, said in an opinion article in a home-state newspaper, the Charleston Gazette-Mail, and in a “Fox News Sunday” television interview that he will continue to oppose the voting reforms because they are too partisan and have not drawn any Republican congressional support.In the television interview, Manchin described the measure as “the wrong piece of legislation. It will continue to dividemore

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Key US Senator Voices His Opposition to Voting Law Reforms

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A key U.S. centrist Democratic lawmaker, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, adamantly voiced his opposition Sunday to sweeping nationalization of voting laws favored by President Joe Biden and other Democrats.Manchin, perhaps the most conservative Democrat in the 100-member U.S. Senate, said in an opinion article in a home-state newspaper, the Charleston Gazette-Mail, and in a “Fox News Sunday” television interview that he will continue to oppose the voting reforms because they are too partisan and have not drawn any Republican congressional support.In the television interview, Manchin described the measure as “the wrong piece of legislation. It will continue to dividemore

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Trump to GOP: Support Candidates Who ‘Stand for Our Values’ 

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Former President Donald Trump on Saturday urged Republicans to support those candidates who share his values in next year’s midterm elections as he launched a new phase of his post-presidency.Trump teased the prospect of presidential bid of his own in 2024 but vowed first to be an active presence on the campaign trail for his allies in next year’s fight for control of Congress.”The survival of America depends on our ability to elect Republicans at every level starting with the midterms next year,” Trump said.Trump delivered his latest comments in a speech to hundreds of Republican officials and activists gatheredmore

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Infrastructure Bill Would Upgrade Aging US Waterways System

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It’s a routine sight on the Illinois River: towboats slowly pushing barges carrying everything from salt and petroleum to corn and soybeans.”This is the backbone of our economy,” said Tom Heinold, chief of the operations division for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Rock Island District. “Here in the upper Midwest, we feed the world from right here.”Heinold oversees Corps of Engineers facilities along the Illinois River, including the Starved Rock Lock and Dam near Utica. The National Waterways Foundation says the statewide system moves more than 83 million tons of freight annually, worth more than $13 billion to themore

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JPMorgan Freezes Donations to Republicans who Contested 2020 Election

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JPMorgan Chase & Co will resume making political donations to U.S. lawmakers but will not give to Republican members of Congress who voted to overturn President Joe Biden’s election victory, according to an internal memo Friday seen by Reuters.The country’s largest lender was among many corporations that paused political giving following the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot when supporters of former president Donald Trump tried to stop Congress from certifying the election.Just hours later, 147 Republicans, the vast majority of them in the House of Representatives, voted to overturn the Electoral College results which Trump falsely claimed were tainted bymore

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Ex-Counsel Tells Congress of Trump Efforts to Undercut Russia Probe, Democrats Say 

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A former White House counsel “shed new light” on the investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. elections and the pressure he was under to stymie the federal probe, congressional Democrats said Friday. Don McGahn, who served as Donald Trump’s presidential lawyer for nearly two years before resigning in October 2018, testified in a daylong, closed-door session before the House Judiciary Committee.McGahn appeared under a subpoena issued about two years ago to testify as the committee was looking into allegations of wrongdoing by Trump. Late in 2019, the House voted to impeach Trump on charges of abuse of power andmore

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Biden’s Pledge on Media Freedom May Be Easier Said Than Done

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One of the Biden Justice Department’s first big moves has been to alert reporters at three major news organizations that their phone records were seized as part of leak investigations under the Trump administration, with President Joe Biden saying he would abandon the practice of spying on journalists.   But while Biden’s stated commitment that his Justice Department won’t seize reporters’ phone records has won support from press freedom groups, it remains unclear if that promise can be kept, especially because Democratic and Republican administrations alike have relied on the tactic in an effort to track down leaks of classifiedmore

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‘I’ll Likely Never See Eye to Eye with Trump on Jan. 6’, Pence Says

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Former Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday that he wasn’t sure that he and former President Donald Trump would ever see “eye to eye” over what happened on Jan. 6 but that he would “always be proud of what we accomplished for the American people over the last four years.”Pence, speaking at a Republican dinner in the early-voting state of New Hampshire, gave his most extensive comments to date on the events of Jan. 6, when angry Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, some chanting “Hang Mike Pence!” after the vice president said he did not have the power to overturnmore

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After 2-year Battle, House Panel to Interview Trump Counsel

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The House Judiciary Committee is poised to question former White House counsel Don McGahn behind closed doors on Friday, two years after House Democrats originally sought his testimony as part of investigations into former President Donald Trump.     The long-awaited interview is the result of an agreement reached last month in federal court. House Democrats — then investigating whether Trump tried to obstruct the Justice Department’s probes into his presidential campaign’s ties to Russia — originally sued after McGahn defied an April 2019 subpoena on Trump’s orders.   That same month, the Justice Department released a redacted version ofmore

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Pence: I’ll Likely Never See Eye to Eye with Trump on Jan. 6

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Former Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday that he wasn’t sure that he and former President Donald Trump would ever see “eye to eye” over what happened on Jan. 6 but that he would “always be proud of what we accomplished for the American people over the last four years.”Pence, speaking at a Republican dinner in the early-voting state of New Hampshire, gave his most extensive comments to date on the events of Jan. 6, when angry Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, some chanting “Hang Mike Pence!” after the vice president said he did not have the power to overturnmore

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