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National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 21 (June 9–15)

June 18, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Well, I said last week that the respite wouldn’t last, and sure enough, this week we were back to some truly fetid stuff. I recommend you grab a stuffed animal to cuddle before we begin, because some of this week is pretty nauseating.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a subpoena! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

We have a bit more than average Russia Investigation news, most of it mind-numbing. Here’s what I have for you:

Subpoena Fights Continue.* The House voted to authorize the resolution from last week that would allow them to sue people who ignore subpoenas, because it would be nice to do that to Don McGahn if nothing else. But apparently wanting a backup plan, the House Oversight and Reform Committee also voted to hold Attorney General Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt of Congress for refusing to cough up documents related to the 2020 census. (Though, to be fair, that last bit is probably Trump’s fault, because he’s the one who invoked executive privilege on the relevant subject matter.)
Trump Jr. Testifies.* Donald Trump Jr was called to interview with the Senate Intelligence Committee a second time this week, and apparently did not care for the experience. He seems pretty sure this is the end of the Senate’s investigation, and honestly, it’s the Senate so he may be right. But there’s definitely a lot of emergent sketchy stuff since he last interviewed in 2017, so we’ll have to see what the committee does with what they learned this past week.
Foreign Intelligence Admissions.* This week’s “I can’t believe I’m not making this up” award goes to Trump flat-out saying that if offered, he would accept info from foreign governments on political opponents in the 2020 election. Needless to say, this is illegal as well as ignorant, which is probably why he had to backpedal furiously and get Mitch McConnell to do the same. Meanwhile, a Republican Senator blocked an attempt to require candidates to disclose foreign offers to the FBI. And the Justice Department continues to handle all of this by investigating the CIA’s Russia investigation, because we live in the dumpster timeline.

We continue to see Disregard of Governing Norms each week, but this week, not all of them came from Trump. Here’s what happened:

White House Staff Shuffle (Reprise).* Trump announced via tweet this week that Sarah Huckabee Sanders is resigning from her position as White House press secretary, after working for the administration about two and a half years (regardless of what Trump tweets). The news has people speculating about who will replace her, but the answer might be nobody — she limited the role more and more before leaving, and the communications director position has been open since March. But we do know for certain that Kellyanne Conway is not going anywhere, despite recommendations that she be removed due to multiple Hatch Act violations — because something something loyalty to Trump. (Raise your hand if you didn’t see that one coming.)
Pelosi Fuels the Feud. By now, Nancy Pelosi’s reluctance to bring impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump has inspired considerable frustration to those of us watching, but her restraint seems to have its limits. Pelosi has started clapping back to Trump’s insults, attributing them to projection and talking about him like a misbehaving child. There are strategic reasons that Pelosi might be choosing not to impeach, but it’s not entirely clear why she’s antagonizing him so much.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Flint Mulligan. The Internet felt its collective heart stop upon finding out that Michigan authorities have dropped all criminal charges relating to the Flint water crisis. But the full story is that while all charges were dropped and the investigation ended, the AG also plans to start another investigation, because the first one was botched pretty badly. Given the Michigan Attorney General’s record, perhaps people are right to be wary of another investigation from the same department.
Stewart: 9/11 Fund is No Joke. Though most of us think of former comedy news host Jon Stewart as his wisecracking and witty show persona, his response to the House Judiciary Committee’s poor attendance at a hearing for 9/11 first responders’ medical care funds was deadly serious. Referring to the empty seats as an “incredible metaphor” for the Committee’s disregard for the “sick and dying,” Stewart pulled no punches and called the hearing an “embarrassment to this country.” Whether or not Stewart’s impassioned pleas were the tipping point, the Committee voted unanimously to advance a bill to extend the fund.

The Bad:

Tariff Trade-offs (continued). After last week’s tumultuous tariff threat with Mexico, we’ve moved on to a week of tumultuous tariff threats with China — which has fewer immigration implications but still isn’t what I’d call ‘fun.’ Also, for bonus funsies, Trump keeps insisting that there’s a seekrit second deal with the Mexican government. But the Mexican government keeps saying that he’s full of Cheetos, and frankly, I think we can all agree that they’re the more credible party, on account of Trump’s bogus photo evidence and habit of lying twelve times a day.
Other Ill-Advised Immigration Updates.* Immigration circumstances remain really bad at the border — news outlets are now reporting that the administration is holding migrant kids on military bases and holding adults in “human dog pounds” under bridges. (Pro tip: Any time you have to utter the phrase “shower facility use is prioritized for children,” that should maybe be a clue that you are doing something inhumane with your detention practices.) Unsurprisingly, these awful and overcrowded conditions have also resulted in problems with disease vectors, and twenty-four people in total have died in custody since Trump took office. About the only good news on the immigration front is that the administration’s attempt to prosecute humanitarian aid proved unsuccessful; Scott Warren’s trial for providing food and water to migrants resulted in a hung jury.
Black Lives Still Matter. Tensions between police and the public continue to worsen, particularly in cases of white officers policing black neighborhoods. In Memphis, brief but intense unrest erupted after 20-year old Brandon Webber was shot 20 times during a violent altercation with police. Meanwhile, a video from Phoenix hit the Internet showing police threatening to shoot parents in response to a four-year-old’s accidental shoplifting. The incident comes only a few months after a report showing that Phoenix police use the most deadly force in the country.
Iran Tensions Continue.* Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is still being scary about Iran, claiming that its government is behind attacks that happened nowhere near them, that Iran has denied, and that have been claimed by other entities. Needless to say, this standoff is very concerning, particularly when it looks like the Trump administration may be making half of it up. Democrats, unsurprisingly, are continuing to safeguard requirements for congressional approval so that Trump can’t unilaterally drag us into a formal conflict.

The Good:

Recent SCOTUS Resilience. The Supreme Court issued several favorable (if mildly baffling) decisions today. By far, the biggest news is a 5–4 decision to affirm a finding that Virginia must use redrawn district maps in its next election due to impermissible racial gerrymandering. (It’s worth noting that the majority on this case was Ginsburg, Kagan, Gorsuch, Sotomayor, and Thomas, which is a match made in Weirdtown.) But the court also reaffirmed that double jeopardy doesn’t apply to state and federal prosecution, which means Paul Manafort can’t escape punishment with a pardon (although it does have some negative implications for marginalized defendants). And the Supreme Court also refused to hear a second case involving a baker refusing to make a wedding cake for a gay couple. So it was a fairly good week for Supreme Court news.

So that’s what I have for this week, and it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve this splashy flamingo chick and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully better) news, and I hope you will be back as well — but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me more hours of sleep!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 20 (June 2–8)

June 11, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

After weeks of nonstop raging dumpster fire, this week feels like a bit of a breather — it’s not full of especially great news, but nor is it especially fetid. I’ll keep watching for dropping shoes, but in the meantime we appear to have… caught a bit of a break? I know, I’m as shocked as you are (but I’ll take it).

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

We do still have some Russia Investigation news, mostly about who is complying with what subpoena. Here’s what I have for you:

Subpoena Cooperation.* As has become his pattern over the past few weeks, Trump ordered former communications director Hope Hicks not to comply with the House documents subpoena she was recently issued. She agreed to hand some documents over anyway, though whether they were helpful remains to be seen. In the meantime, committee chairman Jerry Nadler is deciding whether to subpoena former Special Counsel Robert Mueller, since he believes it’s still possible Mueller will testify willingly. I’ll keep folks posted on what happens there.
Subpoena Subordination.* This week, the House Rules Committee put forward a resolution that would allow the House to sue William Barr to enforce the subpoenas he’s been ignoring for two months, and also planned a vote on Tuesday to hold him in contempt. But just today, they apparently negotiated a deal for documents successfully, making the whole thing go on pause. Since contempt would be enforced by the Department of Justice, it’s very possible that Barr hasn’t truly been scared into anything, and the documents won’t be anything useful. But we’ll have to see what happens.

We continue to see Disregard of Governing Norms each week, but this week, not all of them came from Trump. Here’s what happened:

The DREAM and Promise Act Prelude.* The House passed the DREAM and Promise Act this past week, which is an immigration reform bill that creates many opportunities for Dreamers that Mitch McConnell is gonna refuse to vote on. It says a lot about the strange times we live in that this bill is unlikely to even hit the Senate floor — it’s literally just about two moderate ideas: 1) canceling removal proceedings for a probationary period for people who arrived here as kids; and 2) DHS giving Congress reasons why when it ends existing programs.
Pelosi Impeachment Baiting (Again). Nancy Pelosi is continuing to fight with Dems about impeachment proceedings, saying that she would “[rather see Trump] in prison” and that “an impeachment is an indictment.” Given that Mueller has been extremely clear in his position that a sitting President cannot be indicted, and therefore impeachment must occur in order for him to go to prison, I’m not really sure I understand her argument here? But you do you, Nancy, it’s not like the rest of us have to live with the consequences.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Trump’s Trip to England.* Trump took a trip to England this past week, and it sure was weird! Among the circus: Trump insulting the mayor of London as soon as he landed; a truly impressive protest game put forward by British citizens throughout his trip; a 45 gaffe about NHS; an improbable amount of American focus on his formal attire at the state dinner; pointed comments about a wall in Ireland; weird quotes about Vietnam; and a rumor that the Queen was throwing shade with her tiara while meeting him.
Joe Biden’s Hyde and Seek. Joe Biden had the distinction of coming out both for and against the Hyde Amendment this week. Though he initially stated that he supports the amendment, which limits federal funding to clinics that provide abortions, by the end of the week he had changed his mind. It seems likely that his reversal was related to fierce backlash he experienced, because the Democratic party doesn’t take kindly to forced birth rhetoric — particularly right on the heels of a zillion state heartbeat bills.

The Bad:

Tariff Trade-offs. After a week of ticking clock anxiety, Trump did reach a deal with Mexico over the weekend that made him call off the threat of tariffs. Predictably, the deal is bad news for immigrants; it contains terms about sending the National Guard to the southern border of Mexico and sending asylum seekers back to Mexico to await a decision. That said, the New York Times reported that Mexico had already agreed to most of the final terms that got him to back down, and these provisions also aren’t likely to really drive down immigration rates. So it’s unclear whether the whole thing was a show of force, or foreshadowing, or what, and 45 has already moved on to threaten new tariffs against China. So these tea leaves really might say anything.
Other Ill-Advised Immigration Updates.* There were a handful of other immigration stories this week, and all of them are kind of brain-bleedy. News broke that CBP was relaxing its standards further at the tent cities housing migrant children, cutting education, recreation, and legal services available to kids housed there. This is a likely violation of the Flores settlement and therefore illegal — not that illegality ever stops this administration — and there will likely be another court case. Meanwhile, 45 has military troops stationed at the border to paint the wall there for the next month to “improve its aesthetic appearance,” which I’m sure isn’t a cover for other misuses of military force at all. And ICE was in the news for illegally deporting U.S. veterans, because nothing celebrates D-Day quite like arresting and expelling our own former troops.

The Good:

Disaster Spending Finally Finalized. This week, the House did pass the disaster spending bill that would create relief for natural disaster zones and kept getting stalled last week, and Trump has signed it into law and everything (so it’s definitely happening). It’s embarrassing that this was even a partisan issue, but hopefully this will result in actual disaster relief for places like Puerto Rico, which is still hurting two years after Hurricane Maria.
Proud Pride Moments. June is LGBT Pride month, and though this is a rough time we’ve seen some some encouraging moments in there too. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Inn raid, and the commissioner of the New York police department publicly acknowledged the oppressive action of the NYPD in a formal apology for the event this week. (Disturbingly, this is literally the first time that anybody on the NYPD has apologized since the event occurred fifty years ago.) And though the Trump administration has rejected requests to fly the pride flag at U.S. embassies, some diplomats are doing it anyway.
Racial Disparity Reduction. Some recent research released on the Affordable Care Act has shown that racial disparities in cancer care have dramatically decreased since the act was passed and Medicaid was expanded, and that in particular early access to treatment has substantially improved for people of color. This is a really big deal, because America has huge issues with racial health disparities across many health issues, and these studies can potentially be used to decrease disparities in other areas as well.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sure it won’t stay this manageable for long! For making it through, you deserve t his story about superhero love and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and probably worse, sorry) news, and I hope you will be back as well — but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me more hours of sleep!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 19 (May 26 — June 1)

June 4, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Y’all, this week is so bad that I’m eating ice cream out of the carton with a soup spoon as I type this, and I’m not even sorry. (Then right after I typed that, I dropped the soup spoon. And the dog went after it. It’s that kind of week.)

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a tariff! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corner

Somehow, we still have Russia Investigation news, though none of it is especially optimistic. Here’s what I have for you:

Mueller’s Public Statement.* This was another noteworthy week for news relating to the Russia investigation. Former special prosecutor Robert Mueller issued a public statement for the first time, presumably in response to rumors that he had considered indicting Trump. He reiterated that he believes he may not indict a sitting President, and reminding Congress that they can impeach Trump if they want accountability for his misdeeds. Needless to say, this development has raised even more fervor about impeachment among Democrats, and especially among the 2020 candidates. But Nancy Pelosi continues to maintain that it’s not yet time to impeach Trump, despite increasing pressure otherwise.
Russia Helping and Other Strange Tweets.* Sometime on Thursday morning, Trump tweeted that “I had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected.” Then, presumably realizing what he’d just admitted, he deleted it and tweeted “I got me elected!” instead. Given his lengthy history of denying that Russia acted to place him in power, this temporary admission is important — particularly because it underlines Mueller’s conclusions.

We also continue to see Disregard of Governing Norms each week, but this week, not all of them came from Trump. Here’s what happened:

GOP Stall Tactics.* GOP stall tactics were on display in a variety of forms this week, with stories coming out of both the Senate and the House. All told, the House vote on the Senate’s disaster package was stalled out three different times this week, in each instance because the bill contained no additional border wall funding. (They did eventually pass it today, though.) Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell gleefully told a reporter that he would not stall if there were a Supreme Court vacancy in 2020, despite his stated reasons for obstruction when Merrick Garland was nominated in 2016. Both of these things reflect the slow degradation of our system itself in the face of partisan goals, which sadly is not really new but takes on new meaning in 2019.
Trump Sides with Kim. Trump decided to side with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un on several issues this past week, ranging from whether North Korea had fired ballistic missiles to whether Joe Biden has a low IQ. Though Trump has an ongoing love-hate relationship with the dictator, this may be the first time he publicly dissed his own advisers and ignored the U.N. Security Council to ingratiate himself. Needless to say, none of this is acceptable or normal.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Tattling Tax Report.* A study from the Congressional Research Service concluded this week that the 2017 tax return Trump engineered was — pardon the technical terms here — not awesome. More specifically, despite this administration’s claims otherwise, trickling down wasn’t a thing that happened for our economy, because the tax cuts favored corporations instead of humans. What’s weird about this story, of course, isn’t the predictable outcome of terrible tax plan; we’ve known that trickle down economics doesn’t work since the Dubbya era. What is weird, however, is how little attention this report is getting — in any other election cycle, Democrats would be having a field day with this. But since we’re all busy arguing about whether or not to impeach, the report has gone without comment.
I’d Watch That Buddy Cop Movie. Per their agreement on Twitter, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ted Cruz are teaming up to take on a common Congressional retirement plan that invites conflicts of interest. (That’s definitely the most 2019 I’m going to type this week, by the way.) The practice they’re trying to curb is former lawmakers accepting paid lobbying positions upon leaving Congress, which is currently legal but invites good ol’ boy networks that aren’t really in constituent interest. It’s also a practice that is disturbingly common at the moment — nearly two-thirds of incumbents who left after the midterm election in 2018 went on to lobby for pay. I’m tentatively very excited about this even though it’s also very strange!
Full of Freedom Gas.* In this week’s We Straight Up Live in 1984 news, the Department of Energy issued a press release that referred to natural gas as “freedom gas” and “molecules of U.S. freedom.” For folks playing the home game, natural gas is still a fossil fuel, and as such, contributes significantly to climate change problems. Unless we’re talking about all being free to die here in fifty years, this is not exactly an apt pet name for it.

The Bad:

Frightening Foreign Affairs (Immigration Edition).* This week’s immigration news was a new low, and managed to end in a trade standoff. First there was the news coming out of CBP facilities on the border, which mostly involved aggressive overcrowding of families, including children, in tent cities for far longer than is legal to hold them. News also broke that the U.S. is now officially looking at the social media of visa applicants before deciding whether they can visit the country. Then, finally, we all sat and watched Trump’s hate-on for immigration impact world trade, because his new thing is blanket tariffs for Mexico on account of asylum seekers. (You get a tariff! And you get a tariff! He’s like the world’s worst Oprah.) This is gonna mess with our trade agreements on a grand scale, and also isn’t likely to result in fewer asylum seekers, which is probably why he capped off the week by trying to make it harder to claim asylum again. The most recent attempt is denying everybody waiting in Mexico because he made them wait in Mexico, and it’s just as likely to be found illegal as the last three attempts.
Heartbeat Bill Hell Continues. The heartbeat bill trend we’ve been tracking for a few weeks now had further developments this week, and this time the Supreme Court is involved (though thankfully, not in an ‘overturning Roe v. Wade’ kind of way — yet). The court partially punted on Indiana’s abortion law, ignoring the part about not being allowed to get abortions based on the fetus’s sex or disability. But they heard and upheld the part requiring clinics to cremate or bury fetal remains, and Thomas wrote a whole love letter to overturning Roe v. Wade in his concurrence. Meanwhile, Missouri finalized its heartbeat bill, and so did Louisiana. And Missouri was also the site of a bitter battle to keep the last remaining abortion clinic in the state from being forced to close its doors — and that fight isn’t over, so we need to keep an eye on it.
In Shocking Turn of Events, Census Question was Racist. The 2020 census citizenship question was in the news this week after it came out that a famous gerrymandering guru suggested it to the administration and even ghostwrote part of the DOJ request for it. And, because everybody in this administration says the quiet part out loud, he literally said it would benefit white people and Republicans while suggesting it. Needless to say, this news will impact the ongoing legal battle about whether the question was racist, and we should keep an eye on that.
Tragedy in Virginia.* There was another mass shooting this weekend, this time in a municipal office in Virginia Beach. The gunman was a former employee who resigned just before he began shooting, and he left twelve people dead — eleven of whom were former colleagues.

The Good:

Recent State Resilience. The silver alloy lining of the heartbeat bill news above is that several states have taken action to protect reproductive rights in response. In the last couple of weeks, Illinois, Nevada, and Vermont have all passed laws protecting reproductive healthcare, and it’s a relief to see states taking legislation in the opposite direction.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no refunds. For making it through, you deserve this story about history found in a kitchen drawer and this video of otters playing with Labrador retrievers. And also an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully less terrible) news, and I hope you will be back as well — but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me more hours of sleep!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 18 (May 19–25)

May 28, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

This was another highly surreal and chaotic week — I feel like I wandered over to the other side of the looking glass, and now everything is distorted and backwards. (But I’ve reached the point where this is a comforting thought, because maybe if I can find Dinah we all have a portal out of here.)

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a spending bill! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

This was another fairly quiet week on the Russia Investigation front, but there was still a fair amount of movement. Here’s what I have for you:

Ongoing Obvious Obstruction (Again).* Just like last week, and the weeks before that, we saw a bunch of back-and-forth between the White House and the regular House about ongoing investigation. At the top of the week, Trump ordered former counsel Don McGahn not to testify before the House (an escalation from last week, when he just ordered him not to cough up documents). And sure enough, Don McGahn did not show up, so I guess we’ll see if there are consequences for that. Meanwhile, subpoenas have also been issued for former counsel Annie Donaldson and ex-staffer Hope Hicks. Perhaps most disturbingly, Trump also gave Attorney General Barr broad authority to investigate the Russia investigation staffers for proof of “treason” and ordered the intelligence community to cooperate with him. So, yay, all of that is normal and not fascist at all.
Assange Indictments.* Despite (or perhaps because of) Chelsea Manning’s refusal to testify, the case against Julian Assange took some turns this past week when he was indicted on seventeen counts of violating the Espionage Act. Each of these charges carries up to ten years in prison, so he’s potentially looking at a life sentence if he’s convicted on all counts — way longer than he would have faced under the Obama administration (which only charged him with conspiracy to hack government servers). But the charges are big deal for more of us than just Assange because of their potential implications for the First Amendment — it’s currently common practice for journalists to seek classified sources of information in their reporting duties. And if anybody who complies is looking at a life sentence, that’s going to make accountability for this administration that much harder.

It’s becoming harder and harder to distinguish Disregard of Governing Norms from the Russia Investigation circus above, but we still do see a couple of power moves each week that stand on their own. Here’s what happened:

Pelosi and Trump Throw Down.* This was a truly extraordinary week to watch the ongoing cage match between Nancy Pelosi and Donald Trump. In one corner, we had Donald Trump tweeting Fox News’s heavily edited videos of Pelosi, which slowed down her speech to make her look drunk. (Facebook and several other social media sites refused to take the videos down, by the way.) And in the other, somewhat less fetid corner, we had Pelosi’s increasingly obnoxious ‘I’m Not Gonna Impeach Trump, But I’m Sure Gonna Talk Incessantly About How Somebody Should’ campaign. The week culminated in Trump sitting down with Pelosi and Schumer to discuss infrastructure for — and I cannot stress enough that this is not exaggeration — all of three minutes before refusing to talk to them until all investigation of him stopped. Y’all, given the incredibly disturbing ways Trump has been wielding power this week — between the Russia investigation notes above and things we’ll talk about below — I don’t think we can go on like this forever.
Bribery: Still Illegal.* The chairman and CEO of Federal Savings Bank, Stephen Calk, was in the news this week — for, ironically, trying to federally spend the bank’s savings. More specifically, he’s accused of loaning Paul Manafort $16M in exchange for a cabinet appointment. Obviously, this did not pan out for Mr. Calk — or for Mr. Manafort, for that matter — because bribery is, in fact, still illegal. So we’ll see where this set of charges goes.
Jackson Not Jettisoned.* The Trump administration announced this week that it would be pushing back an Obama initiative to put Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill until at least 2028 — effectively canceling it, because this means they won’t make the change while they’re in office. In the course of defending Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Trump suggested putting Tubman on the $2 bill instead, because he’s racist and terrible. Meanwhile, a New York designer has created a 3-D stamp that will superimpose Harriet Tubman onto existing $20 bills in circulation, which may or may not be illegal — but to be fair, so’s half of Trump’s domestic policy.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Senate Spending Bill. The Senate passed a disaster-relief spending bill this week for the first time in fifteen months — a staggeringly long pause, given how many natural disasters we’ve experienced this year, but at least in time to respond to the tornadoes that touched down in three states this week. Unfortunately, the bill has not yet passed in the House because a single rep objected to the lack of extra border wall funding and consequently blocked the entire vote. And incidentally, “there’s no disaster relief for Puerto Rico because one guy in Texas wanted a wall” is definitely the most 2019 thing I’m going to type this week.
Weird Week for Britain. Conservative Briton and all-around jerk Nigel Farage got a milkshake to the Armani this week, highlighting an a growing movement in the U.K. of people throwing milkshakes at the alt-right as they make their Brexit tours. Eventually Farage started refusing to leave his bus, McDonald’s stopped selling shakes, and Burger King clearly enjoyed the whole thing. Then in the wake of all of that chaos, Theresa May announced her resignation date (which will be June 7, by the way). But it’s a bit early to celebrate the implications for Brexit, because some analysts are saying that Brexit might happen without any agreement — though that’s only one of several possible outcomes from here.

The Bad:

Frightening Foreign Affairs (Again).* This was another bad week for foreign affairs, y’all. After signaling all week that this might happen, Trump went ahead and used the situation with Iran to declare a national emergency and send more troops to the Middle East. As far as I can tell, he did this so that he could sell arms to Saudi Arabia and the UAE without congressional approval. Needless to say, Congress isn’t best pleased by this development, and it’s possible we’ll see another resolution like the one on the border wall. (Here’s hoping they get a veto-proof vote this time.)
Bad Week with Ben Carson. This was a bad week for basically everyone who had to interact with HUD Secretary Ben Carson, including Ben Carson. At the top of the week, he alienated members of the House Financial Services Committee with condescending nonsense like mistaking real estate owned by banks (“REO”) for Nabisco cookies and claiming a proposed rule to evict immigrants would somehow fix our housing crisis. (As someone who does housing policy work professionally, I really cannot overstate how little Carson appears to know on the topic.) This would be bad enough, but in the course of his testimony, he was asked about a rumored new HUD policy revoking protections for transgender homeless populations — a policy he said he “is not currently anticipating changing.” Then the very next day, the new policy was published, directly contradicting him. It’s not currently clear whether he lied or just honestly knows that little about his own department — if I worked at HUD, I sure wouldn’t let him touch anything — but the letter he sent the committee doesn’t really help matters. At any rate, now we have more formal comments to write.
License to Discriminate. In addition to the homelessness policy referenced above, the Trump administration also announced this week that they plan to roll back protections for transgender patients in healthcare settings. Though the administration argues that they’re simply making the regulations confirm with the “plain text” of relevant law, the proposed regulations will make it easier for healthcare providers to deny treatment to patients on the basis of gender identity. Needless to say, this will have major implications for health equity and access to health care over time, and not in a good way. I plan to submit a public comment on this once we have a docket number, and I’m happy to help other people draft one too.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. Given everything listed above, it’s always comforting to see any branch try to put the brakes on this presidency, and there were several encouraging bits of news involving checks and balances this week. Two different federal judges rejected Trump’s attempts to block subpoenas from Congress about his taxes, which is probably why Wells Fargo and T.D. Bank have both just handed over documents without fanfare. Another federal judge also blocked part of Trump’s attempt to divert funds to build a border wall, quite sensibly noting that a need is not “unforeseen” if you talk about it for literally years beforehand.
Recent New York Resilience. There was also good news on the state side this week! New York did indeed pass that legislation authorizing the state to share Trump’s state tax returns with Congress. But more importantly, they also passed legislation that allows the state to prosecute crimes occurring in the state that have been federally pardoned.
Good Access to Insulin News. In light of the discrimination news above, I’m particularly glad to have good health news this week as well. Colorado became the first state to put a cap on insulin copays, making sure the treatment stays affordable to insured residents who need it. It’s only a first step towards fixing skyrocketing insulin prices, but it’s a promising one.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no refunds. For making it through, you deserve this pangolin piggyback ride and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully less terrible) news, and I hope you will be back as well — but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me more hours of sleep!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 16 (May 5–11)

May 15, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Another week, another round of “did this really happen or am I having a fever dream?” I am sad to report, friends, that all of these things really happened. (But on the plus side, that does mean you can eat jalapeno pizza before bed in peace.)

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

Y’all, it’s another messed up week of Russia Investigation news — basically, pretty much everyone doubled down at once. I’ll do my best to unpack the confusion; here’s what I have for you:

Obvious Obstruction Assists.* After the mess that was last week, the House Judiciary Committee was pretty displeased with current Attorney General William Barr, and voted to hold him in contempt of Congress along party lines. In apparent response, Barr told Trump to claim the Mueller report was privileged — which is some weaksauce nonsense, but I’ll get to that below — and Trump started talking about having Barr investigate Joe Biden. (I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that Biden is a frontrunning candidate for the Democrats’ Presidential nomination.) Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell was in the news for saying that “[the Mueller] case [was] closed” and people should stop investigating Trump — an idea so laughable, given Trump’s prevention of Mueller’s testimony in real time this week, that SNL made McConnell’s behavior their cold open. Nonetheless, Trump advisers claimed that his behavior wasn’t obstruction because “he just wants this to be over.” (Uh, yeah, wanting proceedings to stop is generally what motivates obstruction. You know, obstruction? The act of trying to impede proceedings?) Needless to say, fed-up Dems are starting to talk about bundling their contempt resolutions and fining uncooperative Cabinet members daily until they comply.
Trump-Related Travesties.* As mentioned above, Trump took a Mulligan this week and decided to block Mueller from testifying, or at least signal he’d make it difficult much like he did (and continues to do) for his former counsel Don McGahn. Mueller’s testimony ended up being postponed as a result. Trump also claimed that he has executive privilege over the unredacted Mueller report and therefore wouldn’t be sharing it with Congress. (Spoiler: He really, really doesn’t; though he might have more of a point with Don McGahn). And news came out that Trump asked Don McGahn to say Trump never obstructed justice — which McGahn quite sensibly declined to do, because he doesn’t work for Trump anymore, Trump keeps badmouthing him, and he was probably still annoyed about last week’s subpoena orders. And speaking of subpoenas, the Senate Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed Donald Trump Jr., which has been an interesting development since it’s not a Dem-led committee. But since Trump is currently blocking over 20 separate Congressional probes, maybe some Republicans have had enough already.
Rap Sheets of the Rich and Famous.* This week, over 800 former prosecutors signed a letter explaining exactly how and why Trump would be criminally charged if he weren’t President. Against that backdrop, it’s not surprising that Trump is again calling to ‘investigate the investigators’ — he’s probably trying to plan for his own future. What’s perhaps more surprising is that Barr appears to be listening, and is starting up said investigation — we need to keep an eye on that.

It’s becoming harder and harder to distinguish Disregard of Governing Norms from the Russia Investigation circus above, but we did see a couple of power moves that stand on their own. Here’s what happened:

Pelosi’s Concerns.* Current Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has expressed a lot of concerns about Trump lately, though as far as I know she’s still not calling for impeachment. As I mentioned last week, she warned Democrats that she worried Trump would refuse to leave office if his loss margin was too narrow in 2020. This week, she conceded that the country was in a constitutional crisis. (Just one?) Then she called Trump “almost self-impeaching” because he kept obstructing justice daily. Madame Speaker, self-impeaching isn’t a thing; you still gotta pass those articles.
Tax Return Trials Continue. Welp, another week, another round of arguing about Trump’s tax returns. This week Mnuchin refused to cough up documents (again), and he’s now being subpoenaed alongside the IRS Commissioner. The New York Times ran an article outlining all the money Trump lost between 1985 and 1994, which turned out to total over one billion dollars. Then just today, a federal judge heard arguments on whether Congress can subpoena tax records, and likely will issue a decision sometime after Saturday.
Hard Pass on ‘Hard’ Passes.* The White House revoked a large number of “hard” press passes this week, making it significantly harder for regular visitors to attend press conferences. The purge was so comprehensive, according to journalists who were affected, that almost the entire White House press corps was caught up in it. Now, those still being granted access have “exceptions” to rules that screen out virtually everyone, and that means their passes can be revoked at any time. Needless to say, this kind of reduced access is frightening and unprecedented.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Heartbeat Bill Chaos. Georgia, Alabama, and Ohio were all in the news for heartbeat bill issues this week, and the stories are as strange as they are horrifying. (You may recall that Ohio already has a stringent heartbeat law on the books from last month; this measure would intensify it.) Alabama’s legislature had to push back their vote when senators started shouting at each other, but the bill was voted into law this evening. Meanwhile, Ohio was in the news because a Congressman made up medical procedures to support his anti-abortion bill. And Georgia passed its own heartbeat bill, which won’t go into effect until 2020 but has some of the most stringent provisions in the nation. Folks, these bills are incredibly concerning regardless of your opinion on right to choose, because they are intentionally engineered to be illegal — the whole point is to create laws that violate Roe v Wade so that the issue goes before the Supreme Court and Roe v Wade gets overturned. With so much of our governmental structure under threat, we really do all need to care about intentionally illegal laws.

The Bad:

Colorado Shooting. There was yet another school shooting this past week, this time in Colorado. The shooting resulted in one death and eight injuries, and yet again the death involved a student who likely saved many others’ lives by taking assailants down. This emergent pattern of children forced to engage in threat containment is horrifying, and a measure of just how much prior generations are failing them. Our kids deserve better than this — we all do.
Frightening Foreign Affairs. This was a really rough week for our foreign policy and the resulting repercussions. North Korea tested short-range missiles repeatedly throughout the week, and we seized one of their ships because it carried coal in violation of U.N. sanctions. Meanwhile, our market started tanking right alongside China’s after Trump threatened tariffs again last week, and it didn’t help things when China threatened to retaliate. (Though Trump claimed “farmers would be very happy,” he ended up having to float the idea of a bailout to keep them from rebelling.) And on top of all of that, we issued sanctions against Iran as they threatened to step back from the existing nuclear deal — which, to be fair, Trump withdrew from a year ago. Both sides are saying that they don’t want a war, but this is a very tense time and we’ll need to watch developments carefully.
Immigration Updates. Immigration remained in the news this week, and just like every other week it remained bananapants. News broke that Trump had been pressuring his more moderate DHS staffers to arrest thousands of families in coordinated raids before he eventually fired them all. Meanwhile, conditions are so bad at the border that detainees are being flown to other sites, but despite the severe overcrowding Lindsey Graham wants to introduce a law to hold kids in detention indefinitely. And Ben Carson is moving forward with his plan to evict mixed status families from public housing, so now we officially can leave a public comment telling him how pointlessly mean this proposal is.

The Good:

Public Option Becomes a Reality. This week, Washington State became the first state to offer a public option for health insurance, which will be available to residents of all income levels. Health insurer participation will be optional, but this is nonetheless a groundbreaking development in the health sector. It’s a grand experiment the nation will be watching, and I’m tentatively very excited.
Recent New York Resilience. The New York State Senate passed legislation this week authorizing the state to share Trump’s state tax returns with Congress. The bill still needs to pass through the State Assembly, but would potentially be an alternate route to much of the same information Congress is currently stuck subpoenaing, so it’s a pretty big deal even at this early stage.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can all agree it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve Topiary Cats and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully less confusing) news, and I hope you will be back as well — but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me more days with sunshine!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 13 (April 14–20)

April 23, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

This week was full of dark, strange freaky funhouse mirror news — and the Mueller report’s release took it to a whole new level. There’s a lot of abyss to look into this week, but we’ll get through it all.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a redacted report! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

Okay, this was a big week for the Russia Investigation both before and after the Mueller report was released (albeit in redacted form). Here’s what I have for you:

Mueller Report Rumblings.* Before the report was even released, the circus had several attractions — of particular note are Trump’s insistence that someone should “investigate the investigators” and Attorney General William Barr’s wild press conference bonanza on the morning the report was released. Against that backdrop, it’s no surprise that the House was immediately making it rain subpoenas — for both the full unredacted report and related underlying evidence. Then everybody had time to actually read and analyze the 400-page redacted report, and all heck broke loose.
(Redacted) Mueller Report Released.* Okay bear with me y’all, because this is going to be incredibly long — 400 pages is a lot of stuff. The report is separated out into two volumes; the first volume deals with Russian interference (and the question of collusion) in the 2016 Presidential election, and the second volume deals with Trump’s obstruction of the first investigation. Everybody and their kid sister has written a takeaway piece, and a few outlets have also outlined how much was redacted (Spoiler: A lot, particularly relating to prosecutorial decisions, but not as much of the obstruction section as we’d feared). There were some noteworthy things about collusion, but the real meat of the report is in the obstruction section, where Mueller looked at ten different incidents to determine if any of them were obstruction of justice. And the report makes clear that the answer is complicated, or at least more complicated than Barr depicted in his summary, in part because Mueller uncovered a lot of evidence but believed he couldn’t indict a sitting President. As a result, some outlets describe him as “punting [the issue] to Congress” or “[writing] a road map to impeachment.” In short: Trump did a bunch of bad stuff, y’all, but Mueller thought his hands were tied.
Mueller Report Reverberations.* Needless to say, we’re seeing a lot of stuff in the wake of the information above. One obvious and predictable outcome is that Trump’s approval rating has dropped to its lowest rate of 2019, hanging out at 37%. But Democrats are also divided on whether to impeach Trump, given what we’ve learned about his conduct, and in the meantime they plan to conduct further investigations as they hash that out. Sarah Sanders is catching flak for obviously lying in press briefings, Betsy DeVos’s brother Erik Prince is back on the radar, we learned at least one voting county was successfully hacked in 2016, and the pee tapes might be real. More attention is also being paid by both sides to the eight people who refused to obstruct justice for Trump — in everything from angry 45 Twitter rants to House subpoenas to testify. And Rudy Giuliani is publicly announcing that “there’s nothing wrong with taking information from Russia.” So this is definitely not the end of the story, and I’ll keep y’all posted.

Ironically, it was a fairly quiet week for Disregard of Governing Norms, simply because all eyes were on the Russia investigation. But we did see a bit of tax return balderdash. Here’s what I have for you:

Tax Return Fight.* In this week’s installment of As The Tax ReTurns, the House Democrats subpoenaed nine banks, Trump’s accounting firm, and various financial records. Trump responded by — no joke, y’all — suing his own accounting firm as well as the House Oversight Committee Chairman, Elijah Cummings, and the Oversight Committee’s investigative counsel. As said House committee chairman notes, there is no valid legal basis to this suit as far as I can tell. But this is pretty obviously just another skirmish in what’s going to be a loooong war.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Bill Weld Joins the 2020 Fray. Former Mass Governor Bill Weld announced he’s joining the 2020 primary this week — on the GOP side. Given his oddly progressive stances, his current position as a partner at Mintz Levin, and the general…everything of the current GOP, this is an odd choice. But who am I to look a gift party-divide in the mouth?

The Bad:

Awful International Violence.* On Easter Sunday, a coordinated terrorist attack on three churches and two hotels in Sri Lanka resulted in almost 300 deaths and another 500 people injured. Though the country has a lengthy history of civil war, this is the deadliest attack in over a decade. The Sri Lankan government has blocked social media and imposed a curfew in response. Meanwhile, this week also saw violent protests in Paris and riots in Londonderry.
Trump’s Stellar Foreign Policy.* Trump’s foreign policy was embarrassingly scattered this week, which is nothing new but did have some repercussions. First he praised the Libyan insurgents marching on Trinidad, even though we installed the government they’re marching on, and ultimately spoke with the insurgent general. He also vetoed a Congressional bill to end U.S. involvement in the Yemen war, and imposed sanctions on Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. And just to top everything off, North Korea announced that it tested a new weapon.
Iffy Medical News. In horrifying opiate news, 60 people in seven states were charged this week with trading sex and cash for opioid prescriptions as the Department of Justice brings a giant suit for opioid malfeasance. The charges allege that over 32 million pills illegally changed hands. And in other iffy legality medical news, Ohio became the sixth state this week to pass a “heartbeat” law, a type of anti-abortion law commonly understood to be illegal but which conservatives are hoping will result in a challenge to Roe v. Wade.
Your Painfully Regular Bad Immigration Updates. Immigration news this week is particularly godawful, which for this administration and the past month is saying something. Attorney General William Barr ordered immigration courts this week to withhold bail from asylum seekers who have already passed a credible fear interview — in other words, who have shown evidence of valid asylum claims — because he figures rotting in jail will deter people from coming here and claiming asylum. Meanwhile, Trump has ordered even more troops to the border and is considering travel restrictions for several more African countries as well as Cuba. He also wants to make it harder for immigrants to live in public housing and wants legal work in the marijuana industry to indicate ‘a lack of moral character’ for citizen applicants. And a vigilante group in New Mexico kidnapped 200 migrants at gunpoint near the border, claiming that they were ‘detaining’ them until CBP could arrive. Eventually the FBI arrested the head of the group for possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. And the Trump administration is now temporarily allowed to again ship asylum applicants to Mexico to await the results of their application due to a stay of the injunction at the appeal stage. (Although I’m not sure if they plan to bother, since apparently the new plan is to just keep asylees in jails.)

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. A federal judge held that the Trump administration can’t go forward on their plan to overturn an Obama-era prohibition on mining coal in public spaces. With all of the mess above, it’s nice to see the courts continue to challenge Trump on things, though I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of it in the coming weeks.
Warren Lights Up The Campaign Trail. This week, Elizabeth Warren has impressed a lot of people — and raised a lot of money — by insisting on impeaching Trump and revealing a plan to ease the costs of higher education. Her campaign plan would be complex and interesting enough, given its ambitious scope. But her call for impeachment kept the conversation going and likely contributed to the House’s deliberations on its next steps.

So that’s what I have for this week, and some of last as well. For making it through, you deserve this review of the Mueller report on GoodReads and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully less confusing) news, and I hope you will be back as well — but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me better immigration news!

National News Roundup: Year 2, Week 12 (April 7–13)

April 16, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

Jeez, I leave the country for like five days and everything goes bananas — the news over the past week or two has been utterly wild. I’m including some news from the previous week, when the NNR was dark, to create further context. Sadly, none of it makes any of this make more sense.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not an indictment! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

For what feels like the zillionth week in a row, the Russia Investigation continues to be an incredible tug-of-war between Trump’s camp and Congressional Democrats. Here’s what has happened over the past week and a half or so:

Where’s the Report (Redux)? This past week has been an absolute bonanza on the William-Barr-Mueller-Report front. Barr represented in his testimony on Tuesday that he would release a redacted report ‘within a week,’ but Mueller’s team started expressing frustration with his summary and the House started asking him to release summaries Mueller had drafted. Now the word on the street is that a redacted copy will be out on Thursday, and Trump is already planning to ignore it. The whole thing is so bananas that we’ll have to keep watching it closely because it’s anybody’s guess where we go from here.
Nonspecific Spying Allegations (Maybe).* As alluded to above, William Barr testified in front of Congress for two days this past week, but most attention has gone to him telling Congress that the government “spied” on the Trump campaign in 2016. Though he didn’t particularly give any specifics, he did follow up by putting a team together to look into it, saying he “wasn’t putting a panel together,” and walking the whole thing back. So… that happened.
Assange and Avenetti Arrests. Julian Assange was unceremoniously arrested this week when the Ecuadoran embassy in London kicked him out, apparently because he was a truly insufferable tenant who didn’t clean up after his cat or himself. Trump, predictably, has responded to the news with “New indictment, who wikileaks?” Meanwhile, in other Trump-adjacent news, Stormy Daniels attorney Michael Avenetti was charged with 36 new counts of embezzlement, fraud, and generally being a sketchy dude. So it’s been something of a strange week on the arrest and indictment front.

This was a similarly weird week for Disregard of Governing Norms stories, unfortunately. Here’s what I have for you:

Tax Return Fight.* The tax return fight happening between Congress and the Trump administration has been pretty wild as well, taking all kinds of twists and turns over the past couple of weeks. First Trump’s lawyer asserted presidential privilege at the top of last week, saying the IRS shouldn’t respond because he’s the President. Then the administration said they wouldn’t respond while Trump was under audit. When that didn’t keep Congress at bay, Trump’s lawyer also told the Treasury not to respond until it received a legal opinion from the Justice Department (and the IRS did indeed miss a deadline last Wednesday). Then news broke that White House attorneys had already illegally consulted with the Treasury before the request was even made, and at that point the administration got more openly belligerent. By the time that I write this, Trump’s acting chief of staff had announced that Congress will “never” see the tax returns that they weren’t “smart enough” to see anyway, Congress has subpoenaed Trump’s accounting firm, and eighteen states have passed legislation keeping 45 off the ballot if he doesn’t cough up some tax information.
Ilhan Omar Attacks. The other incredible thing to happen this week was yet another round of Ilhan Omar attacks, this time because she correctly called Stephen Miller a white nationalist and her month-old quote about 9/11 was taken out of context. (I feel the need to note, incidentally, that it’s not inherently antisemitic to call a xenophobic spade a spade, even if he happens to also be The Country’s Worst Jew.) This ultimately culminated in a pinned tweet from 45 that “we will never forget,” an apparently successful appeal to Islamophobia that several people cited as they made threats on Omar’s life. (To be fair to 45, Twitter immediately proved that we won’t ever forget his actual real-time response to 9/11, which involved bragging that he now has the tallest tower in Lower Manhattan — a claim that, by the way, wasn’t even true).

Your “Normal” Weird:

Measles and Mandatory Vaccination.* As more and more measles outbreaks are reported nationally, New York City fields an outbreak so severe that the city has ordered mandatory vaccinations. It’s likely the strictest rule regarding measles vaccines in three decades, and was implemented in part due to an uptick in “measles parties” in the area. Unsurprisingly, some parents are already suing the city over the mandate. We’ll have to see if other cities follow suit, and also keep an eye on the unusually high outbreak numbers.
Fires in Two National Treasures.* The famous Notre Dame cathedral in Paris suffered a very serious fire today, resulting in the total collapse of the main spire and roof and severe damage to the wooden interior. As of this evening, outlets were reporting that the bell towers and exterior frame were saved along with several major pieces of art, and French billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault has already stepped forward to pledge €100m towards rebuilding. In an odd coincidence, Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque suffered a fire on the same day, though thankfully with much less extensive damage to the structure. Authorities are still not sure what caused either fire.

The Bad:

Problematic Pipelines.* In literal pipeline news, Trump signed an executive order this week designed to make it easier to build oil and gas pipes in the United States. In figurative pipeline news, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell changed appointment rules to get conservative judges approved after only two hours of debate. Neither of these are especially welcome news, for obvious reason.
Immigration Updates. Immigration news is reaching new heights of “how is this our government” this week, which by this point is saying something. Trump started out by walking back his threat to close the Mexican border, swapping instead to car tariff threats — but by midweek he had decided to withdraw a nomination for ICE head because he thought his pick was too moderate. Then he followed that up by forcing out current Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielson, putting the head of CBP in charge of DHS and the white nationalist who engineered the Zero Tolerance policy, Stephen Miller, in charge of immigration policy generally. It’s looking like these changes are part of a larger plan to purge DHS staffers who were associated with John Kelly. And once he’d gotten rid of the moderating influence, all kinds of bananas rumors about asylum started cropping up (which I’ve outlined below).
Harebrained Asylum Ideas. Per several news outlets and also the White House, here are several things that this administration is considering telling CBP to do: 1) evaluate asylum claims directly (instead of having, y’know, the people trained to do this do it; 2) send all asylees to sanctuary cities as a way to punish local governments that don’t cooperate; or 3) refuse admittance to asylees entirely by closing the entire border (which I bet you’re all shocked to know is super illegal). On that latter point, by the way, Trump allegedly told the head of CBP — who as I noted above, is also now in charge of the whole Department of Homeland Security — that if he was sent to jail for illegally refusing entry to asylees, Trump would simply pardon him. Absolutely no reason to suspect this guy of obstruction of justice, amirite?

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. Despite the bevy of bad immigration news above, we did see some good court cases this week. A third federal court in Maryland blocked the Trump administration’s plan to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, and another federal judge blocked the Trump administration from requiring asylum seekers to stay in Mexico while they wait for their cases to be heard.
Black Hole Pics.* We saw a major scientific breakthrough recently when the first-ever photos were taken of a supermassive black hole. (This has historically been difficult to do due to the nature of black holes, which is why it’s a big deal.) The black hole photographed, now named Powehi, was captured by the Event Horizon Telescope project. Yay science!
Recent House Resilience. The House passed a bill renewing the Violence Against Women Act this week, which was originally passed in 2009 but expired in February of this year. The new version incorporates gun control provisions that are unpopular with the GOP, so we’ll need to see what happens in the Senate from here. (They also passed a bill that would revive net neutrality, which is an important symbolic measure even though this one is considerably less likely to actually see the Senate floor.)

So that’s what I have for this week, and some of last as well. For making it through, you deserve this video of a cat letting its dog friend into the house and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully less confusing) news, and I hope you will be back as well — but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me better immigration news!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 8 (March 10–16)

March 19, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

This was a strange, stressful week for most of us, between New Zealand and key votes in Congress. About the best I can say is that it was a strange, stressful week for Trump too — a fact of which he was all too aware, if his tweet tantrum from this weekend was any indication. So at least there’s that.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a House investigation! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

There was a fair bit of activity on the Russia Investigation, though not as much as some previous weeks. Here are the main things to know:

House Investigation Activity.* This was a busy (and, frankly, kind of amazing) week for the House of Representatives. First the House Oversight Committee heard the testimony of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and AOC in particular grilled him like a cheese sandwich. Then we had a sublime moment when the entire House — seriously, literally the entire House — voted for the public release of the Mueller report. Unfortunately, we quickly came back down to Earth when Trump had a Twitter tantrum about it and Lindsay Graham blocked the vote in the Senate.
Sentencing Updates.* Paul Manafort had his second sentencing hearing this week in front of Judge Amy Berman Jackson — the same judge currently fighting with Roger Stone about his inability to follow a gag order — who gave him a slightly more severe sentence than the first one. All told, Manafort will serve a total of seven and a half years in prison, which is nothing to sneeze at when you’re his age. He was also indicted on new and unpardonable charges in New York basically as soon as he left the courtroom, so he’s far from done with criminal court. Meanwhile, Manafort’s buddy Rick Gates was not sentenced this week because he is continuing to cooperate, so they pushed out the hearing for now.

This was also a surreally awesome week for Disregard of Governing Norms, because the Senate got over itself long enough to pass some things to reinstate order. Here’s what I have for you:

National ‘Emergency’ Updates. The Senate finally voted the resolution condemning Trump’s national ‘emergency,’ which managed to sail through with a 59–41 vote (and if you think that was a typo, I had the same initial reaction.) This is a big deal, even though Trump was able to veto it, because we only knew about four GOP Senators who were definite yeses ahead of time — and then twelve of them crossed the aisle to tell Trump where to stuff it. The bill now goes back to the House for reconsideration, and since the declaration is unpopular with constituents it’s very possible we’ll get a vetoproof majority on the second go-around.
Senate Has Its Say. The Senate also voted to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led war against Yemen this week, presumably because they’ve hit a breaking point with Trump’s repeated support for sketchy Saudi practices. It’s the first time the Senate has ever passed something based on the War Powers Resolution Act of 1973. If the House supports the bill as well, it will be the first time Congress has used the Act to end US military involvement in a foreign conflict since its passage forty-six years ago. So we’re still in “watch-and-see” mode but it’s potentially a big deal as well.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Fraud Styles of the Rich and Famous. The FBI charged fifty people as part of a convoluted fraudulent college admission ring this week. The indicted individuals are alleged to have faked everything from learning disabilities to athletic achievements as well as paying elaborate bribes, and two were famous celebrities — one of whom was Aunt Becky, and incidentally “Aunt Becky pulled a rich white lady crime” is definitely the most 2019 thing I’m going to type this week. The whole thing highlights major problems with the college admission process, which is heavily stacked to favor wealthy and privileged people even before you factor in fraud.
Boeing Follow-Up.* In the wake of last week’s Boeing tragedy, Trump ordered the grounding of all Boeing 737 Max flights this week. Though the FAA initially resisted, they eventually followed suit after a number of similarities were discovered between this crash and the one last fall. More attention is being given to the FAA practice of ‘self-certification’ and pilot training as well, which will hopefully lead to safer practices.

The Bad:

Pentagon Anti-Trans Policy. The Pentagon announced a new anti-trans policy this week, which will go into effect on April 12. Though the policy technically is not a full ban, it prohibits troops from transitioning and forces them to serve under the gender they were assigned at birth, so it’s plenty traumatizing nonetheless.
Immigration Updates. The Trump administration also announced this week that they plan to close all of their 21 international immigration field offices, which will dramatically slow legal entry into the country. They also announced that they’ll take volunteers to form a militia at the border, because they have the good priorities.
New Zealand Terrorist Attack. [Author note: This story is legitimately traumatizing and was heavily publicized, so there is no shame in skipping this paragraph — do what you need to do.] A white supremacist gunman livestreamed himself shooting indiscriminately in two mosques, killing a total of fifty people during two different religious services. Because the event was livestreamed to Facebook, the video was uploaded over 1.5 million times, though social media platforms were informed by the New Zealand government that airing the video violates the country’s laws. Between the video and a lengthy manifesto published on 8chan and other fringe social media, the shooting has drawn attention to the role of social media in propagating terrorism — at least, among people who aren’t Trump. The prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Arden, has called for banning semi-automatic weapons in response to the shooting.

The Good:

Recent Court Resilience. There were a lot of great court cases this week. A court in Ohio held that a former Apprentice contestant could sue Trump for defamation despite his current status as President, which obviously could have a number of implications down the road. The Connecticut Supreme Court also held that families who lost children to the Sandy Hook shooting could sue Remington, the gun manufacturer that makes and sells the semi-automatic used in the shooting. And a federal court issued a landmark 106-page ruling regarding insurance and mental health coverage, holding that the company breached its fiduciary duty by using discriminatory practices to save money. (That last case is heading into the remedy phase now, so there will likely be more news on it soon.)

So that’s what I have for this week, and it’s more than enough! For making it through, you deserve this dog in a beekeeper suit and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully less confusing) news, and I hope you will be back as well — but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me ice cream and chocolate spoons!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 7 (March 3–9)

March 12, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

The word I would use for this week is “discombobulating” — though admittedly that may just be me, since I’m drafting this while sick again. But regardless of your fever state, there was a lot happening, much of it contradicted itself, and Congress and the Trump Administration continued to play tug-of-war with a variety of topics. I’ll do my best to unpack and outline for y’all!

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a sentencing hearing! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

We’re finally seeing a slower week on the Russia Investigation, but there were still a couple of significant news stories. Here are the main things to know:

Manafort Sentence Sadness.* Manafort’s sentencing hearing on his Virginia cases happened this week, and a lot of us found it pretty disappointing. Though sentencing guidelines suggest 19–25 years of prison time for his financial fraud convictions, he was sentenced to 47 months by a judge who described him as living “an otherwise blameless life.” He still has another sentencing hearing this week in front of Judge Amy Berman Jackson — the same judge currently fighting with Roger Stone about his inability to follow a gag order — and we might see a more severe sentence out of that hearing. That said, Judge Jackson’s case carries a maximum penalty of ten years, so we’re unlikely to see more than fourteen years total of incarceration.
Following Up on Kushner Clearance.* After I wrote last week that Trump pressured staff to grant Jared Kushner security clearance earlier in the year, news came out that he did the same thing for Ivanka, who didn’t actually pass her clearance check either. We learned this because a White House source gave documents to the House Oversight Committee in response to last Monday’s probe. So now House Democrats are arguing about how to proceed on investigating the Trump children, and there will almost certainly be more developments. I’ll keep y’all posted.

This was not a great week for Disregard of Governing Norms, particularly because Mitch McConnell dug in his heels on some major legislation. Here’s what I have for you:

Senate Slack and Showdown is Back. This week, the House Democrats passed H.R. 1, a sweeping ethics and election bill designed to address corruption and improve voting access. Though the bill contains many types of reform that benefit voters, Mitch McConnell is refusing to let it onto the Senate floor — and his stated reasoning was “Because I get to decide what we vote on.” (Someday dictionaries are gonna have a picture of him under ‘obstructionist jerkface.’) He thankfully cannot do the same on the resolution condemning Trump’s ‘national emergency,’ but the Senate still hasn’t moved on that either. That’s likely because GOP leaders are still trying to figure out a way around passing it, despite the bill’s bipartisan support. And while this is going on, Trump has introduced yet another budget that asks for billions in wall funding (among other nightmare demands such as ending subsidized FAFSA loans and making Medicare a block grant program). On the plus side, said budget is likely to wind up as toilet paper in the House, because let me tell you how much nobody wants another extensive shutdown after he’s already declared an emergency to get said funding.
This Week’s Trump Malfeasance. This week’s general Trump grossness, ho boy, where do I even start. Just like last week, we’re going with rapid-fire summary: 1) In response to last week’s report about Trump’s deep ties to Fox News, the DNC announced it officially is refusing to let Fox News host debates in 2020; 2) Relatedly, Fox-related staffer Bill Shine is resigning from his position as the White House’s top communications adviser to work on Trump’s 2020 campaign; 3) Just like last week, Trump quietly signed a sketchy executive order again, this time canceling reports of civilian deaths caused by drones; 4) News broke that Trump has ties to the woman who founded the massage parlor where Patriots owner Robert Kraft was caught soliciting sex from trafficked women; 5) Michael Cohen is suing the Trump Organization for failing to pay millions of dollars in legal fees; and 6) Trump claimed that “the Democrats hate Jewish people” at a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Omar Upset Update. That last bit of Trump news above is likely a reference to ongoing conflict within the Democratic Party in the wake of Ilhan Omar’s comments last week, but it’s certainly not a fair summary of what ended up happening there. In light of some pretty awful official Islamophobic attacks on Omar as well as a generational divide within the party regarding Israel, the resolution originally planned for this week got broadened to a general anti-bigotry resolution. The resolution passed through the House and hopefully signals the end of this particular Dem fight — though incredibly, 23 Republicans refused to support the resolution, and noted in-House supremacist Steve King voted ‘present.’ (Every single Democrat, however, voted ‘yes.’)
Chelsea Manning Back in Jail. Chelsea Manning was held in contempt of court this week for refusing to testify in a grand jury for a Wikileaks case, saying that she had already given extensive testimony on the topic and that she objected to the secretive nature of the process. (It was also likely relevant that her immunity meant she could not invoke the Fifth Amendment to protect herself during testimony.) Manning will remain in jail until she decides to testify or the grand jury concludes, which could be a matter of weeks. Needless to say, given Manning’s history, this story has very complicated implications about the use of civil contempt of court against marginalized former inmates. I’ll be keeping an eye on it.

The Bad:

Immigration News. There was more immigration news this week, none of it especially great. News broke that the administration is continuing to separate families at the border despite a court order otherwise (more on that below). Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen defended the administration’s practices before Congress on Wednesday, insisting that there is a crisis at the border (and conveniently neglecting to mention that her department caused it). And ICE was in the news again, this time for keeping tabs on people who protest Trump in New York City.
North Korea Nuclearization. Shortly after Trump walked away from last week’s summit, we learned that North Korea appears to be rebuilding its missile launch facility. U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton is threatening further sanctions, but Trump is simply saying that it’s “too early to see” and that he “would be very disappointed” if he decides to believe the reports. (It figures that North Korea’s nuclear arsenal is the one time Trump pulls out the “I’m not mad” card as President.)
Boeing Tragedy Aftermath. Boeing 737 Max 8 planes are being grounded in many parts of the world after an aircraft crashed in Ethiopia today, resulting the deaths of all 137 passengers (including 19 United Nations staffers). This was the second deadly crash of this type of jet in the last six months, which contextualizes why many countries are leery of the jets, and there is some indication that the first crash may have been due to a lack of pilot retraining. The United States is still flying the Max 8 jets for now, though only two American airlines — American and Southwest — use them regularly.

The Good:

HIV Advances. News broke this week that scientists have successfully cured a second instance of HIV, about twelve years after their initial breakthrough. The procedure used is very complicated but suggests that a replicable cure may be possible — effectively, a second success illustrates a proof of concept. This is incredible news, even though we’re still pretty far from a widely-available cure; it represents a major milestone in research.
Recent Court Resilience. There were a lot of good court decisions this week. Another federal District Court judge ruled that Wilbur Ross violated the Constitution by trying to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, making two so far to say the move was illegal. Another federal judge held that the Trump administration is responsible for the additional families separated by the zero tolerance policy before its formal announcement last spring, including them in the class action lawsuit being brought on the subject by the ACLU. In the opinion, the judge noted, “The hallmark of a civilized society is measured by how it treats its people and those within its borders.” A Ninth Circuit judge also created more protections for asylum seekers, holding that they have a right to a habeas corpus review before deportation in certain contexts. And lastly, the Iowa Supreme Court held that Medicaid may be used to cover sex reassignment surgery, overturning a state ban on the practice.

So that’s what I have for this week, and it’s more than enough! For making it through, you deserve these photos from a bird photo booth and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully less confusing) news, and I hope you will be back as well — but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me a better system than Daylight Savings Time!

National News Roundup: Year 3, Week 6 (February 24 — March 2)

March 5, 2019 Kara HurvitzLeave a comment

The news is slowly becoming the Constitutional Crisis Show, if the past few weeks have been any indication, and this week was no exception — it’s been a wild and disturbing ride. But we’re continuing to see promising investigation from the House, so we might see positive change on the horizon. (Very, very far on the horizon.) I’ll keep you posted!

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m only summarizing the news within my area of expertise. This week’s news contains some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise — I’m a lawyer, not a resolution! — but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!

Constitutional Crisis Corners:

For a thing that everybody claims is winding down, we sure do keep seeing more and more activity on Mueller’s Russia Investigation and its many investigative cousins. Unsurprisingly, this section is yet again one of the busiest sections of the NNR — but for us, more activity generally means more better, and this week is no exception! Here are the main things to know:

Mueller Is Legal (and Water is Wet).* The D.C. Circuit of Appeals ruled by unanimous 3–0 decision this week that there was nothing unconstitutional about Mueller’s appointment as special counsel. And if you’re like me, this is how you learned that former Trump aide Andrew Miller tried to dodge a grand jury subpoena by arguing that Mueller’s appointment was unconstitutional. (I give him points for originality, if nothing else.) The jurisprudence created by this may come back to bite Mueller, but in the short term it’s business as usual.
House Impeachment Ahoy (Maybe)! Okay, fine, it’s not a guarantee. But the House Judiciary Chairman, Jerrold Nadler, sent out 81 document requests today to kick off a broad probe of Trump’s abuse of power in office, such as obstruction of justice and public corruption. This is a significant step towards impeachment for several reasons: the House Judiciary Committee is the only entity that can decide to impeach; an investigation would be the first step for that process; and obstruction of justice is definitely impeachable — it was the basis for Bill Clinton’s impeachment in 1998. The document requests, as you might expect, hit a broad swath of Trump associates, touching on people from multiple areas of his personal, professional and political life. Just for extra schadenfreude, several of the people tapped were names rattled off by Cohen on Wednesday when AOC got him to give specifics (but more on that below).
Cohen Testimony.* Michael Cohen testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform this week, which was a wild ride spanning half the week. Before he testified, he fielded threatening tweets from sitting Congressman Matt Gaetz and released prepared statements that forecast some pretty major Trump malfeasance — and sure enough, Cohen’s allegations before the House Committee included all kinds of bombastic content. Cohen said that Trump was given prior knowledge of the Wikileaks plan, which obviously would be a really big deal if true and appears credible at first glance. He also submitted many documents relating to Trump’s financial dealings, some of which might lead to Trump’s taxes being subpoenaed, and alluded to another federal investigation into Trump. And Cohen concluded by stating that he fears this country will not see a peaceful transition of power if Trump loses the election in 2020. For those of y’all playing the home game, by the way, this testimony is tied to the other House action mentioned above, but a separate investigation from the Mueller investigation and the Southern District of New York investigation mentioned by Cohen — although Nadler is coordinating with both.
Throwing Roger Stone (Again). Because Roger Stone apparently can’t go a single week without ticking off his judge, he has already broken the gag order he was issued last week — incredibly, not just by complaining about the Cohen testimony or Instagramming about his charges (though he definitely did those too). Not one for small gestures, Stone apparently has an entire book coming out about the very topic he was told not to discuss and he didn’t think to bring that up with the court until he’d already had a gag order issued twice. The arrogance here is staggering, folks.

This was also not a great week for Disregard of Governing Norms, because we started to see all kinds of weirdness. Here’s what I have for you:

National Emergency Resolution Update (Again). The House successfully passed a resolution blocking Trump’s national emergency declaration this week, mostly along party lines but with a 245–182 vote. Trump, unsurprisingly, promises to veto the measure and tweeted a warning to the GOP on the topic. But that warning appears to have backfired, if it did anything at all, because four GOP Senators have come out in favor of the resolution — which is enough votes to put the bill on Trump’s desk and make me do a little happy dance. McConnell is required to hold a vote in the Senate in the next few weeks, so we’ll definitely see this play out one way or another in the near future, and I’ll let folks know what happens.
New Old Trump Malfeasance. Because 2019 is The Most Extra, there was a bunch more obnoxious Trump scandal news in the same week as all of the investigation stuff above, despite (or perhaps because of) his jaunt abroad. I’m just going to rapid-fire a list of all the newsworthy things: 1) In summer 2017, Trump ordered his aide Gary Cohn to get the Time Warner merger blocked because he hates CNN; 2) In 2015, Trump knew some of the debate questions in advance because Fox News told him; 3) Just this week, Trump promised an executive order that likely messes with right to free speech under the First Amendment (despite, ironically, claiming it protects it); and 4) In May 2018, Trump ordered John Kelly to give Jared Kushner security clearance despite lack of actual clearance, which the Trump family proceeded to lie about repeatedly. That last one, incidentally, has gained the interest of the House investigation, and committees promptly folded it into their other inquiries.
Let’s Review What ‘Antisemitic Slur’ Means. Ilhan Omar made news by questioning sketchy AIPAC practices in a problematic way yet again this week, this time saying, “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that . . . push[es] for allegiance to a foreign country.” (For those folks who don’t know this, dual loyalty is another very old antisemitic trope borne of Jewish diasporism.) That was legit not okay, and I sure wish she would learn to criticize Israel without dogwhistling in the process. But Jewish Democrat Eliot Engel didn’t help matters by calling the dogwhistle “a vile antisemitic slur,” and no one — not the House Dems, not AIPAC, not Israel — is well-served by the official resolution condemning Omar that’s scheduled to take the House floor on Wednesday. These actions are outsized for Omar’s infraction and create a false equivalence with the hateful rhetoric being spewed by the far right — particularly because that type of resolution was exactly what the House did when King came out in favor of white nationalism. (As if to prove my point, a hot take Washington Post op-ed has already materialized calling Omar “the Steve King of the left.”) I can’t believe I have to say this, but dogwhistling antisemitism is not the same as explicitly backing racial violence that kills people. And if the DNC wants to be The Not Racist Party of 2019, they should not adapt outsized measures shaming the first-ever Black Muslim congresswoman because she said a problematic thing at a town hall.

Your “Normal” Weird:

Appointment Purgatory.* We have a number of appointments in the works as I type this, and most of them are strange and at least vaguely concerning. On the “sadly completed” end of the spectrum we have Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist now confirmed to head of the EPA. And in “probably completed but possibly not” news, we have Eric Miller, a vaguely scary conservative judge who is being installed on the Ninth Circuit despite significant shenanigans involved in his confirmation — which Dems may or may not choose to fight. Speaking of scary conservative judges, further down the spectrum we have Judge Neomi Rao of Date Rape and Dwarf Tossing fame, who just made it out of committee and hopefully won’t prevail on the Senate floor. I’ll keep folks posted on further developments for these three.
North Carolina News (Redux). In further North Carolina news, Mark Harris also announced this week that he won’t be running in the new election. Meanwhile, Harris’s campaign contact from last time, who apparently was the one who hatched the absentee ballot scheme in the first place, has been indicted on charges. North Carolinians apparently still don’t agree on whether voter fraud is a problem and what all of this means, and the first primary won’t be held until May. But it will certainly be interesting to see the next election in progress.
Nuclear Summit Fail.* Trump’s nuclear summit with North Korea fell apart this week after only a day of discussion, with virtually no progress made towards denuclearization. True to Trump form, on the day he left he simply said that they disagreed about sanctions, but by a few days later he was blaming Michael Cohen for the failure. Oh, and before he left, he sided with Kim about North Korea’s alleged human rights abuse against Otto Warmbier.

The Bad:

Immigration Updates. It’s been a bit since we’ve done one of these, and given how upsetting this paragraph is I can’t say I missed it. ICE was in the news over the past week because DHHS documents have surfaced indicating thousands of adults and kids experience sexual abuse while they are in ICE custody — in 178 documented cases, abuse perpetuated by adult ICE staff. For women who have experienced sexual abuse on their way to the U.S. border, this likely compounds existing trauma, and it’s another form of horror that can require years of recovery. Meanwhile, numbers at the border remain unprecedented, and 29 parents that were separated from their kids and deported last year have returned to the border to request asylum and reunification.
Abortion Gag Rule. The Trump administration put a rule into place this week barring family planning clinics that provide abortion or abortion referrals from receiving federal funding, a move that House Democrats are saying obviates congressional intent. (The House Dems’ argument is backed up by the fact that an anti-abortion bill failed in the Senate the same week.) About the best things I can say regarding this policy are that twenty-one states have filed suit to block it, and Planned Parenthood plans to keep on keeping on anyway.

The Good:

HR 8 Advances. A bill designed to allow more time for background checks when people attempt to purchase guns made its way through the House this week, advancing with a 240 to 190 vote. It’s unclear whether this bill will survive the Senate, but it’s the most sweeping gun control legislation in more than two decades, and it’s nice to see movement on this issue of any kind after the couple of years we’ve had.

So that’s what I have for this week, and it’s more than enough! For making it through, you deserve this video of Star Wars otters and an eventual better government. I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully better) news, and I hope you will be back as well — but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me seven more gallons of caffeine!