Rubio Gives Trump The Green Light To Peddle More Fraud Falsehoods At CPAC

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who enabled former President Trump to run wild with false claims of election fraud that eventually led to the deadly insurrection at the Capitol last month, has no plans to stop Trump from spewing more fraud falsehoods during his remarks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this weekend. Continue reading “Rubio Gives Trump The Green Light To Peddle More Fraud Falsehoods At CPAC”

Is This The Year Congress Finally Eliminates The USPS’ Multi-Billion Dollar ‘Pre-Funding’ Debt?

There was plenty of drama in yesterday’s House Oversight Committee hearing featuring Postmaster General Louis DeJoy: Bad blood over the 2020 election and attacks on mail-in voting, DeJoy’s stubborn insistence that he would serve “a long time” despite pitiful delivery times of late, and the breaking news, in the middle of the hearing, that President Biden would fill three vacancies on the USPS Board of Governors — potentially shaking up the balance of power on the board. 

But what hasn’t gotten nearly as much attention was the subject of the hearing — draft legislation that would lift a 15-year-old weight off of the Postal Service’s shoulders. 

Continue reading “Is This The Year Congress Finally Eliminates The USPS’ Multi-Billion Dollar ‘Pre-Funding’ Debt?”

Horrifying and Damning

There’s a big scattering of news these days. But I want to recommend that you check out Cristina Cabrera’s updates on the denouement of the Jason Ravnsburg story. Ravnsburg is the Attorney General of South Dakota. Back in September it was reported that he’d been in an auto accident in which there had been a fatality. It quickly emerged that this was, while technically true, a bit different than what the announcement suggested. Ravnsborg had struck and killed a 55 year old man named Joe Boever driving home from a political fundraiser. He left the scene, later claiming he thought he’d struck a deer.

Earlier this week Ravnsborg was charged with three misdemeanors. But the evidence that came out at the conclusion of the investigation makes it seem that Ravnsborg got incredibly lucky not being charged with negligent homicide or hit and run. A witness said Boever was walking with a flashlight, which deer seldom carry. Forensic evidence strongly suggests that Ravnsborg was browsing RCP reading up on some Biden hit pieces when he struck and killed Boever. And perhaps most damning and horrifying, Boever’s glasses were found inside Ravnsborg’s car. In other words, this means almost to a certainty that Boever’s face slammed, with the full impact of the collision, into and through Ravnsborg’s windshield.

Cristina has the details here.

Damning Details Throw Hit-And-Run AG’s Account Of Fatal Crash Into Serious Doubt

South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg insists he had no idea he had struck a person when he ran into something on the highway that totaled his car on the night of September 12. He only found out after he decided to go back to the crash site the next morning, when he discovered 55-year-old Joe Boever’s lifeless body.

But in videos of Ravnsborg’s interviews in the probe released this week, investigators had plenty of reasons to think the attorney general, who is facing an impeachment push after being charged with three misdemeanors, wasn’t being completely forthright in his account.

Continue reading “Damning Details Throw Hit-And-Run AG’s Account Of Fatal Crash Into Serious Doubt”

New Ohio Lawsuit Becomes Latest Fight Over When Census Can Release 2020 Data

President Trump may be gone but the battles over the census haven’t ended.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (R) filed a federal lawsuit Thursday demanding that the Census Bureau stick to its statutory deadline of delivering redistricting data by the end of March. The Bureau recently announced that data won’t be ready until Sept. 30, because of snafus in the final stages of processing it caused by the pandemic and other issues.

Continue reading “New Ohio Lawsuit Becomes Latest Fight Over When Census Can Release 2020 Data”

5 New Things We Learned (Or Didn’t) At First Jan. 6 Hearing With Current Capitol Security Officials

The House on Thursday got its chance to investigate the security failures amid the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, as the current acting Capitol police chief and acting House sergeant at arms spoke publicly for the first time.

Continue reading “5 New Things We Learned (Or Didn’t) At First Jan. 6 Hearing With Current Capitol Security Officials”

COVID Vaccinations Spawn Battle Over When To End Distancing

The COVID-19 vaccine is having a stunning impact.

Take, for instance, nursing homes. Though they were the site of more than 26,000 COVID-19 deaths between thanksgiving and New Years, they’ve seen deaths decline by 66 percent since vaccinations began in December.

Continue reading “COVID Vaccinations Spawn Battle Over When To End Distancing”

Kennedy Apologizes For Calling Haaland A ‘Whack Job’ After Misspeaking About Tanden

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) can’t seem to get his apologies straight.

Kennedy on Thursday issued an apology via Politico for calling President Biden’s interior secretary nominee, Deb Haaland, a “whack job.” But the Republican senator initially offered his apology to the wrong person.

He originally told Politico that he wanted to apologize to Biden’s OMB director nominee Neera Tanden, who has been caught up in Republicans’ faux outrage over her past confrontational tweets after years of ignoring former President Trump’s Twitter outbursts. Continue reading “Kennedy Apologizes For Calling Haaland A ‘Whack Job’ After Misspeaking About Tanden”

Capitol Security Leaders Provide First Testimony On Events Of Jan. 6

Today for the first time, current leaders of the relevant law enforcement entities — the Capitol police, sergeant at arms — will come before Congress to answer questions on the January 6 attack.

The hearing, before the Legislative Branch subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, is a complement to one held in the Senate on Tuesday where lawmakers got to grill the former Capitol police chief and sergeants at arms. The Senate hearing was replete with finger pointing and some GOP conspiracy theories, and left many questions unanswered on both the granular and big picture level.

The star witness in today’s hearing will likely be acting chief of Capitol Police Yogananda Pittman, who was elevated to replace the former chief who resigned under intense pressure. Pittman was assistant chief of police of the department’s protective & intelligence operations during the attack, which is specifically tasked with gathering intelligence on and investigating threats to members of Congress. During the Tuesday hearing, much of the security failures were blamed on intelligence lapses, something Pittman will probably be able to speak to with more insider knowledge.