Politics

A bill banning law enforcement officers working in Washington state from wearing face coverings looks poised to become law.

Senate Bill 5855 passed the House Tuesday evening after a passionate debate and will head to the governor’s desk if the Senate approves final changes.

This ban would apply to federal, state, and local law enforcement officers interacting with the public or making arrests, and would allow a person detained by any masked law enforcement officer in Washington state to sue.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Javier Valdez (D- Seattle), is a response to federal immigration enforcement officials wearing masks, but would apply to any and all law enforcement working in the state.

ProPublica is releasing a trove of disclosure records that detail the finances of more than 1,500 Trump appointees, including former lobbyists, industry executives and at least a dozen officials who declined to identify former clients.

Thousands of companies are jockeying for billions of dollars in Defense Department contracts to build a shield designed to intercept and destroy missiles launched against the United States.

But amid the intense competition, a handful of firms have an important inside connection.

At least four of the companies awarded contracts so far are owned by Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity firm founded by billionaire Steve Feinberg, who until last year ran the company and is now the deputy secretary of defense — the second-highest-ranking official in the Pentagon.

Feinberg oversees the office in charge of the Golden Dome for America project, which is modeled on Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.

I’m surprised that no one has pointed out that since she and her general counsel were subjects of the complaint, Gabbard and her office have a clear conflict of interest in making any determination. This made it clearly inappropriate for them to have played a substantive or even a procedural role in its handling. This is spelled out under a number of different authorities, including executive branch ethics regulations, which cover the DNI, and intelligence community constraints.

It’s baffling, to say the least, that Gabbard did not recuse herself from this matter.

We don’t know why Gabbard continues to aggressively obstruct this whistleblower complaint. It sounds like she’s more concerned with protecting Jared Kushner, and perhaps Trump himself, than the public she’s supposed to serve. But we do know this: The ICWPA system for intelligence community whistleblowers depends on the knowledge, trust, credibility and good faith of the director of national intelligence. It’s a fatal flaw to make that person an intermediary, much less a gatekeeper, on a whistleblower’s path to congressional oversight.

The motion to subpoena Bondi passed by a vote of 24-19. Five Republicans voted for it, including Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who put the motion forward. The Republicans voting with Mace and the Democrats were: Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Michael Cloud of Texas and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The department acknowledged Wednesday that tens of thousands of Epstein files are "offline" as it deals with redaction and privacy issues that it hopes to have addressed by the end of the week.

"AG Bondi claims the DOJ has released all of the Epstein files. The record is clear: they have not," Mace wrote on X.

President Donald Trump on Thursday fired his embattled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and said he will nominate in her place Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin.

Trump made the announcement on social media on Thursday, two days after Noem faced a grilling on Capitol Hill from GOP members as well as Democrats.

Trump says he’ll make Noem a “Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas,” a new security initiative that he said would focus on the Western Hemisphere.

Edit: Here's who is replacing her- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markwayne_Mullin#Personal_life

Anyone willing to dig into his wikipedia history to dig up why he's an awful human?

Some two dozen states challenged President Donald Trump’s new global tariffs on Thursday, filing a lawsuit over import taxes he imposed after a stinging loss at the Supreme Court.

The Democratic attorneys general and governors in the lawsuit argue that Trump is overstepping his power with planned 15% tariffs on much of the world.

The new suit argues that Trump can’t pivot to Section 122 because it was intended to be used only in specific, limited circumstances — not for sweeping import taxes. It also contends the tariffs will drive up costs for states, businesses and consumers.

Many of those states also successfully sued over Trump’s tariffs imposed under a different law: the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).

• Since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran on Saturday, the war appears to be widening beyond the Middle East. Strikes have been reported in Israel, Turkey, Bahrain, UAE, Azerbaijan and other countries, including on U.S. embassies in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
• So far, six Americans — all service members — have been killed since the beginning of the military operation. The war in Iran is costing the U.S. about $1 billion a day, sources say.
• Iran is reporting that more than 1,200 people have been killed so far, The Associated Press says.
• The World Health Organization said that as of this morning “almost 1,000 deaths have been reported in Iran, 50 in Lebanon, 10 in Israel and 11 in other gulf countries.”
• President Donald Trump said today that he should be involved in choosing Iran’s next supreme leader, Axios reported. The late ayatollah’s son Mojtaba Khamenei has become the front-runner for taking over his father’s role. Trump is opposed. “They are wasting their time. Khamenei’s son is a lightweight,” Trump told Axios.

In WhatsApp conversations leaked to the Miami Herald, participants used variations of the n-word more than 400 times, regularly described women as “whores,” used slurs to talk about Jewish and gay people and mused about Hitler’s politics.

Interspersed throughout were discussions about events promoting the Republican Party at Florida International University. The school told the Herald the chat logs are part of an ongoing criminal investigation.

The conversations included some of the campus’ top conservative leaders: the county GOP secretary, FIU’s Turning Point USA chapter president and the former College Republicans recruitment chair.

"The private park concessionaire executive, Socha, has zero experience in public service or conservation,” Jayson O’Neill, spokesperson for the Save Our Parks campaign, told SFGate. “Instead, he’s made a career out of extracting maximum profit from our national parks, not protecting them, making it abundantly clear he’ll be doing the bidding of special interests and corporate interests.”

An August investigation by the New York Times found that at least a fifth of the country’s 433 national parks had been significantly strained due to Trump-related cuts. I spoke with former National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis in May about the cascading impacts the job cuts could have on the country’s public lands. Another former director, Charles F. Sams III, echoed these concerns, along with other former park staff and recreation experts, as Blaine Harden reported for ICN in January.

Meanwhile, US Customs and Border Protection intends to build border barriers throughout the Big Bend region of southwest Texas, which plans show will cut through part of the popular Big Bend National Park, as my colleague Martha Pskowski reported. Scientists and conservationists have condemned the project.

The Department of Justice has withheld from the public nearly 48,000 files stemming from investigations into Jeffrey Epstein, after publishing more than 2 million pages of documents under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

The initial legally mandated releases of documents comprised more than 3 million pages, though that figure is now roughly 2.7 million, according to an analysis of the files by CBS News and The Wall Street Journal.

A spokesperson for the Justice Department told the outlets that “47,635 files were offline for further review and should be ready for re-production by the end of the week.”

Those offline files include materials connected to unverified allegations against President Donald Trump, The Independent previously reported.

Roberts resigned as DeRidder’s mayor one day after authorities began investigating a complaint that she had raped a minor. Her resignation letter omitted any mention of that investigation.

She later made $75,000 bail to await her trial from out of custody.

Misty Roberts in 2018 made history by becoming the first woman ever elected as mayor of DeRidder. She won a second four-year term in 2022.

The U.S. has launched military operations against “designated terrorist organizations” in Ecuador just three days after starting a war in the Middle East.

While the eyes of the world are on Iran, and Trump is under fire even from MAGAworld for his foreign entanglements, the president authorized yet another series of U.S. military strikes.

U.S. Southern Command announced the operations in a late-night X post on Tuesday, writing, “On March 3, Ecuadorian and U.S. military forces launched operations against Designated Terrorist Organizations in Ecuador. The operations are a powerful example of the commitment of partners in Latin America and the Caribbean to combat the scourge of narco-terrorism.”

“Together, we are taking decisive action to confront narco-terrorists who have long inflicted terror, violence, and corruption on citizens throughout the hemisphere.”

Lewandowski has an unusual role at DHS, where he is not a paid government employee but is nonetheless acting as a top official, helping Noem run the sprawling agency. For months, members of Congress have asked the agency to detail the scope of his work and authority.

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., asked Noem whether Lewandowski has “a role in approving contracts” at DHS. Noem responded with a flat denial: “No.”

But internal DHS records reviewed by ProPublica contradict Noem’s Senate testimony. The records show Lewandowski personally approved a multimillion-dollar equipment contract at the agency last summer.

Lutnick has drawn scrutiny for his ties to Epstein. Lutnick had previously claimed he had not seen Epstein since 2005, three years before Epstein’s 2008 conviction on child prostitution charges.

But recently released emails from Epstein suggest he and Lutnick last met in 2012.

At a hearing of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies, Lutnick confirmed he had been on a boat with Epstein in 2012. He said he was not sure “why we did it,” but insisted there was nothing untoward about the meeting. Lutnick has not been accused of any crimes.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick still has the full support of President Donald Trump.

The House ethics committee said on Wednesday that it has opened an investigation of Tony Gonzales, a Republican representative from Texas, over allegations that include having an affair with an aide.

The top Republican and Democratic members on the committee said in a joint statement that an investigative panel would look into whether Gonzales engaged in sexual misconduct toward an employee in his office and whether he discriminated unfairly by dispensing special favors or privileges.

Gonzales’s office did not immediately reply to a request for comment from the Associated Press.

The congressman, now in his third term, has said he would not step down in response to the allegations, telling reporters at the US Capitol recently that there will be opportunities for all the details and facts to come out.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty revealed her office’s creation of the Transparency and Accountability Project in a statement on Monday. Per the announcement, TAP allows users to submit photos and videos “of potentially unlawful behavior by federal agents.”

“TAP’s purpose is to collect and assess evidence submitted by the public of potentially unlawful behavior by federal agents,” Moriarty said.

She reported that her office and TAP are investigating 17 incidents that occurred during the DHS operations in Minneapolis, including one focused on former field commander Gregory Bovino.

“We will investigate and pursue charging where appropriate,” Moriarty said. “Make no mistake, we are not afraid of any legal fight. But we will do this ethically, responsibly, and vigorously. This is just the beginning.”

Patel fired a dozen FBI agents last Wednesday after learning that his and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ phones had been under subpoena as part of the probe into Trump’s hoarding of top secret records at Mar-a-Lago.

His firing of the global espionage unit, known as CI-12, came days before the U.S. and Israel jointly launched Operation Epic Fury, with airstrikes on Iran that have led to a wider conflict throughout the Middle East.

Strikes on Iran during Trump’s first presidency were followed by a series of Iranian operations in the U.S. to try to assassinate Trump and some of his allies.

CI-12 probes illegal media leaks and the mishandling of classified documents. The unit consisted of veteran agents trained on threats and spy operations, with a special focus on the Middle East, including Iran, sources told MS Now.

OpenAI says it has agreed changes to the "opportunistic and sloppy" deal it struck with the US government over the use of its technology in classified military operations.

On Monday OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said the company would add the language to its agreement, including explicitly prohibiting the use of its systems to spy on Americans.

The deal had emerged on Friday following a fallout between OpenAI's rival Anthropic and the Department of Defense, over concerns around the use of its AI model Claude for mass surveillance and in fully autonomous weapons.

But it has raised questions over how AI is used in war and how much power rests with government and private companies.

A landmark trial begins Tuesday as the Department of Justice and a bipartisan group of state attorneys general sue Ticketmaster parent company Live Nation, alleging it engages in anticompetitive practices.

The lawsuit, filed nearly two years ago by the Biden administration, accuses Ticketmaster and Live Nation of using their dominance in the ticket market to block rivals. The DOJ and 30 state attorneys general say Live Nation locks up venues through exclusive long-term agreements, threatening to withhold artists and tours if venues do not sign those deals.

The suit also alleges that Live Nation pressures artists to use the company as their promoter in order to gain access to those venues.

The trial comes as Ticketmaster and Live Nation face public criticism over high ticket fees, which often push prices far above face value. Some artists have even turned to selling tickets in person to help fans avoid the costs associated with online sales.

The United States evacuated diplomats as attacks intensified across the Middle East, with drones striking the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia, while President Trump signaled the conflict with Iran could turn into an extended war.

Israel said it sent ground forces across the border into southern Lebanon and bombed Beirut suburbs as fighting with the Iran-backed group Hezbollah resumed after more than a year.

The U.S. and Israel kept up their attacks in Iran, where the death toll rose to 787 on Tuesday, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society. Explosions were heard in Iran's capital of Tehran and other parts of the country.

Trump said Monday that the war could last four to five weeks, but could go longer than that.

The Supreme Court on Monday night cleared the way for New York to go forward with the 2026 elections using the state’s existing congressional map. Over the objections of the court’s three Democratic appointees, the justices granted a request from a Republican member of Congress, a group of voters, and state election officials to pause an order by a state trial court that would have required the state to redraw the map to add Black and Latino voters.

Justice Samuel Alito, who penned an opinion agreeing with the decision to put the order by Justice Jeffrey Pearlman of the New York Supreme Court, which is a trial court, on hold, called Pearlman’s order “unadorned racial discrimination.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who dissented from Monday’s ruling in an opinion joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, accused her colleagues in the majority of executing an “unexplained about-face” from its normal practice of staying out of cases involving state election litigation.

Oracle Corporation quietly published a blog post announcing that the U.S. government had authorized it to run generative AI on federal government data. That means pattern recognition, automated data analysis, and decision-making tools now approved to operate on your Medicare records and military systems, cleared at the highest civilian and Department of Defense security levels. (And yes, Oracle also just took over the infrastructure running your Medicaid and ACA data — that happened this week too, and we’ll get there.)

The AI running on the classified side is Grok, built by Elon Musk’s xAI, hosted on Larry Ellison’s cloud, processing Top Secret American intelligence data. That went live today. While you were watching Tehran.

Memorandum Updating All Forms to Collect Baseline Biographic Data, CBP will add several “high value data fields” to the ESTA application, when feasible. This is in addition to the information already collected in the ESTA application. The high value data fields include:

• a. Telephone numbers used in the last five years;
• b. Email addresses used in the last ten years;
• c. IP addresses and metadata from electronically submitted photos;
• d. Family member names (parents, spouse, siblings, children);
• e. Family number telephone numbers used in the last five years;
• f. Family member dates of birth;
• g. Family member places of birth;
• h. Family member residencies;
• i. Biometrics – face, fingerprint, DNA, and iris;
• j. Business telephone numbers used in the last five years;
• k. Business email addresses used in the last ten years.

https://public-nspection.federalregister.gov/2025-22461.pdf (page 9 & 10)

“We will go as far as we need to go to advance American interests... Why in the world would we tell you, the enemy, or anybody what we will or will not do in pursuit of an objective?” he added.