Author: Sky York Journal

Sky York Journal On Jan. 6, 2026, a group of election conspiracy theorists released a report detailing allegations that the 2020 presidential results in Georgia’s Fulton County were “falsely padded” with questionable ballots. A little over three weeks later, FBI agents raided the county’s offices and seized 700 boxes of voting records.  This extraordinary raid has prompted widespread alarm amid a recent spate of comments from President Trump indicating that he might once again try to somehow disrupt the U.S. tradition of free and fair elections, including through attempts to “nationalize” or “take over” state-run votes. Democrats, noting the situation…

Sky York Journal This story was originally reported by Grace Panetta of The 19th. Meet Grace and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy. The year was 2018, and Lawrence Krauss, the prominent physicist and scholar of the cosmos, was facing a Title IX investigation at Arizona State University. BuzzFeed News had just reported on allegations of sexual misconduct against him; he denied them. In March, he contacted a lawyer experienced in higher education cases. Krauss and Justin Dillon, the lawyer, exchanged a few friendly emails before speaking on the phone.  Then, Krauss presented him with an…

Sky York Journal In several cases across the country, judges have rejected or trimmed subpoenas from the Justice Department probing whether gender-affirming care provided to minors violates federal law.  The subpoenas seek extremely sensitive information. The DOJ is asking for names, dates of birth, addresses and social security numbers of child patients who have been prescribed puberty blockers and hormone therapy, as well as their families’ identifying information. But in four cases that have reached the decision stage, challengers have won at least partial victories — federal district court judges have either quashed the subpoenas altogether or limited the patient information…

Sky York Journal This story was originally published by ProPublica. Sign up to receive their biggest stories as soon as they’re published. Minutes after a federal agent shot and killed a Mexican immigrant in a Chicago suburb last September, a group of police officers stood on the sidewalk trying to figure out the answer to a question of protocol: Who would investigate the shooting? “Wouldn’t it be state’s, at a minimum?” one Franklin Park officer asked, according to body camera footage. Chief Mike Witz shook his head. “No, because it’s a federal shooting,” he said. “You’re not going to investigate a federal…

Sky York Journal This excerpt is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.  Donald Trump may not have been the first president to believe in conspiracy theories, but he was definitely the first candidate whose election was fueled by pandering to those who do. As his popularity soared among those on the fringe during his 2016 campaign, their internet presence became less about “questioning everything” and much more about blindly believing whatever Trump told them. Trump’s following on Reddit grew especially fast, and especially toxic. But while threads like r/TheDonald were unapologetically pro-Trump, the large subreddit…

Sky York Journal House Republicans barely passed a funding package on Tuesday, voting after more than a day of wrangling to approve five full-year funding bills plus a two-week continuing resolution to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Senate Democrats last month had demanded that, in exchange for their votes on funding packages, reforms and constraints be placed on Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. That prompted a standoff over the DHS funds and a short-lived partial government shutdown, which is now over.  But for how long? Members of Congress now have a behemoth task ahead of them: rein in…

Sky York Journal President Donald Trump last Friday announced his intent to nominate former Federal Reserve Board Governor Kevin Warsh to chair the central bank, tapping a Republican economist with industry and government street cred, but whose public displays of political obsequiousness could contribute to distrust in Fed independence. Trump’s insistence that federal agencies previously immune to presidential interference now bend to his desires have been made manifest across the government. His attempts to strong-arm the Fed into interest rate cuts began during his first presidential term, but Trump II has seen the political pressure on the central bank ratcheted…

Sky York Journal WASHINGTON, DC–Federal District Court Judge Richard Leon expressed shock Tuesday that the Trump Justice Department was asking him to break new First Amendment ground, the better to punish Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) for speaking out against the administration.  “You’re asking me to do something that the Supreme Court has never done — that’s a bit of a stretch, is it not?” the George W. Bush-appointed judge asked DOJ’s John Bailey. The Trump administration tried during the hearing to argue that the diminished speech rights that apply to the active duty military — meant to preserve obedience and…

Sky York Journal Judge Eric Tostrud, a Trump appointee, handed down an often contradictory ruling Monday night lifting his order requiring the preservation of evidence surrounding Customs and Border Protection agents’ killing of Alex Pretti last month.  On one hand, he acknowledged that statements from Trump officials absolving the agents of any culpability for the killing immediately after they shot Pretti are “troubling.”  “They reflect, not a genuine interest in learning the truth, but snap judgments informed by speculation and motivated by political partisanship,” he wrote.  But the connection between the administration’s stance on the fatal shooting, and its intentions…

Sky York Journal Coming off the heels of Attorney General Pam Bondi’s demand for access to Minnesota voter rolls and the state’s decisive refusal to comply with that demand, President Trump is now spreading conspiracy theories about the state and is again threatening to try to exert control over the nation’s election systems. Last month, Bondi attempted to tie the Trump administration’s months-long campaign to seize sensitive voter information from various states across the country, with the recent killing of a U.S. citizen Alex Pretti by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. In a letter to Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz following…