Author: Sky York Journal

Sky York Journal If you read mainstream coverage of Vice President JD Vance’s trip to Minneapolis this week, you’d be forgiven for thinking that he went there as an eyelinered MAGA Mahatma Gandhi, asking the city a simple question: How about we just give peace a chance? CBS News, a network whose bosses have made elaborate contortions to please the president, portrayed Vance as calling on local officials to “lower the temperature.” ABC, NBC, and PBS all had similar headlines. But how did the temperature get so high? Per lawsuits, affidavits, and reporting from the scene, it’s mostly responsive to…

Sky York Journal This story was originally reported by Amanda Becker of The 19th. Meet Amanda and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy. A transgender worker is repeatedly and intentionally misgendered by their coworker. A workplace bars an employee from using facilities that match their gender identity. A supervisor suggests a transgender subordinate shouldn’t be in public-facing work.  Going forward, it will be more difficult, timely and costly for LGBTQ+ workers to seek justice for these and other workplace harassment issues related to their gender identities and sexualities.  The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC,…

Sky York Journal This story was originally published by ProPublica. Sign up to receive their biggest stories as soon as they’re published. Days into President Donald Trump’s second term in the White House, a cryptocurrency billionaire posted a video on X to his hundreds of thousands of followers. “Please Donald Trump, I need your help,” he said, wearing a flag pin askew and seated awkwardly in an armchair. “I am an American. … Help me come home.”  The speaker, 46-year-old Roger Ver, was in fact no longer a U.S. citizen. Nicknamed “Bitcoin Jesus” for his early evangelism for digital currency, Ver had…

Sky York Journal When, on Jan. 9, a Supreme Court decision day came and went without an opinion on the legality of President Donald Trump’s signature economic policy, deep and wide tariffs, observers exhaled. The justices’ decision on whether Trump can levy widespread, global and indefinite tariffs using the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, or IEEPA, had been expected as early as the end of last year, an expedited ruling following oral arguments in the case on Nov. 5. But no tariffs decision came in December. When the Court announced it would release opinions on Jan. 9, many predicted that…

Sky York Journal Justice Sonia Sotomayor summed up Wednesday morning’s two-hour oral arguments on whether or not Trump could fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook in one line. “This whole case isn’t regular.” While Cook’s case isn’t explicitly about the Federal Reserve’s right to freedom from political manipulation, the court’s ruling will have resounding implications for U.S. central bank independence, which has been preserved since the body was created 112 years ago.  Cook’s lawyers’ arguments revolved around two contentions: that Cook wasn’t provided due process between the time members of the Trump administration accused her of criminal mortgage fraud and…

Sky York Journal As the Supreme Court cosigned President Trump and Elon Musk’s massacre of independent executive branch agencies last year, experts prayed that the justices would concoct some way to protect the Federal Reserve. Wednesday’s arguments bolstered those hopes. The right-wing majority seemed uncomfortable with the Trump administration’s arguments from a variety of angles, though no one was as cut-and-dry as Justice Brett Kavanaugh.  “Your position that there is no judicial review, no process required, no remedy available, a very low bar for cause that the president alone determines — that would weaken if not shatter the independence of…

Sky York Journal President Donald Trump spent the first anniversary of his second term on Tuesday pitching himself to the American people from behind the White House briefing room podium. In nearly two hours of remarks, Trump seemingly sought to address his cratering approval by running through a list of his supposed accomplishments. His remarks also included a series of vicious, racist remarks about Somalian people and other immigrants.  “They all ought to get the hell out of here, they’re bad for our country,” Trump said of the Somali population at one point during the extraordinary rant. At multiple points…

Sky York Journal In a bizarre court filing last week, the Justice Department conceded that in March 2025, two members of Elon Musk’s DOGE team who were working at the Social Security Administration were in touch with an advocacy group that hoped to “find evidence of voter fraud and to overturn election results in certain States.” The DOJ says in the filing that one of these DOGE staffers signed a “Voter Data Agreement” with the advocacy group, and may have sought to use Social Security data to analyze state voter rolls as a way to search for instances of voter…

Sky York Journal This story was originally reported by Candice Norwood of The 19th. Meet Candice and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy. A mother shoved to the ground in front of her children in the hallways of a immigration courthouse in New York. A young woman pulled from her car and handcuffed on a busy street in Key Largo, Florida. A child care worker dragged out of her workplace in Chicago, in front of parents and children. A pregnant woman yanked by one arm through the snowy streets of Minneapolis.  In each of these cases,…

Sky York Journal President Donald Trump launched his second term by seeking to usurp Congress’ authority and challenge a nearly century-old legal precedent that shields independent executive branch agencies and the congressionally-confirmed officers who lead them from presidential overreach. In late January, Trump removed Gwynne Wilcox from the National Labor Relations Board and fired two commissioners of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In February, he dismissed a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board. And in March, he axed two commissioners from the Federal Trade Commission.  Nearly a year after this push began, the Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear…