Author: Sky York Journal

Sky York Journal The midterm elections are often treated by voters as a referendum on the current presidential administration’s performance. In recent history, that has translated to the party in the White House almost always losing — and losing big — in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. But the second Trump administration has been far from typical, and, as we head into 2026, several factors make it considerably harder than usual to get a read on what to expect this November. The administration’s months-long, Trump-pushed state redistricting crusade — an overt attempt to predetermine the outcome of the…

Sky York Journal Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) sued Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth Monday for directing the U.S. Navy to “reconsider” his rank and pay grade. Hegseth’s retribution followed Kelly’s participation in a video reminding members of the military that they cannot follow illegal orders. While other lawmakers also participated, Kelly — with his possible presidential ambitions and military pension — became the administration’s target. Kelly is suing Hegseth for both constitutional and statutory violations, including infringement on his freedom of speech.  “It appears that never in our nation’s history has the Executive Branch imposed military sanctions on a Member…

Sky York Journal National outrage continues to escalate over the Trump administration’s violent immigration crackdown. Over the past two days, protesters urging Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol to leave their cities took to the streets from Minneapolis and Chicago to Houston, Texas; Portland, Oregon; New York; Oakland and San Diego, California. Many of the demonstrators’ signs memorialized Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mom and poet who was shot in the face by an ICE officer on Wednesday while attempting to drive away from several ICE agents parked on her block. Top Trump officials have smeared Good…

Sky York Journal More than 2,000 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are on the ground in Minnesota in what President Donald Trump’s administration officials have called the “largest immigration operation ever.” Deployed just days ago by Trump, one agent has already shot and killed a person and federal law enforcement has deployed tear gas and pepper spray against protesters. The massive operation and subsequent violence in Minneapolis comes against the backdrop of Trump’s announcement Tuesday that he’s freezing $10 billion in federal funds approved by Congress for child welfare programs, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, foster care, and…

Sky York Journal This story was originally reported by Mariel Padilla of The 19th. Meet Mariel and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy. The social media platform X has been flooded with AI-generated sexualized images of women and children in recent weeks — months before a new law aiming to ban the spread of nonconsensual intimate imagery goes into effect. Elon Musk, the owner of X, announced a new feature with a post on Christmas Eve encouraging users to try editing images and videos with Grok, the app’s chatbot. Then, a few weeks later, as the…

Sky York Journal After a masked federal ICE agent shot and killed a Minneapolis woman on Wednesday, Trump administration officials began to blame her for her own death. At least three videos have appeared online that purport to document the shooting. In the videos, a maroon SUV reverses and then turns as three men appear to surround the car. One of them approaches and says, “get out of the fucking car,” as the car begins to reverse; another moves towards the front of the car. The car then appears to try to drive away from the scene. The agent who…

Sky York Journal The White House marked the fifth anniversary of the Capitol attack by posting a stunning display of alternate history on its official website.  A new page entitled “January 6: A Date Which Will Live In Infamy” appeared on WhiteHouse.gov on Tuesday. It was filled with many of the blatantly false narratives President Trump and his allies have promoted in the years since thousands of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building in an effort to prevent the certification of his loss in the 2020 election. But along with the more standard, now-familiar January 6 denialism, the White…

Sky York Journal The Wyoming Supreme Court knocked down two abortion restrictions Tuesday — one of which is the nation’s first targeted ban of abortion pills — finding that they violate the state constitution.  Specifically, the 4-1 majority found that the laws violated the constitution’s “right of health care access” provision: “Each competent adult shall have the right to make his or her own health care decisions.”  Voters passed that amendment in 2012 to gird against real and imagined facets of the Affordable Care Act: the concern that patients wouldn’t be able to choose their own doctors, that “death panels”…

Sky York Journal It has never been easy for me to write about January 6.  Even standing in the crowd that day to cover the chaos, I found that sending out the first reports was a struggle. First, thanks to the sheer mass of the raging mob or perhaps some heavy law enforcement tech, the internet was jammed. It was a challenge to send out videos and posts documenting what was happening in front of me. But, along with dealing with those concrete logistics, I had to overcome the sheer disbelief. Was I really seeing people climbing the walls? Were…

Sky York Journal This story was originally reported by Jennifer Gerson of The 19th. Meet Jennifer and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy. In the wake of the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, President Donald Trump quickly took up the cause of a 35-year-old veteran named Ashli Babbitt. “Who killed Ashli Babbitt?” he asked in a one-sentence statement on July 1, 2021.  “An innocent, wonderful, incredible woman, a military woman,” Trump said during a Fox News interview a few weeks later.  To Trump and his Make America Great Again movement, Babbitt was not…