Author: Sky York Journal

Sky York Journal This post first appeared at ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. According to this year’s tax filing, the American Athletic Conference, the $150 million collegiate sports league that includes schools like Rice and Tulane, is striving to be a leader in inclusion, but no longer in diversity or equity. UNICEF USA, which supports the United Nations’ humanitarian children’s mission, no longer wants a more equitable world for every child — just a better one. And the National Association of Community Health Centers, whose tax filing once said it focused on medically underserved populations, is…

Sky York Journal Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), usually a fairly reliable Republican foot soldier, grilled a Trump judicial nominee Wednesday about his bigoted preachings.  President Trump nominated Olson, currently in private practice, to be a U.S. district judge for the Southern District of Indiana. He has been active in anti-trans litigation, leading a case to have trans women athletes stripped of their NCAA awards.  “During that sermon you said that marriage was not intended for all people, including, and I’m gonna quote your words, ‘our handicapped friends or our persons with physical disabilities that might prevent the robust marriage that…

Sky York Journal Four House Republicans joined a Democratic discharge petition Wednesday morning to force a floor vote on the Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Mike Lawler (R-NY), Rob Bresnahan (R-PA) and Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA) signed the discharge petition to help Democrats get to the 218 signatures they needed. This effectively forces the Republican House leadership to bring the ACA extension vote to the House floor. House rules dictate a completed discharge petition is subject to a waiting period. That means the vote could be on…

Sky York Journal This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with The Salt Lake Tribune. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published. Dr. Kirk Moore had been on trial for five days, accused of falsifying COVID-19 vaccination cards and throwing away the government-supplied doses. The Utah plastic surgeon faced up to 35 years in prison if the jury found him guilty on charges that included conspiracy to defraud the United States. Testimony had paused for the weekend when Moore’s lawyer called him early one Saturday this July with what felt…

Sky York Journal In late November and December 2020, after all hope had faded from Trump’s re-election bid, his supporters were left with the “Kraken.” It was thought to be a monster of evidence that would prove, once and for all and to all skeptics, that massive voter fraud, interference, and manipulation had perpetrated a delusion on the American people, leading them into the false belief that Joe Biden won the election that year. Attorney Sidney Powell unleashed the Kraken in the form of a Nov. 19, 2020, press conference and lawsuit, filed days after. Unfortunately for the outgoing president,…

Sky York Journal Tuesday morning gave us the latest set of data indicating that President Donald Trump’s tariffs regime is not, in fact, making manufacturing great again. The November jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggested that the tariffs are not protecting blue collar jobs, and may well be hiking prices this holiday season. And while these facts may not come as a surprise to experts or mindful observers, the BLS employment situation report reveals information that flies in the face of what Trump and his economic Cabinet members have been feeding the public. Tuesday’s jobs report…

Sky York Journal The school was on lockdown.  Nov. 12 was supposed to be an evening of youth soccer at P.S. 1, a public elementary school in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn. Yet the fun and games in the school’s gym turned dark when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showed up outside and took someone off the streets.  According to multiple witnesses, the federal officers stayed parked on the corner for roughly two hours in three cars with tinted windows. Their presence outside the school where nearly 90% of the students are Latino sparked fear and led many community…

Sky York Journal This story first appeared at ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive ProPublica’s biggest stories as soon as they’re published. On the one-month anniversary of President Donald Trump’s inauguration earlier this year, a group of his appointed aides gathered to celebrate. For four weeks, they had been working overtime to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, freezing thousands of programs, including ones that provided food, water and medicine around the world. They’d culled USAID’s staff and abandoned its former headquarters in the stately Ronald Reagan Building, shunting the remnants of the agency to…

Sky York Journal NEW YORK – One year in, and the club of young Republicans that touts itself as the most MAGA of them all isn’t happy. They’ve gotten what they’ve wanted, and it still isn’t enough. If last year’s iteration of their annual gala was a preview for what life under a second Trump administration would be — ubiquitous authoritarian gestures, Christian nationalism ascendant, and a growing global far-right front with Washington at the center — then this year’s event showed how even some of the president’s most die-hard supporters are pushing for even more. But if last year’s celebration…

Sky York Journal At his clinic, John Sirabella is a hard man to talk to.  On a recent evening, in the back of a cavernous church basement, he led a training for over two dozen people gathered on folding chairs. Translators and volunteers sat at rows of tables. The session was dedicated to helping immigrants navigate the intense scenes in the Manhattan courthouses where masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have taken to snatching people who show up for scheduled hearings and routine appointments. After Sirabella ran through his presentation and encouraged people to sign up to help with multiple…