Author: Sky York Journal

Sky York Journal This article was originally published by ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive their biggest stories as soon as they’re published. Trump administration officials earlier this year killed a federal criminal investigation into the coal empire owned by Sen. Jim Justice, a Republican from West Virginia and a close ally of the president’s. The investigation examined potential criminal violations of the Clean Water Act by the multistate mining operations largely run by Justice’s son, Jay, according to current and former officials familiar with the matter. The criminal probe was a significant escalation…

Sky York Journal While the outcome of Tuesday’s primary was never in doubt, the margin was; a mediocre showing against Maine Governor Janel Mills (D), who dropped out after running a begrudging campaign, would suggest that Democrat Graham Platner had taken on water from his recent stream of scandals. As of Wednesday morning, with about 88% of the vote tabulated, there were no such warning signs.  Platner’s Percentage of the Vote Paces Gideon’s  Sara Gideon, former Maine House speaker and the Democrat who ran against Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) in 2020, got 71.5% of the primary vote against two longshot…

Sky York Journal This story about Winooski was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter. WINOOSKI, Vt. — The day’s class started with a writing prompt: Do you feel safe in school? Why or why not? The students — whose families hail from across the globe and speak languages including Arabic, Nepali, Spanish and Somali — wrote their responses before reading them aloud. “I feel safe in school because I saw the school doors are locked every time,” one student said, “and I heard…

Sky York Journal Two erstwhile allies of President Trump who gave up their seats in Congress to run for governor of South Carolina failed to make it into a runoff election on Tuesday. Pamela Evette, the Trump-endorsed lieutenant governor, came in first place, followed by Alan Wilson, the state’s current attorney general. The two colorful members of Congress, Ralph Norman and Nancy Mace, lagged far behind.  Like most Republican primaries in this MAGA era, South Carolina’s gubernatorial race was defined by President Donald Trump’s famous “Complete and Total Endorsement.” The race also showed the level of loyalty Trump demands in…

Sky York Journal When President Donald Trump’s administration began its shakeup of the federal government, purging online data sets and demonizing previous federal policy, Laura Pegram saw that her organization could be in danger. She, along with others at the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors, or NASTAD, moved to restructure their website. “We very intentionally took down all of our staff bios, took down a vast majority of our drug user health resources,” Pegram said. “I still have them, of course. Just like I have all of the CDC and SAMHSA pages that used to affirm the…

Sky York Journal U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy, a Trump appointee, on Friday referred Justice Department lawyers for disciplinary proceedings after writing that the attorneys’ “reckless disregard for the duty of candor owed to a federal court is appalling.”  The order stems from the Trump administration’s attempt to trawl for sensitive information about trans kids by subpoenaing hospitals that provide gender affirming care. Some hospital systems — including the University of Michigan’s, as TPM first reported in August — stopped providing care altogether rather than fight the subpoenas. But others spawned lawsuits. McElroy, a judge in the District of Rhode Island,…

Sky York Journal Senate Republicans passed their reconciliation bill early Friday morning funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol until the end of fiscal year 2029. The, 52-47, largely party line final vote followed an all day vote-a-rama that stretched into the early hours of Friday. In the end, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) was the only Republican to break with her caucus and vote against the bill. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), who is currently running to become the next governor of Colorado, did not vote as he was back in his state to participate in a gubernatorial debate.…

Sky York Journal Senate Republicans’ reconciliation package in its current form includes billions of dollars for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), effectively providing funding for those agencies until the end of fiscal year 2029. If the reconciliation package becomes law, the funding — combined with the money from last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) — will be enough for ICE to operate at quadruple capacity for the next three and a half years. And the funding for Border Patrol, again combined with OBBB, will be more than enough to run it for the…

Sky York Journal Democrats seem to have avoided the nightmare scenario in California: with just under 60 percent of the vote in, only one Republican is currently poised to make it to the general election.  Just a couple months ago, the two Republican candidates in the race were polling first and second, threatening a Democratic lockout. In California’s jungle primary, the top two vote getters proceed to the general election regardless of party. Democrats fielded more than 20 candidates in the race, dividing voters. As of Wednesday afternoon, Republican former Fox News host Steve Hilton leads with 28 percent of…

Sky York Journal The Supreme Court showed beyond a doubt Tuesday that it will never again put a stop to Republican states snuffing out the Black vote.  The six right-wing justices granted Alabama’s request for a stay, which clears the way for the state to hold its 2026 elections under a 2023 map crafted to deliver Republicans six congressional seats and Democrats only one. It does so by making Black Alabamians’ votes count for less than white ones’.  In Louisiana v. Callais, the Court made vote dilution nearly impossible to prove. It ignored Congress’ alterations to the Voting Rights Act…