Author: Sky York Journal

Sky York Journal Democrat Abigail Spanberger is projected to become the next governor of Virginia, securing a resounding win for her party in one of the most closely-watched races of 2025. The win will help Virginia Democrats move ahead with a plan to redraw congressional maps ahead of the 2026 midterms, an attempt to counter GOP redistricting efforts in red states. The Associated Press called the race at 7:59 pm ET, just an hour after polls closed, with 54.9% of the vote and 44.9% for her Republican opponent, Winsome Earle-Sears. Spanberger held a consistent lead throughout the campaign, framing the…

Sky York Journal President Donald Trump said on Tuesday SNAP benefits will not go out to the nearly 42 million Americans who rely on the nutrition program until Democrats vote to open the federal government — despite an order from a federal judge that the administration must fund the program during the shutdown. “SNAP BENEFITS, which increased by Billions and Billions of Dollars (MANY FOLD!) during Crooked Joe Biden’s disastrous term in office (Due to the fact that they were haphazardly “handed” to anyone for the asking, as opposed to just those in need, which is the purpose of SNAP!),…

Sky York Journal The man who federal agents accused of dealing Greg Bovino a groin injury from which the Border Patrol commander purportedly needed two weeks to recover will no longer face charges after prosecutors on Monday moved to drop their case against him. Per a motion to dismiss, federal prosecutors will no longer pursue a charge of impeding a federal officer. Cole Sheridan, the protester, was initially charged with assaulting and impeding a federal officer over an Oct. 3 protest in which a Homeland Security Investigations agent accused the man of shoving Bovino. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s…

Sky York Journal ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published. This article is co-published with The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan local newsroom that informs and engages with Texans. Sign up for The Brief Weekly to get up to speed on their essential coverage of Texas issues. The Department of Homeland Security says it intends to add state driver’s license information to a swiftly expanding federal system envisioned as a one-stop shop for checking citizenship. The plan, outlined in a public notice posted Thursday, is the latest step in…

Sky York Journal The Trump administration told a federal judge on Monday that it plans to use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) contingency fund to cover 50 percent of November allotments to current eligible households — but that it might take states “a few weeks to up to several months” to disburse the money. A collection of blue state officials sued the administration earlier this month, when the shutdown meant an abrupt cutoff of SNAP payments and the administration expressed resistance to dipping into the contingency fund. It’s the first time in the program’s history that the scheduled payments…

Sky York Journal Judge Karin Immergut handed down a preliminary injunction late Sunday night, keeping the National Guard out of Portland.  “Based on the trial testimony, this Court finds no credible evidence that during the approximately two months before the President’s federalization order, protests grew out of control or involved more than isolated and sporadic instances of violent conduct that resulted in no serious injuries to federal personnel,” she wrote. The ruling maintains the status quo — the Guard remains barred from Portland — but with additional fact-finding by Immergut to back it up based on testimony at a three-day…

Sky York Journal On Friday evening, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt sent out a memo announcing a new restriction on press access in the West Wing. According to the memo, members of the White House press corps will now be restricted from accessing the area known as “upper press” without an appointment.  The move comes amid extensive changes to the Washington press corps under President Trump. At the White House, the Trump administration has taken the unprecedented steps of choosing partisan, right-wing organizations to fill seats in the briefing room for daily press conferences…

Sky York Journal This story was originally reported by Barbara Rodriguez of The 19th. Meet Barbara and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy. Food banks in several states, including Idaho and Maine, are bracing for an influx of visitors. In South Carolina, a state emergency relief fund will be tapped to respond to demand. And in North Dakota, the state’s sole food bank has started an emergency fundraising campaign. As lawmakers in Congress extend a nearly record-breaking federal government shutdown into possibly another month, massive cuts to critical aid are looming for the nation’s most vulnerable…

Sky York Journal ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week. In early 2023, Paul Newby, the Republican chief justice of North Carolina’s Supreme Court, gave the state and the nation a demonstration of the stunning and overlooked power of his office.  The previous year, the court — then majority Democrat — had outlawed partisan gerrymandering in the swing state. Over Newby’s vehement dissent, it had ordered independent outsiders to redraw electoral maps that the GOP-controlled legislature had…

Sky York Journal Quyen Dinh didn’t even remember that, in 2024, she was selected as one of 23 appointees to the Census 2030 Advisory Committee. The group has been disbanded since March by order of President Donald Trump, eradicating professional expertise from the planning of the decennial census. Dinh had also been involved, through her role as executive director of the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center, in giving feedback and helping shape the first update to how the federal government collects race and ethnicity data in nearly 30 years. Called Statistical Policy Directive 15, or SPD 15, the Office of…