Author: Sky York Journal

Sky York Journal One of Jan. 6’s enduring mysteries, that of who planted pipe bombs at the DNC and RNC, has, according to the DOJ, been solved. Prosecutors charged Brian Cole, a Virginia man, over the incident; per a Sunday filing in his case, he confessed to FBI agents after his arrest. But there’s another question that persists: how will the MAGAfied DOJ deal with Cole’s motive in the case? The initial indictment was notably silent on what Cole may have believed he was accomplishing by allegedly planting pipe bombs on Jan. 5. An affidavit said agents had tied him…

Sky York Journal The thread of partisan power and control is stitched through America’s public education system. In the name of the revisionist Lost Cause history — which holds that the South fought the Civil War over states’ rights and not to maintain the institution of slavery — the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) in the early 20th century leveraged the group’s considerable political influence and went after school curricula. The UDC lobbied for ahistorical, pro-South school materials, and its members joined Southern state textbook commissions where they helped control which books would be deemed suitable for children and…

Sky York Journal Another possible standoff over government funding may be brewing on Capitol Hill. Congress has until Jan. 30 to pass the remaining appropriations bills to fund the federal government for the remainder of this fiscal year, or to vote on a new continuing resolution to keep the government open. That self-imposed deadline is the result of a deal congressional lawmakers made just last month to reopen the government after 43 days of stalemate that led to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. The shutdown was triggered by Democrats’ efforts to try and save Affordable Care Act subsidies…

Sky York Journal This post first appeared at ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. In November 2024, Democrat Josh Stein scored an emphatic victory in the race to become North Carolina’s governor, drubbing his Republican opponent by almost 15 percentage points. His honeymoon didn’t last long, however. Two weeks after his win, the North Carolina legislature’s Republican supermajority fast-tracked a bill that would transform the balance of power in the state. Its authors portrayed the 131-page proposal, released publicly only an hour before debate began, as a disaster relief measure for victims of Hurricane Helene. But much of…

Sky York Journal Dr. Jessica Weisz, a pediatrician in D.C., has seen more and more parents who are skeptical about vaccinating their children.She cares for about 15 families a day, and said that what used to be monthly questions about vaccine safety have become weekly ones. But, she emphasized, that was not yet the norm. “Overwhelmingly, most parents and caregivers want their children to be vaccinated,” Weisz, who is also president of the D.C. chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), told TPM. Last Friday, the Washington Post published an article outlining plans for new childhood vaccine guidelines coming…

Sky York Journal The Supreme Court upheld a block on the National Guard’s deployment to Chicago Tuesday, dealing the Trump administration a significant blow and embracing an interpretation of the laws that govern the Guard’s activation that differs considerably from the administration’s. The majority was unsigned, though Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote a separate concurrence. Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, wrote one dissent, and Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote another. The decision will reverberate throughout Trump’s attempt to deploy the Guard into Democratic cities across the country; multiple other cases have been in limbo awaiting the Court’s delayed ruling.…

Sky York Journal In the five days since the Justice Department began releasing the Epstein files (in a piecemeal fashion that seemingly flouted a law President Trump signed last month), the usually quiet pre-holiday stretch has seen members of Congress issuing threats of prosecution, DOJ attempts to protect President Trump and a few newsworthy revelations.  A few document dumps in, we’re getting some real information (and Trump mentions)  While the first tranche of documents contained little new information (though plentiful decontextualized photos of former President Bill Clinton), some nuggets are starting to surface.  Trump has not been formally accused of…

Sky York Journal Zohran Mamdani has felt the fear that stalks the halls of New York City’s immigration courts in the Trump era.  The mayor-elect found himself waiting nervously on a Manhattan sidewalk when his father, who is Indian-Ugandan, was called in for his citizenship interview.  “I was there earlier this year outside of 26 Federal Plaza,” Mamdani said in an interview with TPM. “I spent four hours waiting not knowing what was going to happen.”  During President Donald Trump’s second term, these types of legal proceedings have often ended in violent encounters between masked agents from the Immigration and…

Sky York Journal Throughout 2025, the Trump administration has, time after time, simply refused to spend funds that Congress appropriated. The obstinacy was without precedent in modern American governance; congressional Democrats suggested it had put the country on track toward a constitutional crisis. Republicans, who controlled both chambers of Congress, largely did nothing.  Piping up occasionally to affirm to those who were paying attention that they had not entirely lost their minds was a relatively small watchdog agency housed within the legislative branch: The Government Accountability Office (GAO).  The Trump Department of Transportation suspending Biden-era grants for electric vehicle charging…

Sky York Journal It began in the spring, when Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) went to work and “saw a dozen masked ICE agents in the lobby” of his office building.  “What’s going on here?” he recalled asking, incredulously. “What is happening?” After the initial shock, the congressman and his staff saw that the masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had become a regular presence at the immigration courts located in the same federal building as his Manhattan district office. Along with two other similar courts in the city, his building had become the site of an unprecedented wave of aggressive…