Author: Sky York Journal

Sky York Journal This story was originally published by ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published. The Trump administration is planning to use artificial intelligence to write federal transportation regulations, according to U.S. Department of Transportation records and interviews with six agency staffers. The plan was presented to DOT staff last month at a demonstration of AI’s“potential to revolutionize the way we draft rulemakings,” agency attorney Daniel Cohen wrote to colleagues.The demonstration, Cohen wrote, would showcase “exciting new AI tools available to DOT rule writers to help us…

Sky York Journal This story was originally reported by Chabeli Carrazana of The 19th. Meet Chabeli and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy. Amanda Nataro was getting ready to travel to Liberia for a work trip when notice came that all travel was suspended. She was locked out of her emails and the building. In a matter of days, her job of nine years at the U.S. Agency for International Development was gone.  As a single mother, her thoughts turned to her elementary school-age children. They turned to the people she was supporting in Liberia as…

Sky York Journal Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Saturday evening that Democrats would “not provide the votes” for a government funding bill this week if appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security are included. The statement comes after federal agents shot and killed a Minneapolis man, identified as 37-year-old Alex Pretti, who was filming their activities earlier in the day. “What’s happening in Minnesota is appalling — and unacceptable in any American city,” he said in a statement. “Democrats sought common sense reforms in the Department of Homeland Security spending bill, but because of Republicans’ refusal to stand up…

Sky York Journal If you read mainstream coverage of Vice President JD Vance’s trip to Minneapolis this week, you’d be forgiven for thinking that he went there as an eyelinered MAGA Mahatma Gandhi, asking the city a simple question: How about we just give peace a chance? CBS News, a network whose bosses have made elaborate contortions to please the president, portrayed Vance as calling on local officials to “lower the temperature.” ABC, NBC, and PBS all had similar headlines. But how did the temperature get so high? Per lawsuits, affidavits, and reporting from the scene, it’s mostly responsive to…

Sky York Journal This story was originally reported by Amanda Becker of The 19th. Meet Amanda and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy. A transgender worker is repeatedly and intentionally misgendered by their coworker. A workplace bars an employee from using facilities that match their gender identity. A supervisor suggests a transgender subordinate shouldn’t be in public-facing work.  Going forward, it will be more difficult, timely and costly for LGBTQ+ workers to seek justice for these and other workplace harassment issues related to their gender identities and sexualities.  The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC,…

Sky York Journal This story was originally published by ProPublica. Sign up to receive their biggest stories as soon as they’re published. Days into President Donald Trump’s second term in the White House, a cryptocurrency billionaire posted a video on X to his hundreds of thousands of followers. “Please Donald Trump, I need your help,” he said, wearing a flag pin askew and seated awkwardly in an armchair. “I am an American. … Help me come home.”  The speaker, 46-year-old Roger Ver, was in fact no longer a U.S. citizen. Nicknamed “Bitcoin Jesus” for his early evangelism for digital currency, Ver had…

Sky York Journal When, on Jan. 9, a Supreme Court decision day came and went without an opinion on the legality of President Donald Trump’s signature economic policy, deep and wide tariffs, observers exhaled. The justices’ decision on whether Trump can levy widespread, global and indefinite tariffs using the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, or IEEPA, had been expected as early as the end of last year, an expedited ruling following oral arguments in the case on Nov. 5. But no tariffs decision came in December. When the Court announced it would release opinions on Jan. 9, many predicted that…

Sky York Journal Justice Sonia Sotomayor summed up Wednesday morning’s two-hour oral arguments on whether or not Trump could fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook in one line. “This whole case isn’t regular.” While Cook’s case isn’t explicitly about the Federal Reserve’s right to freedom from political manipulation, the court’s ruling will have resounding implications for U.S. central bank independence, which has been preserved since the body was created 112 years ago.  Cook’s lawyers’ arguments revolved around two contentions: that Cook wasn’t provided due process between the time members of the Trump administration accused her of criminal mortgage fraud and…

Sky York Journal As the Supreme Court cosigned President Trump and Elon Musk’s massacre of independent executive branch agencies last year, experts prayed that the justices would concoct some way to protect the Federal Reserve. Wednesday’s arguments bolstered those hopes. The right-wing majority seemed uncomfortable with the Trump administration’s arguments from a variety of angles, though no one was as cut-and-dry as Justice Brett Kavanaugh.  “Your position that there is no judicial review, no process required, no remedy available, a very low bar for cause that the president alone determines — that would weaken if not shatter the independence of…

Sky York Journal President Donald Trump spent the first anniversary of his second term on Tuesday pitching himself to the American people from behind the White House briefing room podium. In nearly two hours of remarks, Trump seemingly sought to address his cratering approval by running through a list of his supposed accomplishments. His remarks also included a series of vicious, racist remarks about Somalian people and other immigrants.  “They all ought to get the hell out of here, they’re bad for our country,” Trump said of the Somali population at one point during the extraordinary rant. At multiple points…