Author: Sky York Journal

Sky York Journal This story was originally reported by Grace Panetta of The 19th. Meet Grace and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick is the latest member of Congress to resign, effectively avoiding a vote to expel her.  The Florida Democrat announced her resignation just before the House Ethics Committee was set to vote Tuesday afternoon on whether she should face expulsion after she was found guilty of over two dozen ethics violations last month.  “After careful reflection and prayer, I have concluded that it is in the best interest of my constituents…

Sky York Journal President Donald Trump’s own words were repeatedly used against him Tuesday during a bumpy confirmation hearing for Trump’s Federal Reserve Chair nominee Kevin Warsh. During a two-and-a-half hour Senate Banking Committee hearing, the risk poised by the president to Federal Reserve independence loomed large as Democratic and Republican senators pressed Warsh on Trump’s own statements about pressuring his next Fed Chair to embrace politically influenced monetary policy. At stake is the credibility of Warsh and the Federal Reserve at large, the stability of the entire global financial system, and the cost of living for people in the…

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. March unfolded like a stress test for U.S. counterterrorism authorities. The month opened with a gunman in an Iranian-flag shirt killing three people at a bar in Texas. Then, an attack with homemade explosives outside the mayor’s mansion in New York City. Next came a deadly shooting March 12 on a Virginia college campus and, the same afternoon, a car-ramming at a Michigan synagogue. Days later, agents arrested a man charged with…

Sky York Journal Two of Michigan’s top officials, Attorney General Dana Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, both Democrats, fired back at the Justice Department after the DOJ expanded its baseless investigation of past elections into Michigan.  Last week, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon — who is also reportedly eyeing the open attorney general gig — sent a letter to Wayne County Clerk, Cathy Garrett, claiming there “have been a number of recorded allegations and convictions in Wayne County of election fraud.” She then demanded that Garrett hand over 2024 ballots, including absentee and provisional ballots,…

Sky York Journal After facing a series of setbacks and outright dismissals in its legal battle to try to seize sensitive voter data from multiple states throughout the country, the Justice Department is asking courts in 13 states for permission for a  redo.  For months now the Justice Department has been engaging in an overreach campaign, demanding sensitive voter information — including drivers licenses and social security numbers — from at least 44 states and Washington D.C. be turned over to the Trump DOJ. As justification for this unprecedented demand, the Justice Department has been citing provisions from the Help…

Sky York Journal Despite his central role in the Trump administration, Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought had not appeared before Congress to answer questions since last June. That changed this week. And members of Congress had a lot of them. Pressed by senators Thursday on the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine Congress and its constitutional power of the purse, Vought repeatedly insisted the administration had done no such thing. He shook his head “no” on many occasions as members of the Senate Budget Committee accused him of breaking the law by refusing to spend money in the…

Sky York Journal GRAPEVINE, TX – On a cold spring morning in this tony Dallas suburb, dozens of activists had heard the call. They had read the posts; they understood the stakes: America was in crisis, facing a threat from within. It was time for action, and time to take a 5 a.m. bus to the state capital to protest Sharia law.  The Southern Poverty Law Center calls the group that organized the trip, the True Texas Project, part of the “antidemocratic hard right.” Its leaders have expressed fears of white genocide; the woman who funded the trip runs a right-wing-themed…

Sky York Journal As soon as the Supreme Court struck down many of President Donald Trump’s tariffs in February, his administration imposed a new, sweeping 10% tariff on a broad swath of products and countries under a different law, called Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. Now, a group of 24 states and some small businesses is challenging the legality of those replacement tariffs in court. A win for them — likely, ultimately, at the Supreme Court — would further erode a core part of the president’s economic and foreign policy agenda. Trump initially relied on the International…

Sky York Journal Congress is back in town from their two-week Easter recess and Senate Republicans are trying to execute on a second reconciliation package as Congress continues to be consumed by a 58-day Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown, resignations and potential Democratic-led war powers votes. As Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) explained it on Monday night, leadership is hoping to keep the reconciliation package “very, very skinny — anorexic-like skinny.”  “To execute on it and do it with any kind of speed, you’ve got to keep it really tight,” Thune told reporters Monday night. The plan is…

Sky York Journal FRISCO, TEXAS – Far-right activists are seizing on a new example of the America they fear. It’s a booming, Texas city home to the Dallas Cowboys’ practice facility and a PGA golf resort.  The activists’ problem? The city’s population of Indian immigrants and people of Indian descent has grown dramatically in recent years as the town has massively expanded. Per the 2020 census, it was America’s fastest-growing city. The 2000 census put Frisco’s population at 33,000. By 2020, it was 200,000; the city’s mayor told TPM he estimates the current population to be around 250,000. With that…