Chicago Mayor Rejects Trump’s National Guard Threat
By Shaquille Brewster, Selina Guevara and Marlene Lenthang Chicago’s mayor is defying President Donald Trump’s threat to deploy the National Guard to the Windy City to combat crime and scoping out legal avenues to prevent soldiers from overtaking the city. On Friday, Trump talked about his controversial deployment of the National Guard to Washington, D.C., and said Chicago and New York City would be next. He has described the deployment in the nation’s capital as a bid to clean up crime, but critics dismiss the move as little more than political overreach. “The guard is not needed,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson told NBC News. “This is not the role
John Bolton’s Home Raided By FBI
Written By Lexx Thornton The FBI conducted a court-authorized search at John Bolton’s home as part of a national security investigation, according to a person familiar with the matter. CNN observed FBI personnel near the former US national security adviser’s house in the Washington, DC, area. FBI agents were seen speaking to a person on the porch of the house, and at least four to six agents were seen going inside. Reached by CNN, Bolton said he was unaware of the FBI activity and was looking into it further. The search was first reported by the New York Post on
California Democrats Advance Gerrymander Plan for 2026
By Ben Kamisar California’s Democratic-controlled Legislature passed bills Thursday setting up a high-profile special election this fall, when voters will decide whether to approve the party’s plan to gerrymander California’s congressional map. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who signed the relevant legislation shortly after it passed, has championed the plan as a political counterweight to Texas’ recent move to create more Republican seats there as both parties get ready for a 2026 election in which control of Congress will be up for grabs. Both the state Assembly and the state Senate passed the redistricting legislation Thursday, each with the two-thirds vote needed to enact
Texas, California Clash Over New Redistricting Maps
By Ben Kamisar The Republican-controlled Texas House has passed new congressional maps that aim to pad the party’s majority in Washington by as much as five seats in the midterm elections as battles over redistricting spread across the country. With Texas set to fully enact its new plan as soon as this week, urged on by President Donald Trump, California Democrats are moving quickly to implement a plan to carve up their state’s maps in retaliation. Meanwhile, top Republicans in states like Indiana, Missouri and Florida continue to talk about tweaking their maps to create more Republican-controlled congressional seats in the
Texas Democrats Protest GOP Redistricting With Defiance
By Ben Kamisar and Ryan Chandler A group of Texas Democrats are returning to the state House in Austin where they will spend the night — the latest step in a broader protest over Republican plans to redraw congressional districts in the state. The state House Democratic caucus said in a news release that eight of its members will return to the floor Tuesday evening, “publicly tearing up the permission slips required by Republicans for members to leave the chamber.” The Democrats will join state Rep. Nicole Collier, their colleague who has remained locked in the state House chamber since Monday afternoon after she refused
Trump Admin Sues Maryland Judges Over Deportation Order
By Lawrence Hurley A judge on Wednesday expressed some skepticism about an unprecedented lawsuit in which the Trump administration sued all 15 Maryland-based federal judges over a standing order related to deportation cases. The lawsuit is the latest escalation of the Trump administration’s war on the judiciary, which has been marked by criticism of judges who have ruled against the government over President Donald Trump’s bold and aggressive use of executive power. At issue is a standing order issued by Chief Judge George Russell on May 21 and updated a week later that set rules for handling cases involving immigrants facing immediate risk
Trump Targets Mail Voting Ahead of 2026 Midterm Elections
By Lisa Kashinsky, Jessica Piper, and Holly Otterbein Donald Trump’s renewed crusade against mail voting is once again threatening to undermine his party’s efforts. Republicans poured tens of millions of dollars last year into convincing their voters that casting ballots by mail was safe after Trump spent years bashing the practice and baselessly insisting it was rife with fraud. And it worked, with GOP voters closing or even reversing the mail voting gap with Democrats in several states. But now Trump is attacking mail voting again as he ratchets up his push to protect Republicans’ House majority in the midterms,
Texas Democrat Nicole Collier Protests Redistricting Rules
By Arlette Saenz Democratic Texas state Rep. Nicole Collier is spending the night on the Texas House floor in protest after refusing a Republican demand to be placed under the watch of the state Department of Public Safety. When Texas House Democrats returned to the Capitol in Austin on Monday, after having fled the state earlier this month in order to prevent a vote on a controversial Republican redistricting plan, House Speaker Dustin Burrows put constraints on their movements. Burrows announced that the Democrats could only leave the House floor if they received written permission and agreed to be under law enforcement escort until
Mayor Bowser Navigates Trump’s Federal Law Enforcement Push
By Jonathan Allen and Megan Lebowitz In the end, President Donald Trump’s offer was one that Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser could not refuse. In mobilizing the D.C. National Guard, pressing federal agents into urban law enforcement and taking control of the Metropolitan Police Department — all in the name of fighting violent crime in the nation’s capital — Trump invited Bowser to cooperate with his administration. The law, federal money and a long-standing threat to repeal self-government in the city lined up behind him, giving Bowser, who one former aide described as having a rare ability to “remove emotion” from political and policy calculations,
Kennedy Reinstates HHS Task Force on Childhood Vaccines
Written By Lexx Thornton Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Thursday that HHS is reinstating the Task Force on Safer Childhood Vaccines, which disbanded in 1998. The decision comes months after a group he once led sued to bring back the panel. The Children’s Health Defense, which Kennedy founded, filed a lawsuit in May against Kennedy over his failure to reconstitute the task force. Kennedy founded CHD years before he launched his presidential campaign in 2023, before dropping out and endorsing President Donald Trump’s campaign. The move is the latest in a string of decisions by Kennedy and his department, seemingly
