Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO) led 152 of his House colleagues in introducing a joint resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) on the Biden Administration’s flawed and burdensome “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) rule. This rule will lead to sweeping changes to the federal government’s authority to […]
(Missouri Independent) – U.S. House Republicans on the Judiciary Committee blamed the Biden administration for fentanyl drug smuggling at the U.S.-Mexico border during a Wednesday hearing. Chair Jim Jordan of Ohio also blamed U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for the number of migrants at the border, and said there are already hundreds […]
A 46-year-old Marysville, Washington woman, who co-owned a Lake Stevens, Washington restaurant used for drug trafficking, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to ten years in prison for distributing methamphetamine, heroin, and fentanyl, announced U.S. Attorney Nick Brown. Laura Rodriguez-Moreno has been in custody since she and five coconspirators were arrested on […]
A federal grand jury in Las Vegas returned an indictment on Thursday charging three individuals with operating a mail fraud scheme that defrauded thousands of U.S. victims, many of whom were elderly and vulnerable. According to court documents, Kimberly Stamps, 46, of Gilbert, Arizona; John Kyle Muller, 56, of Boulder, Colorado; and Barbara Trickle, 78, […]
(Missouri Independent) – Members of Congress receive thousands of threats a year, though just a fraction of the people who call, mail or email will ever be prosecuted — a situation that’s of great concern to the police who guard members. Just 22 of the 7,501 threats lobbed at members during 2022 led to prosecution, […]
A Tennessee man pleaded guilty to coercing and threatening multiple minors into creating videos of themselves engaging in sexual activity. According to court documents, Caleb Jordan, 22, of Mount Juliet, met three minors online through a video gaming platform. Jordan told the minors, who were between 11 and 14 years old, that people were coming […]
(Missouri Independent) – Karen Judith Briseno Ortiz mailed in her application for a program meant to protect undocumented children from deportation, one day after her twin sister’s application. Her sister was accepted into the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, but Briseno Ortiz, who grew up in Dallas, was not. Now her application is in […]
U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the Department is investing $2.7 billion to help 64 electric cooperatives and utilities expand and modernize the nation’s rural electric grid and increase grid security. “These critical investments will benefit rural people and businesses in many ways for decades to come,” Vilsack said. “This funding will help rural […]
(Missouri Independent) – U.S. House Republicans passed a bill Friday to force the White House to make more federal land and waters available for oil and gas development if the president orders the withdrawal of more oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The bill, passed 221-205, mostly along party lines, would strip the president’s power to […]
U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) sent a letter to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Shalanda Young, demanding the swift implementation of the TikTok ban on government devices, as required by his recently passed legislation, the “No TikTok on Government Devices Act.” “I write to urge the Biden Administration to expeditiously implement the recently […]
(Missouri Independent) – A panel of policymakers and educators, including author Dave Eggers and former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, gathered at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday to promote the American Teacher Act. The bill, if passed, would authorize the federal government to create four-year grants for states to enact and enforce minimum school […]
(Missouri Independent) – Nearly 80 Democratic members of Congress sent a letter to the White House expressing their “great concern” that the Biden administration is walking back on its promise to restore migrants’ access to asylum. In the letter, they also condemned the administration’s expansion of a controversial policy that immediately turns away migrants at the […]
A New York woman was sentenced to 45 months in prison for her role in the submission of fraudulent loan applications seeking more than $9.2 million in forgivable Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Sherry Joseph, 34, of New York, […]
(Missouri Independent) – On a June 2020 morning, Amy Neville entered her son’s bedroom to wake him for an orthodontist appointment. Fourteen-year-old Alex didn’t wake up. He died of fentanyl poisoning after taking a counterfeit pill he bought from someone he met on Snapchat, Neville told GOP lawmakers Wednesday during a roundtable discussion of the […]
(Missouri Independent) – Following a mass shooting on the eve of the Lunar New Year in which 11 people in a predominantly Asian neighborhood in California were killed, President Joe Biden again urged Congress to pass legislation banning assault weapons. Communities across America “have been struck by tragedy after tragedy, including mass shootings from Colorado […]
(Missouri Independent) – Former Vice President Mike Pence is the latest top public official to have been discovered possessing classified material in his personal home, according to a letter his lawyer sent to the National Archives. A dozen documents with classified markings were discovered in Pence’s residence in Carmel, Indiana, in mid-January. The former vice […]
(Missouri Independent) – Just like teens, members of Congress are setting up TikTok accounts — even as the popular app is increasingly barred from government devices and heads of federal intelligence agencies raise concerns about data collection and surveillance obtained by a Chinese-owned company. At least 32 members of Congress — all Democrats, including U.S. […]
(Missouri Independent) – The White House on Tuesday defended sitting on information about Obama administration classified documents found at President Joe Biden’s private residence and a think tank, saying officials are attempting to balance working with the Justice Department and sharing information publicly. “We understand that there’s a tension between the need to be cooperative […]
(Missouri Independent) – The new Republican chairman of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee and a top Democrat on the panel on Wednesday laid out anti-hunger initiatives Congress could tackle in the upcoming farm bill. During a panel discussion, Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson of Pennsylvania, the new head of the Agriculture Committee, said he believes members […]
A Texas military contractor pleaded guilty on Jan. 12 to rigging bids on public military contracts in the state of Texas. According to court documents, Aaron Stephens, 53, conspired with others to rig bids on certain government contracts from May 2013 to January 2018 in order to give the false impression of competition and to […]
