Author: Robert Jones
New York CNN — Eric Adams has united Democrats in New York City. From across the boroughs and otherwise warring ideological factions, there is widespread agreement that the mayor has little to no chance of winning the Democratic primary in June — and that he shouldn’t even try. Many of them don’t want to wait that long, calling for Adams to resign or be removed from office immediately, as the number of people quitting the United States attorney’s office in New York mounts and faith in the mayor’s ability to operate independently from President Donald Trump has vanished after the…
Your support helps us to tell the storyFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The…
Welcome to The Logoff. Today, I’m focusing on a fight over control of the Treasury Department’s payment system, a legal battle with big implications for our democracy. At stake is Congress’s ability to keep control over government spending, a critical (and constitutional) check on Donald Trump’s power.What’s the latest? A federal judge on Thursday signed off on an agreement limiting the access that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency gets to the Treasury Department’s payment system. For now, only two DOGE employees will be able to view the system’s inner workings, but they won’t be able to make changes or…
The U.S. Army has denied claims that it has merely rebranded its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and that such initiatives are now “dead.”Why It MattersThe comments indicate that the Army is fully supportive of President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s moves to ban DEI in the military. A U.S. flag on a soldier’s uniform at the United States Army military training base in Grafenwoehr, Germany, on March 11, 2022. A U.S. flag on a soldier’s uniform at the United States Army military training base in Grafenwoehr, Germany, on March 11, 2022. CHRISTOF STACHE/AFP/Getty Images What to…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS will lay off thousands of probationary workers in the middle of tax season, according to two sources familiar with the agency’s plans, and cuts could happen as soon as next week.This comes as the Trump administration intensified sweeping efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce, by ordering agencies to lay off nearly all probationary employees who had not yet gained civil service protection. It’s unclear how many IRS workers will be affected. Previously, the administration announced a plan to offer buyouts to almost all federal employees through a “deferred resignation program” to quickly…
CNN — Canceled meetings, blocked webpages and limited updates on life-threatening diseases spreading across the country. These are some of the real-world implications caused by the vague and sweeping mandates President Donald Trump’s administration has imposed on federal health agencies in recent weeks amid an intense flu season and new H5N1 bird flu infections. “President Trump is suppressing essential health information that public health agencies and providers across the country rely on to do our jobs,” said Dr. Robbie Goldstein, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. “He is putting the health and well-being of Americans at risk.” When…
WASHINGTON — An IRS employee who is affiliated with the Department of Government Efficiency is expected to seek access to an IRS system that houses sensitive taxpayer information, according to an administration official.The access would be to the Integrated Data Retrieval System, which allows IRS employees to access taxpayer accounts. An administration official originally said that the employee had been granted access but later clarified that the employee was expected to seek access and was not already in the system.The IDRS allows employees to have “instantaneous visual access to certain taxpayer accounts,” according to the IRS website. The system can be…
Zelensky says Ukraine has ‘low chance to survive’ without US military supportYour support helps us to tell the storyFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to…
Let’s imagine that all six of the Supreme Court’s Republican justices wake up tomorrow and decide that their many, previous decisions enabling Trump were wrong, and each pledge to do everything in their power to rein in the seemingly out-of-control executive that they helped create.Even in this world, where the federal courts could be counted on to aggressively enforce the Constitution and any statutes that are intended to constrain Trump, the United States would still face a constitutional crisis. The reason why is fairly basic: Courts are inherently reactive institutions. They do not preemptively tell the government how to operate,…
Conservative influencer Ashley St. Clair gave an update on Saturday about Elon Musk’s response to his alleged 13th child as she urged the tech billionaire to “publicly acknowledge his parental role.”Newsweek has reached out to Musk via Tesla email and St. Clair’s representative via email for comment.Why It MattersMusk, CEO of X, formerly Twitter, Tesla and SpaceX, has become an ever-growing presence in U.S. and global politics. Musk, who has reached a net worth of $436.8 billion, has been appointed by President Donald Trump to lead the Department of Government Efficiency or (DOGE) and has been a staunch ally of…