The Federal Communications Commission announced yesterday that it is ready to release more than $311 million in funding for high-speed broadband deployment across 36 states through its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund.  Working to clean up the RDOF “waste” such as winning bids to deploy in areas that are already served, FCC Acting Chairwoman ... Read More

WASHINGTON — A new two-part study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a D.C.-based national security think tank, has said that civilian and judicial oversight will be crucial to limiting the potential human rights abuses from government use of facial recognition technology. This would need to include operational rules ... Read More

WASHINGTON — The U.S. dollar risks losing its preeminence in international transactions unless the Federal Reserve moves promptly to sponsor a digital currency, economists told Congress Tuesday. Once again, the main competitive threat to U.S. currency comes from China, according to witnesses at a House Financial Services subcommittee hearing. The Chinese ... Read More

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday afternoon said fully vaccinated people should now wear face masks if they live or work in a location experiencing a surge in delta variant cases. The new guidance effectively reverses a recommendation from May, when the CDC said fully vaccinated people did not ... Read More

WASHINGTON — The White House on Tuesday released a 21-point plan aimed at processing asylum claims quickly and deporting those who do not qualify. “Asylum and other legal migration pathways should remain available to those seeking protection. Those not seeking protection or who don’t qualify will be promptly removed to their countries ... Read More

The U.S. combat mission in Iraq will conclude by the end of the year, President Joe Biden announced Monday. However the president would not say whether he planned to reduce the number of troops in Iraq, which now number about 2,500. The announcement came during an Oval Office session with Iraqi Prime ... Read More

SEATTLE (AP) — Washington state is embarking on a massive experiment in police reform and accountability following the racial justice protests that erupted after George Floyd’s murder last year, as nearly a dozen laws took effect Sunday. But two months after Gov. Jay Inslee signed the bills, law enforcement officials remain uncertain ... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Moderna said Monday it plans to expand the size of its COVID-19 vaccine study in younger children to better detect rare side effects, such as a type of heart inflammation recently flagged by U.S. health authorities. The company said it is in talks with the Food and Drug Administration ... Read More

California and New York City announced Monday that they would require all government employees to get the coronavirus vaccine or face weekly COVID-19 testing, and the Department of Veterans Affairs became the first major federal agency to require health care workers to receive the shot. Meanwhile, in a possible sign that increasingly ... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration announced they are working toward issuing proposed product standards within the next year to ban menthol as a characterizing flavor in cigarettes and all characterizing flavors in cigars.  Menthol flavoring has been known to have a cooling effect that allows for deeper nicotine intake and ... Read More

WASHINGTON — Cuban Americans made a plea for the United States to help the people of their home country Monday during a protest in Washington, D.C.  From a rally at the White House and during a march to the nearby Cuban Embassy, more than a thousand protesters shouted and carried signs ... Read More

WASHINGTON — The U.S. is keeping existing COVID-19 restrictions on international travel in place due to concerns about the surging delta variant of the virus among the unvaccinated. “Given where we are today [with] the more transmissible Delta variant … spreading both here and around the world … we will maintain existing travel restrictions,” ... Read More

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden celebrated the 31st anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act Monday and announced new guidance suggesting long-term COVID-19 could be considered a disability in some cases under federal civil rights laws.  “For our nation, the ADA is more than a law … It’s a testament to our ... Read More

ST. LOUIS — City and county leaders in St. Louis announced Friday they are reinstituting mask mandates for vaccinated and unvaccinated citizens alike, a decision already set to be challenged in court by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt. The mandate was reinstated in response to a new surge in positive COVID-19 cases throughout ... Read More

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster signed the Student Identification Card Suicide Prevention Act, requiring public and private schools in the state to provide a crisis hotline resource of their choosing on student ID card. “This law not only provides our students with easy access to a vital resource, it will also serve ... Read More

As the old adage goes, the definition of stupidity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result. Is anyone in charge going to do any soul searching to ask why history has yet again repeated itself in Afghanistan? American and allied troops evacuated their base at Bagram Airfield earlier ... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Bennie Thompson, didn’t realize the severity of the Jan. 6 insurrection until his wife called him. He was inside the Capitol, sitting in the upper gallery of the House, hoping for what he called a “bird’s-eye view of the process” and ... Read More

An investigation by the Paris-based journalism nonprofit Forbidden Stories and the human rights group Amnesty International revealed thousands of people were targeted by spyware developed by the Israel-based NSO Group Technologies. Hundreds of human rights activists, government officials, business executives and journalists worldwide had their cellphones compromised by the “Pegasus” spyware, remotely ... Read More

Heat waves across the country this year have shattered temperature records, and climate scientists expect it to keep getting worse. Some policy options for dealing with the lethal and inequitable impact of heat have been recommended by researchers. In addition to increasing risk for numerous health conditions, from cardiovascular disease to respiratory ... Read More

The U.S. and Mexico failed to resolve a dispute over trade rules for cars during a meeting last week, a development – or lack of one – that appears capable of severely straining relations between the two countries a year after the new USMCA trade pact took effect. U.S. Trade Representative Katherine ... Read More

WASHINGTON – A federal judge on Friday gave the U.S. Federal Trade Commission until Aug. 19 to file an amended complaint in its antitrust lawsuit against Facebook. In a filing with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the agency asked for a three-week extension to amend a lawsuit the ... Read More

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber has released the final list of 46 candidates who qualified for the upcoming gubernatorial recall election.  The recall election seeking to remove Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom will take place on Sept. 14, 2021.  Among the candidates that qualified were nine Democrats and 24 Republicans, including Caitlyn Jenner, former ... Read More

New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner has asked Democrats and Republicans to reconvene the state’s redistricting commission and come up with a consensus candidate to act as the tiebreaker in upcoming districting decisions. Rabner first made his desire for a consensus candidate known in a letter sent to Gov. ... Read More

Voters in Texas’ 6th Congressional District will decide which Republican candidate will fill the vacancy left by Rep. Ronald Wright, R-Texas, who died of COVID-19 related complications on Feb. 7. On the ballot Tuesday are Susan Wright, the representative’s widow and a longtime player in GOP politics in the Lone Star State, ... Read More

WASHINGTON – As a select committee prepares to open its investigation Tuesday into the events leading up to and during the Jan. 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill, a trio of House Republicans wonder what might have been. Everyone expected some controversy when House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, after some delay, announced his five picks ... Read More

Electric utility company FirstEnergy Corp. agreed to settle a Justice Department complaint Thursday by paying $230 million to avoid a federal wire fraud conspiracy charge. Company officials admitted they conspired with former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder to pay millions of dollars to his political nonprofit organization if he would promote a bill ... Read More

A coalition of state attorneys general reached a $26 billion settlement with opioid maker Johnson & Johnson and three of its distributors this week. They blame the companies for a half-million deaths in the United States from overdoses and addictions to powerful painkillers. “Our country’s opioid epidemic is a nationwide public health ... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs is offering a new COVID-19 Refund Modification option to assist Veterans who require a significant reduction in their monthly mortgage payments because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In some cases, veterans can receive a 20% payment reduction — in others, the reduction may be even larger, the department said. [&... Read More

WASHINGTON – The Department of Defense is conducting its first fiscal research study in over 30 years to determine the efficiency and overall health of the military industry and its private contractors. The decision comes as part of a push by the DOD to utilize budgeted funds more efficiently in the face of supply ... Read More

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Democrat Abby Finkenauer, a former congresswoman, is running for Republican Chuck Grassley’s U.S. Senate seat, hoping her blue-collar credentials will propel her forward in a state that has grown more conservative over the years. The 32-year-old former state lawmaker, who announced her candidacy by video Thursday ... Read More