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☆ Senate Democrats urge Supreme Court chief justice to investigate Clarence Thomas luxury trips
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Kevin Breuninger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Associate Justice Clarence Thomas poses during a group photo of the Justices at the Supreme Court in Washington, April 23, 2021. The Senate Judiciary Committee's Democratic majority on Monday called for an investigation into Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' behavior after a report revealed he had failed to disclose years of luxury trips funded by a Republican megadonor. Chief Justice John Roberts should "immediately open" a probe into "how such conduct could take place" on his watch, read a letter from Chairman Dick Durbin of Illinois and the Senate Judiciary panel's 10 other Democratic members. The Democrats also warned they would "consider legislation to resolve" the issue if the high court does not do so on its own. The Senate Judiciary panel's letter to Roberts said Thomas' failure to report the trips is "plainly inconsistent with the ethical standards the American people expect of any person in a position of public trust."

☆ How a trio of ProPublica reporters landed an explosive story on Justice Clarence Thomas
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

A team of ProPublica reporters earlier this year began looking into the travel of various Supreme Court justices, not entirely sure what they would find, if anything. But their editors encouraged the team to keep working the story, Justin Elliott, a member of the reporting team, told me by phone on Thursday. “The progress was gratifyingly steady,” Elliot told me, cautioning, however, that “it was not easy.”Easy or not, the final product that published on Thursday morning was unquestionably worth the effort. “These trips appeared nowhere on Thomas’ financial disclosures,” the ProPublica team wrote. “From my perspective as a reporter,” Elliott told me, “I feel so lucky to have the reporting resources and time resources to do a heavy lift like this.

☆ Clarence Thomas claims he was told it was not necessary to publicly report the $500,000 trips he took with GOP mega donor Harlan Crow
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Justice Thomas defended himself after a bombshell report raised questions about his financial disclosures. Thomas said that he had followed guidance by not disclosing lavish trips financed by a GOP megadonor who he considers a close friend. Thomas' explanation comes a day after ProPublica's bombshell report that extensively detailed how Crow secretly finance private trips Thomas took for over 20 years. This appears to conflict with an earlier practice by Thomas, who once did report Crow's gifts. Multiple ethics experts told ProPublica that Thomas had clearly violated ethics requirements by not disclosing the more recent trips.

☆ Justice Clarence Thomas’s Vacations Prompt Calls for Stronger Supreme Court Ethics Rules
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Lindsay Wise | Jan Wolfe | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Sen. Dick Durbin, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, pledged unspecified action on Supreme Court ethics rules. WASHINGTON—The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee promised to take action on strengthening Supreme Court ethics rules, responding to a report that Justice Clarence Thomas accepted lavish vacations and private-jet travel paid for by a billionaire friend. “The highest court in the land shouldn’t have the lowest ethical standards,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.), adding that the committee would take unspecified action in response. Mr. Durbin’s office didn’t immediately respond to questions about what steps the committee might take.

☆ Clarence Thomas’s Vacations Prompt Calls for Stronger Ethics Rules for Supreme Court
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Lindsay Wise | Jan Wolfe | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The news outlet said the frequency of the gifts have "no known precedent in the modern history of the U.S. Supreme Court." Thomas and Chief Justice John Roberts did not immediately respond to a request for comment. "This cries out for the kind of independent investigation that the Supreme Court — and only the Supreme Court, across the entire government — refuses to perform," Whitehouse said on Twitter. The ProPublica report is the latest revelation to prompt ethics concerns about Thomas. Thomas's failure to report the trips provided by Crow appears to violate a federal law requiring justices, judges and other federal officials disclose most gifts, ProPublica reported, citing legal ethics experts.

☆ U.S. lawmakers introduce bipartisan bill to help news media negotiate with Big Tech
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, March 31 (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers reintroduced a bill to allow news organizations to join together to negotiate ad rates with tech giants such as Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google. The measure would allow news broadcasters and publishers with fewer than 1,500 full-time workers to jointly negotiate ad rates -- many of which face financial struggles. The bill was introduced by Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee, along with Senator John Kennedy, a Republican. The News/Media Alliance, a media trade association, praised the bill it says will protect and sustain local journalism. Reporting by Diane Bartz; additional reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Aurora EllisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ John Fetterman plans mid-April return to Senate after 2 months of intensive treatment
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Warren Rojas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Sen. John Fetterman, who suffered a stroke last year, is expected to return to the Senate in about two weeks. The Pennsylvania Democrat has been seeking treatment for clinical depression since mid-February. Fetterman's return will nudge Senate Democrats back towards their delicate 51-seat majority. Having Fetterman back will restore a critical vote for Senate Democrats. Their narrow 51-seat majority hasn't been intact for months as lawmakers like Fetterman, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, who's been out for weeks after contracting shingles, and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, who recently tested positive for COVID-19, wrestle with their respective health issues.

☆ Elizabeth Warren wants Biden's Education Department to go beyond broad student-loan forgiveness and crack down on the institutions that cause borrowers' debt loads to spiral
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Sen. Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to the Education Department with recommendations to better protect student-loan borrowers. Biden's Education Department has reformed the borrower defense to repayment, which are claims students can file if they believe they were defrauded by the school they attended. In her letter, Warren urged Cardona to ensure predatory schools cannot receive federal aid. It aimed to prevent students from borrowing federal loans for programs they probably wouldn't be able to pay off. But in 2010, former President Donald Trump repealed the rule, and Biden's Education Department pushed off reinstating it until 2024.

WASHINGTON, March 24 (Reuters) - Democratic and Republican U.S. senators urged the Biden administration on Friday to share information with the International Criminal Court that could assist as it pursues war crimes charges against Russian President Vladimir Putin. Last week, the court issued an arrest warrant for Putin, accusing him of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. The legal move will obligate the court's 123 member states to arrest Putin and transfer him to The Hague for trial if he sets foot on their territory. Although the United States is not a party to the ICC, Biden said last week that Putin has clearly committed war crimes, adding that the ICC warrant was justified. Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Alex RichardsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ U.S. Senate Democrat Durbin tests positive for COVID, will quarantine
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

2 Democrat, said on Sunday that he will quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19, adding to a number of lawmakers from both parties who have been absent from the Senate. "Thankfully, I am fully vaccinated and boosted and only experiencing minor symptoms," Durbin said in a tweet. The Illinois Democrat said he would follow Center for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, which call for five days of quarantine for those who test positive. Two other Democrats, Senators Dianne Feinstein and John Fetterman, have been absent from the Senate for health reasons. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell entered a rehabilitation facility last week after fracturing a rib in a fall earlier this month.

☆ Israel's 'Handmaids' become a defining image of the mass protests against Netanyahu's judicial reforms
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Women dressed as "Handmaids" are at the forefront of mass protests against the Netanyahu government. Netanyahu's plans to lessen the power of the Israeli supreme court. The protests in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities oppose Prime Minister Netanyahu's plans to lessen the power of the Israeli Supreme Court in favor of elected officials. Israeli protesters wearing costumes from ''The Handmaid's Tale'' particiapte in a rally against Israeli Goverment's judicial overhaul bills at Haogen Junctions on March 16, 2023. Gili Yaari/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesPeople around the world are also voicing concerns about Netanyahu's plans.

☆ Senators relaunch bill seeking to force Supreme Court to televise sessions
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Dan Mangan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a leading Republican senator on Thursday reintroduced a bill that seeks to compel the Supreme Court to televise its open court sessions live. A Supreme Court spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Supreme Court long has refused to allow cameras — TV or still — into oral arguments for cases or other proceedings. The new low was reached months after the Supreme Court finished a term considered one of the most controversial and consequential, marked by two rulings in particular. Durbin cited both cases in a statement Thursday calling for televised Supreme Court sessions.

☆ Senator Warren urges transport regulator to block U.S. railroad deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 3 (Reuters) - Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren has urged a U.S. regulator to reject Canadian Pacific's (CP.TO) $31 billion deal to take control of U.S. railroad Kansas City Southern, saying it would hurt competition, prompt job losses and disrupt service, a letter seen by Reuters showed. The acquisition, which combines the sixth- and seventh-largest U.S. railroads by revenue, was agreed in 2021. The deal has since closed but Kansas City shares were transferred to a trust and the railroad must operate independently until the Surface Transportation Board, which oversees U.S. freight railroads, approves the transaction. The number of big U.S. railroads has already shrunk to just seven from 33 in 1980, Warren wrote. Last month, Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth asked the board to defer a decision until it completes a Chicago region impact assessment.

☆ College students are drowning in textbook costs. There's a push in Congress to make them free.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Madison Hall | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Some members of Congress have joined the movement to provide free textbooks to university students. The college textbook landscape, however, isn't a free market, as students must buy whichever course materials their professor selects for their class. As states across the country create their own grants for open textbooks, members of Congress have also begun to take notice. "We are helping cut the cost of attending college by supporting the creation and expansion of open college textbooks," Durbin told Insider in a statement. And while there's no timeline for the Affordable College Textbook Act to make it through Congress, federal legislators have granted $47 million in funds for open textbooks since 2018 as part of the Open Textbook Pilot Program.

☆ Merrick Garland's stonewalling about multiple investigations is annoying lawmakers on both sides of aisle ahead of his Capitol Hill visit
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Warren Rojas | Mattathias Schwartz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle want Merrick Garland to debrief them about DOJ investigations. Garland is scheduled to join the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 1 for a general oversight hearing — his first of the 118th Congress. In early February, both Durbin and his Republican counterparts leading the House Judiciary Committee requested briefings about McGonigal. The Senate letter requested information from Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray; the House letter was addressed to Wray but not Garland. "Everything is on the table," a staff member from House Judiciary told Insider.

☆ Lawmakers show rare bipartisan unity in pursuing protections for kids online
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee found rare alignment at a recent hearing about how Congress can help protect kids from online harms. They're speaking out in support of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which would require sites likely to be accessed by kids 16 or younger to maintain certain privacy and safety protections by default. "We must and we will double down on the Kids Online Safety Act," Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who co-sponsored the bill with Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said at the hearing. Though lawmakers have shared similar goals in other discussions around regulating tech, when it comes to protecting kids online, they're more united in the types of action they want to see take place. However, a bill that recently passed the state's House of Representatives removed that provision, instead allowing for consumers to sue social media companies that knowingly cause harm.

☆ Senators blast Big Tech companies over kids’ safety amid renewed push for legislation
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Senators from both parties blasted Big Tech on Tuesday and called for the passage of federal legislation to regulate tech platforms in the midst of a mental health crisis among young Americans. But Durbin hinted at a possible future hearing involving Big Tech representatives, saying “don’t worry, they’ll have their chance” as the committee invites them to weigh in on legislative proposals. The hearing comes amid renewed attention on the impact social networks are having on their youngest users. In his State of the Union address last week, President Joe Biden called for Congress to pass legislation to protect kids’ privacy and safety online. On Tuesday, senators promoted several new and existing pieces of legislation in the works to address different potential online harms.

☆ Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders want 'immediate action' to implement a rule that would keep student-loan borrowers' debt from piling up after they graduate
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Warren and Sanders joined 6 of their colleagues in calling for a strengthened gainful employment rule. The rule would cut off federal aid to schools that offer programs that leave students with more debt than their degree can pay off. Trump repealed the rule, and Biden has since delayed its timeline to reinstate it. Advocates have also pushed for the reinstatement of the rule, along with other measures to prevent schools from offering degrees that won't pay off post-grad. A department spokesperson told Insider last year that the "administration is committed to preventing a future student debt crisis by holding colleges and universities accountable if they leave students with mountains of debt or without good jobs."

☆ C-SPAN captured a tense back-and-forth between George Santos and Mitt Romney at the State of the Union
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

George Santos and Mitt Romney had what appeared to be a tense exchange at the State of the Union. Following the speech, Santos tweeted that Romney "will NEVER be PRESIDENT!" C-SPAN cameras captured the tense interaction between Santos — the scandal-plagued Long Island congressman — and Romney, the party's 2012 presidential nominee. And according to CNN, Romney simply told Santos: "You don't belong here." Following the speech, Santos tweeted that Romney "will NEVER be PRESIDENT!"

Embattled Rep. George Santos grabbed a premier center aisle seat ahead of President Joe Biden's State of the Union Address. Seated beside Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Santos soon discovered that not everyone — including some Republicans — was interested in seeing him. Santos sat just in front of Republican Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee and behind Rep. Trent Kelly of Mississippi. Seats are reserved for senators as a group in the front of the chamber and House members sit behind them. House members can claim preferred spots during the day but they have to camp out there to reserve them for the entirety of the speech.

☆ Democratic senator urges Apple, Google to kick TikTok out of app stores
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Feb 2 (Reuters) - TikTok, owned by China's ByteDance, should be removed from app stores run by Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google because the short video social media app poses a risk to national security, Senator Michael Bennet, a Democrat on the intelligence committee, said in a letter dated Thursday. "Given these risks, I urge you to remove TikTok from your respective app stores immediately," he wrote. Prior to Bennet's letter, Republicans have largely led the charge on TikTok and national security concerns, although Democratic Senator Dick Durbin previously urged Americans to stop using the app. For its part, the company says China's government cannot access the personal data of U.S. citizens or manipulate the app's content. TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew is due to appear before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee in March.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will meet with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on Wednesday, a White House official confirmed to NBC News, amid Republicans’ debt-ceiling showdown with Democrats. McCarthy first announced that he'll meet Biden this week to discuss the debt ceiling in an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation” earlier Sunday. The House speaker said Republicans would not allow the U.S. to default and expressed an interest in reaching an agreement with the president. House Republicans have been demanding spending cuts in exchange for lifting the debt ceiling and averting a default on U.S. debt. The White House previously said there won’t be any negotiations, and Congress must allow the government to pay its bills.

☆ Death of Tyre Nichols revives calls in Congress for policing reforms
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Protesters rally against the fatal police assault of Tyre Nichols, outside of the Coleman A. Five Memphis officers, also all Black, were charged with second-degree murder in the beating of Tyre Nichols, who died in hospital on January 10 three days after being stopped on suspicion of reckless driving. Durbin added that he would not rule out a federal investigation into the entire Memphis Police Department following Nichols' death. Some policing reforms were already in place in Memphis at the time of Nichols' death, including a requirement for officers to de-escalate situations where they saw others using excessive force. "Just as much those officers are responsible for the death of Tyre Nichols, so is the implicit bias police culture that exists in America," Crump told ABC's "This Week."

☆ Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries Look to Project Unity Ahead of Spending Fights
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Andrew Restuccia | Lindsay Wise | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

President Biden met at the White House with Democratic leaders including, on his right, Vice President Kamala Harris and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and on his left, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin. WASHINGTON—President Biden met Tuesday with Democratic congressional leaders as the party tries to project a united front on the economy and the coming fight over lifting the debt ceiling. At the start of the meeting, Mr. Biden warned that newly empowered House Republican lawmakers could cut Social Security and Medicare, and he criticized a proposal pushed by some in the GOP to impose a national sales tax. “I have no intention of letting the Republicans wreck our economy,” he said.

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