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Rep. Phillips (CD3) secures $30.8 million for Minnesota projects in infrastructure bill

Long-awaited Bottineau light rail project would receive $20 million

WASHINGTON, DC – Rep. Dean Phillips (MN-03) announced that he successfully secured $30.8 in federal funding for Minnesota infrastructure projects in the INVEST in America Act, which passed the House today.

“Americans expect their leaders to pursue common ground for the common good,”said Phillips. “Investing in 21^st century infrastructure is a rare opportunity to bring more federal tax dollars back our state, create jobs, and build more sustainable, resilient communities. It’s time to start shoveling dirt and stop slinging mud.”

Phillips went to bat for several infrastructure projects in Minnesota’s Third District, successfully securing funding for three important endeavors:

Fox News to pay a fine for ‘a pattern of violating’ human rights laws: report

In 2021, Fox News’ legal troubles have included not only a defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems, but also, a human rights lawsuit. And Fox News, journalist Lloyd Grove reports in the Daily Beast, has agreed to pay a $1 million fine to settle that lawsuit.

Grove explains, “Despite Fox News’ claims to have repaired the company’s toxic workplace culture since the firing of founder and chairman Roger Ailes in July 2016, Rupert Murdoch’s media empire has effectively admitted to ongoing misconduct that includes sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation against victimized employees, and has agreed to pay a million-dollar fine for what New York City’s Commission on Human Rights called ‘a pattern of violating of the NYC Human Rights Law.'”

According to Grove, “The settlement agreement, reached last week with the Human Rights Commission, contains the largest-ever financial penalty assessed in the agency’s six-decade history, and also requires Fox News to remove mandatory confidential arbitration clauses from the contracts of on-air talent along with other employees and contributors for a period of four years when they file legal claims under the city’s human-rights law outside of the company’s internal process.” Continue reading.

Trump ‘exploded’ at Birx for making him feel ‘depressed’ because she wouldn’t whitewash COVID dangers: authors

The authors of a new book about former President Donald Trump’s handling of the novel coronavirus pandemic told CNN’s Erica Hill on Tuesday that Trump last year angrily chewed out Drs. Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci for making him feel “depressed” about the novel coronavirus pandemic.

While appearing on CNN, Washington Post reporters Damian Paletta and Yasmine Abutaleb explained the delicate balance that Birx and other public health officials had to strike in trying to get Trump to back public health measures aimed at containing the virus.

All the same, Paletta said, no amount of flattery delivered by Birx could help her escape Trump’s wrath. Continue reading.

Pelosi rebuffs McConnell on infrastructure

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday amplified her plans to link a bipartisan infrastructure agreement to a second package of Democratic economic priorities, rebuffing an appeal from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to decouple the two bills.

In a closed-door meeting with her caucus in the Capitol, Pelosi said her initial strategy — to withhold a House infrastructure vote until the Senate passes a larger, partisan families plan — remains unchanged, according to lawmakers in attendance.

“What the Speaker has said, and I totally agree with her, is that we’re not going to vote on one until the Senate sends us both,” Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), chairman of the House Budget Committee, told reporters after the meeting. “That’s not changed.” Continue reading.

Trump got rejected by Parler after he demanded a ban of his critics: report

In yet another excerpt from Michael Wolff’s third book on Donald Trump’s administration, Business Insider is reporting that the former president’s negotiations to become a contributor to the Parler social media platform broke down over censorship.

Specifically, a demand that Trump’s critics be banned.

According to Wolff, representatives for the former president — who has been banned from Twitter and Facebook — made a pitch for him to join Parler in return for a significant portion of the site’s revenue. However, the insistence that critics of Trump be banned led to the deal falling apart. Continue reading.

Pelosi names Liz Cheney to serve on Jan. 6 select committee

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has named Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) to serve on the select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol by a mob of pro-Trump supporters.

The House voted to form the panel on Wednesday despite GOP opposition. Cheney voted in favor of forming it.

Cheney was recently dumped by GOP leadership over her criticisms of former President Trump.

Reproductive rights debated during Missouri Senate ‘hearing that resembled a remedial sex education course’: report

If Roe v. Wade is overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, Missouri is one of the Republican-controlled states in which abortion will likely be outlawed. But far-right social conservatives, as many feminists have noted, are not only going after abortion, they are opposed to contraception and sex education as well. And reproductive freedom, journalist Jonathan Shorman reports in the Kansas City Star, was a prominent topic last week during a “heated hearing that resembled a remedial sex education course.”

Shorman reports that a committee in the Missouri State Senate “debated the merits of restricting Medicaid coverage of birth control and limiting payments to Planned Parenthood as part of a must-pass renewal of a hospital tax that generates $4 billion a year to fund Medicaid, which provides health coverage to low-income residents.”

“A group of conservative senators are demanding limits on birth control coverageand Planned Parenthood payments be included to win their support, though Medicaid is already prohibited from paying for abortions,” Shorman explains. “The tax, called the Federal Reimbursement Allowance or FRA, expires September 30. But Gov. Mike Parson plans to impose draconian spending cuts if an extension isn’t approved by July 1, when the new budget year begins.” Continue reading.

The land was worth millions. A Big Ag corporation sold it to Sonny Perdue’s company for $250,000.

It was a curious time for Sonny Perdue to close a real estate deal.

In February 2017, weeks after President Donald Trump selected him to be agriculture secretary, Perdue’s company bought a small grain plant in South Carolina from one of the biggest agricultural corporations in America.

Had anyone noticed, it would have prompted questions ahead of his confirmation, a period when most nominees lie low and avoid potential controversy. The former governor of Georgia did not disclose the deal — there was no legal requirement to do so. Continue reading.

Supreme Court strikes down disclosure rules for political donors

The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a California law that required nonprofits to hand over a list of their biggest donors.

Why it matters: Some campaign-finance advocates have feared the court will begin chipping away at disclosure rules more broadly, making it harder and harder to figure out who’s funding major political causes.

The big picture: In a 6-3 ruling authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court said California had subjected donors to the threat of public harassment and intimidation, undermining their First Amendment right to free association. Continue reading.

‘A whole bunch of hooey’: Barack Obama calls out Trump for ‘de-legitimizing our democracy’ with election lies

When it comes to former President Donald Trump, Barack Obama is an outspoken critic. And when Obama spoke out during a Democratic online fundraiser on Monday, June 28, he slammed Trump for refusing to respect the United States’ peaceful transition of presidential power and continuing to push lies about the 2020 election.

The Guardian reports that Barack Obama said Trump violated a “core tenet” of democracy when he refused to accept the results of the 2020 election and acknowledge now-President Joe Biden as the winner.

Obama said, “What we saw was my successor, the former president, violate that core tenet that you count the votes and then declare a winner — and fabricate and make up a whole bunch of hooey.” Continue reading.

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