Day: January 22, 2021

New Jobless Claims Decrease to 900,000, Economists Expected 925,000

Minnesota Sun Staff

The number of Americans filing new unemployment claims decreased to 900,000 last week as the economy continued to suffer the effects of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, according to the Department of Labor.

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) figure released Thursday represented a decrease in the number of new jobless claims compared to the week ending Jan. 16, in which there were 965,000 new jobless claims reported. Roughly 16 million Americans continue to collect unemployment benefits, according to the BLS report Thursday.

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FBI Feared Foreign Power Was Targeting Money to Clinton Before 2016 Campaign, Memos Show

Minnesota Sun Staff

FBI agents opened an investigation in late 2014 into a foreign power’s effort to curry influence with Hillary Clinton’s prospective presidential campaign through donations, but the bureau’s leadership slow-walked a surveillance warrant and instead arranged for the candidate to get a defensive briefing, newly declassified memos show.

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Top House Democrat Calls on FBI to Investigate Parler’s Financing, Possible Ties to Russia

Minnesota Sun Staff

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, the Democratic chairwoman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, on Thursday called on FBI Director Christopher Wray to investigate financing for Parler, including whether the social media site has any ties to Russia.

Part of Maloney’s rationale for investigating Parler’s links to Russia is that the social media site’s CEO, John Matze, founded the company shortly after traveling to Russia with his wife, who is Russian.

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Biden Halts Work on Border Wall, Thousands of Migrants Are Sent Home to Honduras from Guatemala

Minnesota Sun Staff

As newly installed President Joe Biden halted construction of the wall along the U.S. southern border, thousands of Central American migrants encountered another type of barrier that halted their march toward what they believe are newly reopened doors to America. The barrier came in the form of Guatemalan officials who lobbed tear gas and wielded batons, and who ensured that by Wednesday, some 3,500 migrants were aboard buses whisking them home to Honduras.

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Commentary: Conservatives Need to Stand Up for Their Own Civil Rights

Minnesota Sun Staff

For those making their arguments about whether Section 230 should be repealed or reformed to protect conservatives on social media, it’s time to declare that this ship sailed long ago. Most of the world has now come to accept that these monolithic platforms can remove people or their content at will. The banning of President Trump and a host of other conservatives from all major platforms has proven this point beyond dispute. 

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Two Wyoming Republicans Announce 2022 Primary Challenges Against Liz Cheney After Impeachment Vote

Minnesota Sun Staff

Two Wyoming Republicans have filed papers to challenge House Republican Conference Chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wy.) in the 2022 primaries following her vote to impeach former President Donald Trump.

Wyoming State Sen. Anthony Bouchard and Rep. and business owner Marissa Selvig both filed statements of candidacy in the 2022 primary election on Wednesday.

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Amazon Offers to Help Biden Administration with Vaccine Distribution, After Ignoring Trump Administration

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Big Tech giant Amazon has publicly offered to assist the new Biden Administration with efforts to distribute the coronavirus vaccine, after previously not making any such offers to the Trump Administration, as reported by the Daily Caller.

The offer was made in a letter to Joe Biden by Amazon vice president Dave Clark, who wrote that “Amazon stands ready to assist you in reaching your goal of vaccinating 100 million Americans in the first 100 days of your administration.” The letter continued, adding that “we are prepared to leverage our operations, information technology, and communications capabilities and expertise to assist your administration’s vaccination efforts.”

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Rioters Vandalize Oregon Democratic Headquarters, Descend on Seattle

Minnesota Sun Staff

Riots broke out in Seattle and Portland, Oregon on Wednesday night after demonstrators clashed with police and vandalized a Democratic Party office.

People dressed in all black shattered windows and the glass door to the Oregon Democratic Party’s office in Portland, according to The New York Times, vandalizing it with spray paint and posting a video to social media, saying that their actions were in response to the inauguration of President Joe Biden. In Seattle, police said that several buildings were vandalized.

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Minnesota Democrat Leader: You’re Either with Us, or You’re a ‘Nazi’

Peter D'Abrosca

A day before President Joe Biden was sworn into office with the stated goal of unifying the United States, the head of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) made sure to take one last jab at Republicans.

“I think the Republican Party has a choice to make because there’s two sides,” DFL Chairman Ken Martin said in an online press conference. “You’re either on the side of Nazis and White supremacists and far-right groups, or you’re on the side of Democracy and liberty and freedom and our Constitution.”

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