Trump administration Archives - Page 2 of 4

Biden Administration Won’t Define ‘Sex’ as Biological as Title IX Review Starts

April 20, 2021April 19, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

The Biden administration has rejected a petition to define sex in biological terms as it reviews the Trump administration’s Title IX policies on women’s sports and sexual misconduct proceedings.

The rejection came a day after the Department of Education announced it was soliciting public input on implementing President Biden’s March 8 executive order on sex discrimination.

The Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF), a self-described radical feminist group that opposes transgender policies, said it was pleased that the department did not reject its legal arguments out of hand.

Commentary: The GOP’s Trump Solution

April 14, 2021April 13, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

The Wall Street Journal on Friday published an editorial headlined “The GOP’s Trump Problem.” It gets things terribly wrong. The GOP is Trump’s party and it is the Wall Street Journal that has the Trump problem.

Having been commendably supportive of the former president through most of his term, the Journal joined in the general embarkation of NeverTrumpers over the ostensible election results. The theory that inspired this headline is Trump had his chance but lost the election in a manner practically indistinguishable from defeated incumbents Jimmy Carter in 1980 and George H. W. Bush in 1992 (when there were no suggestions of questionable results). The editors suggest further that Trump had exhausted any grounds he had for contesting the fairness of the counting of ballots, and that it was his duty to go quietly into that good night and do everything that he could to elect Republican senators in Georgia to preserve the Republican majority in the Senate and to enhance the likelihood of the reelection next year of Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia and his secretary of state Brad Raffensperger.

These state officials were to be embraced even though they had capitulated to the leader of the Georgia Democrats, Stacey Abrams, permitting the critical electoral votes of their state to be wrongfully cast for Joe Biden. They assumed Trump had to do all he could to keep those in his own party who had betrayed him in place. That is not normally how the system, or human nature, works.

Pennsylvania Agrees to Exhume Dead from Its Voter Rolls

April 10, 2021April 9, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

Mail in voting envelopes with masks on top

Pennsylvania, one of the top battlegrounds of the 2020 election, has agreed to remove the names of about 21,000 dead people from voter registration rolls before the general elections this year.

The agreement was reached last week, according to the Public Interest Legal Foundation, an election-integrity watchdog group that first identified the names of 21,000 dead people who were still registered to vote a month before the 2020 election.

The organization provided Pennsylvania state officials with the names of 21,000 dead registrants who were not removed from the voting rolls after their deaths.

Pentagon Reveals Policies Reversing Trump’s Transgender Ban

April 4, 2021April 3, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

The Pentagon on Wednesday issued new rules, sweeping away Trump administration policies that largely barred transgender people from serving in the military, following through on an executive order President Biden signed after taking office, The Hill reports.

The new Defense Department policies, released on the International Transgender Day of Visibility, allow transgender people who meet military standards to enlist and serve openly in their self-identified gender. The new regulations will also give access to medical transition-related care, and prevent discrimination against transgender military members, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters.

Commentary: Biden’s Blaming Trump for Border Crisis Has Zero Credibility

March 28, 2021March 27, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

No one believes the Biden White House’s feeble attempt to blame the Trump administration for the current border crisis.

As the Biden administration unsuccessfully tries to deflect blame for the humanitarian disaster now occurring before America’s eyes, despite its directed media blackout, the administration is only succeeding at showing it knows it has a problem.

Commentary: Following the ‘Science’ Amongst COVID-19 to Protect Unscientific Bias

March 27, 2021March 26, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

Throughout the Trump years and in particular during the 2020 COVID pandemic crisis, the nation was lectured by the Left “to follow the data,” as the Democrats proclaimed themselves the “party of science.” As sober and judicious children of the enlightenment, they alone offered the necessary disinterested correctives to Trump’s supposed bluster and exaggeration—and to his anti-scientific deplorable following (often dismissed by Biden as dregs, chumps, and Neanderthals).

In truth, leftists and Democrats have become the purveyors of superstition. Their creation of a fantasy world is not because they do not believe in science per se, but because they believe more in the primacy of ideology that should shape and warp science in the proper fashion for the greater good. What prompted Paul Ehrlich, Al Gore, or Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) hysterically and wrongly to forecast widespread demographic or climatological catastrophe in just a few years was not ignorance of science per se, but a desire to massage science for our own good.

Commentary: If The GOP Wants To Put America First, It Should Put The Chamber of Commerce in Its Place

March 23, 2021March 22, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

Georgia Republicans want to make their elections work better after the 2020 disaster. They’ve proposed sensible measures to eliminate no-excuse absentee ballots, remove dubious ballot drop-off boxes, and reform early voting times. This effort would restore trust in the election process and ensure every ballot is legitimate. But, for some strange reason, this legislation has drawn the ire of the state’s business community.

The Georgia Chamber of Commerce last week expressed its “concern and opposition” to these measures in an official statement endorsed by Home Depot and Coca-Cola, two major corporations based in the Peach State. Black Lives Matter, Stacey Abrams, and other left-wing activists are pressuring these corporations and others to do more to oppose these election reform laws. They’re running TV and newspaper ads to strongarm companies into doing their bidding, and there’s a good chance the corporations eventually will bend the knee. Few corporations nowadays can resist the woke mobs.

Biden Administration Facing Media Scrutiny for Not Allowing Press Access to Child Migrant Detention Facilities

March 23, 2021March 22, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

Reporters in the White House Press Briefing Room expressed frustration on Wednesday with the Biden Administration for failing to provide proper information or press access regarding the increasingly overflowing migrant detention facilities on the southern border, as reported by Breitbart.

One reporter grilled White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on this issue, asking “It’s now been three weeks since….you were first asked about getting us some press access” to these facilities, which have been filling up with child migrants in particular. “Why have we still not seen any images inside these facilities?”

Psaki dodged the question, and instead tried to claim that Biden himself is receiving such information in briefings, saying that “he talks to plenty of officials.” Psaki also continued blaming other factors for the lack of information, including various restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the privacy of children who occupy these facilities.

‘I Fought Back Tears’: Democratic Senator Says He Witnessed Separated Children at Biden Border Facility

March 22, 2021March 21, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy said he “fought back tears” after witnessing a sobbing girl separated from her grandmother at a U.S. border facility Friday.

A young girl was seen sobbing at a border facility Friday while explaining through a translator how she had been separated from her grandmother, Sen. Chris Murphy said in a tweet after he toured the facility with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Murphy said he witnessed hundreds of kids packed into “big open rooms.”

“Just left the border processing facility. 100s of kids packed into big open rooms,” Murphy tweeted. “In a corner, I fought back tears as a 13 yr old girl sobbbed (sic) uncontrollably explaining thru a translator how terrified she was, having been separated from her grandmother and without her parents.”

U.S. Customs And Border Protection Refuses to Explain How Silencing Officials Adheres to Mayorkas’ Transparency Promise

March 20, 2021March 19, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection officials refused to explain how restricting agents and border officers from sharing information with the media lives up to Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ promise of transparency.

The Biden administration reportedly told border officials they can only share limited information concerning the increase of migrants arriving at the southern border and media releases must first be approved by the national office, NBC News reported Thursday. Only certain employees are permitted to speak on behalf of the agency, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Mayorkas, the head of DHS, committed to keeping the department open and transparent during a White House press conference on March 1.

CNN and The Washington Post Issue Corrections After Misquoting Trump in Phone Call with Georgia Election Official

March 17, 2021March 16, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

CNN and the Washington Post issued corrections on Monday, revealing that they “misquoted” some of former President Trump’s comments in a December phone call with Frances Watson, Georgia’s top election investigator.

In their original reports, CNN and the Post claimed Trump ordered Watson to “find the fraud,” and if she succeeded, she would be a “national hero.”

The media outlets were forced to issue mea culpas after the Georgia secretary of state released an audio recording of the December 23 phone call, laying bare what was actually said versus what their anonymous sources claimed was said.

Trump Blasts Biden for ‘Spiraling Tsunami’ at the Border in Blistering Statement

March 7, 2021March 6, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

In a blistering statement Friday, former President Donald Trump blasted Joe Biden for the “spiraling tsunami” at the border, placing the blame for the dramatic surge in illegal immigration squarely on Biden’s “disastrous leadership.”

“Our border is now totally out of control thanks to the disastrous leadership of Joe Biden,” Trump said in his statement. “Our great Border Patrol and ICE agents have been disrespected, demeaned, and mocked by the Biden Administration. A mass incursion into the country by people who should not be here is happening on an hourly basis, getting worse by the minute.”

The former president warned that the new administration’s lax policies at the border—allowing criminals and Covid-positive migrants into the country— will have dangerous consequences for the nation.

Commentary: It’s Time to Reopen America Now

March 7, 2021March 6, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

On Tuesday, governors Greg Abbott (R-Texas) and Tate Reeves (R-Miss.) announced they would be lifting their statewide mask-wearing mandates, business capacity limitations, and various other COVID-19-related restrictions. “COVID still exists,” Abbott said, “but it is clear from the recoveries, from the vaccinations, from the reduced hospitalizations, and from the safe practices that Texans are using that state mandates are no longer needed.”

Texans and Mississippians might be forgiven for wondering why their governors did not earlier follow the courageous path of Governor Kristi Noem (R-S.D.), who has garnered national headlines for her stubborn refusal to enact various mask-wearing mandates and other lockdown orders. But still: Better late than never.

Commentary: The Theory That the Trump Era Is over Is Wrong

March 6, 2021March 5, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

The effect of President Trump’s address to the Conservative Political Action Committee on Sunday has become clearer this week. The key sentence was, “A Republican president will be returning to the White House.” Since the only other living Republican president, George W. Bush, is term-limited, Trump was speaking of himself.

The speech was not only the best and most interesting political speech delivered in the United States since President Reagan’s successful reelection campaign in 1984, it also broke new ground in three important respects.

FBI Confirms No Firearms Were Found During January 6 Capitol Protests

March 6, 2021March 5, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

A leading counterterrorism official at the Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed on Wednesday that, despite frequent and baseless claims that the protests at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th was supposedly an “armed insurrection,” no firearms were recovered in the aftermath of the protests, as reported by the Epoch Times.

Jill Sanborn, the FBI’s counterrorism chief, confirmed this significant detail during sworn testimony before the Senate. When asked by Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) how many firearms were confiscated from the protesters who were arrested, Sanborn said “to my knowledge, none.” Sanborn then went on to claim, without evidence, that “we knew they would be armed, we had intelligence that they would be coming to D.C., but we did not have intelligence that they would be breaching the Capitol.”

Commentary: Biden Wants Unity Moving into the Democratic Party

March 1, 2021February 28, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

Mainstream voters in both parties feel that neither major party represents them, and that their opinions and wishes hold little sway over government policy.

Establishment Republicans failed the average American by becoming captive to extreme Libertarian ideology that is divorced from the reality of most people’s lives.

Commentary: 60 Years After Eisenhower’s Warning, Distinct Signs of a ‘Digital-Intelligence Complex’

February 24, 2021February 23, 2021 RealClearWire

In June 2019, Susan Gordon stood on a stage at the Washington Convention Center. Behind her loomed three giant letters, “AWS,” the abbreviation for Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing division of the giant Internet retailer. After three decades at the Central Intelligence Agency, Gordon had risen to one of the top jobs in the cloak-and-dagger world: principal deputy director of national intelligence. From that perch she publicly extolled the virtues of Amazon Web Services and the cloud services the tech giant provides the CIA.

Trump National Security Official Says Evidence for Wuhan Lab Error ‘Far Outweighs’ Other Theories

February 22, 2021February 21, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

Matt Pottinger, who served as deputy national security adviser under former President Donald Trump, said Sunday that the evidence that the coronavirus resulted from human error in a Chinese lab “far outweighs” other theories about the origins of the pandemic.

“If you weigh the circumstantial evidence, the ledger on the side of an explanation that says that this resulted from some kind of human error, it far outweighs the side of the scale that says this was some natural outbreak,” Pottinger said in an interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”

January Border Arrests Reach Highest Level in a Decade as Some Migrants Expect Softer Treatment Under Biden

February 21, 2021February 20, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

Over 75,000 illegal immigrants were apprehended for crossing the border into the U.S. last month, breaking record numbers for the highest number of January apprehensions in over a decade, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

The majority of illegal immigrants who were apprehended in January 2021 were single adults, though Border Patrol agents detained 7,260 migrants traveling as family units, nearly 3,000 more than in December 2020, the WSJ reported. Some of the migrants said they are illegally crossing the border with the hope that the Biden administration will be more forgiving than the Trump administration.

Trump Turns Down Nikki Haley Meeting Request

February 21, 2021February 20, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

Donald Trump this week refused to meet his former ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.

Politico’s Playbook reported details of the meeting requested by the prospective 2024 presidential candidate, citing a “source familiar” with the incident, according to Breitbart.

Lincoln Project Co-Founder Rick Wilson Paid off $200K Mortgage After Weaver Allegations Surfaced

February 20, 2021February 19, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson paid off the massive mortgage on his Florida home only days after the New York Times reported on sexual misconduct allegations against co-founder John Weaver, public records show.

Wilson’s $200,000, 30-year-mortgage originated in 2007 and JPMorgan Chase Bank recently issued a certificate of satisfaction on the mortgage, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Commentary: How Mail-In Voting Affected the 2020 Election

February 17, 2021February 16, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

What factors propelled Joe Biden to victory in the November 2020 election? Did voters abandon Donald Trump in droves? Are liberals, socialists, and statists gaining ground in the United States of America?

I don’t think so, but I don’t have a definitive answer for you. Neither, so far as I know, does anyone else. After diligently examining the numbers and reviewing news reports from each state east of the Mississippi River, all I can say with confidence is that mail-in voting had something to do with why Biden prevailed. If some pundit or politician claims it was due to this or that cohort of “swing voter,” or to some malfeasance on the part of Donald Trump, or because voters wanted a return to “decency” under “nice guy” Joe, well … be skeptical.

Support Grows for 9/11-Style Commission into Capitol Riot Following Trump Acquittal

February 16, 2021February 15, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

More lawmakers are backing an independent 9/11-style commission into the Capitol riot on Jan. 6 following the Senate’s acquittal of former President Donald Trump on a charge of inciting the deadly insurrection that took place.

Congressional investigations were already scheduled after this week’s recess, but lawmakers from both parties have called for a holistic investigation following Trump’s acquittal on Saturday afternoon. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also asked retired Army Gen. Russel Honoré in January to lead oversee a thorough review of the Capitol’s security in order to prevent something similar from occurring in the future.

Lincoln Project Leaders Reportedly Padded Pockets from Anti-Trump Donations While Ignoring Allegations Against Cofounder

February 14, 2021February 13, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

The Lincoln Project was reportedly aware of allegations against co-founder John Weaver as early as June 2020, but pushed ahead with raising massive donations — and $50 million of these donations has gone to firms controlled by the Lincoln Project’s leaders.

Lincoln Project members were made aware of at least 10 allegations of harassment against Weaver in June 2020, the Associated Press reported. The group did not take action against Weaver as it continued its high-profile work combatting the re-election of former President Donald Trump and expressed shock in January over the allegations against its cofounder.

Twitter CFO: Trump’s Ban Will Continue Even If He’s Reelected

February 13, 2021February 12, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

Twitter CFO Ned Segal announced on Wednesday that former President Donald Trump would remain banned from his company’s platform even if he was reelected in the future.

Segal made the announcement during an appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box when the show’s host asked if the former president would be allowed back on the platform if he was reelected.

Commentary: The Republican Ship of Fools Sails On

February 10, 2021February 9, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

In what CNN’s Chris Cillizza accurately described as a “gut punch” to the GOP’s Trumpian faction, the House Republican Conference decided against removing Representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) for her vote to impeach former President Donald Trump. Republicans voted 145-61 on a secret ballot in Cheney’s favor.

Cillizza zeroed in on Florida Republican Matt Gaetz, an ardent defender of the former president. “Make no mistake,” he wrote, “Gaetz, Trump, and the rest of that crowd wanted to make an example of Cheney. They, rightly, viewed her impeachment vote—and the ensuing controversy—as the first major battle for control of the post-Trump Republican Party.” He also notes that “Trump had released a poll last month purporting to show Cheney in trouble in Wyoming for her impeachment vote.” And according to The Dispatch’s Stephen Hayes, Trump was “calling R House members to encourage them to sack Cheney.”

Chinese Tech CEO ‘Would Welcome’ Discussion with Biden, Hopes U.S. Takes Softer Approach Toward China

February 10, 2021February 9, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

The CEO of Chinese tech company Huawei said he would welcome a phone call with president Joe Biden after years of being targeted as a national security threat.

Ren Zhengfei, the founder and CEO of Huawei, said he hoped President Joe Biden’s administration would take a softer approach toward his company than President Donald Trump did, NBC News reported. The Trump administration labeled Huawei a national security threat in June, cutting off the company’s ability to receive federal funds.

Biden Quietly Nixes Trump-era Rule Combating Chinese Communist-Funded ‘Propaganda’ Centers

February 9, 2021February 8, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

The Trump administration attempted to enact a policy that would force American universities to reveal cooperation with chapters of the Confucius Institute. President Joe Biden quietly revoked the policy a few days after his inauguration.

Axios reported that in the final days of his presidency, Trump enacted a policy that would compel primary, secondary, and postsecondary institutions to disclose all contracts and transactions with the Confucius Institute. Under the policy, schools that do not report information would lose certification for the Student and Exchange Visitor Program.

Commentary: The Left’s 1960s ‘Animal Farm’ Dream is America’s 2021 Nightmare

February 9, 2021February 8, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

George Orwell published Animal Farm in August 1945, in the closing weeks of the Pacific War. Even then, most naïve supporters of the wartime Soviet-British-American alliance were no longer in denial about the contours of Moscow’s impending postwar communist aggression.

The short, allegorical novel’s human-like farm animals replay the transition of supposedly 1917 revolutionary Bolsheviks into cynical 1930s Stalinists. Thereby, they remind us that leftist totalitarianism inevitably becomes far worse than the supposed parasitical capitalists they once toppled.

Commentary: Polling and the Truth

February 7, 2021February 6, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

The Berlin Tagesspiegel recently went after a young Protestant theologian whom naïve readers might have mistaken for a polite, unassuming scholar. This figure was outed by an academic colleague who discovered that he wrote for “new Right” publications, a term that in the German context should be understood quite broadly.

One of the venues of this putative extremist is Cato, which is a classical liberal magazine known for making fun of political correctness; his other preferred site is Blaue Narzisse, an educational website on which I, too, have discoursed on literary and philosophical topics. One would have to hang out for several years with the squad in order to be inclined to locate either of these literate publications somewhere on the far-Right. But then the German government and German media apply an expansive definition of the enemy—namely anyone not in line with Islamic, feminist, and LGBT activists or who fails to hate the German language and Western culture sufficiently.

Biden Expected to Increase Amount of Refugees Admitted into U.S.

February 6, 2021February 5, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

The Biden administration plans to announce on Thursday that it will increase the cap on the number of refugees to more than eight times the level at which the Trump administration left it.

President Joe Biden is expected to announce the move during a visit to the State Department. The Trump administration had drastically reduced the refugee admissions cap to only 15,000 for this fiscal year, the lowest since 1980, CNN reports.

Sen. Rand Paul, 24 Senators Introduce REIN Act to Curtail Federal Spending

February 2, 2021February 1, 2021 The Center Square

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, introduced a bill that would require any new regulation proposed by an executive branch department or agency to be approved by Congress if it is projected to cost $100 million or more to implement.

The bill, “Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act of 2021” (REIN), with 24 Republican cosponsors, was introduced after President Joe Biden on his first day in office signed an executive order to repeal deregulation efforts implemented by the previous administration.

GOP Unleashes Wave of Pro-Life Bills in Democrat-Controlled Congress

January 31, 2021January 30, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

Republican lawmakers have unleashed a wave of pro-life bills into the Democrat-controlled Congress this week.

The flood of pro-life legislation occurred the same week that President Joe Biden enacted policy allowing taxpayer dollars to fund abortions abroad. Days earlier, Biden marked the 48th anniversary of Roe v. Wade by promising to both appoint judges who respect the ruling as precedent Friday and to codify Roe v. Wade.

Biden State Department Sounds off on Chinese Technology Abuses, but Refuses to Say if it Will Continue Trump’s Fight Against Chinese Telecoms

January 28, 2021January 27, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

The State Department refused to say whether President Joe Biden will continue a bipartisan Trump administration initiative that commits American allies to keep Chinese telecoms out of their networks.

Some 60 countries, including 27 of the 30 NATO countries, as well as Japan, Israel, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam and India, had signed onto the Clean Network program by the time former President Donald Trump left office. Participants of the program have agreed to prohibit high-risk Chinese vendors such as Huawei from being a part of their 5G mobile infrastructure.

National Security Officials in Trump Admin Say They’re Being Snubbed for Jobs, Compared to ‘Hitler Youth’

January 10, 2021January 9, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

National security officials who work for President Donald Trump are being snubbed by potential future employers and compared to “Hitler Youth” days before president-elect Joe Biden will take office, Politico reported.

Seven former and current officials spoke with Politico and detailed their job search heading out of the Trump administration. A number of high ranking Trump administration officials resign over the president’s part in the storming of the United States Capitol building Wednesday.

Commentary: President Trump’s Tenure Didn’t Have to End This Way

January 9, 2021January 9, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

In the end, almost everyone got what they deserved.

The president’s Achilles’ heel—relying on the wrong people to advance his political interests—led to his final ouster this week. Donald Trump ran out of runway and instead of preparing for a soft landing, he pumped the gas. It’s hard to blame him: His court challenges had been thwarted by the very judges he elevated to the federal bench, his hodgepodge legal team whirred in defeat, and Republican senators he helped elect quickly turned on him.

Biden Eyes a Return to the Obama Era Policy to Combat ‘Rape Culture’ on American Campuses

December 21, 2020December 20, 2020 Minnesota Sun Staff

Earlier this year, President Trump’s often embattled Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, established new rules on handling sexual assaults on campus to strengthen protections for accused students, almost all of them men.

Joe Biden, who was the Obama administration’s point man for the policies DeVos upended, has made his displeasure clear.

“The Trump Administration’s Education Department … is trying to shame and silence survivors,” the Biden campaign platform declared. “Instead of protecting women,” it has “given colleges a green light to ignore sexual violence and strip survivors of their civil rights.”

Two Moves Trump HHS Is Taking to Make Government More Accountable

November 25, 2020November 24, 2020 Minnesota Sun Staff

In another Trump administration move to boost transparency and roll back regulations, the Department of Health and Human Services issued two statements of policy on Tuesday that will affect any future imposition of regulations going forward.

The first policy requires the department and its agencies to demonstrate to the public how they reached a conclusion on the economic cost of a regulation.

Rep. Steve Cohen and Democrats Accuse White House Press Secretary of Violating Hatch Act

November 1, 2020October 31, 2020 Corinne Murdock

Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN) and other Democrats have accused White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany of violating the HATCH Act. Cohen retweeted an article from The New York Times that accused McEnany of breaking the law.
“Kayleigh McEnany’s violations of the #HatchAct would be a scandal in any other administration,” wrote Cohen. “Grifters and miscreants. Utterly appalling. #CultureOfCorruption”

Obama-Biden Administration Denied Only Four Percent of Chinese Acquisitions of U.S. Entities: Report

October 31, 2020October 31, 2020 Laura Baigert

A report that examined Chinese acquisitions in the U.S. revealed that the Obama-Biden administration only denied four percent of those that were subject to review by federal regulators.

In stark contrast, the Trump administration denied nearly half of the Chinese proposed acquisitions.

Court Ruling Reverses Trump Administration’s SNAP Changes

October 25, 2020October 24, 2020 The Center Square

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Sunday blocked a Trump administration change to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that could have removed eligibility for almost 700,000 unemployed, able-bodied Americans.

A lawsuit filed in January by a multistate coalition alleged a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) rule wrongly reversed a decades-old policy that allowed states to waive SNAP work requirements. The previous rules granted waivers for larger geographic areas by lumping certain regions with lower unemployment with locations registering higher unemployment, as well as carryover unused exemptions.

Supreme Court Halts Census in Latest Twist of 2020 Count

October 14, 2020October 13, 2020 The Associated Press

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the Trump administration can end census field operations early, batting aside a lawsuit that warned the truncated schedule will lead to minorities being undercounted in the crucial once-a-decade head count.

Still, the decision was not a total loss for the plaintiffs, who managed to get two extra weeks of counting people as the case challenging the U.S. Census Bureau’s decision to end the census in September made its way through the courts.

Judge Rules Against Trump Administration, Says Census Counting Must Continue Through October

September 27, 2020September 26, 2020 Minnesota Sun Staff

A judge ruled Thursday night that 2020 Census counting can continue through October 31.

The ruling was issued by California district judge Lucy H. Koh against the Trump administration, which sought to stop counting after Sept. 30, a month before its previously scheduled completion.

Judge Orders U.S. to Stop Detaining Migrant Children in Hotels

September 6, 2020September 5, 2020 The Associated Press

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Friday to stop detaining immigrant children in hotels before expelling them from the United States, saying the much-criticized practice skirted “fundamental humanitarian protections.”

U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee ruled that the use of hotels as long-term detention spaces violates a two-decade-old settlement governing the treatment of immigrant children in custody. She ordered border agencies to stop placing children in hotels by Sept. 15 and to remove children from hotels as soon as possible.

Tiktok to Fight Trump Over His Pending Order to Ban Its App

August 25, 2020 The Associated Press

Video app TikTok said it will wage a legal fight against the Trump Administration’s efforts to ban the popular, Chinese-owned service over national-security concerns.

TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, insisted Monday that it is not a national-security threat and that the government is acting without evidence or due process. The company said it will file suit against the government later Monday in federal court in California. A copy of the complaint could not be obtained.

States Try Again to Block Coal Sales That Trump Revived

July 22, 2020July 21, 2020 The Associated Press

A coalition of states, environmentalists and American Indians on Monday renewed its push to stop the Trump administration from selling coal from public lands after a previous effort to halt the lease sales was dismissed by a federal judge.

Joined by the Northern Cheyenne Tribe and several environmental groups, Democratic attorneys general from California, New York, New Mexico and Washington state filed a lawsuit challenging the administration’s coal program in U.S. District Court in Montana.

Conservatives Praise Supreme Court for Ruling States Can’t Discriminate Against Religious Schools

July 1, 2020June 30, 2020 Anthony Gockowski

The U.S. Supreme Court said Tuesday that states can’t cut religious schools out of programs that send public money to private education in a 5-4 ruling.

Hailed as a victory for religious freedom, the justices upheld a Montana scholarship program that allows state tax credits for private schooling in which almost all the recipients attend religious schools.

President Trump Reportedly Considering Forming Panel to Review Anti-Conservative Bias in Big Tech

May 25, 2020May 24, 2020 Minnesota Sun Staff

President Donald Trump is considering forming a commission to review anti-conservative bias on social media platforms, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the idea.

A potential White House-created commission would examine allegations of online bias and censorship, according to the report. The administration will also encourage the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Election Commission to conduct similar reviews, the sources told the WSJ.

Judge Sanctions Trump Admin After Citizenship Question Lawsuit

May 24, 2020May 23, 2020 Minnesota Sun Staff

An Obama-appointed federal judge sanctioned the Trump administration on Thursday, ruling that the White House did not provide sufficient documentation amid its failed attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census.

Jesse Furman, a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, ordered the Trump administration on Thursday to pay attorney fees as punishment.

Supreme Court Sides with Trump Admin, Rules Criminal Immigrant Can Be Deported

April 26, 2020 Minnesota Sun Staff

The Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration on Thursday, finding that the government can deport criminal immigrants from the United States even if they have been living legally in the country for a long time.