Political News

US Supreme Court Opens Door To Large-Scale Federal Layoffs

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Mon, 07/14/2025 - 12:00am

A sign being held at the ‘No Kings’ protest in Tom Hanafan River’s Edge Park on June 14, 2025 in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
(Carla Chance / The Daily Record)

The U.S. Supreme Court late Tuesday lifted lower court injunctions that had blocked attempts by President Donald Trump and his DOGE Service to restructure the federal government.

Labor unions, advocates and local governments that sued to block the cuts said the president exceeded his authority with the executive order by moving to dismantle the federal government without congressional approval.

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Studying Nebraska’s School Funding Formula A Good Idea

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Mon, 07/14/2025 - 12:00am

In a Nebraska legislative session better known for its sound and fury than for a lot of substantive accomplishments, at least one bill stands as an exception.

At the eleventh hour, the Legislature voted to create a School Financing Review Commission, a bill sponsored by Sen. Jana Hughes and supported by 48 of the 49 state senators – with one senator excused and not voting.

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‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Will Have Americans Paying Higher Prices For Dirtier Energy

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Mon, 07/14/2025 - 12:00am

The Spring Creek Mine in Decker, Mont., is just one mine in the Powder River Basin, the most productive coal-producing region in the U.S.
(Matthew Brown / AP Photo)

When congressional Republicans decided to cut some Biden-era energy subsidies to help fund their One Big Beautiful Bill Act, they could have pruned wasteful subsidies while sparing the rest. Instead, they did the reverse. Americans will pay the price with higher costs for dirtier energy.

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The Child Tax Credit Is Changing. Here’s What It Means For Your Family.

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Mon, 07/14/2025 - 12:00am

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Residents Still Shaken A Day After Federal Authorities March Through Los Angeles' MacArthur Park

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Mon, 07/14/2025 - 12:00am

Federal agents stage at MacArthur Park Monday, July 7, 2025, in Los Angeles.
(Damian Dovarganes / AP Photo)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hector Velasquez was playing cards with friends at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles early Monday when a young man with a megaphone walked through announcing federal agents were on their way. Another man drove past in a car, shouting out the window, “Immigration is coming!”

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Nebraska’s Pillen Among 17 Republican Governors To Oppose Congressional AI Moratorium

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Mon, 07/07/2025 - 12:00am

Gov. Jim Pillen (right) presents a signed version of Legislative Bill 383 to State Sen. Brian Hardin of Gering, a bill that included a provision from Hardin at Pillen’s request to outlaw child sexual abuse material generated with artifical intelligence, May 30, 2025.
(Zach Wendling / Nebraska Examiner)

LINCOLN — As the federal “one big beautiful bill” continues to move through Congress, one provision related to AI that Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen and 16 other Republican governors opposed has been removed, at least for now.

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Looking For Moral Being Attachments

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Mon, 07/07/2025 - 12:00am

As the recent stench of war grew stronger, I noticed once again how much we love our machines, be they bunker-busting or surgical, life-saving or high-earning, analog, digital or artificially intelligent. But what happens when our doodads and thingamajigs act human … you know … err?

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Trump’s Attack On Long-Standing Principle Of Birthright Citizenship Stands, As Supreme Court Sidesteps Constitutional Issue − For Now

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Mon, 07/07/2025 - 12:00am

Shown is a copy of a photograph taken in the 1800s of slave Dred Scott that was found in the historic courthouse located in Thebes, Ill. Scott, the slave whose legal fight for freedom became a landmark U.S. court ruling, is said to have done time in the dungeons below the old courthouse.
(The Southeast Missourian / AP Photo)

One of President Donald Trump’s first executive orders relating to immigration and immigrants is a direct attack on the long-standing constitutional principle of birthright citizenship. That’s the declaration in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution that anyone born on U.S. soil is a U.S. citizen, regardless of their parents’ nationalities or immigration status.

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States Fear Critical Funding From FEMA May Be Drying Up

Published by maggie@omahadai... on Mon, 07/07/2025 - 12:00am

Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator W. Craig Fugate talks on the telephone Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2011, in Paterson, New Jersey.
(Mel Evans / AP Photo)

States Fear Critical Funding From FEMA May Be Drying Up

by Jennifer Berry Hawes

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.

Upheaval at the nation’s top disaster agency is raising anxiety among state and local emergency managers — and leaving major questions about the whereabouts of billions of federal dollars it pays out to them.