January 17, 2025 at 5:29 PM EST
'Bend the knee': CBS considers settling Trump's '60 Minutes' lawsuit to get merger approved

President-elect Donald Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against CBS News for alleged "deceptive conduct" may end up with him raking in a significant sum of cash in exchange for the incoming administration green-lighting a proposed merger. That's according to a Wall Street Journal article published Friday, which reported that executives at the network are mulling whether to offer a settlement to the president-elect as a gesture of goodwill. CBS parent company Paramount is reportedly hoping a settlement will lead to its potential merger with Skydance Media being approved by federal regulators.

January 17, 2025 at 4:17 PM EST
'Really screwed up': Biden hammers red states over pandemic response in exit interview

President Joe Biden will leave office on Monday, after President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated at 12 PM Eastern Time. But the 46th president of the United States is using one of his final public appearances to take swings at Republican-led states' economic management. NBC News recently reported that Biden didn't hold back when blasting how his political opponents in state governments across the country handled the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic - particularly when it came to rebuilding their economies after millions were put out of work due to the virus. Biden's remarks came in response to a question from MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell, who asked the outgoing president why his administration "invested more in red states than blue states."

January 17, 2025 at 3:57 PM EST
Secret jars in a prison fridge hold AZ's lethal injection drugs -- and they may be expired

In a locked and alarm-equipped refrigerator at an Arizona Department of Corrections Rehabilitation & Reentry facility in Florence are eight unmarked glass containers that resemble Mason jars. Inside the jars is a white substance that the agency claims is pentobarbital salt, the active pharmacological ingredient in the drug used to execute Arizona Death Row prisoners. It's enough poison to kill every Death Row prisoner in the United States and then some, according to a legal declaration obtained by a federal public defender who interviewed the manufacturer.

January 17, 2025 at 3:52 PM EST
'Fear small crowds?': Trump and team mocked as 'snowflakes' for inauguration move

When Donald Trump raises his right hand on Monday to swear an oath to the U.S. Constitution as America's 47th President, he will do so not as most Presidents have done, outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., but inside. Amid forecasted temperatures in the mid-20s, Trump has decided to move the proceedings inside, a decision that was quickly met with mockery and prompted speculation about crowd size concerns. Washington, D.C. suffers from -- or boasts, depending on personal preference -- a wide range of temperatures. In January, temperatures in recent years have ranged from a balmy 80 degrees (2024) to a frigid 5 degrees (2015). And while temperatures in the mid-40s are average for January, 24 degrees, the forecast for Inauguration Day, is not especially unusual.

January 17, 2025 at 3:50 PM EST
Trump mega-donor's company pays $1 million settlement for illegal workers

The family-owned company of President-elect Donald Trump's campaign co-chair in Louisiana has agreed to pay $1.025 million to resolve allegations that it hired workers ineligible to work in the United States, the U.S. Department of Justice announced this week. Bollinger Shipyard LLC of Lockport was accused of violating the False Claims Act for knowingly billing the U.S. Coast Guard for the labor the illegal workers performed. The company's settlement with the federal government is not an admission of guilt but effectively brings the matter to a close.

January 17, 2025 at 11:54 AM EST
Trump spits on the military. Again.

The US Department of Defense is the largest government agency in the country. A sprawling and massive bureaucracy, the DOD houses the world's largest military power, employs nearly 3 million people- greater than the population of many states- and has direct control over the armed forces of the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Space Command. The Secretary of Defense manages an annual budget exceeding $800 billion, with 1.3 million servicemembers on active duty, 825,000 Reserve and National Guard members, and another 600,000 civilian employees. Frank Carlucci, Secretary of Defense under Reagan, described the position as "one of the more difficult jobs anywhere in the world. He has to be a mini-Secretary of State, a procurement expert, a congressional relations expert. He has to understand the budget process. And he should have operational knowledge."

January 17, 2025 at 11:45 AM EST
The first victims of Trump's hit list

It may seem counter-intuitive, given that most people think of dictators as bad guys themselves, but the simple reality is that without proclaiming enemies -- larger than life enemies -- dictators have a hard time hanging onto power and accomplishing the things they want to do. Hitler had Jews. Mussolini had the Italian Socialist Party. For Duterte it was drug dealers. Stalin vilified the "Kulaks" (wealthy peasants) as a threat to the Soviet Union. Mao blamed the bourgeoisie. Pol Pot said intellectuals were the enemy and so ordered everybody who could read killed. Idi Amin blamed Indians and Asians for the problems of Uganda. Robert Mugabe said white farmers were destroying Zimbabwe. Slobodan Miloševi? pointed to the Kosovo Albanians. Pinochet blamed the trade unions for Chile's struggles.

January 17, 2025 at 11:26 AM EST
'More than a hypothetical': Democratic senator cuts off Kristi Noem over Trump threat

During the second round of questioning of Director of Homeland Security nominee Kristi Noem, Sen Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) butted heads with her after she tried to dodge a question about Donald Trump threatening to withhold money from state governments he has an issue with. At the first round of questioning concluded with no fireworks, Blumenthal asked Noem about recent comments made by the president-elect and his allies that they want to withhold disaster relief and whether she agreed with it. That led the South Dakota governor to demure by saying, "I don't speak to hypotheticals which is what you're asking me but as secretary, I will do the same --." "It's more than a hypothetical with all due respect," the Democrat interjected. "I apologize for interrupting you but my time is limited as you know, as a veteran of the hearings. But that's more than a hypothetical. It's based on experience with President Trump withholding money from Washington state and elsewhere." "I need to know from you will you stand up to the president and say 'No, the Constitution and the Impoundment Act act requires us, for example, to allocate the $100 billion that we have just appropriated in the last session to say like Connecticut, $3 million, Texas, $10 million, almost every one of the states represented here," he pressed. "Will you say no to the president if he withholds that money?" "I don't know about the scenarios that you are referencing with President Trump but I will tell you if given the chance to be secretary of Homeland Security, that I will deliver the programs according to the law and that it will be done with no political bias," she replied. "If the programs change or if you decide to change the rule of law, then I will follow that."

January 17, 2025 at 11:03 AM EST
Trump threatens FBI office -- alleges 'corruption' and demands they 'preserve all records'

Just days before he will be sworn into office, President-elect Donald Trump is alleging the FBI has been engaging in "corruption," after learning the Bureau has shut down its "DEI Office," officially the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. The FBI has a lengthy, ongoing investigation into the January 6, 2021 insurrection and attack on the U.S. Capitol. It also conducted an intensive investigation into Trump's removal and refusal to return classified documents, including top secret national security materials, and executed a lawful search warrant on Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort and residence to retrieve some of those documents.

January 17, 2025 at 10:17 AM EST
'Puzzled' Panamanian officials scramble to make sense of Trump's canal 'fixation'

After President Jimmy Carter's death at the age of 100 on December 29, 2024, President-elect Donald Trump argued that one of Carter's biggest mistakes was giving the Panama Canal to Panama back in 1977. The Panama Canal, opened in 1914, is an artificially created waterway linking the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. And it is now managed by the Panama Canal Authority, which is owned by the Panamanian government.

January 17, 2025 at 4:10 AM EST
Inside a top Dem's plan to get Jack Smith's classified documents report on Trump

WASHINGTON""Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) plans to access the report of special counsel Jack Smith's classified documents before a new attorney general can dismiss the case. Speaking to Raw Story on Thursday, Raskin said that Donald Trump will likely have his Justice Department "dismiss" the case against his aides Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira "or pardon them."

January 17, 2025 at 4:08 AM EST
How techbros could topple our freedom

Biden warns of 'the tech-industrial complex' There's no guarantee democracy won't turn despotic - again.