🔵 Govt Shutdown Likely

Author

Citizen Frank
March 13, 2025

Good evening. It’s Wednesday, March 12.

 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Wednesday that most Democrats in the upper chamber will not support a House Republican-passed bill to fund the federal government through the end of September, all but ensuring a partial shutdown beginning at 11:59 p.m. Friday.

“Funding the government should be a bipartisan effort, but Republicans chose a partisan path, drafting their [continuing resolution] without any input — any input — from congressional Democrats,” Schumer (D-NY) said on the Senate floor Wednesday.

“Because of that, Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on the House CR. Our caucus is unified on a clean [CR through April 11] that will keep the government open and give Congress time to negotiate bipartisan legislation that can pass.”

Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky’s campaign account says it has received over $2000,000 this week amid President Donald Trump’s consistent attacks regarding a government funding bill.

The continuing resolution (CR) presented a contentious argument among lawmakers in the House this week, as a bill needed to be passed to continue to fund the government.

The bill’s passage in the House on Tuesday also sparked backlash within the Republican Party as Massie refused to vote in favor of the bill, rebuking Trump’s guidance. Massie was the only Republican to vote against the CR.

The sister of a U.S. Supreme Court Justice was targeted by a bomb threat on Monday morning, according to the Charleston Police Department.

Around 9:30 a.m., officers responded after a bomb threat was made against Amanda Coney Williams, the sister of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

Authorities said an employee of the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office received the threat via email on March 8 just before 11 p.m. The sheriff’s office then forwarded the email to Charleston Police Department, who investigated the incident.

A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that President Donald Trump lacked the authority to remove a Democratic member from the Federal Labor Relations Authority, ordering that Susan Tsui Grundmann be reinstated to her post.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan in Washington, D.C., is a blow to Trump’s broader efforts to assert control over independent agencies and reshape the federal workforce.

“In the nearly fifty years since the FLRA’s creation, no President has ever removed a Member. Until now,” Sooknanan wrote in her opinion. “The Government’s argument that the statutory removal provision is unconstitutional cannot be reconciled with longstanding Supreme Court precedent that is binding on this Court.”

The Shapiro administration’s handling of a sexual misconduct complaint against a cabinet member, and one reporter’s request to know more about the investigation behind it, may cost taxpayers a lot of money.

In a court transcript obtained by The Center Square, an attorney representing the Office of the Governor says the state deleted internal emails sent and received over an eight-day period by a deputy aide in its Legislative Affairs Office who reported the inappropriate behavior.

“That, frankly, should not be surprising that an account of a departed employee would be disposed of in accordance with the records retention schedules,” says Thomas Howell, the administration’s attorney, during a Feb. 12 hearing in Commonwealth Court. “Those retention schedules are public, and they establish that, you know, your general emails are deleted as soon as they’re no longer necessary.”

West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey hosted former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines in Charleston on Wednesday to sign into law the Riley Gaines Act — codifying the definitions of “man” and “woman” into state law.

The bill, sponsored by Senate President Randy Smith, R-Blackwater Falls, and Minority Leader Mike Woelfel, D-Huntington, passed overwhelmingly in the 31-3 GOP-majority upper chamber.

A sole Democrat, Sen. Joey Garcia of Fairmont, voted “nay,” and the House approved the Senate’s bill 90-8 along party lines.

Lower energy prices drove down inflation in February, according new federal data released this week.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released new data Wednesday showing inflation rose just 0.2% last month, part of a 2.8% rise over the last year.

The average annual inflation rate from January’s data was 3%, so overall annual inflation dropped in February.

An embalmer at a Texas funeral firm used a scalpel to mutilate a sex offender’s corpse then stuffed the decedent’s severed penis in his mouth, according to a court filing.

The shocking incident occurred last month at Memorial Mortuary & Crematory in Houston and resulted in the arrest of Amber Paige Laudermilk, 34, for abuse of a corpse, a felony.

Investigators have identified the dead man as Charles Roy Rodriguez, 58, a registered sex offender who lived in Brookside Village, a Houston suburb.

Reply

or to participate.