Zohran Mamdani's administration has not studied how New York City's government-backed grocery stores will affect nearby mom-and-pop outlets, which operate on thin profit margins.
The Hochul administration has quietly extended a pilot program providing free healthcare for sex workers – with the price tag for taxpayers now expected to soar to nearly $2.5 million.
The Department of Justice is refusing to swear that the Trump slush fund is dead in a new court filing flagged by a legal analyst.Last week, federal judge Leonie Brinkema indefinitely blocked the $1.776 billion anti-weaponization fund, which critics worried would have paid Trump allies, and gave the DOJ until June 19th to file a declaration swearing it wouldn't move forward with the fund under penalty of perjury.DOJ lawyer Andrew Block submitted a new court filing on June 19th, but "not the one the judge instructed, not the one that she wanted," Legal AF host Michael Popok said in an update.Instead, the DOJ "created a new piece of paper to effectively go tell the judge to go pound sand," Popok said, also describing it as a "Go F yourself submission."Brinkema wanted the signatures of acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward on that declaration, "the three people who created the anti-weaponization fund," Popok noted.According to the filing, a declaration not to move forward with the slush fund is "unnecessary and the compelled testimony of senior officials from the Executive Branch implicates serious separation of powers concerns."It goes on to argue, "The Acting Attorney General has testified before Congress that the Fund is 'not going forward, period.'""That should be enough, right?" Popok joked. "Judge Brinkema said a version of, yeah, we're in a courtroom. You need to bring in evidence. We operate on evidence and testimony, not on statements made outside the courtroom."Trump Squeals and Has AG Blanche Refuse to Testify to Federal Judge! by Legal AFRead on Substack
From an industry that usually portrays dads as fools or tyrants comes something rare: a portrait of fathers as tender, flawed, frightened, and profoundly human, writes Liel Leibovitz.
The Justice Department (DOJ) on Friday snubbed a federal judge’s demand to swear that a nearly $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund is dead, arguing the request raises “serious separation of powers concerns.” Judge Leonie Brinkema indefinitely blocked the fund last Friday and issued a seven-day deadline for acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Associate Attorney…
President Donald Trump's Department of Justice thrashed a federal judge in a new court filing for demanding that DOJ officials and two Trump cabinet secretaries officially declare that Trump's "anti-weaponization" slush fund is officially dead. Last month, the Trump administration announced plans to create a $1.776 billion fund to pay claims from people who allege they were wrongfully prosecuted by the federal government. Several of Trump's allies, including formerly convicted members of the Proud Boys, declared that they would seek restitution from the fund, which sparked significant bipartisan pushback. Political analysts and experts have described the fund as a "slush fund" because the Trump DOJ would have full control over who is eligible for payments, and the legal paperwork establishing the fund states that the federal government bears no responsibility if crimes are committed by people who receive payments. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told the House and Senate judiciary committees that the administration is no longer pursuing the fund, but has refused to put that in writing. On Friday, the Trump DOJ told a judge in the Eastern District of Virginia that it won't abide by a demand to declare the fund dead. The DOJ argued in the filing that multiple Trump administration officials have said the fund is not moving forward, and those past statements should satisfy the court's demand. It also attached a copy of Blanche's testimony to Congress as evidence of its claims. "Such declarations are unnecessary, and the compelled testimony of senior officials from the Executive Branch implicates serious separation of powers concerns," the DOJ wrote in its filing. "Nor is there any basis for the court to compel testimony from the Associate Attorney General and two Cabinet members. The point of Article III limitations on judicial review is to prevent such overreach," it added.
A senior Justice Department official called a judge's demand for a declaration on the status of the "anti-weaponization" fund "unnecessary."
The Justice Department rebuffed a US judge’s invitation for top officials to submit a signed statement under oath that a $1.8 billion fund for what the administration described as victims of political “weaponization” will not happen.
Chris Bird designed the upper quadrant of the controversial tower, comprised of quotes from various speeches delivered by Barack Obama during his two terms in office.