Trump attorney Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years in jail today
Prosecutors announced that they reached a deal with the owners of the National Enquirer not to pursue charges after they admitted they paid off a former Trump mistress “in concert” with his presidential campaign
Former HUD Secretary Julian Castro announced a presidential exploratory committee
The U.S. Senate voted to advance a resolution to cut off support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.
We have the first super delegate endorsement of the 2020 cycle with Congressman Joaquin Castro supporting the potential presidential bid of his brother Julian.
The North Carolina state legislature has passed a bill mandating a new primary if the election result in the state’s Ninth Congressional District is overturned due to fraud.
State law currently mandates that the same candidates run if a new election is held but Republicans fear that their candidate, Mark Harris, is permanently stained by the scandal.
After a devastating expose of the organization in Tablet Magazine this week, the Women’s March has hired a PR firm to send bizarre emails to a number of reporters insisting that they can only rebut the story off the record and demanding all tweets about the story be deleted.
The piece in Tablet raised questions about the organization’s financial management and also exposed ties to the Nation of Islam and a history of anti-Semitism riddling the organization from its founding.
A bipartisan compromise has been reached to curb sexual harassment on Capitol Hill.
According to Politico, the legislation “holds members liable for all forms of harassment and retaliation for harassment claims but not discrimination.”
Sen. Kamala Harris, who is weighing a bid for president in 2020, delivered remarks on speaking “truth, as uncomfortable as it may be”.
The topic was racial disparities in maternal and infant mortality rates at the liberal think tank Center for American Progress. But if you read between the lines there was a broader theme that could serve as a message against a president who has inspired the Bottomless Pinocchio for politicians who “repeat a false claim so many times that they are, in effect, engaging in campaigns of disinformation”.
“If we are actually going to address what must be dealt with, we must speak those truths,” Harris said in the opening remarks. “When we speak them it is not with the aim of shocking, or offending or making people uncomfortable.”
“We’re here to speak those truths to elevate the conversation,” she continued, noting that black women in America are three times more likely to die from complications of childbirth than white women.
The California senator told the audience about her mother, a breast cancer researcher who she said would come home from work “livid” about the gender inequities in scientific research. One day, Harris recalled, her mother was shocked because she witnessed a doctor in her lab carrying a tray with a breast that had been removed during a mastectomy.
“She said, and I don’t mean to offend anyone or shock anyone, ‘I wonder if it had been a penis, would he have been walking around that way?’” the senator said. “It showed a lack of understanding about the dignity of a woman’s body and the need to treat it with dignity.”
“Women in the healthcare system must be given dignity,” Harris continued. “They must be listened to. They must be taken seriously. They must be given respect.”
Harris has introduced legislation aimed at reducing the disparities. The bill would create two grant programs to address implicit bias and implement Pregnancy Medical Home Demonstration programs. She also has a bill that would designate a week in April as Black Maternal Health Week.
The full roll call vote is now available on the procedural vote to set up debate on the farm bill which also allowed House GOP leadership to block a vote on Yemen. 5 Democrats and 18 Republicans crossed the aisle on a vote that narrowly passed 206-203.