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Colorado Governor Jared Polis is facing fierce backlash from Democrats after commuting the prison sentence of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, a Trump ally who became a national symbol in the fight over election integrity after challenging the 2020 election results. Peters had been serving a lengthy prison sentence tied to unauthorized access to voting equipment in Mesa County, but Polis argued the punishment was excessive for a nonviolent first-time offender.
Senate Republicans moved aggressively Monday to continue filling out President Trump’s administration, confirming 49 nominees tied to energy, land management, and federal law enforcement positions in a single sweeping vote. The move comes after Republicans changed Senate rules last year to bypass Democrat obstruction tactics that had slowed confirmations to a crawl during Trump’s second term.
With the midterms approaching, Congress is quietly rediscovering something Washington has almost forgotten how to do: pass bipartisan legislation. According to Politico, lawmakers in both parties are increasingly searching for smaller, politically safe bills they can campaign on back home as voters grow exhausted with nonstop partisan warfare and legislative paralysis.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is warning that Americans living along the coast could face a “double-whammy” flooding threat this year as El Niño conditions combine with rising sea levels to dramatically increase high-tide flooding events across large parts of the country. Forecasters say cities along the East Coast and Gulf Coast are particularly vulnerable, with some areas expected to experience flooding several times more frequently than normal even without major storms making landfall.
The Trump administration is reportedly preparing to seek a criminal indictment against former Cuban dictator Raúl Castro over the 1996 shootdown of two civilian aircraft operated by the anti-communist exile group Brothers to the Rescue. The incident, which killed four men, has remained one of the most infamous flashpoints in U.S.-Cuba relations for nearly three decades.
For a leader who supposedly doesn’t listen to his allies, President Trump sure does listen to his allies. He announced Sunday that he has temporarily called off a major military strike against Iran that had reportedly been planned for Tuesday, saying Gulf allies urged him to allow more time for negotiations. According to the Associated Press, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates asked the administration for a short delay amid renewed diplomatic efforts to end the rapidly escalating regional conflict.
Global markets were hit with another wave of volatility Monday as investors struggled to react to rapidly shifting developments involving Iran, oil prices, and growing uncertainty surrounding the global economy. Oil prices swung wildly throughout the day after President Trump delayed a planned military strike against Iran, briefly calming fears of a broader Middle East war.
According to The New Republic, HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. has increasingly focused on antidepressants as part of his broader campaign against what he describes as a corrupt alliance between pharmaceutical companies, regulators, and public health institutions. He has pointed to rising rates of anxiety, depression, and youth mental health problems as evidence that America’s current psychiatric model is failing despite record levels of medication use.
Mental health experts strongly dispute Kennedy’s claims, warning that antidepressants have helped millions of people manage severe depression, anxiety disorders, and suicidal ideation. They argue Kennedy frequently blurs the line between criticizing pharmaceutical industry practices and undermining trust in treatments with substantial clinical evidence behind them.
But Kennedy’s message is resonating with a growing number of Americans skeptical of major medical institutions after the COVID era. Distrust surrounding vaccine mandates, pharmaceutical lobbying, opioid overprescription, and conflicting public health messaging has fueled broader doubts about whether corporate medicine always acts in the public interest.