Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Kelly Loeffler said Thursday night that her agency has suspended "6,900 Minnesota borrowers” over suspected fraudulent activity regarding COVID-era lending programs. Loeffler said the SBA over the last week reviewed “thousands” of potentially “fraudulent” Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) payouts that were approved in Minnesota. ...
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro says he is open to holding talks with the Trump administration over drug trafficking and the country’s oil reserves, but he dodged when asked about the CIA’s recent drone strike inside his South American nation. “The U.S. government knows, because we’ve told many of their spokespeople, that if they want to...
Freshly sworn-in New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed a number of executive orders on his first day in office Thursday, including one to revoke most executive orders issued by former Mayor Eric Adams after he was indicted in September 2024. “We speak about this day as a new era. And in order to fulfill...
President Trump’s bid to secure his legacy is taking on a new name — or, rather, his own. This month, the president’s quest to leave his mark on history transcended his policy priorities and political victories in favor of renaming things in his honor. Trump affixed his name to two Washington institutions, the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, despite one pending legal challenge and drawing another. ...
A federal judge on Tuesday ruled in favor of the Trump administration, upholding its $100,000 H-1B visa fee. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell rejected a challenge filed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Association of American Universities, which alleged the move was unlawful. Earlier this month, 18 Democratic states also filed a lawsuit...
The Democratic Party is debating the future of the 2024 election, while the Trump administration links tariffs to GDP growth, the hemp industry receives a lifeline, and the Supreme Court rules against Trump deploying National Guard troops to Chicago.
President Trump threw the hemp industry a lifeline with his order to speed up marijuana rescheduling and launch Medicare coverage of CBD, giving more strength to a significant lobbying fight that looms in the year ahead. The hemp industry has been on its back foot since November, when a provision passed through the government funding bill to close a loophole that allowed hemp-derived products to...
President Trump is drawing a backlash from Greenland and Denmark with the revival of his effort to acquire the world’s largest island. Trump, who has repeatedly expressed interest in acquiring Greenland for the U.S., angered officials by tapping Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) as his envoy to Greenland. He says Greenland is paramount to U.S....
Democratic lawmakers are battling among themselves over whether they need to review the lessons of the disastrous 2024 election as they hope to win back the House and possibly the Senate in next year's midterm elections. Some Democrats on Capitol Hill aren’t happy about Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin’s decision not to release...
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R), who is also now President Trump’s special envoy to Greenland, said Tuesday that the Trump administration does not aim “to conquer anybody.” “Look, the United States has always been a welcoming party. We don't go in there trying to conquer anybody and trying to — you know — take over...
Pop star Taylor Swift, known for hits such as “Anti-Hero” and “Style,” donated $1 million to hunger relief ahead of the Christmas holiday. In a Tuesday post on the social platform X from the nonprofit Feeding America, CEO Claire Babineaux-Fontenot said that the organization was “incredibly grateful for Taylor Swift’s $1 million gift to Feeding...
Republican John Lastinger has won the special election for a South Carolina state House seat vacated by ex-state Rep. RJ May (R), who pleaded guilty this year to distributing child sexual abuse material, according to Decision Desk HQ. Lastinger, a pastor, defeated Democrat and retired Army Col. Joseph “Chuck” Hightower to win state House District 88,...
President Trump is grappling with a new disclosure of Jeffrey Epstein-related material that hit him much harder than the initial batch of documents released last week. The new tranche of almost 30,000 items released late on Monday was worse for Trump in part simply because the president’s name was mentioned more frequently. But the second...
A group of Illinois Democrats accessed a Chicago-area Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility after previous pushback, some of the lawmakers said on the social platform X. “@repdeliaramirez @RepDannyDavis @RepChuyGarcia and I finally were able to enter the Broadview ICE Facility after being denied entry in June,” Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.) said Tuesday in a...
Presented by the Bank Policy Institute — {beacon} Business & Economy Business & Economy PRESENTED BY THE BANK POLICY INSTITUTE The Big Story Trump lauds strong GDP but pans market's reaction to it President Trump touted the stronger-than-expected GDP report on Tuesday, which showed the U.S. economy grew at a 4.3 percent annual pace...
