Contributing Writers

Former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines told members of Congress on Tuesday that earlier last month, she was held against her will at San Francisco State University, with protesters demanding ransom for her release. Gaines shared her story during a discussion about left wing violence plaguing American communities and how Homeland Security can do more to support state and local law enforcement to combat interstate threats.

Washington lawmakers are in a race against the clock to keep their state from becoming the second in the nation to decriminalize possession of hard drugs. Gov. Jay Inslee is calling lawmakers back for a special session Tuesday after the legislature failed to reach an agreement on a new drug law during the regular session.

Senators on Tuesday will grill OpenAI CEO Sam Altman about the “perils and promise” of artificial intelligence as part of a push to better understand this quickly emerging technology and impose some kind of regulatory regime around it. Altman will testify before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, which will mark his first time as a witness at a public congressional hearing.

A new super PAC formed to support former Vice President Mike Pence’s all-but-certain 2024 White House campaign launched on Tuesday, with a mission to “reintroduce” the former vice president “as his own man.” And the establishment of the super PAC, titled Committed to America, is the clearest signal to date that Pence is likely just a couple of weeks away from declaring his candidacy for president and jumping into an increasingly crowded GOP nomination race.

The White House on Monday released financial disclosure forms for President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris covering 2022.  The disclosures, obtained by Fox News Digital, show little change from the previous year in their respective earnings. It showed that Biden earned less than $201 in royalties for his 2007 memoir “Promises to Keep” and between $2,501 and $5,000 for his 2017 memoir “Promise Me, Dad.

The IRS has removed the “entire investigative team” from its multi-year tax fraud investigation of Hunter Biden, and a whistleblower who raised concerns about the handling of the case is claiming the move was “clearly retaliatory,” according to a Monday report.  Per The New York Post, the whistleblower’s attorneys told Congress that the removal was on the order of the Department of Justice.

California’s reparations task force is recommending as part of its set of proposals to make amends for slavery and anti-Black racism that state lawmakers address what it calls “racially biased” artificial intelligence used in health care. The task force, created by state legislation signed by Gov.

Mayor Eric Adams was booed at a City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law graduation ceremony Friday, after referencing his history as a police officer. As Adams delivered a short speech to the crowd, dozens of students began shouting when he mentioned his previous service in the New York Police Department (NYPD).  The mayor had been an officer for 22 years, graduating from the New York City Police Academy in 1984.

Kansas’ Democratic governor on Friday vetoed Republican legislation that would have provided a financial boost to anti-abortion pregnancy centers and prevented officials fighting outbreaks of contagious diseases from prohibiting public gatherings or ordering infected people to isolate themselves.

Democratic Gov. Janet Mills signed a bill directing Maine’s labor commissioner to petition the federal government for a waiver allowing asylum seekers to work while awaiting final determinations on their claims. Her signature Thursday comes as the state grapples with the arrival of more than 1,000 asylum seekers, mostly from African nations, since the start of the new year.

Democratic Minnesota senators, holding firm despite only a one-vote majority, were poised Friday to pass gun control legislation strongly supported by the governor that would align the battleground state with others nationally that have taken steps to keep guns out of the hands of people in crisis and criminals.

Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin said the concept of diversity, equity and inclusion was admirable a decade ago but has since “gone off the rails” and “taken on a new mission.

Multiple Senate Democrats are departing ahead of what is expected to be a tough election year for the party and have announced their decision to not seek office again in 2024. Could other Democrats bow out of their races? Last week, Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., became the latest member of his party to announce he will not seek reelection to the upper chamber next year. “I am proud of all I have done for Maryland.

The top lawyer for OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT, argued that the best way to regulate artificial intelligence is not to start with government mandated rules and regulations but to allow the companies themselves to set standards that ensure AI is used safely and responsibly. OpenAI General Counsel Jason Kwon made that argument during a Tuesday panel discussion in Washington, D.C.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed several bills Tuesday impacting Florida schools, including legislation that gives teachers the authority to restrict social media use in classrooms and protects teachers who report their own administrators for violating state policies. The new laws come amid a major, multi-year education overhaul led by DeSantis and Florida Republicans, which has also included bans on critical race theory and “woke activism” – as the governor calls it.

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., returned to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday after taking a months-long absence following a shingles diagnosis. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer confirmed the longtime senator’s return in a statement, saying he is pleased that his “friend Dianne is back in the Senate and ready to roll up her sleeves and get to work.” Feinstein’s office also confirmed the 89-year-old congresswoman was traveling and expected to be in D.C.

The state of California’s first in the nation reparations task force has voted to approve recommendations for how the state should compensate and apologize to Black Americans in response to slavery.

Activists on Saturday demanded that the state of California pay millions of dollars to each Black resident in reparations as a way to make amends for slavery and subsequent discrimination, dismissing the mammoth proposals from California’s reparations task force as too little. The demands were made at a highly explosive official meeting of the task force, which was created by state legislation signed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020.

President Joe Biden attempted to ease concerns about his age in an interview Friday by framing his 80 years of life experience as a positive rather than a negative. “Because I have acquired a hell of a lot of wisdom,” Biden told MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle on Friday when he was asked “why an 82-year-old Biden” would be the “right person for the most important job in the world” in 2024. “I know more than the vast majority of people.

The Department of Transportation has given the green light to New York’s controversial congestion pricing plan, which would impose a toll on drivers who attempt to enter Manhattan during peak traffic hours. On Friday, the Federal Highway Administration gave tentative approval to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s environmental and legal submissions for the proposal, allowing it to move forward with a 30-day public review period.

Former Vice President Mike Pence defended Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas from what he called malicious attacks against the conservative Black jurist. “Ever since his nomination to the Supreme Court in 1991 Justice Thomas has been maliciously attacked by the Left, including by then Sen. Joe Biden,” Pence said in a tweet.  “The attacks on his character are continuing today, and it’s appalling to see,” Pence continued.

The New Orleans mayor may have survived a recall effort, but she still faces criticism as she grapples with violence and other issues in one of the nation’s murder capitals. LaToya Cantrell, a Democrat, was the first Black woman to be elected mayor of New Orleans in 2018 and easily won re-election in 2021.

Republicans are less convinced than Democrats that the federal government needs to impose regulations on artificial intelligence systems and are even more skeptical on whether the government is up to the task, according to a new Fox News poll. The poll of registered voters shows a noticeable gap between the two parties on the question of whether and how to regulate AI, a sign that the increasingly important issue could get hung up in politics as it advances in Washington.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has banned all sex reassignment procedures for minors in the state, including irreversible gender transition surgeries and hormone therapies, joining at least 15 other states with similar laws. The Republican governor signed SB 613 into law Monday, making it a felony for healthcare workers to provide children under the age of 18 gender surgery, puberty-blocking drugs or hormone doses that suppress or delay normal puberty.

GOP lawmakers Ted Cruz and James Comer are investigating whether certain environmental groups coordinated with the Biden administration to ban gas stoves.  In letters published Monday, Sen. Cruz of Texas and Rep. Comer of Kentucky accused the Biden administration and environmental activists of carrying out a “hidden pressure campaign.