Contributing Writers

First lady Jill Biden dismissed statements made by Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley who called for politicians over the age of 75 to undergo mental capacity tests, according to reports. CNN reported that in an interview set to air on the network Monday night, the first lady called the proposal ridiculous, and when asked if the president would consider taking a mental capacity test if elected, she said, “We would never even discuss something like that.

White House Office of Public Engagement Director Keisha Lance Bottoms announced Monday she would be stepping down after serving within the Biden administration since June. Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, described her tenure in the White House as an “extraordinary season.” “Term ended in January 2022,” she wrote in a tweet. “I didn’t take a break, planning to work hard for 6 months and relax over the summer.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was criticized for apparently enjoying herself at a show last week during a severe winter storm that caused hundreds of thousands to lose power. The storm last week knocked out power for 700,000 Michiganders and led to school and office closures across the state, severe air travel delay, and the death of a firefighter. Much of the lost power was regained over the weekend, however the state has continued to be pounded with freezing rain.

A Washington D.C. effort to allow non-citizens, including undocumented immigrants and foreign diplomats according to the Wall Street journal, to vote in local elections is now law.  The City Council passed the Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act amid criticism from Republicans. Congress had a 30-day review period, during which lawmakers could have pushed to block the legislation.  The review period ended last week, the council said Monday, WAMU reported.

A campaign to have rural eastern Oregon effectively secede from the blue state and join more conservative Idaho is gaining steam as leaders from both states express support for relocating the border between them.

The Houston Police Department has referred its investigation of a former Biden administration official charged in two separate luggage thefts to the FBI, Fox News Digital has learned.

The country’s largest union of border parol agents says the White House is offering a veiled picture of the migrant crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border that “does not come close” to reality.

A former Russian military commander turned blogger said on social media this week that the Russian military needs a “lend-lease” agreement with China if it wants to have any hope of winning the war in Ukraine. Igor Girkin, a former Russian intelligence officer who played a key role in the country’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, said on Telegram this week that China “is the only country that could give us a lend-lease to continue this war with any level of success.

A delegation of Republican lawmakers on the House Homeland Security Committee visited the southern border in El Paso, Texas this week, getting a first-hand look at the ongoing crisis at the southern border as part of an effort to inform legislation to deal with the crisis. The committee held a “border bootcamp” ahead of a hearing in Washington D.C. next week and a hearing at the border next month.

First Lady Jill Biden discussed safe sex, condoms, and dating practices during a youth empowerment event in Nairobi, Kenya. Biden discussed safe sex, condom use, and birth control on Saturday during the Shujaaz Konnect Festival, which is a youth empowerment event.

House China Select Committee Chairman Mike Gallagher hosted a press event Saturday at a former illegal Chinese Communist Party police station in downtown Manhattan. “This innocent-looking building that you see behind me has an unauthorized secret police station linked to the Chinese Communist Party,” said Gallagher. “The nonprofit Safeguard Defenders discovered over 100 of these illegal police stations around the world, including at least two more on United States soil.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg vowed to “hold Norfolk Southern accountable” on Sunday amid sharp criticism over the federal government’s response to the company’s train derailment earlier this month in East Palestine, Ohio.  In a letter to Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw, Buttigieg wrote that the railroad “must live up to its commitment to make residents whole” after a train carrying toxic chemicals crashed on Feb. 3.

EXCLUSIVE: Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is set to kick off a pro-police tour starting in New York City to speak with law enforcement officers in blue-led cities who feel unsupported. DeSantis will begin the tour Monday morning by speaking with police officers and law enforcement union officials at a diner in red-leaning borough of Staten Island.

The top five dirtiest cities in the country are run by Democrat mayors, a new study has found. Among 152 of the biggest cities across the United States, Houston won the No. 1 spot for dirtiest city, followed by Newark, New Jersey, San Bernardino, California, Detroit and Jersey City, New Jersey, according to a study released Thursday by LawnStarter.

A partially paralyzed Denver city councilman was forced to lift himself out of his wheelchair and onto a debate stage – sparking a call for equal access after video of the moment spread in the news and on social media. Denver City Council member Chris Hinds, a Democrat who is paralyzed from the chest down, was seen in the video hoisting himself onto the stage floor at the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Theatre because the stage did not have wheelchair access.