Virus relief bill would let Steve Mnuchin hand out $500 billion 'slush fund' to secret recipients: report

The influence of special interest groups extends far beyond campaign fundraising and donations, in one case a big-money group is behind writing legislation for Republicans.

In a Mother Jones, investigative reporter Ari Berman, obtained a video of Jessica Anderson, the executive director of Heritage Action for America is the one who bragged about how "easy" it was to get their legislation passed by Georgia Republicans. In some cases, she said that they try and make it look more organic so the public doesn't question whether it was written by a special interest group.

Efforts to hold a 9/11-style commission to investigate the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol have been prevented as "Republicans rewrite history" of the event, The New York Times reported Thursday.

"Four months after supporters of President Donald J. Trump stormed the Capitol in a deadly riot, a growing number of Republicans in Congress are mounting a wholesale effort to rewrite the history of what happened on Jan. 6, downplaying or outright denying the violence and deflecting efforts to investigate it," the newspaper reported. "Their denialism — which has intensified for weeks and was on vivid display this week at a pair of congressional hearings — is one reason that lawmakers have been unable to agree on forming an independent commission to scrutinize the assault on the Capitol. Republicans have insisted that any inquiry include an examination of violence by antifa, a loose collective of antifascist activists, and Black Lives Matter. It also reflects an embrace of misinformation that has become a hallmark of the Republican Party in the age of Mr. Trump."

Philadelphia Health Commissioner Thomas Farley has resigned after a scandal involving victims of a 1985 bombing at the hands of Philadelphia police.

As the Philadelphia Inquirer explained, 11 people, including five children were killed with the PPD attempted to serve a search warrant on the group MOVE, the Christian Movement for Life 36 years ago today. Police attempted to forcibly remove people the building, water and electricity was shut off, a 2015 NPR report recalled. Police opened fire and a bomb was ultimately dropped into the house by a police helicopter, bowing it up and setting fire to that side of the street.