Joe Biden

The US Senate is expected to vote Wednesday on a national abortion rights law -- a process likely doomed to fail -- after a leaked draft decision signalled the Supreme Court's readiness to overturn Roe v Wade.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has called the draft ruling an "abomination," said he has teed up the vote on codifying the right to abortion in America, which the conservative-majority court appears poised to ban.

In a column for MSNBC, a former FBI Counter-Intelligence official wrote that an inspector general report that showed that intelligence reports submitted when Donald Trump was president were manipulated to make him look better should be cause for alarm -- particularly if he stands any chance of being re-elected.

In his column, Frank Figliuzzi noted the April 26th watchdog report that stated, "President Donald Trump’s DHS diluted and delayed a 2020 intelligence report that told of Russia’s plans to aid Trump’s re-election with propaganda casting doubts on candidate Joe Biden’s health," should set off alarms.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Sunday claimed that Democrats "are embracing mob violence to get their partisan outcome" on the Supreme Court.

While speaking to Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, Cruz slammed pro-choice activists who are protesting outside the homes of conservative Supreme Court justices after a leaked ruling indicated that the high court will overturn federal abortion rights for women.

Former President Donald Trump recently attempted to convince his skeptical supporters that Dr. Mehmet Oz is a viable candidate for the U.S. Senate. According to HuffPost, the former president attended a rally on Friday, May 6 in support of Oz where the crowd of Trump supporters responded with boos of disapproval.

In response to the disapproval, Oz attempted to sway the crowd with a remark targeting President Joe Biden. “I love you guys, Pennsylvania!” he declared. “I love that you’re out here in the rain in Westmoreland, and I know why you’re excited: Because the only thing that Joe Biden has built back better is the Republican Party. Do I have it right?”

Firefighters struggled Friday to contain a giant blaze that has been burning for more than a month in New Mexico, raising fears for the summer ahead in the drought-hit western United States.

The so-called "Hermits Peak Fire" has torn through 168,000 acres at the southern end of the Rocky Mountains, destroying around 170 properties and forcing the evacuation of nearly 16,000 homes.

North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Saturday, South Korea's military said, three days before the inauguration of South Korean president-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, who has vowed to take a hard line against the North.

South Korean military said that North Korea fired what is believed to be a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) into the sea off its east coast around 0507 GMT on Saturday from around Sinpo, where North Korea keeps submarines as well as equipment for test-firing SLBMs.

On Friday, CNBC reported that Starbucks is facing a sweeping labor complaint from the regional director of the National Labor Relations Board in Buffalo, New York, including 200 allegations of illegal union-busting tactics, as stores around the country begin organizing.

"The complaint stems from claims made by Starbucks Workers United against the company in Buffalo, where the union organizing effort began in August," reported Kate Rogers. "In the complaint, viewed by CNBC, the NLRB accuses Starbucks of interfering with, restraining and coercing employees seeking to unionize in various ways. The regional office of the independent federal agency said the coffee giant threatened and intimidated workers by closing down stores in the area, reduced workers’ compensation, enforced policies against union supporters in a discriminatory way, engaged in surveillance and fired workers, among other alleged violations."

On Friday, the Houston Chronicle reported on newly revealed details of indicted Texas Republican powerbroker Steven Holtze's plot to "arrest" an A.C. repairman as part of a bizarre scheme to prove he was part of a voter fraud conspiracy.

"Two days before a private investigator looking into a voter fraud conspiracy theory smashed into an air conditioning repairman’s truck and pulled a gun on him, far-right activist Steven Hotze called then-U.S. Attorney Ryan Patrick and told him about the plans to have 'a wreck,' court documents show," said the report. "Hotze, who funded the investigation and now faces felony charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and unlawful restraint, asked Patrick whether he could send federal marshals to help his private investigator. The investigator, former Houston Police Department captain Mark Aguirre, faces the same charges."

Starbucks' union-busting management garnered little public sympathy Friday after it complained in a letter to the White House that labor organizers—including Laura Garza of Starbucks Workers United—were invited to meet with President Joe Biden but official company "representatives" weren't.

"We are deeply concerned that Workers United, which is actively engaged in collective bargaining with us and trying to organize all our stores and our +240,000 partners (employees), was invited to the meeting while not inviting official Starbucks representatives to discuss our view on the matter," A.J. Jones, senior vice president of global communications and public affairs at Starbucks, wrote in a letter to Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president.

Former Defense Secretary Bill Cohen said Friday that he was not surprised by new claims from former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who is alleging in his book that former President Donald Trump once proposed launching a missile attack on Mexico.

“I must say I'm not surprised," Cohen said during an appearance on MSNBC. "We saw evidence of this, that former President Trump has no respect for the rule of law. He believes he has Putin-esque like powers.”

The Arizona Senate has spent more than $500,000 in taxpayer money related to the partisan election review it conducted in 2021, including on legal battles over public records and access to the audit facility.

Senate Republicans hired Phoenix-based law firm Statecraft to represent it on matters related to the so-called “audit” of the 2020 election in Maricopa County. That representation has included reviewing records for public release, litigation aimed at blocking the release of other records and a dispute with the Arizona Mirror and other local media over access to the audit. The Senate has released tens of thousands of records in response to public records requests from watchdog organizations and journalists, but is still fighting the release of others. The Arizona Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in one case related to legislative records on May 10.