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In a 6-3 ruling this week that overturned nine decades of precedent, the Supreme Court granted President Donald Trump the power to fire and replace officials at independent government agencies like the Federal Trade Commission. But in a separate 5-4 decision, the justices ruled that Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook can stay in her job as she challenges Trump's efforts to fire her.
The seemingly contradictory rulings suggest a two-tier system of regulation, says Alvaro Bedoya, a former FTC commissioner who was fired by Trump last year. The independence and stability of the Federal Reserve is important to "billionaire Wall Street Bankers," and therefore remains protected, says Bedoya. "But then you have this whole series of other agencies that keep your toys safe, that keep health insurers from robbing people blind, that keep supermarkets from merging to make milk, eggs and beef … even more expensive. The court said that all those regulators can report directly to the president and be entirely beholden to his whims."
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New financial disclosures by President Donald Trump show that he made more than $1.4 billion from his family's various cryptocurrency ventures last year, reaping a windfall after pulling back on regulation of the industry and promoting the United States as "the crypto capital of the world." Other Trump businesses, like his resorts and golf courses, have also flourished since his return to the White House, while the Trump Organization has also licensed the family name to properties in countries that are crucial to U.S. foreign policy interests, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
"It's been an incredibly successful period for the Trump family," says Reuters investigative reporter Tom Bergin.
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President Donald Trump has received another setback in his ongoing quest to control U.S. elections. In a 5-4 split, the Supreme Court ruled that mail-in ballots do not need to be received by Election Day to be counted, as long as they were postmarked by then. Although a "rare victory for voting rights," the conservative justices' assertion that voting by mail is prone to fraud — a disproven theory that Trump blames his loss in the 2020 election for — is "very disturbing," says Ari Berman, the national voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones. "My fear is that this is going to embolden Republicans to double down on their efforts to try to get rid of mail voting, including the SAVE America Act, Trump's sweeping voter suppression bill, which he seems desperate to go to any lengths to try to pass," says Berman, who also comments on the court's decision to strike down a federal law limiting campaign spending.
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A democratic socialist ousted a veteran congresswoman in Denver, and a U.S. senator lost his bid for governor. But the state's other senator fended off a progressive primary challenger.
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While Republicans celebrated the ruling, many Democrats stayed quiet on an issue that had proved divisive in the last election.
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A sitting Democratic House member and a sitting senator both lost key races in the state.
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It was the fourth such deal struck by the administration to get companies to forfeit their offshore wind leases.
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