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Government news from Live News Chat: federal agencies, Congress, policy and public-sector stories, updated daily.

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An empty wood-panelled federal courtroom with unoccupied benches and jury box, a single shaft of afternoon sunlight crossing the floor

A $200 Tax Went to Zero in 2025. A Texas Judge Just Ended the 90-Year Gun Registry It Paid For.

Nobody in Congress voted to abolish the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record. What…

By Mark Masterson · Aug 21

A narrow gravel runway running along the slope of a treeless tundra mountain on the Bering Sea coast, with high ridges on both sides and low cloud covering the summit

Eight People Died at Cape Newenham, a Gravel Strip Cut Into the Side of a Mountain

A twin-engine Cessna 441 chartered by the Army Corps of Engineers went down near…

By Mark Masterson · Aug 21

Melania Trump in a cream blazer seated at a wooden conference table with an open document folder, listening during a White House meeting

38 Days in Public: Melania Trump Traded Visibility for a Foster Care Policy Win

Melania Trump has appeared in public on 38 days so far in 2026, roughly…

By Mark Masterson · Aug 20

Michael Caruso in a dark suit and red tie standing between shelves of court file boxes and legal ledgers in a county courthouse records room

Mike Caruso Was Arrested a Year to the Day After DeSantis Made Him Palm Beach County’s Court Clerk

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced Tuesday morning that Michael Allen Caruso, the man…

By Mark Masterson · Aug 18

A deserted sun-bleached residential street with parched brown lawns and heat shimmer rising off the asphalt

60 Million Americans Are Under Heat Alerts for a Hazard FEMA Cannot Legally Call a Disaster

Roughly 60 million people across the South woke up Tuesday under heat advisories and…

By Mark Masterson · Aug 18

Brown floodwater filling a small Midwestern main street up to the storefront porches, with an empty aluminum rescue boat tethered mid-street under a dark sky

Indiana Got a 1-in-1000-Year Rain on Ground a Derecho Had Already Stripped

Gov. Mike Braun declared a statewide disaster emergency Thursday after eastern Indiana absorbed a…

By Mark Masterson · Aug 14

A small glass vaccine vial stands beside a folded paper childhood immunization record card and alcohol swabs on a stainless steel clinic counter

The Acting CDC Director Says Vaccinate Your Kids. The White House Is Drafting an Order That Says Otherwise.

Jay Bhattacharya runs the National Institutes of Health, has been acting director of the…

By Mark Masterson · Aug 10

Tower cranes and steel framing rise over the cleared East Wing site beside the intact White House residence, behind green construction fencing

Appeals Court Blocks Trump’s $400 Million Ballroom, but the East Wing Is Already Gone

A federal appeals court ruled on Friday that President Donald Trump has no authority…

By Mark Masterson · Aug 7

A man in a grey suit sits alone at a witness table facing an empty Senate committee dais

The Fauci Contempt Vote Is Really a Fight Over Whether a Pardon Can Cancel the Fifth Amendment

At 8:30 on Thursday morning, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee votes…

By Mark Masterson · Aug 6

Chipotle’s Own Supply Records Named the Jalapeños. The FDA’s 212-Case Salmonella File Still Names Nothing.

Minnesota linked 110 Salmonella Javiana cases to jalapenos served at Mexican-style restaurants. Chipotle's own…

By Mark Masterson · Aug 4

Dark-haired man in a navy suit with an open-collar white shirt speaks at a wooden lectern in a wood-panelled press room, blurred cameras and microphones in the foreground

Gavin Newsom Released 700 Pages of Tax Returns. The Reason Is in the Timing.

Gavin Newsom put four years of federal tax returns in front of reporters on…

By Mark Masterson · Aug 3

An older man in a charcoal suit sits alone at a Senate hearing witness table with a microphone, an empty chair beside him and press photographers behind

Fauci Invoked the Fifth More Than 100 Times, and His Own Pardon Is Why Rand Paul Thinks He Cannot

Anthony Fauci sat in a Senate hearing room on Wednesday and said almost nothing,…

By Mark Masterson · Jul 30

Archive

Clear glass laboratory vials containing translucent liquid on a stainless steel surface under clinical lighting

FDA Panel Votes to Allow Compounding of Unapproved Peptides Over Scientists’ Objections

President Donald Trump mid-sentence behind a wooden lectern at an indoor rally, one hand raised, blurred crowd and American flag behind him

Approval for Trump Sinks to 34 Percent as the Pentagon Deletes Four War Dead From Its Own List

The White House at dusk with a cracked diplomatic treaty document and smartphone screen in the foreground, editorial news illustration

Trump Signed the Saudi Nuclear Deal, Then Rewrote Its Terms on Social Media

Empty FBI conference room with ICE badge and closed case folder on desk in dramatic lighting

FBI Told to Stop Investigating ICE Agent Shootings as Accountability Fears Mount

Rapper Boosie Badazz sits alone at a marble table in a dim Washington hotel lounge with a legal folder and phone, the US Capitol dome visible through the window behind him

Boosie’s $600,000 Pardon Receipt Is the Clearest Look Yet at Trump’s Clemency Market

The CDC headquarters building in Atlanta at dusk, most windows dark, a single office lit

CDC Cuts Meet a Parasite, a Flesh-Eating Fly, and Ebola: Welcome to the Gutted-Agency Era

Aerial view of flooded Guadalupe River valley in Texas Hill Country with muddy brown floodwaters and emergency rescue boat

Guadalupe River Crests at 37 Feet as Flash Flood Emergency Kills 1 in Texas Hill Country

Todd Blanche seated at the witness table speaking into a microphone before a raised dais of U.S. senators at his attorney general confirmation hearing

Todd Blanche’s Attorney General Hearing Becomes a Referendum on a Captured Justice Department

United States Senator Lindsey Graham in a dark navy suit and red tie standing before an American flag in a Capitol interior

Lindsey Graham, Trump Ally and Senate Foreign-Policy Hawk, Dies at 71

Former CIA Director John Brennan in a dark suit walking past the columned facade of a Washington DC federal courthouse

John Brennan Sues the DOJ Before It Can Indict Him, Turning Trump’s Retribution Machine Into Evidence

Artificial Intelligence

OpenAI Offers the Trump Administration a 5% Stake, Turning the Regulator Into a Shareholder

The United States Supreme Court building in Washington DC bathed in golden light with the American flag waving

The Supreme Court Just Told Trump He Cannot Rewrite the 14th Amendment by Executive Order

Aerial view of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool filled with green algae-covered water

Trump Claims Vandals Sabotaged the Reflecting Pool. Experts Say the $14.7 Million Renovation Did That Itself.

Empty United States Senate chamber with American flag, moody amber lighting

Senate Republicans Reverse Course on Iran War Powers After Trump’s Closed-Door Shouting Match

Strips of blue paint float on the green algae-clouded water of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, with the Washington Monument reflected in the distance

$14.6 Million Blue Reflecting Pool Turned Green in a Week and Paint Coming Peeling

U.S. Capitol building at dusk with scattered papers on a table and empty podium with microphones in the foreground under dark storm clouds

Trump Torpedoes His Own Intel Chief Nomination in Bizarre FISA Standoff

Rows of missiles on a defense manufacturing production line with welding sparks and industrial lighting

Trump Invokes the Defense Production Act to Ramp Up Weapons Manufacturing as Iran War Drains Stockpiles

The United States Capitol building illuminated at night with American flags and dramatic sky

House Passes $70 Billion Secure America Act in Razor-Thin 214-212 Vote