Texas sues Biden administration to stop mask mandates on planes – live | US news

Reuters is reporting that Joe Biden is expected to ask Congress for a defense budget exceeding $770bn for the next fiscal year.

The figure surpasses the record budget requests by former president Donald Trump.

Sources tell Reuters that the majority of these funds are going toward the Pentagon’s budget for spending on salaries, tanks and F-35 jets made by Lockheed Martin Corp, in addition to funds for the energy department’s nuclear weapons programs.

While the nuclear modernization effort – modernizing the nuclear “triad” of ballistic missile submarines, bombers and land-based missiles – is seen as a “must pay”, other top priorities of this budget include shipbuilding, developing capabilities in space and missile warning.

The day before a jury rejected former Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s claims that the New York Times maliciously damaged her reputation by erroneously linking her campaign rhetoric to a 2011 mass shooting in Arizona, US District Judge Jed Rakoff ruled that he would dismiss the case because Palin was unable to prove actual malice.

But because Palin was planning to appeal, the judge allowed the jury to continue to deliberate on a verdict. The next day, they returned in favor of the New York Times.

Today Rakoff revealed that several of the jurors received notifications of his decision during their deliberation, the Daily Beast is reporting.

The jurors assured the court’s law clerk that the notifications hadn’t “affected them in any way or played any role whatever in their deliberations,” but Rakoff said that parties could “promptly initiate” a joint phone call to determine if “further proceedings are appropriate.”

In a statement announcing his lawsuit against the Biden administration over the mask mandate for air travel, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton argued that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not go through Congress to issue the mandate, which makes it illegal.

“Biden’s repeated disregard of the individual liberties of Texans is not only disrespectful to the US Constitution, it is also troublesome that any president thinks they can act above the law while hardworking Americans standby,” said Paxton said. “President Biden cannot continue governing through executive edicts. Now is the time to strike down his administration’s air-travel mask mandate.”

A mild drama is playing out in the senate right now over the vote to confirm eight of Joe Biden’s nominees for US attorney.

Dick Durbin, chair of the judiciary committee, asked for unanimous consent, but Tom Cotton, a Republican senator from Arkansas, is holding out because he wants to know why four US marshals who defended the Portland courthouse in 2020 have been denied justice department representation.

Majority leader Chuck Schumer has added his two cents, saying that it hasn’t been since 1975 that the senate held a roll call vote to confirm a US attorney. But there was actually a senate roll call vote in December.

The Texas attorney general sued the Biden administration today over a government mask mandate requiring that masks be worn in airports, on airplanes and on other modes of transit.

Texas attorney general Ken Paxton and congresswoman Beth Van Duyne filed a lawsuit jointly challenging the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention transit mask rules, which have been in place since February 2021 and are set to expire on 18 March.

“Masks on planes are unnecessary,” Van Duyne tweeted, while Paxton tweeted that “masks on planes are not only silly, but illegal too.”

Here’s a little more on the situation with the Senate Republicans and the Federal Reserve nominees.

To recap: The senate banking committee has five nominees for the Federal Reserve board to advance, Republicans have taken issue with one – Sarah Bloom Raskin – and want her to answer more questions. Until they are allowed another session for Raskin to answer more questions, they are refusing to show up to the meetings, which means a vote to advance any of the nominees cannot take place.

The White House has called this move by the Republicans “irresponsible” and stand by their nominee. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the president also supported the decision by Sherrod Brown, chair of banking committee, to keep all five nominees together so they can be voted on together.

The Washington Post has put together an incredible interactive piece on the text messages sent exchanged in the lead-up to and during the deadly 6 January attack on the US Capitol.

The texts revealed the trepidation and dread experienced by those in the inner circle of Donald Trump ahead of the chaos:

The frantic and desperate messages exchanged during the attack offer some insight into how Trump insiders were truly reacting that day. Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff, received thousands of text messages that day, many from lawmakers and Trump allies begging him to get Trump to put a stop the mob. “TELL THEM TO GO HOME,” one GOP member texted in all caps.

Fox News host Laura Ingraham texted Mark Meadows, chief of staff for Donald Trump: “Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki had strong words yesterday for the Senate Republicans who refused to show up for the the banking committee meeting to advance Federal Reserve board nominees – the Republicans had issue with one specific nominee, Sarah Bloom Raskin, and took this stance rather than vote against the nomination.

Yesterday, Psaki called the move by Republicans a “very extreme step that is totally irresponsible in our view”.

“(The president) agrees that Republicans are AWOL on the fight against inflation at this pivotal moment for our economy,” Psaki said today. “Everybody understands that we need a full Federal Reserve board, the first one in nearly a decade to tackle inflation and bring prices down for American families.”

She said the president supports the decision by Sherrod Brown, the chair of the banking committee, to keep all five Federal Reserve nominees together rather than split them up to get the other four passed.

“We believe Republicans need to do their jobs and show up and vote,” Psaki said. “They can vote against people. But not showing up is not delivering on the commitment you made to the American people when they voted for you.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki fielded a question regarding the criticism over Joe Biden announcing that he planned on nominating a Black woman to the supreme court – even just yesterday, Republicans like senator John Cornyn were opining that they thought it was wrong to pick someone on the basis of their race or gender.

“The supreme court has been around for 230 years and there has never been a Black woman that has served on the supreme court. The president believes that is a problem with past processes, not a lack of qualified black women to serve on the supreme court,” Psaki said today.

“The president is proud of the range of qualified, creditable candidates that he is looking at and he is looking forward to making an announcement soon.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki previewed the upcoming trip of vice-president Kamala Harris, who is traveling to Munich, Germany for the Munich Security Conference on later this week.

“She will build on the president’s and the national security team’s intensive engagement with European allies and partners, and continue to emphasize with our partners our ironclad commitment to our Nato allies, underscore our commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and reaffirm our shared interests in upholding the principles that have underpinned European peace and security.”

Psaki continued: “She will continue to convey to the rest of the world…our commitment to putting in place severe economic consequences should Russia invade.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki opened today’s press briefing by coming out strong on the economy, announcing a 3.8% increase in retail sales in January.

She said the uptick in retail sales both “reflects the resiliency of the economy” and underscores “the strength of the American economy as we recover from the pandemic.”

Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is in Israel: