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The U.S. Treasury Department has unveiled a new $1 gold coin with President Trump’s face on it.“As America commemorates 250 years of independence, the US Mint will begin striking this new $1 gold coin to honor the enduring legacy of liberty and a lasting symbol of patriotism,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote Wednesday morning. “Featuring President Trump, it celebrates the strength of American values, and the promise of a nation dedicated to preserving freedom for all.”This move is technically illegal, as the Presidential $1 Coin Act proclaims that no coin shall “bear the image of a living former or current President,” until at least two years after their death.* The Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020 also holds that living people cannot appear on the back of a coin. The Trump administration is trying to skirt those laws by arguing that the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act allows the president to create memorial coins to celebrate America’s 250th.A Treasury Department spokesperson told Axios the coin is already being made and will be released this fall.The decision was quickly lambasted as yet another example of President Trump’s narcissism and desire to be commemorated.“Congratulations, we’ve entered the end stages. Eliminate the penny, plug the nickel, and make some commemorative gold coins nobody can afford,” former GOP Representative Thomas Massie wrote on X. “I feel sorry for the folks who will be sold worthless knockoffs of this by the usual grifters.”* This story has been updated to correct the law that limits presidents from appearing on $1 coins.

After Paramount Skydance secured its multibillion-dollar merger with Skydance Media, it gave Federal Communications Commission officials who approved the deal some very pricey gifts. ProPublica reports that the company gave away expensive tickets to the Kennedy Center honors gala worth thousands of dollars. Commissioner Olivia Trusty, whose vote was needed to approve the merger, went to the black-tie event with a guest, thanks to tickets gifted by Paramount worth $12,000. FCC Chair Brendan Carr got even more expensive seats for himself and his wife: private skybox tickets with Paramount CEO David Ellison and other company executives worth $125,000 each. These weren’t the first gifts from Paramount to FCC commissioners. Ethics disclosures show that the company has gifted tickets to the gala to seven of the 10 commissioners over the last decade, a glaring conflict of interest for government employees responsible for regulating broadcasting companies like Paramount. Carr has accepted Kennedy Center tickets at least seven times since his appointment in 2017, totaling $63,000, according to his financial statements.  Ethics experts told ProPublica that gifts like these compromise the impartiality of the FCC, and that commissioners who accepted them shouldn’t take part in any decisions concerning Paramount’s merger. “There’s no way that any top federal regulator should ever, ever accept a gift from a regulated company with interests their work will foreseeably affect,” Walter Shaub, director of the Office of Government Ethics from 2013 to 2017, told ProPublica. “The appearance of taking gifts like that is terrible. What’s at stake is nothing less than the public’s trust in government.”The FCC’s final seal of approval is one of the last barriers to Paramount’s takeover of Warner Bros., which would put one company in charge of the networks CBS and CNN, the streaming services Paramount+ and HBO Max, and dozens of other media entities. Critics fear it could hand a powerful media conglomerate over to David and Larry Ellison, staunch supporters of President Trump who would likely force CNN to produce right-wing news coverage. Twelve Democratic-led states sued to stop the merger on Monday, and the Writers’ Guild, a union representing 18,000 media workers, also filed a lawsuit the next day against the deal in federal court, saying that it threatens the workers’ livelihoods. The British government signaled last month that it would investigate whether the new entity would hurt competition in the entertainment industry. Like many business deals in Trump’s second term, this one has a whiff of corruption. The FCC has been tainted, and Trump openly supports a deal that could stifle critical news coverage of him, while giving his supporters control of a large swath of the entertainment industry. His own FCC appears to be in Paramount’s pocket. 

Twelve Democratic-led states led by California sued this week to block Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount is run by David Ellison, whose father, Larry Ellison, is the billionaire founder of Oracle and a prominent ally and financial backer of President Donald Trump. Under the proposed deal, CNN and CBS News, streaming services HBO Max and Paramount+, as well as film and television studios, would all be combined under a single entity controlled by the Ellisons. The states’ lawsuit comes after the Trump administration approved the megamerger last month. “This proposed merger breaks the law,” says California Attorney General Rob Bonta. “It’s anti-competitive. It will raise prices. It will lower quality.”

A new FDA fast-track program could undermine the agency’s role as a global drug safety authority.

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. For the past four years, Angie Mummaw has been told the gas-fired electrical plant planned by the Tennessee Valley Authority in rural Tennessee was a necessary stop on its move away from coal. But recent directives from the Trump administration mean the […]

The post This Private School Had Students Scrub Floors and Attack a Fellow Classmate. The State Still Funds It. appeared first on ProPublica.

The post This Private School Had Students Scrub Floors and Attack a Fellow Classmate. The State Still Funds It. appeared first on ProPublica.

The administration has an interest in boosting the US’ nascent open-source industry, which is increasingly concerned about losing ground to China.

Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso said the daylight saving time measure would not be able to pass by unanimous consent.