Supreme Court Strikes Down CDC Eviction Moratorium as Unauthorized Executive Action

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to block the Biden administration’s CDC eviction moratorium covering areas with high COVID transmission, finding the agency exceeded its statutory authority. The Court held that ‘[i]f a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must …

ShotSpotter Accuracy Crisis - Chicago Inspector General Report and Williams Case

The reliability and accuracy of ShotSpotter’s gunshot detection technology face a major crisis in August 2021 as the Chicago Office of Inspector General releases a damning report on the system’s effectiveness, while the Michael Williams case exposes evidence that ShotSpotter analysts …

NLRB Hearing Officer Rules Amazon Illegally Interfered in Bessemer Election, Recommends New Vote

NLRB Hearing Officer Rules Amazon Illegally Interfered in Bessemer Election, Recommends New Vote

On August 2, 2021, a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) hearing officer issued a recommendation finding that Amazon had illegally interfered in the April 2021 union election at its Bessemer, Alabama …

Nikola Founder Trevor Milton Indicted for Securities Fraud, Exposing How SPAC Loophole Enabled Investor Deception

U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the SEC simultaneously charge Nikola Corporation founder Trevor Milton with securities and wire fraud for systematically deceiving investors about the company’s hydrogen truck technology. Milton made false claims that a …

Daniel Hale Sentenced to 45 Months for Exposing Drone War Crimes

Former Air Force intelligence analyst and NSA contractor Daniel Everette Hale was sentenced to 45 months in federal prison for leaking classified documents that exposed the devastating civilian toll of the U.S. drone warfare program. His disclosures revealed that nearly 90 percent of people killed …

Clearview AI Raises $30 Million Series B Funding Despite Widespread Privacy Violations

Clearview AI closed a $30 million Series B funding round led by Kirenaga Partners, valuing the controversial facial recognition company at $130 million. The investment came despite ongoing privacy investigations in multiple countries and widespread regulatory findings that the company’s …

Pegasus Project Exposes Global Surveillance of 50,000 Targets by NSO Group Clients

The Pegasus Project, a groundbreaking collaborative investigation by more than 80 journalists from 17 media organizations across 10 countries coordinated by Paris-based Forbidden Stories with technical support from Amnesty International, reveals that NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware has been used …

Biden Signs Executive Order 14036: 72 Competition Initiatives, Most Comprehensive Since FDR

President Biden signed Executive Order 14036, ‘Promoting Competition in the American Economy,’ on July 9, 2021, launching what the administration characterized as the most comprehensive federal effort to promote competition since the New Deal. The executive order directed over a dozen …

Pentagon Cancels $10B JEDI Contract, Creates Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability

The Defense Department cancels the controversial $10 billion JEDI (Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure) cloud computing contract previously awarded to Microsoft in 2019, ending two years of bitter litigation with Amazon Web Services. The Pentagon announces a new multi-vendor procurement approach …

Jason Miller Launches Gettr with Hidden Guo Wengui Funding

Former Trump aide Jason Miller officially launched Gettr, an alt-tech social media platform targeting American conservatives, with initial and significant funding from Chinese exile billionaire Guo Wengui’s family foundation. The platform, which emerged from a pre-existing Chinese-language …

Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg Indicted for $1.7M Tax Fraud Scheme

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office unsealed criminal charges against the Trump Organization, longtime CFO Allen Weisselberg, and the Trump Payroll Corporation, marking the first criminal case ever brought against former President Donald Trump’s company. Prosecutors charged the …

Chainalysis Raises $100 Million at $4.2 Billion Valuation in Series E

Chainalysis announces a $100 million Series E financing led by Coatue, bringing its valuation to $4.2 billion and establishing the company as the dominant player in the cryptocurrency surveillance industry. The funding round comes just three months after a $100 million Series D round in March 2021 …

FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn Joins Flagship Pioneering, Venture Firm Behind Moderna

Dr. Stephen Hahn, former FDA Commissioner who led the agency during COVID-19 vaccine emergency use authorizations, joined Flagship Pioneering as Chief Medical Officer on June 16, 2021. The move came six months after the FDA granted emergency use authorization to Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine. …

Lina Khan Confirmed as FTC Chair at Age 32, Youngest Ever

The U.S. Senate confirmed Lina Khan to the Federal Trade Commission by a bipartisan vote of 69-28 on June 15, 2021, and President Biden immediately named her chair of the five-member Commission. At 32, Khan became the youngest commissioner ever confirmed to the agency, let alone to lead it. Khan …

FBI Investigates DeJoy Over Alleged Straw Donor Campaign Finance Scheme

The FBI launched an investigation into Postmaster General Louis DeJoy over allegations that he orchestrated an illegal straw donor campaign finance scheme at his former company, New Breed Logistics. Former employees told the Washington Post that DeJoy pressured them to make political donations to …

LUMA Energy Assumes Control of Puerto Rico's Grid Amid Massive 'Fuera LUMA' Protests Against McKinsey-Designed Privatization

LUMA Energy officially took over operation of Puerto Rico’s electrical transmission and distribution system on June 1, 2021, triggering widespread protests under the rallying cry ‘Fuera LUMA’ (Out LUMA). The takeover represented the culmination of McKinsey’s privatization …

Biden Nominates Frank Kendall for Air Force Secretary After $702,000 in Northrop Grumman Consulting Fees

President Joe Biden nominated Frank Kendall for Air Force Secretary in May 2021 despite Kendall having received $702,319 in consulting fees from Northrop Grumman as part of a $300,000 per year consulting contract after serving as Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics …

Alden Global Capital Completes $633 Million Tribune Publishing Acquisition - "Vulture" Hedge Fund Becomes Second-Largest U.S. Newspaper Publisher

On May 21, 2021, Tribune Publishing shareholders approved hedge fund Alden Global Capital’s $633 million acquisition of the newspaper chain, making Alden the second-largest newspaper publisher in the United States. The transaction gave Alden control over nine major metropolitan dailies …

Amazon extends Rekognition police ban indefinitely as Congressional regulation stalls

On May 18, 2021, Amazon extended its global ban on police use of Rekognition facial recognition software indefinitely “until further notice,” prolonging what was originally announced as a one-year moratorium in June 2020. The extension came just weeks before the original moratorium was …

Leaked Video Exposes Heritage Action's $24 Million Voter Suppression Campaign Coordinating State Legislation

A leaked video obtained by the watchdog group Documented and shared with Mother Jones revealed that Heritage Action for America, the advocacy arm of the Heritage Foundation, was orchestrating a coordinated $24 million campaign to push voter restriction legislation across eight key battleground …

Giuliani Associate Sought $2 Million Payment for Trump Pardons

Florida businessman Harry Sargeant III told federal prosecutors that associates of Rudy Giuliani approached him seeking a $2 million payment to secure presidential pardons for individuals under investigation, according to court filings unsealed in April 2021. The revelation provided direct evidence …

Amazon Defeats Bessemer Union Vote 1,798 to 738 After Intensive Anti-Union Campaign

Amazon Defeats Bessemer Union Vote 1,798 to 738 After Intensive Anti-Union Campaign

On April 9, 2021, vote counting concluded in the historic union election at Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama warehouse (BHM1), with workers decisively rejecting unionization by a margin of 1,798 votes against to 738 …

Stephen Miller Founds America First Legal to Challenge Biden Administration and Advance White Nationalist Agenda

Stephen Miller launched America First Legal Foundation (AFL) on April 6, 2021, creating a conservative legal organization explicitly designed to serve as a right-wing counterweight to ACLU and SPLC while advancing Miller’s white nationalist policy agenda through litigation. Miller established …

Georgia SB 202 Enacts Comprehensive Voter Suppression with Multiple ALEC Provisions

Governor Brian Kemp signed Georgia’s SB 202, the “Election Integrity Act of 2021,” implementing a sweeping 98-page voter suppression law that became the first major state enactment of Trump’s “Big Lie” and ALEC’s post-2020 model legislation. Passed on strict …

Cellebrite Halts Sales to Russia and Belarus After Human Rights Abuse Revelations

Cellebrite announces it will immediately halt all sales of its digital intelligence solutions and services to customers in the Russian Federation and Belarus, following revelations that its technologies were used by state officials to persecute opposition activists, minority groups, and LGBTQI+ …

Palantir and AWS Formalize Strategic Partnership for Government Data Analytics

Palantir Technologies and Amazon Web Services announce a formal strategic partnership to optimize Palantir’s Foundry and Gotham platforms for deployment on AWS cloud infrastructure, integrating two of the most powerful surveillance and data analytics systems used by U.S. intelligence and …

Private Equity Firm ReGen Healthcare Invests $100M in Failing Genesis Healthcare, Beginning Four-Year Collapse to Bankruptcy

Genesis Healthcare, once the largest skilled nursing operator in the United States, narrowly avoids bankruptcy by accepting a $100 million investment from Joel Landau’s private equity firm ReGen Healthcare LLC, which receives 93% equity stake and two board seats in exchange. Genesis’ …

Republican State Parties Censure Senators Who Voted to Convict Trump

Within days of seven Republican senators voting to convict Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial, Republican state parties across the country moved swiftly to censure those senators for their votes of conscience. The censure wave began on February 13, 2021—the same day as the impeachment …

McConnell Says Trump "Practically and Morally Responsible" Minutes After Voting to Acquit

Minutes after voting to acquit Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell delivered an extraordinary and scathing floor speech declaring: “There’s no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the …

Impeachment Managers Present Devastating 13-Minute Video Compilation of January 6 Attack

On the second day of Trump’s impeachment trial, House managers led by Jamie Raskin, Stacey Plaskett, and Eric Swalwell presented a devastating 13-minute video compilation synchronizing Trump’s January 6 rally speech with the violent assault on the Capitol that followed. The video …

Second Impeachment Trial Begins with Constitutional Debate on Trying Former President

The Senate’s second impeachment trial of Donald Trump began on February 9, 2021, with a four-hour constitutional debate centered on the fundamental question: can the Senate try a former president? In a 56-44 vote, the Senate affirmed that the trial was constitutional and could proceed, with …

Amazon Launches Massive Anti-Union Campaign at Bessemer Alabama Warehouse

Amazon Launches Massive Anti-Union Campaign at Bessemer Alabama Warehouse

In early February 2021, Amazon launched one of the most aggressive and expensive anti-union campaigns in recent U.S. labor history, spending millions of dollars on consultants, lawyers, and captive-audience meetings to defeat …

Robinhood DTCC Collateral Waiver Revealed in GameStop Short Squeeze Fallout

In January 2021, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) granted Robinhood an unprecedented $9.7 billion collateral waiver during the GameStop short squeeze. This extraordinary measure prevented Robinhood from defaulting on its regulatory obligations, revealing significant gaps in …

Biden Administration Pauses $760 Million Raytheon and Boeing Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia Over Yemen

On February 4, 2021, the Biden administration announced it was pausing indefinitely two major precision-guided munitions sales to Saudi Arabia worth approximately $760 million—a $478 million Raytheon contract for 7,500 Paveway “smart” bombs and a $290 million Boeing contract for 3,000 …

Canadian Privacy Commissioners Declare Clearview AI Represents "Mass Surveillance" of Citizens

A joint investigation by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and provincial counterparts from Quebec, British Columbia, and Alberta concluded that Clearview AI’s scraping of billions of images of people from across the Internet represented “mass surveillance” and was a …

Saudi Dissident Omar Abdulaziz's Lawsuit Against McKinsey Filed in Federal Court

Omar Abdulaziz, a Montreal-based Saudi activist who sought asylum in Canada in 2013, files a lawsuit in the Supreme Court, County of New York (later removed to federal court) against McKinsey & Company, alleging the consulting firm reported on him to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, …

Raytheon CEO Hayes Tells Investors "Peace Not Going to Break Out" in Middle East, Sees Solid Growth

On January 28, 2021, during a quarterly earnings call just days after Joe Biden’s inauguration, Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes told investors that “peace is not going to break out in the Middle East anytime soon,” framing ongoing regional conflicts and violence as positive factors for …

Biden Signs Executive Order 14006 to End Federal Private Prison Contracts, But Excludes Immigration Detention

President Joe Biden signs Executive Order 14006, titled “Reforming Our Incarceration System to Eliminate the Use of Privately Operated Criminal Detention Facilities,” directing the Attorney General to not renew Department of Justice contracts with privately operated prisons. The order …

Pelosi Transmits Impeachment Article to Senate After Biden Inauguration

On January 25, 2021, exactly two weeks after the House voted to impeach Donald Trump and five days after President Biden’s inauguration, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi transmitted the single article of impeachment—charging Trump with “incitement of insurrection”—to the Senate. The nine …

Trump Environmental Rollbacks Cause 80,000 Excess Deaths Per Decade

Harvard researchers calculated that Trump’s environmental rollbacks would cause 80,000 excess deaths per decade from increased air pollution, with 18,000 deaths from repealing the Clean Power Plan alone. The administration reversed or weakened over 100 environmental regulations, including …

Trump's Final Day Pardon Spree - 73 Pardons Including Bannon and Broidy

In his final hours as president, Donald Trump issued 73 pardons and 70 commutations—143 acts of clemency in a single day, overwhelming the typical pardon process and demonstrating systematic corruption of executive power. The pardons went almost exclusively to political allies, campaign donors, and …

PredPol Rebrands as Geolitica Amid Mounting Criticism of Racial Bias

PredPol, the controversial predictive policing software company, rebrands itself as Geolitica in 2021 as criticism of algorithmic bias in law enforcement intensifies. The rebrand represents an attempt to distance the company from growing scrutiny of predictive policing’s discriminatory impacts …

Rick Snyder Charged With Misdemeanors for Poisoning Thousands—First Governor Ever Criminally Charged

Former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is indicted on two misdemeanor charges of willful neglect of duty in connection to the Flint water crisis, becoming the first governor or former governor in Michigan’s 184-year history to be charged with crimes related to their time in office. Eight other …

House Impeaches Trump for Second Time on Single Charge of "Incitement of Insurrection"

One week after the January 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol, the House of Representatives voted 232-197 to impeach President Donald Trump on a single article charging him with “incitement of insurrection,” making Trump the first president in American history to be impeached twice. The …

Facebook Bans Trump Only After He Loses Power, Following January 6 Insurrection It Enabled

Facebook bans Trump from the platform on January 7, 2021, one day after the Capitol insurrection his election fraud lies helped incite, but only after he has lost political power and can no longer retaliate against the company. The ban follows four years of systematic Terms of Service violations …

Ginni Thomas Attends "Stop the Steal" Rally Before Capitol Attack, CNP Board Member at Insurrection

Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and board member of the Council for National Policy’s lobbying arm CNP Action, attended the “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, before the violent attack on the U.S. …

Jeffrey Clark admits in Signal messages that classified briefing yielded "nothing helpful" for Trump

DOJ official Jeffrey Clark sent Signal messages to Rep. Scott Perry admitting that a highly classified briefing on foreign election interference “yielded nothing” to support stolen election claims, writing “Bottom line is there is nothing helpful to P” (referring to the …

Jeffrey Clark Attempts DOJ Coup to Overturn Election

Environmental lawyer Jeffrey Clark attempted to use the Department of Justice to overturn the 2020 election by sending false fraud letters to swing states. Clark drafted a letter falsely claiming DOJ had identified ‘significant concerns’ about the election and urging Georgia to convene a …

CNP Attorney Cleta Mitchell Joins Trump Call Pressuring Georgia Officials

On January 2, 2021, Cleta Mitchell - CNP board of governors member and attorney who had been central to the organization’s election denial coordination - represented President Trump on his infamous call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, pressuring him to “find 11,780 …

440 Voter Restriction Bills Introduced in 49 States - ALEC's Largest Suppression Wave

Throughout 2021, at least 440 bills containing voter restriction provisions were introduced across 49 states, representing the largest coordinated assault on voting rights since Jim Crow and demonstrating ALEC’s systematic model legislation deployment at unprecedented scale. The Brennan Center …