PowerPage 2 of 9

108 articles

Government, elections, policy, courts, and accountability

86% Disapprove of Congress, Tying Gallup's Record; Republican Approval Has Fallen 40 Points in 13 Months

Approval of Congress has fallen to 10% in Gallup's April 1-15 poll, with 86% disapproval matching the all-time high in a series that began in 1974. Republicans — whose party controls both chambers — have driven the collapse, dropping from 63% approval in March 2025 to 23% now.

PowerApr 23

Trump Invokes Defense Production Act Across Oil, Gas, Coal, LNG, and the Grid in Five Simultaneous Determinations

President Trump signed five Section 303 Defense Production Act determinations on April 20, each directing the Secretary of Energy to use federal purchases, loans, and commitments to expand a different piece of the US fossil-fuel and electric-grid supply chain. All five waive the statute's standard review-and-approval gates, citing the national energy emergency Trump declared on his first day in office.

PowerApr 23

Army Takes Drone-Delivered Bunker Buster From Concept to Detonation in Two Weeks

A Picatinny Arsenal team designed, 3D-printed, filled, and test-fired a new bunker-busting warhead built for small attack drones in two weeks, the Army says. The round is the first payload demonstrated on a new standardized drone-munition interface meant to let industry iterate warheads without re-certifying the drones.

PowerApr 23

Navy Secretary John Phelan Out 'Effective Immediately' After 13 Months; Hung Cao Becomes Acting SECNAV

The Pentagon announced Wednesday that Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan is leaving the Trump administration effective immediately. Navy Undersecretary Hung Cao steps in as Acting Secretary. No reason was given for the abrupt exit, the first departure of a service secretary in Trump's second term.

PowerApr 23

DOJ Moves to Seize $30M Beverly Hills Mansion Tied to $700M U.S. Military Fuel Scheme and Iraqi Bribery

The Justice Department on Wednesday filed a civil forfeiture complaint against a Beverly Hills mansion it says was bought and renovated with $30 million siphoned from a $700 million scheme to defraud the Defense Logistics Agency on jet-fuel deliveries to U.S. troops fighting ISIS — paid for in part by a $0.25-per-liter bribe to a senior Kurdish Peshmerga general.

PowerApr 22

ALA Releases 2025 Most-Challenged Books List as Share of Challenges From Pressure Groups Jumps From 72% to 92%

The American Library Association documented 4,235 unique titles challenged at U.S. libraries in 2025 — the second-highest year on record — and reports that the share of challenges initiated by organized pressure groups, government officials, or local decision-makers rose from 72% in 2024 to 92% in 2025.

PowerApr 22

FCC Opens TV Ratings Inquiry Targeting 'Gender Identity' Content in Children's Programming

The FCC's Media Bureau, in a Public Notice released April 22, asks whether shows with transgender and non-binary characters should be re-rated and whether the industry ratings board should add 'faith-based organizations' — even as the Notice's own footnote acknowledges the 1996 statute excludes ratings 'based on political or religious content.'

PowerApr 22

UK Cyber Chief: 100 Countries Now Have Commercial Spyware Capable of Hacking Phones, Up From 80 in Three Years

NCSC director Richard Horne, speaking at CYBERUK 2026 in Glasgow, said the commercial spyware market has grown 25% since the agency's 2023 baseline assessment and now targets bankers and wealthy businesspeople in addition to journalists, dissidents, and foreign officials.

PowerApr 22

Abbott Threatens to Pull $200 Million From Houston, Dallas, and Austin Over Police Limits on ICE Cooperation

Letters from the governor's office gave the three cities until April 20 to repeal or stop enforcing local ordinances limiting how police interact with ICE — or repay the full grant amounts. Houston is already considering a repeal.

PowerApr 22

FAA Carves Six New Restricted Airspace Blocks From Surface to FL 290 Over Camp Lejeune and Cherry Point for Marine Corps Training

The April 21 final rule establishes R-5305A/B/C over Camp Lejeune and R-5307A/B/C over Cherry Point, stitching them into the existing R-5003, R-5004, and R-5306 complexes to contain Small Diameter Bomb II laser targeting, surface-to-surface artillery, combat UAS operations, and low-altitude air defense drills. Effective July 9, 2026.

PowerApr 22

Four Corner Hustlers Leader Labar Spann Sentenced to Life in Federal Prison for Racketeering Conspiracy Involving Four Murders

U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin imposed the mandatory life term Monday in Chicago federal court. A jury convicted Spann, 47, in December 2025 after a five-week trial that held him responsible for four murders committed between 2000 and 2003 on Chicago's West Side.

PowerApr 22

Nebraska Joins DOJ to Nullify Its Own 2006 In-State Tuition Law for Undocumented Students in Joint Consent Decree

The Justice Department filed suit against Nebraska and, the same day, filed a joint consent decree with the state to permanently enjoin Nebraska Revised Statute 85-502, which has allowed undocumented residents to pay in-state tuition since 2006. It is the eighth such DOJ action; Nebraska is the second state after Virginia to cooperate rather than contest.