DHS watchdog declined to publish draft report slamming Secret Service
Investigators with the Department of Homeland Security's internal watchdog were prepared to slam the Secret Service in a public report for stonewalling their Jan. 6 probe and for having “wiped” texts from the day of the riot. But that March draft language, which criticizes Secret Service for “not communicating this highly relevant information,” never made it into a semi-annual report released in June. Doing so would have alerted the public to missing texts a month before Inspector General Joseph Cuffari notified Congress that Secret Service “erased” its text messages.
Read MoreGarland, in going public, pushes back at cable news firestorm
Attorney General Merrick Garland was quiet all week as former President Trump, GOP lawmakers and cable news pundits theorized about the FBI’s search Monday of the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate. On Thursday, he ended the silence, announcing the Department of Justice (DOJ) would move to unseal the warrant authorizing the search and defending the integrity of the FBI, which had been under heavy attack all week. “I will not stand by silently when their integrity is unfairly attacked,” Garland said, saying the FBI and DOJ had been subject to “unfounded attacks” on th
Read MoreWest Virginia reaches multimillion-dollar settlement with Rite Aid over opioid lawsuit
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey (R) announced a settlement with pharmacy chain Rite Aid Thursday over a lawsuit alleging the company had contributed to the oversupply of opioids in the state. Morrissey filed the lawsuit against Rite Aid and Walgreens in 2020, alleging they had failed to monitor and report orders for opioid prescriptions. In a statement, Morrissey said the settlement amount could amount to $30 million from Rite Aid. “So many lives have been lost and shattered by this scourge,” Morrissey said. "With this settlement and other settl
Read MoreOil residue from Deepwater Horizon spill still detectable along Louisiana coast: Study
Traces of oil spilled in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion remained in areas along the Gulf Coast, beyond the reach of cleanup efforts, a decade later, according to research published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science. Researchers, led by retired Louisiana State University environmental chemist Edward Overton, analyzed about a decade of research on the aftereffects of the spill combined with their own data. The research was funded by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, an independent
Read MoreParents of transgender children urge Alabama court to keep block on gender-affirming care ban
Story at a glance Parents of transgender children in Alabama on Wednesday filed a brief asking the state court of appeals to uphold an injunction blocking the state’s felony ban on gender-affirming care. In an appeal filed in June, attorneys for Alabama said the injunction should be overturned and access to gender-affirming health care is not constitutionally protected because it is not “dee
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