Morning Wire: May 1, 2026 — SCOTUS Voting Rights Ruling Reshapes Midterms; House Ends DHS Shutdown; Sinaloa Governor Indicted
Overnight: Supreme Court guts a key Voting Rights Act protection in Louisiana v. Callais; House clears DHS funding to end an 11-week shutdown; SDNY indicts a sitting Mexican governor; Trump…
Afternoon Wire: April 30, 2026 — Comey Indicted, Pentagon’s $1.5T Ask, and a Fraying Iran Ceasefire
Today's afternoon briefing: a federal grand jury indicts former FBI Director James Comey, the Pentagon defends its largest peacetime budget request, and the US-Iran ceasefire creaks under strain as CENTCOM…
Think Tank Roundup: Week of April 30 — Carnegie Endowment Iran Analysis Leads the Field
The week ending April 30, 2026 produced an unusually heavy slate of think tank output across the political spectrum, with the ongoing Iran war driving much of the foreign-policy commentary…
Oversight Watch: Week of April 30, 2026 — SEC Pays $50M+ Whistleblower as DOJ OIG Audits Epstein Files Compliance
Federal watchdogs delivered a heavy week of findings between April 23 and April 30, with the Department of Justice’s Inspector General opening a politically sensitive review of the Epstein Files…
Watchdog Roundup: Week of April 30 — GAO Reports $186 Billion in Improper Federal Payments
GAO finds $186 billion in improper FY2025 federal payments; HHS-OIG flags Medicare virtual check-in errors; OpenTheBooks documents $93B end-of-year Pentagon spending; ProPublica-FRONTLINE finds collapsed prosecutions of anti-ICE protesters.
Legislative Watch: Week of April 27, 2026 — Senate Adopts Budget Resolution as DHS Standoff Tops 70 Days
FY 2027 appropriations advance in the House, the Senate adopts a 50-48 budget resolution amid the DHS funding standoff, CBO scores H.R. 8290 and H.R. 7723, a bipartisan TRIA reauthorization…
The Lindell Insolvency Paradox: Court Records Show MyPillow Founder Defying Judgments, Borrowing at 409% While Donor Dollars Recirculate
Federal court filings document a cascade of unpaid defamation awards, a default judgment for FedEx, daily contempt fines from a Trump-appointed judge, and merchant cash advances at interest rates topping…
Capitol Watch: April 30, 2026 — Hegseth Defends $1.5T Pentagon Budget as Senate Tees Up FISA, En Bloc Nominations
Defense Secretary Hegseth defends a $1.5 trillion FY27 Pentagon request before Senate Armed Services as the Senate tees up cloture on en bloc nominations and a three-year FISA Section 702…
DOJ Watch: April 30, 2026 — Purdue Pharma Hit With $5B Sentence as Federal Enforcement Surges
Purdue Pharma's $5 billion sentence headlines a busy week of federal enforcement, alongside a 276-arrest scam-center takedown, an insider-trading case against a Special Forces soldier, and major fraud, corruption and…
Federal Register Watch: April 29, 2026 — OCC Preempts Illinois Interchange Law as Treasury Cements Bank Fee Authority
Daily TIJ digest of the Federal Register: OCC preemption of Illinois interchange law, USCIS fee codification under H.R.1, Treasury's paper-check phase-out, HUD HOME delay, Proclamation 11021 tariff corrections, EPA Maryland…