News Coverage
Rolling Stone: Dems Call on Biden to Limit Weed Prosecutions Before Trump Takes Over
A coalition of Democratic senators and representatives are calling on the Biden administration to finalize its plans to limit marijuana prosecutions at the federal level before he leaves office. In a Tuesday letter drafted by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), legislators wrote that the simple descheduling of marijuana “will not end federal criminalization, resolve its harms, or meaningfully address the gap between federal and state cannabis policy. … Continue Reading
November 26, 2024
Associated Press: Osprey ferrying White House staff in New York grounded after witness reports flames
An Osprey being used to ferry White House staff and government officials from an event in New York on Monday was grounded due to a safety concern, with one witness reporting flames under the right engine. The staff and officials were removed from the aircraft, part of the Marine Corps HMX-1 presidential helicopter fleet, and transferred to a second Osprey to continue their trip accompanying President Joe Biden at a "Friendsgiving" event with members of the U.S. Coast Guard in Staten … Continue Reading
November 25, 2024
HuffPost: Elizabeth Warren Warns Trump Nominee: Hands Off The Fed
The soon-to-be top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee cautioned Scott Bessent, Donald Trump’s pick to be the next treasury secretary, to respect the Federal Reserve’s policy independence. “I have been a fierce critic of Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s extreme interest rate hikes and lack of transparency, but I have never questioned that it is his job to make those decisions. It would be a serious error for the Trump administration to interfere with the Fed’s independence, as Mr. Bessent has … Continue Reading
November 22, 2024
Wired: Elizabeth Warren Calls for Crackdown on Internet ‘Monopoly’ You’ve Never Heard Of
US senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and congressman Jerry Nadler of New York have called on government bodies to investigate what they allege is the “predatory pricing” of .com web addresses, the internet’s prime real estate. In a letter delivered today to the Department of Justice and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, a branch of the Department of Commerce that advises the president, the two Democrats accuse VeriSign, the company that administers the … Continue Reading
November 22, 2024
The Guardian: Warren says Trump’s ‘unprecedented’ actions during transition risk security
Donald Trump’s refusal to cooperate with the outgoing Biden administration is putting national security at risk and weakening safeguards against corruption, the US senator Elizabeth Warren has warned. The president-elect has broken from precedent by refusing to sign memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with the current White House team and failing to release a comprehensive ethics plan. On Thursday, Warren, a Democratic senator for Massachusetts, wrote to the General Services Administration … Continue Reading
November 21, 2024
Bloomberg Law: Fed, OCC Should Reject Capital One, Discover Deal, Democrats Say
The Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency should reject Capital One Financial Corp.’s proposed acquisition of Discover Financial Services, Congressional Democrats including Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren told Federal Reserve Vice Chair Michael Barr and Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu in a letter. “Capital One’s history of failures to meet its acquisition-related commitments, its consumer protection and BSA/AML violations, and its aggressive … Continue Reading
November 21, 2024
The Hill: Warren, Kim bill requires nat sec nominees to disclose foreign government work
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen.-elect Andy Kim (D-N.J.) are joining forces on a bill that would require several presidential nominees working on national security issues to publicly disclose past work for foreign governments. The bill, introduced in both chambers Thursday, would require Senate-confirmed leaders at the Departments of Defense, State, and Treasury, as well as leaders of all 18 intelligence agencies, to publicly share whether they've done any work for a foreign … Continue Reading
November 20, 2024
Reuters: Senator Warren urges Fed to keep Wells Fargo asset cap
The Federal Reserve must not remove Wells Fargo's (WFC.N), opens new tab $1.95 trillion asset cap until the bank has fixed its risk management and compliance issues, top Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren told the U.S. central bank on Wednesday. In a letter to Fed Chair Jerome Powell and the central bank's regulatory chief, Michael Barr, Warren said the Fed must reject Wells Fargo reported appeal to have the punishment imposed in 2018 lifted until it "can show that it can properly manage the … Continue Reading
November 19, 2024
Boston Globe: How a famous candy company is giving pet owners a stomachache
My latest vet bill? A staggering $1,250. Last week, I took my 11-year-old dog to a specialist for a follow-up consultation at a local clinic that’s part of a network of specialty and emergency veterinary hospitals across the United States. The vet ordered several lab tests, including a routine profile to check various chemicals and enzymes, a complete blood count, and a digestive panel. It all made sense, considering my senior dog’s irritable bowel disease diagnosis a couple of years ago. … Continue Reading
November 14, 2024
MassLive: Mass. lawmakers want ‘under oath’ answers from new owner of Steward‘s physician network
Ahead of a Beacon Hill hearing, a pair of Massachusetts lawmakers have called on a state oversight panel to ask some tough questions of the company that‘s taken over the physicians’ network formerly owned by bankrupt Steward Health Care. Benson Sloan, the CEO of the private-equity-owned Rural Healthcare Group, is slated to testify Thursday before the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission. In a three-page letter obtained exclusively by MassLive, Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren asked … Continue Reading
November 07, 2024
TIME: Sen. Elizabeth Warren: Here's the Plan to Fight Back
To everyone who feels like their heart has been ripped out of their chest, I feel the same. To everyone who is afraid of what happens next, I share your fears. But what we do next is important, and I need you in this fight with me. As we confront a second Donald Trump presidency, we have two tasks ahead. First, try to learn from what happened. And then, make a plan. Many political experts and D.C. insiders are already blaming President Joe Biden’s economic agenda for Vice President Kamala … Continue Reading
November 04, 2024
NBC News: Top Democrats take another swipe at grocery prices as Election Day nears
Two Democratic lawmakers are urging an investigation of grocery stores that they say might be overcharging customers. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., sent a letter, seen by NBC News, to the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Agriculture on Sunday, calling on the agencies to investigate whether “major grocery chains may be making false and misleading representations regarding food sold by weight, leading to customers paying more for groceries than … Continue Reading
October 31, 2024
Boston Herald: Elizabeth Warren’s office: Biden-Harris and Congressional Dems saved 1.4 million union pensions
The Biden-Harris Administration and Congressional Democrats saved the pensions of more than a million union members, many of which could have become insolvent in the coming year, according to a new report out of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s office. Titled “Promises Made, Promises Kept,” the report explains how system shockwaves that started with the 2008 financial crisis were compounded by corporate bankruptcies, congressional inaction, and fund mismanagement, and were putting multiemployer … Continue Reading
October 31, 2024
American Banker: Warren slams DOJ for side-stepping tougher action against TD
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is blasting the Department of Justice for not punishing TD Bank Group more harshly over the Canadian bank's money-laundering failures in the United States. Law-enforcement officials and regulators hit the Toronto-based bank's U.S. subsidiary with a record $3.09 billion fine and asset-cap handcuffs earlier this month in a novel money-laundering case. But the penalties imposed by the DOJ don't go far enough, Warren said Wednesday in a letter seen by American … Continue Reading
October 31, 2024
Space News: Members of Congress seek details on Chandra funding and operations
Several members of Congress are seeking more details about the operation of NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, a space telescope whose budget has faced steep cuts. In an Oct. 30 letter to Patrick Slane, director of the Chandra X-ray Center, six members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D), asked for more details about the operation of the 25-year-old X-ray space telescope and the effects potential NASA budget cuts would have on it. NASA had proposed … Continue Reading
October 29, 2024
Stat News: Warren wants close FTC scrutiny of drug distributors buying cancer medical groups
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is urging the Federal Trade Commission to scrutinize recent deals from McKesson and Cardinal Health to buy oncology practices, saying those transactions pose “clear, anticompetitive risks.” The letter from Warren to the FTC highlights how prominent lawmakers continue to support the Biden administration’s antitrust agencies, which have put health care mergers in their crosshairs. The Department of Justice, for example, has created a task force specifically to … Continue Reading
October 29, 2024
Reuters: U.S. senators urge overhaul of customs program to stop fentanyl chemical smuggling
Prominent U.S. Democratic senators on Tuesday called on the Biden administration to crack down on a popular duty-free customs program after Reuters reporting revealed how drug traffickers use the streamlined entry system to sneak Chinese-made fentanyl chemicals into the country virtually unchecked. In a letter addressed to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the lawmakers urged the agencies to use their statutory authority to prohibit e-commerce … Continue Reading
October 28, 2024
Business Insider: More student-loan borrowers are taking advantage of an updated route to get rid of their debt in bankruptcy court, top Democratic senators say
An updated process for student-loan borrowers to get rid of their debt in bankruptcy court is working, a group of Democratic senators said. On Monday, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Dick Durbin led Sens. Raphael Warnock and Sheldon Whitehouse in sending a letter — first viewed by Business Insider — to the Justice and Education Departments regarding the status of recent guidance intended to make it easier for borrowers to have success in bankruptcy court. Discharging student loans in bankruptcy … Continue Reading
October 24, 2024
NBC News: Senators take aim at big private equity landlords as rents soar
As Wall Street financiers snapped up huge swaths of the nation’s rental housing market in recent years, the deals sailed through unchallenged. Now, with the costs of renting an apartment or home out of reach for a growing number of Americans, four Democratic senators say these transactions need more scrutiny. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., sent a letter to private equity giant KKR on Wednesday, demanding information about its recent $2.1 billion purchase of 5,200 rental apartments across … Continue Reading
October 24, 2024
Mass Live: Sen. Elizabeth Warren calls on federal law enforcement to help Springfield with increasing gun violence
Following 21 months of record gun violence that has left at least 55 people dead in Hampden County, a Springfield police officer blinded in one eye and the seizure of more than 620 firearms, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is calling for federal authorities to help Western Massachusetts. On Wednesday Warren sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with a five-point plan to better stop gun trafficking and crack down on … Continue Reading
