Cruz blocks Senate Democrats’ bid to pass AI safety bill - Live Updates - POLITICO

Warner, Schatz and Kim’s new bill would have established a new safety board within the Commerce Department to vet models before they are deployed and set safety standards for the industry. It would also have created a reporting process for safety and security incidents…

 https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/09/29/congress/cruz-blocks-senate-democrats-bid-to-pass-ai-safety-bill-01097480

 

Judges Keep Striking Down Climate Laws. Some States Are Fighting Back. – Mother Jones

Hollins, who introduced and co-sponsored Minnesota’s superfund bill earlier this year, told me that Minnesotans could face $20 billion or more in climate-related costs by 2040. “That’s roughly a third of our state’s current budget,” she said. Her state’s superfund legislation would charge major polluters for damages to bridges, roads, and buildings caused by greenhouse gas emissions. That money would pay for natural disaster recovery, infrastructure projects, and public health efforts linked to pollution. 

Infrastructures costs, Hollins notes, are inevitably going to rise. “So is it taxpayers who are going to pay for it?” she asks. “Or is it billionaires?”

 https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2026/09/climate-superfund-new-york-supreme-court-suncor-boulder/

 

Newsom signs laws targeting ICE with shock glove ban, detention center tax - POLITICO

“California is taking action to strengthen transparency, accountability, and oversight around immigration enforcement in our state,” Newsom said in a statement. “This is about stepping up where the federal government has failed our communities.”…

 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/29/ca-shock-glove-ban-signed-01094029

 

US senators propose legislation to limit ICE arrests and indefinite detention

Exclusive: Democrats Dick Durbin of Illinois and Alex Padilla of California seek to prevent unlawful arrests…

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/25/ice-legislation-dick-durbin-alex-padilla

 

Sen. Bernie Sanders unveils bill to ban artificial superintelligence and create Department of AI | PBS News

"It doesn't take a genius to say, 'slow it down,'" Sanders, I-Vt., said in an interview with AP. "Do we really want to develop a super intelligence that when it becomes smarter than human beings could act independently of human control? I don't think we do."…

 https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/sen-bernie-sanders-unveils-bill-to-ban-artificial-superintelligence-and-create-department-of-ai 

Mike Johnson boasts about Congress' productivity despite its lack of productivity

 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/FoAbIWTPM_w

 

Where are the GOP bills to lower prices?!

 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_S1Uv9nA_RY

Ilhan Omar brings bill to make ICE ‘pay the price’ for terrorizing communities

“For over a year, ICE has been tearing through our nation, leading racist terror campaigns that have caused devastating damage to our cities, to our businesses, and to the lives of our constituents,” said Omar, who represents Minnesota’s fifth congressional district, covering the city of Minneapolis and surrounding suburbs… 

 Omar added: “In Minneapolis, Operation Metro Surge cost our community nearly $700m. We have a moral responsibility to end this abuse of power. Our bill will force ICE to pay the price for the damage they’ve left in their wake and ensure that these devastating operations can never be repeated.”…

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/17/ilhan-omar-ice-bill 

 

Trump crypto empire looms over Senate showdown

Democrats want concessions on several parts of the bill — but most importantly, they say a government ethics provision included in the latest GOP text doesn’t go far enough in restricting President Donald Trump’s ability to profit off his family’s crypto ventures…

 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/15/trump-crypto-empire-looms-over-senate-showdown-01076494

 

Chemical industry backed laws in three US states to restrict use of air pollution data

As public air monitors disappear, federal rollbacks and state laws are making it harder than ever to know what’s in the air…

 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/sep/10/us-chemical-industry-air-pollution-monitors 

 

AI slop is swamping a House office that drafts US laws - POLITICO

They said AI’s ability to quickly generate mountains of text is forcing the OLC’s lawyers to spend significantly more time reviewing and rewriting the proposals. And in many cases, the drafts are plagued by mistakes that could ripple well beyond Washington — tying up the passage of legislation and risking lawsuits over erroneously cited statutes or incorrect legal definitions...

 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/17/ai-slop-lawmakers-congress-01008376

 

Openly Refusing Money Laundering Law

 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sOKrTKJm3_o

Michigan utility regulator wants lawmakers to help lower energy bills

The ideas break down into three categories. One involves creating more incentives for utilities to run more efficiently and provide better service. A second is to “rein in unnecessary costs.” The third is increasing chances for competition…

 https://www.michiganpublic.org/transportation-infrastructure/2026-08-11/michigan-utility-regulator-wants-lawmakers-to-help-lower-energy-bills

 

‘Danger no longer only comes from the hitmen, but from the state’: the Honduran farmers labelled terrorists for protecting their land

Despite the violence against activists, campaigners say the new rightwing government of Nasry “Tito” Asfura, backed by Donald Trump, has created a legal environment that places campesinos and other land defenders in even more danger. It has passed a series of laws aimed at clamping down on organised crime but which human rights organisations warn place land defenders at severe risk of criminalisation. 

The first of these legal changes is a reform to the penal code allowing for criminal groups to be designated as terrorist organisations. The law went against the Honduran supreme court’s advice and has been criticised for its open-ended definition of terrorism. 

 “Under this law,” says Lucía Vigil, from the Centre for the Study of Democracy (Cespad), “any group exercising their democratic right to peaceful protest can be labelled terrorist.”…

 https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/aug/03/danger-no-longer-only-comes-from-the-hitmen-but-from-the-state-the-honduran-farmers-labelled-terrorists-for-protecting-their-land

 

Anti-LGBTQ+ laws are on the rise across west Africa, campaigners warn

According to US-based international reproductive rights organisation Ipas, the annual gatherings are supported by Family Watch International (FWI), an Arizona-based Christian campaign group that opposes abortion and comprehensive sex education (CSE). Also in attendance has been Dutch-founded lobby group Christian Council International, which promotes similar views…

 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/02/anti-lgbtq-laws-are-on-the-rise-across-west-africa-campaigners-warn

House approves bill restricting lawmakers' ability to purchase and sell stocks - Live Updates - POLITICO

“Republicans have corrupted their so-called stock trading bill with a decaying piece of the SAVE American Act corpse,” Morelle said during debate on the legislation

 https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/07/22/congress/house-votes-to-restrict-congress-ability-to-purchase-and-sell-stocks-01008697

 

Congress wants to get more homes built quickly. That might be harder after DOGE. - POLITICO

Some of the lawmakers who pushed for the law worry that the Department of Housing and Urban Development — which has shed more than 30 percent of its core policy workforce in just three years following budget cuts — is too understaffed to quickly issue new rules and implement its provisions, aimed at making building and buying homes cheaper and easier...

 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/23/bipartisan-housing-bill-implementation-01008945

 

Ted Cruz eyes bill to address ‘catastrophic risk’ caused by AI - Live Updates - POLITICO

It could be included on the agenda of a pending Commerce Committee markup of AI legislation...

 https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/07/23/congress/cruz-eyes-catastrophic-risk-01010231 

‘Too cute by half’: Senators brush off Trump’s suggestions for honoring Graham - POLITICO

…So when President Donald Trump suggested in a Truth Social post Monday that the Senate should pass a long-brewing crypto bill in “honor of Senator Lindsey Graham,” it struck a false note to many lawmakers… 

In addition to the crypto bill, Trump stoked a competing suggestion — that the contentious GOP elections bill known as the SAVE America Act could be passed in Graham’s memory — by saying he had spoken to the senator about that legislation just hours before his death…

 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/14/lindsey-graham-legacy-russia-sanctions-00995862

Michigan Supreme Court sends bills to Whitmer, who stuns with surprise vetoes

She said she would be willing to work with legislators on new versions of the bills. 

 “House Republicans spent the last 18 months sitting on these bills, spending taxpayer dollars on costly lawsuits, and creating unnecessary uncertainty and preventing action on issues that matter to Michigan families,” she said. “These bills would have lowered costs for Michiganders and strengthened public safety. Had the House presented these bills to me in a timely manner, as the Constitution requires, today would have looked much different.”..

 https://www.michiganpublic.org/politics-government/2026-07-10/michigan-supreme-court-sends-bills-to-whitmer-who-stuns-with-surprise-vetoes