Rumors are spreading that the U.S. Supreme Court will vote 5-4 to rule that a U.S. president cannot be prosecuted for anything he does while he is president. Some Democrats are suggesting that Joe Biden bring a gun to his first debate with Donald Trump. If he shoots Trump, he would be immune, but if Trump shoots Biden he would be prosecuted because he is not a sitting president.   read more

Alvaro has spent his entire career in the U.S. Army, first in the infantry and later as a foreign area officer, rising to the rank of colonel. He has served as battalion logistical officer, company executive officer, and rifle platoon leader in the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, New York; as plans officer in the Second Infantry Division in South Korea; and as division G3 readiness officer and company commander in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.   read more

Despite proposing last year to abolish the agency altogether, Trump recently named Peede as new chair for the NEH, the largest funder of humanities-related activities in the U.S. Peede’s first public service experience was at the NEA, the NEH’s sister institution, from 2003 to 2011. He served as counselor to its chair, director of the Big Read program and director of Operation Homecoming, which helped war veterans who served in Afghanistan and Iraq write about their experiences.   read more

Pew reported that 500 active bots were responsible for 22% of tweeted links to news and current event pages. Active human users, meanwhile, were responsible for just 6% of tweeted links from popular news sites. Lately, bots have become inextricably tied to the spread of “fake news” and synonymous with interference in the 2016 presidential election and the sowing of partisan divides. Twitter estimated that 1.4 million users engaged with Russian propaganda through postings on its platform.   read more

In the 1980s, Redfield championed a policy under which service members were tested for HIV. Those who tested positive were segregated from other service members and treated like prisoners, with some dishonorably discharged. “What one wants in a director of the CDC is a scientist of impeccable scientific integrity,” said CSPI's Peter Lurie. “What one would get in Robert Redfield is a sloppy scientist with a long history of scientific misconduct and an extreme religious agenda."   read more

An assistant to then-Sen. Larry Pressler, Begeman followed Pressler, in 1995, to the Senate Commerce Committee when Pressler took over as its chairman. She worked there as a staffer, then became the deputy staff director before leaving in 2004 for the staff of Sen. John McCain. Begeman served as his legislative director and acting chief of staff, and she took a leave to work as a campaign spokesman during McCain’s unsuccessful 2008 run for the presidency.   read more

Akard was tapped in 2017 to join the Trump team in the State Dept. He was later nominated to be director general of the Foreign Service, a job traditionally given to those with long years of State Dept service. Akard’s nomination drew fierce criticism from current and former members of the Foreign Service. The job requires Foreign Service experience to keep it from being politicized. The nomination was withdrawn the day after Akard was nominated to lead the Office of Foreign Missions.   read more

Upon graduating from Northern Michigan University in 1999, Jorjani went right into government with a job as a legislative aide to Rep. Paul Ryan. She moved to the Interior Dept and soon became special assistant for historic preservation there. As the Bush administration was winding down, Jorjani went to work for the non-profit Preservation Action, a group that lobbies on preservation issues. Since earning her M.A. degree in 2012, she has been an independent preservation consultant.   read more

In 1997, Walker became program manager for the Unsteady Aerodynamics and Hypersonics Research Program at the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. He was named special assistant to the director of defense research and engineering at the Pentagon in 2001. Walker then moved to DARPA as program manager in the Tactical Technology Office, working on the Falcon hypersonic program, with the goal of creating a platform that would deliver a weapon anywhere in the world in about two hours.   read more

In Lawrence, the Department of Veterans Affairs has a permanent undersecretary for benefits for the first time since 2015. After more than 15 years with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Lawrence became something of a job-hopper, working as a vice president with IBM Business Consulting Services, as a senior director with the MITRE Corporation, and as a vice president with Accenture. In all these positions, Lawrence provided consulting services to government leaders and agencies.   read more

After working as executive director of the Republican Party in Monmouth County, in 1984 Romano, although only 29 years old, gained the Republican nomination for the House of Representatives in a heavily Democratic district and was defeated by incumbent Robert Torricelli. Much later, Romano explained, “I ran only because it was a huge stage. All I wanted to talk about was drugs, and drug abuse, and the devastation it had on the American family.'”   read more

Collett initially followed his father into the ministry and served as a pastor for about ten years. He then taught public high school for eight years. In 2008, Collett joined the Kentucky Dept of Education, first as an exceptional children consultant, then as an assistant division director and finally as state director for special education. He left Kentucky in 2015 for the Council of Chief State School Officers, where he served as its program director for special education outcomes.   read more

Under Trump, the U.S. State Dept. has been gutted – with the departure of many high-level career diplomats and a proposed budget drop of 29%. Without diplomats to guide our military, we are left with an accelerating vicious cycle – the more “bad guys” we kill abroad, the more we have to kill. An increasing number of those we pre-emptively kill, instead of bargaining with, will be either civilians or heroes in their own countries. Martyring them guarantees the loss of future American lives.   read more

An attorney whose firm once represented Donald Trump, Mark Burnett Prodns, and NBC Universal in a copyright case concerning Trump’s TV show, “The Apprentice,” is now director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and under secretary of commerce for intellectual property. Iancu has served on the board of directors of Sinai Temple, the oldest and largest Conservative Jewish congregation in Los Angeles, and also been a member of the right-wing American Israel Public Affairs Committee since 2010.   read more

In 2012, Ashley was made deputy chief of staff, intelligence for the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, and soon moved up to major general. In 2013, he took over as commandant and base commander of the Army Intelligence Center of Excellence at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. He became lieutenant general in 2015. His next assignment was at the Pentagon as deputy Army chief of staff in charge of intelligence, counterintelligence and security.   read more

When Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election, he brought in Ricardel as the leader of the Defense Department transition team. Early in the administration, she clashed with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis over the vetting of nominees for that department. Mattis threatened to quit if Ricardel wasn’t moved out of the Defense Department because she was blocking his choices for various positions. Shortly after, on March 30, 2017, Ricardel was nominated for the Commerce Department post.   read more

As commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center, Greaves worked to find alternatives to the Russian rocket engine that powers the Atlas V rocket. Contracts were eventually awarded to Aerojet Rocketdyne and the United Launch Alliance. Greaves also was there in April 2016 when SpaceX broke the Boeing-Lockheed Martin monopoly for the development of national security payload launches. Greaves was still in command at Los Angeles AFB when he was appointed to lead the Missile Defense Agency.   read more