Politics
GAO Finds Gaps in $126M U.S. Effort to Stop Gun Trafficking to Mexico
Federal agencies spending roughly $126 million to combat firearms trafficking to Mexico cannot demonstrate whether that money is working, according to a new...
China Remains Key Source of Fentanyl Precursors Despite Controls
Since China's 2019 domestic controls curtailed almost all direct fentanyl shipments to the United States, China has become the primary source of the...
Marijuana Rescheduling Leaves Most Penalties and Consequences Intact
Federal rescheduling of medical marijuana changed tax and other rules for qualifying businesses and products, but most marijuana-specific criminal penalties...
Congress Faces Enforcement Questions When Federal Laws Stay Silent
When Congress creates a federal legal obligation without specifying how to enforce it, the law may be effectively unenforceable if no other enforcement...
Federal Regulation of Kratom Compound 7-OH Remains Unsettled
A kratom-related compound sold in products online and at convenience stores remains outside federal controlled-substance schedules as the Drug Enforcement...
FDA Proposal to Require GRAS Notices Raises Legal Questions
Whether the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can require companies to disclose substances they determine are generally recognized as safe (GRAS), without...
Southeast Asia Scam Centers Cost Americans $12.5B in 2025
Americans lost an estimated $12.5 billion in 2025 to online scam centers operating from Southeast Asia, and the problem is growing, according to a new...
Classwide Drug Scheduling Questioned Amid Synthetic Opioid Spread
The Drug Enforcement Administration has had difficulties keeping pace with new substances that chemists slightly alter to fall outside existing controls, a...
Child Labor Violations Rising, but Enforcement is Lacking
Child labor violations and the number of children affected by those violations have been on the rise since fiscal year 2015, according to a new federal...
Supreme Court Considers Climate Lawsuits Against Energy Companies
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on Oct. 5 in Suncor Energy (U.S.A.) Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County, a case that could...
Justice Department Changes Create Uncertainty in Drug Enforcement
A new Justice Department memorandum and other developments have left the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)...
Hidden Owners, Hidden Fraud: Federal Awards Lack Ownership Rules
Hundreds of billions of dollars in federal awards are vulnerable to fraud schemes that exploit the near-total absence of beneficial ownership disclosure...
GOP's Attack on Former Special Counsel Jack Smith Backfires
The oversight hearing held yesterday over former Special Counsel Jack Smith's prosecutions of President Trump produced tension over whether Smith abused...
Federal Watchdog Finds Gaps in DEA, FDA Drug Scheduling Procedures
A recent Government Accountability Office report found that the DEA lacks policies identifying roles, responsibilities, and procedures for scheduling, and...
AI Safety Collaboration Faces Antitrust Law Barriers
Competing developers of frontier artificial intelligence models have no settled path to jointly slow work for safety without inviting unlawful-restraint...
A COVID Cover-Up? Senate to Vote Again on Witness Immunity
A Senate committee will consider seeking immunity for a former government official accused of covering up and destroying government records pertaining to...
Federal Courts Uphold Gun Ban With Conflicting Legal Theories
Every federal appeals court to weigh in has upheld the federal ban on firearm possession by people unlawfully present in the United States, yet they have...
Senate Judiciary Probes Flock's AI Cameras Amid Abuse Claims
The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, chaired by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), held what The Hill described as the first congressional...