Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz joins Erie County Legislator Lawrence Dupre and attorneys from the Erie County Department of Law to officially sign the recently passed Biometric Transparency and Privacy Act.
The BTPA makes Erie the first county in New York State to ban private businesses from collecting, storing, using, and selling customer biometric data.
Additional information is available at erie.gov/Biometrics.
A political expert issued a dark warning on Monday as the country prepares for the November midterms.
President Donald Trump has made it clear that he intends to meddle in the 2026 midterms. He has called on the Postal Service to create a national voter database and send mail-in ballots only to people on that list, a move that the courts have upheld thus far. He has also repeatedly called on Republicans to pass the SAVE American Act, a bill that would rewrite the way U.S. elections are conducted.
David Rothkopf, a political analyst and columnist for The Daily Beast, argued during a new episode of "The Daily Beast Podcast" that Trump has weakened America's election security infrastructure and plans to use that to his advantage in the midterms.
“Buckle up, everybody,” Rothkopf warned. “The next 90 days are going to be a weird and wild ride.”
One looming issue for the midterms is that the Supreme Court has yet to rule on an appeal the Trump administration filed regarding new rules it set for mail-in ballots. Experts have speculated that the Court could rule on it using the so-called shadow docket, an emergency procedure that allows the court to issue a ruling without explaining its rationale.
Rothkopf noted that the efforts are all part of Trump's continued efforts to stay in power, which appear to be failing.
“Donald Trump is drowning in failure,” Rothkopf said. “Nothing he says or does is working anymore. And so he’s got to try these wild schemes to distract from it, to get attention, to hope it disrupts something.”
A political analyst was floored after one of President Donald Trump's cabinet secretaries erupted during a CNN interview.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. went on a tirade on Sunday's "State of the Union" with host Dana Bash, one that devolved into Kennedy shouting at Bash about issues ranging from the COVID-19 vaccine to autism. Will Saletan, a writer at The Bulwark, argued during a new podcast episode on Monday that Kennedy's tirade was indicative of the fact that he's a 'fanatic' rather than a scientist.
"The guy has no shame," Saletan said.
He pointed to one moment in particular where Kennedy claimed that COVID-19 was manufactured to impact Caucasians and Black people more so than other races. He also mentioned Kennedy's blatant untruths about how former CDC Director Anthony Fauci managed the pandemic.
"The problem with Kennedy is he doesn't think like a scientist. He's a fanatic," Saletan said.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) fired back at President Donald Trump on Wednesday, saying opposition to his IRS tax settlement runs far deeper than just two senators.
At 11:15 AM, Trump wrote on Truth Social that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was "a STAR" with the potential to be "one of the Greatest Attorney Generals of All Time."
He blamed Cornyn and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) — "both of whom I refused to Endorse, and whose political careers have been ended by my action" — for blocking the confirmation.
Just seven minutes after Trump backed down, Cornyn rubbed salt in the wound by responding to Trump on X.
"POTUS is mistaken if he believes concerns about the provisions in his tax lawsuit settlement are limited to me and Senator Tillis," Cornyn wrote on X.
The standoff forced the Senate Judiciary Committee to scrap a scheduled Thursday vote on Blanche's nomination, a setback for one of Trump's top Cabinet picks, MS NOW reported.
"I have no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd's name, if they do not do the right thing, and putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office," Trump wrote on Truth Social, threatening to pull the nomination entirely and resubmit it once both senators leave office.
Earlier Wednesday, before Trump's post, Cornyn and Tillis had told Politico that someone inside the White House — not Trump himself — was blocking a deal.
"I don't know who it is — I'm just trying to get them out of the way so we can get the president his AG," Tillis said.
"If this were just between me and Todd Blanche, we would have worked this out, but, apparently, he's getting some pushback from higher ups at the White House," Cornyn said, adding that he did not know who was responsible. "I don't know who, but it doesn't need to be this hard."
"Why don't you call over the DOJ and tell them they have one hour and 50 minutes to get me what I asked for," Cornyn told reporters Wednesday afternoon, as negotiations with the Department of Justice dragged on, MS NOW reported.
"What I've advised the chair, and I would assume Senator Cornyn said something similar, is that we're not prepared to vote yes yet," Tillis said Wednesday night, confirming neither senator had moved.
