Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) on Tuesday vetoed a bill banning transgender children from playing school sports, noting in a letter explaining his veto that "rarely has so much fear and anger been directed at so few."
Driving the news: Cox is the second Republican governor this week, after Indiana's Eric Holcomb, to veto legislation that would have banned trans youth from participating in school sports, making them outliers as 11 Republican governors have signed similar bills into law in recent years, per the New York Times.
Removing the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from a U.S. terror list would be “a dangerous capitulation," three former senior Trump administration officials, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, said in a joint statement exclusivelyshared with Axios.
Why it matters: The status of the IRGC is one of the last remaining sticking points in talks to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement.
A woman who could be the first Latinato be executed in Texas asked for clemency Tuesday, saying she was wrongly convicted in the death of her two-year-old daughter.
The big picture: Melissa Lucio's attorneys say she is a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and domestic violence and that her confession was coerced by police after what her lawyers claim was the girl’s accidental death from falling down a flight of stairs.
President Biden intends to announce a new Russia sanctions package during his visit to Europe this week, including measures to crack down on sanctions evasion, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said at a press briefing Tuesday.
Why it matters: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has pleaded with the West to impose new sanctions "every week until the Russian military machine stops."
Ketanji Brown Jackson told senators on Tuesday that she hopes her nomination "will bring confidence" and "help inspire people to understand that our courts are like them, that our judges are like them."
The big picture: "Americans' disapproval of the Supreme Court has been rising, with 44% now having an unfavorable opinion," Axios' Stef W. Kight wrote last month, citing a Pew Research Center survey.
Masks will be optional for children under the age of 5 in New York City schools and daycare settings starting April 4 if COVID cases remain low, Mayor Eric Adams announced Tuesday.
Why it matters: The city lifted its mask mandate for K-12 public schoolchildren two weeks ago. Adams has faced increasing pressure to do the same for younger children as COVID cases in the city dropped off.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, per a statement.
Driving the news: Psaki said she had twosocially distanced meetings with President Biden and he is "not considered a close contact as defined by CDC guidance." She added that the president tested negative for the virus via a PCR test Tuesday.
Couy Griffin, a New Mexico County commissioner who founded Cowboys for Trump, was convicted by a federal judge on Tuesday for breaching the grounds of the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot, Politico reported.
Why it matters: Griffin entered the Capitol grounds and, prosecutors argued, joined a large mob that knowingly entered a restricted area established by the Secret Service to protect former Vice President Mike Pence, per CNN.
Ketanji Brown Jackson on Tuesday pushed back against misleading Republican critiques that she has been soft on sentencing child pornography offenders.
Driving the news: On the second day of her Senate confirmation hearings, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) asked Jackson to address claims, mainly driven by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), that she has been lenient in sentencing child sex offenders. Jackson responded: "Nothing could be further from the truth."
Many Latino advocacy groups are rallying behind Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson despite past criticism that President Biden hasn't nominated enough Latino judges.
Why it matters: Advocates see Jackson, who would be the first Black woman to serve on the high court, as an ally on critical civil rights issues.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said late Monday he would consider dropping Ukraine's requests for full NATO membership — a key Russian demand — in exchange for a cease-fire, the withdrawal of Russian troops and security guarantees, AP reports.
The big picture: Zelensky again called for direct talks with Putin, and said he would also be open to having discussions on Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and parts of the Donbas region held by Russian-backed separatists.
Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson told senators at a confirmation hearing Tuesday she has developed a methodology that ensures she is "ruling impartially."
What she is saying: "Over the course of my almost decade on the bench, I have developed a methodology that I use in order to ensure that I am ruling impartially and that I am adhering to the limits on my judicial authority," Jackson responded when asked by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) about her philosophy.
A higher percentage of Latino and Black students planned to cancel their college plans in Fall 2021 than their white counterparts, a study found.
Why it matters: Latinos already lag behind in educational attainment, which stunts their upward mobility. The pandemic has likely made the Latino college gap even worse.
Alexei Navalny has been convicted of fraud and contempt of court and sentenced to nine years in a maximum security prison, Russianlocal media reported.
Why it matters: The prominent Russian opposition leader and Kremlin critic is already serving a prison sentence of about 2.5 years for violating parole, for which he was charged over his recovery in Germany after surviving a poisoning attempt by Russia's security forces in 2020.
When Sarah Bloom Raskin's nomination to the Federal Reserve cratered last week, the situation looked familiar to one observer — Saule Omarova, who tells Axios the whole situation was "a shame."
Driving the news: Raskin withdrew her nomination for the agency's top regulator post last week, explaining in a letter to the president that her views on climate change drew "relentless attacks" from members of the Senate Banking Committee.
Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb (R) vetoed a bill Monday that would have banned transgender girls from taking part in girls' sports in schools.
Why it matters: Holcomb's action sets him apart from the 11 Republican governors who have in recent years signed similar bills into law, per the New York Times.
Driving the news: Ukrainian forces are "wreaking havoc" on Russia's military and Russian President Vladimir "Putin's back is against the wall," Biden said at a Business Roundtable event after the White House.
A Texas appeals court on Monday reinstated an order preventing the state from investigating parents for child abuse if they seek gender-affirming care for their trans children.
Driving the news: The temporary injunction is "necessary to maintain the status quo and preserve the rights of all parties," the court said in an opinion. It did not rule on the merits of the case.
For Mitch McConnell — a man who has fought for decades to remake the American courts — the battle to confirm Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson is hardly a battle at all.
Why it matters: The way the Senate minority leader sees it, according to conversations with those familiar with his thinking, this is a low-stakes confirmation: Jackson would be one liberal justice replacing another liberal justice. Her confirmation won't upset the court's conservative control.
Offices for members of the House of Representatives had a higher rate of staff turnover last year than in decades, according to new data crunched by LegiStorm.
Why it matters: After a pandemic, fraught election year and attack on the Capitol, there's evidence House offices are feeling some of the same kind of worker challenges as the private sector.
