The House Oversight Committee just advanced a vote to hold Attorney General William Barr in civil contempt, and it has nothing to do with the Mueller probe.
The committee has spent months trying to pull testimony from the Justice and Commerce Departments over the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census and met resistance every step of the way. So on Wednesday, it voted to hold Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in civil contempt for their refusal to hand over documents related to the census decision.
The vote comes just hours after the DOJ sent a letter to Oversight Committee Chair Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) saying President Trump would assert his executive privilege to avoid subpoenas over the question. Cummings delayed the panel's contempt vote for a few hours so its members could read it. Every Democrat on the panel voted to advance the contempt votes, but only Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) switched sides to join them. Amash has so far been the only congressional Republican to call for Trump's impeachment.
Ross first announced his department's decision to add the citizenship question last year, but questions have since risen over whether the DOJ requested the addition, as Ross first claimed, or whether it was politically motivated. Critics of the question say it will discourage undocumented people from taking the census and depress voter representation. Kathryn Krawczyk
Bacteria might just be the key to making us all healthier.
A new study published in the journal Nature Medicine on Monday offers new evidence that there are certain types of microbes present in the digestive tracts of athletes that help their bodies' endurance during exercise. Scientists took a look at a bacteria that is especially common in runners' bodies after a marathon, called Veillonella, NPR explained.
They then introduced that bacteria into mice, and found that those mice performed 13 percent better on an exercise wheel than mice who didn't get the boost. That's a huge effect — strong evidence that Veillonella is actually the cause of better athletic performance, not just its byproduct. This type of microbe actually feeds on lactate, a chemical that builds up in sore muscles and fatigued bodies.
While 13 percent might be a big change in mice, though, it's not confirmed that this bacteria would have the same effect on humans. It's highly unlikely that you could just take a Veillonella supplement to get a boost in your athletic performance, because "it's harder to replicate an effect" in the human body than in mice, said Morgan Langille, a microbiome researcher not involved in the research. But it's still "a really impressive study" that helps us understand more about the tiny ecosystems inside our bodies.
Further research will be necessary before a supplement could be tested on humans, but at least there's hope that someday, exercise won't need to be so much of a slog. Read more at NPR. Shivani Ishwar
A government watchdog will criticize White House counselor Kellyanne Conway's "unacceptable" and "unlawful" behavior while testifying before Congress this week.
The Office of Special Counsel recommended earlier this month that Conway be fired for "repeatedly" violating the Hatch Act, which limits the political activities federal employees can engage in, and Special Counsel Henry Kerner will discuss this while testifying before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on Wednesday, The Daily Beast reports.
In an opening statement released on Monday, Kerner criticizes Conway for her "egregious and repeated Hatch Act violations," as well as her "unrepentant attitude," which he says are "unacceptable from any federal employee, let alone one in such a prominent position."
"Her conduct hurts both federal employees, who may believe that senior officials can act with complete disregard for the Hatch Act, and the American people, who may question the nonpartisan operation of their government," he writes.
Kerner goes on to again lay out why it was "inappropriate" and "unlawful" for Conway to "argue in support of President Trump's reelection and in opposition to the election of the Democratic Party's candidates for president" in her official capacity as a White House official. He also notes that the Office of Special Counsel has had to issue multiple reports about Conway's violations. "Ms. Conway's conduct reflects not a misunderstanding of the law, but rather a disregard for it," he therefore concludes.
Conway has denied that she violated the Hatch Act, saying in a Monday interview on Fox News, "they want to silence me." Trump has said he has no plans to fire Conway. Brendan Morrow
Four people have been found dead along the Rio Grande Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra said Sunday.
Two of the people found were infants, one was a toddler, and one was a 20-year-old woman, Guera continued in a Sunday tweet. They all appear to be undocumented immigrants, an FBI official told NPR.
Right now, it looks as if the four people died of dehydration and heat overexposure, and foul play is not currently suspected, the FBI said. Still, the agency will be continuing an investigation into the deaths, with a spokesperson calling it "an incredibly heartbreaking situation, which seems to happen far too often." The bodies were found close to where a section of President Trump's proposed border wall is being built, seeing as the Rio Grande is the most heavily trafficked area of the border, Customs and Border Protection told The Associated Press.
The news comes as reports reveal that migrant children are living in unsanitary, overcrowded detention facilities along the border. A recent lawsuit alleged that more than 300 children in a Clint, Texas facility — some as young as 2 1/2 years old — were living in conditions that "could be compared to torture facilities," a local physician who visited the facility said in a report. All but 30 of those children have since been taken out of the facility, Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) told The Associated Press on Monday. The children were reportedly moved to a tent detention center, a Homeland Security official told NBC News. Kathryn Krawczyk
Certain commonly-prescribed medications have been linked with an increased risk of dementia among older adults, new research has found.
A study, published on Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, discovered a strong association between a high risk of dementia and a type of medication known as "anticholinergic" drugs, CNN reported. This describes any drug that blocks the chemical acetylcholine from its function in the nervous system — and anticholinergic drugs can be used to treat a variety of conditions, from dizziness and insomnia to epilepsy and mental disorders.
In particular, the study found that certain types of anticholinergics — including antidepressants, antipsychotics, and antiepileptics — were associated with a particularly high risk of dementia when taken by adults over the age of 55 for long periods of time. In some cases, the risk increased by as much as 50 percent when patients were exposed to a daily dose of anticholinergic drugs for three years or more.
While the association has been noticed before, it's still far from confirmed that these drugs actually cause the increased dementia risk, rather than just being linked with it. "No firm conclusions can be drawn about whether these drugs cause dementia," said Carol Coupland, the study's lead author and a professor at the University of Nottingham.
More research will be required before determining whether or not there is a causal link between anticholinergics and dementia — so patients shouldn't stop taking "critical and important" medications, said Douglas Scharre, a neurologist at Ohio State University. Instead, "have a conversation with your doctor" about the risks involved with your medications, he recommended.
Read more at CNN. Shivani Ishwar