Monday, Feb. 10

á           President Donald Trump released a $4.8 trillion budget proposal. It features additional military spending including the Space Force initiative; more spending on domestic defense and border enforcement; an extension to individual income tax cuts; significant cuts to student loan assistance and social safety net programs such as affordable housing, food stamps and Medicaid; reductions toward zero for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and NPR; large cuts to and a 2% decrease in domestic programs like education and environmental protection.

á           The Justice Department charged four members of the Chinese military with hacking into credit reporting agency Equifax in 2017, an incident that leaked the personal data of about 145 million Americans.

á           The Defense Department again raised it count of American military personnel who received traumatic brain injuries as a result of Jan. 8Õs Iranian airstrikes on a base in Iraq to 109 individuals, over 50% higher than the last reported count.

á           The Justice Department sued California, New Jersey and Washington state governments in an escalation of the federal governmentÕs fight against Òsanctuary lawsÓ that protect immigrants from federal authorities.

Tuesday, Feb. 11

á           Four federal prosecutors withdrew from former Trump campaign advisor Roger StoneÕs obstruction and perjury case after being overruled by senior Justice Department officials, including Attorney General William Barr, who recommended a more lenient sentence for StoneÕs crimes committed on behalf of the president.

á           Tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang and Colorado Sen. Michael Bennett dropped out of the Democratic presidential primary race.

á           New Hampshire held its primary elections. On the Democratic side, Sen. Bernie Sanders won with 9 delegates, though former mayor Pete Buttigieg came in second in the popular vote and was awarded the same number of delegates. Trump won the Republican race with little opposition.

á           Robert OÕBrien, U.S. national security advisor, claimed that Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications company largely responsible for rolling out 5G wireless network technologies, could use 5G to secretly retrieve sensitive information from devices using its networks.

Wednesday, Feb. 12

á           The Education Department sent letters to Harvard and Yale saying that it was investigating the universitiesÕ possible failure to report at least $375 million in donations, grants, overseas programming and contracts from countries like China, Iran, Russia and Saudi Arabia, alleging that the universities lack Òappropriate institutional controls.Ó

á           Outlets like Mother Jones and the Washington Post reported on how TrumpÕs border wall construction led to the destruction of OÕodham tribal burial grounds in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona. Contractors hired by Customs and Border Patrol began blasting these grounds in early February to make way for a 30-foot border wall along 63 miles of the border.

Thursday, Feb. 13

á           The Senate voted to require the White House to seek congressional authorization for more military action against Iran in a rare 55 to 45 bipartisan bid to rein in the presidentÕs authority.

á           Federal judge Patricia Campbell-Smith ordered Microsoft to halt work on a $10 billion cloud-computing system called the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure project, or JEDI, for the Pentagon. The legal challenge came from Amazon, a competitor for the lucrative contract, which was awarded to Microsoft in October.

Friday, Feb. 14

á           Prosecutors determined that former deputy F.B.I. director Andrew McCabe will not face charges in an investigation into whether he lied to investigators about a media leak. The case comes from Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who in 2018 claimed McCabe misled investigators when asked about information given to a reporter in 2016 about an investigation into the Clinton Foundation.

á           The U.S. Government Accountability Office opened a review of the White HouseÕs $28 billion bailout for farmers harmed by TrumpÕs trade war with China, spurred by allegations of mismanagement and uneven fund allocations.

Saturday, Feb. 15

á           No news to report.

Sunday, Feb. 16

á           Over 1,100 former federal prosecutors and Justice Department officials submitted an open letter that condemned unethical behavior in the U.S. federal legal system and called on Barr to step down as attorney general following his role in lowering Roger StoneÕs sentencing recommendation.