January 13—With 2023 now having clocked in as the hottest year on record for Planet Earth, and with global warming almost at the multi-nationally desired threshhold of 1.5 degrees (Celsius), scientists fear that trends may be worsening.

January 12—Mississippi's Department of Public Safety has released body camera footage showing Sergeant Greg Capers, of the Indianola, MI, police, shooting 11-year-old Aderrien Murray while responding to a domestic violence call. A Mississippi grand jury decided not to recommend charges on December 14.

January 12—The Biden administration, pushing ahead with its commitment to a sustainable future, has announced $623 million in grants to states, local governments and tribal entities for the construction of EV charging stations. 

January 8—Donald Trump has called for the release of all those prosecuted for storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, referring to those captured on video attacking police, rampaging through the Capitol and threatening death to Mike Pence and Nancy Pelose as "hostages." Never since the Civil War has there been a greater threat to the fundamental principles of American democracy.

January 5—Congressional negotiators from the two major parties have arrived at top-line figures of $886 billion in defense and $772 billion in non-defense spending for this fiscal year. Still at issue is whether House Speaker Mike Johnson can keep the hard-right Freedom Caucus in line.

January 5—The Supreme Court of the United States has announced that it will rule on whether Donald Trump can be kept off state ballots on grounds of the "insurrection clause" of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment. Officials in both Colorado and Maine have declared Trump ineligible to appear on primary ballots in their states. The case will be taken up on February 8.

January 5—A Colorado police officer involved in the detention of a Colorado man who died after being injected with the sedative ketamine has been sentenced to 14 months in prison. The great trajedy of this case is that the police had no constitutional right to stop McClain in the first place: a resident had called the police to report that a man dressed in a winter coat and a ski mask was walking through the neighborhood on a warm summer night. Reality check: it is not illegal to wear winter clothes in the summer; under current law, police can only detain citizens when there is reasonable suspicion that they are involved in criminal activity (see, on this site, "Terry v Ohio, Stop and Frisk, and the Making of the American Police State").

January 6—Florida abortion access advocates have gathered the requisite signatures to place a measure banning laws which restrict abortion access before fetal viability on the November ballot.

January 5—The Biden administration anounced yesterday that $162 million will be provided under the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act to Microchip Technology, of Chandler, AZ, to expand manufacturing of the economically and strategically vital components in Colorado and Oregon.

January 3—A record 520,000 aspiring immigrants to the United States, mainly from Venezuela, Ecuador, Haiti and China, made the perilous jungle journey between Panama and Columbia in 2023, fueling a humanitarian crisis in Panama and promising further chaos at the U.S. – Mexico border. Migration from the poorer coutries of the so-called global south to the wealthier nations of the temperate zones has become one of the defining phenomena of our times and will likely present further—and graver challenges—in the future.

January 3—The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned a ruling by District Court judge Cormac Carney, thereby allowing California's recently passed Senate Bill 2, which bans the possession of firearms in most public places, to take effect while an appeal is adjudicated.

January 3—The United States' debt obligations breached the $34 trillion mark for the first time on Tuesday. Amid a general consensus that the national debt—which equates to roughly the entire gross domestic product for one year, or $100,000 per each U.S. citizen—cannot safely continue on its present trajectory, Democrats and Republicans offer starkly divergent solutions.

December 24—Congress leaves DC for a holiday break with the tangled matters of immigration policy and aid for Ukraine which, along with standard budget fights, have occupied the bodies' energies, unresolved. President Biden wants more funds to help Ukraine ward off Russian aggression, with Republicans demanding tighter border controls as a necessary condition (Reuters article). With the "center of gravity" shifting on immigration (second AP News article) Biden looks willing to make a deal, but Democratic members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus are voicing their displeasure (first AP News article): illustrating the hazards of negotiating a polity increasingly based upon ethno-racial identities rather than common political visions.

December 23—The Federal Reserve's skillful maneuvering has brought pandemic-spawned inflation down to 3 percent, with November being the first time in three years that prices have actually declined. The Central Bank has signalled that it will continue to keep interest rates high for now, but that 2024 will likely see a return to looser money.

December 23—A Biden administration initiative uses tax credits to incentivize the production of hydrogen with clearn energy sources