President Joe Biden signed a sweeping $750 billion health care, tax and climate bill into law at the White House on Tuesday -- marking a major victory for his administration and the Democratic Party ahead of the midterm elections.

Biden said during a signing ceremony in the State Dining Room that the legislation, called the Inflation Reduction Act, is "one of the most significant laws in our history."

"With this law, the American people won and the special interests lost," Biden told an audience of Democratic members of Congress and administration officials. "For a while people doubted whether any of that was going to happen, but we are in a season of substance."

The bill signing is the latest celebration of a major legislative accomplishment for Biden this summer, having already held bill signings at the White House last week for a bill aimed at increasing domestic semiconductor production and increasing benefits for veterans affected by toxic burn pits in Afghanistan and Iraq.

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In another era, Liz Cheney would have been exactly the kind of candidate Republican leaders would champion. She has the voting record, the pedigree, the fortitude, the eloquence and the smarts they might look for in the party's first female presidential nominee. But in this, the Era of Trump, traditional political strengths have been supplanted by blind loyalty to the standard bearer. So it is that Wyoming's sole member of Congress has become a pariah in her own party, stripped of her House leadership position, expelled by her state's GOP, widely derided and essentially banished for having the audacity to fight for something conservatives like her used to hold dear: America's democracy. Because Cheney had the gall to take on Donald Trump and his insurrectionists, the former president has taken on Cheney by promoting her primary challenger. On Tuesday, if the polls are to be believed, Cheney will lose. But shed no tears for Liz Cheney. Her star has never shone more brightly.

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Rep. Liz Cheney is not backing down, even as poll numbers reveal an uphill battle to reelection. Ahead of the Wyoming Republican primary election on Aug. 16, Cheney, 56, released her final ad campaign in her bid to earn the GOP's nomination for House of Representatives. During the nearly two-and-a-half-minute video posted Thursday, Cheney condemns the lies surrounding the 2020 presidential elections. "America cannot remain free if we abandon the truth," Cheney said. "The lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen in insidious, it preys on those who love their country, it is a door Donald Trump opened to manipulate Americans to abandon their principles, to sacrifice their freedom, to justify violence, to ignore the rulings of our courts and the rule of law." Talking to the citizens of her state and across the country, Cheney affirmed that while the lies make up former President Trump's legacy, "it cannot be the future of our nation." She continued, explaining that history has proven that "poisonous lies destroy free nations."

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The FBI is warning of calls for civil war and a dirty bomb threat against its D.C. headquarters following its raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. 

In a leaked bulletin, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security said they have seen an increase in “violent threats” against law enforcement, government officials and judges in the week since the agents executed the search warrant at Mr. Trump’s residence.

The bulletin warned of talk to place a dirty bomb in front of FBI headquarters and “general calls” for a civil war and armed rebellion. Investigators also are monitoring threats against the federal judge who approved the warrant to search Mr. Trump’s residence. 

FBI Director Christopher A. Wray said last week there has been a noticeable uptick in threats against law enforcement since the Mar-a-Lago raid.

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With California enduring historic drought amplified by global warming, Gov. Gavin Newsom released a new plan to adapt to the state’s hotter, drier future by capturing and storing more water, recycling more wastewater and desalinating seawater and salty groundwater.

The governor’s new water-supply strategy lays out a series of actions aimed at preparing the state for an estimated 10% decrease in California’s water supply by 2040 because of higher temperatures and decreased runoff. The plan focuses on accelerating infrastructure projects, boosting conservation and upgrading the state’s water system to match the increasing pace of climate change, securing enough water for an estimated 8.4 million households.

“The hots are getting a lot hotter. The dries are getting a lot drier,” Newsom said. “We have to adapt to that new reality and we have to change our approach.”

Newsom called it “an aggressive plan to rebuild the way we source, store and deliver water so our kids and grandkids can continue to call California home in this hotter, drier climate.”

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention loosened Covid-19 guidelines on Thursday, freeing schools and businesses from the onus of requiring unvaccinated people exposed to the virus to quarantine at home.

The changes are a sharp move away from measures such as social distancing requirements and quarantining, which had polarized much of the country, and effectively acknowledge the way many Americans have been navigating the pandemic for some time. The agency’s action comes as children across the country return to school and many offices have reopened.

“We know that Covid-19 is here to stay,” Greta Massetti, a C.D.C. epidemiologist, said at a news briefing on Thursday. “High levels of population immunity due to vaccination and previous infection, and the many tools that we have available to protect people from severe illness and death, have put us in a different place.”

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Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the Justice Department has filed a motion in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida to unseal portions of a search warrant and property receipt served at a court-approved FBI search of former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence earlier this week. 

In his statement, Garland said that the Justice Department filed the motion to unseal the receipt and portions of the warrant in light of Trump’s decision to publicly confirm the search of his residence. Though he did not reveal the basis of the search, Garland confirmed that he personally approved the department’s decision to seek a search warrant of Trump’s home. Garland also said that the “department does not take such a decision lightly” and made clear that it was not a possibility for the department to take a “less intrusive” approach. Garland concluded his statement by renouncing “recent unfounded attacks” on Justice Department and FBI officials.

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As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Neighbors for a Better San Francisco is barred by federal tax law from participating in political campaigns. But one of the group’s board members is William Oberndorf, who is also on the board of a similarly named group called Neighbors for a Better San Francisco Advocacy, a 501(c)(4) that is allowed to get involved in campaigns and spent millions trying to get Boudin removed from office.

Jenkins’ disclosure provoked controversy because she said she worked on the Boudin recall in a volunteer capacity. Here’s what we know about the revelation’s impact and what could come next:

Quentin Kopp, a retired judge and former member of the San Francisco Ethics Commission who supported the recall of Boudin, said Jenkins does not appear to have broken any law.

“The fact that she didn’t disclose she was being paid — that’s what voters can evaluate in November,” Kopp said, referring to the special election for district attorney.

“She wouldn’t be the first candidate for office who didn’t disclose all relevant facts pertaining to any campaign issue,” he said.

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“Another day in paradise,” Donald Trump cheerfully observed after FBI agents raided his home in Florida as part of a criminal investigation. There is no reason to assume he was being sarcastic. The raid had conjured a Trumpian Eden: the nation’s eyes were riveted upon him once again; Republican legislators who had been edging away rallied behind him, as did potential rivals for the Republican presidential nomination; some of his supporters were again calling online for a civil war to defend their champion. Trump was able to present himself in his favorite light, as the victim of dark, partisan forces out to protect the establishment by dragging him down. Having trashed the FBI and Department of Justice for years, he had prepared not just his core believers but probably half the country to suspect that the rule of law was being undermined, not honored.

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After facing criticism over comparing abortion to the Holocaust, State Sen. and Illinois gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey doubled down on the comments during a radio interview, claiming that a group of rabbis supported the comparison, something that the group denies.

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