Washington Post Six months after Bijan Ghaisar was fatally shot by two U.S. Park Police officers on a Northern Virginia side street, hundreds of family members, friends and supporters marched around the Justice Department building Saturday chanting, “We want names — we want justice — we are Bijan.” Other than the video of the incident recorded by Fairfax County police, virtually no information has been released about the shooting, including the names of the officers or the reasons they fired nin... Read more

ARL Now President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of an international nuclear deal with Iran is prompting condemnation from Arlington’s congressional delegation. Trump announced Tuesday afternoon that he plans to reimpose economic sanctions on Iran, reversing an agreement hammered out by President Barack Obama’s administration and a variety of other countries to slow Iran’s progress toward building a nuclear weapon. Both of Virginia’s senators, in addition to Rep. Don Beyer... Read more

Government Executive A group of congressional Democrats on Tuesday asked a Justice Department watchdog to investigate allegations that the department improperly considered job candidates’ political views during the hiring process. In a letter to Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, eight Democratic lawmakers highlighted whistleblower accounts that prospective agency employees had job offers delayed or rescinded with “explanations that suggest a pretext for improper political mo... Read more

The Hill Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) on Monday tore into President Trump's tweet attacking special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, saying that Trump wasn’t “a king” who could shut down the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. “Getting competent lawyers to represent you has been a challenge, but there must be someone who can explain to you what 'obstruction of justice' means,” Beyer tweeted at Trump. “You don’t get to suspend the rule of law or shut down investigation... Read more

Bloomberg The fourth departure this week of an Environmental Protection Agency official was announced on Friday, in a move suggesting continued fallout from the controversies swirling around Administrator Scott Pruitt. John Konkus, the agency’s deputy associate administrator for public affairs, is leaving to lead communications at the Small Business Administration. On Thursday, it was announced that Associate Administrator Liz Bowman, Konkus’ boss and the EPA’s top public affairs official, was d... Read more

Think Progress Staff departures from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have become so common that they rarely make news anymore — since Administrator Scott Pruitt took control of the EPA in 2017, more than 700 employees have left the agency. But this week, as federal investigations surrounding Pruitt’s ethical scandals continue to mount, four departures in particular made headlines, as officials with close ties to the administrator announced they would be moving on from the agency. The h... Read more

New York Times A Washington consultant who was removed from President Trump’s transition team for using his business email address for government work played a central role last year in planning a trip to Australia for Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, and then took steps to disguise his role, new documents show. The consultant, Matthew C. Freedman, who is also a former lobbyist for foreign governments, runs his own corporate advisory firm and is treasurer of the Ame... Read more

Think Progress Even before he was sworn in as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Scott Pruitt was demonstrating the questionable judgment that has marked his 15-month tenure as head of the agency. Working with his soon-to-be chief of staff, Pruitt explored the possibility of establishing an EPA office in his hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma. If successful, Pruitt could have stayed in Tulsa to conduct much of his work. As it turned out, Pruitt was unable to get the office set up in... Read more

AP The two top officials in charge of security and toxic-waste cleanups at the Environmental Protection Agency have abruptly left their jobs, days after EPA administrator Scott Pruitt told lawmakers that his subordinates were to blame for alleged ethical lapses that have prompted more than a dozen federal investigations of the agency. In statements Tuesday, Pruitt praised the two men — security chief Pasquale “Nino” Perrotta and Albert Kelly, a former Oklahoma banker who ran the EPA’s Superfund ... Read more

USA TODAY Embattled EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is facing new criticism after it was revealed his controversial trip to Morocco was partially arranged by a lobbyist and cost $100,000 — more than double what was previously reported. The report in The Washington Postdetails more about the December trip, including that Richard Smotkin, a former Comcast lobbyist who is a longtime friend of Pruitt, accompanied him on the trip and served as a liaison. Originally, the trip was reported as costing ab... Read more