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Almanac for April 28, 2026

Today is Tuesday, April 28, the 118th day of 2026. There are 247 days left in the year. Today in history: In 2004, the world first viewed images of prisoner abuse and torture by U.S. troops at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, via a report broadcast on the CBS television news program "60 Minutes II." Also on this date: In 1789, mutineers led by Fletcher Christian took control of the ship HMS Bounty three weeks after departing Tahiti, setting the ship's captain, Lieutenant William Bligh, and 18 other crew members adrift on a launch in the Pacific Ocean; Bligh and the other men on the launch ...

A secret act of judicial tyranny

In a famous Supreme Court one-liner, reminding the legal community of the finality of the court's rulings, the late Justice William J. Brennan Jr. is reputed to have said that the Constitution means whatever any five of us say it means. This reflects the basic math that five is a majority of ...

Tillis now willing to confirm Trump’s pick for Fed chair

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican senator who had effectively blocked confirmation of President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Federal Reserve said Sunday he was dropping his opposition after the Department of Justice ended its investigation of the current central bank chair. The ...

Almanac for April 27, 2026

Today is Monday, April 27, the 117th day of 2026. There are 248 days left in the year. Today in history: In 2011, during the four-day Super Outbreak, 112 tornadoes touched down across the southeastern United States, killing 319 people in the deadliest day of tornadoes in the U.S. since 1925. Also on this date: In 1521, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed in the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines as he attempted to expand Spanish colonization in the region. In 1813, the Battle of York took place in Upper Canada (modern-day Ontario) during the War of 1812 as U.S. forces ...

All redistricting reformers are hypocrites

Hypocrisy was triumphant, as it usually is in arguments over redistricting, in Virginia this week as voters approved a "fairness" constitutional amendment allowing the Democratic-majority legislature to enact a congressional districting plan that is expected to increase Democrats' edge in its ...

Justice Department to allow firing squads for executions

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department will adopt firing squads as a permitted method of execution as the Trump administration moves to ramp up and expedite capital punishment cases, officials said Friday. The Justice Department is also reauthorizing the use of single-drug lethal ...