Author

Jacob Fischler

Jacob Fischler

Jacob covers federal policy as a senior reporter for States Newsroom. Based in Oregon, he focuses on Western issues. His coverage areas include climate, energy development, public lands and infrastructure.

U.S. Senate panel grapples with how to ensure access to water amid Western drought

By: - September 20, 2023

Decades of drought in the West has made water quality and quantity a major issue requiring government funding and innovation to fix, members of a U.S. Senate panel said Wednesday. Demand for water in growing municipalities is stretching agricultural and tribal communities, while shrinking availability is leading to higher water prices, witnesses told the Senate […]

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, speaks during a news conference following a closed-door lunch meeting with Senate Democrats at the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 6, 2023 in Washington, D.C. At left is U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat and chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Battles over spending, farm bill, Ukraine and yet more loom over a divided Congress

By: , , and - September 13, 2023

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House and Senate are both back in D.C. following a long summer recess, facing an overwhelming agenda of unfinished work — funding the federal government and reauthorizing major programs set to expire at the end of the month. Congressional leaders and President Joe Biden have only a few weeks to broker […]

New federal water pollution rule draws mixed reaction

By: - August 31, 2023

A federal rule limiting agencies’ power to regulate water pollution will severely restrict protections for waters and wetlands throughout the country, but could also be subject to challenges from conservative groups that maintain the new rule exerts more federal jurisdiction than the U.S. Supreme Court intended in a May decision. With the rule published Tuesday […]

President Joe Biden addresses a White House reception for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law on Aug. 28, 2023, the 60th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington.

‘Hate will not prevail in America’: Biden marks 60 years since March on Washington

By: - August 28, 2023

The U.S. still hasn’t met the goals of the Civil Rights Movement, President Joe Biden said Monday, the 60th anniversary of one of the movement’s most iconic events. Six decades to the day after the 1963 March on Washington, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, Biden urged Americans not […]

Trump absent but still dominates as GOP presidential rivals clash at first debate

By: , and - August 23, 2023

Eight Republican presidential candidates gathered onstage Wednesday night in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for a heated first primary debate heavily influenced by former President Donald Trump, though the party’s front runner refused to attend the two-hour event. Trump instead recorded a competing 46-minute interview with former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson that aired on X, formerly known […]

Internet access in rural areas can be poor.

‘The internet is no longer a luxury’: $667M from USDA for rural broadband

By: - August 22, 2023

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will spend another $667 million on rural broadband loans and grants, the department said, marking the fourth round of Biden administration funding under a program that the 2021 infrastructure law invigorated. Nearly three-quarters of the funding, $493 million, will go toward grants, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on a Friday […]

Biden administration proposes $106 million for Western salmon and steelhead recovery 

By: - August 17, 2023

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is recommending sending $106 million to 16 salmon and steelhead recovery efforts in five Western states, the federal agency said Thursday. NOAA and the Department of Commerce recommended grants to state agencies with salmon protection missions, tribes and tribal partnerships in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and California. The funding […]

Former President Donald Trump addresses an Alabama Republican Party fundraiser on Friday, Aug. 4, 2023 in Montgomery, Alabama.

Updated: The Trump indictments: a seven-year timeline of key developments

By: - August 15, 2023

Former President Donald Trump is a defendant in four criminal proceedings. Two cases are federal, brought after investigations by Special Counsel Jack Smith. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg brought the first indictment against Trump, charging him in New York state court. The most recent prosecution, in Georgia state court, is being led by Fulton County […]

Former President Donald Trump boards his plane at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, following an arraignment in Washington, D.C. federal court on August 3, 2023.

Trump pleads not guilty to charges he sought to subvert 2020 election

By: and - August 3, 2023

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to four felony charges Thursday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., after a federal grand jury handed up an indictment against the former chief executive. Trump, the front-runner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, was released under the conditions that he must not violate federal, […]

‘Fueled by lies,’ Trump charged with seeking to overturn 2020 election

By: , and - August 1, 2023

WASHINGTON — A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., indicted Donald Trump on Tuesday, alleging that Trump and co-conspirators attempted to subvert the 2020 election to keep the former president in power through a series of illegal actions that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The former president faces four […]

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack speaks at an event at World Forestry Center in Portland.

U.S. ag secretary touts Biden climate agenda as boost for rural America in Oregon visit

By: - July 31, 2023

PORTLAND, Ore. — U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack sees the Biden administration’s climate agenda as a boon for rural economies, he said Monday during a visit to Portland’s World Forestry Center. The U.S. Forest Service, which is part of the Agriculture Department, will begin accepting applications for a second round of grants from its Community […]

New charges for Trump in classified documents case involve video evidence

By: - July 31, 2023

A federal grand jury added three felony charges against Donald Trump on Thursday in the case alleging the former president took classified materials from the White House after his term ended. Trump directed employees to destroy video evidence that could aid the prosecution in the criminal case, according to a 60-page superseding indictment filed Thursday afternoon full […]