Comment on Congress avoids shutdown with stop-gap bill, but another showdown looms in December

President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday announced former Sen. Kelly Loeffler as his pick to lead the Small Business Administration, CNN reports.

President-elect Donald Trump said he wants Billy Long, a former congressman from Missouri, to be the next commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, the New York Times reports. Long was a professional auctioneer and a real estate agent for three decades before joining Congress in 2011, serving six terms until 2023.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told Axios that she is supporting “some” insurgent efforts by House Democrats to topple older committee ranking members.

“House Democrats are poised to unseat several senior committee leaders, and Hakeem Jeffries is letting it happen,” Politico reports. “It’s akin to a mutiny, especially given Democrats’ typical deference to seniority in who leads panels. But party lawmakers are increasingly anxious about the incoming Trump administration and full GOP control of Congress.

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. A small North Carolina town has launched the nation’s first-ever climate accountability lawsuit against an electric utility. The litigation, filed by officials from Carrboro, North Carolina, on Wednesday morning, accuses Duke Energy of waging a “deception campaign” to obscure the climate dangers of fossil fuels.

There is a special relationship between a doting parent and his kid’s in-laws—machatunim in Yiddish, consuegros in Spanish. It doesn’t have a name in English. But, all the same, Donald Trump has elevated this unique extended-familial bond during his time in office. In particular, he has helped his daughters’ husbands’ dads. On Saturday, Trump announced that Charles Kushner—father of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, husband of Trump’s daughter Ivanka—would be appointed ambassador to France.