Believe it or not, the Trump administration may be the best thing to happen to journalism in a long time.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday that Edward Snowden never filed paperwork to seek a pardon from President Barack Obama, suggesting that in the final days of the Obama administration, the president will not grant the NSA whistle-blower clemency.

AP reported Tuesday afternoon that President Barack Obama officially commuted the 35-year sentence of Chelsea Manning. Manning (born Bradley Manning) was charged and convicted in 2013 under the Espionage Act for leaking classified military documents and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks.

President Obama announced that Manning would be freed on May 17, 2017.

With a Trump presidency coupled with a GOP Congress on the near horizon, changes in health care reform are finally on the table. Other than those with preexisting conditions, many on the left haven’t been thrilled with Obamacare but will defend it as a “step in the right direction,” presumably toward universal health care or a single-payer system.

The right didn't initially respond with pointing out what was actually wrong with Obamacare, somehow feeling the need to engage in hyperbole until the real flaws became so prevalent it was no longer necessary.

San Diego, CALIF.- District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis has confirmed she will not be seeking re-election in 2018.

Dumanis has led the District Attorney's office for 14 years. She told her staff of the decision in a Tuesday morning email.

Dumanis said said she reached the decision over the holiday season, and consulted with family and colleagues before making the decision.

Dumanis said she is pleased with the progress the District Attorney’s Office has made evolved and is comfortable saying goodbye.

San Diego, Calif. - U.S. Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) released a statement Monday announcing that he will be attending President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony Friday, saying he "greatly respects the office of the Presidency, even if he does not respect the man who will now inhabit it."

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s tireless campaign against segregation earned him a legacy that stands among those of the greatest American heroes. He helped force the change that guaranteed every American’s right to vote and that tore down the institutional Jim Crow system.

But it is vital to King’s commemoration to remember that his vision extended well beyond voting rights and segregation. Prior to his assassination in 1968, he initiated a second Civil Rights campaign against American militarism and endemic poverty — problems that went unsolved and remain so in our time.

In December, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi told CBS’s Face the Nation that she didn’t think people wanted a new direction for the Democratic Party. But recently, voters in California sent Pelosi quite the opposite message.

Tijuana, Mexico - The protests of Mexico’s gasoline price hike continued over the weekend at the main points of entry of San Ysidro and Otay Mesa, California.

U.S. authorities had to divert southbound traffic from Interstates 5 and 805.

It took hours to get traffic back to a regular flow.

The total number of demonstrators was estimated at close to 15,000.

On January 10, 2017, serial killer and hate criminal Dylann Roof was sentenced to death for the 2015 murder of nine African Americans at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston. Upon interrogation, Roof admitted his assault was racially motivated and that he intended to spark a race war in the United States.