The estimated $80 million fortune of legendary actor Gene Hackman may not go to his kids if the terms of his 1995 will are allowed to stand, according to TMZ.
The 1995 document left his entire estate to Hackman's wife, Betsy Arakawa, who was found dead with him in their home in New Mexico last month.
Arakawa left most of her estate to Hackman, but she had a clause in her will that could throw a monkey wrench into everything.
A provision in her will says that if they die within 90 days of each other, her estate would go to charity.
That could leave out Hackman's adult children Christopher, Leslie, and Elizabeth.
Hackman reportedly had a strained relationship with his kids with late ex-wife Faye Maltese for a while, but in his later years they got along better even though they didn't see him too often.
The Independent reported that Christopher has hired prominent estate attorney Andrew M. Katzenstein, which may indicate that he plans to challenge the will.
TMZ seemed to think the kids could get at least some of Hackman's millions because of the strange way the wills were done and their age.
Also, it appears that Arakawa died first of hantavirus, which may make the clause in her will void. Logically, she couldn't inherit any of Hackman's money if she died first.
In other news, representative for Hackman's estate Julia Peters asked a local court to block the release of any autopsy-related information from the public.
Peters was especially concerned about the photos of their bodies, which had reportedly lain in the house for at least a week.
The couple “lived an exemplary private life for over 30 years in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and did not showcase their lifestyle,” the petition said.
As private as the Hackmans were, they surely would not want pictures of their dead bodies all over the news.
Because of the unusual nature of their deaths, it's certain they've been in the news a lot more than they wanted to be.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on Saturday that she will skip the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) dinner on April 26, calling it an "exclusive club."
“I will not be in attendance at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and that’s breaking news for The Sean Spicer Show,” Leavitt said. Spicer was the White House press secretary at the beginning of President Donald Trump's first term.
She called the association an “exclusive group of journalists who cover this White House, they have not really welcomed other people, new media, independent journalists with open arms, and so we thought it was time to expand the coverage and determine who gets to be part of that 13-person press pool, who gets to ask the president of the United States questions in the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One.”
“This is a group of journalists who’ve been covering the White House for decades,” she explained.
Leavitt continued, “They started this organization because the presidents at the time were not doing enough press conferences. I don’t think we have that problem anymore under this president, so the priorities of the media have shifted, especially with this new digital age.”
She explained more about the changes Trump has made to allow smaller outlets expanded access to information about his actions and activities.
“Since we have started this new process of determining the daily rotation, so many new voices and outlets who have never been part of this small and privileged group of journalists have been able to access those very unique and privileged spaces and cover this presidency and that’s very important,” Leavitt remarked.
The president of WHCA's board, Eugene Daniels has claimed that the new rotation “tears at the independence of a free press in the United States."
The rotation forced Reuters, the Associated Press, and Bloomberg to take turns attending press briefings.
After the Associated Press refused to follow a Trump executive order to call the body of water directly south of the United States the Gulf of America, Trump banned the outlet from the briefing room.
The ban has been upheld so far, but a district court judge has expressed doubt that it would ultimately survive.
It may be a new and different thing for the White House Press Secretary to skip the WHCA dinner, but Trump did not attend it during his first term.
Typically, a comedian roasts the president and other attendees at the dinner, and because most comedians are liberal, the roasts of Republican presidents have been unnecessarily brutal.
It's no surprise that Trump doesn't feel like nasty roasting is worth his time, or that of his staff.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
PALM BEACH, Florida – U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says American military strikes against the Houthis in Yemen are not a "one-night thing," and he echoed President Donald Trump's warning to Iran which has been sponsoring terror against ships in the Red Sea.
"This isn't a one-night thing," Hegseth said on "Sunday Morning Futures" with Maria Bartiromo on the Fox News Channel. "This will continue until you say we're done shooting at ships, we're done shooting at assets."
The U.S. military pounded targets in Yemen on Saturday to commence the operation.
"We got the reports last night. The Houthis' capital felt like an earthquake," said Hegseth.
"Dozens and dozens of precision heavy munitions dropping precisely on the targets that we wanted to hit, sending a very clear message. And the message is very clear to Iran as well.
"We will not be nice about it. This is not the Biden administration. The message is clear. We will come after the Houthis until they stop shooting at our ships and the Iranians better stay out of it."
More than 100 Houthis attacks have targeted shipping in the region since November 2023, claiming solidarity with Palestinians over Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza.
"Freedom of navigation is basic. It's a core national interest," said Hegseth.
"This campaign is about freedom of navigation and restoring deterrence. The minute the Houthis say we'll stop shooting at your ships, we'll stop shooting at your drones, this campaign will end; but until then, it will be unrelenting."
Saturday afternoon, Trump posted a message on Truth Social announcing the military strikes:
"Today, I have ordered the United States Military to launch decisive and powerful Military action against the Houthi terrorists in Yemen. They have waged an unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American, and other, ships, aircraft, and drones.
"Joe Biden's response was pathetically weak, so the unrestrained Houthis just kept going. It has been over a year since a U.S. flagged commercial ship safely sailed through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, or the Gulf of Aden. The last American Warship to go through the Red Sea, four months ago, was attacked by the Houthis over a dozen times. Funded by Iran, the Houthi thugs have fired missiles at U.S. aircraft, and targeted our Troops and Allies. These relentless assaults have cost the U.S. and World Economy many BILLIONS of Dollars while, at the same time, putting innocent lives at risk.
"The Houthi attack on American vessels will not be tolerated. We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective. The Houthis have choked off shipping in one of the most important Waterways of the World, grinding vast swaths of Global Commerce to a halt, and attacking the core principle of Freedom of Navigation upon which International Trade and Commerce depends.
"Our brave Warfighters are right now carrying out aerial attacks on the terrorists' bases, leaders, and missile defenses to protect American shipping, air, and naval assets, and to restore Navigational Freedom. No terrorist force will stop American commercial and naval vessels from freely sailing the Waterways of the World.
"To all Houthi terrorists, YOUR TIME IS UP, AND YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP, STARTING TODAY. IF THEY DON'T, HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!
"To Iran: Support for the Houthi terrorists must end IMMEDIATELY! Do NOT threaten the American People, their President, who has received one of the largest mandates in Presidential History, or Worldwide shipping lanes. If you do, BEWARE, because America will hold you fully accountable and, we won't be nice about it!"
Gene Hackman's death stunned Hollywood, especially given the initial mystery surrounding the situation, which also included the death of his wife and one of his dogs.
While there has been some resolution on that front, the headlines are still coming out of the situation due to the fact that Hackman reportedly didn't name his children in his $80 million will, according to the BBC.
Hackman reportedly left everything in his will to his wife of 30 years, Betsy Arakawa, who was also found dead in their Santa Fe home last month.
However, even though his children were not named in the will, given the unique and bizarre circumstances of their death and the timing involved, legal experts believe the children will ultimately receive some of it.
While money shouldn't be at the top of anyone's mind in a time of grieving, given the amount that's at stake, it's an uncomfortable, but necessary topic.
Legal experts believe that because it was proven that his wife had likely died some seven days before he did that his children will ultimately get a cut of the $80 million estate.
Gene Hackman’s will leaves his full $80M fortune to late wife and doesn’t mention his 3 childrenhttps://t.co/YgR628DDiF
— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) March 16, 2025
As of this writing, his children, Faye Maltese - Christopher, 65, Elizabeth, 62, and Leslie, 58, have not publicly commented on the developing situation.
The BBC noted:
Legal documents obtained by the BBC show Hackman, 95, named Arakawa as his sole beneficiary in 1995, with the last update to the will in 2005.
However, California attorney Tre Lovell told the BBC that the estate could default to them under succession laws, as long as there was no other beneficiary named.
Lovell added, "The estate will actually be probated in accordance with intestate succession laws and the children would be lawfully next in line to inherit."
Users across social media weighed in on the matter, with many believing that due to current state laws, his children will inherit the estate regardless.
"The inheritance is a “lapsed” gift by virtue of her predeceasing him," one X user wrote.
Another X user wrote, "She died before he did. So it will go to his kids."
Only time will tell how it all shakes out, legally.
Apparently, there was a "mistake" in the recent stopgap federal spending bill that would have meant the loss of $1 billion for Washington D.C.'s local operating budget.
The situation sparked the Senate to quickly pass a bill allowing the nation's capital to continue with its prior budget approval for fiscal year 2025, The Hill reported.
The bill to fix the situation was endorsed by Senate Republicans and even President Donald Trump. It passed in the upper chamber via voice vote, according to the outlet.
Congress is in charge of approving Washington D.C.'s budget during the appropriations process every year, even though the city was granted "home rule" in the 1970s.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins of Maine, a Republican, announced that the bill was supported by both President Trump and Republican House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole.
"This bill would simply fix a mistake in the House [continuing resolution] that prevents the District of the Columbia from spending its own tax dollars as part of its budget, which Congress routinely approves," Collins said in a statement.
"Congress approves the authorization of the expenditure of D.C. local funds, which are paid for by D.C. tax revenues," Collins added.
The Hill noted:
Collins noted that previous stopgap legislation enacted last year included language approving D.C.’s fiscal year 2025 budget and that the “language was continued in the second” funding patch passed in late 2024.
During routine appropriations discussions, language included in such bills typically allows D.C. to continue operating under the budget it would have previously approved.
For reasons still unknown, the standard language approving that process was omitted from the most recent stopgap continuing resolution passed last week.
Had the Senate not taken action on the issue, amending the larger spending bill would have required the House's involvement, which would have likely led to a government shutdown since the House recessed after passing the latest CR.
Passing a standalone bill was the fastest and most effective way to allow the capital city to continue operating as normal.
The Hill noted:
The stand-alone D.C. bill still needs to be approved by the House and signed by Trump, and it’s unclear how soon the lower chamber will act on it. Neither the House nor Senate are in session next week.
While the situation isn't ideal, it's better than having to risk a shutdown over omitted language.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
PALM BEACH, Florida – President Donald J. Trump on Sunday renewed attention on allegations some of Joe Biden's executive orders and pardons may not be valid due to his cognitive decline, as Trump posted on Truth Social images of the most recent commanders in chief, with Biden's official portrait displaying an autopen signature device.
On Friday during his address at the U.S. Justice Department headquarters in Washington, Trump voiced his concerns out loud about Biden's use of the autopen, saying:
"Crooked Joe Biden got us into a real mess with Russia and everything else he did, frankly, but he didn't know about it, and he, generally speaking, signed it with autopen. So how would he know? …
"Who's doing this? When my people come up … [and say], 'Sir, this is an executive order.' They explain it to me. And 90% of the time I sign it and 99% of the time, I say, 'Do it,' but they come up and I sign it, but you don't use autopen."
"No. 1, it's disrespectful to the office. No. 2, maybe it's not even valid, because, you know, who's getting him to sign? He had no idea what the hell he was doing. If he did, all of these bad things wouldn't be happening.
A Heritage Oversight Project report called into question the validity of Biden's actions, finding the vast majority of documents signed by Biden used the mechanical device, including the last-minute pardons of Biden family members, Gen. Mark Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and the members of the Jan. 6 Committee.
"We gathered every document we could find with Biden's signature over the course of his presidency," reads a Heritage Oversight post on X.
"All used the same autopen signature except for the announcement that the former president was dropping out of the race last year."
The controversy has led Republican Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey to urge Attorney General Pam Bondi to probe the matter.
"I am demanding the DOJ investigate whether President Biden's cognitive decline allowed unelected staff to push through radical policy without his knowing approval," Bailey said.
Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump, the former co-chair of the Republican National Committee and current Fox News host, told journalist Benny Johnson that Biden's entire presidency was orchestrated, and that he wasn't aware of anything he was signing.
It's all been fake," Lara Trump said. "The signatures were fake. The hype around Kamala Harris was fake. Joe Biden being OK, fake. His Oval Office, [Trump counsel] Alina Habba the other day, exposed … remember the set that we used to see him on? It's fake!"
"It's just all been orchestrated and planned. And we as Americans honestly are lucky that nothing worse happened to this country over the past four years. Who the hell was in charge? I don't know. That is terrifying to know they're just using autopens. Literally, Benny, anyone could have signed anything for Joe Biden."
"This is why nobody wants to be a part of this party, 'cause it's all phony, it's all smoke and mirrors, it's all fake. And people want authenticity. They can smell phony from a mile away."
Since he was tapped to lead the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency, tech billionaire Elon Musk has been subjected to no end of insults and abuse by those opposed to his vision for a massive federal downsizing.
However, recently unearthed footage reveals that one of the Democratic Party's most revered personalities, namely, former President Barack Obama, once called for precisely the type of cuts now advocated by Musk, as Fox News reports.
The footage, dating back to 2011, sees then-President Obama advocating for significant reductions in federal spending, even if it impacted programs that “a lot of people care about.”
Obama went on, “Everyone knows that getting rid of the deficit will require some tough decisions, and that includes cutting back on billions of dollars in programs that a lot of people care about.”
The then-president added that even if deeper discussions needed to take place when it came to cutting well-established or well-loved programs, the country should at least eliminate “pointless waste and stupid spending that doesn't benefit anybody,” and he said that such cuts ought to occur “even if we didn't have a deficit.”
“No amount of waste is acceptable, especially when it's your money,” Obama asserted, expressing sentiments that sound eerily similar to those underlying the efforts of Musk's DOGE.
Interestingly, Obama even took aim at “thousands of buildings across the country that no one uses,” but for which the federal government was still paying, a lingering dilemma at which the Trump administration's cost-cutting team has been taking a very close look.
To address the aforementioned concerns, Obama created the “Campaign to Cut Spending” and tapped then-Vice President Joe Biden to take the lead, as Breitbart notes.
According to the 2011 footage, Biden was put in charge of “a renewed effort to hunt down misspent tax dollars in every agency and department of this government.”
The initiative, Obama suggested, was poised to be a great success because, as he put it, “nobody messes with Joe.”
Despite Obama's accompanying issuance of an executive order establishing something called the “Government Accountability and Transparency (GAT) Board,” the cost-cutting push eventually fizzled without achieving the sort of results the then-president seemed to have envisioned.
Upon seeing the unearthed video of the former president's cost-cutting proclamation from years ago, Musk himself took to X and mused, “Obama sounds exactly like @DOGE!!”
The key difference between the government waste reduction initiatives launched by Obama and Trump's seems to be the resolve and ability of the person tapped to lead them.
The fact that Musk is actually following through on the president's promises and getting the job done for the American people has sent liberals into a tailspin from which they may not recover.
A rash of severe weather took hold across a large portion of the eastern United States over the weekend, leaving a wide swath of death and destruction in its wake.
According to ABC News, the unusually strong storm system, which included more than 50 powerful tornadoes, has left at least 36 dead in seven states and caused untold damage in several others.
The true extent of the destruction wrought by the expansive weather pattern was just becoming evident with the arrival of daylight, with the death toll continuing to rise and the property damage bringing a sense of shock to those in the path of the storms.
Missouri has thus far reported the largest number of any of the impacted states, with 12 deaths on record as of Sunday morning.
Kansas was said to have suffered eight deaths, Mississippi saw six fatalities, four died in Texas, three in Arkansas, and one person was said to have lost their life in Oklahoma, according to ABC News, with multiple individuals still missing in affected areas.
Adding to the weather-induced chaos were multiple wildfires sparked in Oklahoma due to strong wind gusts which continued to fan the flames, according to AccuWeather.com.
Kansas as well as west and central Texas also saw the emergence of a far-reaching dust storm that resulted in poor visibility on the roadways and compromised air quality, and flight cancellations stemming from the weather conditions only contributed to the upheaval.
Unfortunately, the severe weather dangers were not isolated to Friday and Saturday, as Sunday was also expected to bring with it the need for increased vigilance.
As AccuWeather.com reported separately, the very same storm system was poised to bring further danger to the East Coast on Sunday, encompassing roughly 10 states.
Travel disruptions, power outages, downed trees, flash flooding, and risk to life and property were all expected to present themselves again as the weekend wound its way to conclusion.
“Strong wind gusts, hail and torrential downpours will be the greatest threats from the storms on Sunday as they progress from the I-81 and I-85 corridors to I-95; however, isolated tornadoes can still develop within the strongest storms,” AccuWeather meteorologists explained.
Fortunately, the outlet noted that the severe weather threat was poised to end late Sunday to early Monday when a cold front was expected to push off the Atlantic Coast.
Though the wave of death and destruction seen in recent days was certainly tragic, the storm event did not reach the historic proportions some feared it might, as Axios noted, but that is not to say that the reasons behind it will not be studied in great detail for some time to come.
Though some meteorologists continue to argue that climate change has contributed the severity of storm systems such as the one that took hold of the eastern U.S. in recent days, others have cast doubt on that theory, virtually ensuring that the debate among scientists in a range of disciplines will continue well into the future.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Officials with the United States Postal Service have informed Congress of a new agreement through which they will reduce the staffing numbers for the money-losing agency by 10,000.
A report from Fox News cited the letter from U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to members of Congress.
His agreement is with the General Services Administration and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.
DeJoy has expressed that the USPS is a "broken business model that was not financially sustainable without critically necessary and core change."
His letter explained, "Fixing a broken organization that had experienced close to $100 billion in losses and was projected to lose another $200 billion, without a bankruptcy proceeding, is a daunting task. Fixing a heavily legislated and overly regulated organization as massive, important, cherished, misunderstood and debated as the United States Postal Service, with such a broken business model, is even more difficult."
The $78 billion a year agency currently has some 640,000 workers.
Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., was upset by the efficiency agenda.
"The only thing worse for the Postal Service than DeJoy's 'Delivering for America' plan is turning the service over to Elon Musk and DOGE so they can undermine it, privatize it, and then profit off Americans' loss," he explained in a statement.
A spokesman for the union representing letter carriers said the organization would oppose any move to privatize the work.
The staffing reduction will be done through a voluntary early-retirement scheme, the report said.
In recent years, with the advent of email and the electronic exchange of documents and information, there has been a drop in the number of first-class letters being mailed.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A prominent Democrat who has been in leadership circles for years said not long ago that his party should just sit back and watch because the support for President Donald Trump, who won landslides in the Electoral College and popular vote in November, soon would collapse.
It hasn't happened. At least not yet.
A report from the Washington Examiner reveals Trump's approval rating tracked by Rasmussen Reports was at 52% on Friday, the same as Thursday.
That's actually the president's highest approval since Democrat analyst James Carville forecast that support for the president would "crater" this month, the report said.
Carville, Feb. 21, claimed, "I believe that this administration, in less than 30 days, is in the midst of a massive collapse, and particularly a collapse in public opinion."
His party, he urged, should "play possum" and then enjoy the "easy pickings here in six weeks."
Mark Mitchell, at Rasmussen, said so far there's no evidence of that trend.
And the polling shows that plunge may never come.
Trump has been battling leftovers from Joe Biden's administration since he took office: inflation, an open southern border, terrorism, radical body mutilation agendas, and much more.
Of course as transitions are made, there are impacts on costs, taxes, inflation and more.
The report noted Trump has been urging Americans to wait through what he suggests is temporary "because he and his team believe it will lead to an economic and stock market boom later this year," the report said.
Mitchell cited Trump's "strong approval" rating from the GOP at 68%, which is "astronomical."
"The takeaway is GOP strong approval is near record highs, and he's maintaining it way better than the first time around. Republicans like what they see."
Actually, Carville has gone way, way further in his claims about Trump. Some are suggesting too far.