From the very first day of the current federal government shutdown, President Donald Trump warned Democrats that their foot-dragging on a continuing resolution would likely result in significant cuts to programs and agencies they hold dear.
Trump is making good on that promise, as the Daily Caller reports, now working to gut a division of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that critics blame for the entrenchment of far-left abortion and gender ideology policies within the federal ranks.
At issue is the Office of Population Affairs (OPA), the stated mission of which is to further “reproductive health outcomes and adolescent health and wellbeing by supporting high-quality clinical services, evidence-based and innovative programs, rigorous research and evaluation.”
However, critics of the office believe that the agency has been a conduit through which far-left policies have been advanced throughout various arms of the federal government.
Though the OPA is intended to facilitate Title X of the Public Health Service Act, providing grants to support a “broad range of acceptable and effective family planning methods and related preventive health services,” detractors suggest that the mission has been altered to suit more partisan aims.
Pregnancy prevention has been a top priority, it has been claimed, and while the statute that OPA is designed to implement prohibits federal funding of abortions, the Biden administration initiated something of a workaround that facilitated referrals for pregnancy termination services.
Adding to the controversy, according to the outlet, is the fact that staffers affiliated with pro-abortion groups were effectively embedded within the office, which also endorsed and published materials promoting “gender-affirming care” for minors and distributed sexually explicit content.
It was on Oct. 10 that approximately 30 employees at OPA received reduction-in-force (RIF) notifications, indicating that the job cuts they entailed were permanent in nature and not temporary measures stemming from the government shutdown.
Staffers inside the OPA were reportedly locked out of their email accounts and government laptops as of Friday evening.
The number of cuts implemented represents, practically speaking, the effective shuttering of the office, a scenario that has been met with praise from Republicans such as Illinois Rep. Mary Miller.
Speaking to the Daily Caller News Foundation, Miller stated, “The Office of Population Affairs has long used taxpayer dollars to advance the leftist agenda targeting children and the unborn.”
Miller continued, “I applaud the Trump Administration’s efforts to root out far-left programs in the federal government that undermine the very fabric of our country.”
Democrats upset by the effective end of the OPA may want to tread carefully in terms of prolonging the government shutdown, particularly in light of Trump’s recent warning that the stalemate gives his administration the chance to close “Democrat programs that we want to close up or we never wanted to happen.”
With the president pledging that such initiatives are “never going to come back in many cases,” it seems that Democrats in Congress would be wise to bring the shutdown to a rapid end lest they suffer even deeper cuts to departments and priorities they hold dear.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Officials in the leftist city of Denver are demanding that taxpayers nationwide subsidize their abortionists at the industry behemoth, Planned Parenthood.
They have joined with officials in other Democrat-run cities to insist that Congress and President Donald Trump were wrong, and they must reverse their opinions and their actions and restore the flow of taxpayer cash to the abortionists.
It is in a report at the Center Square that the city's agenda was revealed.
"In Denver, we will always fight for the rights of women to access contraception and reproductive care," claimed Mike Johnston, Denver's mayor, in the report.
"We are proud to join this amicus brief to push back on President Trump and the Big Beautiful Bill's unconstitutional targeting of Planned Parenthood and to ensure women receive quality, life-saving care regardless of their ability to pay."
Actually, in the court case over the funding, which was rejected by congressional action in a bill signed into law by President Trump in America's democratic procedures, the abortionists are claiming they have a constitutional right to cash taken directly from taxpayers.
The report noted Trump's BBB Act blocks federal funding for one year to any healthcare provider that received over $800,000 in federal Medicaid payments in 2023 and is primarily involved in "family planning" services, is a nonprofit organization or provides abortions.
Planned Parenthood claims the restrictions are unconstitutional because they must have taxpayer cash to fulfill their constitutional right to freedom of association.
The brief from Denver, and others, said they "have significant interest in protecting access to medical care, including reproductive and sexual healthcare and family planning services, for their most vulnerable residents."
For that, they are demanding a nationwide tax.
And that money needs to be sent to Planned Parenthood, "a vital part of the healthcare ecosystem," they charge.
A lower court had issued injunctions blocking the funding cuts, for now.
But then an appeals court put a hold on that injunction.
Denver officials are arguing for something they don't need, as Colorado lawmakers already have stepped up to take money from their own residents and give it to Planned Parenthood businesses in the state.
But Denver complained that would mean less money for "other" priorities, so it wants the tax funding to come from all Americans nationwide.
The Supreme Court already has ruled states have the right to exclude abortion providers like Planned Parenthood from state Medicaid programs.
The brief also argues that keeping the funding going, through Planned Parenthood, will increase the number of women "in the paid labor force.'
And it notes that the changes mean local and state governments will have to make hard decisions about budgets, as they won't have as much money.
It claims that the congressional action was "based on an unlawful ideological basis," suggesting that the law insists on a pro-abortion "ideological basis."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
PALM BEACH, Florida – Tom Cruise has competition. It looks like President Donald Trump is suddenly the No. 2 top gun in America.
The commander in chief late Saturday posted an epic artificial intelligence video of himself piloting an American fighter jet called "King Trump," dumping what appears to be loads of feces on "No Kings" protesters who are voicing their objections this weekend against the president.
Among the protesters is left-wing influencer Harry Sisson, who is seen getting completely doused with poop.
The video even includes music from the popular "Top Gun" film, specifically the song "Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins.
"We truly live in historic times," noted journalist Benny Johnson.
One of those flushed with amazement by the clip is Democrat U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, (no pun intended), who wonders: "But seriously why would the President post an image on the Internet of airdropping feces on American cities?"
Sisson was also perplexed.
"Can a reporter please ask Trump why he posted an AI video of himself dropping poop on me from a fighter jet?" Sisson posted on X Sunday.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A Democratic U.S. senator has introduced a bill that would allow federal workers not being paid during the government shutdown to forgo their rent or mortgage payments, without penalty.
The bill, introduced by Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and 17 Democratic colleagues, would relieve workers and contractors from their obligations to pay rent, mortgages, insurance premiums and student loan payments during shutdowns, reports Reason.
In addition, it stays eviction and foreclosure proceedings for 30 days after the shutdown ends, with a penalty of fines or even jail time.
Said Schatz: "Right now, hundreds of thousands of federal workers, federal contractor employees, and their families don't know whether they'll be able to pay rent and make ends meet. Our bill will protect these workers and make sure they aren't harmed during this shutdown."
What Schatz does not mention is that once the shutdown ends, all back pay owed will go to those same federal workers — money that can be used to catch up with rental payments.
As Reason reports, a recent study published in the Journal of Urban Economics compared the strength of tenant protections to rents. It found that stronger tenant protections reduced evictions but also reduced vacancies and were correlated with higher rents and higher rates of homelessness.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The Democrats' leader in the U.S. House, Hakeem Jeffries, has lashed out at White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt as "demented, ignorant, a stone-cold liar, or all of the above," and she has responded with a sledgehammer.
It started when Leavitt unleashed a critical statement about Democrats.
She suggested the party is loyal to its "main constituency" of "Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals."
Jeffries bashed her, complaining that Republicans are "ripping the sheets off in plain view."
"You've got Karoline Leavitt, who's sick, she's out of control. And I'm not sure if she's just demented, ignorant, a stone cold liar, or all of the above," he charged.
He said that's why Republicans are on "the wrong side of public sentiment."
However, polling actually has revealed that huge numbers of Americans support President Trump in his Middle East policy, his economic policy, his border security policy and more.
It then was Leavitt's turn to explain:
"Hakeem Jeffries and the Democrats are lashing out because they know what I said is true. The Democrat Party's elected officials absolutely cater to pro-Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals. House Democrats voted against a resolution condemning Hamas following the horrific October 7th terrorist attacks, and Democrats cheered on pro-Hamas radicals while they hijacked America's college campuses and harassed Jewish students."
She continued, "Democrats opened our borders and allowed tens of millions of illegal aliens into our country over the past four years, including rapists and murderers, because they view them as future voters. Democrats coddle violent criminals and support soft-on-crime policies like cashless bail that let violent offenders back on the streets to hurt law-abiding citizens. Democrats do NOT serve the interests of the American people. Hakeem Jeffries is an America Last, stone-cold loser. Now open up the government and stop simping to try to get your radical left-wing base to like you."
The Democrat party is responding with increasingly strained rhetoric as the Schumer shutdown approaches its fourth week. They refused to support a routine continuing resolution to keep the government funded as they were angry that Obamacare subsidies are set to expire.
That expiration was scheduled in legislation that they originally created.
They've been demanding Republicans add another $1.5 trillion in spending for favored Democrat projects to the continuing resolution before they'll support it. Republicans have refused to reach into taxpayer pockets for that amount of spending.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
President Donald Trump has emerged with a win from a fight with European officials over their agenda to create another carbon tax and raise the cost of items shipped to America.
It was in the United Nations where globalists who adhere to the ideology called climate change, called global warming before the warming essentially stopped, hatched a plan to charge shipping companies for their travels.
"Huge push by @SecRubio and the State Dept team. Strong diplomacy that put American business and consumers first WON THE DAY over an ideological carbon tax from the UN and EU," Mike Walz wrote on social media.
Fifty-seven countries voted in favor of delaying the adoption vote and 49 voted against. There were 21 abstentions.
The Washington Examiner explained the decision was "a shock, as many member states of the IMO, a London-based specialized agency within the U.N., were confident there were enough votes to adopt the measure as international maritime law."
Trump has been opposing the new world taxation plan for months, and recently escalated his objections.
Waltz, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said the delay was to the component of the "net-zero framework."
The report said, "The motion to delay the vote on the measure was reportedly put forward by Singapore on Friday and called to a vote by Saudi Arabia, which was aligned with the Trump administration in its efforts to block the framework."
Trump expressed outrage that the International Maritime Organization was trying to pass a "global Carbon Tax."
The plan was to charge shipping massive fees for "greenhouse gas emissions."
Initially, ship owners were facing a minimum of $100 for every ton of carbon dioxide emitted over a baseline.
President Donald Trump's requirement that truck drivers be proficient in English has led to 6,000 truck drivers being sidelined since it took effect in May.
Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy issued the guidance that roadside inspections would be conducted only in English, and drivers who didn't seem proficient in English would face a two-step evaluation.
If drivers failed the evaluation, they were immediately out of service, rather than just getting a citation and being expected to improve.
Trucking companies and civil rights groups have pushed back on the regulation, saying that research has not shown English proficiency to lower crash risk.
Most recently, the Transportation Department has said it will withhold $40 million in federal highway and safety grants from California, accusing the state of not enforcing the new rules.
The state stands to lose another $160 million if it can't show compliance in the future.
California argued back that its accident rates are below the national average as well as claiming that it is enforcing safety rules.
Other states that have been warned include New Mexico and Washington.
The rule really isn't new, it's just a stronger enforcement of federal regulation 49 C.F.R. § 391.11(b)(2), a statute that has long required commercial drivers to "speak and read the English language sufficiently" that they can hold a conversation with the public, understand highway signage, respond to official inquiries, and complete reports.
Trucking companies have responded by implementing English trainings and assessments to help drivers come into compliance with the rule. They are also implementing contingency plans for if drivers fail inspections and are taken out of service.
Senate Republicans are looking to codify the rule into legislation so that it can't be challenged in the courts--or at least it would be more difficult to do so.
The downside of 6,000 fewer truck drivers could be supply chain problems, because that's 6,000 fewer trucks that could be delivering goods to stores and warehouses.
It does make sense to require English proficiency because road signs are in English and different situations could require a knowledge of English.
Sometimes a new rule is difficult at first, but is a benefit in the long run. It seems like this is one of those rules.
In a surprising move, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) has just thrown a curveball by teaming up with Senate Democrats to demand back pay for furloughed federal workers amid a grinding government shutdown.
As the shutdown drags into its 16th day, Murkowski became the lone Republican to sign a bipartisan letter pressing the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to ensure back wages for the 2.2 million federal employees caught in the crossfire.
Earlier this month, the OMB fired off a memo suggesting that back pay for furloughed workers hinges on Congress passing new appropriations, a stance that’s sparked uncertainty and frustration among Democrats and now, apparently, Murkowski.
On Wednesday, Murkowski joined forces with Democratic Senators like Tim Kaine and Mark Warner in signing a letter to OMB Director Russell Vought, urging clarity on back pay for federal workers idled by the shutdown.
The letter leans hard on the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, signed into law during President Trump’s first term, which promises back wages to affected employees once the government reopens.
Democrats argue this uncertainty is piling “unnecessary stress” on workers, and Murkowski’s signature suggests she’s not buying the OMB’s foot-dragging either.
The bipartisan letter didn’t mince words, stating, “The law is clear: all impacted government employees, regardless of excepted or furloughed status, are entitled to back pay after a government shutdown ends,” aligning with guidance from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
It further noted, “OPM's shutdown guidance from September 2025 still states that furloughed federal workers will be provided back pay once the government reopens.”
Well, that sounds ironclad, but when the OMB is playing word games with appropriations, one wonders if this is less about law and more about political posturing—still, workers deserve better than being pawns in this mess.
On Tuesday, the Senate couldn’t muster the 60 votes needed to pass a House-approved bill that would’ve ended the shutdown and extended funding, with no additional Democrats jumping on board to break the deadlock.
Meanwhile, Vought stirred the pot on “The Charlie Kirk Show” Wednesday, casually mentioning that up to 10,000 federal employees could face termination during this ongoing fiasco.
That’s a gut punch to families already on edge, and while conservatives rightly push for leaner government, dangling pink slips over a shutdown feels like a low blow.
Let’s be real: government shutdowns are a blunt tool, often wielded to score points rather than solve problems, but the collateral damage to federal workers—many of whom aren’t pushing some progressive agenda—can’t be ignored.
Murkowski’s move might rankle some on the right who see any concession as weakness, yet there’s something to be said for standing by folks who didn’t sign up for this political cage match.
While the fight for fiscal responsibility remains crucial, using federal employees as bargaining chips risks alienating the very heartland voters who expect government to function, not flounder.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
During Barack Obama's tenure in the White House, the Internal Revenue Service was told to target and attack conservatives, Christians and critics of his leftist administration.
Remember those "Tea Party" organizations whose members were grilled about their lives, families, politics, speech, even their prayers, during his re-election campaign when they were denied authorization by the IRS, mostly likely because they would have expressed opposition to Obama.
Eventually, officials admitted their schemes, but they largely went unpunished, some retiring with lucrative government pensions.
Now President Donald Trump is working on a "massive revamp" of the agency, according to a report in the Daily Mail.
His targets, the report claimed, will be "wealthy Democratic donors whom the White House believes could be funding nefarious political activities."
A list of possible candidates for investigations, the report said, now includes Democrat funder George Soros. Other names are expected to be added.
Interim IRS commissioner Scott Bessent already has appointed an adviser, Gary Shapley, to work on possible investigations.
And the work has support in Congress, where Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has proposed a plan to go after those who have funded the recent anti-Trump "No Kings" protests and riots under a federal law targeting organized crime.
The senator told Fox, "Follow the money. Cut off the money. You look at this No Kings rally – there's considerable evidence that George Soros and his network is behind funding these rallies which may well turn into riots."
The Open Society Foundation created by Soros, now run by his son, is the world's largest funder of leftism and leftist radicalism, the report said.
For example, the Fund for Policy Reform, now run by Alex Soros, handed out $60 million to Democrats in 2024, the report said.
Trump also has offered criticism of liberal billionaires like Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg, over the damage done by leftists across America.
The OSF has denied any wrongdoing and denounced violence.
The changeovers at the agency already have been in the making. There were some 100,000 IRS workers at the end of 2024, but the president's Department of Government Efficiency cut that to about 75,000.
Many of those are not at work right now because of the Schumer shutdown, where Democrats in the Senate refused to agreed to a resolution that would have kept the government funded for a few weeks.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A stunning charge has come from Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, that Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is giving "criminal illegal aliens badges and guns."
Actually, her comment was, "J.B. Pritzker doesn't just allow violent illegal aliens to terrorize Illinois's communities — he allows illegal aliens to work as sworn police officers. Radule Bojovic violated our nation's laws and was living illegally in the United States for 10 years. What kind of police department gives criminal illegal aliens badges and guns?"
The comment came after Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested an illegal alien who was operating as an active Illinois police officer.
A report from Fox News said Bojovic "overstayed" his tourist visa by a decade and recently has been working as a police officer. He was "approved" for a pension in January.
The Department of Homeland Security said Bojovic was an illegal immigrant from Montenegro who was working as a sworn police officer with the Hanover Park Police Department.
He was taken into custody during Operation Midway Blitz, targeting illegal immigrants living in Illinois.
McLaughlin added, "It's a felony for aliens to even possess a firearm — a law enforcement officer who is actively breaking the law. Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, ICE is restoring law and order. Criminal illegal aliens have no place in our communities, especially on our police forces."
The report said his 2025 earnings so far were $205,707.
Pritzker has been actively fighting Trump's border security measures, and recently sued to block National Guard action in Illinois.