This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The federal government went into a partial shutdown mode on Wednesday after Democrats demanded an extraordinary $1.5 trillion in spending for a wide range of their constituencies, including Obamacare subsidies, illegal aliens and leftist propaganda.
And one of the first consequences was an $18 billion hit to the state represented by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who led the battle for the shutdown.
The New York City projects affected by the White House punching the pause button also hit in the district represented by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., another advocate for the massive spending agenda.
A report at the Daily Mail noted that those who are "leading the obstruction against Trump's agenda."
The "hardball" announcement came from Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, who said the projects were blocked immediately to prevent funds "flowing based on unconstitutional DEI principles."
President Trump, meanwhile, has discussed his opportunity for a renewal of the cuts made to the federal workforce early in his term by the Department of Government Efficiency.
Tens of thousands of jobs were eliminated as unnecessary.
Vought was scheduled to meet with House Republicans about those plans.
He is responsible for about 3 million workers, and his agency decides which government jobs are essential, and continue to get funding during a shutdown, and which do not.
The publication reported, "Vought previously warned agencies to get ready for a 'reduction in force notices for all employees,' specifically highlighting departments and programs that he referred to as 'not consistent with the president's priorities.'"
The OMB memo just days ago said agencies needed to have a list of layoff options for workers "whose salaries aren't paid using the Big Beautiful Bill, obligatory funds. This also included 'programs and projects' that are not consistent with 'the president's priorities.'"
Trump repeatedly has spoken of options that the administration has during a shutdown that can create impacts that are "irreversible."
Trump said, "A lot of good can come down from shutdowns. We can get rid of a lot of things that we didn't want."
House Speaker Mike Johnson, whose body approved a resolution extending government spending only to see it defeated by Democrats in the Senate, said the shutdown will last until Democrats decide to end it.
Leftist labor unions already are threatening to sue over any job reductions.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Gavin Newsom, California's far-left Democrat governor, is known to have presidential aspirations.
If he chooses that path, one of issues on which he will face a grilling will be economics.
And a new study has revealed it won't look good.
It's because since he imposed a $20-an-hour minimum wage for fast food workers in his state, California has lost close to 20,000 such jobs.
"That's nearly 25% of the country's fast-food job losses during that same period, according to an analysis of quarterly data released this month from the Bureau of Labor Statistics," charged a report in the Washington Examiner.
"These grim statistics should be a wake-up call for Newsom and other policymakers pushing for drastic wage hikes that will cause unintended consequences," said Rebekah Paxton, if the Employment Policies Institute.
The Examiner report noted Newsom "was all smiles two years ago when he signed the FAST Recovery Act, creating a $20 minimum wage for fast-food workers in his state. He called the legislation a win-win-win that would benefit restaurant owners, their employees, and customers alike."
But it's actually left behind "big losses."
Besides job losses, there have been staff cuts, huge menu price increases and a turn to automation, the report said.
"California made national headlines when two large Pizza Hut franchises laid off more than 1,200 in-house delivery drivers to cut costs, while others, such as Mod Pizza and Foster's Freeze, decided to close up shop entirely," the report noted.
Paxton said, "Newsom's $20 wage has turned out to be nothing more than a boost to his own ego at the expense of fast food workers. His consistent claim that the law is a 'win' is out of touch with reality, and lawmakers looking to mirror his job-crushing policies should think twice."
Further, the analysis found even workers who kept working lost.
"The law has cost nontipped restaurant workers 250 hours of work annually, according to the EPI analysis, which represents $4,000 in lost income under the state's previous minimum wage for fast-food workers."
And, according to the American Cornerstone Institute, it's hit small businesses hardest.
"Unlike their multinational competitors, small businesses have a tougher time absorbing the increased costs of labor, leading to further consolidation of capital in the hands of the largest corporations. In the same manner, a state-wide minimum wage doesn't make sense when applied uniformly across a state as big as California. The costs of living in somewhere like San Francisco, for example, are much higher than in the rural parts of the state, where one can live much more affordably. To force the businesses in both areas to adhere to the same wage rates does not make sense and exerts profound distortions on local economies."
Then there's the damage to consumers, who are paying prices 13% higher because of Newsom.
University officials in the state have challenged the findings, saying fast-food employment hasn't fallen, work hours weren't changed and prices went up only 2.1%.
The Senate rejected a bill that would permanently end government shutdowns, just hours before funding was set to lapse at midnight Wednesday.
As reported by the Washington Examiner, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) introduced the "Eliminate Shutdowns" Act to end the familiar spectacle of lawmakers squabbling over policy priorities until the last minute.
It's happening again this year, with Democrats sending the government into a shutdown after rejecting a GOP funding bill that did not meet their healthcare demands.
Republicans have pushed for a "clean" stopgap spending bill, while Democrats want immediate extensions to Obamacare subsidies and a reversal of the Medicaid cuts in Trump's sweeping domestic policy law, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
As Congress hurtled toward a shutdown this week, Senator Johnson proposed ending the routine fiscal brinkmanship on Capitol Hill once and for all, but his proposal was rejected 37-61.
Johnson's bill would keep the government afloat with automatically renewing stopgap bills while the regular appropriations process continues.
“This simple bill could be a game changer,” he wrote in the Wall Street Journal. "With government funding and functioning assured, Congress would no longer have to spend weeks and months arguing over how to keep government departments open after failing to pass appropriation bills.”
14 Republican senators joined every Democrat to vote no on Johnson's bill, including Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Ak.), and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Me.).
Ultimately, just three Democrats in the Senate voted to approve a GOP-backed bill to avoid a government shutdown on Tuesday night.
Senators Catherine Cortez-Masto of Nevada, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, and Angus King voted for the continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government operating at current funding levels. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) also voted no.
Republicans pointed to the Democratic defections as a sign that the party will break sooner or later. But Democrats, under pressure from their base to fight President Trump, have so far refused to blink as Trump threatens to fire federal workers after funding lapses at midnight on October 1.
Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought blamed the shutdown on Democrats' “insane policy demands," adding it’s “unclear how long Democrats will maintain their untenable posture, making the duration of the shutdown difficult to predict.”
“[I]t is now clear that Democrats will prevent passage of this clean [continuing resolution] prior to 11:59 pm tonight and force a government shutdown,” Vought wrote in a memo to government agencies.
The last government shutdown lasted for 35 days from December 2018 through January 2019 after Congress refused to fund Trump's border wall. The shutdown was the longest ever at the time.
A member of President Trump's Cabinet inadvertently exposed a "highly unfortunate" trade situation concerning American soybean farmers.
A journalist for the Associated Press snapped a photograph of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reading texts on his phone, with the messages clearly legible, while Bessent was at the United Nations General Assembly, the Daily Mail reports.
In the messages, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins laments a "highly unfortunate" turn of events after the U.S. offered to bail out Argentina, whose president, Javier Milei, is a Trump ally.
“Just a heads up. I am getting more intel, but this is highly unfortunate. We bailed out Argentina yesterday and in return, Argentina removed their export tariffs on grains, reducing their price to China at a time when we would normally be selling to China,” the text message read.
“Soy prices are dropping further because of it. This gives China more leverage on us,” it continued. “On a plane but scott I can call you when I land.”
Argentina temporarily dropped its export taxes on grains last week, a move that undercut American farmers right at the start of the harvest season, as China snapped up cargoes of Argentina's crops.
Argentina's selloff came after Bessent announced a $20 billion financial lifeline to support Argentina's economy as Milei faces midterm elections in October.
“These options may include, but are not limited to, swap lines, direct currency purchases, and purchases of U.S. dollar-denominated government debt from Treasury’s Exchange Stabilization Fund,” Bessent said in a social media post.
“Opportunities for private investment remain expansive, and Argentina will be Great Again.”
Bessent is known for being a smooth communicator and defender of Trump's trade policies, but the leak of Bessent's texts has caught the White House off guard as members of Trump's base, including farmers, revolt over the proposed bailout of a foreign country.
Midwestern farmers are under significant pressure from Trump's trade war, as China snubs American farmers to purchase soybeans from South America instead. Trump has floated helping distressed farmers using revenue from his tariffs, which have generated over $200 billion.
The administration's desire to help Argentina stems from Trump's personal and ideological alliance with Milei, a hardline capitalist who received Trump's endorsement at the UN.
It remains to be seen how Trump will balance his desire to help a right-wing ally overseas with his pledge to put the American people first.
In any case, Trump is meeting with Milei in two weeks, Argentina said Tuesday.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Students attending a football game for the University of Colorado, well known as a party school at least partly because its location in far-left Boulder, Colorado, and its proximity to ski resorts for students to reach during winter months, chanted a slogan.
It was highly critical of CU's opponent in the game, Brigham Young University.
In fact, they said, "F— the Mormons."
And that display of hate and religious bigotry is costing the school $50,000.
The students will be punished, the school said, if they can be identified.
Channel 7, a Denver broadcast outlet, said the Big 12 Conference announced not just the fine but a "public reprimand" for the school.
Shortly after the chant, CU officials condemned the words and called the behavior "deeply disappointing," and then conference commissioner Brett Yormak announced the punishment.
He said "hateful and discriminatory language" has no home in the league.
CU's coach claimed the derogatory slurs are "not indicative of who we are, our student body. Our kids are phenomenal, so don't indict us just based on a group of young kids that probably was intoxicated and high simultaneously."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The transgender radicalism in the state of Minnesota, run by Democrat Gov. Tim Walz, has landed the state in violation of federal law.
Officials there have been given 10 days by the Department of Education to comply with the federal Title IX statute or face a Department of Justice referral.
It's because the state's transgender agenda that infringes on the rights of girls has allowed a boy to be on a girls' high school softball team.
The violation notice also confirmed that the state has let males into girls' alpine skiing, girls' Nordic skiing, girls' lacrosse, girls' track and field and girls' volleyball teams.
"For too many years, Minnesota's political leadership has found itself on the wrong side of justice, common sense, and the American people. Now the Minnesota Department of Education and the Minnesota State High School League find themselves on the wrong side of Title IX by allowing males to compete in women's sports," explained Craig Trainor, the DOE acting assistant secretary of civil rights.
"The Trump Administration will not allow Minnesota or any other state to sacrifice the safety, fair treatment, and dignity of its female students to appease the false idols of radical gender ideology. Once an education program or entity takes federal funds, Title IX compliance becomes mandatory. And the federal government will hold Minnesota accountable until it recognizes that fact."
The state was allowed 10 days to change its policies to comply with federal law.
A report from Fox News said it also must comply with President Donald Trump's "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports" order.
The determination of violation came from both the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services.
"President Donald Trump's administration found the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) and the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) in violation of Title IX after two months-long investigation into state policies and a transgender pitcher leading a girls' high school softball team to a state championship," Fox reported.
Specifically, the report charged the "male pitcher" in question "overpowered female athletes during five consecutive matches, only giving up one earned run over the source of 35 innings and striking out 27 female batters."
The state has been told to change any provisions letting males compete in girls' sports, and ensure that interscholastic programs in the state comply with the federal law.
They also must adopt biology-based definitions of "male" and "female."
Further, the state must restore to female athletes all records and titles misappropriated by males and apologize.
The threat includes a referral to the DOJ, which already has sued Maine and California over the same misbehavior.
Whistleblower and President of the Air Marshal Association John Casaretti has called on President Donald Trump and Congress to separate the Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in order to better protect air travelers from terrorist attacks, according to Breitbart.
“Everything the air marshals did around 2007 onwards was all through the lens of the TSA bureaucracy. TSA only cares about screeners,” Casaretti said. “They don’t have any deep experience with law enforcement. Unfortunately, the air marshals were listening to them. All of the policies were made by them, and bad policy after bad policy ensued. When it came to intelligence, when it came to hiring, standards were lowered.”
He continued, “They made the Air Marshal Service a career path for TSA screeners, so incredibly, where we started out as these high-speed anti-terrorism agents … to be a career path for TSA airport screeners. It actually blows my mind to this day, and it really needs to be changed.”
Casaretti spoke to Matthew Boyle about his recent Breitbart News op-ed titled “It’s Time to Reset the Federal Air Marshal Service,” which addressed his part in the shutdown of the Quiet Skies program in June
His whistleblowing about the program was a key reason for its shutdown, going all the way back to 2018.
The program had undercover air marshals “following ordinary U.S. citizens not suspected of a crime or on any terrorist watch list and collecting extensive information about their movements and behavior.”
One of the targets of surveillance was then-presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, who is now DNI director handling national intelligence.
According to DHS, Quiet Skies "since its existence has failed to stop a single terrorist attack while costing US taxpayers $200 million a year.”
“The program, under the guise of ‘national security,’ was used to target political opponents and benefit political allies,” DHS stated in a press release.
“The American public would be better served if these [air marshals] were instead assigned to airport screening and check-in areas so that active shooter events can be swiftly ended, and violations of federal crimes can be properly and consistently addressed,” Casaretti argued.
He went on to say that the risk of terrorism “is greater right now than it ever has been before, certainly greater than pre-9/11. Every intel analyst with eyes on this is saying, ‘Hey, we’re in trouble. Something’s going to happen.’ And I’m trying to sound the alarm here because we’ve been saying this, as far as something’s going to happen, and why the air marshals need to improve for years."
Legislation to separate FAMS and TSA is in the beginning stages in both the House and Senate, with language having been drawn up, but it is still in legislative review before it can be introduced to the floor.
That means it's probably going to be a while before anything can happen.
Meanwhile, the risk of an incident is great, and everyone knows it.
Barack Obama's presidential center has ignored its obligation to set up an endowment to protect taxpayers from financial liability, according to its records.
Just $1 million has been deposited into a reserve fund meant to bail out taxpayers in case the Obama Presidential Center fails, Fox News reported. This comes despite the center making a $470 million pledge in 2020.
With projected operating costs of up to $40 million in the first year alone, the center is resting on financial quicksand, says Richard Epstein, a University of Chicago law professor emeritus and a New York University law professor.
Epstein has spent years advising Protect Our Parks, which has fought in vain to block the Obama Presidential Center from being built on a 20 acre-section of Jackson Park.
While a deal between the center and Chicago did not specify a dollar amount, the $1 million endowment is nowhere close to covering the center's operating budget.
"They put a million dollars into a $400 million endowment, so it’s endowed. That gets you in jail as a securities matter," Epstein told Fox News Digital.
"An endowment means that you have the money in hand. But they have nothing. They just have the same $1 million that they put in in 2021 as far as I can tell. So, I regard this as something of a public calamity."
Epstein says the paltry endowment - which the city has accepted as sufficient - is proof that Chicago was never serious about protecting the public when it made its deal with Obama.
The financial recklessness of the project is sure to upset locals who are already frustrated by the use of public land to build a massive gray monument to the former president. Critics have slammed the drab aesthetics of the towering structure, and many fear it will drive out poor tenants.
The project has gotten progressively more expensive over the years, with costs exploding from $330 million to at least $850 million. Meanwhile, members of Obama's inner circle have received huge payouts for serving on the board.
"It should come as no surprise that the Obama Center is potentially leaving Illinois taxpayers high and dry — it’s an Illinois Democrat tradition," Illinois GOP Chair Kathy Salvi Fox News Digital in a statement. "Democrats in this state, when not going to prison for corruption, treat taxpayers like a personal piggy bank giving sweetheart deals to their political benefactors."
Despite opposition from the community, the center is opening in the spring of 2026.
The Obama Presidential Center told Fox News Digital that it anticipates "significant investments in the endowment in the coming years."
"The Obama Presidential Center is fully funded, and it will open in the spring of 2026," a spokesperson for the foundation said.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., holds the nickname "Fang Fang" for his relationship with a woman who allegedly was a Chinese "honey pot" spy.
When his relationship with a foreign government activist came to light, the House Ethics Committee investigated. But it "closed" its review, promising to protect him from "action."
Now he has given an interview in which he is threatening private American citizens if they supported President Donald Trump in a way that he dislikes.
His comments prompted the Gateway Pundit to post a "Fascism Alert" warning about him.
In an interview, Swalwell said his party will be the majority in Congress after the next election, a prediction that is not at all supported by all analysts of the coming election.
"We are making it clear we are going into the majority a year from now. We have every intention to do that," he said.
"And so we will bring oversight accountability. We will subpoena the Department of Justice, but also private actors who have done these drug deals with the administration."
Wagging his finger at Americans, he continued, "College campuses, entertainment companies, and so accountability is coming and so, One, It's all coming out, Two. I hope that deters people from doing more of these deals, these one-offs with the president."
Actually, evidence released by the Trump administration has confirmed that it was Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and other Democrats who actually weaponized the federal government against Trump, launching an FBI probe based on lies, and much more.
The accountability for that scheming has just started to develop, with last week's indictment of ex-FBI chief James Comey on lying and obstruction charges.
The Gateway Pundit's comments included, "The Democrats will be targeting ordinary Americans to retaliate against the Trump administration for holding disgraced former FBI Director James Comey accountable along with people who have worked with President Trump to clean up corruption and go after bad actors."
The report described how Swalwell "vowed revenge" on Trump and his supporters.
President Donald Trump plans to build 10 miles of border wall near San Diego points of entry after waiving environmental regulations, according to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Noem declared the area near San Diego a place of high illegal entry, with almost a million illegal immigrants attempting to cross over those areas between 2021 and January of 2025.
The area is also a major zone where drugs come into the United States.
More than 2,465 pounds of marijuana, 9,873 pounds of cocaine, 565 pounds of heroin, 29,675 pounds of methamphetamine and 4,016 pounds of fentanyl were seized at the port of entry during the same time period.
The sector ranges from the Pacific Ocean east to Border Monument 231. Noem had to waive 30 laws to enable the construction.
Near the Tecate and Otay Mesa ports of entry, the 30-foot wall will have anti-climb features.
Part of the $46.5 billion appropriated by Congress for border wall construction through 2029 as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will be used for the wall.
“President Trump is delivering on the mandate given by the American people to secure our southern border,” CBP Assistant Commissioner Hilton Beckham said.
Pro-immigration forces can't understand why Trump wants to build more of the border wall when immigration is at an all-time low due to Trump's strict policies.
“Border crossings are at historic lows, yet the Trump administration is declaring a bogus emergency,” The Center for Biological Diversity advocate Laiken Jordahl said.
But Trump is smart enough to know that he won't always be the one in charge.
If a Democrat gets elected as president or if Republicans lose a majority in Congress, the messaging could change and border encounters and crossings are likely to rise substantially.
Investing now for future prevention is the smart thing to do.
Democrats know it, and Trump does, too.