This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Officials in the Fresno Unified School District in California, with 71,000 students, have set up a number of academic support programs for them.
Only they are "marketed" only to black students.
Which has prompted the Pacific Legal Foundation to launch a legal challenge to the district for "unlawfully gating" access to the student help programs.
"It is unfair and unconstitutional to gate access to valuable educational programs based on a child's race, regardless of whether the exclusion is explicit or implicit," explained PLF lawyer Wilson Freeman.
"Taxpayer-funded academic support programs should be available to all students based on need, not race. FUSD's practices violate multiple legal protections, including the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause, the Civil Rights Act, and California's Proposition 209."
The district, in fact, has an "Office of African American Academic Acceleration," to address achievement gaps between black students and others.
That office runs 13 various programs with a $12 million budget, and focuses "on mentoring African American middle and high school students," the legal team explained.
While the programs lack a specific racial requirement, "they are marketed exclusively to African American students," the legal challenge charges.
"Administrators direct teachers to inform only African American parents and students about these opportunities, leaving other students unaware."
The report said Fresno is the state's third-largest school district, and the "acceleration" office was created back in 2017.
It was "started with a $742,000 budget to mentor African American middle and high school students," the report said.
"Academic need doesn't discriminate. It affects students of all races who need extra support to reach their full potential. This includes children whose parents belong to Californians for Equal Rights Foundation (CFER), a nonprofit group that fights for equal treatment under the law," the legal team explained.
"These parents have children in Fresno schools who could benefit from A4 programs but were either kept unaware of the opportunities or, worse, led to believe they weren't eligible because they're not black. The parents are also deeply troubled that the district spends millions in taxpayer dollars on programs that de facto exclude their children for no other reason than skin color."
The lawyers pointed out the Supreme Court has said, "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
PALM BEACH, Florida – F-16 fighter jets scrambled Saturday near President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home after multiple aircraft violated restricted airspace in a short time span, sparking an investigation by the U.S. Secret Service.
"NORAD F-16s intercepted 3 civilian aircraft violating airspace restrictions over Palm Beach, FL today," the North American Aerospace Defense Command said on X.
"Flares were deployed during two intercepts. All aircraft were safely escorted out of the area. Reminder: Always check FAA NOTAMs!"
A "NOTAM" is a notice to airmen.
The violations occurred within a short period of time, with the3 first at 11:05 a.m., the second at 12:10 p.m., and the third at 12:50 p.m.
Gen. Gregory Guillot, commander of NORAD and the U.S. Northern Command, stated: "NORAD and the FAA work closely together to keep the skies over America safe, with close attention paid to areas with Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFR).
"Adherence to TFR procedures is essential to ensure flights safety, national security, and the security of the president.
"The procedures are not optional, and the excessive number of recent TFR violations indicates civil aviators are not reading Notice to Airmen, or NOTAMs, before each flight as required by the FAA, and has resulted in numerous responses by NORAD fighter aircraft to guide offending aircraft out of the TFR."
Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Secret Service, told Susan Crabtree of Real Clear Politics: "The interdiction was conducted according to established NORAD protocols," and referred to NORAD for further questions about their protocols.
"Initial reports indicate the civilian aircraft inadvertently entered the restricted airspace over Palm Beach. Our protective intelligence teams are investigating further. Pilots are reminded to consult the FAA's Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) before all flights.
Some online reaction includes:
"I think FAA ignored the restriction, hoping for an innocent civilian flight to be shot down to try to hurt Trump's numbers. One is an oops. Twice is coincidence. Three and over is purposeful."
"Take away their licenses and charge the pilots the costs of the intercepts. I am sure the all up hourly costs of an F-16 is not cheap."
"USSS and FAA, please look very carefully at the pilot(s). ALL pilots know to check TFRs. One pilot, ok; 2 pilots, maybe; 3 pilots, suspicious."
"'Inadvertently'??? Three times???? Please, stop the insanity. I have no confidence in this SS 'spokesman'! Three times is NOT a mistake!!!!"
Just last month, another three violations of airspace took place while President Trump was staying at the so-called "Winter White House" at Mar-a-Lago.
The Palm Beach Post reported: "A spokesperson for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, confirmed Wednesday that there were three airspace violations of the imposed presidential protected space during Trump's six-day visit to Mar-a-Lago, his mansion in Palm Beach. Two occurred on Feb. 15 and one on Presidents Day, Feb. 17."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A Minnesota public school's scheming for a student trip that would go full racist and exclude whites because of their skin color has been exposed. And the trip has been canceled.
The plan for the trip for only students who "identify as a person of color" was named in a federal civil rights complaint against Highland Park High School.
Mark Perry, a retired professor, spotted the racist plan on social media and took action.
"They maybe should have understood this was a problem before, but at least once it was brought to their attention," said in an interview with a local television station.
"That's the least I can expect then, that then they would do the right thing and comply with federal Civil Rights Laws – which in this case was cancelling the program or maybe it was too late to open it up to all students," he said.
A report in the Daily Mail explained he was told the trip was canceled within hours of having filed the complaint.
The report said the trip was intended to expose students to "digital marketing and advertising careers."
Perry told a Minnesota publication that the plan violated Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act, as well as the district's own non-discrimination policy.
"Just as it would be illegal and objectionable for [Highland Park Senior High School] to offer a field trip that explicitly excluded students of color… it's equally illegal and objectionable to host a racially segregated field trip exclusively for 'students of color,'" Perry had told school Principal Winston Tucker and BrandLab, the agency organizing the trip, in a letter.
Perry is not unfamiliar with the federal law, as he works with Do No Harm as a civil rights advocate.
"There is no 'good' form of discrimination, regardless of your intentions. It's all bad and illegal when it violates the law," he explained in a website statement.
A district official said, in a statement, "St. Paul Public Schools values our partnerships with community organizations like the BrandLab and the opportunities they provide for our students. The district remains committed to providing post-secondary and career-related opportunities to all of our students to pursue their passions."
Spokeswoman Erica Wacker explained that the district tries to follow the rules, explaining that while the district's National African American Parent Involvement Day is "designed for a specific group," it actually is "open to anyone."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
It's in the headlines every day: How President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency is calling for more government program cuts and employee layoffs.
Many times it's purely logical, as the targets are doing jobs and handling responsibilities that the law doesn't authorize them to run.
And now the agenda is starting to gain traction, as officials at the Social Security Administration have proposed their own buyout program for workers who volunteer to leave.
A report at the Washington Examiner explains that employees are being offered up to $25,000 to resign, just as a warning was issued that "offices that perform functions not mandated by statute may be prioritized for reduction-in-force actions that could include abolishment of organizations and positions, directed reassignments, and reductions in staffing."
The announce comes just days after the Office of Personnel Management "issued a memorandum earlier this week advising agency heads to have their reorganization plans developed by March 13, including reductions in the workforce as part of the Department of Government Efficiency's efforts to cut waste in the federal government," the report explained.
DOGE, run by Elon Musk, already has called for massive cuts in spending – and staffing – of the government. For example, it essentially said the USAID agency was spending tax money in egregiously wrong ways, including on various social agenda ideologies, and its entire operations should be ended.
Ultimately, a fraction of USAID workers and responsibilities were transferred to the Department of State, with the rest losing their positions.
SSA officials, apparently trying to get ahead of specific mandates from DOGE, announced the realignment of staffing, and said they "may reassign employees from non-mission critical positions to mission-critical direct service positions."
The options being offered include reassignment, early retirement, optional retirement, or voluntary separation incentive payments.
Those payments would be offered through March 14 on a first-come basis and provide workers with a general schedule 8 or lower getting $15,000, GS 9-12 employees getting $20,000, and GS 13 or higher employees getting $25,000.
Already, SSA offices including the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity and the Office of Transformation were closed down and workers placed on administrative leave for now.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
There were strident words in the Oval Office Friday when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
The upshot was that Zelensky got scolded for his entitled attitude toward the United States, which has sent his country hundreds of billions of dollars to fight a war with Russia, even has the U.S. is working with him, and Russian President Vladimir Putin on a way to end the bloodshed.
Essentially, Zelensky was spanked.
And Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, R-Ga., praised the White House.
"President Trump and Vice President Vance will put America First every single time," she said. "Putting Zelensky in his place while he disrespects the U.S. in the Oval Office is exactly what American leadership should look like."
Substack author Nick Adams joined Greene's endorsement, with, "Someday, when I'm old and gray and someone walks up to me on the tennis court or golf course and says, 'Mr. Adams, what is it like when a strong leader stands up for his country for the whole world to see?', I will point him to the video of President Trump and Vice President Vance giving Ukraine's President Zelensky the stern talk that he should have received many years and billions of dollars ago."
He said, "The terrible tragedy of the Ukraine war is that billions of dollars have not just been wasted, but they have been spent on a war of attrition that has done nothing but kill young men whose futures now lie in pools of blood in the World War One style trenches of Ukraine. President Trump invited Zelensky to the White House to talk peace, but instead Zelensky came to grandstand. He wants money, he wants power, but he self-evidently did not want peace."
And he said, "Gone are the days when such a performance would result in the stupidest president in American history, Joe Biden, cutting a check. Instead, President Trump called Zelensky out on his ingratitude, his resistance to peace, and the arrogance that could lead us to a third world war."
Trump's invitation had gone out to Zelensky even though Zelensky campaigned last fall for Kamala Harris, the Democrats' failed 2024 presidential nominee.
He said, "War is hell and it takes a real man with a strong mind to avoid it when possible and wage it swiftly and conclusively when it is unavoidable. Today, President Trump demonstrated what his motto of 'peace through strength' is all about. He made it clear that America is no longer going to function as a limitless trust fund for Zelensky, nor will we be dragged into an arrangement that prolongs the killing."
Trump, for his part, said Zelensky could return "when he is ready for peace."
Part of the confrontation:
Social media pointed out that, "Zelensky just got spanked and humiliated in front of the entire world."
Sen. Lindsey Graham said, most Americans now would not want Zelensky to be their business partners.
"I never been more proud of President Trump for showing the American people and the world you don't trifle with this man."
The ramifications started immediately, with a report that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was terminating U.S. support for the work restoring Ukraine's energy grid immediately.
There had been predicted a deal that would give America access to some of the rare earth minerals that could be mined in Ukraine, but Zelensky came in with additional demands, including for troops.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
President Trump is considering ending shipments of military aid to Ukraine after the heated disagreement he had today with President Zelensky over the war between Russia and Ukraine.
According to a report in the Washington Post, a senior administration official told the paper about the possible retributive action.
If made, the decision would apply to "billions of dollars of radars, vehicles, ammunition and missiles awaiting shipment to Ukraine through the presidential drawdown authority, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic," reported the Post.
The unprecedented dust-up caused the cancellation of a planned news conference and ceremony signing an agreement between the two nations to enable U.S. access to rare-earth minerals in Ukraine.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Instructions have gone out to U.S. government offices worldwide that men who say they are women and want to compete in athletic events in America are to be denied visas.
And those who are deemed to have misrepresented their birth sex on their applications will be banned from American soil permanently.
That's according to a new report at the Guardian, which explains, "The 24 February state department cable obtained by the Guardian instructs visa officers to apply Immigration and Nationality Act section 212(a)(6)(C)(i) – the 'permanent fraud bar' – against trans applicants. Unlike regular visa denials, this section triggers lifetime exclusion from the United States with limited waiver possibilities."
The Guardian reported the instructions from the administration of President Donald Trump, who earlier declared that the U.S. government recognizes only two sexes, male and female, stated, "In cases where applicants are suspected of misrepresenting their purpose of travel or sex, you should consider whether this misrepresentation is material such that it supports an ineligibility finding."
The guidance was released over the signature of Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Trump's own executive order on the topic came Feb. 5, and said simply men are not allowed to compete in women's sports events.
"While signing the order, the president directed the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, to deny visas to 'men attempting to fraudulently enter the United States while identifying themselves as women athletes' during the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles – which will take place under Trump's watch," the report explained.
Trump also directed Rubio to inform the International Olympic Committee that the U.S. "will not stand by and watch men beat and batter female athletes."
Officials at the ACLU, who have fought over and over on behalf of special recognition for alternative sexual lifestyle choices, such as transgenderism, said the decision to bar male athletes who claim to be female was "alarming."
Transgenders have, in fact, been allowed to compete in Olympic events in Tokyo and Paris.
"The state department cable instructs consular officers to examine birth certificates when documentation conflicts and mark all cases with 'SWS25' to track enforcement across consular posts worldwide. It also mentions a forthcoming separate guidance from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs that will outline additional actions to 'preclude biologically male athletes from participating in women's sporting events, including sports exchanges in the United States,'" the report noted.
In America, the NCAA already has reversed its position on men in women's sports because of Trump's definitions.
A post at the Post-Millennial said, the permanent ban is available under U.S. law that cracks down on those who try to get a visa by "fraud or willfully misrepresenting a material fact."
Trump has expressed that America "categorically rejects transgender lunacy." He said, "We want them to change everything having to do with the Olympics and having to do with this absolutely ridiculous subject that we even have to talk about this subject."
In fact, following the science, males do not become females, or vice versa, because being male or female is embedded in the human body down to the DNA level.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Tennessee has won a key First Amendment fight, with a result from the U.S. Supreme Court that it is not required, under the Constitution, to allow drag shows when children are present.
"Free speech is a sacred American value, but the First Amendment does not require Tennessee to allow sexually explicit performances in front of children," Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said on social media. "We will continue to defend TN's law and children."
A report from Fox documents how the Supreme Court has refused to hear a challenge to the state law.
The Tennessee Adult Entertainment Act, passed in 2023, does not allow "adult-oriented performances" in public spaces, or anywhere where minors may see them.
A lower court judge had claimed the law was "unconstitutionally vague and substantially overbroad" and had halted its enforcement.
That ruling then was reversed by an appellate court, a ruling that now stands as the Supreme Court did not intervene.
The law makes violators subject to prosecution for a Class A misdemeanor, with a second or third offense a felony.
"I'm proud that the United States Supreme Court has upheld yet another Tennessee law protecting our children. SB 3 ensures that Tennessee children are not exposed to sexually explicit entertainment," explained Jack Johnson, the state Senate majority leader Jack Johnson.
The state also has another fight pending before the Supreme Court, its law prohibiting transgender medical "treatments" for minors.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
"Phase One" of the Epstein files are being released today but America still apparently won't have much of the story of the convicted sex offender whose friends included Bill Clinton and Bill Gates, among many others.
That's because Attorney General Pam Bondi, who released that "Phase One" to reporters on today, confirmed to FBI chief Kash Patel that minions in that agency still are withholding documents from her.
The ongoing process to unveil the evil that was behind Epstein and his circle of friends and their behavior toward young girls that Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of trafficking, however, has convinced an adviser to President Trump that more prosecutions are coming.
Initially expected were lists of flight logs, passengers aboard Epstein's "Lolita Express" and more.
But there also were predictions of some 200 or 250 trafficking victims, and there would need to be discretion in revealing any of that information.
Habba, an adviser to President Trump, was asked if there would be criminal cases coming.
"Absolutely. I think it would be negligent for us not to. You have to hold individuals who are indeed rapists accountable. We have to have them tried, in my opinion."
She continued, "Nobody should be just dismissed. You have to have your time in court, and your case will be heard. But to hide lists, to protect political friends, all of that – we don't have time for that."
The Daily Mail reported she said the information being made available was "incredibly disturbing."
The circus around Epstein, who apparently killed himself while awaiting sex charges in New York several years ago, has seen only one person convicted so far, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a prison term for sex trafficking charges, after she recruited young girls for Epstein's ring.
Binders labeled "Phase One" were distributed Thursday, but the contents were not yet posted online.
The report said, "Habba said that the information in the documents will reveal the extent of the scandal is 'far worse' than was expected after Bondi revealed on Wednesday that there are 250 victims whose identities she needs to protect."
The Gateway Pundit reported Habba, in an interview with Piers Morgan, explained patience will be required.
"I don't see how it's not shocking that so many individuals were hidden, kept secret, and not held accountable. Let's talk about the reverse. I believe in accountability, so now we have to go through the process. I won't say they're guilty until they have their time in court. But again, now it's time for accountability," she said.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
WASHINGTON – United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited the White House today, and praised President Donald Trump's leadership in the campaign to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Starmer thanked Trump, "…for changing the conversation to bring about the possibility that now we can have a peace deal."
He continued, "Now we want to work with you to make sure that peace deal is enduring, that it lasts […] and we'll work with you to make sure that absolutely happens."
Answering reporters' questions, Trump reiterated that the deal will not include allowing Ukraine to join NATO. He believes it would land the two Eastern European countries back at square one.
"I could be very nice and say, 'Oh, well, we'll work on it.' Look, it's not going to happen," Trump said. "That was one of the primary reasons it started."
The president also affirmed that the U.S. will remain a "backstop" to Ukrainian security, while saying he trusts that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not break any agreement.
"I don't believe he's going to violate his word. I don't think he'll be back [in Ukraine] when we make a deal. I think the deal is going to hold now," he said.
Trump pointed to other countries that are invested in the ceasefire as a reason the deal would last. "I know France wants to be there […] I don't think we're going to even be necessary but I don't think there'll be any problem with keeping the deal with the security."
It's clear that Great Britain is invested in a positive relationship with this administration. While visiting the Oval Office, Starmer presented Trump with an invitation from King Charles III for an "unprecedented" second state visit to the U.K.
"This is really special. This has never happened before." Starmer said, seated next to Trump.
"I think that just symbolizes the strength of the relationship between us. This is a very special letter. I think the last state visit was a tremendous success," he continued. "His majesty the king wants to make this even better than that."
For his part, Trump seemed genuinely taken aback by the historic invite and quickly accepted on behalf of himself and First Lady Melania Trump. They will stay at Windsor Castle.