As many states are redistricting, New Hampshire's GOP has declined a plan to redistrict after the state's GOP governor indicated no support for the idea.
There are numerous redistricting battles going on around the nation right now, and the GOP has made serious gains, with states like Texas and North Carolina adding more seats to Congress.
These redistricting campaigns, in combination with an upcoming landmark Supreme Court decision, could easily hand the GOP control of the House of Representatives for decades.
However, those victories won't extend to New Hampshire as State Senator Dan Innis has dropped his plan to push redistricting after Governor Kelly Ayotte (R) refused to endorse the idea.
While this is a setback for the Trump administration, it's less consequential considering the massive gains that the GOP has made.
New redistricting efforts have been extremely successful in Texas and North Carolina, with many Democrat seats eliminated, ensuring that the days of the narrow GOP majority in the House are over.
Furthermore, the Supreme Court is considering a case that could knock down a section of the Voting Rights Act that essentially required racial quotas in creating districts.
If the Supreme Court strikes that requirement down, it will allow GOP states to eliminate dozens of Democrat seats that exist entirely because of the Voting Rights Act's racial district quota rules.
That one provision has allowed Democrats to hold onto seats in otherwise entirely red states like Alabama and Mississippi. Without the Voting Rights Act's current rules, there will no longer be districts drawn on racial lines and that will be devastating for Democrats.
However, in New Hampshire, Governor Ayotte claimed that since New Hampshire is in the middle of a current redistricting cycle, it made no sense to redistrict again.
Ayotte explained, "When I talk to people in New Hampshire … it’s not on the top of their priority list. They want us to continue to work in the legislature on housing issues, child care, keeping the state the safest in the nation, and just making sure that we have the best quality education for our children."
This is a fairly good argument against redistricting, considering the political implications. Should New Hampshire's GOP party choose to push for redistricting, it will be a months-long political battle with Democrats, and nothing else will get done.
In more GOP-dominated states, redistricting battles are less costly. But the Granite State is no GOP stronghold and some level of cooperation with Democrats is needed to get business done.
However, the implications of this decision will be worth keeping an eye on as the GOP tallies up its gains in the House from other states.
The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that the national ban on transgender women competing in female powerlifting is discrimination after a biological male, JayCee Cooper, sued USA Powerlifting in 2021 over being excluded.
“USA Powerlifting’s policy at the time of the decision was to categorically exclude transgender women from competing in the women’s division,” Chief Justice Natalie Hudson wrote for the court.
“Because USA Powerlifting’s facially discriminatory policy provides direct evidence of discriminatory motive, there is no genuine issue of material fact as to whether Cooper’s transgender status actually motivated USA Powerlifting’s decision to prohibit Cooper from competing. We therefore reverse the part of the court of appeals’ decision on this issue,” Hudson continued.
Cooper got a partial win in the suit, but the court also sent the case back to the lower courts to determine whether USA Powerlifting had a “legitimate business purpose” for its policy to exclude biological males from its women's events.
USA Powerlifting President Larry Maile said that the organization “created rules that uphold the principles of fair play” and didn't seek to exclude anyone.
The organization created a division specifically for those claiming to be transgender and nonbinary in 2021.
“Since science shows those who were born biologically male have a profound physical advantage over female-born athletes, our responsibility is to define legitimate categories to fairly place athletes within them,” Maile said.
The organization's attorneys said the decision on Wednesday is a partial win for both sides.
Ansis Viksnins said that USA Powerlifting will get to tell a jury “why excluding a transgender woman from competing in the women’s division was for legitimate reasons, for maintaining fairness in athletics.”
If transgender women, who are biologically male, are allowed to compete against biological females, the males would win every trophy and prize because males have greater muscle mass than females, even males who now identify as females and even those who have taken hormones or had transgender surgeries.
It is only common sense to separate these categories and have a separate division for those who are non-binary or transgender.
Then again, if the "T" part of LGBT had any common sense, they would know you can't just change your gender because you want to.
Transgender women will never have many of the struggles biological women have, including monthly menstruation, pregnancy risks, or anything related to the female reproductive system, which they don't have.
Just because you say you're something, doesn't make it true. And if women's sports is forced to lose all common sense, it will be destroyed beyond any repair. That's the bottom line people don't take into account, and they really should.
Threats by leaders in one major crime-plagued U.S. city to sue President Donald Trump over his plan to deploy the National Guard have not gone as expected for them.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that President Donald Trump could deploy hundreds of National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon as part of his plan to fight high levels of violent crime there.
The 2-1 ruling lifted a lower court order that blocked Trump from deploying the troops, but other challenges could make that ruling all but moot.
A second emergency order blocking Trump specifically from deploying any federalized troops to Portland remains in place, and the justices on the 9th Circuit said they couldn't evaluate that order.
Trump has asked the judge who issued that order, U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, to dissolve her order in light of the appeals court ruling, but that has not happened so far.
Lawyers for California and Oregon are resisting that move, and asked for the order to remain in place until the 9th Circuit decides whether to have the full appellate court bench deliberate on it.
"The fight is not over," Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek vowed to reporters on Monday. "Until the district court acts on the second TRO, National Guard members from Oregon, or any other state cannot deploy."
Friday should bring more clarity on two fronts.
Immergut has ordered both parties to appear on Friday for a decision on whether to dissolve the emergency order.
In addition, the appeals court has scheduled a hearing to decide whether the full court will hear the appeal of that order.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court may get its chance to weigh in soon, since Trump has asked for an appeal of an order blocking him from deploying troops to Chicago, another city sorely in need of some law and order.
The deployment to Washington, D.C. has correlated with a drop in criminal activity, especially vehicle thefts, which were down 34% in the first 30 days of the deployment.
Trump would like to keep Guard troops deployed in D.C., but there's a case pending related to whether he will be able to do that as well.
At any rate, he's showing he wants to do something to help these high rates of crime, which is more than we can say for the Democrat mayors of these cities.
President Donald Trump's pick for head of the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), Paul Ingrassia, withdrew his nomination on Tuesday after Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) said he would not support the nominee because of texts he sent to a group chat that became public.
The texts allegedly said that Ingrassia claimed he had a "Nazi streak" and that the holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "should be ended and tossed into the seventh circle of hell where it belongs.”
"I will be withdrawing myself from Thursday’s [Senate Homeland Security Committee] hearing to lead the Office of Special Counsel because unfortunately I do not have enough Republican votes at this time," he posted on X. "I appreciate the overwhelming support that I have received throughout this process and will continue to serve President Trump and this administration to Make America Great Again!"
Without Scott's support, Ingrassia could not get approved by the committee and get a full confirmation vote by the Senate.
Ingrassia has been the White House liaison to the United States Department of Homeland Security since February 2025, so he's already been inside the administration, influencing policy and working closely with Trump and others at the White House.
The controversy has been known since June, but the way the Senate has been slow-walking Trump's nominees, it hadn't been a well-known issue.
Allegedly, Ingrassia's mother showed up on Capitol Hill in June and tried to defend him to Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Robert Garcia (D-CA), who sent a scathing letter about him to Republicans on the committee.
“Mr. Ingrassia is unfit to serve as special counsel and his nomination is insulting to the American people,” the offensive letter read in part.
Whatever else Ingrassia has said or done, it's just not a good look when your mom shows up to Congress to defend you.
Trump had been making progress in getting his nominees through the confirmation process after Republicans tweaked a few of the rules so that Democrats couldn't continue to slow things down to a snail's pace.
Batches of more than 100 nominees each have been confirmed in one fell swoop over the last few weeks, but any nominees that are controversial or opposed by one or more Republicans, like Ingrassia was, are not included in a batch.
Before Trump took office again in January, most nominees were approved by unanimous consent of the Senate, but that went by the wayside so that Democrats could claim they were trying to preserve Democracy and may never be seen again in Washington.
Eventually, Republicans and Trump got tired of having to spend so much time and effort on each nominee and began demanding the rule changes.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) spearheaded the rule changes in September.
Republicans fought former President Joe Biden tooth and nail when he tried to institute student loan forgiveness plans during his administration, but now President Donald Trump has agreed to remove the pause on established programs that have been in place for years or decades.
Income-driven repayment plans cap the monthly loan amount at a percentage of the borrower's income, and usually forgive the loans after 20 or 25 years of consistent payments.
Trump had paused forgiveness under those plans earlier in the year to review them, and Education Secretary Linda McMahon had argued that the court order blocking Biden's Saving on a Valuable Education plan (SAVE) would allow them to stop offering loan forgiveness under the plans.
Despite this argument, Trump decided to restart them as part of an agreement with the American Federation of Teachers, which celebrated the move.
“This is a tremendous win for borrowers. With today’s filing, borrowers can rest a little easier,” legal counsel Winston Berkman-Breen said.
“The US Department of Education has agreed to follow the law and deliver congressionally mandated affordable payments and debt relief to hard-working public service workers across the country, and will do so under court supervision. We fully intend to hold them to their word.”
Under the agreement, borrowers who receive forgiveness will not owe taxes on the amount forgiven.
“The Biden Administration’s illegal attempts at mass student loan forgiveness impacted all of the Department’s income-driven repayment programs, including Income-Based Repayment. The courts intervened to stop their illegal efforts but that also impacted Department systems and prevented us from processing lawful loan discharges,” a spokesperson for the Department of Education told The Post in a statement.
“Thanks to the Trump Administration’s efforts to separate out the illegal loan cancellation schemes, we are able to process legitimate loan cancellations once again.”
The move is temporary, because Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill will be phasing out the programs by 2028 anyway.
But by agreeing to reverse the pause, Trump will settle the lawsuit by the AFT in March.
It makes sense because the borrowers were told they could access the program when they took the loans, so it doesn't seem fair to change the rules in the middle of the game.
Those paying under income-based repayment plans can end up owing far more than they originally borrowed because of interest over many years, so the forgiveness makes sense at some point.
President Donald Trump said Sunday evening that the ceasefire between Israel and Gaza was still intact after the two sides exchanged fire over the weekend.
Trump seemed to blame civilians in Gaza for opening fire on Israeli soldiers, killing two of them. Israel then launched a series of air strikes on Gaza.
Hamas is being “quite rambunctious,” Trump said from Air Force One, but added he believes its leadership “isn’t involved in that.”
The ceasefire is "still in place," even though both sides accuse the other of violating it, he said.
It's about par for the course in the Middle East, where peace in Israel has never lasted long.
So far, Israel has withdrawn most of its soldiers from Gaza and has allowed food and medical aid to flow in.
Hamas returned all the living hostages it held back to Israel along with remains of 12 of the 28 dead ones. It said before the ceasefire that it would take some time to locate the remains of all the dead hostages.
Israel countered by saying the Rafah border crossing that connects Gaza with Egypt would stay closed until all the remains were returned.
Clearly, there are still tensions between the two sides, and Hamas has not yet disarmed.
Trump threatened last week that if Hamas didn't disarm voluntarily, they would be disarmed by force, though not by American forces.
Part of the peace plan that hasn't yet been implemented calls for Hamas's disarmament, but they haven't agreed to that part yet.
On Saturday, the State Department said it had intel that Hamas is planning an attack on Palestinian civilians in Gaza, which would definitely violate the ceasefire terms.
In that case, the U.S. said it would take action to “protect the people of Gaza and preserve the integrity of the ceasefire.”
“The United States and the other guarantors remain resolute in our commitment to ensuring the safety of civilians, maintaining calm on the ground, and advancing peace and prosperity for the people of Gaza and the region as a whole,” the statement further read.
President Donald Trump has confirmed that two men who survived a military strike on a drug smuggling vessel will be sent to their respective countries.
In an announcement on Saturday, Trump confirmed that the two men on the drug-running vessel will be sent to Ecuador and Colombia to face prosecution for the illegal and nearly fatal drug-running enterprise.
The two men were on board a semi-submersible vessel believed to be transporting fentanyl and other narcotics along a well-known smuggling route toward the United States.
The strike on the vessel marked the sixth strike that the U.S. military has made on suspected drug-running vessels in the Caribbean under the leadership of Trump.
Trump has vowed to crush Central and South American drug cartels both by closing down the southern border, but also by using lethal military force to disrupt the trafficking of deadly drugs that kill countless Americans every year.
For years, drug cartels have had carte blanche to run their deadly cargo through the Caribbean Sea and across the southern border, but those days are over as long as Trump is in the White House.
Trump celebrated the strike in a post on Truth Social saying, "It was my great honor to destroy a very large drug-carrying submarine that was navigating toward the United States on a well-known narcotrafficking transit route. U.S. intelligence confirmed this vessel was loaded up with mostly fentanyl, and other illegal narcotics."
Alongside this post, Trump released the footage of the strike that destroyed the vessel in a similar fashion to the last few strikes on drug smuggling vessels.
For the first time, those participating in smuggling deadly drugs have something to fear. Simply seizing random amounts of smuggled drugs isn't enough to truly deter cartel activity.
Furthermore, Trump has avoided a massive legal headache as he no longer has to worry about detaining prisoners of war who have the legal right to contest their detention in the American court system.
Instead, these smugglers have gone to their respective countries, where their cases will be handled. The cases will likely be open and shut, and those smugglers can expect to spend some time behind bars, which is still better than being dead.
On the home front, Trump is already dealing with growing legal challenges as Democrats have predictably chosen to side with drug-smuggling cartels and launch spurious lawsuits against Trump's use of military force against cartels.
Of course, it's not just Democrats who have an issue with Trump starting a hot war against cartels. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has been a staunch critic of Trump's use of force and claims that the military strikes on drug smuggling vessels are illegal.
It remains to be seen what will happen with these legal challenges, but it's refreshing to see America's trillion-dollar military used to directly defend the homeland instead of waging meaningless wars on the other side of the globe.
Democrats are in trouble in New Jersey, and former President Barack Obama is stepping in to try to reinforce Democrats ahead of a crucial election.
Obama has officially endorsed New Jersey’s Democratic gubernatorial nominee, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, as she is caught in a tight race with Republican Jack Ciattarelli, who hopes to flip New Jersey's governor's mansion for the first time since 2018.
While Sherrill leads Ciattarelli by six points, there is genuine fear that Ciattarelli could flip New Jersey due to an overwhelming negative sentiment towards Democrats.
The race in New Jersey is one of two major gubernatorial battles that Democrats are pouring a lot of money and energy into, the other being in Virginia.
Obama has also issued an endorsement of former Democrat Representative Abigail Spanberger in Virginia, as Democrats are working to retake Virginia.
While Obama is a popular figure among Democrats, he doesn't enjoy the universal acclaim he once had all those years ago.
Bringing out Obama to make a political endorsement is a risky measure due to his increasingly divisive image with moderates and center-right conservatives. So this is an all-hands-on-deck moment for Democrats to try and ward off Ciattarelli.
In an ad released on Friday, Obama called on New Jersey voters to come out for Sherrill saying, "Mikie’s integrity, grit, and commitment to service are what we need right now in our leaders. Mikie Sherrill is the right choice for your next governor."
It isn't just Obama who's been called in to shore up Sherrill. Other Democrat Governors, like Maryland Governor Wes Moore and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, have also publicly thrown their political clout behind Sherrill.
Responding to Obama's endorsement, Sherrill stated, "This November, we have an opportunity to chart a different path forward — to reject the chaos in Washington and lower costs in New Jersey — and I’m so grateful to have President Obama’s support and endorsement in this race. President Obama led historic efforts to lower healthcare costs and, now, Jack Ciattarelli is all in on Trump’s plans to raise premiums and kick hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans off their healthcare."
Sherill is wisely focusing on economic issues which is keeping her in the lead and marks a sharp tack away from the typical Democrat playbook of focusing on social issues. Nonetheless, there are fears that Sherrill could lose this race.
Ciattarelli came just three points shy of beating Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy in 2021 when President Joe Biden won the White House. Now with Democrats very much still in retreat, Ciattarelli believes he has what he needs to claim victory.
He explained, “I flipped eight seats in the state Legislature with the wind in our face and despite those challenges, it was the most successful night in 34 years for the Republican Party. In 2023, without me at the top of the ballot, we gave all those seats right back. But I’m telling you, this time around, we’ve got some wind at our back.”
Clearly, Democrats agree with Ciattarelli, and that's why they are pulling out all the stops to rally behind Sherrill to try and avoid the humiliation of losing the Garden State.
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.
First Son Barron Trump, only 19 years old, has reportedly earned $150 million in only a year from his family's cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial (WLF). His net worth now surpasses his mother, First Lady Melania Trump's, which is reported to be $20 million.
Barron played a prominent part in launching WLF; he is the one who introduced his father to cryptocurrency and explained its potential value to the family business interests.
Therefore, it's only fair that he would share in its profits, which were reportedly $1.5 billion after the launch of several cryptocurrency tokens and currencies.
Barron is only a sophomore at Stern School of Business at NYU, but he is undoubtedly one of the wealthiest students there as he balances his growing business interests with his studies.
The company was launched weeks before the 2024 election and has taken full advantage of Trump's re-election and general popularity with Republicans.
Barron is already a notable figure in digital finance, and a leading cryptocurrency entrepreneur, and he's not even out of his teens yet.
According to Forbes, he still has 2.3 billion locked tokens, which could net him $550 million if he plays his cards right.
Of course, he likely didn't put up any money to start WLF; that was dad's or his brothers' money, but he contributed ideas and strategy that have paid off for all of them in a big way.
Maybe his mother Melania's fierce protectiveness and years of nurturing him are paying off; Barron certainly doesn't seem to be falling prey to a lot of the things other kids his age have.
It's unclear how much control and influence his parents still have over him. He's an adult, but many college students are still pretty dependent on their parents.
The public is really interested in Barron, having seen him grow up while Dad was in his first term even though Mom kept him mostly out of the public eye.
He has a bright future ahead of him and could rapidly catch up to his father's $7.5 billion net worth once he comes fully into his own (while still being involved in the family's businesses).
It really shouldn't take him long to catch up to his brothers, Eric (worth $750 million) and Don Jr. (worth $500 million).
Brother-in-law Jared Kushner is worth a billion now, but even that target may not be out of reach if crypto continues doing well.