Following days of debate, the Senate passed the Laken Riley Act 64-35 on Monday, empowering the Department of Homeland Security to detain and deport any illegal immigrants accused of theft-related crimes, assaulting law enforcement or actions causing serious injury or death.
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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security will crack down on domestic terrorism, the border, and cybersecurity attacks rather than waging war against election misinformation, secretary nominee Kristi Noem vowed.
During her Friday confirmation hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Republican governor of South Dakota emphasized how the American people have lost trust in the DHS and other federal agencies meant to ensure national security, particularly those responsible for the border.
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Safety, strength and prosperity will be the key objectives of the U.S. Department of State under the second Trump administration, Secretary of State nominee Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said during his confirmation hearing Wednesday.
The main problem with America’s current foreign policy strategy, Rubio stated, is that it fails to protect our national interests, leading to less domestic prosperity, and it also fails to enforce deterrence against global aggression, resulting in “an invitation to war.”
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Within one month of each other, two federal judges ruled that a law passed by Congress is “likely unconstitutional” and ruled in favor of small businesses.
At issue is the Corporate Transparency Act, which Congress passed in 2021, overriding a veto issued by then President Donald Trump. The law requires entities incorporated under state law to disclose the personal information of their stakeholders, including current address, identification documents, and other sensitive information, to the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
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Within one month of each other, six of the largest U.S. banks left the United Nations Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) not soon after Donald Trump was elected president.
Last month, Goldman Sachs was the first to withdraw from the alliance, followed by Wells Fargo, The Center Square reported.
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North Carolina’s death toll rose to 104 as a result of Hurricane Helene and the names of those who died have been released by the state Department of Health and Human Services.
The most recent addition was for a motor vehicle crash in Mitchell County. The storm’s fatalities across seven states is 233.
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Republicans in Congress led by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, introduced a joint resolution proposing a constitutional amendment to impose term limits for members of Congress.
The amendment would limit U.S. senators to two six-year terms and U.S. House members to three two-year terms. The two-page resolution states that after the amendment is passed by Congress and ratified by the states, the amendment would go into effect “within seven years after the date of its submission by the Congress.”
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Meta is ending its fact-checking program in the U.S. and replacing it with a system similar to the one used by the X platform.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, announced the policy overhaul and assured the platform would work with the incoming administration and return to the company’s foundational values and roots.
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The upcoming week is filled with crucial economic data releases that will provide insight into the state of the U.S. economy as it transitions into 2025. A mix of labor market reports and key Fed communications will shift expectations about growth and Fed policy, resulting in large swings in the interest rates that govern consumer borrowing costs for credit cards, auto loans and mortgages.
The main event is the December jobs report, where employment gains are expected to have slowed.
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The number of homeless people in the U.S. reached the highest level recorded in 2024, as more than 770,000 people lived without housing on a single night in January, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s annual report.
The number is an 18% increase from 2023, fueled in part by the surge of migrants illegally entering the U.S. and residing without housing in sanctuary cities, the report noted.
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Of the more than 14 million illegal border crossers reported under the Biden administration, an unknown number of violent Venezuelan Tren de Aragua prison gang members illegally entered the country.
Now, police records and official law enforcement statements confirm TdA-linked crime and arrests have occurred in 22 U.S. states.
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President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to drastically cut government and clean out inefficiencies, but he faces an entrenched power in Washington, D.C. that may throw a wrench in his plans: federal government public employee unions.
“For president-elect Trump to succeed at making the federal bureaucracy more efficient and accountable to the American people, he’ll have to once again do battle with federal unions,” Max Nelsen, a labor policy expert at the Freedom Foundation, told The Center Square.
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Home prices could climb 2% in 2025 and an additional 2% in 2026, according to the latest forecast from the National Association of Realtors.
The group’s economist, Lawrence Yun, projected the median U.S. home price would continue to increase in 2025, but at a slower pace compared to previous years, reaching a $410,700 median existing-home price. The median home price in November stood at $406,100.
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Pornhub will soon be inaccessible in 13 states after lawmakers passed a slurry of restrictions for social media and other internet sites.
The bills require certain age verification measures for websites hosting adult content.
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Members of the violent Venezuelan prison gang, Tren de Aragua (TdA), continue to expand criminal operations in western states, including in Arizona, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.
As the border crisis escalated, a record number of illegal border crossers from Venezuela were released into the country by the Biden administration and TdA violence expanded nationwide.
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As 2025 approaches, America’s fiscal health is in serious trouble with a ballooning federal debt exceeding 100% of the GDP.
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The world’s largest private fusion company has announced that it has chosen Chesterfield, Virginia, as the site of the world’s first grid-scale commercial fusion power plant, which will also be its first power plant.
Founded in Massachusetts as a result of decades of research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Commonwealth Fusion Systems is at the forefront of efforts to “build a full-fledged fusion energy industry” that aims to help meet the energy demands of the future without relying on fossil fuels.
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President Joe Biden is only a few weeks away from the end of his time in office, and one key part of his legacy is undeniable: inflation.
Biden has battled inflation from the start, but critics say he helped fuel it with trillions of dollars in deficit spending during his four years in office. Federal debt spending is offset in part by printing money, which increases inflation.
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Some recent proposed regulatory changes by two key federal agencies are raising alarms among experts and former regulators, who warn that the moves could destabilize the banking sector and drive up energy prices.
The US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation announced proposed rules on Regulations Implementing the Change in Bank Control Act that would tighten control over index fund managers’ investments in banks. The proposed rule would require asset managers who own more than a 10% stake in a regulated bank to secure FDIC approval through a written notice, adding a new layer of scrutiny on top of Federal Reserve Board oversight, which already reviews such investments.
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Illegal border crossers from Venezuela with confirmed ties to the violent prison gang Tren de Aragua have been connected to an ATM theft ring in multiple states. The latest arrests occurred in North and South Dakota.
One recent arrest was made by West Fargo police of a 25-year-old man outside of a Gate City Bank branch. He was initially pulled over for a broken taillight but was arrested for felony theft after police discovered he was allegedly involved with bank ATM thefts in the Red River Valley.
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Not soon after the general election, and within two weeks of each other, two major financial institutions have left a United Nations Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA).
This is after they joined three years ago, pledging to require environmental social governance standards (ESG) across their platforms, products and systems.
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After an Iranian national was arrested on Monday in a Boston suburb for his alleged ties to a terrorist attack that killed three U.S. service members, the town’s leaders unanimously voted to pass a sanctuary city ordinance.
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According to a federal survey of school leaders, 40% of students in the nation’s public schools were behind grade level in one or more subjects at the beginning of the school year.
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) announced its findings this week that the percentage of students school leaders estimated to be behind where they should be was down 7% from the 2022-23 school year but still 8% higher than before the pandemic.
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Law enforcement officials in Virginia have reported “suspicious” drone sightings appearing over counties containing sensitive military bases and national security facilities.
The Stafford County Sheriff’s Office reports the sightings of “suspicious drones flying over” Stafford, King George and Spotsylvania counties.
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Following through on a pledge she made months ago, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg on Friday announced her office was seeking the death penalty in the prosecution of two illegal foreign nationals from Venezuela now charged with the capital murder of a 12-year-old Houston girl.
On June 17, 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray’s body was found in a bayou under a bridge in north Houston. The cause of death was strangulation but her body was found bound, without clothing from the waist down. Forensic evidence was collected to ascertain if she was sexually assaulted. According to the assistant district attorney prosecuting the case, the perpetrators threw her body into the bayou to get rid of DNA evidence, The Center Square reported.
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Law enforcement officials in Virginia have reported “suspicious” drone sightings appearing over counties containing sensitive military bases and national security facilities.
The Stafford County Sheriff’s Office reports the sightings of “suspicious drones flying over” Stafford, King George and Spotsylvania counties.
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The greatest number of illegal foreign nationals on the docket for deportation by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Non-Detention Docket (NDD) was reported under the Biden administration.
The greatest number was 6.2 million in fiscal 2023, followed by 4.7 million in fiscal 2022 and 3.6 million in fiscal 2021, according to an ICE 2023 annual report.
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President-elect Donald Trump said he could start pardons for “most” convicted Jan. 6 protesters during his first minutes in the White House.
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Annual inflation rates increased last month.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its latest Consumer Price Index, a key marker of inflation, which showed that consumer prices rose 0.3% in November, part of a 2.7% increase over the last year.
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Another federal court has ruled against the federal program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), arguing a Biden administration plan to provide free health care to DACA recipients is illegal.
It’s the fourth time a federal judge has recently ruled against a program created by former President Barack Obama through executive order in 2012.
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The average American household credit card balance as of the third quarter of 2024 was about $10,757 after adjusting for inflation, according to a new study.
The personal-finance website WalletHub on Friday released its new Credit Card Debt Study, which found that consumers added $21 billion in debt during the third quarter of 2024.
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The U.S. Department of Defense announced a new round of nearly $1 billion in U.S. taxpayer money for Ukraine as the conflict with Russia continues. Total U.S. taxpayer funding for Ukraine now totals $62 billion since the war began.
The latest package will provide Ukraine with munitions for rocket systems, Unmanned Aerial Systems, and maintenance and repair programs to sustain and bolster its combat power.
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As Mexican cartel violence has escalated during the Biden administration, the U.S. State Department announced it is increasing a reward for a Mexican drug lord.
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Attorneys for President-elect Donald Trump are working to clear out pending criminal cases before he takes office in January.
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The U.S. Department of Education (ED) may soon recognize Grand Canyon University’s nonprofit status after the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit remanded the school’s case back to the department.
The university announced that “in a significant win for Grand Canyon University, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in a 3-0 decision, held that the U.S. Department of Education (ED) acted unlawfully by applying the incorrect legal standard in determining GCU’s nonprofit status and remanded the case back to ED.”
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The federal government has the authority to deport foreign nationals in the U.S. illegally over the objection of local authorities, a panel of three judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled.
The 29-page ruling was written by Judge Daniel Bress, with judges Michael Hawkins and Richard Clinton concurring.
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After the greatest number of Chinese nationals illegally entered the country under the Biden administration – more than 176,000, creating national security threats – President Joe Biden and his administration announced several actions.
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In the second and third quarters of fiscal 2024, U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agents removed nearly 68,000 illegal border crossers, ICE says. ICE claims the number “reflects a 69% increase over removals during the third quarter in fiscal year 2023, and is more than 140% of ICE removals for all fiscal year 2023.”
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Spending on migrants in Denver has ballooned to an estimated $356 million, an updated analysis by the Common Sense Institute says.
The estimate, which amounts to $7,900 per foreign national in the city, includes spending from the city, schools, and health care systems.
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A bipartisan group of 26 U.S. lawmakers have sent letters to seven major tech companies requesting updates on how the platforms plan to counter the growing prevalence of pornographic “deepfakes” on social media.
The number of artificially generated, sexually explicit impersonations of nonconsenting individuals increased by 550% from 2019 to 2023, with deepfake pornography now making up 98% of all deepfake videos online, the lawmakers cited in each of the seven letters addressed to Google, Apple, X, ByteDance, Snapchat, Microsoft and Meta.
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Christians helped push President-elect Donald Trump across the finish line on Election Day, a survey found.
Trump received the majority of the Christian vote, while Vice President Kamala Harris received the majority of the non-Christian vote.
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The average American’s energy bill could increase from 25% to 70% in the next 10 years without intervention from policymakers, according to a new study from Washington, D.C.-based think tank the Jack Kemp Foundation.
According to reports, America is facing an energy crisis, with demand for energy soaring due to the proliferation of AI and hyperscale data centers, which can use as much energy as almost 40,000 homes; the boom in advanced manufacturing, and the movement toward electrification.
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The Federal Emergency Management Agency is facing scrutiny for its spending on diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
Lawmakers at a House Oversight Committee hearing Tuesday pressed FEMA head Deanne Criswell on FEMA’s DEI spending.
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Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order “to protect Texans from the coordinated harassment and coercion by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) or the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).”
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A majority of Americans support President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to declare a national emergency over the border crisis, according to a new poll. Declaring such an emergency would allow Trump to utilize the military to secure the border and help with his plan to deport violent criminal foreign nationals in the U.S. illegally.
The Napolitan News Service survey of 1,000 registered voters was conducted online by pollster Scott Rasmussen Nov. 18-19. It asked: “President Trump has said that he will declare a national emergency because of the illegal immigration problem. This would let the Trump Administration use military force to help with a mass deportation of illegal immigrants. Do you favor or oppose declaring a national emergency to address the problem of illegal immigration?”
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Citing discrimination against nonminorities in farming assistance programs, the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty has filed an amicus brief in support of plaintiff Robert Holman’s litigation against the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
He’s a corn and soybean farmer.
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In the wake of the devastation impacting southwestern Virginia following Hurricane Helene, Gov. Glenn Youngkin is requesting additional federal assistance to support recovery efforts.
Youngkin submitted a request for $4.4 billion in federal support on Friday to President Joe Biden, President-elect Donald Trump and congressional appropriators. The governor said the aid would support recovery efforts, which damaged farms, homes, businesses, “critical” infrastructure and tourism assets.
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The U.S. Department of Defense’s annual audit once again resulted in a disclaimer.
That means the federal government’s largest agency – with a budget of more than $840 billion – can’t fully explain its spending. The disclaimer this year was expected. And it’s expected again next year. The Pentagon previously said it will be able to accurately account for its spending by 2027.
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Federal pricing data released this week for consumer and producer prices shows that inflation rose last month.
Harvard professor and former economic advisor to President Barack Obama Jason Furman said the consumer data could show a “resurgence of inflation” not to the ultra high levels in recent years but to more recent elevated data.
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The state of Florida is suing current and former federal employees personally for allegedly ignoring storm victim households solely because of their political affiliation.
Attorney General Ashley Moody sued current and former Federal Emergency Management Agency officials for “conspiracy to discriminate” against Florida hurricane victims because they expressed support for President-elect Donald Trump.
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