Category: Uncategorized

FEMA has welcomed back at least 15 whistleblowers who were placed on indefinite leave after signing letter protesting moves by then-DHS secretary Kristi Noem.

This post was originally published on NBC News.

From The Hill

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr said he was not pressured by President Trump or the White House to open an early review this week of several local broadcast stations owned and operated by Disney. “No. This was a decision that we made inside this building based on where we were in the enforcement…

Sir Mark Rowley says he is “disappointed” that Green Party leader Zack Polanski shared a post condemning how police subdued the suspect.

Source: BBC.

It was about a year ago when Donald Trump abandoned his first choice to serve as surgeon general, Fox News contributor Janette Nesheiwat, pulling her nomination without explanation. The president’s second choice, a wellness influencer named Casey Means, who enjoyed close ties to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., was supposed to fare better.

At least, that was the idea.

Almost immediately, it became clear that Means was wildly unqualified for the post. She was a doctor, but she had no experience in public health administration, and she supplemented her income as a wellness influencer by selling dietary supplements and teas.

What’s more, one day after nominating her, the president appeared to take steps to distance himself from his own choice, telling reporters in reference to Means, “I don’t know her.”

In the months that followed, Means’ nomination struggled to gain support, especially after a difficult confirmation hearing in February, and in late March, when a reporter asked the president whether he was considering withdrawing his nominee and picking someone else. He didn’t exactly push back.

“Well, we’re looking at a lot of different things,” Trump replied.

A month later, in the face of bipartisan opposition, the White House threw in the towel. The Associated Press reported:

President Donald Trump said Thursday he’s nominating former Fox News Channel contributor and radiologist Dr. Nicole Saphier for surgeon general after Dr. Casey Means’ path forward stalled in the Senate over questions about her experience and her stance on vaccines.

I’ll take a closer look at Saphier and her unfortunate record in a separate post, but for now, it’s worth appreciating an underappreciated dynamic: The White House is so bad at choosing nominees, even Senate Republicans won’t confirm some of them.

The list of Trump’s failed nominees has quietly become rather long. It includes a variety of notable figures, tapped for positions large and small, including Matt Gaetz, Dave Weldon, Ed Martin, Chad Chronister, Kathleen Sgamma, E.J. Antoni, Paul Ingrassia, Jeremy Carl, Donald Korb, Scott Socha, Sean Plankey, Amer Ghalib and Bryce McFerran, among others.

By all appearances, the White House would much prefer the Republican-led Senate simply serve as a rubber stamp for the president’s choices, regardless of merit or qualifications, and looking at Trump’s Cabinet, it’s clear that GOP senators have been willing to go along with too many nominees who had no business taking office.

But as Means exits the stage, the president and his team have received a fresh reminder that there are some depths to which even Senate Republicans don’t want to sink.

The post Facing bipartisan opposition, Trump abandons his second surgeon general nominee appeared first on MS NOW.

From MS Now.

The Second Lady, an action/thriller TV series based on the New York Times bestseller by Irving Wallace, has been set at Prime Video for development in a competitive situation. Jessica Sharzer (The Simple Favor movies) is writing the adaptation, from Kevin Williamson’s Outerbanks Entertainment and Universal Television where Williamson and his company are under an […]

Source: Deadline.

Cole Tomas Allen, the man accused of trying to assassinate President Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, will remain in custody. Public defenders pushed for Allen’s release, but he agreed to remain in jail ahead of his trial. 

This post was originally published on NBC News.

Heather Locklear and Lorenzo Lamas’ relationship is going full speed ahead … and the pair were spotted holding hands and hanging out in New Jersey after their relationship went public. The television stars wore matching all-black outfits while…

From TMZ.

MS NOW’s Nicolle Wallace slammed the Supreme Court on “Deadline: White House” after the conservative majority dealt another major blow to the Voting Rights Act on Wednesday. In a 6-3 ruling, the court struck down Louisiana’s 2024 election map, ruling the creation of a second majority-Black congressional district to be “an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.”

Wallace said the decision was “a complete and utter perversion of the original purpose of the Voting Rights Act,” the landmark Civil Rights-era law that prohibited discrimination in voting on the basis of race. 

According to the court, Louisiana’s map was an unconstitutional gerrymander because it took race into account to draw the lines of the new district.

“While the court technically stopped short of overturning this key provision entirely,” the “Deadline: White House” host explained, the decision could lead to decreasing minority representation across all levels of government.

With the ruling, Wallace said “discrimination and chaos” have once again been “unleashed by the nation’s highest court.”

As she noted, several Republican lawmakers have already used the court’s ruling to call for new maps in their home states, including Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. 

With the future of the United States’ multiracial democracy at stake, Wallace urged Americans not to let the Supreme Court decision get lost in the news cycle, which is often dominated by President Donald Trump’s scandal du jour.

“I think that Trump benefits when the news feels fast and furious,” Wallace said. “This is really one of those stories that everyone should sort of sit down, put the phone down, resist the doom-scrolling, and just let it sink in.”

You can watch Wallace’s full analysis in the clip at the top of the page.

The post Nicolle Wallace: Voting Rights Act ruling will unleash ‘discrimination and chaos’ appeared first on MS NOW.

From MS Now.

The camp said it informed the Texas Department of State Health Services on Thursday that it is withdrawing its application for a summer 2026 camp license.

Source: ABC News

From The Hill

The Voting Rights Act was born out of the Civil Rights Movement to open the ballot box to Black Americans who were systematically denied access. So when those protections get narrowed, even subtly, it raises a bigger question: Are we moving toward a system that prioritizes “race-neutral” rules, even if the outcomes aren’t  equal? 

Arnaud Desplechin’s vigorous tale of a pianist’s return home to a mentor and an ex-lover lines up its characters’ traits like dominoes, and ignores the world they live in.

From The New Yorker 

From The Hill

For the first time in seven years, a U.S. flight took off for Venezuela on Thursday. The flight, operated by Envoy Air — a subsidiary of American Airlines — departed Miami International Airport at 10:11 a.m. EDT and landed at Simón Bolívar International Airport outside of Caracas, Venezuela, at 1:22 p.m. EDT, according to FlightAware….