Vice President JD Vance argued Friday that President Trump is the leader of the Democratic Party …
J.D. Dunce is more of a fool than I ever imagined!
The State of Maine dropped its lawsuit against the Trump administration on Friday after reaching a settlement agreement, which comes as the two parties have been feuding over transgender policies.
Maine agreed to withdraw its lawsuit in exchange for the Department of Agriculture vowing not to freeze the millions of dollars it directs to the state’s Department of Education unlawfully, according to court documents.
…
Judge John Woodcock, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, previously ruled in Maine’s favor by granting a restraining order. He said the USDA’s actions were “contrary to law, for multiple reasons,” including because Secretary Brooke Rollins did not follow legal procedures required to stop the funding.
Rollins agreed on Friday to “refrain from freezing, terminating, or otherwise interfering with the state of Maine’s access” to USDA funds, “based on alleged violations of Title IX without first following all legally required procedures,” the agreement read.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/02/trump-maine-funding-freeze
Trump won Ohio by 11 points in 2024. But the news among Ohio independents today is not especially good.
According to the latest Bowling Green State University-YouGov poll of 800 registered Ohio voters, Trump is underwater among independents. Just 40 percent approve, while 47 percent disapprove of his job performance. Just five months ago, 56 percent of Ohio independents reported voting for Trump.
Potential trouble among independent voters is apparent throughout the survey. More than half of Ohio independents (53 percent) think the country is on the wrong track, with nearly half (48 percent) saying that inflation or the economy in general is America’s most important problem and another 13 percent saying threats to democracy.
Asked about their personal economic situation, more than half of Ohio independents (52 percent) believe it has worsened. Their assessment of the U.S. economy is more dire. Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) believe it has gotten worse.
Asked about the Trump administration’s tariff policies, more than half of Ohio independents (51 percent) believe they hurt the U.S., and 53 percent believe they will hurt them personally. Specifically asked about a 25 percent tariff on Mexican and Canadian imports, 61 percent of Ohio independents are opposed.
Trump administration officials are exploring ways of challenging the tax-exempt status of nonprofits, according to people familiar with the matter, in a move that some IRS staffers fear could damage the agency’s apolitical approach.
In hourslong meetings that continued over a recent weekend, Internal Revenue Service lawyers explored whether they could alter the rules governing how nonprofit groups can be denied tax-exempt status, the people said.
…
Another senior IRS official, Gary Shapley, separately said in at least one meeting that he’s giving priority to investigating the tax-exempt status of a select group of nonprofit organizations, according to people familiar with his remarks. Shapley made the comments as deputy head of the criminal investigations unit. Shapley, who is also an adviser to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, didn’t name any specific groups, the people said.
Some current and former IRS officials fear that the deliberations appear to depart from longstanding practice at the IRS. They come as Trump has said his administration will strip Harvard University of its tax-exempt status and suggested the administration could target other organizations.
Trump officials outside the IRS have also had ongoing conversations about how to potentially target nonprofits’ tax-exempt status and endowments for months, an administration official said.
Stock markets plunged for days after President Donald Trump announced steep tariffs on imports from around the world. The sell-off ebbed only when he suspended most, but not all, of the new measures for 90 days. The ticker tape is just one indicator of an economy, and other signs are growing more and more ominous—including at the Port of Los Angeles, where high tariffs on China are crushing maritime traffic. “Essentially all shipments out of China for major retailers and manufacturers have ceased,” Eugene Seroka, the executive director of the port, said on April 24.
…
The Port of Los Angeles, the busiest containerized-cargo port in the Western Hemisphere, processes about 17 percent of everything the United States imports or exports in shipping containers. The adjoining Port of Long Beach accounts for another 14 percent. Over the years, a whole ecosystem has arisen to support the loading and unloading of the cars, clothes, electronic gadgets, and other things that people want. There are workers and warehouses, trucks and loading pads, security structures and rail lines.
Seroka estimated that cargo arrivals would soon be down 35 percent over the same time last year. At the moment, the drop in traffic seems likelier to accelerate than to reverse. The number of cargo ships canceling port calls or entire voyages is on the rise. A number of shipments now under way were instigated before Trump’s so-called Liberation Day tariff announcement, on April 2. According to Forto, a cargo-management and -tracking company, reservations for shipping products must normally be placed two weeks before a cargo vessel launches. The trip from China from California typically takes two or more additional weeks. In other words, the full effects of U.S. tariff policies on maritime traffic may not be apparent for some time.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/don-t-look-at-stock-markets-look-at-the-ports/ar-AA1E6eR8
The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to pause a lower court’s order restricting affiliates of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing sensitive Social Security Administration data, arguing in a Friday filing that the judicial order limits President Donald Trump’s executive authority.
“This emergency application presents a now-familiar theme,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote. “A district court has issued sweeping injunctive relief without legal authority to do so, in ways that inflict ongoing, irreparable harm on urgent federal priorities and stymie the Executive Branch’s functions.”
Sauer urged the court to lift an injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander blocking DOGE from accessing the data, which includes Social Security numbers, medical records and tax and banking information.
US officials have argued the traffic stop in November 2022, during which Abrego Garcia was not detained, supports their claims that Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13 and involved in human trafficking. The stop resulted in no charges, and there was no mention of human trafficking in the parts of the redacted report that have been made available.
Yet the 2022 traffic stop now could play into the ongoing political debate and legal standoff over Abrego Garcia, who is still in El Salvador while a federal judge demands answers and more evidence from the Trump administration.
So far in the ongoing court proceeding over his custody, his attorneys have said that the US in his 2019 immigration proceedings offered little reason to believe Abrego Garcia was tied to a gang, other than the fact he wore a Chicago Bulls hat and that a confidential informant provided a tip to authorities.
…
“There is no known link or association between him and the MS-13 gang,” his lawyers told the federal judge last month.
In a statement provided to CNN regarding the bodycam footage, Abrego Garcia’s attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said, his client “has been denied the most basic protections of due process—no phone call to his lawyer, no call to his wife or child, and no opportunity to be heard.”
Sandoval-Moshenberg added that “I see no evidence of a crime in this footage. But the point is not the traffic stop — it’s that Mr. Abrego Garcia deserves his day in court. Bring him back to the United States, return him before the same immigration judge who heard his case in 2019, and let him speak for himself.”
…
Earlier, a spokesperson for the Tennessee Highway Patrol told CNN that Abrego Garcia was flagged to federal law enforcement, “who made the decision not to detain him.”
According to a Department of Homeland Security statement released last month about the incident, federal officials released Abrego Garcia with a warning for driving with an expired license.
The Trump administration has a tough new message for foreigners in the United States: One strike, and you’re out.
Foreign nationals visiting or living in the country legally could lose their visa status if they run afoul of the law under the new and unforgiving so-called “catch and revoke” policy, announced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“There is now a one-strike policy: Catch-And-Revoke,” Rubio said in a social media post on May 2. “Whenever the government catches non-U.S. citizens breaking our laws, we will take action to revoke their status.”
David Bier, director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, called the new policy “absurd” and contrary to U.S. immigration law.
“Wealthy, skilled people with other options will not settle in a country where their lives can be ruined for a speeding ticket or operating an illegal lemonade stand,” he said in a post on X.
Most recently, the administration aggressively targeted student visa holders who have protested Israel’s war in Gaza or voiced pro-Palestinian views. Students with minor violations, including traffic infractions, have also seen their visas terminated.
“They stripped student visas from people for speeding tickets,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, in a post on X. “Now they’re suggesting they’ll do the same to everyone.”
Claim:
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, bought shares of Palantir Technologies days before the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced a $30 million contract with the company.
Rating:
True
Context:
Though Greene made public those trades, we could not determine whether she ordered them herself or whether her portfolio manager made that decision without her input.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta is demanding state detention centers make “significant improvements” to comply with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention standards.
That’s after a new 165-page report from the Department of Justice released Monday found that all of the state’s six privately-operated immigration detention facilities are failing to meet basic requirements for mental health care, medical recordkeeping, and suicide prevention. The report also found excessive use of force, discipline against detainees and use of solitary confinement.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta is demanding state detention centers make “significant improvements” to comply with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention standards.
That’s after a new 165-page report from the Department of Justice released Monday found that all of the state’s six privately-operated immigration detention facilities are failing to meet basic requirements for mental health care, medical recordkeeping, and suicide prevention. The report also found excessive use of force, discipline against detainees and use of solitary confinement.
