5 disturbing examples that show why parents can’t trust Fairfax County schools

Last Friday, appalling news broke that a 19-year-old illegal immigrant student in the United States was criminally charged with nine counts of assault and battery for allegedly groping girls in the halls of a Fairfax County, Virginia, high school.

According to the mother of one of the alleged victims, the accused “sneakily walked up behind [the girls] and put his hand between their legs. It was not just a butt smack or a butt grab. It was a groping of a private area. It had been occurring for months.”

What is even more shocking is that Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) told parents of the alleged victims that the alleged assailant would be allowed to return to school upon his release.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT RELEASED UNDER BIDEN CHARGED WITH GROPING FEMALE STUDENTS AT VIRGINIA HIGH SCHOOL

This is just the latest disgrace for Virginia’s largest public school system — a district that has led the way in implementing far-left policies focused more on virtue signaling than on educating children.

The results are predictable and daunting: students are put in danger, teachers’ hands are tied, parents are kept out of the loop, and the quality of education steadily declines in a county where academic achievement was once heralded.

These are five examples of FCPS’s insanely misplaced priorities:

1. Illegal Immigrants Over Student Safety 

FCPS officials proudly boast of their “Trust Policy,” which cites “a climate of fear and stress that would affect all students” if ICE were to detain parents while children are in school. To that end, FCPS Superintendent Michelle Reid has pledged to “do all that we can — to the fullest extent allowable by law —” to make FCPS a safe space for students and families who are in the country illegally. Law-abiding families are ignored.

MIGRANT ACCUSED OF GROPING MULTIPLE HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS FACES CHARGES AS DHS WARNS SPANBERGER AGAINST RELEASE

The result of this policy is clear: when the assailant accused of groping is released, FCPS will welcome him back into its taxpayer-funded school system while continuing to expose every other student to uncertainty, if not danger.

FCPS said in a statement, “While Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) is unable to comment on specifics due to federal and state privacy laws, we prioritize student and staff safety and fully investigate any time someone reports an incident or says they do not feel safe at school. We are grateful to our law enforcement partners, who continue to work swiftly and thoroughly when there are safety concerns in our schools. The safety of all FCPS students and staff remains a top priority.”

2. Race-Based Discipline Policies 

FCPS handles student discipline through an “equitable lens” designed to eliminate “discipline disproportionality” among students of different races. In plain terms, this means that if one racial group is disciplined at a rate higher than its share of the student population, FCPS will ease discipline for that group to bring the percentages into alignment, regardless of whether that discipline was warranted. 

This outcome-based approach to discipline is not only arguably illegal but also renders schools demonstrably less safe. FCPS appears unconcerned with either outcome.

PARENTS, NOT BUREAUCRATS, RAISE AMERICA’S CHILDREN AND THE SUPREME COURT AGREES

3. Boys in Girls’ Locker Rooms and Bathrooms 

FCPS mandates that students be allowed to use the bathrooms and locker rooms corresponding to their self-selected “gender identity.” It is the student who objects to sharing a bathroom or locker room with a member of the opposite sex who is instructed to comply or use an alternative private facility.

The consequences of this policy are already playing out. Just last year, a boy with facial hair and described as wearing “pants so tight they clearly outlined his genitalia,” began using a girls’ locker room at West Springfield High School, where he watched girls change in “various stages of undress.”

FCPS investigated the matter and concluded that all was well because the boy self-identified as a girl. In fact, FCPS is so committed to this policy — and so dismissive of its dangers — that it has refused to comply with the U.S. Department of Education’s demand to rescind it, risking millions of taxpayer dollars in federal funding in the process.

4. Keeping Secrets From Parents 

FCPS has established a system designed to withhold information from parents when a child seeks to “socially transition” to a different sex while at school — whether by using a different name, different pronouns, or the bathrooms and locker rooms of the opposite sex. Under this system, FCPS educators are instructed to exclude information related to a student’s new “gender identity” from official records and to limit parents’ visibility into their children’s records, making them viewable only by district officials.

SCHOOL DISTRICT IN THE HOT SEAT AMID FRESH ALLEGATIONS OF HIDING STUDENTS’ GENDER TRANSITION

This scheme may circumvent the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which grants parents the right to access their children’s official school records. FCPS is likely familiar with this federal law. 

This practice is a clear attempt to cut parents out of decisions regarding their children’s health, emotional upbringing, and education. It also conflicts with recent Supreme Court decisions in Mahmoud v. Taylor and Mirabelli v. Bonta.

5. Possibly Selling Data to Communist China 

It should be evident from the policies detailed above that FCPS appears to prioritize students in the country illegally over American students and gives short shrift to the constitutional rights of parents. But FCPS’ “America Last” mindset takes things to an entirely different level.

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As reported by National Review, the watchdog group Parents Defending Education claims that FCPS provided intellectual property to the Chinese Communist Party. According to reports, a nonprofit associated with Thomas Jefferson High School — FCPS’s top-ranked STEM school — has received millions of dollars from CCP-affiliated entities, including one known as the “TJ Fund,” in exchange for information that amounts to a blueprint for China to replicate Thomas Jefferson High School and its educational success. 

A spokesperson for FCPS told National Review, “The TJ Fund is a separate and independent 501(c)(3) entity that is not overseen by FCPS.”

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The list could continue, but the bottom line is clear: FCPS’s track record makes it an untenable choice for families who expect their children to be protected. 

Parents should avoid this school system if they can, and if they cannot, they must be extraordinarily diligent in protecting their children from a district that has repeatedly demonstrated it will not.

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Trump’s Strait showdown: Five bold moves to crush the Iran threat now

“It won’t be long now.”  That was President Donald J. Trump, speaking on the timeline for commercial traffic to flow again through the Strait of Hormuz at the White House on Tuesday.  U.S. forces are “knocking the hell out of the coast,” Trump said. “As soon as that war is over, which it will be soon, prices are going to drop like a rock,” he added.  “You watch.”

Control of the Strait of Hormuz is a top geopolitical prize, and one of the core objectives of Operation Epic Fury. On a good day, 130 ships transit the Strait every 24 hours, moving cargo and about 20 million barrels of oil products.  Currently, about 6 million barrels per day of oil from Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates have been rerouted to Red Sea pipelines. 

China takes 40% of the oil flowing through the Strait.  All told, 89% of the oil transiting the Strait goes to Asian markets.  In contrast, U.S. crude oil imports coming through the Strait of Hormuz are at a 40-year low, accounting for just 2% of U.S. petroleum liquids consumption, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. 

You can see the potential for leverage with China. 

MULTIPLE ALLIES DECLINE US CALLS FOR STRAIT OF HORMUZ SUPPORT AMID RISING MIDDLE EAST TENSIONS

From March 1 to 9, only an estimated 10 tankers and 39 cargo vessels transited.  Two Indian tankers carrying LPG, made it through, along with several sanctioned, shadow-fleet vessels likely carrying Iranian oil.  The bulk carrier Iron Maiden, registered in the Marshall Islands, slipped through by describing itself as “all Chinese-crewed,” according to a Maritime Executive report.  

But most of the big VLCC tankers are still on pause because Lloyd’s of London and other insurers jacked up oil cargo insurance rates. They fear a repeat of the 1980s tanker war, when Iran’s navy attacked 168 ships.  One was the oil and bulk ore carrier Norman Atlantic which was set ablaze after attacks by Iranian gunboats on December 6, 1987.  The burning hulk was towed out of the shipping lane and sunk off Oman. 

With more than 100 Iranian ships destroyed so far in Operation Epic Fury, there is practically no way Iran can sustain naval attacks.  In fact, no ship has been targeted since March 12. 

However, the persistent tactical problem is that large ships following a predictable route are easier to target, even given Iran’s degraded status. The Strait is 104 miles long, and just 21 miles wide at its narrowest point. The shipping channel is even tighter. There is an inbound lane and an outbound lane, each two miles wide. As Trump put it on Monday afternoon, “literally a single terrorist can put something in the water, or shoot something, or shoot a missile, a small missile, and it’s really close range, because it is a tight area.” 

TRUMP WARNS NATO OF ‘VERY BAD’ FUTURE IF ALLIES DON’T HELP SECURE STRAIT OF HORMUZ

On Monday, Trump warned he would “strongly encourage other nations whose economies depend on the Strait far more than ours” to help out.  He’s steamed at the slow response and no wonder.  Last year, more than 20 nations participated in Operation Prosperity Guardian, a maritime task force countering Houthi attacks in the Red Sea from 2023 to 2025.  Japan and South Korea import 70% of their oil via the Strait. 

“We thought that Europe would help, because they do have some minesweepers,” Trump said Tuesday.  “I think it’s very unfair to the United States,” he complained. 

So, the world is waiting for U.S. Central Command to announce a plan. This won’t be like the convoys you see in World War II movies. Surveillance, rather than side-by-side vessel escort, will be the basis for assisting merchant traffic. 

Here are five technologies essential to control of the Strait.

Maritime Moving Target Indicator.  As seen in the Caribbean, the U.S. Navy has crystalline maritime surveillance.  Technologies blend visual, heat detection and subtle radar shifts to cover wide areas or drill down on specific targets.  Maritime moving target indicator (MMTI) on planes like the Navy’s P-8 and the MQ-4C, a high-altitude drone with a 130-foot wingspan, are normally used to keep tabs on China’s navy.   They know how to cut through the coastline clutter of radar return and atmospheric distortion and find any IRGC small boats still in the Strait. 

Airpower.  To get after drones and shoreline anti-ship cruise missiles, “the United States will be bombing the hell out of the shoreline, and continually shooting Iranian boats and ships out of the water,” as Trump said Thursday.

Mine Counter Measures Ships.  Drifting, moored or placed on the sea bottom, mines are a high anxiety threat, but one well-known to the U.S. Navy. Iran has 3,000 to 6,000 mines of Russian, North Korean and Chinese origin, including China’s nasty EM-52 bottom mine with a 600-lb. warhead.  U.S. Navy Independence-class littoral combat ships like USS Tulsa, carry sensors and unmanned vessels that locate, identify and destroy mines. 

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Underwater Drones.  For hunting mines, its U.S. Navy underwater drones to the rescue.  They range from the 12-foot long MK 18 Mod 2 Kingfish, which looks like a torpedo, up to the new, massive Orca, a 54-foot autonomous submarine that lurks underwater to carry out “diverse missions.”  Consider, too, that China has an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 naval mines, and the Navy has been training to defeat them in the Pacific.  You can bet the U.S. will know exactly what types of mines Iran tries to emplace, and will find and neutralize them.

The Marines.  Much more than a technology, the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit embarked on USS Tripoli, is in high-speed transit en route to the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) area of responsibility in the Middle East. It will provide options for interdicting any ships unwise enough to cause mischief.  Tripoli also brings more F-35B fighters. Historical fact:Tripoli, was hit by an Iraqi contact mine years ago during Operation Desert Storm in 1991 but was back in action in less than 24 hours. 

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Global shipping does not turn on a dime.  Vessels are on precise schedules down to the minute for entering and departing harbors.  A rerouting decision takes time to correct.

Still, I have no doubt that in a matter of days, shipping traffic will ramp up, with the U.S. in control of the Strait of Hormuz.  And China will just have to watch.

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BROOKE ROLLINS, ROBERT KENNEDY JR: We’re bringing families more healthy foods in a SNAP

As we prepare to celebrate 250 years of freedom this summer, America should resolve to once again be a healthy nation. Chronic disease has been rapidly increasing for decades, and for far too long, the federal government’s approach to nutrition has been part of the problem. Empowered by President Donald Trump’s leadership, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will soon publish a final rule that will more than double the amount of healthy food that many retailers in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are required to stock.

Since its inception, SNAP has helped our most vulnerable citizens afford the essential and nutritious food they need. At least, that is what the program is supposed to do. Over time, however, SNAP has been taken advantage of, allowing many to game the system and leaving millions of vulnerable Americans without healthy, nutrient-dense food options. 

This has accelerated the health crisis that our nation is up against. Every year, 90% of the nearly $5 trillion the United States spends on healthcare goes toward treating people with chronic conditions. And of the roughly 73 million children under age 18 in the United States, the CDC reports that over 40% have at least one chronic health condition, while more than 350,000 American children have been diagnosed with diabetes.  

The consequences are far-reaching and have even put our national security at risk. Due primarily to obesity, poor physical fitness, and/or mental health challenges, more than 75% of Americans aged 17 to 24 are ineligible for military service — a staggering and dangerous reality.

WHOLE MILK HEADED BACK TO SCHOOL CAFETERIAS AFTER TRUMP SIGNS LAW AS EXPERTS TOUT BENEFITS

Rising rates of childhood chronic disease are driven by a combination of factors. Improving SNAP — which covers 15.6 million children, or about 39% of all SNAP participants — is a terrific place to start. When it comes to a lack of healthy options for both America’s children and adults, the stocking standards that classify the foods retailers are required to stock to redeem SNAP benefits are a key culprit. 

The current stocking standards were established when SNAP was used quite differently. Today, too many taxpayer dollars are spent on highly processed products loaded with empty calories. With nearly 266,000 retailers nationwide redeeming nearly $96 billion in SNAP benefits in fiscal year 2025, we can’t afford not to act. 

To take just one example of SNAP misuse, retailers have been able to qualify for SNAP by selling jelly, passing it off as a “fruit,” and making a quick buck off it. This was never the intent of SNAP, and the Trump administration is laser-focused on restoring the program to its original mission.

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Our pending final rule raises the bar for stocking by strengthening requirements for retailers and closing loopholes that have allowed certain snack foods to count as staple foods. This rule requires all retailers to carry a minimum of 28 varieties across the four staple food groups — more than double the 12 they are currently required to carry. This will mean more real food like eggs, chicken, whole grain breads, fruit and yogurt on store shelves and on Americans’ plates. 

Americans on SNAP deserve even more than 28 varieties, but this is a long overdue step in the right direction. It is also the very least retailers can do in exchange for receiving federal taxpayer dollars, since public money should go toward supporting the national interest. And retailers participating in SNAP should feel obligated to offer a variety of healthy foods, period.

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At long last, we are modernizing SNAP to responsibly steward taxpayer dollars, promote healthy eating and empower Americans to lead better lives. This pending final rule squares with the latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans’ call to eat real food by ensuring low-income Americans have healthy options available wherever they shop.

There is no better 250th birthday present we can give America than making our nation healthier through real food grown by our incredible farmers, ranchers and producers. Stay tuned — there is much more to come before July 4th. 

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TikTok restores Brooke Slusser account after ‘permanently’ banning her after videos on SJSU volleyball scandal

Former San Jose State University volleyball star Brooke Slusser was temporarily banned from TikTok after posting several videos discussing her alleged experience sharing a team and apartment with a transgender teammate. Her account, which was “permanently banned” according to screenshots obtained by Fox News Digital, was later restored Tuesday after publication.

Slusser provided screenshots to Fox News Digital showing the notification of her banishment and an unsuccessful appeal. The notifications cite violations of “community guidelines.” 

“We ask that all users follow our Community Guidelines to help us maintain a safe, respectful TikTok community,” the notification read. 

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Fox News Digital has reached out to TikTok for comment as to why her account was banned and then restored, but has not received a response. 

“I’m pretty mad about it,” Slusser told Fox News Digital after the initial ban occurred. 

TikTok previously banned the activist sportswear brand XX-XY Athletics, which Slusser is signed with, after it posted an advertisement video advocating for the protection of women and girls’ sports from biological male trans athletes.

TikTok was previously owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, before finalizing a $14 billion deal to shift its U.S. operations to a new entity, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, to avoid a federal ban. However, ByteDance still owns approximately 20% of the company. 

Slusser has been the target of a viral left-wing hate campaign on TikTok and X over the last week after she began to speak out about her alleged experience at SJSU. Her content started coming out after the university, and the California State University (CSU) system, filed a lawsuit against the federal government to challenge a Department of Education investigation that determined SJSU violated Title IX in its handling of a transgender volleyball player. 

On X, the left-wing attacks on Slusser came in response to an interview with Fox News Digital in which she reflected on living in the same apartment with a transgender teammate, Blaire Fleming.

“You find out you’re just chilling in a bed with a man that you have no idea about… I [was] unknowingly sharing a bed at that time with a man,” Slusser said in the interview, also alleging that SJSU volleyball coach Todd Kress encouraged her to live in the same apartment as the trans teammate when another group of players was also looking for a final tenant. 

The fallout of the interview has prompted high-profile activists, lawmakers and even an actor to speak out, taking a side behind or against Slusser.

A coalition of “save women’s sports” activists rushed to Slusser’s defense, with OutKick host Riley Gaines, XX-XY Athletics founder Jennifer Sey, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., women’s tennis legend Martina Navratilova and former ESPN star Sage Steele leading the charge to defend Slusser from the pro-trans detractors.

“I would just say people that don’t know my life or my trauma don’t have room to say how good or bad my time at SJSU was. I hope they never have to understand going through something as awful as that,” Slusser previously told Fox News Digital of the backlash.

TRUMP ADMIN RESPONDS AFTER SJSU SUES TO CHALLENGE TITLE IX INVESTIGATION INTO TRANSGENDER VOLLEYBALL SCANDAL

After the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced at the end of January that an investigation into the university for its handling of a trans athlete and other players concluded that the school violated Title IX, SJSU and the California State University (CSU) system declined to resolve the violation. 

Instead, SJSU President Cynthia Teniente-Matson announced Friday that the school and the CSU system are suing the federal government to challenge the investigation.

“Because we believe OCR’s findings aren’t grounded in the facts or the law, SJSU and the CSU filed a lawsuit today against the federal government to challenge those findings and prevent the federal government from taking punitive action against the university, including the potential withholding of critical federal funding,” Teniente-Matson said Friday.

“This is not a step we take lightly. However, we have a responsibility to defend the integrity of our institution and the rule of law, while ensuring that every member of our community is treated fairly and in accordance with the law. Our position is simple: We have followed the law and cannot be punished for doing so.”

The school is also requesting that OCR rescind its findings and close its investigation. 

Teniente-Matson affirmed the university’s commitment to defending the LGBTQ community in the announcement.

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“Our support for the LGBTQ members of our community, who have experienced threats and harms over the last several years, remains unwavering. We know the attention the university has received around this issue and the investigative process that followed have been unsettling for many in our community,” the university president said.

Among the Education Department’s findings, it determined that a female athlete discovered that the trans student allegedly conspired to have a member of an opposing team spike her in the face during a match. The department claims “SJSU did not investigate the conspiracy, but later subjected the female athlete to a Title IX complaint for ‘misgendering’ the male athlete in online videos and interviews.”

Why I refuse to stay silent as Jews are scapegoated by left and right

I am tired. My tiredness is not from the road that my Walk Across America has brought me to the beautiful city of Shreveport. I need to speak plainly about something that has been weighing on my mind and my heart for too long. My tiredness comes from watching Jewish people get attacked from every direction and seeing those attacks go unchallenged by people who should know better.

On the left, too many Black ministers have betrayed the Bible for a political and ideological worldview that casts Israel as the perpetual villain no matter what and ignores the barbaric slaughter of innocents, including Oct. 7.

On the right, some prominent voices traffic in antisemitism dressed up as populism. They protest that they are just asking questions. They lie that they cannot criticize Israel. We see through their disgusting grift.

MIKE PENCE: NO PLACE FOR ANTISEMITISM IN AMERICA TODAY, TOMORROW OR EVER

The Jewish people are being abandoned, scapegoated and demonized from both sides of the aisle, and I will not stand for it. I will not be silent anymore. I will not betray them.

That is a promise.

The Black church and the Jewish people share a bond forged in fire. Jews helped found the NAACP. They marched with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma. They died for Black voting rights. The names of Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner are forever linked in blood with their brother James Chaney. 

MORNING GLORY: 2026 SHOULD BE YEAR ANTISEMITISM BECOMES UNACCEPTABLE IN AMERICA AGAIN

The Rev. Dr. King locked arms with Rabbi Heschel because they both answered the same prophetic call. The civil rights foot soldiers sang of Exodus deliverance because they recognized in the Jewish story their own. That alliance was not accidental. It was born of a shared and timeless yearning to be free.

That history demands something of us today.

Yet too many woke pastors in the Black church have blinded themselves to this biblical heritage. They have chosen to align with the Palestinian cause not through Scripture but through liberation theology stretched far beyond its proper purpose.

JEWISH SAFETY IN NEW YORK DEPENDS ON CLEAR LINES AND MORAL COURAGE FROM MAMDANI

Author James Cone’s work on Black liberation theology drew from real suffering and real oppression, and in its proper context it carries weight. But there is very little of that context today. What we have instead is the collapse of entire nations and entire races of people into cartoon roles. 

I have always judged people and nations by character and actions, not by color. That standard does not change based on who is asking me to abandon it.

Israel is cast as the White supremacist oppressor because of its perceived whiteness. Palestinians, because of their brown skin, are cast as perpetual victims who can do no wrong, including on Oct. 7. That is not prophecy. That is ideology.

PARENTS ARE FIGHTING BACK AGAINST THE SYSTEMIC ANTISEMITISM POISONING CLASSROOMS

Where was the outrage among these Black pastors over Oct. 7? Families slaughtered. Children taken hostage. Rapes. Mutilations. The most horrific massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust. If any of them offered condemnation, it was done in passing before pivoting immediately to Israel’s response. This is empathy dictated by politics, not by Scripture.

Jesus was a Jew in Judea. Bethlehem sits in the land promised to Israel. Genesis 12:3 does not bend to political fashion: “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse.” Psalm 122:6 does not offer an exemption: “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” These are not suggestions. God’s covenant with the Jewish people is eternal — not conditional on perfect behavior and not suspended when the cultural winds shift.

CHRISTIAN PASTORS, INFLUENCERS JOIN 1,000-STRONG ISRAEL MISSION BACKING JEWISH STATE, FIGHTING ANTISEMITISM

Supporting Israel does not mean ignoring Palestinian suffering. It means refusing to demonize a people God has preserved through millennia of persecution, exile and genocide. It means seeing Israel’s full reality as a diverse nation that includes Ethiopian Jews, Mizrahi Jews and people of every background who have faced their own oppression. 

It means holding Hamas accountable for a charter that calls openly for destruction and refusing to let that truth be buried beneath a narrative decided before the facts were examined. It also means holding both the left and the right in America responsible for their lies about genocide, apartheid and colonialism.

I have always judged people and nations by character and actions, not by color. That standard does not change based on who is asking me to abandon it.

There is a reason the enemies of freedom have always come for the Jewish people first. Antisemitism is not just hatred. It is a warning sign. Every civilization that has turned on its Jewish citizens has turned on its own foundational values shortly after. 

The same principles that gave birth to America — belief in human dignity, the rule of law and the protection of minorities against the mob — are the principles that demand we stand against this hatred today. 

When we abandon the Jewish people, we do not just betray a community. We betray the idea of America itself. This is not only a biblical obligation or a civil rights legacy. It is a test of whether we still believe what we say we believe as a nation and as a civilization.

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To my Jewish brothers and sisters, I see what is happening. I see the attacks coming from pulpits that should know better. I see the attacks coming from political commentators who have dressed hatred in the language of free thought. I see you being made a target from the left and the right simultaneously, as though the oldest hatred in human history has simply found new hosts on both ends of the political spectrum.

I will not look away. I will not equivocate. I will not trade our shared legacy for a political moment.

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As I walk across this country, I carry that commitment with every step. Return to biblical truth over trendy ideology. Reclaim the Black and Jewish legacy of resilience and solidarity. Stand with Israel because Scripture demands it, history proves it and basic human decency requires it.

Unity beats division every time. God bless you, and God bless America.

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I run a fracking company — New York banned the industry and stuck the poor with the bill

New York is making its poorest residents pay for a political fantasy. The Cuomo administration banned shale fracking in 2014, bowing to the noise of “fracktivists.” Hochul kept the ban and doubled down. The result: energy poverty for the people who can least afford it.

Twenty-six percent of New York City children live in poverty. Statewide, 2.7 million residents. Politicians respond with more taxation and finger-pointing at the Feds — but the real answer is sitting right underneath their feet. Trillions of cubic feet of natural gas, untapped, while Albany digs the hole deeper with bad policy and fills it with tax dollars.

The numbers tell the story. A 2025 Heritage Foundation study found that New York’s fracking ban has created a wealth gap of $11,000 per person — $27,000 per family — compared to Pennsylvania neighbors just across the border where fracking is allowed. Before the ban, those counties were economic equals. Since then, Pennsylvania landowners have been collecting thousands of dollars per acre in lease payments and a sixteen percent cut off the top of all gas sales. New Yorkers get nothing for their rich reserves. It’s state-sponsored pauperism.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE HELPS FUEL NEW ENERGY SOURCES

If fracking were allowed, New York would receive billions in royalty payments. Tax receipts would swell from high-paying jobs and well-capitalized drillers. The tide from those trillions of cubic feet of natural gas would lift all boats.

I know this because I frack wells in New York. Mine might be the last company still standing. Over two decades, my company has fracked thousands of wells — no groundwater contamination, no low birth rates, no nosebleeds, no apocalypse. Nothing. Because fracking is safe. The data backs it up. But data deniers won’t have it, and so neither will the state’s neediest residents.

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The green alternative isn’t clean — it’s just cleaner-looking. Renewable mandates come at the cost of massive land use, strip mining, toxic battery production and a waste stream all their own. And every solar farm and wind turbine still has to be backstopped by natural gas or coal when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow. Albany knows this, but presses on anyway — leaving New Yorkers with residential electric costs 40% above the national average and natural gas prices 23% higher. The state imports nearly 80% of its energy, much of it from Pennsylvania. It’s the equivalent of bumming cigarettes instead of buying them. The smoke still fills your lungs.

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Cuomo and Hochul are masters of importing energy and exporting opportunity. They’ve bent before an unkind ideology at the expense of their poorest constituents. Natural gas is the lowest-hanging fruit New York has. It’s right there.

And this is still the “before” scenario. When AI data centers turn energy into a full-blown battleground — and they will — New York’s self-inflicted power shortage won’t just hurt the poor. It will hand the future to whoever has the gold. Governor Hochul, the fanatics you’ve been appeasing don’t pay those utility bills. Your constituents do. Open the taps.

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Americans know Iran is our enemy. It’s time establishment politicians agreed

For more than four decades, the Iranian regime has operated as the world’s most dangerous state sponsor of terrorism, funding proxy militias, targeting U.S. forces and destabilizing entire regions. Yet establishment Washington has long treated Tehran as a diplomatic puzzle waiting to be solved rather than a hostile regime executing a deliberate strategy — one that openly chants “Death to America.”

That disconnect is glaring in a new Fox News poll that confirms what history has already shown: 61% of Americans say Iran poses a real national security threat to the United States. The remarkable part is not the poll result, but how long Washington’s foreign policy establishment has taken to catch up with what voters already understand.

Americans have watched Iran fund Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist groups across the Middle East. Iranian-backed militias have launched hundreds of attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria, killing and injuring hundreds of American service members. Tehran has consistently threatened the Strait of Hormuz, a choke point carrying almost 20% of the world’s oil supply. The pattern is glaring from Lebanon to Yemen that Iran wages proxy warfare and sponsors terrorism that directly threatens U.S. interests and global stability.

After more than 40 years of the same behavior, voters are hawkish on Iran — not out of ideology, but experience. Tehran funds terrorism, targets U.S. forces and threatens global energy markets. The conclusion is simple: this regime responds to strength, not further diplomatic engagement.

TRUMP’S OPERATION EPIC FURY PROVES REAGAN-STYLE PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH IS BACK

However, much of Washington still approaches Iran as a negotiating partner. For decades the strategy has been the same: diplomatic frameworks, sanctions relief and meetings to moderate Tehran’s behavior, even pallets of cash. However, a regime built on proxy warfare and regional destabilization is unlikely to abandon that strategy through negotiations alone. That reality helps explain why the United States is confronting the same Iranian threat today that it faced 40 years ago.

The historical record undermines the diplomatic theory. As negotiations dragged on, Iran expanded its proxy networks and led 160 attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria, just from October 2023 to February 2024. While policymakers debated strategy in Washington and Europe, Tehran continued building missiles and expanding militias to pressure the United States and its allies.

This is why the Fox News poll is more than a snapshot of voter sentiment. It exposes a deeper divide in American foreign policy, thinking it is not Republican versus Democrat, but voters versus the foreign policy establishment. Americans have formed their own conclusions after decades of watching Iran use intimidation, violence and proxy militant groups to destabilize entire regions.

IRAN WAR, 11 DAYS IN: US CONTROLS SKIES, OIL SURGES AND THE REGION BRACES FOR WHAT’S NEXT

The regime has repeatedly tested American resolve through asymmetric threats designed to create pressure without triggering full-scale war. This consistent pattern makes clear that Iran’s strategy is confrontation, not regular geopolitical rivalry. That reality explains why public opinion is significantly hawkish rather than supportive of more negotiations. For many Americans, the lesson of the past 40+ years is straightforward: Iran responds far less to engagement than it does to credible deterrence.

Deterrence, in this context, is about credibility. History shows aggressors are far less likely to escalate when they believe aggression will bring immediate and severe consequences. For decades, Iran has operated in the gray zone — using proxy militias, cyber operations and maritime disruption to pressure the United States while avoiding direct confrontation. That strategy has worked, allowing Tehran to expand missile capabilities and its terror network while America’s responses appeared inconsistent.

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Washington’s foreign policy establishment often overlooks that voters want results rather than another cycle of policy debates built on theory. That disconnect is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain because foreign policy must eventually align with the public’s understanding of national security threats.

The gap in perspective is now producing an equally glaring political divide. When voters believe that policymakers are unwilling to confront direct threats to Americans, trust in leadership erodes. National security debates look detached from reality while Americans face the consequences from attacks on U.S. forces, rising energy costs, and proxy conflicts spreading across the Middle East.

However, much of Washington still approaches Iran as a negotiating partner. For decades the strategy has been the same: diplomatic frameworks, sanctions relief and meetings to moderate Tehran’s behavior, even pallets of cash. 

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While the American response has often been inconsistent, Iran has maintained a clear geopolitical strategy: funding terrorist networks, arming proxy militias, threatening strategic shipping routes and exploiting regional instability to expand its influence.

After decades of terrorism, proxy warfare and regional destabilization, Americans no longer see Iran as a diplomatic puzzle waiting for another round of ineffective negotiations. They see a strategic threat that requires credible deterrence. The poll confirms that voters have already reached that conclusion. The real question now is whether Washington’s foreign policy establishment is willing to acknowledge the same reality.

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Overturning an outlandish Supreme Court ruling is the only way to fix education

Tennessee lawmakers have taken a bold stand against the misuse of taxpayer dollars in public education. On March 10, House Bill 793 advanced out of a full committee with a 15-9 vote, divided mostly along party lines, with Republicans in favor and all seven Democrats opposed. The proposal is scheduled to be heard on the House floor on March 16.

The measure now requires public and charter school officials to verify students’ immigration status at enrollment and report the aggregate results to the state. The proposal originally empowered school officials to deny enrollment to students who could not prove lawful presence in the United States or to charge their families tuition. That provision remains in the Senate’s version – which already passed that chamber 19 to 13 – but opponents to the measure later stripped it out of the House proposal. 

This proposal represents the bare minimum in addressing a long-standing injustice, yet it falls far short of what is truly needed. Requiring verification and reporting data sheds light on the number of illegal immigrants in public schools, but it does nothing to stop the flow of taxpayer dollars subsidizing their education.

In Tennessee, as in many states, per-student allocations drive budgets, meaning districts gain financially from admitting more students, regardless of immigration status. Lawmakers must go further by prohibiting public schools from using any tax dollars to educate those unlawfully present. Such a ban would redirect resources exclusively to lawful residents and citizens, allowing per-student funding to surge for eligible children without necessitating tax increases.

OVER 100 CALIFORNIA COLLEGES ACCUSED OF DISCRIMINATING AGAINST US-BORN STUDENTS IN NEW DOJ COMPLAINT

The relief would extend beyond school budgets. Property taxes, which predominantly finance public education systems, exert constant upward pressure on homeowners. By excluding illegal immigrants from taxpayer-funded schooling, state policymakers could alleviate this strain, stabilizing or even reducing property tax rates while enhancing educational quality for legal enrollees.

At the heart of this issue lies the 1982 Supreme Court decision in Plyler v. Doe, which compels state officials to provide free public education to children of illegal immigrants. That ruling, decided 5-4 by a less conservative court than today, imposes an unwarranted federal obligation on states to divert scarce resources toward entitlements for those without legal status.

Education policy, particularly the allocation of limited funds, belongs in the hands of state legislatures, not dictated by unelected judges. States possess the sovereign right to prioritize their citizens and legal residents, especially when federal immigration enforcement failed spectacularly under the previous presidential administration.

DOJ CHALLENGES VIRGINIA LAW GRANTING IN-STATE TUITION TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

Today’s Supreme Court has an opportunity to rectify this overreach. Conservatives in Tennessee and elsewhere should welcome legal challenges to HB 793, particularly from teachers’ unions eager to preserve the status quo. These unions profit doubly from illegal immigrant enrollment: first, through inflated per-student funding tied to higher headcounts, and second, via supplemental allocations for English as a Second Language (ESL) programs.

Union leaders would likely hesitate to escalate a fight to the Supreme Court, recognizing the risk. A victory for Tennessee could dismantle Plyler nationwide, inspiring a cascade of similar reforms. The precedent would empower legislatures to reclaim control over education spending, removing the incentives that exacerbate illegal immigration. Rather than fearing litigation, policymakers should provoke it, confident that the current court would affirm states’ authority to manage their own affairs.

Public sentiment aligns firmly against the current policy. Phi Delta Kappa International/Gallup poll found that 55% of Americans oppose using taxpayer dollars to educate children of illegal immigrants, with 81% of Republicans agreeing.

GOP FIREBRAND URGES TRUMP AGENCIES TO CLAW BACK MASSIVE TAXPAYER BENEFITS PAID OUT TO IMMIGRANTS

These numbers reflect a commonsense view: American taxpayers should not shoulder the costs of federal border failures. Education represents a significant investment in the nation’s future, and diluting that investment by extending it to those outside the legal framework undermines equity for citizens.

Momentum builds beyond Tennessee. Since early 2025, legislators in Oklahoma, Texas, Idaho, Indiana and New Jersey have pursued measures to contest Plyler v. Doe, ranging from data collection on immigration status to outright tuition requirements. These initiatives signal a growing recognition that unchecked illegal immigration burdens public systems, from schools to hospitals.

Education policy, particularly the allocation of limited funds, belongs in the hands of state legislatures, not dictated by unelected judges.

In Texas, where Plyler originated, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has long advocated revisiting the decision, citing the unsustainable fiscal strain on local districts. Oklahoma’s proposals mandate proof of status for enrollment, while Idaho and Indiana saw bills advance through committees before stalling. Even in blue-leaning New Jersey, lawmakers introduced the “PLYLER Act” to impose tuition on undocumented students.

TENNESSEE DEMOCRAT PROPOSES NEW BILL LIMITING ICE FROM SCHOOL CAMPUSES STATEWIDE

Critics of these efforts often invoke compassion, arguing that denying education harms innocent children. Yet the real harm stems from policies that encourage illegal entry by promising free services, perpetuating a cycle of dependency and straining resources meant for legal residents.

States like Tennessee invest billions in education to foster opportunity, but that promise erodes when funds are spread thinner to accommodate those who bypassed the system. Overturning Plyler would restore fairness, allowing states to focus on their own communities without apology.

The fiscal implications demand attention. Nationwide, educating illegal immigrant students costs billions annually, with estimates varying by state but consistently revealing a disproportionate load on taxpayers.

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The influx strains classrooms, necessitates more ESL teachers and inflates administrative costs. By contrast, excluding these students from taxpayer funding would free up resources for class size reductions, teacher salary increases and program enhancements for lawful enrollees. Property owners, weary of annual tax hikes to cover expanding enrollments, would finally see relief.

Plyler exacerbates illegal immigration by mandating education as an entitlement, regardless of status. The Supreme Court could end this mandate, returning power to the states where it belongs.

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Tennessee’s HB 793, though imperfect, ignites a necessary debate. Lawmakers should strengthen it by banning tax-funded education for illegal immigrants outright, then defend it vigorously in court. The proposal would not only safeguard taxpayer dollars but also deter future illegal entries by removing a key pull factor.

Americans have waited too long for relief from policies that prioritize outsiders over citizens. The time has come for the Supreme Court to overturn Plyler v. Doe and let states chart their own course.

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Chinese spy tech is endangering US hospitals. Texas is trying to shut that down

Millions of Americans depend on medical devices — pacemakers, infusion pumps and patient monitors — to stay alive. But some of that equipment is made in China, and it may be spying on us – or worse.

In January 2025, the Food and Drug Administration and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a stark joint warning: patient monitors made by Contec Medical Systems, a Chinese company based in Qinhuangdao, contain a hidden backdoor. These devices, used in hospitals across the United States, can transmit sensitive patient data to a hard-coded IP address in China. Even more troubling, the backdoor allows remote code execution, potentially letting an adversary manipulate displayed vital signs and trigger dangerous clinical decisions.

There is no patch to fix it. For China, it’s a feature, not a bug.

China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law requires every Chinese company to assist state intelligence operations on demand. When Beijing says open the door, the company complies. The implications for any Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-linked device in America’s healthcare system are clear and unacceptable.

SENATE GOP WARNS CHINESE VAPES COULD BE USED BY CCP TO SPY ON AMERICANS, LAUNDER CARTEL CASH

President Donald Trump recognized the danger early. In September 2025, his administration launched a Section 232 national security investigation into medical equipment imports, citing the risk that foreign powers could weaponize supply chains. Investigators discovered CCP-linked devices even in U.S. government-funded research labs.

Dependence on an adversarial foreign supplier using state subsidies to dominate American competitors is bad enough. But add to that, the threat of sudden export cutoffs in a crisis as we saw during COVID-19 and the peril is heightened. If hospitals rely on compromised supply chains, patients could be left without lifesaving technology when it matters most.

Thankfully, Texas is not waiting on Washington for further needed action. While congressional gridlock has stalled federal progress, the Lone Star State acted.

EX-TRUMP DHS OFFICIAL SOUNDS ALARM OVER NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT WITHIN CRITICAL US INDUSTRY

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott banned CCP-affiliated technologies from state government systems and, in June 2025, signed legislation creating the Texas Cyber Command to hunt down and eliminate threats from hostile foreign nations. Late last year, the governor expanded the state’s prohibited technology list to include 26 more China-linked companies — hardware makers and AI platforms with direct CCP ties. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed multiple lawsuits against these firms operating inside our borders.

The public supports this stand. Texans understand that national security doesn’t stop at the border or the battlefield — it extends to the devices monitoring our loved ones in the hospital.

Statutory tools already exist. What’s needed now is to extend those protections directly into state healthcare procurement. That’s exactly where Texas Republicans are stepping up.

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In recent days, the Texas Public Policy Foundation — where we work — sent a letter to state leaders urging further action. The letter, cosigned by 53 members of the legislature, calls for commonsense measures: direct state health agencies to adopt procurement standards barring medical devices from CCP-linked companies; establish a review process for existing contracts and equipment to root out vulnerabilities; and partner with lawmakers to offer grants and preferences that incentivize American-made medical devices.

Texans understand that national security doesn’t stop at the border or the battlefield — it extends to the devices monitoring our loved ones in the hospital.

In our Army careers, one of us was an intelligence officer and the other, a doctor. We spent years studying national security threats and this fight is personal. Critical infrastructure — including healthcare — must never become the soft underbelly of America’s defenses. No Texas patient should have their medical data transmitted to a server in China, or potentially their medical care disrupted or held hostage by the CCP. No Texas hospital should remain one firmware update away from undetected interference. And no state that has already confronted CCP aggression should leave its medical infrastructure as the last open door.

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Texas is once again showing the nation how to lead. We have the framework. We have the public mandate. We have the resolve. Now we must finish the job — before a crisis forces our hand.

The rest of America is watching. Let’s show them what real action looks like.

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Iran war success gives president a Trump card to play in China meeting

When President Donald Trump arrives in Beijing later this March for his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the official agenda will read like every other U.S.–China meeting in recent memory: tariffs, trade balances, supply chains, Taiwan.

The real story walking through the door with him will be Iran.

On Feb. 28, the United States and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury, a sweeping joint campaign targeting Iran’s military, nuclear and command infrastructure. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the opening strikes — a seismic blow to a regime that had terrorized the region for nearly five decades. Within days, his son Mojtaba was elevated as successor, a dynastic transfer inside a theocracy that once claimed to reject hereditary rule.

The war grinds on — and its consequences are landing on Beijing harder than Xi Jinping ever planned.

STEVE MOORE: FIVE ENERGY TRUTHS THE MEDIA IGNORE AS AMERICA’S OIL BOOM BLUNTS THE IRAN WAR’S IMPACT

Russia and China: not bystanders

Both Moscow and Beijing are actively helping Iran fight this war. That needs to be said plainly, because the administration’s public messaging has been too cautious on this point.

Multiple U.S. officials have confirmed that Russia has been sharing satellite and targeting intelligence with Tehran — including the locations of American warships and aircraft across the Middle East. That information has a cost. Seven U.S. service members have now been killed in Iranian attacks. Iran’s own ISR capability has been largely degraded by our strikes. The precision of the missile and drone attacks that have gotten through owes something to Moscow’s overhead constellation.

TRUMP IS REALIGNING WORLD ENERGY MARKETS AND THE IRAN STRIKES ARE ACTUALLY HELPING

Retired four-star Gen. David Petraeus told Fox News that Russian intelligence support likely explains “some of the accuracy of the missiles and drone strikes.” He called on Trump to push South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham’s Russia sanctions legislation, which has more than 90 senators behind it. Iran’s own foreign minister did not deny the arrangement, telling NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the Iran-Russia military partnership “is still there and will continue.”

An adversary coalition actively helping kill American troops deserves discussion at the table in Beijing.

China’s role is less direct, but no less consequential.

TRUMP SUDDENLY SEEMS ANXIOUS TO END THE WAR AS AMERICAN CASUALTIES MOUNT AND IRAN FINDS WAYS TO HIT BACK

For years, U.S. officials have warned that Chinese firms have funneled technology into Iran’s missile and weapons programs. The Treasury Department has sanctioned Chinese companies repeatedly for supplying missile-related materials to Tehran.

Analysts have also flagged Iran’s interest in the Chinese CM-302 supersonic anti-ship cruise missile — a weapon designed to threaten major naval vessels — which has surfaced in Iranian procurement discussions. Chinese technology already runs through portions of Iran’s missile infrastructure, from electronics to propellant components.

Denial and innocence are not the same thing.

IRAN WAR JEOPARDIZES TRUMP ECONOMIC BOOM BEFORE KEY MIDTERM ELECTIONS

China’s energy vulnerability

For all of Beijing’s public posturing, the Iran war is costing China real money — and Xi knows it.

China built its manufacturing economy on reliable access to cheap energy, including deeply discounted crude from sanctioned states. Iran has been a critical piece of that equation. According to data from Kpler analytics and other tracking firms, China was importing approximately 1.38 million barrels per day of Iranian crude in 2025 — roughly 13% of its total seaborne oil imports, with nearly all of it routed through shadowy intermediaries to evade U.S. sanctions.

IRAN DIDN’T ADAPT TO AMERICA’S PLAYBOOK. RUSSIA AND CHINA ALREADY HAVE

That flow now runs directly through a war zone. The Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 20% of the world’s seaborne oil passes, sits at the center of the conflict. As of this writing, the strait is effectively closed to tanker traffic. For Beijing, that means rising energy costs, supply chain disruption and the loss of one of its most important discounted suppliers — all at once.

The shadow fleet is being dismantled

Compounding the pressure on Beijing is Washington’s intensifying crackdown on the “shadow fleet” — the network of obscurely flagged tankers used to move sanctioned Iranian and Russian crude into Chinese refineries. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has sanctioned dozens of shipping companies, vessels and intermediaries tied to Iranian oil smuggling. Much of that crude terminates in China.

The war grinds on — and its consequences are landing on Beijing harder than Xi Jinping ever planned.

SUSTAINED WAR WITH IRAN COULD DRAIN US MISSILE STOCKPILES, TEST ESCALATION CONTROL

If sanctions enforcement continues tightening — and there is every reason to press harder right now — the gray market that has allowed Beijing to secure cheap energy from sanctioned regimes will shrink. The bill for China’s energy dependency will come due.

Xi’s bind

Xi publicly condemns the war. Privately, Chinese energy firms have been pressing Tehran not to strike Qatari liquid natural gas (LNG) facilities — because China sources roughly 28% of its LNG from Qatar. Defending Iran on the world stage while quietly begging it not to torch your fuel supply is not a position of strength.

IRAN WAR, 11 DAYS IN: US CONTROLS SKIES, OIL SURGES AND THE REGION BRACES FOR WHAT’S NEXT

Xi cannot replace discounted Iranian oil overnight. He cannot rehabilitate a dead supreme leader. And he cannot absorb a prolonged energy shock while his GDP growth target sits at a humbling 4.5% — China’s lowest target in over three decades. Every one of those pressures is leverage Trump should use. This is not the time for diplomatic niceties.

What Trump should demand

The Beijing summit is not a trade negotiation. It is a strategic confrontation, and Trump should walk in knowing exactly what he wants.

TRUMP’S STRIKE ON IRAN DEALS A MAJOR BLOW TO PUTIN’S WAR MACHINE IN UKRAINE

First, Xi must use his documented leverage over Moscow to halt Russian intelligence support for Iranian attacks on American forces. Gen. Petraeus is right that sanctions on Russia are long overdue. But China’s economic exposure to this war gives Washington a second lever — and Trump should pull it simultaneously.

Second, China must shut down the missile technology pipeline to Tehran. Treasury Secretary Bessent is already weighing pressing Beijing on sanctioned oil purchases in his pre-summit talks with Vice Premier He Lifeng in Paris. That pressure must extend explicitly to weapons transfers — the CM-302 deal, propellant shipments, dual-use components. Washington is tracking all of it.

Third, Beijing’s rare earth export restrictions — imposed in retaliation for U.S. tariffs and designed to complicate American weapons replenishment — need to be called what they are: economic warfare. The tightening energy markets created by this conflict give Washington leverage it has not held in years. Expanded U.S. LNG exports and Gulf energy cooperation are available — but only for real concessions, not diplomatic theater.

For years, U.S. officials have warned that Chinese firms have funneled technology into Iran’s missile and weapons programs. 

The real question in Beijing

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For years, Beijing methodically cultivated an authoritarian axis with Iran, Russia and Venezuela as a hedge against American power. Iran is now destabilized. Venezuela is out of Beijing’s orbit. Russia is exposed. The axis that gathered in Beijing last September brimming with confidence looks considerably more fragile today.

Xi will arrive at this summit hoping to stabilize the relationship and project strength on his own soil. Trump should arrive knowing that the Iran war has handed Washington something genuinely rare in the long history of U.S.–China diplomacy.

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Leverage.

The card is in Washington’s hand. The question is whether Trump plays it.

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Foreigners are snapping up US homes and stealing the American dream out from under families

President Donald Trump is pushing hard for Congress to ban Wall Street firms from buying single-family homes. He’s rightly worried that financial tycoons are crowding out younger and middle-class homebuyers, especially in fast-growing Southern cities. But there’s another kind of homebuyer the president and Congress should cut off at the pass: foreigners who are blocking our own citizens from the American Dream.

In a new paper, I show that foreign homebuyers are far more common than most people realize. Between April 2024 and March 2025 alone, foreigners purchased more than 78,000 American homes.  And foreign homebuying is becoming more common with every passing year. Between 2024 and 2025 alone, foreign buyers spent 33% more on U.S. homes than they did in the previous year.

Each home bought by someone from outside the U.S. leaves one fewer home for Americans to buy. That fact alone raises prices for first-time homebuyers — it’s Economics 101. But the situation is even worse when you account for the fact that nearly half of foreigners paid all cash. Younger Americans and middle-class families simply can’t compete with all-cash offers — certainly not if they’re buying their first home. The playing field is tilted against them, and it’s tilted in favor of people who may have never set foot in America at all.

But who, exactly, are these foreign homebuyers?

HOUSE PASSES BIPARTISAN HOUSING BILL AS TRUMP ZEROES IN ON AFFORDABILITY CRISIS

Shockingly, a huge number of them are from economic and strategic rival nations. The most foreign homebuyers come from communist China. They purchase about one out of every six foreign-bought homes, and in 2025 alone, they dropped $13.7 billion on American homes.

Tellingly, nearly half of these Chinese buyers intend to use their new home as a way to gain permanent residence in the United States, giving them preferential access to things like a college education for their children. In other words, not only are Chinese citizens crowding Americans out of homes — they’re pushing Americans out of other U.S. institutions, as well.

Whether they’re from China or anywhere else, it’s important to note that these foreigners aren’t simply buying condos or townhomes. They’re overwhelmingly buying the single-family detached homes that Americans want most. Nearly two out of every three foreign home purchases are in that category. So foreign homebuyers are dimming the heart of the American Dream itself.

No matter where they’re from or what kind of home they get, foreign homebuyers are standing in the way of American citizens. But other countries don’t make this mistake. They’ve enacted heavy restrictions on foreign homebuyers precisely because they want to put their own people first.

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Canada is a case in point. While Canadian citizens are some of the most common buyers of American property, their own country bans most foreign purchases of homes. Many foreign purchases that are still allowed are hit with heavy taxes in order to deter them.

Each home bought by someone from outside the U.S. leaves one fewer home for Americans to buy.

Similarly, China severely limits foreign homebuying, even as many of its citizens buy homes in America. The double standard is clear — and so is the harm to America’s people and interests. Our citizens are waiting in line behind homebuyers from our country’s top strategic and economic rival. In what world does that make sense?

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The problem is obvious — but so is the solution. Congress should restrict foreigners from buying American homes, either with an outright ban or heavy taxes that discourage purchases. The Republican Study Committee has already laid out a plan to significantly raise taxes on homebuyers from overseas. Such innovative ideas deserve attention and action in the coming months.

This isn’t a matter of sticking it to foreigners. It’s about standing up for our own citizens. The American Dream is for the American people, and young professionals and middle-class families urgently need it brought within their reach.

Veteran ’60 Minutes’ reporter says the network ‘crumbled’ under Trump’s pressure

A veteran “60 Minutes” journalist slammed the previous owners of his parent network, CBS, for settling an election interference lawsuit with President Donald Trump.

“Our previous owners at CBS faced political pressure and crumbled‚” Scott Pelley said, according to The Guardian’s Jeremy Barr, referencing the fallout over the legal dispute between Trump and CBS. Pelley was introducing former “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens at the National Press Foundation Annual Journalism Awards Dinner last week. 

Pelley was referencing former CBS parent company, Paramount Global, before it was merged with Skydance Media, run by David Ellison, the son of billionaire Oracle founder and Trump ally Larry Ellison.

CBS NEWS IN TRANSITION: WHO’S IN AND WHO’S OUT AFTER A TUMULTUOUS YEAR AT THE NETWORK

In the days leading up to the 2024 presidential election, CBS News aired its “60 Minutes” interview featuring then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Critics at the time noticed that an answer she gave to a question about Israel that first aired in a preview clip on “Face the Nation,” which was mocked by conservatives for her “word salad” comments, appeared to have been swapped with a different answer that aired during the primetime election special the next evening.

Trump accused the network of election interference and filed a $20 billion lawsuit against the company. 

After months of contentious mediation, Paramount and CBS settled Trump’s lawsuit for a sum expected to be north of $30 million, including $16 million upfront for Trump’s presidential library.

CBS NEWS CORRESPONDENT ANNOUNCES SUDDEN EXIT FROM NETWORK, SAYS HE’S SEEKING ‘SOME INDEPENDENCE’

Barr also posted on X that veteran “60 Minutes” journalist Lesley Stahl claimed she would have followed former executive producer of the show Bill Owens in resigning during the company’s contentious legal battle with Trump. 

“We would have followed him off the cliff, but he urged us not to,” Stahl reportedly said. 

Owens, who told his colleagues in April of last year that corporate overreach impacted his ability to maintain an independent newsroom. 

When he resigned, he told his colleagues in a memo, “over the past months, it has become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it, to make independent decisions based on what was right for 60 Minutes, right for the audience.” 

CRONKITE-ERA PRODUCER EXITS CBS NEWS IN DRAMATIC FASHION AFTER 46 YEARS AT NETWORK

A representative from CBS did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

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DAVID MARCUS: In an age of broken institutions, the filibuster is one relic we can’t afford

The filibuster, which is in essence a 60-vote threshold to pass legislation in the U.S. Senate, is a well-intentioned instrument meant to protect the rights of states, markets and individuals from excessive federal law. But it must now be abandoned.

Under the filibuster, the Senate can only act when a piece of legislation is overwhelmingly popular, and in the current case of the Save America Act, which has widespread public support, not even then.

When the Senate abdicates this power, the power doesn’t disappear, rather it is vested in non-governmental institutions that we are meant to trust are working in the interest of the country and its people.

So, for example, without the Save America Act’s limits on mail-in ballots, non-government entities, like Mark Zuckererg and Meta back in 2020, are free to influence elections by offering mail-in ballot assistance, but only in their politically approved areas.

THUNE GUARANTEES VOTER ID BILL TO HIT THE SENATE DESPITE SCHUMER, DEM OPPOSITION: ‘WE WILL HAVE A VOTE’

In an age in which we had trusted institutions of education, homeless outreach or monitoring of elections, this might be fine, even admirable. But we do not live in such an age. In our age, far-left progressives have captured almost every institution the Senate willingly hands its power over to.

In the 1720s, England had almost no government-run prisons. Instead, wardensips were purchased, and the warden would profit from prisoner fees.

In 1729, an architect named Robert Castell was thrown into debtors’ prison, but could not pay the warden’s fee. He was put in a room with a man who had smallpox, contracted the disease and died.

SEN LEE DARES DEMOCRATS TO REVIVE TALKING FILIBUSTER OVER SAVE ACT, SLAMMING CRITICISM AS ‘PARANOID FANTASY’

Outrage ensued, and even Sir Robert Walpole, arguably England’s first prime minister who far favored indirect management to direct government control of institutions, began to see the need for state-run prisons.

Was the flawed, non-governmental prison system of Georgian England really so different from our own federal government handing millions of dollars to fraudulent daycare centers in Minneapolis or no-show hospice care sites in LA?

Even short of fraud, our leading institutions have had incredible negative impacts in areas like the trans movement, where basically every single one of them agreed that children should be subjected to surgery and hormones to change their gender.

DAVID MARCUS: SEN THUNE HAS NO IDEA HOW MAD THE GOP BASE IS AT HIM

It was not until executive orders, state legislatures and the courts stood up to trans madness that the fever began to cool, and now, hospitals are quietly removing those “services.”

It was the government, by and of the people, that put in check the shadow government of far-left institutions that nobody ever voted for.

Castell was not the first person to be abused or to die in the very old private English prison system, so why did his case suddenly cause so much furor and eventual change?

REPUBLICANS, TRUMP RUN INTO SENATE ROADBLOCK ON VOTER ID BILL

Well, about 25 years earlier, something had arrived on the scene in London called a newspaper. Suddenly, not just the literate Londoner, but the man who heard the news read aloud at the coffeehouse or tavern, had an immediate window into corruption.

Likewise, 25 years ago, we saw the rise of online news, and suddenly the gatekeepers could no longer hide the evils of the institutions on whose boards they often sat.

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Suddenly stories of voter fraud, or detransitioning, or absurd DEI lessons in our schools could not be covered up. The rot at the core of our institutions was laid bare for all to see, just as the cruelty of England’s prisons were 300 years ago.

THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE ‘TALKING FILIBUSTER’ AND THE SAVE ACT

Today, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., faces a choice similar to Walpole’s in the 18th century. He would much prefer to keep the federal government out of the lives of Americans, but the institutions that do operate in their lives are broken and corrupt.

While it is the House of Representatives, not the Senate, that is meant to be the vehicle of popular will in our system, that Senate is not meant to be a perpetual roadblock to the will of the people’s house even in the face of massive popular support.

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Sadly, that is what the filibuster has become today, an excuse for our legislators to do nothing as non-government institutions continue to firm their grip on American society.

There might have once been a time when the filibuster made sense, but now is not that time. Now is the time for the people’s government to take back power from our broken, far-left institutions.

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AI comes with a hefty charge. Are you the one who gets stuck with the bill?

For the past two years, Americans have been told the artificial intelligence revolution will change everything, including how we work, how we invest, how we learn and how businesses operate.

But there’s one place where AI could quietly show up that almost nobody is talking about.

Your electric bill.

And if the current trajectory continues, the AI boom could become one of the biggest hidden drivers of higher energy costs for American households in 100 years.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S TOP ‘SCIENTIFIC PRIORITY IS AI,’ ENERGY SECRETARY SAYS

The dirty secret of AI: It eats lots of electricity

Artificial intelligence doesn’t live in the cloud.

It lives in massive data centers that are football-field-sized buildings filled with servers running nonstop calculations.

Training a single large AI model can consume millions of kilowatt hours of electricity. Once deployed, those models still require enormous computing power every time someone asks a question, generates an image or runs automation.

According to the International Energy Agency, global data center electricity consumption could more than double by 2030 as AI adoption explodes.

In the United States alone, some projections suggest data centers could consume up to 9-10% of the country’s electricity within the next decade. Just five years ago, that number was closer to 2-3%.

That’s a staggering shift in the power grid which you may not have even realized today.

Why this matters to your wallet

Electricity isn’t like streaming services. When demand rises dramatically, utilities must build new infrastructure.

That means:

• New power plants
• New transmission lines
• New grid upgrades

Artificial intelligence doesn’t live in the cloud. It lives in massive data centers that are football-field-sized buildings filled with servers running nonstop calculations.

And guess who typically pays for those investments?

SCOOP: TRUMP BRINGS BIG TECH TO WHITE HOUSE TO CURB POWER COSTS AMID AI BOOM

Ratepayers. In simple words: you.

The Electric Power Research Institute has warned that AI-driven data center growth could add tens of gigawatts of new electricity demand across the United States. To put that into perspective, a single large AI data center campus can consume as much power as a medium-sized city.

The tech gold rush for electricity

Major tech companies are now scrambling to lock down power.

Companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Google are investing billions in data center expansion.

Some are even exploring small nuclear reactors and dedicated power plants just to fuel AI infrastructure.

TRUMP SAYS EVERY AI PLANT BEING BUILT IN US WILL BE SELF-SUSTAINING WITH THEIR OWN ELECTRICITY

That should tell you something.

When trillion-dollar companies start worrying about electricity supply, it means the demand surge is very real.

The hidden grid stress

America’s power grid wasn’t designed for an AI arms race.

Utilities are already dealing with rising demand from:

• Electric vehicles
• Electrified homes and appliances
• Population growth
• Manufacturing reshoring

Now add AI supercomputers running 24 hours a day.

Some regions are already feeling the pressure. Utilities in states like Virginia, Texas and Georgia with major data center hubs have warned that new projects could significantly increase electricity demand over the next decade.

And guess who typically pays for those investments? Ratepayers. In simple words: you.

Could your electric bill really double?

Let’s be clear: AI alone probably won’t double your electric bill overnight.

But the risk isn’t imaginary. Someone is going to have to pay for the energy.  

If utilities must rapidly expand capacity and upgrade infrastructure, those costs historically get passed along to customers through higher rates and new surcharges.

IN 2026, ENERGY WAR’S NEW FRONT IS AI, AND US MUST WIN THAT BATTLE, API CHIEF SAYS

And energy inflation has already been a problem.

Over the past five years, residential electricity prices in the U.S. have risen significantly, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Add the AI electricity surge, and the upward pressure could continue where in the next 10 years, you could have double the electric bill you have today.

The next silent inflation nobody is talking about

Washington debates inflation constantly about the big three of groceries, gas and housing.

But electricity is quietly becoming one of the most important cost pressures in the modern economy.

Almost everything in the digital economy runs on electricity:

TRUMP BRINGS BIG TECH EXECUTIVES TO WHITE HOUSE TO CURB POWER COSTS FOR AMERICAN HOUSEHOLDS AMID AI BOOM

• AI
• Cloud computing
• Crypto mining
• Electric vehicles
• Data centers

Electricity is becoming the new oil of the digital age.

Companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Google are investing billions in data center expansion. Some are even exploring small nuclear reactors and dedicated power plants just to fuel AI infrastructure.

What Americans should be watching

As the AI boom accelerates, keep an eye on three things:

1. Utility rate increases Many states allow utilities to raise rates when infrastructure costs rise.

2. Data center construction Communities across America are competing for massive AI server farms.

3. Energy policy: How the country expands energy generation, including nuclear, natural gas and renewable, could determine whether supply keeps up with demand.

Will benefits to all Americans outweigh the cost of AI?

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Artificial intelligence will transform the economy in ways we’re only beginning to understand. But like every technological revolution, it comes with real-world costs.

The question isn’t whether AI will reshape industries.

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It’s whether Americans are prepared for the possibility that the next tech boom could show up not just on their phones or computers but as a huge added expense on their monthly power bill.

And that’s a reality policymakers, utilities and consumers need to start thinking about when the price could double down the road.

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I reluctantly went to my first Grateful Dead show — and discovered one of Earth’s great religions

“Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy.”

The Fourth Commandment suddenly came to mind recently as I happened upon Larissa Phillips’ Free Press article about the Grateful Dead. It is all about following the Dead and how the whole thing was like a giant, mobile, joyous church.

I concur.

GRATEFUL DEAD LEGEND BOB WEIR DIES AT AGE 78 SURROUNDED BY FAMILY AFTER CANCER BATTLE

Standing among thousands of fellow Deadheads, especially at the goosebump-inducing peak of a transcendent Jerry Garcia guitar solo, I would look around the mesmerized crowd and think, “If this isn’t a religion, what is?” A religion without a phony, overrated, massively disappointing “God,” and with real, talented, flesh-and-blood musicians to worship: Who could ask for anything more?

Eric Clapton, Jerry Garcia, Elton John and Carlos Santana are my four musical gods. Broadly speaking, those of us who hop on planes and fly across the country or over oceans to see music belong to what I call the First Church of Song.

Seeing and following the Grateful Dead was part of this faith. I was fortunate enough to catch the Dead for in-town shows in the New York City area and Los Angeles. I rode in cars to see individual venues in Foxboro, Massachusetts; Oakland and Ventura, California; Oxford Speedway, Maine; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I flew to see them in Buffalo and Chicago (twice).

GRATEFUL DEAD’S JERRY GARCIA WAS INTIMIDATED BY GUITAR LEGEND MICHAEL BLOOMFIELD: BOOK

And then there were the “follows” — journeys to multiple cities and locations: The Meadowlands, New Jersey, to Washington, D.C. (with an intermittent stop at the Garden State Arts Center, where the Neville Brothers opened for Jimmy Buffett) and the best follow of all: Berlin to Frankfurt to Paris. Following the Dead across Europe in 1990 was among the highlights of my life.

I am eternally grateful to my old junior-high-school friends John Adams, Gill Ilanit and Chris Wessling, who dragged me to my first Dead show — fittingly enough — on Good Friday 1987. The bones, skulls and skeletons abundant in Grateful Dead iconography led me to conclude, with staggering inaccuracy, that this involved some sort of satanic death metal. I envisioned something like Black Sabbath, but even more diabolical.

I strongly resisted my friends’ invitations, but they persisted. Finally, to stop their nagging, I made them a deal: “OK. I will see your Grateful Dead. Just this once. And after that, I do not want to hear another word about them!”

“OK. OK. OK,” they agreed, likely giggling behind my back at the worm-adorned hook that was about to snag my upper lip.

So off we went to the now-defunct Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre on a sunny Southern California afternoon. We spent hours in a vast parking lot, thoroughly entertained, as our fellow young Americans in tie-dyed outfits played hacky sack, flung Frisbees and danced with their dogs to bootleg concert tapes. The faithful revered these like the Dead Sea Scrolls.

In her Free Press article headlined “Who Needs God When There’s the Grateful Dead?” Phillips perfectly captured the historical moment when this colorful afternoon among the Deadheads unfolded:

“I imagine if you were deeply invested, it would’ve been hard to watch the Dead go mainstream, after so many years of being a sort of secret society. In 1987, they produced their first Top 10 song, and things went crazy from there. MTV began playing the ‘Touch of Grey’ video. I saw frat-boy types wearing tie-dyes, and preppy kids from my suburban high school started going to shows.”

Yup — preppy kids, like many of my friends at Palisades High School in suburban Los Angeles. (We were college students and recent graduates by then.) I was the preppiest among my crew that April 17, but I was not — by far — the only guy out there in Top-Siders.

About this time, Jerry Garcia responded to his band’s finally entering Billboard’s Top 10 club: “I am appalled.”

Back in Irvine, the all-encompassing parking-lot festivities felt like the entire attraction. In fact, it was just the overture. Already sated, my friends reminded me that we were there to see a concert.

As dusk approached, we finally headed in for the Dead show. Rather than harmonies from hell, I heard the delightful sounds of what I call “psychedelic country rock.” The music was fun, upbeat, happy and beautiful.

It also was familiar. I remember hearing “Estimated Prophet” and asking, “Oh, a Grateful Dead song?” Also on the set list: “Truckin’.” I said, “I know this one. I’ve heard it on the radio. The Dead do this?”

Other tunes were brand-new to me. “Deal” was a raucous first-set closer that I immediately embraced and still cherish. “Friend of the Devil” and “Samson and Delilah” became instant favorites.

GRATEFUL DEAD’S ‘HELL IN A BUCKET’ DUCK GOT DRUNK ON SET, PAL POINTS TO WHO LIKELY MAKE IT HAPPEN

The recently departed Bob Weir was a standout on rhythm guitar and vocals. I instantly fell in love with the keyboard wizardry and raspy voice of the late Brent Mydland. The late Phil Lesh quietly kept things together on bass. Not one drummer but two — Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, both still alive — kept the percussion popping.

And then, of course, there was the first among equals, the late lead guitarist Jerry Garcia. Although he was just 44 at that time, decades of less-than-pristine living made him look about 80. He was our rock ’n’ roll grandpa, and we were his grandchildren. His croaky voice, soaring leads and peaking crescendos fueled pure, unfiltered ecstasy. With Persian rugs on stage among the wooden guitars and gear, the scene felt like Jerry’s living room. He was playing. And even among some 16,000 fellow fans, the place could not have felt cozier or more intimate.

At the end of the show, Gill asked me, “What did you think?”

I laughed and replied, “Why didn’t you bring me sooner?”

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“I remember dragging you to that show, then catching you twirling around in the parking lot!” John Adams later recalled. “Hilarious. Hooked for life.”

That was my maiden voyage with the Grateful Dead.

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I returned for 70 more shows.

If this isn’t a religion, what is?

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DAVID MARCUS: Can John Fetterman save the Democratic Party from itself?

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman is the most anomalous politician in America today. Often willing to buck his fellow Democrats, he appears to be a one of a kind on Capitol Hill, even though his ideas are shared by the majority of Americans, including a lot of Democrats.

It is not entirely clear how Fetterman went from being a progressive, and failed, candidate for Senate in 2016 to winning in 2022 and becoming the moderate thorn in the side of the ever-left lurching Democrats. Some believe his medical issues changed him, but the answer might be far more simple.

In fact, it may not be so much that Fetterman moved away from his party, but that his party moved away from Fetterman.

One glaring example is Israel. Even five years ago, support for the Jewish state was as widespread among elected Democrats as E-Z Pass is on American highways. But today, the absurd and fabulist consensus in the party is that Israel has committed genocide.

JOHN FETTERMAN SLAMS ANTI-ISRAEL ‘ROT’ IN DEMOCRATIC PARTY, REJECTS AOC CLAIMS OF GAZA ‘GENOCIDE’

Fetterman, along with a few others like Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., have fought back hard against these anti-Israeli narratives, even as nominally pro-Israel voices, like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have shamefully kept their heads down on the issue.

More recently, on the current shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, Fetterman is once again sticking it to his own party leadership by insisting that the agency should be funded full stop, without any conditions.

He is the only Democrat in the upper chamber taking this sensible stand.

FETTERMAN’S FORMER PROGRESSIVE BACKER SAYS HE ‘SOLD US OUT,’ ESCALATES EFFORTS TO PRIMARY DEMOCRAT SENATOR

Fetterman is also pretty much the only Democrat who is willing to cheer the deaths of the brutal regime leaders in Iran as the rest of his party all but undermines the war effort with nonsensical attacks against Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Meanwhile, when it comes to the communist mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, one of the most popular figures in Democratic polling, Fetterman said of him last year, “Everything that I’ve read on him, I don’t really agree with virtually any of it, politically. That’s just where I’m at as a Democrat. He’s not even a Democrat, honestly.”

But here Fetterman appears to be wrong. In fact, Democrats lined up to support and endorse Madman Mamdani and his merry band of capitalism-hating DSA darlings, and it is Fetterman who is losing support among party voters.

FETTERMAN’S NEW BOOK DETAILS EXPLOSIVE FEUD WITH GOV JOSH SHAPIRO OVER PAROLE BOARD DISPUTE

But he isn’t losing support among all voters.

According to a recent Quinnipiac poll, a whopping 72% of Republican voters in the Keystone state approve of Fetterman, while a mere 22% of Democrats do, with independents split about 50/50.

This is the strange place where we have found ourselves, more Republican voters in Pennsylvania approve of Democratic Sen. Fetterman than Republican voters in Texas do of Republican Sen. John Cornyn.

JOHN FETTERMAN SIDES WITH GOP IN SENATE VOTE, SAYS DEMOCRATS ‘CROSSED A LINE’ PUTTING POLITICS OVER COUNTRY

This has all led to speculation that the hoodie-wearing maverick might switch parties and run for his seat as a Republican in 2028. But that is not the sense that I get from Fetterman’s words and actions.

Fetterman wants to save the Democratic Party, not to abandon it. 

The best way for Fetterman to achieve this goal is not by defending his Senate seat two years from now, but by running for president.

FETTERMAN OPPOSES SHUTDOWN EFFORTS AS DEMOCRATIC COLLEAGUES MOVE TO BLOCK ICE FUNDING BILL

Recently I have been polling some insiders I know on both sides of the aisle, asking if Fetterman really has a chance to win the presidency in 2028. The most usual answer has been, “yes,” with a smattering of “absolutelies.”

The logic here is that every other potential Democrat who could stand on a presidential primary debate stage is in lockstep favoring the loony leftist ideas that Fetterman stands athwart.

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Especially now that sports media celebrity Stephen A. Smith has announced he will not be running, owing to the financial hit he would take, Fetterman would be the only Democrat in the field offering a way back to centrist politics.

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The odds are firmly against Fetterman in his quixotic mission to restore sanity to America’s oldest political party, but then again, what were the odds of this guy ever being a senator in the first place?

All Americans should be glad to have this single senator who speaks plain sense regardless of party talking points, marching orders or the flickering winds of public opinion. Maybe it is naive to believe these qualities still matter to voters, but if so, then call me naive.

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I was a doctor caring for Alzheimer’s patients. At 57, I became one. Here’s what’s next

As an internal medicine doctor, I used to care for Alzheimer’s patients. Now, at just 60 years old, I am one. My diagnosis is not the future most people hope for — but there is finally a generation of Alzheimer’s treatments that work for many patients, and I am one of them.

Before my diagnosis, I was a busy, high-performing physician and a present husband and father. Over my career, I completed an internal medicine fellowship at Johns Hopkins, oversaw a medical practice and ran an academic clinic, where I taught residents and medical students. I coached my kids’ basketball teams and served as a deacon at my church.

I was someone who helped others, not someone who needed help myself. Then, three years ago, everything changed.

ALZHEIMER’S SCIENTISTS FIND KEY TO HALTING BRAIN DECLINE BEFORE SYMPTOMS

One afternoon, my supervisor called me into her office and fired me for fumbling tasks I used to handle with ease, asking emphatically, “What is wrong with you?!” Suddenly, I was out of a job, had no health insurance and still needed answers. What was wrong with me?

My family noticed my cognitive decline, too. I couldn’t keep up during a game night, put dishes back in the wrong place, lost track of my phone and repeated questions my wife had already answered.

I was only 57 — younger than most people associate with Alzheimer’s disease — but testing soon revealed the truth. A novel blood test measuring p-Tau217, a biomarker strongly associated with Alzheimer’s, came back abnormal. Further imaging confirmed what I feared most: I had Alzheimer’s disease.

As a doctor, I knew what this diagnosis usually meant. For years, our treatment tools were limited. We prescribed medications that tried to “juice up” the brain. But mostly, we watched patients’ slow demise until they struggled to speak and eventually became unable to swallow. Then we’d call in hospice. Alzheimer’s care was a slog that was hard on families. It was a long goodbye.

ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE COULD BE REVERSED BY RESTORING BRAIN BALANCE, STUDY SUGGESTS

But my wife, my superhero, wasn’t going to let me go without a fight. She knew I still had so much to offer my family, my community and my church.

My neurologist, Dr. Jeff Burns, who runs the University of Kansas Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, suggested that I would be a candidate for a new monoclonal antibody treatment designed to clear abnormal plaques from the brain. I began regular infusions that have slowed my decline and improved my cognition.

I still have Alzheimer’s — but treatment has given me back the life I feared I was losing.

HIDDEN BRAIN CONDITION MAY QUADRUPLE DEMENTIA RISK IN OLDER ADULTS, STUDY SUGGESTS

Before treatment, I struggled to remember my cues while serving at the altar as a deacon; after the treatment took hold, I had a service where I was able to hit every mark once again.

I’m able to babysit my 2-year-old grandson, Frank, twice a week. I’ve been enlisted to teach medical students how to deliver bad news to patients, which I treat as a solemn duty.

I go on bike rides, which remind me of what it was like to be a kid. I spend precious time with my children and grandchildren. I take three-mile walks with my dog. I write.

CANCER MAY TRIGGER UNEXPECTED DEFENSE AGAINST ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE, RESEARCHERS SAY

You would think that a treatment capable of restoring someone’s life would be readily available to others like me. But our health care system is still built for late-stage Alzheimer’s, not early intervention. Too often, cognitive decline is dismissed as normal aging, or patients are referred to specialists with long wait times. By the time answers arrive, the window for effective treatment has closed.

What helped me may not work for everyone. But even if a breakthrough Alzheimer’s therapy were to emerge tomorrow that works in every case, the same structural failures would persist: People would still be diagnosed too late, priced out of testing and treatment, and blocked from timely care.

That must change.

LURKING DEMENTIA RISK EXPOSED BY BREAKTHROUGH TEST 25 YEARS BEFORE SYMPTOMS

Early Alzheimer’s detection should become routine in primary care, using modern tools like blood-based biomarkers to identify the disease early and validated cognitive assessments to detect meaningful changes. While some assessments can now be administered digitally outside specialty care, patients are still funneled to neurologists, creating six-month- to year-long delays that cost critical treatment time. These tests should be accessible and covered, not limited to academic centers or those who can afford to pay out of pocket.

My family noticed my cognitive decline, too. I couldn’t keep up during a game night, put dishes back in the wrong place, lost track of my phone and repeated questions my wife had already answered.

Once patients qualify for an FDA-approved therapy, insurance rules should not stand in the way. Ongoing administrative hurdles and repeated coverage denials disrupt care and force families into constant appeals.

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My wife, Cindy, has spent countless hours fighting insurers to maintain the treatment that has kept me alert, engaged and functioning. At times, those denials have forced me off treatment long enough to lose ground before we could begin again.

A current proposal sponsored by Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., would extend Medicare coverage to people 65 and under who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. This legislation, called the BRIDGE Act, would ensure people in my situation don’t face the coverage denials and access interruptions that I did.

Primary care providers — often overworked and running behind — are equipped to spot cognitive decline and can administer cognitive assessments, make timely diagnoses and counsel patients on evidence-based lifestyle interventions such as regular physical activity, sleep optimization and social engagement. These interventions matter and can help slow cognitive decline for some patients.

Finally, caregivers must be recognized as essential partners in care. Cindy made it possible for me to get treatment, stay organized and keep living my life. Supporting families is one of the most effective ways to keep people with Alzheimer’s at home, engaged and connected.

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Alzheimer’s science has moved forward. Policy has not.

If we want today’s breakthroughs to improve lives for patients like me, families and future generations, we must build a system that finds the disease early and delivers care in time.

JONATHAN TURLEY: How Gov Shapiro became a squatter and got sued by his neighbors

The poet Robert Frost once said that “good fences make good neighbors.” He apparently never met Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is being sued by his neighbors for effectively squatting on their land and then seizing it to install a fence along his $830,500 private residence in suburban Philadelphia. The litigation is likely to put Shapiro in a much different light for many who think of him as a 2028 contender.

The irony of the case is crushing. Shapiro opposed Trump’s plan to build a wall along the southern border, declaring that he would sue before a dime of Pennsylvania money would go to pay for it. He apparently adopted a similar approach to his neighbors in Pennsylvania. The difference is that he built the wall, but without giving his neighbors a dime.

Shapiro has long wanted a 2,900-square-foot parcel of land located between the two homes in Abington, Montgomery County. The problem is that his neighbors like their land and want to keep it. They turned down multiple offers from Shapiro.

That is when the governor decided to build it anyway.

GIVE THE GOVERNMENT AN INCH AND THEY’LL SEIZE YOUR $200K HOME FOR A $2K DEBT

Jeremy and Simone Mock allege that Shapiro effectively became a squatter by using the state police to bar them from their own property and then building an eight-foot security fence.

After the Mocks sued, Shapiro countersued, claiming that the land was now his through “adverse possession.” He basically claimed that they abandoned the land despite their repeatedly trying to gain entry and repeatedly turning down his offers to buy it.

Welcome to the world of adverse possession. It is a doctrine dating back to 2000 B.C., and the Code of Hammurabi, allowing people to acquire title to land abandoned by owners over a long period of time. A really long time.

From the Romans to the British to the earliest days of the American Republic, adverse possession has been recognized as a valid means of acquiring title. It was particularly valuable in the early years of the United States, where people acquired or claimed vast tracts of land out West, only to leave them undeveloped and unoccupied. As settlers moved West, they often cultivated the land, built structures and lived openly for years before the original owners reclaimed it. Adverse possession was an efficient rule that allowed land to be put to productive use.

Under Pennsylvania law, you must prove actual, continuous, exclusive, visible, notorious, distinct and hostile possession of the land for 21 years. Shapiro clearly has the hostile part down, but the Mocks are claiming that he effectively used state police to bar them from their land and then claimed that they abandoned it.

Each side is portraying the other as dishonest and opportunistic.

In their complaint, the Mocks allege that the Shapiros made “previous acknowledgments that the Mock Property was owned by no one other than the Mocks.” They document that the Shapiros did not want to pay the asking price, so the Mocks offered to lease the land to them. The Shapiros allegedly agreed but then backed out.

MICHIGAN FAMILY SAYS COUNTY SEIZED HOME OVER TAX BILL THEY DIDN’T OWE — CASE NOW HEADS TO THE SUPREME COURT

The Mocks declare, “what followed was an outrageous abuse of power by the sitting Governor of Pennsylvania and its former Attorney General.” Shapiro declared the property was his.

The Mocks objected that they had been paying taxes to the state on the disputed property for nine years.

The Shapiros claim that from 2003 to 2025, they mowed the lawn, cleared leaves, and removed other debris from the land as if it were their own. Accordingly, they claim that the 21-year period has passed and with it the title to the land. They further allege that, after buying the property in April 2017, the Mocks did not claim the land or challenge the location of an existing fence. However, they did so in October 2025.

Shapiro maintains that the Mocks never even knew the property was theirs until he informed them of the results of a recent survey.

The fascinating element is the use of state troopers to keep the Mocks off their land. The complaint even shows a picture of two troopers, stating, “these members of the State Police are on the Mock Property. Behind the officers are the arborvitae that the Shapiros planted on the Mock Property without permission and over the Mocks’ express objections.”

With the required 21 years only barely passed, any period in which the Mocks were to contest the possession could unravel the adverse possession claim. In the meantime, few people are likely to be sympathetic with the Shapiros taking property from a neighbor. Adverse possession rarely sits well with people, but it is more palatable when the owner has been absent and dilatory.

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Here, the owners are very much present and vocal.

The optics are also worsened by the fact that the state has been struggling to address a squatting crisis where people occupy other people’s homes and then refuse to leave during years of litigation. Shapiro is accused of being a squatter with a state trooper contingent to back him up. It is not clear what would be worse for Shapiro — to lose or to win in taking his neighbor’s property without compensation.

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The dispute has already made its way into the political arena, where Shapiro is running for re-election. One of his opponents, Stacy Garrity, posted a Valentine’s Day message on social media with Shapiro’s face that said: “I love you more than I love my neighbor’s yard.”

The fact is that there are credible arguments on both sides of this dispute. For Shapiro, the question is whether he can afford to win.

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BROADCAST BIAS: Networks hide the ‘M’ word after Muslim terror attack

Journalists inside our broadcast networks have a sensitivity to any criticism of radical Islam, bred by their loathing of conservatives. The term “Islamophobia” is on their lips when anyone recalls anything from 9/11 to people chanting, “Death to America.” When a violent or potentially event unfolds, they’re hoping the assailant isn’t Muslim, as happened after an attempted terror attack this week.

When Muslim Army doctor Nidal Hasan shot up Fort Hood in 2009, killing 13, Newsweek’s Evan Thomas proclaimed on televised pundit roundtable: “I cringe that he’s a Muslim. I mean, because it inflames all the fears. I think he’s probably just a nut case. But with that label attached to him, it will get the right wing going.” NPR’s Nina Totenberg chimed in: “It really is tragic that he was a Muslim.”

That reflex certainly applied to the March 7 protests outside Gracie Mansion, where New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani lives. Two Muslim teenagers turned up at an anti-Islam protest with homemade bombs, and the broadcast networks were extremely reluctant to describe them with the “M word.”

On Saturday’s “World News Tonight,” on ABC, anchor Linsey Davis was brief, describing “two people arrested after a suspicious device went off during an anti-Muslim protest here in New York. The protests outside Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s residence, prompting counter-protesters to show up as well. Two were arrested for allegedly throwing what is believed to be a smoke bomb. No injuries reported.” Thrown by whom? The anchor didn’t specify. And it certainly didn’t turn out to be a “smoke bomb.” It was a potential mass casualty event.

CNN BOTCHES NEW YORK TERRORIST ATTACK COVERAGE, FORCED TO ISSUE MULTIPLE CORRECTIONS

On Sunday morning, ABC’s “Good Morning America” was even vaguer, with Gio Benitez reporting, “the FBI’s joint terrorism task force is now investigating suspicious devices thrown during a protest as possible acts of terrorism.” Here again, it’s a maddeningly passive phrasing of “devices thrown.” Thrown by whom?

Later in the show, ABC’s Janai Norman recounted: “Police say two suspicious devices were found. Jars filled with nuts, bolts and screws, and a hobby fuse. They say one protest of about twenty people was organized by far-right, anti-immigrant figure Jake Lang. About 125 people were part of the counter-protest.”

So, one side is “far-right” and “anti-immigrant,” and the other can’t be identified with an ideological or religious affiliation. That report was so vague you might think the Lang group threw the bombs.

SOCIAL MEDIA ERUPTS ON MAMDANI OVER REPORTS HIS WIFE LIKED PRO-OCTOBER 7TH POSTS: ‘THIS IS WHO THEY ARE’

NBC “Sunday Today” host Willie Geist at least seemed to get the targeting right: The “incendiary devices” had been thrown “towards a small group of anti-Islam protesters led by a right-wing influencer.”

On Sunday night’s “CBS Evening News,” anchor Jericka Duncan again meandered around it: “Tonight, the FBI is investigating two men after an explosive device with bolts and screws was thrown into a crowd. It happened in New York City on Saturday during a protest that turned violent outside the mayor’s official residence.” Who turned it violent?

CBS reporter Shanelle Kaul identified Mamdani as a Muslim, but not the assailants. They were just “two men,” she repeated.  Viewers could get a clue when the teens were identified as Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, but Kaul blamed the incident on the “anti-Islam demonstration led by Jake Lang … a pardoned U.S. Capitol insurrectionist who has frequently sought out political confrontations in the months after President Trump gave him clemency.” Lang served four years in prison after wielding a baseball bat on January 6.

SUSPECT IN NYC TERROR PROBE PLANNED ATTACK ‘BIGGER THAN THE BOSTON MARATHON BOMBING,’ PROSECUTORS SAY

On Monday morning, ABC’s Aaron Katersky again tagged right-wing extremists. The bombs were thrown “during the chaotic, dueling protests that were started by far-right provocateur Jake Lang under the banner, ‘Stop the Islamic takeover of New York City’ that Mamdani denounced as ‘rooted in bigotry and racism.’” Katersky then added the bomb plotters “told investigators they had watched ISIS propaganda videos and were there to defend Muslims.”

On Monday’s “Today” program on NBC, reporter Sam Brock relayed that “both men allegedly made pro-ISIS statements during their arrest,” but Brock tied the crowds to WABC’s “polarizing talk show host” Sid Rosenberg for calling Mamdani “a jihadist, before later apologizing.” So, it’s not “polarizing” or “bigoted” to favor ISIS and want Jews dead?

So, one side is “far-right” and “anti-immigrant,” and the other can’t be identified with an ideological or religious affiliation. 

It didn’t improve as the story unfolded. CNN had to pull down a ludicrously florid tweet on Monday about the bomb-plotters, that “Two Pennsylvania teenagers” could have come to New York “for a normal day enjoying the city’s abnormally warm weather.” This inspired a wave of satires.

On Tuesday night, CNN primetime host Abby Phillip — followed minutes later by commentator Ana Navarro — wrongly suggested the target of the bombs was Mayor Mamdani. CNN reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere also wrongly tweeted Mamdani was a target. So much for “Facts First” CNN.

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By Wednesday night, Phillip offered a rare on-air correction. On Wednesday’s “CBS Evening News,” anchor Tony Dokoupil offered a story on “two heroic New York City Police officers who were just steps away from a smoking improvised bomb on Saturday, an attempted terror attack, according to the FBI.” Jericka Duncan told the story of Aaron Edwards and Luis Navarro jumping into the breach to prevent a deadly bomb explosion.

Duncan explained, “Chief Edwards says the path to this moment started with the 9/11 attacks.” Edwards said, “I saw just police and first responders rushing to save people, and that inspired me to take the test.” But even in this cop-honoring story, the angle of Islamic radicalism just hung in the background. The “M-Word” didn’t emerge.

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These cringing journalists have long assumed that Americans (and especially conservatives) aren’t bright enough to think with nuance, that there are many innocent Muslim Americans who have no motivation toward or connection to terrorism. That’s why they have to skip over troubling facts.

That bias by omission extends to Mayor Mamdani’s record of extremist sentiments on Israel, and recent reports that Mamdani’s wife Rama Duwaji “liked” social-media posts celebrating the slaughter of innocent civilians by Hamas on October 7, 2023. The broadcast networks skipped that, endorsing the mayor’s spin that she’s a “private person.” These two are somehow not “far-left” or “bigoted” or extremist.

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Give the government an inch and they’ll seize your $200k home for a $2k debt

Local governments have a nasty habit of taking everything you’ve got and leaving you dry. That’s how Isabella County, Mich., treated the Pung family, whose case was heard on Wednesday, March 11, by the United States Supreme Court. The county foreclosed on the Pung family home for a tax debt of only $2,000. The kicker? Both the state’s Tax Tribunal and its Court of Appeals ruled that the Pungs didn’t even owe that tax in the first place. The response from the local tax assessor: “I don’t care.” The county took title to the Pungs’ home and auctioned it off for a fraction of its full value.

The Pungs’ lawsuit doesn’t focus on whether the tax was actually owed. Instead, the case addresses what the county must do after it takes someone’s entire house over a paltry 2,000 bucks. The home itself was worth about $200,000 — 100 times the amount of the tax debt. But the county hawked the property at a fire-sale auction for just $76,000, deducted the $2,000 debt, and returned the excess $74,000 to the Pungs. That means that about $118,000 of the Pungs’ equity was just wiped out.

Well — not quite. The auction purchaser quickly flipped the property for the $195,000 it was actually worth. For those keeping score: The government gets its $2,000, some private investor gets windfall profits, and the Pungs get shafted.

At oral argument, several justices expressed incredulity about the fairness of taking an entire home over such a trivial debt. But this is not the first time Michigan counties have taken the whole farm over small potatoes.

JACKSON-KAVANAUGH TENSIONS SURFACE IN CANDID EXCHANGE OVER SUPREME COURT ‘SHADOW DOCKET’

For example, Wayne County took a home owned by Erica Perez after she accidentally underpaid her 2014 property taxes by $144. Other than that one minor oversight, the Perez family had paid their taxes in full every year from when they purchased the property in 2013 until the county foreclosed on it in 2017. They even tried to pay their 2018 taxes, only to be told they no longer owned the home. They hadn’t realized that, because the government sent notice to the wrong address. The county then sold the property for $110,000 and kept every penny. The Perezes were left with nothing.

Oakland County took Uri Rafaeli’s rental property after a slight miscalculation resulted in his underpayment of $8.41. That is not a misprint: his home was seized over a debt of eight dollars and 41 cents. That’s less than the price of a Chipotle burrito.

When Rafaeli’s case reached the Michigan Supreme Court in 2019, Justice Richard Bernstein could hardly believe his ears: “You have a situation where people owed eight dollars, and they lost their house. How is that equitable?”

MICHIGAN FAMILY SAYS COUNTY SEIZED HOME OVER TAX BILL THEY DIDN’T OWE — CASE NOW HEADS TO THE SUPREME COURT

In another case, Sixth Circuit Judge Raymond Kethledge put an even finer point on it: “In some legal precincts, that sort of behavior is called theft.”

Rafaeli’s case was a landmark in Michigan. The state Supreme Court ruled, as a matter of state law, that the government’s confiscation of surplus equity after a tax sale violates the Takings Clause of the Michigan Constitution. Like its federal counterpart, that provision guarantees that the government cannot take property without paying just compensation.

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It would take nearly four more years before federal law would catch up. In the 2023 decision in Tyler v. Hennepin County, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that, as in Michigan, so it is everywhere: when the government takes more property than it is owed, it has to pay back the surplus — just like in every other debt collection context (imagine if the bank repossessed your car over eight bucks). 

But in Tyler, the court did not consider what exactly must be paid back. The Constitution requires “just compensation,” which usually means the fair market value of the property at the time it was taken. But some courts have measured the value of the property by whatever the government manages to get from selling it, even if the sale price is far below the property’s actual value. That’s the question at issue in the Pung case.

Oakland County took Uri Rafaeli’s rental property after a slight miscalculation resulted in his underpayment of $8.41. 

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The government has a legitimate interest in levying taxes. And when taxes go unpaid, it has several tools available to collect. But there is simply no reason why property owners should lose the equity in their homes over a small, simple mistake. As the Supreme Court said in Tyler, taxpayers must render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s — but no more.

The Constitution is ill-served by any rule that lets the government off the hook for reimbursing the full value of the property they’ve taken. And any regime that permits windfall profits to governments or investors creates a perverse incentive for tax collectors to maximize their bounty at the expense of homeowners. Again and again, local governments have proven that if you give them an inch, they’ll take your home.

DAVID MARCUS: Craven politics is the only excuse left for Dems refusing to fund DHS

When it comes to striking a deal to pay the people who keep us safe, congressional Democrats just won’t take yes for an answer.

Just a month ago, they were demanding that ICE pull out of Minnesota and that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem be fired before they could vote to fund the agency. Now, with Noem gone and ICE pulling back from Minneapolis, Democrats would seem to have gotten what they wanted. So why are Senate Minority Chuck Schumer and his House counterpart Hakeem Jeffries continuing to punish their constituents through this lingering partial government shutdown?

In particular, how can refusing to pay the people who keep our airports safe be justified when we are at war with Iran, the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world?

Sadly, though not surprisingly, the answer is pure politics.

DHS SHUTDOWN MAY DELAY US TERROR RESPONSE AMID IRAN CONFLICT, EXPERT WARNS

Make no mistake, the removal of Noem was a serious concession from President Donald Trump. This is, after all, the woman who spearheaded the almost total shutdown of the southern border, arguably, the president’s top achievement.

As to the aggressive ICE tactics used in Minneapolis, while they were generally unpopular, a strong number of voters in the MAGA base didn’t think they went far enough. So yes, Noem’s scalp was, in some ways, a peace offering.

You would think that Democratic leadership would be doing a choreographed end zone dance on the National Mall over this victory, but instead, they are still telling TSA agents, “Sorry, you can’t get paid yet, we like how things are trending.”

TWO SHOOTINGS INTENSIFY DHS STANDOFF AS GOP WARNS OF RISING TERROR THREATS

The only relatively serious demand that Democrats have left, and I’m stretching the term to its limit here, is to have agents unmasked. This can’t happen, because of documented incidents of doxxing, but offers have been made to use ID numbers.

In short, the only real obstacle that the Democrats can point to on the way to restoring funding is themselves.

As to why the Democrats are so intransigent in the face of growing calls to open up the government and more security lines at our airports, I regret to inform you that the answer is nothing but craven politics.

STEVE SCALISE RIPS DEMOCRATS FOR ‘PLAYING POLITICAL GAMES’ WITH DHS SHUTDOWN AMID IRAN THREAT

A year ago, Schumer made clear that his goal was to get Trump’s approval under 42% by the midterms. It’s almost there, and the reason why remains the shutdown of last year, which was a major success for Democrats.

On Oct. 1, when the shutdown started Trump’s approval was at 46%. By the end of the shutdown, it was down to 43%, and he had gone from a net of -6 to -12. With a few chutes and ladders along the way, that number has never recovered.

Meanwhile, Democrats netted governorships in New Jersey and Virginia, while installing a communist as mayor of New York City. So yes, Democrats and the far Left won the last shutdown, decisively.

TSA WORKERS BRACE FOR MISSED PAYCHECKS AS DEMOCRATS HOLD FIRM ON DHS FUNDING

The difference today, obviously, is that we are now at war, and have, in just the past week, seen no fewer than four suspected radical Muslim terror attacks in our nation, at least since the last time I checked.

Let’s go back to some basics for a moment. The agency whose funding is being held up here is quite literally called the “Department of Homeland Security.” It’s right there in the name. Not paying them is like playing in the Super Bowl and not funding your offensive line.

It seems pretty clear that congressional Democrats don’t care if a few Americans wind up dying in preventable terror attacks. After all, they know that most of the media will just blame Trump anyway.

COAST GUARD CAUGHT AS ‘COLLATERAL DAMAGE’ IN DEMOCRATS’ DHS SHUTDOWN AS CHINA, RUSSIA PRESS US WATERS

Democrats’ obstinance here should also be considered in regard to the other great debate in Congress, whether to break the Senate filibuster to pass the Save America Act, as Trump is demanding.

If Democrats won’t take the win on DHS, if they are willing to punish TSA agents and put the nation at risk to score political points there, then how can they be trusted partners in a filibuster process?

The filibuster assumes, and only works if, senators are acting in good faith. But Schumer and his radicals are not doing that. They are using it like sand thrown in the gears of government to sabotage any and all progress.

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For Trump’s part, what the White House needs to continue to point out is that Democrats got what they wanted and are still willing to harm the country in the hopes of a demoralized American electorate handing them power in November.

What Democrats are doing is despicable, dishonest and dishonorable. What’s even worse is that it just might be working.

LABOR SEC CHAVEZ-DEREMER: Our plan to rescind the Biden independent contractor rule

Since President Donald Trump took back the White House just over a year ago, the Department of Labor has followed his leadership with a singular vision: Put American workers first in everything we do. 

As a small business owner who has traveled the country on my 50-state listening tour, I can say confidently that our nation’s labor force is the envy of the world, and workers are thriving under the return of America First leadership. In this fast-changing global landscape, the Trump administration is committed to ensuring our workers have the tools and opportunities they need to compete and earn a good, honest living without unnecessary government intrusion.

In that spirit, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division released a proposed rule that provides clarity to help workers and employers alike determine when a worker is properly classified as an independent contractor and when that worker is an employee owed rigorous protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). In proposing this rule, we celebrate the decisions of Americans who choose to test their entrepreneurial spirit — the same spirit on which our country was founded 250 years ago.

I HAD TO LEAVE CALIFORNIA TO SAVE MY BUSINESS. NOW THERE’S HOPE

The way Americans work is rapidly changing, and several states are responding by restricting opportunities for workers to choose independent work in the name of reducing worker misclassification. Eliminating worker misclassification is necessary to ensure workers receive what they are owed. But doing so in a way that severely restricts Americans’ freedom to work as they choose stifles ambition, betrays our foundational values as a nation and harms our economy.

The way Americans work is rapidly changing, and several states are responding by restricting opportunities for workers to choose independent work in the name of reducing worker misclassification. 

Under President Trump’s leadership, the Department of Labor is taking a better approach. By providing American workers and employers with clear guidance within the confines of longstanding legal precedent, my department balances the need to give independent workers and entrepreneurs the flexibility they want with our mandate to preserve the robust legal protections owed to true FLSA employees.

To that end, our proposed rule would rescind the Biden administration’s 2024 independent contractor rule, which made it harder to work as an independent contractor and led to more confusion than clarity. If left in place, the Biden rule would continue to produce unpredictable results that harm workers and employers alike.

To provide much-needed clarity and help employers comply with the FLSA, our proposed rule would:

1. Use the longstanding “economic reality” test adopted by federal courts to determine a worker’s proper classification.
2. Identify two “core” factors most useful in determining a worker’s classification: the nature and degree of control the worker has over the work and the worker’s opportunity for profit or loss.
3. Advise that three additional factors — skill, permanence, and whether the work is part of an integrated unit of production — have value in this analysis but are typically less useful in determining classification.
4. Clarify that the actual practice of a work arrangement — the on-the-ground reality between worker and employer — is more relevant than what is contractually or theoretically possible.
5. Provide eight concrete examples of how the factors would apply in real-world circumstances.

No matter the complexity or scope of the work arrangement — whether it involves a rideshare driver, an independent trucker or a freelance writer — the proposed rule will make it easier to define work roles with greater predictability. 

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By grounding this classification structure in longstanding legal principles and offering illustrative examples of real-world applications, the proposed rule will deliver tangible benefits for independent workers and employees alike. 

These changes will also empower employers by reducing the risk of FLSA misclassification violations, which hurt workers and employers who are playing by the rules.

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I encourage all interested parties to submit public comments to the department during the 60-day comment period, which is set to end April 28. 

With your help, and under President Trump’s leadership, the Department of Labor will continue to fight for American workers every day to ensure their rights and needs come first.

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VICTORY GARDEN: Cut grocery bills and healthcare costs with one simple backyard habit

Walk through any grocery store in America right now, and you’ll see the same thing in every aisle. People staring at prices like they’re reading a foreign language.

A box of cereal at $8. A bag of chips for $6. Eggs and ground beef feel like luxuries. A simple couple of bags of groceries easily top $150. Washington politicians argue about inflation, supply chains and corporate profits. But there’s one obvious solution nobody seems to talk about anymore.

What if Americans had a mandate to grow their own food again?

BROOKE ROLLINS: YOUR THANKSGIVING DINNER COSTS LESS AND THAT’S A REASON TO GIVE THANKS

That’s not a radical idea. It’s actually how this country operated for most of its history.

Today, many middle and high school students graduate without knowing the most basic food skills, including how to plant a tomato, grow lettuce, compost soil or understand how long it actually takes food to grow.

We teach calculus, Shakespeare and trigonometry. All valuable subjects, but they won’t lower grocery prices. But somehow we’ve decided that food literacy and survival — meaning the ability to grow and understand food is simply neglected.

In an era of rising grocery prices that won’t go backwards no matter who is in the White House, that’s a huge mistake for America.

A single tomato plant can produce 20 to 30 pounds of tomatoes in one season. Don’t like tomatoes? Too bad. A modest backyard garden can generate hundreds of dollars of vegetables each year, including tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, lettuce, herbs and squash. There are systems today that can be used in apartments and townhomes that don’t have land to grow lettuce, herbs and more.

Multiply that across millions of American households, and you suddenly start reducing pressure on the grocery system itself. But the real benefit goes far beyond cheaper tomatoes.

Teaching kids how to grow food teaches them something our current education system struggles to deliver by explaining real-world economics. When a student plants seeds, tends soil, waters plants and waits weeks for the harvest, they learn lessons that no textbook can replicate.

SEC BROOKE ROLLINS: TRUMP BRINGS WHOLE MILK BACK TO SCHOOLS, UNDOING OBAMA’S WAR ON REAL FOOD

They learn to live off the land.

They learn effort equals reward.

They learn that food has value because it takes time and work to produce.

They also learn something else that’s increasingly rare in modern America. It’s where food actually comes from.

Ask a group of kids where carrots come from, and you’ll hear answers like “Publix” or “the grocery store.”

That disconnect from agriculture would have baffled earlier generations of Americans.

RICK PERRY: WHERE’S THE BEEF? TRUMP KNOWS AND HE’S TRYING TO MAKE IT AFFORDABLE

During World War II, Americans created what were known as Victory Gardens. More than 20 million households planted gardens in backyards, empty lots and community spaces. At one point, those gardens produced roughly 40% of the vegetables consumed in the United States. Let that sink in for a moment.

Nearly half of the country’s vegetables came from everyday citizens growing food themselves.

It wasn’t just patriotic. It was practical.

Today, we’re far more dependent on complex supply chains that stretch across continents. Fertilizer prices, transportation costs, labor shortages and global conflicts all ripple through the grocery store.

But a tomato plant in your backyard doesn’t care about global shipping routes.

That’s why every middle and high school in America should include a simple but powerful program: food literacy and school gardens.

It doesn’t require acres of farmland. Many schools already have unused green space. Raised beds, small gardens and seasonal planting programs could teach students:

• How soil works • How seeds grow • Seasonal food cycles • Composting and sustainability • Water conservation • Basic food preservation

The harvest could even go back into school cafeterias or local food banks.

AMERICA’S SMALLEST CATTLE HERD IN 70 YEARS MEANS REBUILDING WILL TAKE YEARS AND BEEF PRICES COULD STAY HIGH

And here’s where the idea becomes even more powerful.

Americans wouldn’t just save money. They would become healthier instead of getting addicted to processed foods.

Fresh vegetables grown in gardens are often more nutrient-rich than produce that travels thousands of miles through a national distribution chain. When families have easy access to fresh tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers and herbs, they naturally eat more whole foods and fewer ultra-processed ones.

And that matters because America’s healthcare crisis is increasingly tied to diet.

According to the CDC, roughly 6 in 10 Americans live with at least one chronic disease such as heart disease, diabetes or obesity. Many of these conditions are heavily influenced by diet and lifestyle.

Healthcare costs tied to chronic disease now run into trillions of dollars annually.

Think about this connective tissue. If more Americans eat fresh food and fewer processed foods, long-term medical costs fall.

Gardening also encourages something else the country desperately needs, which is physical activity. Digging soil, planting beds, watering plants and maintaining a garden gets people outside and moving instead of sitting indoors. Heck, I made a ton as a kid raking leaves and now all people want to do is blow them.

In other words, growing food improves both sides of the family budget:

PRESIDENT TRUMP IS TAKING IMPORTANT, STRATEGIC STEPS TO PROTECT AMERICAN CONSUMERS

Lower grocery bills. Lower medical bills. That’s a powerful one-two punch solution for American households. The biggest benefit might be something less measurable.

It restores a sense of independence.

Americans are used to solving problems with bigger government programs, more subsidies or more regulations. Sometimes the solution is simpler.

Give people knowledge and tools.

A generation that knows how to grow food is a generation that is less vulnerable to price shocks, supply disruptions and inflation. You may not be able to grow everything you eat. But even producing a portion of your food creates resilience.

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And maybe, just maybe it teaches the next generation something deeper about self-reliance, responsibility and the value of hard work.

Because the cheapest vegetables you’ll ever buy…are the ones you grow yourself.

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I served with my dog Dasty in Afghanistan. Dogs are man’s best friend on the battlefield

America is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year, a milestone made possible by the service members who have answered the call of duty since 1776. But the story of our country — and how we got here — is incomplete without including the contributions of the four-legged heroes who have served alongside our brave men and women in uniform. 

These dogs deserve an extra treat and belly rub this Canine Veterans Day (March 13) — especially my Dutch Shepherd, Dasty.

Courageous canines have fought alongside U.S. troops since the Revolutionary War, helping guard munitions stockpiles and serving as battlefield messengers. Fast-forward more than 150 years, and the K-9 Corps was officially formed during World War II, with roughly 1,600 working dogs now serving in our armed forces.

Whether as bomb sniffers, trackers or assault support units, the American soldier has no better ally than man’s best friend. My four-legged sidekick is part of this patriotic legacy.

VANCE FIRES UP MARINES ON MILITARY BRANCH’S 250TH BIRTHDAY: ‘KICK THE ENEMY’S A– AND COME HOME SAFE’

Our story began in 2018 when I was paired with Dasty — 3 years old at the time — at Fort Huachuca out west. Although we initially worked alongside the base police department, we were soon sent to Missouri for explosive detection training, a 60-day course that taught us to work as a team to uncover deadly weapons. From there, we deployed to Afghanistan. 

Dasty and I shared a modest tent at Forward Operating Base Dahlke in the Logar Province, where twin-sized mattresses awaited both of us. My canine partner provided a huge morale boost on base and, as you can imagine, was quite popular among the service members. Other soldiers frequented our tent just to spend time with Dasty — petting sessions that I can assure you he enjoyed just as much as they did. 

Beyond bringing comfort to soldiers far from home, Dasty also saved lives. He located enemy IEDs and weapons, which too often prove deadly to American service members, and performed admirably in combat situations. While under enemy contact, Dasty stayed calm and focused.

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After the deployment ended, we returned to the states and were stationed at a military base in Northern Virginia, where Dasty’s important work continued. We participated in multiple Secret Service missions for both Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump, and we also helped train other military canine teams. It was gratifying to see others form such strong bonds with their dogs — a type of relationship that I had come to treasure in my own life.

Finally, in 2022, I said goodbye to the Army to pursue a new career in Wisconsin and spend more time with my family. While I was looking forward to the next phase of my life, the change meant I had to part ways with Dasty, who would remain in the military — a heartbreaking separation that I hoped would not last forever. Thankfully, we had one final chapter.

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When it was time for Dasty to retire two years later, I contacted the American Humane Society — which my wife had heard about — to see if they could help reunite us. The organization stepped up in a big way by flying Dasty from Arlington, Va., to my home in Green Bay, Wisc., and pledging to cover any future veterinary bills. The financial support proved invaluable just a few months ago when the nonprofit paid for a spinal surgery that restored Dasty’s ability to walk. 

U.S. military dogs are paws-on-the-ground all around the world — helping safeguard American lives and advance strategic national security interests as we mark 250 years of independence. Dasty is one of these loyal and patriotic heroes who deserves recognition. Now, finally off duty, he can fetch some well-earned rest — and a chew toy. 

Trump’s Operation Epic Fury proves Reagan-style peace through strength is back

In just a few days, Operation Epic Fury has eliminated Iran’s leadership, degraded its capacity to terrorize the West, and — for the moment — united the Middle East and most of the world around a vital American interest.

It’s still early, of course. But so far, President Donald Trump has achieved a strategic masterstroke. He has done so by reviving America’s oldest, simplest and best national security policy: peace through strength.

Yet Washington Democrats are blasting the president for ordering the attacks at all. They still cling, bitterly, to President Barack Obama’s delusion of pacifying the ayatollahs through diplomacy and appeasement, not only lifting sanctions but literally delivering pallets of cash to one of America’s most dangerous enemies. On the other side of the aisle, some principled MAGA conservatives are understandably wary of another forever war in the Middle East.

TRUMP’S STRIKE ON IRAN DEALS A MAJOR BLOW TO PUTIN’S WAR MACHINE IN UKRAINE

But both critiques misapprehend this mission, this commander in chief, and his national security strategy.

First, the president’s Go order Friday morning was not a rejection of diplomacy. It was an acknowledgment that diplomacy with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was impossible. Eight American presidents have tried to deal with Iran since the 1979 revolution. After 47 years of theft, murder and terror, even Donald Trump was forced to acknowledge there was no deal there for America to make.

Diplomacy that isn’t ultimately backstopped by force isn’t diplomacy. It’s weakness — the kind that invites rather than prevents wars.

Once Trump decided to act, he ensured our troops would work hand-in-glove with the region’s most lethal military and best intelligence, courtesy of our friends in Israel.

MICHAEL OREN: IRAN HAS WAGED WAR ON AMERICA FOR 47 YEARS — TIME TO END IT

Second, Donald Trump is neither a Messianic crusader nor a naive nation-builder. He has been president for five years, and the closest thing to a “forever war” he has ever started was his boycott of the White House Correspondents Dinner – and even that is coming to an end. Trump has been a peaceable president and, indeed, a peacemaker. His military interventions have been uniformly swift, decisive and effective.

Peace through strength is most associated with Ronald Reagan’s approach during the Cold War. But its principles can be seen in the foreign policies — however diverse in application — of Richard Nixon, Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt, and the Founding generation.

George Washington said, “To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.” So is applying overwhelming force to quickly resolve discrete, urgent national threats diplomacy cannot. Trump has hewn closer to both rules than any president in a generation.

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As the Heritage Foundation documents in our new 2026 Index of Military Strength, President Trump has built his administration, our armed forces, and his global strategy around the defense of America’s vital interests. Remnants of his predecessors’ globalism and politicization still rattle around the federal budget and nat-sec bureaucracy. But Trump is reforming our military more rapidly and comprehensively than most experts give him credit for.

It’s not luck.

Trump’s pragmatic peace-through-strength approach protects himself, our troops, and our nation from potential quagmires. Even as spirits are running high this week, Trump speaks humbly about the narrow, modest goals of the Iran war: decapitate and defang the regime and then hand the country over to the Iranian people.

GREGG JARRETT: DEMOCRAT WAR POWERS VOTE WAS AN UNCONSTITUTIONAL WAY TO HALT IRAN STRIKES

No chest-thumping about a New World Order. No cringy, “Islam means peace” pandering. No “cakewalk” hubris. Just a straightforward settling of accounts with the beating heart of global terrorism and the oil-rich co-conspirator in Russian and Chinese mischief.

In a just world, Epic Fury would put an end to the GOP Establishment’s habit of smearing the America First Right as “isolationist.” Conservative critics of Bush-era adventurism were never any such thing. That is why most of us are cheering Trump’s leadership in Iran today.

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A targeted, overwhelming military response to decades of violent aggression and years of diplomatic stonewalling is what peace through strength looks like. So do President Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s reforms of the Pentagon budget. So do Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s frank, but friendly speeches, at the last two Munich Security Conferences.

Operation Epic Fury, like President Trump’s prior interventions in Iran and Venezuela, do not contradict his peace-brokering in Russia, Ukraine and elsewhere. They are all applications of peace through strength, the only American foreign policy that has ever really worked.

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