Poll reveals how Californians feel about potential Kamala Harris governor run
California policy influencers are “indifferent” about former Vice President Kamala Harris running for governor in the state, a survey conducted by Politico and UC Berkeley’s Citrin Center found.
The poll surveyed California registered voters and a selected group of policy insiders, who included lawmakers, as well as state and federal government staffers. California’s registered voters were more enthusiastic about Harris than the policy insiders, with 33% reportedly feeling “joyful” about the possibility.
Thirty-six percent of the policy influencers said they felt “indifferent” about Harris running for governor. Just 4% said they would be outraged, 22% said they were “mostly excited” and 20% said they were irritated by the potential gubernatorial bid.
Harris has not officially declared her candidacy in her home state, but has vowed to remain active in politics since losing to President Donald Trump in the 2024 election. She is also weighing a bid for the presidency in 2028.
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The former vice president received a low level of enthusiasm among independent voters in California, with 21% saying they felt “hopeless” about Harris potentially running, and 26% saying they felt “irritated” by the possibility.
Voters of color gave a mixed reaction to the possibility of Harris running. While 35% of Black voters felt “joyful” and 38% said they were “mostly excited,” other voters of color weren’t as enthusiastic.
Nineteen percent of Latino voters said they felt “hopeless” about the former vice president running in California. Eighteen percent of Asian voters said in the survey that they felt “irritated” by Harris possibly launching a bid.
“It’s almost a surprising lack of enthusiasm,” Jack Citrin, a political science professor at UC Berkeley, told Politico, referring to Latino voters. “But we know from the general election that Latino voters shifted as compared to 2020 or 2016 towards Trump.”
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Harris became the 2024 Democratic nominee for president a month after former President Joe Biden decided to exit the race in the weeks that followed his disastrous debate performance against Trump.
The former vice president cheered the resistance to Trump in a post on social media this month, saying, “Americans are standing up to the administration as they implement Project 2025 at full speed.”
Harris also posted a clip on April 7 of a speech she delivered, during which she said, “I’ll see you out there. I’m not going anywhere.”
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The former vice president has limited her public appearances since losing to Trump, unlike her 2024 running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, who has made several public appearances and given multiple interviews since the election.
Governor signs $2,800,000,000 bailout for program overrun by illegal immigrants
Liberal Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a $2.8 billion bailout Monday to close the state’s bloated deficit in California’s Medicaid program, which surpassed projections due to the program’s expansion last year to include illegal immigrants.
The move, confirmed by Newsom’s office to Fox News Digital Monday afternoon, comes after the Democratic governor asked lawmakers last month for a $3.4 billion loan from the state’s general fund to cover some $6.2 billion in outstanding costs for Medi-Cal, one of the state’s primary healthcare programs that takes both federal and state taxpayer dollars. The additional funds will help keep the program running through June for some 15 million Californians, including noncitizens.
But Republicans have been critical of the loan, arguing the current Medicaid program isn’t sustainable with illegal immigrants included in the coverage.
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“Meanwhile, healthcare access is plummeting. Wait times are growing. Democrats have made their choice: legal residents come second,” California Republican state Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones wrote on X. “We must stop new enrollments of illegal immigrants and rein in this unsustainable program before it collapses entirely.”
According to state data, roughly 1.6 million illegal immigrants are currently enrolled in Medi-Cal, part of the program’s total 15 million enrollees. The state had initially projected the expansion would cost just under $6 billion for fiscal year 2024–2025. But just one year in, the costs have surged far past that estimate.
Newsom’s latest budget proposal now puts the cost of covering illegal immigrants at $8.4 billion for 2024–2025, and $7.4 billion the following year.
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Meanwhile, state House Republicans are pushing back. A new GOP proposal aims to cut $880 billion, primarily from Medicaid, over the next decade to rein in what they say is reckless government spending.
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Fox News Digital has reached out to Newsom’s office for comment.
Americans forced to obtain new required documentation are left stranded after hitting roadblock
With the deadline for Real IDs fast approaching, many Americans are struggling to book appointments to obtain the new documentation — especially in the state of New Jersey.
Beginning May 7, air travelers at domestic airports and people entering some federal buildings must have what’s known as a Real ID.
On Monday in the Garden State, the Department of Motor Vehicles (NJDMV) website showed “0 appointments available” for Real ID services on its site.
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Yet there were 13,243 appointments available for non-driver IDs, 34,155 appointments open for transferring driver’s licenses from out of state, and 51,809 renewal appointments available.
If a driver’s license falls within the renewal period, the person can book a renewal appointment to upgrade to a Real ID — and there are 51,809 appointments available.
Fox News Digital reached out to Gov. Phil Murphy’s office for comment.
“As seen in states across the country, the demand for Real ID now is extraordinarily high ahead of the start of federal enforcement in May,” said the NJDMV’s automated voice service on Monday.
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The department says 3,000 new appointments for Real ID upgrades are added each business day starting at 7 a.m.
“The upcoming enforcement date is most relevant for those New Jerseyans who plan to fly domestically in the short term and do not have a form of identification that will meet federal real ID requirements,” the automated voice also said on Monday.
As of Monday, the NJDMW had issued 1,381,916 REAL ID-compliant licenses and IDs, a spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
“The NJMVC is processing record numbers of in-person transactions, especially Real IDs, and we continue to evaluate our operations and capacity each week, looking to add as many appointments for Real ID as possible,” the spokesperson added.
Valid passports can be used as an alternative to boarding domestic flights and entering federal facilities.
Valid passports can be used as an alternative to boarding domestic flights and entering federal facilities.
The processing time for an expedited passport is two to three weeks with additional fees, according to the State Department’s website.
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For Americans who don’t have a passport and are unable to obtain a DMV appointment in time, select AAA branches offer a Real ID service.
A spokesperson with AAA told Fox News Digital that Real ID services vary across the country and are available in six states – with New Jersey not included in that list.
“Some AAA branch offices that offer DMV services can also issue Real IDs. We recommend calling the AAA branch office in your local area to determine if those services are available,” said the spokesperson.
The spokesperson added, “The process is the same as it is at the DMV. However, there may be greater access to appointments at AAA branch offices. It also varies by location, but in some cases, these services are only available to AAA members.”
Two proofs of residential address, one proof of Social Security number, and six points of ID are required at appointments.
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Some New Jersey residents took to social media to share their frustration about trying to get a Real ID appointment.
“No one in New Jersey can get an appointment for a Real ID,” posted a user on X.
One user said, “Just par for the course for NJ. No Real ID appointments available. GET WITH THE TIMES, NJ.”
Another user posted, “Why is New Jersey not just using the 5,000 appointments they have for license renewals for Real ID applications?”
“In NJ, you can’t even get a Real ID for more than 3 [months], so you need to get a passport if you don’t have an unexpired one,” said an X user.
“Not once have I seen an open appointment.”
“I’ve been sporadically checking the NJ MVC website for Real ID appointments over the last few months and not ONCE have I seen an open appointment, lol,” said another user. So how “am I supposed to get one?”
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“The deadline to get a Real ID is next month and there’s no available appointments in the entire state of NJ, lolol,” posted another user.
Department calls project ‘waste of taxpayer funds’ and cancels it completely to save costs
The U.S. Department of Transportation announced Monday that it will save American taxpayers over $60 million by ending a grant to help fund a high-speed rail project in Texas.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy made the announcement, saying an agreement between the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and Amtrak to terminate the $63.9 million grant had been reached.
The grant was awarded to Amtrak under the Corridor Identification and Development Program for the Amtrak Texas High-Speed Rail Corridor, previously known as the Texas Central Railway project.
“I am pleased to announce that FRA and Amtrak are in agreement that underwriting this project is a waste of taxpayer funds and a distraction from Amtrak’s core mission of improving its existing subpar services,” Duffy said. “If the private sector believes this project is feasible, they should carry the pre-construction work forward, rather than relying on Amtrak and the American taxpayer to bail them out. My department will continue to look for every opportunity to save federal dollars and prioritize efficiencies.”
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The Texas Central Railway project was originally announced as a private venture, but its cost estimates increased dramatically, and the project became dependent on federal dollars and Amtrak for its development.
DOT said the capital cost for the project is believed to be more than $40 billion, adding that the price makes construction unrealistic. The cost also makes the project a risky venture for taxpayers.
Amtrak has struggled with operating deficits, though ridership has recovered since the pandemic.
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The main rail company in the U.S. has also experienced operational challenges, including the loss of its Horizon coach fleet to corrosion and delays in the Northeast Corridor.
FRA has made fixing Amtrak’s issues a top priority.
Amtrak, under the Biden administration, considered massive loans underwritten by the U.S. government, as well as grants, to be able to take on construction activities, DOT said.
Walking away from the Texas project allows Amtrak to focus on much-needed improvements to be more reliable to its riders, according to the DOT.
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“Connecting Dallas and Houston remains one of the more exciting opportunities for new passenger rail in the United States,” FRA Chief Counsel Kyle Fields said. “Today’s announcement reflects a recognition by Amtrak and FRA that federalizing the Texas Central Railway proposal is not the best use of taxpayer funding.”
Amtrak did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the matter.
According to the DOT, the FRA will continue to seek out new rail projects.
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The $60 million saved by terminating the project will be reallocated for other projects that “support safe, efficient, and reliable rail transportation,” the DOT added.
‘Handmaid’s Tale’ showrunners say Americans didn’t listen to their ‘warning’ in the series
Showrunners for “The Handmaid’s Tale” lamented Americans not heeding the dystopian series’ “warning” about authoritarianism with the re-election of President Donald Trump.
Ex-CNN reporter Oliver Darcy spoke with Eric Tuchman and Yahlin Chang for the “Status” newsletter on Sunday to discuss the “striking similarities” between the fictional country Gilead and America under the Trump administration.
Many liberal critics have drawn parallels between the two since the show’s premiere in 2017 during Trump’s first term, and Tuchman told Darcy he was surprised by how relevant the series has remained since then. However, he mourned how women now have “fewer rights” despite the show’s message.
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“No, I don’t think any of us could have predicted how closely the show would maintain its relevance and continue to reflect real events,” Tuchman said. “The series has been called a cautionary tale about what can happen when power is abused and people’s rights and freedoms are stripped away.”
He added, “But that warning was ignored, apparently, by the majority of voters, and Roe v. Wade was overturned. Women in our country have fewer rights now than when we started production in 2016.” The series is based on the 1985 book of the same name by Margaret Atwood.
The showrunners insisted they never intentionally made political statements on the show and any connections only came from them trying to be “authentic” about “life in an oppressive regime.”
“The fact that their struggles on the show can sometimes feel eerily relevant to the real world is the result of us trying to write honestly about power, resistance, and how fragile our democracy and freedom are,” Tuchman said.
As an example, Chang pointed to a scene of the lead character June, played by Elizabeth Moss, being separated from her young daughter and connected it to Trump “separating families along our own border” in 2017, though he said the scene was written before he heard that news.
Chang closed his portion of the interview by commenting about the show’s depiction of how easily democracy can backslide even in America.
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“It is chilling,” Chang said. “It’s also true—democracies backslide and fail all the time. Seventy percent of the world’s population lives in an autocracy. In our show, America as we know it was just this exceptional, temporary, extremely fragile experiment. Living in the world of Gilead imaginatively for this many years, I’m actually shocked that American democracy has lasted for so long.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Hulu for comment.
“The Handmaid’s Tale” premiered its sixth and final season on Hulu on April 8.
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Anti-aging benefits linked to one often overlooked health habit
Engaging in a long-term meditation practice could significantly alleviate stress and slow down aging, suggests a new study published in the journal Biomolecules.
Researchers from Maharishi International University (MIU), the University of Siegen, and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences studied the effectiveness of transcendental meditation, which is a program where people silently repeat a mantra in their head to achieve deep relaxation.
“These results support other studies indicating that the transcendental meditation technique can reverse or remove long-lasting effects of stress,” co-author Kenneth Walton, a senior researcher at MIU, told Fox News Digital.
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“Lasting effects of stress are now recognized as causing or contributing to all diseases and disorders,” he added.
The study included two groups of participants — one ranging from 20 to 30 years old and another ranging from 55 to 72. Half of the participants followed transcendental meditation and a control group did not.
For each participant, the researchers analyzed the expression of genes linked to inflammation and aging, according to a press release from MIU.
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They found that people who practiced transcendental meditation had lower expression of the genes associated with inflammation and aging.
“The lower expression of age-related genes … extend the findings of short-term studies indicating that these practices lead to healthy aging and more resilient adaptation to stress,” Walton said in the release.
“Lasting effects of stress are now recognized as causing or contributing to all diseases and disorders.”
The researchers also analyzed cognitive function via EEG tests. Older practitioners of transcendental meditation were found to have faster processing speeds.
That group also received higher scores on the Brain Integration Scale (BIS), which is a comprehensive measure of cognitive performance.
“The findings around cognitive function are particularly exciting,” said co-author Frederick Travis, PhD, head of faculty at Maharishi International University, in the release.
“Both younger and older TM practitioners showed higher scores on the BIS compared to non-meditators, while the older meditators performed on par with young controls,” he stated.
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The third area of focus was hair cortisol and cortisone, which are steroid hormones that serve as biomarkers for long-term stress exposure and other health conditions.
The amount of active cortisol was higher for those who practiced transcendental meditation, the study found.
“Cortisol plays a critical role in the body’s response to stress, and chronically high cortisol levels are associated with a host of age-related health issues, in addition to cognitive decline,” Walton said.
“The reduced cortisol-to-cortisone ratio in meditators suggests they have more adaptive reserve, more resilience, contributing to overall health and longevity.”
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The main limitation in the years-long, cohort study was the lack of a placebo control group, according to Walton.
“These meditators practiced their techniques twice daily for many years, and the control subjects had no similar activity,” he told Fox News Digital. “Also, most subjects spent their years in the same geographical location (Southeast Iowa in the U.S.).”
‘Weightlifting for the brain’
Biohacker Dave Asprey, author of the upcoming book “Heavily Meditated: The Fast Path to Remove Your Triggers, Dissolve Stress, and Activate Inner Peace,” has spent 25 years studying meditation with shamans and gurus, and researching neuroscience.
He agrees that meditation helps to slow the aging process.
“It reduces stress — and the more stress you have that’s not useful stress, like going to the gym or working hard, that shrinks your brain and makes you old,” Asprey said during an on-camera interview with Fox News Digital. “Meditation has been shown in multiple studies to undo those problems.”
The biohacker also refers to meditation as “weightlifting for the brain.”
“Long-term meditators have brains that can make more electricity than someone who doesn’t meditate — and their brains are more orderly.”
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Meditation could potentially slow and perhaps prevent some types of dementia, according to Asprey.
“There are studies showing that people who meditate are better at excreting toxins,” he added.
Asprey emphasized that meditation starts not in the mind, but in the body.
“There are profound results showing that meditation can do much better than antidepressants.”
For those who are just getting started, he recommends trying a body scan to calm the nervous system.
“For this, you breathe in deeply for four seconds and breathe out for eight seconds,” he said. “Focus on your toes, then your ankles, then your calves, then your knees — and you slowly put all of your awareness in each part of your body.”
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“Learning that meditation is an embodied practice versus a mental practice can shift it for everyone when they’re just getting going.”
Some studies have shown that the right form of meditation or breath work can have effects that exceed pharmaceuticals, according to Asprey.
“There are profound results that meditation can do much better than antidepressants,” he said. “That said, if you’re on a medication and you start meditating, you should tell your doctor and probably not go off the drugs without some support.”
One of the biggest myths is that all meditation is the same or that all meditation is good for everyone, Asprey noted.
“The normal meditation that was designed for farmers isn’t going to work if you’re a warrior — and it’s okay if it doesn’t work. It doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you.”
Trump’s candid answer on if he’d send American criminals to notorious prison outside US
President Donald Trump said in an interview with Fox Noticias, airing Tuesday, that he’s open to sending violent American criminals to El Salvador prisons.
“He’s made it a very safe place,” Trump said of El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, whom he welcomed to the White House on Monday. “People go, and they feel very secure and safe. He’s also built one but also other prisons. Very big ones, and we’re using his system because we’re getting rid of our criminals from out of the United States that were allowed to come in by Biden.”
“We’re getting them out, and the president is helping us with that — President Bukele. So, I was very impressed with him, very, very impressed,” Trump added.
When asked by Fox’s Rachel Campos-Duffy if the prison could be used for “our own violent criminals,” Trump replied that it was possible, saying it could be implemented for what he referred to as “homegrown” offenders.
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“The ones that grew up and something went wrong, and they hit people over the head with a baseball bat, and push people into subways just before the train gets there, like you see happening sometimes,” Trump said. “We are looking into it, and we want to do it. I would love to do that.”
The Trump administration has been coordinating with Bukele on deportation flights, and sending hundreds — including alleged Tren de Aragua gang members — to El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT.
The prison is at the center of a dispute involving deported El Salvadoran national and illegal immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia. While some officials acknowledged in court filings that he was mistakenly deported, top Trump figures like advisor Stephen Miller maintain it was not a mistake. Miller and Attorney General Pam Bondi said Monday that courts had said he was a member of the transnational terrorist group MS-13, although he has not been formally charged with being part of the notorious gang.
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Trump’s 2024 campaign was critical of the Biden administration’s catch-and-release border policies, as well as liberal bail reform laws in many Democratic jurisdictions that forced police to release suspects back onto the streets, often to reoffend.
Trump has praised Bukele for taking custody of “violent alien enemies” of both the U.S. and the world, in an agreement struck between the two countries. Bukele has worked to lower crime rates in El Salvador, which was previously notoriously known as the “murder capital of the world,” although his methods have attracted criticism.
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The full interview with Trump will air Tuesday afternoon on Fox Noticias at 4 p.m. ET.