News From Around the Web
#1 Inside the Secretive Mine DOGE Helped Drag Out of a Decades-Old Bureaucratic Black Hole - Ashley J. DiMella for Fox News, Spike Brehm/U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Scott Kupor, DogeDesigner, and yatshitcray/U.S. Office of Personnel Management on X
Deep inside a limestone mine more than 230 feet underground, the Trump administration marked what it called the "Last Day of Paper" for federal retirements Tuesday, giving Fox News Digital rare access to the long-secretive Pennsylvania facility where millions of government records helped keep the retirement process trapped in an analog system for decades. "It was unlike anything I'd ever seen before, which I think is the reaction that I generally hear from lots of people… I believe that many [government employees] have just been constrained by a system that does not allow innovation and does not allow some element of risk-taking," U.S. Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor told Fox News Digital in a sit-down interview...
#2 Justice Barrett Faces Conservative Ire, Sexist Attacks After Birthright Citizenship Ruling - Sarah Fortinsky and Sophie Brams for The Hill, Peter Bernegger/Grinningboy, Eric Metaxes/Monica N./Johnny St.Pete, GRANDPA's FREE ADVICE, KAMR Local 4 News, and Bill Eby/Eric Daugherty on X
Justice Amy Coney Barrett is facing fierce backlash from conservative lawmakers and pundits after voting to uphold birthright citizenship, serving a severe blow to a core pillar of President Trump’s immigration agenda. Barrett joined Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and the court’s three liberal justices in striking down Trump’s Day 1 executive order restricting birthright citizenship — but she’s taken the brunt of the conservative outrage in the ruling’s aftermath...
#3 Trump HHS Overhaul Prioritizes Religious Liberty - Nicole Weatherholtz for NEWSMAX, NEWSMAX Health, BlueX, NewsTongue, and M.A. Rothman on X
The Trump administration is making religious liberty a cornerstone of federal health policy, reorganizing the Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights to prioritize conscience protections and the free exercise of religion. The move, announced on Sunday, comes as the Justice Department released a report last Friday emphasizing religious liberty in disputes involving abortion, vaccine mandates, and gender-related medical treatments — issues that have become major flashpoints during President Donald Trump's second term...
#4 Pulte to Be Acting DNI for ‘A Month or Two’ and Can ‘Declassify Almost Everything,’ Trump Says - Gregory Svirnovskiy for POLITICO, The SCIF, Jack Posobiec/John Solomon, Eric Daugherty, and The Justice Cometh on X
President Donald Trump said acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte would be in his role for “a month or two months or something” and is empowered to “declassify almost everything,” he told reporters on Wednesday. In the meantime, Jay Clayton, the president’s nominee for the full-time DNI post, will have his confirmation hearing in two weeks, Trump said. “Bill is there just for a fairly short period of time,” he told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. “But while he’s there, I said you can declassify whatever you want.”
#5 Mamdani Roasted for Telling New Yorkers to Set Their Acs to 78 Degrees as Blistering Heat Wave Bakes Big Apple - Daniel Cody for New York Post, Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani, Ron Desantis, Spencer Pratt, End Wokeness, and Eric Daugherty on X
Mayor Zohran Mamdani was roasted online for urging New Yorkers to set their air conditioners to a balmy 78 degrees as a punishing heat wave wallops the Big Apple — threatening to send temps soaring to 100 degrees for the first time since 2012. “New York: it’s hot out there, and the power grid is working overtime to keep us cool,” Hizzoner wrote in a post on X. “Set your AC to 78 degrees, turn off lights/electronics you’re not using, and unplug what you can.” Many balked at the temperature recommendation...
#6 Registered Republican Voters Surpasses Democratic Voters for the First Time in the State’s Modern History - Joe Gallinaro for Louisiana Radio Network, ThePersistence, Republicans, Jeff Landry, Michael Pruser, and The Republican Party of Louisiana on X
For the first time in the state’s modern history, there are more registered Republican voters than Democratic voters. That’s based on a report the Secretary of State’s office puts out at the beginning of every month. John Couvillon of JMC Analytics and Polling says Democrats were once the dominant party in Louisiana, but over time, they’ve been steadily losing party registrants. “Little by little, Republicans have become more and more dominant in Louisiana, and to me, voter registration was the last domino to fall,” Couvillon said...
#7 The Most Expensive Library in Texas Is Overrun With the Homeless - Frontlines TPUSA on YouTube, Savannah Hernandez, Media Lies, Gail Afar, cost_of_bummership, and AustinPlebeian/Kevin Dahlgren on X
Austin’s Central Public Library, which cost $125 million to build, is now completely overrun with the homeless. This library, which has been featured in TIME magazine, was supposed to be a welcoming space for children and Austin residents. Instead, it has become so unsafe that police officers are permanently stationed there due to the level of violence, harassment, and threats that patrons face. In 2021, the Austin City Council passed an open camping ordinance. Even though Austin residents later voted to reverse it. This is the result of Austin’s soft-on-crime policies and library staff refusing to enforce their own rules. Just a few months ago, a 62-year-old man was punched in the head and left with life-altering brain injuries after being attacked by a homeless man inside the library. Last year, another patron was shot in the 6th-floor bathroom by a homeless man who had been allowed into the building...#8 OpenAI in Talks to Give Trump Administration a 5% Stake in the Company, Ft Reports - Hanna Ziady for CNN, The Kobeissi Letter, zerohedge, Theo - t3.gg/Andrew Curran, Serenity, and DogeDesigner on X
OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, is reportedly discussing handing the Trump administration a 5% stake in the company amid growing government scrutiny of artificial intelligence firms. The proposal would involve other US AI companies giving the government similar stakes, the Financial Times reported Thursday, citing two people familiar with what were described as “early conversations.” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has argued that the arrangement would allow the public to share in the financial upside of AI, the FT reported. OpenAI and the White House did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment...
#9 The Private Equity Takeover of America’s Emergency Rooms - Tracy Beanz and Michelle Edwards for The HighWire, UncoverDC, The Realistic Nurse, Melanie D'Arrigo/Aaron Rupar, and Eric Ries on X
As of 2022, one in four emergency departments in the United States was staffed by a private equity-owned physician group. That figure is likely higher today, given the rapid pace of acquisitions since then. Here is an example. When ER physicians arrived for work at Valley Health in Winchester, VA, on April 2nd, they had no idea their careers were about to be disrupted. By the time the morning ended, the leadership of Emergency Medicine of Blue Ridge (EMBR) had been summoned into an emergency meeting and handed a termination notice. Valley Health explained that it was replacing the 45-physician independent group, with a 25-year history serving six hospitals across Virginia and West Virginia, with a company called SCP Health, an Atlanta-based practice management company owned by Canadian private equity firm Onex. An hour later, the physicians themselves learned of their demise on a hospital-wide Zoom call...#10 Ingoglia Joins James Uthmeier, Jim Boyd, and Sam Garrison Behind the Donald Trump-Backed Front-Runner - Florida Politics, Byron Donalds, Frank from Florida, Javon Price/Florida Voice/Nancy D, Sam -GSD- Fisher, and 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙂𝙤𝙡𝙙𝙚𝙣 𝘼𝙜𝙚 𝙏𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙨 on X
Byron Donalds keeps adding to an endorsement roll that already reads like a who ’s-who of Florida’s Republican establishment. Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia is backing Donalds for Governor, adding a sitting statewide officeholder’s stamp to a campaign that has spent months rolling up the Republican establishment behind the Trump-endorsed front-runner. “Byron Donalds has a rock-solid conservative record in the Florida House and Congress, and his time in the private sector makes him well-qualified to tackle issues like affordability and the insurance market in Florida,” Ingoglia said...
