After four prosecutors and nearly six years, El Paso DA decides it’s time to stop pursuing the death penalty for mass shooter
The new DA campaigned on seeking the death penalty for the 2019 massacre, but said he offered the gunman a plea deal of life in prison to avoid dragging out the case for several more years.
Rep. Lauren Boebert suggests GOP could rename DC ‘District of America’: ‘Keep the jokes at bay’
Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., on Tuesday urged House lawmakers to stop “making fun” of President Donald Trump‘s renaming of the Gulf of America, suggesting Washington, D.C., could face the same fate. Boebert made the remarks during a legislative hearing on the Gulf of America Act to support Trump’s executive order. “I would caution my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to refrain from making fun of the Gulf of America because next up may end up being the District of America that we are working on,” she said during a Water, Fisheries and Wildlife Subcommittee hearing. GOOGLE MAPS UPDATE: GULF OF AMERICA, MOUNT MCKINLEY WILL BE IN AFTER TRUMP ORDERS NAME CHANGES “So just, you know, keep the jokes at bay, and maybe we’ll just stick with the Gulf of America for now,” she added. Fox News Digital has reached out to Boebert’s office. Trump changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico days after taking office. He also reversed the name of Alaska’s Denali mountain back to Mount McKinley. WASHINGTON POST EDITORIAL BOARD LINKS DC MAYOR’S DECISION TO REMOVE BLM ART TO A ‘VICTORY FOR THE CITY’ Trump has often criticized D.C. leaders for their inability to rid the city of violent crime. “We’re cleaning up our city,” Trump said during a speech at the Justice Department earlier this month. “We’re cleaning up this great capital, and we’re not going to have crime. And we’re not going to stand for crime. And we’re going to take the graffiti down. And we’re already taken to tents down there.” Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser ordered the removal of Black Lives Matter Plaza across the street from the White House after being pressured by Republicans. The large yellow letters spelling out “Black Lives Matter” were first painted in the summer of 2020 during Trump’s first term after days of chaotic protests at that location after the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer and Breonna Taylor by Louisville Police officers.
Trump signs executive order requiring proof of citizenship in federal elections: ‘An honor to sign this one’
President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order requiring people to provide proof of American citizenship when they register to vote and demanding that all ballots be reviewed by Election Day. The order requires government-issued proof of U.S. citizenship on its voter registration forms, directs the Attorney General to enter into information-sharing agreements with state election officials to identify cases of election fraud or other election law violations, and conditions federal election-related funds on states complying with the federal election integrity measures. “There are other steps that we will be taking in the coming weeks,” Trump said just before signing the order. “We think we’ll be able to end up getting fair elections.” BLUE STATE’S TOP COURT STRIKES DOWN LAW ALLOWING NONCITIZENS TO VOTE “It’s an honor to sign this one,” he added. “I sign all of them, built to sign this one is a great honor.” The U.S. has failed “to enforce basic and necessary election protections,” the order states. Election experts immediately criticized the move, saying it would disenfranchise millions of voters. “This executive order would block tens of millions of American citizens from voting,” the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University wrote on X. “Presidents have no authority to do this. This order, like the SAVE Act now before Congress, would hurt voters and suppress the vote.” The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, known as the SAVE Act, is a bill being pushed by Republicans that would make sweeping changes to voter registration, including requiring voters to present documents proving U.S. citizenship. PA WOMAN CHARGED WITH TRYING TO REGISTER DEAD PEOPLE, INCLUDING OWN FATHER, TO VOTE Documentary proof of citizenship includes a U.S. passport, a REAL ID, as well as military and state and federal-issued identification indicating American citizenship. “Free, fair, and honest elections unmarred by fraud, errors, or suspicion are fundamental to maintaining our constitutional Republic,” the order states. ” Yet the United States has not adequately enforced Federal election requirements that, for example, prohibit States from counting ballots received after Election Day or prohibit non-citizens from registering to vote.” Under the terms of the order, Trump directed the Election Assistance Commission to change the federal voter registration form to require government-issued documentary proof of citizenship. The order also attempts to bar states from counting mail ballots that election officials receive after Election Day.
Senate confirms Dr Marty Makary as Trump’s FDA chief
President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Johns Hopkins School of Medicine professor Dr. Marty Makary, was confirmed in the Senate on Tuesday. His confirmation was cemented just hours after he cleared one last procedural test vote earlier in the evening. The Senate voted 56-44 to invoke cloture on the nomination prior to his final confirmation. Makary, a former Fox News medical contributor, went before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) earlier this month and answered various questions on vaccines, chronic illness, food safety and abortion. TOP DEM USED SAME APP USED IN ATLANTIC SCANDAL TO SET UP CONTACT WITH STEELE DOSSIER AUTHOR During his hearing, the nominee faced scrutiny over an FDA vaccine meeting that was reportedly postponed at the last minute. “So if you are confirmed, will you commit to immediately reschedule that FDA Vaccine Advisory Committee meeting to get the expert views?” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., asked Makary at the time. He responded that he “would reevaluate which topics deserve a convening of the advisory committee members on [Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee] and which may not require a convening.” When this response wasn’t good enough for Murray, Makary flipped the question, telling her to confront the Biden administration. “Well, you can ask the Biden administration that chose not to convene the committee meeting for the COVID vaccine booster,” he said. ‘STOP THEM!’: DEMOCRAT CLASHES WITH TRUMP SOCIAL SECURITY NOMINEE OVER DOGE ACCESS He was referring to the Biden administration in 2021 pushing through FDA approval for a COVID-19 booster for everyone over the age of 18. “The FDA did not hold a meeting of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee on these actions,” read a press release at the time, “as the agency previously convened the committee for extensive discussions regarding the use of booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines and, after review of both Pfizer’s and Moderna’s EUA requests, the FDA concluded that the requests do not raise questions that would benefit from additional discussion by committee members.” CAN CONGRESS DEFUND FEDERAL COURTS WITH KEY TRUMP BUDGET PROCESS? Committee member Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, criticized the administration’s move, saying, “We’re being asked to approve this as a three-dose vaccine for people 16 years of age and older, without any clear evidence if the third dose for a younger person when compared to an elderly person is of value.” CHUCK SCHUMER FACING ‘UPHILL FIGHT’ AMID LEADERSHIP DOUBTS: ‘MATTER OF WHEN, NOT IF’ Makary has long been a critic of the administration he will now lead. He wrote an opinion piece in 2021, calling for “fresh leadership at the FDA to change the culture at the agency and promote scientific advancement, not hinder it.” “We now have a generational opportunity in American healthcare,” he said at his hearing. “President Trump and Secretary Kennedy’s focus on healthy foods has galvanized a grassroots movement in America. Childhood obesity is not a willpower problem, and the rise of early-onset Alzheimer’s is not a genetic cause. We should be, and we will, be addressing food as it impacts our health.”
Trump FDA pick clears last hurdle after flipping vaccine question on Dem in confirmation hearing
President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Johns Hopkins School of Medicine professor Dr. Marty Makary, cleared a key vote in the Senate on Tuesday, the last such test before his final confirmation vote. The Senate voted 56-44 to invoke cloture on the nomination. A final vote to confirm the FDA nominee is slated for after 8 p.m. Tuesday. Makary, a former Fox News medical contributor, went before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) earlier this month and answered various questions on vaccines, chronic illness, food safety and abortion. TOP DEM USED SAME APP USED IN ATLANTIC SCANDAL TO SET UP CONTACT WITH STEELE DOSSIER AUTHOR During his hearing, the nominee faced scrutiny over an FDA vaccine meeting that was reportedly postponed at the last minute. “So if you are confirmed, will you commit to immediately reschedule that FDA Vaccine Advisory Committee meeting to get the expert views?” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., asked Makary at the time. He responded that he “would reevaluate which topics deserve a convening of the advisory committee members on [Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee] and which may not require a convening.” When this response wasn’t good enough for Murray, Makary flipped the question, telling her to confront the Biden administration. “Well, you can ask the Biden administration that chose not to convene the committee meeting for the COVID vaccine booster,” he said. ‘STOP THEM!’: DEMOCRAT CLASHES WITH TRUMP SOCIAL SECURITY NOMINEE OVER DOGE ACCESS He was referring to the Biden administration in 2021 pushing through FDA approval for a COVID-19 booster for everyone over the age of 18. “The FDA did not hold a meeting of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee on these actions,” read a press release at the time, “as the agency previously convened the committee for extensive discussions regarding the use of booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines and, after review of both Pfizer’s and Moderna’s EUA requests, the FDA concluded that the requests do not raise questions that would benefit from additional discussion by committee members.” CAN CONGRESS DEFUND FEDERAL COURTS WITH KEY TRUMP BUDGET PROCESS? Committee member Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, criticized the administration’s move, saying, “We’re being asked to approve this as a three-dose vaccine for people 16 years of age and older, without any clear evidence if the third dose for a younger person when compared to an elderly person is of value.” CHUCK SCHUMER FACING ‘UPHILL FIGHT’ AMID LEADERSHIP DOUBTS: ‘MATTER OF WHEN, NOT IF’ Makary has long been a critic of the administration he is poised to lead. He wrote an opinion piece in 2021, calling for “fresh leadership at the FDA to change the culture at the agency and promote scientific advancement, not hinder it.” “We now have a generational opportunity in American healthcare,” he said at his hearing. “President Trump and Secretary Kennedy’s focus on healthy foods has galvanized a grassroots movement in America. Childhood obesity is not a willpower problem, and the rise of early-onset Alzheimer’s is not a genetic cause. We should be, and we will, be addressing food as it impacts our health.”
Trump’s pick to lead NIH, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, confirmed by Senate in party-line vote
The full Senate voted Tuesday evening to confirm President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dr. Jay Bhattacharya. The party-line vote followed approval from the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which also voted along party lines to advance Bhattacharya, leading to today’s full Senate vote. A physician, Stanford professor of medicine and senior fellow at the university’s Institute for Economic Policy Research, Bhattacharya was a leading voice during the COVID-19 pandemic against lockdown measures and vaccine mandates. He was one of the co-authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, a document published in October 2020 by a group of scientists advocating against widespread COVID lockdowns and promoting the efficacy of natural immunity for low-risk individuals as opposed to vaccination. TRUMP NIH APPOINTEE DEFENDS PRESIDENT’S RESEARCH FUNDING CUTS, LAYS OUT NEW VISION FOR FUTURE Bhattacharya was probed by the Senate HELP Committee earlier this month over various issues related to his potential role as NIH director. However, for much of the hearing, he was forced to defend the president’s decision to cut certain research funds at NIH, including a 15% cap on indirect research costs, also known as facilities and administrative costs, dispersed by the NIH. Bhattacharya would not explicitly say he disagreed with the cuts, or that, if confirmed, he would step in to stop them. Rather, he said he would “follow the law,” while also investigating the effect of the cuts and ensuring every NIH researcher doing work that advances the health outcomes of Americans has the resources necessary. “I think transparency regarding indirect costs is absolutely worthwhile. It’s something that universities can fix by working together to make sure that where that money goes is made clear,” Bhattacharya said of the indirect costs going to universities, hospitals and research clinics from the NIH. TRUMP RESCINDS BIDEN-ERA POLICY DECLARING DEI AN ‘INTEGRAL’ PART OF SCIENTIFIC PROCESS In addition to addressing questions about the Trump cuts, Bhattacharya also laid out what he called a new, decentralized vision for future research at NIH that he said will be aimed at embracing dissenting ideas and transparency, while focusing on research topics that have the best chance at directly benefiting health outcomes of Americans. Bhattacharya added that he wants to rid the agency’s research portfolio of other “frivolous” efforts that he says do little to directly benefit health outcomes. “I think fundamentally what matters is do scientists have an idea that advances the scientific field they’re in?” Bhattacharya said last week during his confirmation testimony. “Do they have an idea that ends up addressing the health needs of Americans?” Prior to his confirmation, Bhattacharya, alongside several other scientists, including Trump’s pick to head the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Marty Makary, launched a new research journal focused on spurring scientific discourse and combating “gatekeeping” in the medical research community. The journal, the Journal of the Academy of Public Health (JAPH), aims to spur scientific discourse by publishing peer reviews of prominent studies from other journals that do not make their peer reviews publicly available.
Billions more for tax relief and border security under budget approved by Texas Senate
Next step will be action in the state House, where budget writers have different plans for distributing property tax help.
Ratcliffe, the CIA director, defends group chat that inadvertently included a journalist
The former Texas congressman says his communication in the chat was lawful and did not include classified information.
Trump says Waltz doesn’t need to apologize over Signal text chain leak: ‘Doing his best’
President Donald Trump defended National Security Advisor Michael Waltz during an ambassador meeting on Monday, as his administration faces fierce backlash over the recent Signal text chain leak. Waltz, whose staffers had unknowingly added The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to a Signal group chat where Secretary of State Pete Hegseth and others discussed sensitive war plans, has come under fire for the blunder. Speaking to a room full of reporters, Trump said he believes Waltz is “doing his best.” “I don’t think he should apologize,” the president said. “I think he’s doing his best. It’s equipment and technology that’s not perfect.” “And, probably, he won’t be using it again, at least not in the very near future,” he added. TRUMP NOMINATES SUSAN MONAREZ TO BECOME THE NEXT CDC DIRECTOR, SAYS AMERICANS ‘LOST CONFIDENCE’ IN AGENCY Goldberg was added to the national security discussion, called “Houthi PC Small Group”, earlier in March. He was able to learn about attacks against Houthi fighters in Yemen long before the public. “According to the lengthy Hegseth text, the first detonations in Yemen would be felt two hours hence, at 1:45 p.m. eastern time,” Goldberg wrote in his piece about the experience. “So I waited in my car in a supermarket parking lot. If this Signal chat was real, I reasoned, Houthi targets would soon be bombed. At about 1:55, I checked X and searched Yemen. Explosions were then being heard across Sanaa, the capital city.” Though Goldberg’s inclusion in the chat did not foil the military’s plans, the national security breach has still stunned both supporters and critics of the Trump administration. During the Tuesday meeting, Trump also said that he was in contact with Waltz over whether hackers can break into Signal conversations. IMPEACHMENT ARTICLES HIT JUDGE WHO ORDERED TRUMP TO STOP DEPORTATION FLIGHTS “Are people able to break into conversations? And if that’s true, we’re gonna have to find some other form of device,” Trump said. “And I think that’s something that we may have to do. Some people like Signal very much, other people probably don’t, but we’ll look into it.” “Michael, I’ve asked you to immediately study that and find out if people are able to break into a system,” he added. In response, Waltz assured Trump that he has White House technical experts “looking at” the situation, along with legal teams. “And of course, we’re going to keep everything as secure as possible,” the national security official said. “No one in your national security team would ever put anyone in danger. And as you said, we’ve repeatedly said the attack was phenomenal, and it’s ongoing.”
Federal court temporarily blocks Trump admin plan to suspend refugee resettlement program
A federal court on Tuesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from suspending a refugee resettlement program. The ruling came during a court hearing over a lawsuit brought by a group of nonprofits that receive federal funds under a congressional law. The nonprofits provide a range of social services for newly-arrived refugees in the U.S. On Monday, a judge in Seattle issued an injunction ordering the Trump administration to reinstate its contracts with refugee agencies. Tuesday’s ruling came from the three-judge panel Ninth Circuit court, which directs the administration to continue to process applications that started the process prior to Jan. 20. WHO IS JAMES BOASBERG, THE US JUDGE AT THE CENTER OF TRUMP’S DEPORTATION EFFORTS? “The motion is denied to the extent the district court’s preliminary injunction order applies to individuals who were conditionally approved for refugee status by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services before January 20, 2025,” the order states. “Executive Order No. 14163 does not purport to revoke the refugee status of individuals who received that status under the United States Refugee Admissions Program prior to January 20, 2025. In all other respects, the district court’s February 28, 2025, preliminary injunction order is stayed.” On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order suspending refugee resettlement and ordering the Department of Homeland Security to report back in 90 days on whether resuming resettlement would be in the interests of the U.S. ‘WOEFULLY INSUFFICIENT’: US JUDGE REAMS TRUMP ADMIN FOR DAYS-LATE DEPORTATION INFO “The United States lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security, and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees,” Trump said in his Jan. 20 order. The case had been brought by refugee groups, including International Refugee Assistance Project, HIAS, Lutheran Community Services Northwest and individual refugees. The groups argued their ability to provide services to refugees had been damaged by the Trump order. The order was one of several attempting to limit both illegal and legal immigration, including the use of parole to allow in migrants by the Biden administration. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Trump limited refugee resettlement in his first term, but President Joe Biden made moves to take in more refugees, including by increasing the refugee cap.