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Year: 2025

Washington state lawmakers propose requiring speed limiting devices in cars of drivers with speeding history

Washington state lawmakers propose requiring speed limiting devices in cars of drivers with speeding history

A bill introduced in the Washington state legislature would require drivers with a history of speeding to have a speed limiting device placed on their cars. House Bill 1596 was proposed after supporters say an increase in fatal accidents was caused by speeding. The bill was heard in the House Transportation Committee on Thursday and would require an “intelligent speed assistance device” to be installed in the cars of certain drivers, according to Fox 13. The device limits the speed of the car using GPS technology to follow the speed limit where the vehicle is being driven. These drivers could exceed the speed limit up to three times a month. A driver would have the device on their car if they have a new restricted license established by the bill. This is similar to how ignition interlock devices are used for people with a history of drunk driving. BLUE CITY JUDGE SLAMMED FOR RELEASING VIOLENT SUSPECT ARRESTED AGAIN FOR VICIOUS ATTACK ON TEEN Drivers would also receive the device during the probation period after their license was suspended for racing or “excessive speeding,” which is defined as driving at least 20 miles per hour over the speed limit. Drivers could also be ordered by a court to have a speed-limiting device on their car. “We’re losing Washingtonians and family members are losing loved ones unnecessarily, tragically and preventably,” Democrat state Rep. Mari Leavitt, a prime sponsor of the bill, said. “These aren’t accidents,” she added. “They’re intentionally folks choosing behavior that is harming and often killing folks.” According to data in 2023 from the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, one in three fatal crashes in the state involved a speeding driver. The total number of fatal crashes and the number involving speeding has been trending upward since 2019. “Between 2019 and 2024, tickets to speeding drivers in excess of 50 miles an hour over the speed limit increased by 200%,” the commission’s Shelly Baldwin testified. “So we know that this is an increasing problem that we’ve been dealing with.” Republican state Rep. Gloria Mendoza questioned how the bill helps keep people safe by allowing speeders to continue driving. “So we’re trying to help them get back their license by giving them this tool,” Mendoza said. “So how is this helping save lives?” SEATTLE POLICE OFFICER FIRED FOR FATALLY HITTING GRADUATE STUDENT WITH CAR CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Leavitt responded: “We want to find a way for them to be able to drive lawfully, but safely. And having them on the road in a safe manner is going to save lives, because they’re driving anyway, and they’re driving fast. And this device, these speed limiters, are going to ensure that they can’t.” The bill has not yet been scheduled for a vote out of committee.

House GOP elections chair reveals which voter blocs Republicans are targeting ahead of 2026

House GOP elections chair reveals which voter blocs Republicans are targeting ahead of 2026

DORAL, Fla. — The lawmaker in charge of House Republicans’ elections arm is feeling confident that the GOP can buck historical precedent and hold onto their majority for the entirety of President Donald Trump’s term. The 2024 elections saw Republicans make significant inroads with Hispanic and Black voters. National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Chairman Richard Hudson, R-N.C., said progress would continue heading into the 2026 midterm elections. BLACK CAUCUS CHAIR ACCUSES TRUMP OF ‘PURGE’ OF ‘MINORITY’ FEDERAL WORKERS “We’ve done well with African Americans, comparatively,” Hudson told Fox News Digital, referring to years prior. “We’ve put a lot more effort in reaching out to that community as well and letting them know that we want your votes, and we want to represent you, and we care about the issues that matter to you and your family.” “I think we can do better, and we’ll continue to attempt to do better. But, look, our message, our values, our principles are all universal.” He said Republicans’ values also lined up with Hispanic and Latino voters, 42% of whom supported Trump, according to the Associated Press. “We are focused on the issues you care about,” Hudson said the pitch was. “It’s crime in your neighborhoods. It’s education for your children. It’s securing the borders. It’s the price of things for your family. I mean, these are all things we campaigned on. But we deliberately went out into the Hispanic community and said, ‘We want your vote.’ And they responded.” Earlier in the interview, he credited Trump with delivering on those values in 2024, and argued that Trump’s policies would get Republicans over the line again next year. Historically, the first midterm after a new presidential term serves as a rebuke of the party in power. Democrats won the House of Representatives in a “blue wave” in 2018 during Trump’s first term. Four years later, Republicans wrestled it back under former President Joe Biden. But the circumstances are somewhat different this time, something Hudson noted. “We’re in a unique time in history, where you had a president serve four years with all his policies, and then he was replaced by another president who had completely different policies. . . . And then the two ran against each other,” Hudson said. “So the American people sort of had a referendum on which president they wanted, which policies they chose, and they overwhelmingly selected Donald Trump.” NONCITIZEN VOTER CRACKDOWN LED BY HOUSE GOP AHEAD OF 2026 MIDTERMS Trump is in his second term, and Hudson argued that the 2024 presidential race was a referendum between two clear White House records. “He has a mandate that I think is unique in history. And so this isn’t a first-term president going into his first midterm. I mean, this is someone the American people know, and they’ve chosen,” Hudson said. Hudson also pointed out that Democrats will be defending 13 lawmakers whose districts Trump won, while Republicans only had to hold onto three seats that voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024. “The battlefield out there for us going into 2026 favors Republicans,” Hudson said.  He spoke with Fox News Digital at Trump National Doral golf course and resort in South Florida, where Republicans held their three-day retreat to strategize their agenda. Hudson was one of the senior Republicans who gave a presentation to fellow lawmakers during the event, where his message was: “We’re on offense this cycle.” “We’re going to lean in. We have a lot of opportunity in those Donald Trump seats,” Hudson said he told colleagues. “We’re going to hold Democrats accountable for their voting against the policies the American people want.”

‘New sheriff in town’: Parents ‘overjoyed’ with Trump’s DEI crackdown, education group says

‘New sheriff in town’: Parents ‘overjoyed’ with Trump’s DEI crackdown, education group says

Parents are “overjoyed” with the trajectory of the education system under President Donald Trump after years of pushing back on so-called woke practices in schools, a parents’ rights education group told Fox News Digital. During his first two weeks in office, Trump signed several education-related executive orders on school funding and antisemitism, and launched a federal review of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) practices in federally funded institutions. Additionally, the Trump administration launched an investigation into a Colorado school district for allegedly “discriminating against its female students” after a girls’ restroom was reportedly converted into an “all-gender” facility, while the boys’ restroom remained for males only.  Nicole Neily, the founder and president of Parents Defending Education, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview that the investigation will “open the floodgates” of the Trump administration’s expected crackdown on similar policies in schools across the country. TRUMP PUTS HIGHER EDUCATION ON NOTICE FOR ‘DANGEROUS, DEMEANING, AND IMMORAL’ DEI TEACHINGS “I think what it is intended to do is to send a signal to families that obviously there’s a new sheriff in town. This is a priority. This administration, as the executive orders have made clear, actually views the difference in the sexes to be significant,” Neily told Fox News Digital. On Tuesday, the Department of Education sent a letter to the superintendent of Denver Public Schools to sound the alarm over reports that East High School in Denver was in violation of Title IX after opening up a female-only restroom to all genders.  “For this to be a very clear signal to families, to students, that if your school has engaged in something similar, this is something that the department is interested in looking into and adjudicating,” Neily said, adding that the investigation is something “families are going to be really encouraged by.”  Neily said that in recent years, parents “have been gaslit by our states, by our local school districts, by the federal government” all because “we want our children to have a colorblind education,” but that the educational system is already undergoing “sorely overdue” change under Trump. TRUMP’S WRITTEN A DEI GOVERNMENT DEATH SENTENCE. SCHOOL POLICIES SHOULD BE NEXT During his first week in office, the president launched a federal review of DEI teachings and practices in educational institutions receiving federal funding, in an effort to restore “merit-based opportunity,” according to the White House. Trump, prior to being sworn in, said he was open to considering abolishing the Department of Education in order to give states more individual control over their schools. Asked about the idea, Neily said she believes that states “know their communities, their needs, their values better than anybody in Washington ever can or would.” “I think there’s a real opportunity to make sure that the department is focusing on the things it should be, which is educating children, restoring trust in the system and not doing things like giving out the billion dollars in DEI-focused grants,” she said.