Texas Education Agency extends Houston school district takeover through 2027
Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath applauded the district for its improvements while citing the need for more time to “achieve lasting success for students.”
Maxine Waters campaign to pay $68K for violating campaign finance laws
Progressive California Rep. Maxine Waters’ campaign has agreed to pay a $68,000 fine after an investigation found it violated multiple election rules. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) said the longtime House lawmaker’s 2020 campaign committee, Citizens for Waters, ran afoul of several campaign finance laws in a tranche of documents released Friday. The FEC accused Citizens for Waters of “failing to accurately report receipts and disbursements in calendar year 2020,” “knowingly accepting excessive contributions” and “making prohibited cash disbursements,” according to one document that appears to be a legally binding agreement that allows both parties to avoid going to court. DEMS FUME OVER ‘DUE PROCESS’ FOR ABREGO GARCIA DESPITE LONG HISTORY OF PARTY BUCKING THE LEGAL PRINCIPLE Waters’ committee agreed to pay the civil fine as well as “send its treasurer to a Commission-sponsored training program for political committees within one year of the effective date of this Agreement.” “Respondent shall submit evidence of the required registration and attendance at such event to the Commission,” the document said. Citizens for Waters had accepted excessive campaign contributions from seven people totaling $19,000 in 2019 and 2020, the investigation found, despite the maximum legal individual contribution being capped at $2,800. The committee offloaded those excessive donations, albeit in an “untimely” fashion, the document said. Waters’ campaign committee also “made four prohibited cash disbursements that were each in excess of $100, totaling $7,000,” the FEC said. The campaign committee “contends that it retained legal counsel to provide advice and guidance to the treasurer and implemented procedures to ensure the disbursements comply with the requirements of the Act.” Leilani Beaver, who was listed as Citizens for Waters’ attorney, sent the FEC a letter last year that maintained the campaign finance violations were “errors” that “were not willful or purposeful.” Waters, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, has served in Congress since 1991. The new movements in the probe were first reported by OpenSecrets. MAXINE WATERS FLOATS DEPORTING MELANIA TRUMP IN ANTI-DOGE DIATRIBE It is not the first time, however, that Waters has generated public scrutiny. In 2023, a Fox News Digital investigation found that Waters’ campaign paid her daughter $192,300 to pay for a “slate mailer” operation between Jan. 2021 and Dec. 2022. It was reportedly just one sum out of thousands that Waters had paid her daughter for campaign work. A complaint that Waters’ campaign had accepted illegal campaign contributions in 2018 was overwhelmingly dismissed by the FEC in a 5-1 vote. Fox News Digital reached out to Beavers, Waters’ congressional office and Citizens for Waters for comment.
Fetterman, McCormick react to ‘astonishing’ Boulder attack on pro-Israel group: ‘Rank antisemitism’
Battleground Pennsylvania senators – Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Dave McCormick – both spoke out against antisemitism during a bipartisan forum in response to a recent attack on a pro-Israel gathering in Colorado. “This is something that I’m terribly worried about, the growth of antisemitism here in our country is something I know Sen. Fetterman and I share,” McCormick said in the sixth installment of The Senate Project series, organized by the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate and the Orrin G. Hatch Foundation and aired by FOX Nation. “We see this deeply seated in our society,” said McCormick, who recently returned from a trip to Israel. “And it’s something that we have to stand up against with complete moral clarity. It’s something that we have to push back, and it’s something we have to, require, a mandate that our institutions extricate themselves of antisemitism.” Fetterman also condemned the Colorado attack, along with the other high-profile attacks against Jewish people in recent weeks, and pointed out that he is at odds with many in his party on the issue. LEAKS TO MEDIA ABOUT FETTERMAN ARE A COORDINATED SMEAR CAMPAIGN, HILL COLLEAGUES SAY “What happened yesterday in Boulder? It’s astonishing,” Fetterman said. ” You know, the kinds of, the rank antisemitism, it’s out of control, and for me and as my friend just pointed out, this is just rampant across all the universities for all of these places, too. I mean, we really need to call it what it is. And now and for me, politically, being very, very firmly on the side of Israel, that kind of put parts of my party at odds for that.” Suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman is now facing murder, assault and other charges following what the FBI called a “targeted terror attack” in Boulder, Colorado, over the weekend after he allegedly attacked a pro-Israel group. Fox News Digital reported that Soliman is in the country illegally from Egypt. OPENAI’S SAM ALTMAN THANKS JOHN FETTERMAN FOR NORMALIZING HOODIES “Now we really lost,” Fetterman continued, “we’ve lost the argument and – parts of my party, and for me – that moral clarity, it’s really firmly on Israel. And of course, we can all agree the tragedy in Gaza. Nobody wants that. But who does want that? And that’s Hamas. And if you have been troubled, as I am, the death and the misery, you know, I think we should blame Iran and Hamas, and other people blame Israel. I refuse to allow try to turn Israel into a pariah state.” McCormick went on to say that “there needs to be constant pressure on Hamas, to destroy the military capability of Hamas.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The Senate Project series brings together sitting senators from opposing parties for civil dialogue about current political issues, with the goal of identifying solutions and bridging partisan divides. The series reflects the shared mission of the Kennedy Institute and Hatch Foundation to advance bipartisanship. “Vigorous and open dialogue is an essential part of our democracy and having these two senators from opposite sides of the aisle discuss important issues of the day is a valuable contribution to the public discourse,” Kennedy Institute Chairman Bruce A. Percelay said in a statement. Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
Ukraine, Russia meet for peace talks in Istanbul after explosive weekend
Russian and Ukrainian delegations have begun talks in Istanbul, Turkey, on Monday, less than 24 hours after a massive Ukrainian drone attack struck Russian airfields. The two delegations entered Ciragan Palace in Istanbul alongside a group of senior Turkish officials. It is the second round of peace talks to take place in the three years since Russia invaded Ukraine. Images from the event show many of the Ukrainian delegation wearing military uniforms, while the Russian group exclusively wore suits. Details of the meeting are not expected to be made public until after its conclusion. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be meeting face-to-face, however. GEN. KELLOGG REVEALS WHAT CONCERNS HIM ABOUT RUSSIA Ukrainian forces destroyed 40 aircraft in the drone attack this weekend, which an official says took more than a year to orchestrate. Russia’s defense ministry confirmed the attack on Sunday, saying it struck five airfields. The operation saw drones transported in containers carried by trucks deep into Russian territory, he said. The drones reportedly hit 41 planes stationed at several airfields on Sunday afternoon, including A-50, Tu-95 and Tu-22M aircraft, the official said. PUTIN MASSES 50,000 TROOPS ON UKRAINE’S NORTH FRONT AS TRUMP AGAIN AGREES TO MEET RUSSIAN, UKRAINIAN LEADERS Moscow has previously used Tupolev Tu-95 and Tu-22 long-range bombers to launch missiles at Ukraine, while A-50s are used to coordinate targets and detect air defenses and guided missiles. A series of explosions also struck bridges in Russia near Ukraine’s border on Saturday, though Ukraine has not taken responsibility for the attacks. A highway bridge over a railway in the Bryansk region was blown up at 10:50 p.m. on Saturday night just as a passenger train carrying 388 passengers to Moscow was passing underneath, Russian investigators said. Just four hours later, a railway bridge over a highway was blown up in the neighboring Kursk region, showering the road with parts of a freight train, the investigators said.
As Musk exits DOGE, a look back at previous efforts to cut waste, fraud and abuse – and how they fared
As Elon Musk steps away from his official role at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), he joins a history of presidential administrations that have attempted to streamline government—with mixed results. While former Presidents Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and Grover Cleveland all tried to downsize the judiciary, treasury and civil service, respectively, it wasn’t until the 20th century that the federal government grew into the bureaucratic behemoth it is that has drawn true DOGE-type attention. Though often seen as the bigger spenders, some Democrats joined Republicans in the 1990s to shrink the size of government and make it more accountable to taxpayers. “We know big government does not have all the answers,” former President Bill Clinton said during his 1996 State of the Union. PROJECT 2025 REMAINS NONPARTISAN, TRUE TO 1980S GOOD-GOV’T INCEPTION DESPITE WIDE OUTCRY, KEY FIGURES SAY “We know there’s not a program for every problem. We have worked to give the American people a smaller, less bureaucratic government in Washington — and we have to give the American people one that lives within its means.” “The era of big government is over,” he said, in a phrase that had largely been considered the closest emulation of DOGE thought until Musk arrived on the scene. Clinton also sought welfare reform and emphasized personal responsibility over dependency on the state. The Arkansan also called for slashing the bureaucracy by 200,000 jobs and worked with then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., to balance the federal budget. President Donald Trump‘s efforts to do the same have received a very different response from the left. Clinton, working with congressional Republicans – while also frequently sparring with them — was able to reduce the federal workforce somewhat and establish a budget surplus but also failed to realize entitlement reform, something that more recent fiscal hawks have also struggled with. RFK JR DOUBLES DOWN ON ALLEGATIONS THE CIA WAS INVOLVED IN JFK ASSASSINATION Clinton won his 1992 upset as a centrist, after incumbent Republican George H.W. Bush was lambasted for reneging on his “Read my lips – no new taxes” pledge, with a statistical boost from industrialist independent H. Ross Perot, who won the votes of many erstwhile Bush supporters. Clinton and then-Vice President Al Gore established a National Performance Review (NPR) that drew some parallels to today’s DOGE, and cut the bureaucracy to 1960s levels. He went on to win reelection over otherwise popular GOP stalwart Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., in 1996. In 1980, actor-turned-California Gov. Ronald Reagan took the White House with promises similar to another celebrity-turned-politician who would do the same 36 years later. The Gipper did not succeed in abolishing the Department of Education – created only a few years prior by former President Jimmy Carter – something Trump has also sought. But, he reinvigorated a new generation of conservatives who still praise him for slashing income taxes, seeking to “starve the beast” via forced discretionary-spending cuts, and took on public-sector unions when he essentially won a dare against Air Traffic Controllers who went on strike by firing them all and prohibiting their rehiring. Reagan’s closest iteration of DOGE was the 1982 Grace Commission, studying cost-cutting and efficiency – and led by Maryland chemical executive J. Peter Grace along with dozens of “commissioners” plucked from the private sector. In the executive order creating the Grace Commission, it was tasked with examining “the entire federal government for areas of inefficiency, mismanagement and waste, and to recommend savings without raising taxes or cutting essential services.” Within its three-year lifespan, the commission reported $424 billion in savings, including waste, fraud, abuse, overpayments to government vendors and billions in unpaid taxes. Reagan, however, faced the same resistance from the proverbial “Swamp” in trying to implement the commission’s findings. “We’re not trying to hurt anyone. But the American taxpayer is being ripped off,” Grace said at the time. While ushered in as a conservative pragmatist, Reagan’s later years saw budget deficits grow, and the national debt more than double. The Dow also lost nearly one-quarter of its value on “Black Monday,” Oct. 19, 1987. The other contemporary president known for trying to “DOGE” government was Texas Democrat Lyndon Johnson. LBJ was known for rapidly expanding government through his “Great Society” social programs but also took aim at streamlining the Pentagon and Defense apparatus. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Efforts at the Pentagon largely failed, as the ongoing Vietnam War also accentuated costly balance sheets. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, a Kennedy holdover and former Ford Motor Company chief, was employed to make changes at the Pentagon. He instituted what was called the Planning Programming Budgeting System, which sought to bring a more streamlined approach to managing the Pentagon’s budget. However, the vast size of the defense bureaucracy—along with resistance from some military leaders—undermined the effectiveness of Johnson’s and McNamara’s reform efforts.
‘Red tape’: Trump admin unleashes DOGE-aligned process to fire federal workers for misconduct
FIRST ON FOX: The Trump administration has rolled out a new rule with the aim of making it easier to terminate federal employees for serious misconduct by cutting through the red tape that currently impedes that process. “The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is proposing amendments to the Federal Government personnel vetting adjudicative processes for determining suitability and taking suitability actions,” the rule, which went live for public comment on Monday morning, states. “The purpose of the proposed rule is to improve the efficiency, rigor and timeliness by which OPM and agencies vet individuals for risk to the integrity and efficiency of the service, and to make clear that individuals who engage in serious misconduct while employed in Federal service are subject to the same suitability procedures and actions as applicants for employment.” OPM says its new rule is part of President Trump’s “Implementing the Department of Government Efficiency Workforce Optimization Initiative” as well as the Presidential Memorandum, “Strengthening the Suitability and Fitness of the Federal Workforce.” UNFINISHED BUSINESS: THE BUDGET CUTS MUSK COULDN’T COMPLETE AND WHAT’S NEXT FOR DOGE OPM explains that the new rule will allow the federal government to take action against employees who engage in misconduct after being hired, giving agencies “broader authority” to “flag conduct” including tax evasion, leaking of sensitive information, and other behavior “inconsistent with the public trust.” “For too long, agencies have faced red tape when trying to remove employees who break the public’s trust,” OPM’s Acting Director, Chuck Ezell, told Fox News Digital. FLASHBACK: TOP FIVE WILDEST MOMENTS FROM ELON MUSK’S DOGE TENURE AS IT COMES TO AN END “This proposed rule ensures misconduct is met with consequence and reinforces that public service is a privilege, not a right.” Under the new rule, federal agencies will be able to refer specific cases to OPM requesting “suitability action” for employees who are believed to have committed post-appointment conduct that deserves disciplinary action. Fox News Digital reported in 2023 that under current law, the vast majority of the federal workforce is not at-will and may only be terminated for misconduct, poor performance, medical inability and reduction in force. Federal employees are also entitled to sweeping due process rights when fired which can create a cumbersome process for agencies to remove a worker.
Hundreds of millions in tax money goes to contracts for DEI groups, watchdog finds: ‘Total racket’
EXCLUSIVE: Over the last several years, a few dozen diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) consultant groups have racked up over a hundred million dollars in taxpayer-funded contracts from K-12 schools across the country, a new report by Defending Education found. The report, shared with Fox News Digital, details how 41 DEI consultant groups garnered millions in taxpayer-funded contracts from 303 school districts and public education entities from 2021 until now. In total, the groups collected over $123 million from public schools in 40 states. The report found public school DEI contracts in both red and blue states, from Florida and Alabama to California and Washington. Erika Sanzi, a spokesperson for Defending Education, described the schools-consultants partnership as a “total racket that makes schools worse” and often takes no consideration of age-appropriateness in curricula. THE ‘GRADING FOR EQUITY’ PROPOSAL IS ABOUT LOWERING STANDARDS FOR STUDENTS, EXPERT SAYS According to the report, the biggest winner in the scheme was Amplify, a firm that provides professional development and curricula to school districts, which scored a total of over $70,500,000. The report states that in a now-scrubbed statement on its website, Amplify said its mission is to “make education, and thereby the world, more equitable and accessible” and to “help teachers support their students in constructing, questioning, expanding, and strengthening knowledge of where they come from and who they are becoming.” In response, a representative for Amplify told Fox News Digital that the group “publishes textbooks and other instructional materials that help students learn reading, math and science” and that “there is no place anywhere in Amplify’s products, or in the training programs about how to use them, for ideologies or political agendas.” The representative said “our programs help students learn how to think, not what to think.” The report highlights another consultant group, Adjusted Equity Solutions, which it says is associated with the Culturally Responsive School Leadership Institute, that claims to help schools challenge “whiteness and hegemonic epistemologies in school,” use “equity audits to measure student inclusiveness, policy, and practice” and serve as “advocate and social activist for community-based causes in both the school and neighborhood community.” MAHA REPORT RAISES CONCERNS ABOUT CHILDHOOD CHRONIC DISEASE This group took in over a million dollars from public schools during the study period. “Tinkering in the minds of other people’s children is big business and countless K-12 schools across the country are active participants,” Sanzi said. “They pay big bucks to enter into contracts with ideologues and activists who, in turn, gain access, directly or indirectly, to a captive audience of young minds.” Speaking with Fox News Digital via Zoom, Sanzi said that “rather than this being a focus on sort of academic interventions, it’s a lot of jargon that so far has not proven itself to be measurable. And there’s really not much evidence, if any, that any of this is helping students or helping schools or helping staff.” EDUCATION SECRETARY LINDA MCMAHON PUSHES BACK ON CLAIMS THAT THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ‘DOESN’T CARE ANYTHING ABOUT THE LAW’ Sanzi said that though these DEI groups couch their activities in agreeable terms like “belonging” and “empathy,” they often end up being a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” “At first, you’re thinking lesson on empathy, like that’s good,” she said. “Who wouldn’t want their child to be empathetic? We want that. Until you realize that the lesson on empathy is going to be about something like a little girl in her bathroom at school, a staff member who’s trans, so biologically male, but identifies as female, comes into the restroom with her. She naturally feels uncomfortable because that’s a very natural feeling in a circumstance like that. But she’s told that she needs to have ‘empathy’ for this grownup who identifies as female, right? And that her discomfort is the problem… That feeling discomfort in that situation is wrong or makes her un-empathetic.” The Trump Department of Education has warned state education departments in all 50 states that they must remove diversity, equity and inclusion policies or risk losing federal funding. Despite this, Sanzi said many of these consultant groups have adjusted by scrubbing references to DEI on their websites and using other words to describe the same thing. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “We see a lot of renaming,” she said. “So, they might say, ‘Well, we’re getting rid of our DEI office or we’re getting rid of our equity officer.’ [But] the proof will be in the pudding because what we notice often is that you’ll see a switch, like suddenly we hear the word belonging a lot more now. And so the question becomes, ‘Are you getting rid of it? Or are you just rebranding it and shifting it somewhere else and taking it off your website?’” “What many people don’t understand is that the founders of these consultant companies and the people who run them and the practitioners are activists. They are ideologues,” she went on. “They have every right to believe that what they’re transmitting is the right thing, but in a public-school setting that is required to maintain viewpoint diversity, these really have no place, not only because of the cost, not only cause it’s public money, not only because they’re not very transparent about what they’re doing, but also because they are really trying to push an ideological agenda on other people’s children.” The Culturally Responsive School Leadership Institute did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Tulsa mayor proposes $100M reparations plan for descendants of 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre
Tulsa’s first Black mayor proposed creating a $100 million private trust as part of a reparations plan for the impact of the Tulsa Race Massacre which took place more than 100 years ago. Mayor Monroe Nichols IV, elected mayor in November, says the trust would be used to provide scholarships and housing to the descendants of those impacted by the massacre. He clarified that the trust would not involve direct cash payments, however. “For 104 years, the Tulsa Race Massacre has been a stain on our city’s history,” Nichols said Sunday. “The massacre was hidden from history books, only to be followed by the intentional acts of redlining, a highway built to choke off economic vitality and the perpetual underinvestment of local, state and federal governments.” “Now it’s time to take the next big steps to restore,” he added. BLACK CAUCUS CHAIR ACCUSES TRUMP OF ‘PURGE’ OF ‘MINORITY’ FEDERAL WORKERS The private charitable trust would be created with a goal to secure $105 million in assets, with most of the funding either secured or committed by June 1, 2026. Nichols says the City Council would have to approve the transfer of any city assets to the trust. The plan calls for the bulk of the funding, $60 million, to go toward improving buildings and revitalizing the city’s north side. ‘TIPPING THE SCALES’: HOUSE GOP LEADERS RIP ACTBLUE AFTER DEM FUNDRAISING GIANT HIT WITH SUBPOENA “The Greenwood District at its height was a center of commerce,” Nichols told the Associated Press. “So what was lost was not just something from North Tulsa or the Black community. It actually robbed Tulsa of an economic future that would have rivaled anywhere else in the world.” Nichols’ push comes just weeks after Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., announced plans to introduce the Reparations Now Resolution, which calls for the U.S. to spend trillions of dollars on reparations for Black Americans. Lee’s resolution cites U.S. slavery, Jim Crow laws, and other racially discriminatory laws and policies to justify spending trillions of dollars supporting the descendants of Black Americans in the U.S. “That’s why we recognize that the fight to restore Black folks has to be so much more substantive,” she added. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Video: Israel demolishes the only kidney dialysis centre in Gaza
NewsFeed Eyewitnesses have filmed Israeli military excavators in northern Gaza demolishing the Noura Al-Kaabi Dialysis Centre – the only specialised dialysis facility in Gaza. It’s the latest facility Israel has destroyed or blocked off as it forces Gaza’s population to the south. Published On 2 Jun 20252 Jun 2025 Adblock test (Why?)
Attack at Colorado rally for Israeli captives leaves six wounded
NewsFeed Video has captured the moment a man in the US state of Colorado attacked a pro-Israel rally with a makeshift flamethrower. The FBI is treating it as a targeted terror attack. The suspect, Mohamed Soliman, reportedly shouted “Free Palestine” during the assault. Published On 2 Jun 20252 Jun 2025 Adblock test (Why?)