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Nancy Kassebaum Baker, trailblazing GOP senator who broke barriers for women in Congress, dead at 94

Nancy Kassebaum Baker, trailblazing GOP senator who broke barriers for women in Congress, dead at 94

Former Republican Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker of Kansas, the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate without previously having a husband serve in Congress, died Friday at 94. Her son, Bill Kassebaum, told The Associated Press that she died of natural causes. “She loved Kansas. She loved people from Kansas and representing Kansas for 18 years in the U.S. Senate,” he told the AP. “She was an independent-minded Republican who was willing to stand up for what she thought was right, even if that meant going against the party.” Kassebaum Baker won election to the Senate in 1978 and served three terms before leaving office in 1997. The daughter of former Kansas Gov. Alf Landon, the Republican Party’s unsuccessful 1936 presidential nominee, she built a reputation as a moderate Republican willing to break with her party. TRAILBLAZING FORMER REPUBLICAN REP KAY GRANGER DIES AT 83: ‘BROKE BARRIERS’ Her election brought immediate national attention. By the time she announced her retirement, she was one of eight women serving in the Senate and the only woman chairing a Senate committee. Kassebaum Baker also developed a reputation for working across party lines. A landmark 1996 health insurance law bore her name alongside that of Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy. Her political independence occasionally put her at odds with conservatives. She supported an assault weapons ban backed by President Bill Clinton and said the vote generated the angriest mail of her Senate career. Kassebaum Baker remained highly popular in Kansas, winning re-election with 76% of the vote in 1984 and 74% in 1990. LINDSEY GRAHAM’S SISTER CARRIES ON LATE SENATOR’S WORK, BECOMING SOUTH CAROLINA’S FIRST FEMALE SENATOR She married former Republican Sen. Howard Baker of Tennessee in 1996, shortly before leaving the Senate. It marked the first marriage between a man and woman who had both served in the Senate. Howard Baker, who served as President Ronald Reagan’s chief of staff and later as U.S. ambassador to Japan under President George W. Bush, died in 2014. Kassebaum Baker continued public service after leaving Congress, including serving on a bipartisan commission on campaign finance reform during the Clinton administration. Later in life, she increasingly broke with the Republican Party’s direction and endorsed Democrats in several Kansas races, including Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. FEDERAL APPEALS COURT UPHOLDS CONTROVERSIAL ILLINOIS BAN ON SEMIAUTOMATIC GUNS She also called for President Donald Trump’s impeachment after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. “This just has gone too far,” she told Kansas City’s KMBC at the time. Despite her decades in national politics, Kassebaum Baker maintained a close identification with Kansas. Before leaving for Japan during her husband’s ambassadorship, she reflected on what she would miss. “All I can say is, I will miss the Kansas prairie,” she said. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Federal judge blasts Rubio’s 75-country visa freeze as ‘Orwellian,’ strikes down policy

Federal judge blasts Rubio’s 75-country visa freeze as ‘Orwellian,’ strikes down policy

A federal judge struck down the Trump administration’s freeze on immigrant visas from 75 countries Friday, ruling Secretary of State Marco Rubio lacked the legal authority to order denials for applicants otherwise found eligible to enter the United States. U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas, a Biden appointee in Manhattan, vacated the State Department policy and any visa refusals based solely on it, directing the government to revisit those cases. “The Court holds that the Policy is contrary to law and was issued in excess of Secretary Rubio’s statutory authority,” Vargas wrote in her 61-page opinion. The State Department enacted the policy in January, suspending immigrant visa issuance to nationals of 75 countries the department deemed at high risk of becoming dependent on public benefits. The list spans Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. BOASBERG DELIVERS FRESH IMMIGRATION SETBACK TO TRUMP IN FREE-SPEECH CLASH Rubio’s policy instructed consular officers to review each applicant individually. But even applicants who passed that review showed “additional evidence that demonstrates he or she overcomes the public charge refusal” and had no other reason to be denied were still refused visas if they came from one of the 75 designated countries. “While the Policy permits consular officers to exercise their normal functions up to a point, whatever determinations they make as to eligibility for the applicants subject to the Policy are ultimately irrelevant,” Vargas wrote. “The outcome is predetermined. The visa will be refused.” The judge said the directive effectively imposed a nationality-based ban on immigrants from nearly 40% of the world’s countries and sidelined the consular officers Congress charged with deciding whether individual applicants qualify for visas. FEDERAL JUDGE STRIKES DOWN TRUMP’S $100K H-1B VISA FEE, RULING IT AN UNCONSTITUTIONAL TAX “The Policy thus displaces consular officers from the role Congress assigned them in the visa issuance process,” Vargas wrote. “In addition to its other defects, the Policy also exceeds the statutory authority that the INA vests in the Secretary of State,” Vargas continued.  “Specifically, Secretary Rubio’s Cable directing consular officers that they ‘must refuse’ immigrant visas to nationals of certain countries cannot be reconciled with Congress’s express limitation on his authority as Secretary of State.” The Trump administration argued the refusals were lawful because officers formally issued them under Section 221(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, an existing provision governing visa refusals. Vargas rejected that rationale, saying the government had failed to identify a law allowing an officer to deny a visa to an applicant already found eligible. “The Government engages in what is best described as an exercise in Orwellian logic,” Vargas wrote. She found the policy violated the INA’s bar on nationality-based discrimination in immigrant-visa issuance, as well as provisions allowing visa refusals only when an applicant is legally ineligible. The administration’s approach, she wrote, drew “pernicious distinctions based upon nationality.” Vargas also rejected the administration’s argument that the policy preserved consular officers’ authority because they still entered the denials themselves. “The fact that the mandatory visa refusal is ultimately effectuated by the consular officer hardly means that the consular officer’s role in the statutory scheme has not been usurped,” she wrote. TRUMP ADMIN SUED OVER VISA TIME RESTRICTIONS FOR FOREIGN STUDENTS, JOURNALISTS The judge distinguished the policy from the Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling upholding Trump’s first-term travel ban. That case involved presidential authority over who may enter the country, Vargas noted, while this case centered on whether the State Department could refuse immigrant visas to applicants otherwise eligible under the law. The ruling does not invalidate visa denials based on other independent grounds of ineligibility, but it wipes out refusals based solely on the 75-country freeze and returns those cases to the government for further proceedings consistent with the decision. The lawsuit was brought by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC); African Communities Together (ACT), a Harlem-based immigrant advocacy group; five prospective employment-based immigrants; and six U.S. citizens seeking to bring family members to the country. Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department for comment.

FBI asked ‘Sammy the Bull’ if ex-Gambino mob prosecutor Comey knew meaning of ’86’: court filing

FBI asked ‘Sammy the Bull’ if ex-Gambino mob prosecutor Comey knew meaning of ’86’: court filing

The FBI interviewed Salvatore Gravano, the former underboss of the Gambino crime family known as “Sammy the Bull,” to ask if ex-FBI Director James Comey likely knew what the term “86” means, according to court documents. Gravano, who had familiarity with Comey due to Comey’s role as the lead prosecutor in United States v. John Gambino et al. in the 1990s, told an FBI case agent during a May 2026 phone call that Comey “had to know” what 86 meant, according to a sworn affidavit from his lawyer Patrick Fitzgerald supporting Comey’s motions to dismiss the case. Comey is facing a case in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Eastern Division, accusing him of threatening President Donald Trump through his May 2025 “86 47” seashell Instagram post. JAMES COMEY ’86 47′ SEASHELL CASE PROSECUTOR SUDDENLY STEPS DOWN, ASSISTANT US ATTORNEY STEPS IN “On May 8, 2026, the case agent had a telephone conversation with Salvatore ‘Sammy the Bull’ Gravano, the former Gambino crime family underboss who was one of the cooperating witnesses at the United States v. John Gambino trial,” the affidavit, filed last month, states. “During the telephone conversation to discuss the logistics of his forthcoming interview, Mr. Gravano stated his belief that Mr. Comey had to know what the term ’86’ meant ‘as it related to killing someone.’”   The U.S. Department of Justice brought two federal charges against Comey of threatening the president and transmitting a threat in interstate commerce in April for a social media post Comey made displaying a photo of seashells arranged on a beach to say “86 47.” BLANCHE TURNS THE TABLES ON COMEY INDICTMENT CRITICS: ‘REST ASSURED’ CASE GOES BEYOND INSTAGRAM POST Prosecutors alleged the photo was a reference to killing Trump, with “86” referring to a slang term for killing and “47” referring to Trump as the 47th U.S. president. Comey’s defense lawyer cited the FBI’s interview with Gravano to challenge the claim that Comey’s Gambino prosecution meant he understood “86” as a reference to killing.  Though Gravano told agents Comey “had to know” the term’s mob meaning, he said he did not recall ever discussing it with Comey. The filing also says FBI searches of the Gambino case materials found no references to “86.” “During the recorded interview, which lasted 25 minutes, Gravano said that ’86’ generally means to ‘get rid of’ and to him, as a ‘gangster,’ it means ‘to kill,’” the affidavit said. SAMMY GRAVANO REVEALS THE MOMENT HE DECIDED TO COOPERATE WITH THE GOVERNMENT AGAINST JOHN GOTTI “While Gravano claimed that the post was a call for violence against President Trump (‘let’s kill Trump’), Gravano did not claim Mr. Comey’s seashell post to be a statement threatening that Mr. Comey would personally kill President Trump,” the affidavit says. Comey has claimed that he found — and did not arrange — the seashell display and did not realize some people interpreted “86 47” as a violent message. FORMER FBI AGENT SAYS COMEY CHARGES HINGE ON INTENT EVIDENCE AND JURY INTERPRETATION “I don’t see it the way some people are still saying it is, but again, I don’t want any part of any violence. I’ve never been associated with violence, and so that’s why I took it down,” Comey told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace in May 2025, alluding to the fact that he removed the post shortly after putting it up on Instagram. Comey said he didn’t think it had any dark intentions. “I actually didn’t think of it as political speech by me, but I thought, ‘What a clever way to express a political view.’ The shells were the same color for each of the letters. … It took a lot of work.  “Somebody with artistic flair did that, and I have a hard time believing it was anybody with a dark intention, and it certainly was no dark intention on my part or my spouse’s part.” Fox News Digital contacted the FBI and a legal representative for Comey for further comment.