House Dem Debbie Dingell places Trump’s Lake Ontario name change in the crosshairs
Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich. declared that she will introduce legislation targeting President Donald Trump’s executive order to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America. “The Great Lakes are a shared treasure that generations of Americans and Canadians have worked together to protect. That’s why I’m introducing legislation to keep Lake Ontario as Lake Ontario and block President Trump’s idiotic order,” Dingell declared in a Thursday post on X. The president’s executive order called for updating “the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) to reflect the renaming of the Lake and remove all references to Lake Ontario from the GNIS, consistent with applicable law.” The order also stated that, “The Board on Geographic Names shall provide guidance to ensure all Federal Government references to Lake Ontario, including on executive department and agency maps, contracts, and other documents and communications, shall reflect its renaming.” TRUMP RENAMES LAKE ONTARIO ‘LAKE AMERICA’ AMID INTENSIFYING US-CANADA TRADE DISPUTE Trump posted to Truth Social on Thursday what appeared to be the content of a message from U.S. Geological Survey Director Dr. Ned Mamula. “As of 4:30 pm today the U.S. Geological Survey has officially designated the former Lake Ontario to be renamed as Lake America in all official USGS electronic documents,” Mamula noted. “The change will begin occurring in printed documents over the next several days. This change has also been made official in the Geographic Names Information System.” Dingell’s post on X linked to a Politico report, which stated that Dingell noted in an interview that she plans to introduce a measure on Monday to nullify Trump’s move to change the lake’s name. NEW YORK GOV HOCHUL REJECTS TRUMP’S ‘LAKE AMERICA’ RENAMING WITH BLUNT MESSAGE The report linked to a copy of Dingell’s proposed “Hands Off Our Great Lakes Act,” which would declare that Trump’s Aug. 27 order renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America,” along with actions taken under it, has “no force or effect.” Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and to Dingell’s office early on Friday morning. TRUMP FLOATS RENAMING THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC OCEANS AFTER REBRANDING HISTORIC LAKE Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney declared in a Thursday post on X, “The name Lake Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, which, appropriately, means ‘the lake is beautiful, the lake is big’. The name is more than 400 years old, predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. “We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms. Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario – then, now and always,” Carney said in the post.
One of the world’s hottest industries is sparking a blue-collar jobs boom
The race to build the infrastructure behind artificial intelligence is creating a new boom for America’s blue-collar workforce, as construction firms scramble to fill jobs building data centers, power systems and the facilities that keep the technology running. The rapid buildout is putting a new premium on skilled trades, with data centers requiring armies of workers to prepare sites, pour concrete, install electrical systems and handle the infrastructure needed to bring them online. “For many years, there’s been a lack of focus just in general from what is the benefit of a career in the trades,” explained Cole Renken, general manager of Merlo America, the U.S. division of Italian construction equipment manufacturer Merlo Group. “It’s a very stable income, very stable lifestyle that you can provide for,” he added. ONE OF AMERICA’S OLDEST MANUFACTURERS SAYS AI IS CREATING JOBS — NOT REPLACING THEM Now, the AI infrastructure boom could bring renewed attention to those careers. U.S. construction spending is projected to climb from $2.22 trillion in 2026 to $2.85 trillion by 2031, according to a new report from Merlo America developed with predictive sales intelligence firm BiltData.ai. Industrial construction, which includes factories and data centers, is projected to reach $684 billion by 2031, representing 24% of total U.S. construction spending. Much of that growth is being driven by the infrastructure needed to power AI, cloud computing and 5G, with data centers emerging as a major source of construction and industrial activity. And building those facilities requires skilled workers at nearly every stage of a project. Renken said large projects require heavy-equipment operators to prepare sites and logistics workers to coordinate materials, followed by concrete workers, electricians, plumbers and other skilled trades as construction progresses. Electrical workers, he said, could face particularly high demand. A SOUTHERN STATE JUST TOOK THE TOP SPOT IN ONE OF THE WORLD’S FASTEST-GROWING INDUSTRIES And the jobs don’t necessarily disappear once construction is complete. Brittany Kaiser, CEO of AI infrastructure company Alpha Compute, told Fox News Digital that data centers require workers not only to build the facilities and energy infrastructure, but also to install equipment, monitor operations, perform maintenance and support future expansion. “These are projects that can provide hundreds or thousands of jobs over many, many years,” Kaiser said. “It’s not a quick construction project.” She described data centers as “a constant construction project,” requiring workers across construction, electricity, energy development, monitoring and maintenance as facilities grow and expand. That ongoing demand could create opportunities for surrounding communities, particularly for workers who can be trained for specialized positions. “It’s jobs that can also be taught and trained,” Kaiser said. “So it’s very possible to engage with the community on education and training initiatives to allow people to get access to these higher paying jobs that they didn’t have a skill set for before.” But as projects multiply, finding enough skilled workers could become a challenge. Renken said shortages in the trades have persisted throughout much of his career and could intensify as more projects come online. The boom, he said, is also a reminder that even the most advanced technology depends on physical infrastructure and the skilled workers needed to build and maintain it. That need, he said, could bring new attention to skilled trades that have long been overshadowed by the focus on high-tech jobs. “To me, it has been kind of an overshadowed market that hasn’t gotten the attention that it needs,” he said.
Socialist mayoral candidate ignites online mockery for touting basic city service
A Los Angeles councilwoman’s celebration of a newly painted neighborhood crosswalk has drawn online mockery after critics seized on the months-long timeline and glossy “street infrastructure” rollout for what they said amounted to a basic city service. Los Angeles Councilmember Nithya Raman, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, is facing online mockery after celebrating the completion of a neighborhood crosswalk project, which was first raised by the Los Feliz Neighborhood Council late last year, in a post on X. The post featured before-and-after images and thanked her field team for “continuing to problem-solve, push for solutions, and make our streets safer.” “Dear Lord, Nithya. Your standards are so incredibly low,” responded Richard Grenell, Presidential Envoy for Special Missions amid Donald Trump’s second term. “They didn’t even fix the street, they painted over cracks. And it took them a year…..” “Holy s—t, my sides…Nithya Raman’s big accomplishment is taking 9 months to paint 7 yellow stripes over a cracked street?” quipped former L.A. mayoral candidate and reality television star Spencer Pratt. “How dumb do you have to be to post this? BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA” DEM’S MELTDOWN OVER ‘TERRORIST SYMPATHIZER’ HASAN PIKER TRIGGERS INSTANT CONSERVATIVE MOCKERY: ‘YIKES’ “This is beyond parody,” responded conservative commentator Ben Shapiro. “Eight months to paint some yellow lines. Huge infrastructure victory! Make her mayor!” “They’re calling it the most ambitious infrastructure project since the Golden Gate Bridge,” added the Manhattan Institute’s Chris Rufo. AOC’S SOCIALIST CREDENTIALS FACE FRESH SCRUTINY AFTER GLARING 7-YEAR GAP SURFACES: ‘VERY CONVENIENT’ Fox News Digital reached out to Raman’s office and Pratt for comment but did not receive a response before publication. Raman’s announcement labeled the work “Improving Our Neighborhood Street Infrastructure” and included before-and-after photos showing yellow crosswalk markings across the cracked roadway. She said the Los Feliz Neighborhood Council had brought the issue to her office in late 2025. The post did not specify the project’s cost, when physical work began, which city department performed it or whether the work involved safety improvements beyond the painted markings.
Dems derided Trump’s midterm gamble — until he ended up winning big
One year ago this week, Texas passed a new congressional redistricting map, giving President Donald Trump his first major victory in his push to give Republicans a big boost heading into the midterm elections by drawing more right-leaning districts. One year later, as they fight to hold their razor-thin House majority, Republicans are the big winners, with partisan redistricting netting them at least 10 additional right-leaning congressional seats in time for the midterms. Democrats and left-leaning pundits repeatedly railed against Trump’s efforts and charged they would “shred our country’s democracy.” Top Democrats aimed to fight fire with fire but fell short. Their efforts to keep pace with the GOP were derailed following major court rulings by the Supreme Court and Virginia’s top court earlier this year, which were seen as major legal victories for Republicans. And the GOP scored another redistricting win earlier this month in Missouri, when a judge allowed a new map, backed by Trump and passed last year by Republican state lawmakers, to be used in November’s elections. BLOCKBUSTER SUPREME COURT RULING IGNITES REDISTRICTING WARS ACROSS SOUTHERN STATES Progressive pundits that cast Trump’s push for Texas to redraw its congressional map before the 2026 midterms as a threat to voting rights and democracy. Among them was former MSNBC anchor Joy Reid. She branded the fight a “Voting Rights 911” and later titled a segment on “The Joy Reid Show” as “Texas’s War on Democracy Through Gerrymandering.” John Oliver, host of “Last Week Tonight” on HBO, was also among a group of pundits that criticized the redistricting push as a power grab by Trump and the GOP. Oliver said gerrymandering was the practice of manipulating maps “to get the outcome you want,” and called it “putting a heavy thumb on the scale of who gets elected.” Fox News Digital reached out to representatives for Reid and Oliver to see if they continue to stand by their criticism, but didn’t receive responses by the time this story was published. It wasn’t just pundits who spoke out. Top Democrats also took action, after Trump, aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterms, first floated the idea of rare, but not unheard of, mid-decade congressional redistricting. After Texas led the way last summer, Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin called a ruling by the conservative-dominated Supreme Court to greenlight the redistricting a victory for a “rigged map” meant to protect the GOP from midterm accountability. “But it will backfire,” Martin predicted. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who led a successful redistricting effort in his Democrat-dominated state last year to negate the GOP gains in Texas, emphasized, “California will not sit idle as Trump and his Republican lapdogs shred our country’s democracy before our very eyes.” TWIN COURT RULINGS RESHAPE HOUSE BATTLEFIELD AS DEMOCRATS FIGHT UPHILL REDISTRICTING BATTLE And Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York, who considered but decided against redrawing congressional maps in the blue-leaning state, charged that Trump and Republicans were aiming to “erode our democracy and drag us toward authoritarianism.” A veteran Republican strategist sees the Democrats’ arguments as hypocritical. “The left’s overcharged political rhetoric is undermined by Governor Gavin Newsom’s willingness to spearhead a power grab in his state that eliminated at least 5 GOP congressional seats,” Colin Reed told Fox News Digital. Reed argued that “Democratic leaders had the same goal as Republicans with mid-decade redistricting; they just weren’t as successful, but their intent makes any complaints about democracy ring hollow.” But Democrats stand by their resistance. “Elected leaders in every state should respond aggressively to this unAmerican attempt to rig control of congress for a generation,” John Bisognano, executive director of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, told Fox News Digital. SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER While Texas and California were the first major battlegrounds in the redistricting war, the fight quickly spread from coast-to-coast. Republican-controlled Florida, Missouri, and Ohio and swing state North Carolina, where the GOP dominates the legislature, drew new maps as part of the president’s push. But in blows to Republicans, a Utah district judge late last year rejected a congressional district map drawn by the state’s GOP-dominated legislature and instead approved an alternate that created a Democratic-leaning district ahead of the midterms. And Republicans in Indiana’s state Senate in December defied Trump, shooting down a redistricting bill that had passed the state House. But Democrats were dealt a major blow this spring when the Virginia Supreme Court struck down the Democrat-controlled state’s congressional redistricting ballot measure, which would have produced up to four more left-leaning House seats. DEMOCRACY ’26: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB Concurrently, a blockbuster decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that gutted key portions of the landmark Voting Rights Act – ruling that race should not dictate the redrawing of legislative districts – gave a handful of GOP-dominated Southern states the greenlight to move forward with redistricting. The legal rulings locked in an advantage for Republicans in this year’s battle for the House. Now it’s up to voters to decide which party will control Congress. But the redistricting fight is far from over. Democrat-controlled New York is taking steps toward redistricting in time for the 2028 elections. So is blue state Maryland, but a court ruling on Wednesday dealt Democrats a setback. A Maryland court blocked Democrats from adding a congressional redistricting initiative to the November ballot on Wednesday. The Democrat-backed effort would have allowed Maryland residents to vote on an amendment to the state constitution to let lawmakers redraw district maps ahead of the 2028 elections. Meanwhile, battleground Georgia, where Republicans currently control the governor’s office and state legislature, is also mulling a move. “The gerrymandering crisis Trump started last year is is not over. We expect him to continue demanding new congressional maps that manipulate voting districts to protect Republicans despite what American voters want,” Bisognano told Fox News Digital. He urged state
PM Modi, Amit Shah share Raksha Bandhan greetings: ‘May the bond remain forever unbreakable’
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and several other Union ministers extended warm wishes to the nation,
Ross Fire grows to one of the largest wildfires on record in North Texas
Over three days the fire has grown to more than 80,000 acres in Palo Pinto and Jack counties and is 21% contained, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. No injuries have been reported.
After years of hardship, Texas agriculture faces a new threat: data centers
Data centers and agriculture depend on many of the same resources, such as water, land and electricity, which has some in the industry worried about the future.
Trump visits Texas to fundraise for Ken Paxton’s Senate bid
The president’s trip, which includes a GOP event and a NASA ceremony, comes as the Texas attorney general trails his U.S. Senate challenger James Talarico in the polls and fundraising.
New York Gov Hochul rejects Trump’s ‘Lake America’ renaming with blunt message
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday responded to President Donald Trump’s executive order to rename Lake Ontario to “Lake America” amid his ongoing trade war with Canada, saying her state would continue using the old name. “New York won’t be calling it that,” Hochul, a Democrat, wrote on X. Trump’s order, directs the Interior Department and Board on Geographic Names to update federal records and provide guidance so federal references reflect the new name. But Canada and international bodies are not required to adopt the new name. TRUMP RENAMES LAKE ONTARIO ‘LAKE AMERICA’ AMID INTENSIFYING US-CANADA TRADE DISPUTE “The name Lake Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, which, appropriately, means ‘the lake is beautiful, the lake is big.’ The name is more than 400 years old, predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement. “We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms. Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario — then, now and always,” he added. U.S. states are also not bound by the order and can continue using “Lake Ontario” on state maps, highway signs and tourism materials. Hochul, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers and Vermont Gov. Phil Scott were among state leaders who criticized or mocked the move. “And I just renamed Lake Michigan Lake Wisconsin. See, I can sign napkins that say things, too,” Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, wrote on X alongside a video of himself writing “Lake Wisconsin” on a McDonald’s paper napkin and signing the bottom. Vermont Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, called Trump’s move to rename the lake over the trade feud “petty and disappointing.” “We should be at the negotiating table, finding a path forward that strengthens both the U.S. and Canadian economies. Further escalating tensions does nothing to help American or Canadian families and businesses,” Scott said. The name Lake Ontario is also commonly traced to an Indigenous word translated as “lake of shining waters,” and includes around 5.6 million Americans and Canadians in its watershed, according to the Center for Great Lakes Literacy. The lake borders Canada’s Ontario province and New York, connecting the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean through the St. Lawrence Seaway. Hochul has criticized Trump for the trade war with Canada, saying earlier this week that the president is “treating our allies as enemies” and that “American families continue to suffer because of it.” TRUMP TAUNTS CANADA ON RENAMING LAKE ONTARIO THE ‘LAKE AMERICA’ AMID RISING BORDER TRADE RIFT New York is among many states expected to be hit hard by the trade war with the U.S.’s northern neighbor. U.S. goods and services traded with Canada totaled an estimated $872.3 billion last year, according to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer’s office. Carney said the Canadian government would impose retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. beginning Sept. 8 in response to the Trump administration’s new 50% tariffs on about $20 billion worth of Canadian goods, which took effect earlier this month. The prime minister said Canada “will match Washington’s new tariffs dollar for dollar in order to protect Canadian workers, farmers, families, and businesses.”
RNC threatens legal action against New Jersey officials over noncitizens on voter rolls: ‘On notice’
The Republican National Committee is escalating its fight with New Jersey election officials over voter roll records, threatening legal action as it seeks information related to noncitizens found on the state’s rolls. The RNC sent formal National Voter Registration Act violation notices Wednesday to New Jersey’s secretary of state and election officials in Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, Somerset and Union counties. The committee is seeking records related to noncitizen removals, citizenship verification efforts and other voter roll maintenance activities. Officials have until Sept. 15 to produce the records or potentially face litigation, according to the RNC. NEW JERSEY GOVERNMENT UNDER CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION AFTER EXPLOSIVE REVELATIONS ON NONCITIZEN VOTERS “Democrat (Gov.) Mikie Sherrill admitted what the RNC already uncovered through public records requests: Noncitizens are on New Jersey’s voter rolls,” RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said in an RNC release. “Now, election officials are refusing to turn over records explaining how it happened. “Voters deserve answers, and the RNC is putting officials on notice: Comply with the law, hand over the records or face legal action.” The RNC claims Bergen County records identified 134 noncitizens removed from New Jersey voter rolls between January 2023 and August 2026. Of those, 91 registrations were linked to the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC), according to the committee. Sherrill’s administration has separately disclosed that a software error at the MVC improperly registered approximately 6,600 people to vote between June 2023 and June 2024, before she took office. DEMOCRATS CONCEDE NJ VOTER-ROLL FAILURE WAS ‘HORRIBLE’ — BUT REJECT BROADER FRAUD FEARS Her administration said approximately 5,100 people affected by the error were removed from the voter rolls because they had no separate registration or attestation of eligibility. Another approximately 1,450 registrations were changed to rejected status pending further review by county election officials. The state said approximately 340 people newly registered because of the software error voted. It also identified approximately 220 people affected by the error who voted but had previous registrations or separate attestations indicating they may have been validly registered. Sherrill said county officials had been directed to resolve remaining cases before the November election. HOUSE REPUBLICANS CONFRONT NJ GOVERNOR OVER 6,600 NONCITIZENS REGISTERED TO VOTE IN ALLEGED SOFTWARE FAILURE She has also accused the Trump administration of seeking greater federal control over state voter rolls and resisted federal efforts to obtain nonpublic voter information, calling the effort a “phishing expedition here in New Jersey.” The governor’s office has said its investigation into the MVC error remains ongoing. The RNC, The New Jersey Secretary of State’s office and Sherill’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.