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Bureaucrats hide true price of Obama Presidential Center as taxpayers hit with infrastructure bill

Bureaucrats hide true price of Obama Presidential Center as taxpayers hit with infrastructure bill

FIRST ON FOX: Former President Barack Obama once declared that his presidential center would be a “gift” to Chicago, but taxpayers are on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars in hidden costs related to the beleaguered project. A Fox News Digital investigation shows taxpayers are now stuck footing the bill for surging public infrastructure costs required to support the project — and no government agency can provide an accounting of the total public cost, despite months of queries and FOIA requests.  “Illinois Republicans saw this coming a mile away. Now, right on cue, Illinois Democrats are leaving taxpayers high and dry and putting them on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars to support the ugliest building in Chicago,” Illinois GOP Chair Kathy Salvi told Fox News Digital. “Illinois’ culture of corruption is humming along with pay-to-play deals to their allies and friends while lying to Illinois voters.” When the project was approved in 2018, Obama pledged to privately fund construction of the expansive 19.3-acre campus in historic Jackson Park through donations to the Obama Foundation – a commitment that remains in place as the center’s construction continues to be privately financed. But the extensive infrastructure required to make the campus operationally viable — including redesigned roads, stormwater systems, and relocated utilities — is publicly financed, and without those changes, the center could not function. At the time, projections placed public infrastructure costs at roughly $350 million, split between the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago. OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER DEPOSITS JUST $1M INTO $470M RESERVE FUND AIMED TO PROTECT TAXPAYERS Eight years later, the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) told Fox News Digital that approximately $229 million in infrastructure spending was tied to the site, up from its earlier estimate of roughly $174 million.  The $229 million figure reflects state-managed spending, which may include federal transportation funds routed through IDOT. Meanwhile, Chicago officials have failed to produce a reconciled total showing how much city taxpayers have committed or how current spending compares to the roughly $175 million discussed when the project was approved. Fox News Digital submitted records requests and press inquiries to every agency involved in the infrastructure work, including the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), Chicago’s Department of Transportation (CDOT), the Office of Budget and Management (OBM), the Mayor’s Office and Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration. Not a single office provided a unified, up-to-date accounting of total public infrastructure spending tied to the project. The investigation involved months of FOIA requests, partial disclosures and repeated follow-ups. No single agency appears to oversee the full scope of the infrastructure work, and neither the state nor the city has assembled a reconciled accounting — a fragmentation that has made the overall public cost difficult to determine. Instead, agencies provided partial figures, declined to clarify whether city and state totals overlap or insisted that no consolidated total exists. The Illinois Attorney General’s Public Access Counselor (PAC) is reviewing whether multiple agencies complied with state transparency laws following Fox News Digital FOIA requests.  The center sits on 19 acres of historic public parkland carved out in a controversial transfer for just $10 under a 99-year agreement, making the question of public infrastructure spending particularly sensitive. Legal challenges to the land transfer, including lawsuits arguing the arrangement was not in the public interest, were ultimately dismissed, although the merits of the arguments were not adjudicated on. The center — though commonly referred to as a presidential “library” — will not function as a traditional facility operated by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and former President Obama’s official records will be maintained by NARA at a federal site in Maryland. While the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago is expected to provide digital access to archival materials, it will not serve as a federally operated records repository. Instead, the Chicago complex will be operated privately, without rent payments, by the Obama Foundation, the former president’s nonprofit organization, which oversees leadership programs and civic initiatives aligned with his values and policy priorities. Construction costs for the facility itself have ballooned from early estimates of roughly $330 million to at least $850 million, according to the foundation’s 2024 tax filings, although these expenses are being borne by private donors. Meanwhile, a $470 million reserve fund — known as an endowment — that the foundation promised to fill to protect taxpayers should the project go belly-up, has received only $1 million in deposits, Fox News Digital previously reported. OBAMA LIBRARY, BEGUN WITH LOFTY DEI GOALS, NOW PLAGUED BY $40M RACIALLY CHARGED SUIT, BALLOONING COSTS Taxpayers often fund routine improvements near major civic projects — such as turn lanes, utility hookups or upgraded traffic signals — but the scale of the work surrounding the Obama Presidential Center is far more extensive. By comparison, other modern presidential libraries required only limited public infrastructure upgrades and did not involve the removal of a major roadway or the wholesale redesign of a historic park’s traffic pattern. Much of the publicly financed work reshaped the roads and utilities that once ran through Jackson Park. Cornell Drive — a four-lane roadway that bordered the center’s east side by the park’s lagoon — was permanently removed under the center’s site plan and enveloped by the campus. Traffic that once ran alongside the lagoon has been rerouted farther west, reducing the number of public roads directly adjacent to the complex and creating a more unified campus footprint around the center. Crews also tore down trees, relocated water mains, sewer lines, and electrical infrastructure and installed new drainage systems tied to the facility’s structural needs as part of the public infrastructure project. City and state officials say the changes were necessary to manage traffic and visitor demand. Critics argued the redesign altered long-standing park infrastructure to accommodate the foundation’s preferred layout. What’s clear is that without those road closures, reroutes and utility relocations, the project would not function as designed. The Obama Foundation, which is funding the center’s construction, defended

Judge forces CA hospital to keep trans treatments for minors despite Trump funding threat

Judge forces CA hospital to keep trans treatments for minors despite Trump funding threat

A California judge is requiring a San Diego children’s hospital to continue providing transgender treatments to minors for now, extending a temporary restraining order as hospitals in California and New York take sharply different approaches to President Donald Trump’s executive order threatening to pull federal funding. San Diego Superior Court Judge Matthew Braner agreed last week to extend a temporary restraining order by 15 days, allowing Rady Children’s Health to continue providing hormone therapy and puberty blockers to minors despite the Trump administration’s efforts to ban such treatments and fears of losing federal funds. The judge’s order comes as a New York City hospital announced this week it is ending its Transgender Youth Health Program in part due to the “current regulatory environment” — a result of Trump’s executive order aimed at banning transgender medical procedures for minors. FLORIDA EXECS SENTENCED IN $233M OBAMACARE FRAUD THAT TARGETED HOMELESS, HURRICANE VICTIMS At issue is Trump’s executive order, signed shortly after he took office, that seeks to end transgender treatment for minors. In December, the Health and Human Services Department proposed a new rule that would strip federal Medicare and Medicaid funding for hospitals that provide “sex‑rejecting procedures” for children under the age of 18. NYU Langone Health, one of New York City’s largest hospital networks, said the change was due to what hospital officials cited as the “current regulatory environment.”  Meanwhile, lawyers for the San Diego hospital argued in court that continuing the treatments for minors, even temporarily, could expose it to immediate risk and threaten its Medicaid and Medicare funding — a critical revenue source given Rady’s status as Southern California’s largest children’s health care provider. Braner acknowledged after hearing from both parties that Rady and other hospitals likely feel caught “between a rock and a hard place” amid heightened scrutiny from the Trump administration. Still, he said concerns about losing funding could be quickly addressed if that scenario unfolds. “We’ll clear our calendar, and we’ll have a hearing within 24 hours of any notice” from HHS, he said, according to local news outlets. 100 DAYS OF INJUNCTIONS, TRIALS AND ‘TEFLON DON’: TRUMP SECOND TERM MEETS ITS BIGGEST TESTS IN COURT The reassurances from the judge, whose extension is slated to last through March 15, did little to assuage Rady’s lawyers, who cited the risks of noncompliance and told the judge that even in a short window, continuing the treatments could pose a “catastrophic risk.” The legal back-and-forth comes as more than 40 hospitals in the U.S. have so far restricted such treatments for minors, in compliance with the administration’s guidance, according to data compiled by STAT News earlier this month.  “Given the recent departure of our medical director, coupled with the current regulatory environment, we made the difficult decision to discontinue our Transgender Youth Health Program,” NYU Langone officials said in a statement this week announcing the hospital was ending transgender treatment for minors. “We are committed to helping patients in our care manage this change. This does not impact our pediatric mental health care programs, which will continue,” the hospital said. Officials at Rady in San Diego previously announced the hospital would also stop treatments for minors in accordance with the Trump administration’s guidance. The announcement prompted California Attorney General Rob Bonta to file a lawsuit earlier this year.

Liberals lose their minds over Justice Department banner featuring Trump

Liberals lose their minds over Justice Department banner featuring Trump

A newly installed banner at the Department of Justice headquarters displaying President Donald Trump‘s face sparked criticism from detractors, who likened it to authoritarianism and questioned the department’s impartiality. Prominent Democrats, including Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, and a slew of anti-Trump legal experts weighed in on social media Thursday, saying the banner symbolized a biased DOJ. The department said the banner, which read “Make America Safe Again,” honored the White House’s efforts to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary. “We are proud at this Department of Justice to celebrate 250 years of our great country and our historic work to make America safe again at President Trump’s direction,” a DOJ spokesperson told Fox News Digital. TRUMP INSISTS GOPERS ‘LOVE’ DOJ TARGETING JEROME POWELL, SAYS HE ‘CAN’T HELP’ IT IF IT LOOKS LIKE RETRIBUTION Meanwhile, Newsom called the banner “beyond parody,” while Democratic senators accused the DOJ of weaponizing its authority to appease the president, who has openly called for the prosecution of his political rivals. “President Trump is weaponizing the DOJ as his own personal law firm,” Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., said. Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., also chimed in. Federal prosecutors recently failed to secure an indictment against him after he instructed military members to refuse to follow illegal orders. “The grift, groveling, and weaponization of our government is chilling,” Crow said. “The Justice Department works for the American people. They shouldn’t be political henchmen for Donald Trump–or any other President.” Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., said: “The Department of Justice is supposed to work for and represent you, not him.” David Frum, a writer for The Atlantic, said the DOJ was a “a pure creature of presidential whim, retribution, and cover-up,” adding the banner had “the virtue of candor at least.” Prominent never-Trumper Bill Kristol said the banner was “shameful.” “But in a way useful,” Kristol added. “No one should any longer pretend we have a “Department of Justice.” We have a Department of Trump.” Attorney Barbara Comstock, a former Virginia U.S. congresswoman and high-profile Never Trump voice, asked if the banner was artificial intelligence. “Nothing says Justice is Blind like hanging a Dear Leader Banner at DOJ…,” Comstock said. Others called it a sign of “fascism” and compared it to North Korea, Nazi Germany and the Chinese Community Party. Larry Pfeiffer, a former longtime intelligence community official, said the “Pyongyangification of Washington DC continues.” EX-JUDGES BLAST TOP TRUMP DOJ OFFICIAL FOR DECLARING ‘WAR’ ON COURTS The banner is not the first to unfurl on a federal building in Washington, D.C., as part of the White House initiative to honor 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Indendence. The Department of Labor has for months prominently featured a similar sign reading “American Workers First.” Republicans had a largely muted response to the move to install Trump’s face on the DOJ. Jason Miller, Trump’s former senior adviser, gave it thumbs-up emojis, while U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin simply said, “True.”