Cops could be forced into race-based guessing game after Supreme Court move, Thomas joins dissent
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas on Monday dissented from the Supreme Court’s refusal to take up a case that they said forces police officers to create a separate set of rules for racial minorities. “It is dangerous to allow an individual to be treated differently based on statistics, studies, or expert testimony that purports to show that members of the racial or ethnic group to which he belongs are more likely to act in a certain way than are members of other groups,” Alito wrote on behalf of himself and Thomas. “Here, the special treatment helped the individual; in other situations it will not.” The case, U.S. v. Donte J. Carter, involved a Black man whose firearm and theft convictions were vacated after the D.C. Court of Appeals held that police seized him before they had reasonable suspicion. Officers later recovered a .40-caliber pistol from Carter’s pants and the government said the gun had been stolen from an FBI agent’s vehicle. According to the D.C. court, “black Americans like [Carter] are ‘especially distrustful of law enforcement’” and therefore “‘less likely’ than other people ‘to terminate a police encounter’ due to skepticism that any attempt to exercise their constitutional rights will be respected.” SUPREME COURT REJECTS BOSTON PARENTS’ APPEAL CLAIMING RACIAL BIAS IN AN ADMISSIONS POLICY The D.C. court reasoned that Carter’s race was relevant to whether a reasonable person in his position would have felt free to end the police encounter. It ruled that the encounter effectively became a seizure, and that such an action was unlawful because police officers hadn’t established reasonable suspicion before subjecting him to it. Alito and Thomas argued that the D.C. ruling effectively forces law enforcement to treat people differently based on their race, something precedent established by the Supreme Court prohibits. “Under the test, officers will need to quickly assess a person’s race, and if officers and courts must craft special rules for black persons, what about dark-skinned Latinos, other Latinos, and members of other minority groups?” Alito continued. “We have said that our ’Constitution is color-blind.’ It ‘almost never’ allows government actors to treat persons differently based on their race.” SUPREME COURT RULES ON KEY VOTING RIGHTS ACT RULE AS REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS WAGE REDISTRICTING WAR To support his claims, Alito cited Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Louisiana v. Callais and Shaw v. Reno. “And we have rejected the proposition that the Constitution permits an individual to be treated differently based on a ‘perception that members of the same racial group — regardless of their age, education, economic status, or the community in which they live — think alike,’” Alito wrote, citing Shaw v. Reno. This appears to be a direct challenge to the D.C. Court of Appeals, which lawyers representing the United States argued forced police officers to assume that all black people have the same attitudes toward police officers and would therefore feel uncomfortable exercising constitutional rights in their presence. TRUMP’S FIRING POWER FACES TWIN SUPREME COURT TESTS, BUT ONE AGENCY MAY GET SPECIAL TREATMENT Carter, the individual Alito noted was helped by the case, initially lied to officers by answering in the negative when approached and asked if he was carrying a weapon. The police then asked Carter to pull his pants up, at which point they noticed an L-shaped bulge which was later identified as a .40-caliber pistol that had been stolen from a federal agent’s vehicle.
Chicago’s deadly Juneteenth weekend leaves 7 dead as Trump shames Dem gov for inaction
The city of Chicago was rocked by a spate of shootings over the weekend, including a drive-by mass shooting on Juneteenth, leaving six dead and 39 injured in the Windy City. The shootings, which took place in a three day period between Friday evening and Sunday, prompted President Donald Trump to call on Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker to take action by requesting federal assistance. Chicago police reported that two dozen shooting incidents took place over the weekend, with victims who died ranging in age from 18 to 50, according to the Associated Press. On Friday night, two unidentified individuals fired into a crowd in Princeton Park on Chicago’s South Side, resulting in 12 people — eight males and four females — being hospitalized, according to the AP. That same night, a 29-year-old man named Mario Price was killed in a drive-by shooting in which he was shot in the body and face, according to Fox 32 Chicago. A 70-year-old man who was standing nearby was also shot in the leg but survived. Shootings continued on Saturday and Sunday, resulting in additional deaths and injuries. Besides these, on Thursday, a 14-year-old boy was shot multiple times, resulting in his death, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The outlet reported that the Midwest Hawks youth football team, of which the boy was a member, mourned his passing, saying in a statement that “there are no words that can ease the pain of a loss like this.” AG BLANCHE SLAMS PRITZKER FOR REFUSING HELP AS CHICAGO CRIME SURGES In response to the shootings, Trump shamed Pritzker for not taking action. “Lots of Killing going on in Chicago,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Why isn’t Governor Pritzker calling me for help. I could make Chicago a safe City in ONE MONTH, in ONE YEAR, it would be one of the safest!!!” The president pointed to his crime crackdown in the nation’s capital, writing, “D.C. went from one of the worst to one of the safest cities in the U.S.” Besides Washington, D.C., Trump has also deployed National Guard troops and federal authorities to Portland, Los Angeles and Memphis. After extensive legal challenges, Trump sent several hundred troops to the Chicago area late last year. However, the deployment remained tied up in court, and the troops were demobilized in January. TRUMP’S DC CRIME SUCCESS PUTS SPOTLIGHT ON CHICAGO’S DEADLY ‘WAR ZONE’ Pritzker, one of the country’s most prominent Democrats and a rumored 2028 presidential frontrunner, has repeatedly declined Trump’s offers to send the National Guard and federal authorities to crack down on crime in Chicago. In a news conference last year, Pritzker stated emphatically, “Mr. President, do not come to Chicago,” adding, “You are neither wanted here nor needed here.” Pritzker said, “If this were happening in any other country, we would have no trouble calling it what it is — a dangerous power grab.” ILLINOIS DEMOCRAT LEADERS BLAST TRUMP PUSH TO SEND NATIONAL GUARD TO CHICAGO In October, Pritzker mocked the notion that Chicago was undergoing a surge in violence during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show. Dressed in a Kevlar vest and standing in downtown Chicago, the governor quipped, “This is JB Pritzker, reporting from war-torn Chicago. As you can see, there’s utter mayhem and chaos on the ground. It’s quite disturbing.” “We’ve seen people being forced to eat hot dogs with ketchup on them, and our deep dish pizza, well, has gone shallow. So, it’s a challenge to survive here in the city of Chicago, but there’s no hellscape that I’d rather be in,” said Pritzker. Fox News Digital reached out to Pritzker for comment.
Chicago resident living in shadows of Obama Presidential Center reveal chaos caused by years-long construction
CHICAGO – A man who has lived on Chicago’s South Side for 18 years and now lives in the shadow of the newly opened Barack Obama Presidential Center described to Fox News Digital the havoc he says the years-long construction project wreaked on his housing complex. Akoma Amanze is a local cab driver who lives in Jackson Park Terrace, a low-income housing community directly across the street from the 19.3 acre campus dedicated to the 44th president. Over the weekend, while thousands of people from across the country — celebrities and ordinary folks alike — swarmed the area to visit Obama’s new campus that features a museum, library, gardens and recreational activities, Amanze and other residents took in the spectacle. But Amanze told Fox News Digital the buzz across the street was nothing new. While he made it very clear that he supports Obama, and described living at Jackson Park Terrace as a “very good experience,” Amanze and others in his complex dealt with massive headaches caused by the construction. OBAMA CENTER EMBEDS ‘INDIGENOUS’ LAND MESSAGE ON CONTROVERSIAL SITE He described the construction process, which began in 2021, as “sometimes very, very disturbing.” SUBCONTRACTORS SAY THEY’RE OWED MILLIONS, FACE FINANCIAL RUIN, AFTER HELPING BUILD OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER “He’s my man, and I’m excited that this site is here” said Amanze, referring to Obama, “but as a resident, there has been a lot of things [that] have stopped us here.” “On two occasions, my apartment flooded while they were digging the lower level of that project,” he said. “Two times. And I had to deal with the ramifications of that twice. Those ramifications were that all my apartment was flooded, and I had to throw away everything on the floor. Boxes, papers, clothes, I had to throw them away.” BUREAUCRATS HIDE TRUE PRICE OF OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER AS TAXPAYERS HIT WITH INFRASTRUCTURE BILL He said he had to suck the water out of his home himself, and then clean the entire mess up himself. Despite the destruction, according to Amanze, neither the complex’s management nor representatives from the Obama Center offered to help deal with the fallout, financially or otherwise. Then there was the reverberation from the digging, he said. “Sometimes, you stay in bed or in the apartment, [and] the digging — sometimes when they were digging deep— [it] would be shaking your bed,” he said. “I had that experience all through the construction.” OBAMA’S LEGACY PROJECT OFFERS LITTLE HOPE FOR CHICAGO’S SOUTH SIDE RESIDENTS Across the street used to be a community park where Amanze said he “more or less raised all [his] children.” “In fact, my last child, that is 14 today, there used to be a favorite swing on that park where I took him every time he starts crying or he starts showing signs of stress,” Amanze said. “I take him there, and I put him on that swing, and I swing him up and down, and then he will fall asleep, and then I bring him back home.” The park is gone now, but Amanze is not bitter. “When things are happening that you do not have the power to stop, you just have to learn to live with it,” he said. “I just learned to live with it. I’m not upset. I’m excited that my brother Obama was able to establish something this big in my neighborhood. At least in my mind, I’m a part of the history.”
Pence says Iran agreement ‘smacks of the kind of appeasement’ Trump rejected in prior term
Former Vice President Mike Pence said that the Iran Memorandum of Understanding President Donald Trump signed last week “smacks of the kind of appeasement” Trump rejected in his first White House term. “The president deserves tremendous credit for taking the fight directly to Tehran, and every American should welcome the prospect of peace. No one wants another prolonged war in the Middle East, despite the flippant accusations from isolationists on the populist right,” Pence asserted in a Wall Street Journal piece. Pence, however, characterized the agreement as nothing more than “a plan to make a plan.” TRUMP’S IRAN GAMBLE DIVIDES GOP HAWKS AND ‘AMERICA FIRST’ CONSERVATIVES OVER WHAT VICTORY LOOKS LIKE “But the memorandum of understanding with Iran signed last week falls well short of what is required to end the Iranian threat. It smacks of the kind of appeasement the president rightly rejected during our first term. It isn’t the deal a defeated Iran should be getting. It isn’t even a deal—it’s a plan to make a plan,” he asserted. “Maximum pressure worked. America’s military strength worked. The blockade worked. Iran came to the table because the regime’s existence teetered on a knife’s edge,” Pence wrote. VANCE, IRANIAN OFFICIALS END FIRST ROUND OF TALKS IN SWITZERLAND, MOVE TO NEXT PHASE “This 60-day period should be used to secure what this agreement doesn’t yet provide: an end to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, an end to Iranian-backed terror, and an end to its half-century of warfare against the U.S. and Israel. If those reasonable goals cannot be achieved, Mr. Trump should let the armed forces finish the job,” Pence wrote. ISRAELI AMBASSADOR WARNS IRAN’S GRIP ON LEBANON IS A ‘WARNING SIGN’ FOR MIDDLE EAST PEACE Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.
Obama Center isn’t a traditional presidential library. Critics say it’s an activism center.
Don’t call it a library. The $1 billion Obama Presidential Center opened with huge fanfare last week in a park near the shore of Lake Michigan, but critics say what the public thinks is a library will function as the headquarters of Barack Obama’s private foundation, promoting the 44th president’s left-wing worldview to future generations. While every other modern presidential library houses that former commander-in-chief’s papers for public viewing, the Obama Presidential Center has no such component. Instead, Obama’s presidential records are being stored elsewhere, though digital versions may one day be available there. SUBCONTRACTORS SAY THEY’RE OWED MILLIONS, FACE FINANCIAL RUIN, AFTER HELPING BUILD OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER At its core, the center serves two purposes: a museum dedicated to Obama’s presidency and the headquarters of the Obama Foundation, Obama’s private nonprofit organization. The sprawling 19.3-acre campus will host various leadership programs, while spaces there include a “Democracy in Action Lab,” conference facilities, foundation offices and a major athletic complex designed for youth sports and community programs — features not typically associated with a presidential library. Signs reading “Bring Change Home” and “A Home For Action” surround the perimeter of the campus. The messaging mirrors how the Obama Foundation has described the center in its annual reports — not as a traditional presidential library, but as a “campus” and “living institution.” “We are building more than a campus. We are creating a living institution that will inspire, empower, and connect the next generation of leaders,” the foundation’s 2024 annual report reads. The center, which as of 2021 had cost well over $800 million and is believed to have eclipsed the $1 billion mark, is a departure from presidential libraries, in both scale and purpose. “Usually, these libraries are a monument to a presidency and the presidency is in the past, it’s in the rear-view mirror,” Tevi Troy, a presidential historian and former George W. Bush administration aide, told Fox News Digital. “It looks like Obama wants to use it as some kind of activism center, something that continues to promote his ideas and his political views.” Troy said the direction did not surprise him. “Obama was a community organizer. He’s an activist. That’s how he came up, and it doesn’t surprise me that he wants to go in this direction,” Troy said. Obama himself offered a glimpse into how he views the center’s mission during Thursday’s opening ceremony. “We designed the center not to be some lifeless mausoleum,” Obama said, while highlighting Obama Foundation leaders from around the world. Among them was a Polish human-rights lawyer behind more than 30 lawsuits involving refugees, climate policy, LGBTQ rights and anti-discrimination litigation. “This center is devoted to lifting up their stories, giving them the tools and support they need to expand their impact,” Obama said. Obama later underscored that mission in his speech. “While we are non-partisan, we are not value-neutral. We have a point of view,” he said OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER WANTS 100 UNPAID VOLUNTEERS AS VALERIE JARRETT EARNS $740K Critics say Thursday’s ceremony confirmed what they feared all along: The center seems designed not just to preserve Obama’s presidency, but to carry his vision into the future. The center’s opening has reignited debate over whether the project evolved far beyond the traditional presidential library model for which many Chicagoans originally believed they were handing over their historic parkland. The public land fight The distinction matters because the center occupies roughly 19 acres of Jackson Park — Chicago’s equivalent of New York’s Central Park — under a controversial 99-year agreement city leaders approved for a one-time $10 payment. Opponents argue that transferring public parkland to a private foundation violated the public trust doctrine, a legal principle intended to preserve public assets for the public benefit. Those challenges were ultimately unsuccessful in court, although critics note that the central public trust arguments were never fully tested on the merits. “When we were defeated, we weren’t told that we were wrong on the merits,” Richard Epstein, a New York University law professor and one of the nation’s foremost experts on the public trust doctrine, who represented the local Protect Out Parks group. “We were told that we had no right to bring the complaint at all.” The Chicago City Council approved the deal with Obama, but Epstein said lawmakers were not free to simply set aside the public trust doctrine. “The public trust doctrine is meant to be a restraint on the legislature,” Epstein told Fox News Digital. “This has been an epic frustration.” Epstein said his concerns extend beyond the use of public land. Courts never fully examined whether the foundation had sufficient financial safeguards in place before receiving control of the site, including a long-promised $470 million reserve fund intended to shield taxpayers from future liabilities, Epstein said. A Fox News Digital investigation found that just $1 million has been deposited into the fund. Epstein warned that handing over public land without fully vetting the foundation’s finances could expose taxpayers to future risks if the center encounters financial trouble down the road. WATCH: NYU law professor Richard Epstein says courts never ruled on key Obama Center claims Those concerns resurfaced after a Fox News Digital investigation found minority-owned and local subcontractors who worked on the center say they were stiffed for millions of dollars. Critics also point out that the public land transfer was only part of the taxpayer contribution. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars were spent on surrounding road, utility and transportation improvements tied to the project. Supporters say those upgrades modernized the area, but opponents argue they were done to serve a privately run institution. Bait and switch? Bob Grogan, chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, said the project was initially promoted as a presidential library to win public support and secure the land, but then morphed into something very different. “This isn’t a presidential library. It’s a Democratic headquarters on the South Side,” Grogan told Fox News Digital outside the facility. Grogan described the shift as
Ex-Dem insider reveals she will expose Democrats who covered up Biden’s cognitive decline in new book
Lindy Li, a former Democratic fundraiser who switched party affiliation over unheeded warning signs about President Joe Biden’s decline in the 2024 election, is revealing new details about the red flags the party blew by. “Whatever was out there, it wasn’t the truth. They wanted him to go, and also in my book, I will be telling people exactly who was aware of Biden’s cognitive decline but pretended otherwise,” Li told Fox News Digital during a phone interview. Li, who is publishing a new book titled “Unburdened” later this year, adds to the picture of the internal discussions, the research, and the panic behind the scenes of the Democratic Party, indicating that Biden enjoyed only shaky support even among his own camp long before he ultimately dropped out of the 2024 election. Above all, Li said she was shocked by some of the party’s leading figures who expressed reservations behind the scenes about Biden’s decline, but remained staunch defenders of the president in public. BIDEN’S INNER CIRCLE LIVED IN ‘STUNNING’ DENIAL ABOUT HIS DECLINE, SAYS AUTHOR WHO INTERVIEWED TOP AIDE “I remember getting a text from Schiff,” Li said, referring to Adam Schiff, D-Calif., then a Democratic candidate for Senate and top Democrat in the House of Representatives. “I have it in my book. Basically, Adam Schiff was — I can’t remember what he said on TV, but I’m telling you right now that behind the scenes he very much wanted [Biden] to go.” A spokesperson for Schiff responded to Li’s claims, noting that the Senator had made his doubts about Biden known publicly after a 2024 debate where the president stumbled over his words, lost his train of thought and spoke in a whispery voice that, at times, was difficult to understand. He eventually called for Biden to step aside that July “The Senator’s concerns and call on President Biden to not run was very public, so none of this is news,” the spokesperson said. But even beyond Schiff, Li, who ran a formidable fundraising operation for the party and was connected with a wide swath of its figures, said that many figures who were hesitant about Biden’s cognitive abilities were afraid of putting themselves in the path of his political momentum. BIDEN AIDES WARNED DONORS DROPPING OUT AND RUNNING KAMALA HARRIS WOULD BE A MISTAKE: BOOK “They didn’t want to get ostracized by the party. It’s like the axiom: you come at the king; you better not miss. Everyone would have missed,” Li said. Li said that fear was bolstered by internal research the party had done, indicating that no one else in the party had the capital to challenge Biden. “There are many candidates who polled themselves against Biden and then realized that they couldn’t beat him in a primary. It wasn’t a matter so much of anti-Trumpism. It was self-interest,” Li said. “I’ve seen the polling data, and I also include that in my book — polling no one has seen before.” Li said that internal discussion had also revealed that Harris wasn’t considered a particularly strong candidate to take on Biden’s mantle. “She was the weakest candidate in the field,” Li said. “I also have polling data right before Kamala ascended. We stacked her against Buttigieg, Newsom, Shapiro, Whitmer — all of them,” Li said, referring to a handful of other key figures in the Democratic Party. Along with fears about going after Biden and coming up short, Li said she believes the Bidens — particularly Joe Biden — inspired a sense of loyalty in the people around him that was hard to shake. MORNING GLORY: JUST HOW BAD WERE THE BIDEN AND HARRIS CAMPAIGNS? “He had decades of loyalty — his bond with people like James Clyburn,” Li explained, referring to the chief Biden ally who had helped steer the party for decades. “There’s something about Joe Biden. He was incredibly kind,” Li said.
Trump’s Iran gamble divides GOP hawks and ‘America First’ conservatives over what victory looks like
President Donald Trump may have united Republicans behind military action against Iran, but his push to formalize peace is proving far more divisive. As details of a memorandum of understanding emerge, GOP hawks are questioning whether the administration gave up too much, while Trump allies argue the president achieved a historic objective that crippled Iran’s military capabilities without dragging the U.S. into another prolonged war. The disagreement is about more than Iran. It has exposed a growing divide inside the GOP over what Trump’s “America First” foreign policy should look like in practice — and what victory should mean once a military campaign ends. At its core, the debate centers on competing visions of American power. One camp views military success as leverage to extract maximum concessions from adversaries and secure lasting strategic gains. The other sees it as a tool to neutralize threats and end conflicts before they become another Iraq or Afghanistan. Trump’s Iran agreement has forced those competing philosophies into a rare public collision. That divide is already playing out among some of the party’s most prominent national security voices. TOP SENATE REPUBLICAN RIPS INTO TRUMP’S IRAN DEAL, SAYS $300 BILLION MAKES OBAMA DEAL LOOK LIKE ‘A PITTANCE’ The deal’s fiercest Republican critics argue Trump is giving away leverage at the very moment Iran is most vulnerable. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., has blasted the agreement on X as the “worst foreign policy blunder in decades,” while Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., has warned it appears “out of step” with the goals of the military campaign. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has questioned the concessions offered to Tehran and former U.N. Ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has criticized proposals that could help rebuild Iran. Former Vice President Mike Pence has gone even further, calling the agreement a potential “lifeline” for the regime and warning it “smacks of appeasement.” VANCE SAYS ‘UNITED STATES WINS EITHER WAY’ AS HE DEFENDS TRUMP’S IRAN DEAL AGAINST GOP SKEPTICS Trump’s allies, however, argue critics are overlooking the sweeping military campaign that preceded the agreement. Vice President JD Vance and other administration officials contend the president achieved his core objective after U.S. and allied forces struck key Iranian military and nuclear sites, eliminated senior commanders and inflicted significant damage on Tehran’s military infrastructure. Supporters say those operations crippled Iran’s ability to project power, restored deterrence and ultimately brought the regime to the negotiating table without requiring a large-scale deployment of American ground troops. They argue victory is defined by achieving U.S. objectives and ending the conflict on favorable terms — not by risking another prolonged war in the Middle East. The clash highlights a foreign policy debate that has been simmering inside the Republican Party for years. NEW SATELLITE IMAGES SHOW FIRES, NAVAL BASE DAMAGE ACROSS IRAN AFTER US-ISRAELI STRIKES While Republicans have largely rallied around Trump’s use of military force against Iran, the disagreement over what comes next reflects a deeper tension inside the party. For traditional hawks, military victories create opportunities to reshape adversaries and secure lasting concessions. For many America First conservatives, the objective is narrower: neutralize threats, avoid nation-building and keep U.S. troops out of prolonged conflicts. As lawmakers and conservative leaders continue debating the memorandum of understanding’s merits, the fight may ultimately be less about the details of the Iran deal than about the future direction of Republican foreign policy — and what victory should mean in the Middle East.
College sports sees pivotal moment as Senate looks to move legislation on NIL, transfers across goal line
Congress could determine the future of college sports. Thursday was a seminal day as to whether Congress can either salvage – or potentially ruin – intercollegiate athletics. It’s a congressional Hail Mary as senators address name, image and likeness (NIL) deals for athletes, compensation packages and transfers between schools. “College sports is in crisis,” declared Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas. “There’s a sense of urgency in that room you can feel it, right? You’ve got to do something rapidly,” said Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo. TED CRUZ, MARIA CANTWELL UNVEIL BIPARTISAN COLLEGE ATHLETICS BILL AMID NIL CHAOS, LAWSUITS, ‘LANE KIFFIN RULE’ The Commerce Committee approved a bipartisan gameplan to fundamentally alter college sports. The full Senate plans to debate the bill in July. “We have put something on the table that’s going to bring more certainty and predictability to the system,” said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the panel. Establishing a nationwide payout framework is a key aspect of the deal. Lawmakers know that inaction could mean that monied, major programs will simply outbid smaller schools. Perhaps even for a future NFL MVP. “I’m worried that we’ll never see a Josh Allen again at the University of Wyoming,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., referring to the Buffalo Bills standout quarterback. “It leaves those of us who don’t really have a donor base [to struggle to] pay for players of that caliber.” The bill also restricts athletes to one transfer between schools during a five-year period without a penalty. “Now we have this unbelievable number of players that get in the (transfer) portal every year and we have nothing to control the agents,” said former Alabama head football coach Nick Saban to a Senate panel earlier this month. UCLA QUARTERBACK ATTEMPTS TO EXPLOIT LOOPHOLE IN TRANSFER PORTAL WINDOW WITH UNIQUE TACTIC Lawmakers believe this plan will curb the constant roster chaos. Advocates of the legislation believe it protects student-athletes. “It definitely makes sure that predatory contracting done by agents or universities or conferences or shill organizations, don’t get students stuck in binding arbitration,” said Cantwell. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., is the only former Division I college athlete in the Senate. He played tight end for Stanford’s football team. Booker opposes the bill. SENS MARSHA BLACKBURN, MARIA CANTWELL HUSTLING TO PROTECT COLLEGE ATHLETES’ FINANCES IN MURKY NIL WORLD “I’ve seen decade after decade, how the NCAA has screwed athletes. And so we need to make sure there’s firm athletic protections and not trust the NCAA to do it,” said Booker. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., is the only former Division I football head coach in the Senate. He led programs at Auburn, Ole Miss, Texas Tech and Cincinnati. He joins Booker in condemning the legislation. “They’re trying to turn college sports into the same situation we got in with Obamacare,” said Tuberville on Fox News Radio. “We can’t get the federal government involved in college sports.” During a floor speech, Tuberville argued that “Congress should not decide how much money student athletes can earn.” Yet Tuberville conceded that “college sports is facing a five-alarm fire. It’s getting ready to be over with as we know it.” That’s why Cruz believes Congress should intervene. “If the alternative is do nothing and allow chaos to continue in college sports to be destroyed, I think that alternative is unacceptable,” said Cruz. Congress struggles to do lots of things right. That’s why some observers doubt that Congress is a good substitute for the NCAA. Matt Mackowiak is a former GOP Senate aide who’s written about Brendan Sorsby, his gambling scandal and the saga involving Texas Tech megabooster Cody Campbell. Big money lured Sorsby to the school for a hot minute. Mackowiak says the Cruz/Cantwell bill fails to prevent another Sorsby situation. But Mackowiak’s biggest concern is congressional willingness to undercut the NCAA. “I don’t know why you need to create some new system and make it overly complicated. You have a governing body. They haven’t had a lot of teeth in their enforcement in recent years.” Some of that is because super conferences like the Big Ten and SEC wield more power than the NCAA. Notably, neither of those conferences endorsed the Senate bill. But it was the NCAA which demanded congressional intervention. The NCAA has told lawmakers it can’t address NIL on its own and pushed for a national standard set by Capitol Hill. But Booker isn’t enamored with the NCAA. “The NCAA, which can’t be trusted, has shown decade after decade, (of) failing college athletes,” he said. There’s concern the bill could undercut current sports broadcasters by diversifying the number of streamers and outlets carrying games. That could complicate viewing. Additional options aren’t necessarily good for fans if they struggle to find their games. “Then the fans get hurt because all the content is behind a paywall,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. “I suspect everyone in this room has heard about frustrations from their constituents in trying to watch their favorite professional sports teams play. They are met with blackouts and paywalls,” said Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis. The House of Representatives stumbled in two previous efforts to regulate college sports. The House Republican leadership had to yank completely different college sports regulation bills off the floor in December and this spring because they lacked the votes. So, now it’s the Senate’s turn to try. There are lots of questions about whether the Senate, like the House, can command the votes for this bill. Moreover, what bandwidth does the Senate even have for serious legislating in July? The Senate is trying to figure out what’s next about the nomination of Jay Clayton to serve as director of national intelligence. The future of FISA Section 702 – the nation’s top program to fight terrorism – is up in the air after authorization expired a few weeks ago. And some Republicans are optimistic the Senate can advance a third “reconciliation package” to pay for the war in Iran, cut taxes and reduce fraud. It
Obama Center visitors say project symbolic of ‘Black excellence,’ claim scandal-free legacy while Trump ripped
CHICAGO — Opening weekend visitors at the Barack Obama Presidential Center called the 44th president’s legacy an example of unifying, scandal-free “Black excellence,” while they lamented what they view as a dark turn for the U.S. under President Donald Trump. “The community is great, we’re just kind of glad it’s here,” Lauren Tillman, who lives about 40 minutes outside of Chicago, told Fox News Digital. “We needed something like this. Chicago looks like a certain place to certain people who are not from the area… so I just think this brought everybody together, like, ‘oh there’s something for the community,’ for Black people, and on Juneteenth, so I thought that was great, too.” The presidential center’s opening weekend began with a star-studded private ceremony and concert on Thursday night, and the 19.3-acre campus opened to the public on Friday during the Juneteenth holiday, which celebrates the day Black slaves were declared free in 1865. TOM HANKS, OPRAH, STEVEN SPIELBERG TURN OBAMA’S PRESIDENTIAL CENTER OPENING INTO HOLLYWOOD’S HOTTEST TICKET “Just knowing that Chicago doesn’t always get the best rep, to know that we’ve had a Black president come from this place, and then to memorialize his legacy is just great,” said Ashley Woods, who joined Tillman at the opening. “To know that [Obama] was going to try to do at least something for his people, that meant a lot to me and being here means a lot,” added Tillman. “And I think, to piggyback off that, I think the legacy is Black excellence,” continued Woods. “Again, growing up in a place like Chicago, you don’t really think you can do much besides being a rapper or, you know, going into sports, but so see that somebody actually made it to the top per se, they were able to run the nation, there was very little scandal around him and his family, like it just shows you that we can be more than what America tells us we can be.” OBAMA’S LEGACY PROJECT OFFERS LITTLE HOPE FOR CHICAGO’S SOUTH SIDE RESIDENTS Sheryl Rogers and Peggy Neely-Harris made the trip from St. Louis for the weekend’s festivities. “What it means for African Americans [is] a coming together, a reckoning, a remembrance of the excellence that is within each one of us, particularly in African Americans and particularly at this time when our very existence is under attack,” Rogers told Fox News Digital. Neely-Harris agreed, and said that the brand new presidential center is a symbol of hope and renewal, and that the center is a “light in this present darkness.” OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER SLAMMED FOR PROMOTING ‘FAR-LEFT’ AGENDA ON PUBLIC LAND “[Obama] has left an excellent example of how you should live, what type of character you should have and the love of family and community,” Rogers continued. “You can see love just exudes from them, and I love to see love in action.” “No scandal,” she added. However, Obama did face some major scandals and controversies during his two terms in the White House. Obama’s DOJ infamously seized records of Fox News’ phone lines, including a phone number that belonged to the parents of a reporter. The seizure was approved after a warrant was granted by a judge, and in an affidavit seeking the warrant, an FBI agent called reporter James Rosen a likely criminal “co-conspirator” in a violation of the Espionage Act. Obama also faced government weaponization claims when his IRS allegedly slow-rolled the tax-exempt nonprofit approval of grassroots conservative organizations that set out to oppose his agenda. Groups with words such as “Tea Party” or “Patriot” in their names were allegedly hindered from forming for months and years. OBAMA CENTER SUBCONTRACTOR FILES $40M DISCRIMINATION LAWSUIT AGAINST ENGINEERING FIRM FOR OVERRUNS Operation Fast and Furious was another chart-topping Obama scandal. ATF agents intentionally allowed illegal straw purchases of weapons near the U.S. southern border with Mexico, in hopes that tracking the firearms would lead them directly to high-level cartel kingpins. But the Obama-era agency failed to monitor at least 2,000 of the weapons, which did in fact make their way into the hands of dangerous characters. One of the weapons in the ill-fated sting was used to kill Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in 2010. When, in 2012, then-Attorney General Eric Holder was subpoenaed during a House Oversight Committee investigation into the matter, he refused to comply, disallowing the committee from seeing thousands of pages of records pertaining to the operation. He later became the first U.S. cabinet official to be held in contempt of Congress, but the Obama DOJ failed to prosecute him. Obama ordered the extrajudicial drone strike killings of four terror-tied Americans in Yemen without due process. TRUMP OFFERS TO HELP OBAMA WITH PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY’S ‘DISASTER’ Twenty-six-year-old Chicago resident Valerie Reynolds told Fox News Digital she thinks the center will improve the image of the city’s South Side, which often finds itself in news headlines for violence and poverty. “I think Barack Obama’s legacy is and will continue to be the inspiration of togetherness, of the power of what can be done and what can be created when we all come together,” she said. “It’s absolutely something that we are missing today. I’ve seen divisions in this country in ways that I’ve never seen before, and I was reminded of just how vast those divisions are being out here today, because it’s the first time I’ve felt this closeness since he ran for office in 2008.” An emotional Kia Ware, a woman from Virginia, said the grand opening of the center was a sad reminder of the direction of the U.S. since Obama left office. OBAMA REMAINS DEM HEADLINER WHILE PRESIDENT WITH MOST VOTES EVER FADES INTO BACKGROUND: ‘IT WAS ALL A DREAM’ “It makes me sad because I was so proud of everything that was accomplished during that legacy in terms of, you know, fighting for vulnerable people and vulnerable lands and protection of so many things that are now being erased forever, and I feel
Trump administration probe could upend widely used transgender youth treatment guidelines
The organization widely regarded as the leading authority on transgender medical treatment is facing allegations from the Federal Trade Commission that it built influential treatment guidelines for minors on evidence its own leaders privately acknowledged was limited and uncertain. The complaint, filed in a Texas federal court by the Federal Trade Commission and the attorneys general of Alaska, Iowa, Nebraska and Texas, accuses World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) of developing and promoting guidance that healthcare providers relied upon when recommending puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and sex-change procedures for minors. The case could determine whether the medical guidance that shaped transgender treatment for thousands of children was built on solid evidence or agenda-driven speculation. FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said the lawsuit is a consumer-protection case focused on whether families were properly informed about the risks and benefits of these treatments. WASHINGTON POST ADMITS SCIENCE BEHIND PUBERTY BLOCKERS AND HORMONES FOR MINORS NOT CLEAR “Children, but especially their parents, must have complete and truthful information when making decisions to purchase medical services,” Ferguson said in a statement. “For decades, the FTC has taken action against entities that make deceptive and unsubstantiated health-related claims.” At the center of the lawsuit are allegations that WPATH publicly described its Standards of Care as evidence-based and rooted in expert consensus while some of the organization’s own leaders privately acknowledged limitations in the available evidence. The complaint cites a 2023 strategy memo from Standards of Care 8th edition lead author Dr. Eli Coleman stating that “all of us are painfully aware that there are many gaps in research to back up our recommendations.” ESSAY EXPOSES CRUMBLING MEDICAL CONSENSUS ON YOUTH GENDER SURGERY It also references comments from Dr. Amy Tishelman, lead author of the organization’s chapter on children, who acknowledged in an NPR interview that there was no established “research basis” for determining the best assessments or treatments for “transgender youth.” Federal regulators further allege WPATH removed age minimums from its 2022 Standards of Care for procedures including breast removal surgeries without scientific justification. According to the complaint, internal discussions revealed some WPATH leaders struggled to identify evidence-based reasons supporting the change. Kurt Miceli, chief medical officer for Do No Harm, a medical ethics advocacy organization, said the allegations raise serious questions about how the organization’s guidelines were developed. PLASTIC SURGEON CITES ‘EMOTIONAL BLACKMAIL,’ POOR EVIDENCE IN WARNING AGAINST YOUTH GENDER SURGERIES “The conflicts of interest that are within the standards of care are significant, and again, not brought to light, and this is part of that deception, and the concern that WPATH has sort of stated that the science is there behind pediatric medical transition when it is not.” Federal regulators allege that many of the clinicians and surgeons who helped draft WPATH’s guidelines had financial and professional interests tied to the treatments being recommended. “What WPATH did was stack the deck with folks who had a financial invested interest in promoting pediatric medical transition, and subsequently you get guidelines that push hormones, puberty blockers, and surgeries,” Miceli said. GENDER DYSPHORIA TREATMENTS POSE ‘SIGNIFICANT RISKS’ TO KIDS AND TEENS, HHS REPORT REVEALS The lawsuit argues WPATH’s influence extends far beyond its membership. Its Standards of Care have been widely cited throughout medicine and have helped shape treatment protocols, insurance coverage decisions and professional guidance across the United States. WPATH is a co-sponsoring organization of the Endocrine Society‘s widely used clinical practice guideline on gender dysphoria and gender incongruence. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry describes WPATH and Endocrine Society guidance as the two most widely known clinical guidelines used by providers caring for youth with gender dysphoria. Among the most serious allegations are claims that WPATH promoted pediatric transition procedures as “lifesaving” despite insufficient evidence that such interventions reduce suicide risk. PROGRESSIVES TRAPPED IN ‘MISINFORMATION BUBBLE’ ABOUT TRANSGENDER YOUTH TREATMENTS, ATLANTIC WRITER ADMITS The complaint cites instances in which parents were allegedly asked whether they would “rather have a live daughter or a dead son” when considering treatment options for their children. “When WPATH says that these are life-saving interventions, and then we hear physicians tell parents, ‘Would you rather have a dead son or a living daughter?’, and we hear that line repeated, which again is not supported by evidence by any means whatsoever,” Miceli said. “The benefits that WPATH is claiming are there actually aren’t,” Miceli told Fox News Digital. “In fact, the benefits are a very low certainty.” CHLOE COLE REVEALS INTENSE PRESSURE TO TRANSITION AS A MINOR, PARENTS WERE TOLD SHE’D ‘PROBABLY DIE’ The complaint alleges that some minors who underwent medical transition experienced lasting complications, including chronic pain, sexual dysfunction, urinary incontinence, fertility concerns, nerve damage and ongoing psychological distress. WPATH rejected the allegations Wednesday, calling the lawsuit politically motivated and legally flawed. “This is the second time this year the Trump Administration has abused the authority of its agencies to interfere with Americans’ rights to seek and obtain the healthcare that should be decided between a patient and their physician,” the organization said in a statement. PRISHA MOSLEY: DOCTORS TOOK MY BODY APART FOR GENDER ‘CARE.’ NOW THEY ADMIT IT WAS WRONG “For more than 50 years, WPATH has been committed to developing guidelines informed by established scientific standards, expert consensus, and patient centered values.” Miceli said the lawsuit should prompt a broader review by medical organizations that have relied on WPATH’s guidance. “We need the American Medical Association, the Endocrine Society, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychiatric Association—the list goes on—we need them to look at the evidence as well, and they need to do that immediately,” he said. “The standards of care is terribly flawed, and again it has done considerable harm as a result,” Miceli continued.