Epstein probe leader Comer says ‘no one is above the law’ after ex-Prince Andrew arrest
The senior lawmaker leading the U.S. House of Representatives investigation of Jeffrey Epstein is the latest high-profile official to sound off on the arrest of former British royal Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., reiterated the need for accountability and lauded the Trump administration’s commitment to releasing its own information on Epstein. “There must be accountability for anyone who was involved in Jeffrey Epstein’s horrific crimes,” Comer told Fox News Digital. “The Justice Department’s transparency is ensuring that no one is above the law — even British royalty.” News first broke of the former Prince Andrew’s arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office in the early hours of Thursday morning on the U.S. East Coast. LONDON POLICE LAUNCH CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION INTO FORMER UK AMBASSADOR TO US WITH ALLEGED EPSTEIN TIES It comes after a British police department said it was looking into a complaint that Andrew shared confidential information with Epstein, according to the BBC. While he has denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein, Andrew was one of the late pedophile’s most well-known associates through the years. Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s earliest and most vocal accusers, alleged in a memoir that Andrew had sex with her when she was a minor. STARMER CALLS ON EX-PRINCE ANDREW TO TESTIFY BEFORE CONGRESS AFTER LATEST EPSTEIN RELEASE Giuffre died of suicide in April of last year. Epstein died of suicide in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial in 2019. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., one of the earliest U.S. lawmakers to call for Andrew’s arrest in October 2025, told Fox News Digital, “If you’re watching a former prince get arrested today, remember: four Republicans refused to flinch, refused to fold, and forced the Epstein files into the light.” “Courage has consequences. So does corruption,” said Mace, also a House Oversight Committee member. EX-PRINCE ANDREW IGNORES US EPSTEIN PROBE REQUESTS AS EXPERTS WARN OF ‘GHASTLY’ OPTICS FOR ROYAL FAMILY She was one of four House Republicans who voted with Democrats to force a vote on mandating that the Department of Justice (DOJ) release all of its files related to Epstein’s case. The subsequent House vote was nearly unanimous, with just one GOP lawmaker voting against it. Meanwhile, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee sounded off with renewed calls for accountability for other alleged Epstein associates. Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., said Andrew “appears repeatedly in the documents we have uncovered as having knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes and is specifically named by victims as someone who engaged in wrongdoing.” “We hope today’s arrest will lead to answers and show that there will be accountability even if you hide, regardless of how rich and powerful you are,” he said in a statement. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., wrote on X, “This is exactly the kind of accountability we need from the Department of Justice. It’s time to bring the perpetrators to justice.”
HHS wipes out 36,000 pages of ‘regulatory dark matter’ in sweeping child welfare office purge
EXCLUSIVE: The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) overseeing the well-being of children, eliminated thousands of pages of regulatory guidance that had been languishing on the books as far back as 1976, Fox News Digital learned. The Administration for Children and Families is a Health and Human Services agency charged with promoting the economic and social well-being of kids and their families via overseeing programs such as the Head Start school readiness program, child support enforcement, foster care and adoption services, and managing unaccompanied minors. The office rescinded 35,781 pages of guidance documents after an agencywide review found 74% of its “sub-regulatory footprint” was obsolete. The documents included technical bulletins, program instructions, action transmittals and dear colleague letters — letters from federal agencies or members of Congress that typically inform colleagues on new guidance or legislation — that had accumulated across the past 50 years. The Administration for Children and Families emphasized that the rescinded documents were not erased, but instead archived online along with a detailed list of current guidance documented on the Department of Health and Human Services’ website. DOGE ERA OVERHAUL: GSA TOUTS $60B IN SAVINGS AS TRUMP SHRINKS GOV’T FOOTPRINT: ‘RESULTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES’ The Administration for Children and Families was officially established in 1991, but its origins and work stretch back decades, inheriting programs and guidance from earlier Health and Human Services offices — including major initiatives that date to the mid-1970s. “President Trump’s regulatory reform agenda is unparalleled in U.S. history,” the Administration for Children and Families Assistant Secretary Alex J. Adams said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “ACF is proud to do our part to advance the President’s agenda by taking the first of many planned actions, namely removing 36,000 pages of obsolete sub-regulatory guidance that had quietly accumulated over decades and shining a brighter spotlight on what remains,” he added. “In essence, ACF has brought our regulatory dark matter to light.” SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION UNVEILS NEW INITIATIVE TO ROLL BACK FEDERAL REGULATIONS The rescinded guidance included program-specific documents such as a memo on filing the June 1999 Child and Family Services Plan and Final Report, 2005 avian flu guidance and a 2010 staffing-change notice for the now-defunct Division of Energy Assistance. The Administration for Children and Families directed its Office of Legislation and Budget to compile a comprehensive list of guidance documents considered active — a process that took three weeks just to catalog the files, the agency said. The inventory produced more than 4,000 documents totaling about 55,776 pages, dating back to 1976. TRUMP ADMINISTRATION BANS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FROM TAXPAYER-FUNDED SERVICES, INCLUDING HEAD START Each program office was required to justify whether the individual documents were still needed, and ordered to provide written rationale if guidance was deemed obsolete or necessary. Obsolete documents were considered ones that related to old funding cycles, guidance superseded by newer rules, duplicate statutes or documents related to programs that no longer list, Fox News Digital learned. The Administration for Children and Families said the goal of cleaning up the office with outdated guidance is to reduce confusion and allow grant recipients to focus resources on “delivering outcomes for American children and families,” rather than navigating tens of thousands of pages of outdated documentation. The move aligns with the Trump administration’s broader push to pare back regulations and cut what it calls bureaucratic red tape. The Federal Communications Commission, for example, took a hatchet to outdated policies in a sweeping deregulation effort in 2025, including doing away with outdated guidance on the use of telegraphs, rabbit-ear TV receivers and phone booth rules in July 2025.
Trump’s ‘no-nonsense’ DC crackdown tops 10k arrests as DOJ declares era of ‘unchecked violence is over’
EXCLUSIVE: President Donald Trump‘s Make D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force has made more than 10,000 arrests since it launched in August 2025, and recovered more than 1,000 illegal firearms from the streets of the nation’s capital, Fox News Digital has learned. “President Trump’s federal surge in Washington, D.C. has saved lives and helped restore our Nation’s beautiful capital city for all Americans to enjoy,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a comment to Fox News Digital. “Thanks to the brave work of Gady Serralta’s Marshals, our other DOJ components, and our great federal partners, we have proven that tolerating crime is a policy choice — we choose public safety.” As of Thursday morning, the task force has carried out 10,018 arrests and recovered 1,036 illegal firearms, Fox News Digital has learned. Officials with the Metropolitan Police Department, as well as the National Guard and personnel from federal agencies such as the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Capitol Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, have taken to the streets of D.C. to conduct sweeps and root out crime since August 2025 as part of Trump’s crackdown on rampant crime. TRUMP TASK FORCE RACKS UP 500 ARRESTS IN JANUARY AS PRESIDENT BRANDS CARTELS ‘ISIS OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE’ Trump signed the Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful executive order in March 2025, which established a task force. U.S. Marshals Service Director Gadyaces S. Serralta leads the law enforcement partnership of the task force that brings together 3,100 personnel from 28 agencies to carry out the crime crackdown in the city. Trump took a hard line against a spate of high-profile attacks and killings that unfolded in the city earlier in 2025, which followed the District reeling from sky-high crime trends from the COVID-19 pandemic era, including a disturbing wave of young adults carrying out violent crimes such as armed carjackings. Now, crime has fallen as the administration champions Trump’s law and order crackdown. All in, murders in the district have fallen by 68% compared to the same time period in 2025, robberies by 47%, sexual abuse down by 64%, and violent crime across the board is down by 31%, according to data provided to Fox News Digital. The task force notably recovered or located 19 missing children amid the crackdown. The “era of unchecked violence is over,” U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “President Trump’s decisive no-nonsense strategy to restore law and order, the federal surge of law enforcement resources, combined with aggressive prosecution of violent offenders, is delivering real, measurable results,” Pirro said. “I came here to fight street crime in the nation’s capital and since then homicides have fallen to historic lows, and violent crime has dropped dramatically. Those who prey on our communities are being arrested, prosecuted, and convicted.” TRUMP MAKES GOOD ON TROOP PULLOUT PROMISE, VOWS RETURN IF DEMOCRAT CITY CRIME WORSENS The task force’s arrests include 28 for homicide, 1,693 for narcotics, 874 for weapons offenses, 34 for sex offenses and arrests of 52 known gang members. Democrats, such as Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin and Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, blasted Trump’s August 2025 federalization of the D.C. police and the multiagency task force crackdown as an attack on D.C. self-governance. Van Hollen, for example, called it an “abuse of power” and a “raw power grab,” while Raskin argued it was part of a broader plan to “militarize and federalize” cities that voted against Trump. Among top arrests include nabbing a trio of teenagers who allegedly shot and killed 21-year-old congressional intern Eric Tarpinian-Jachym in June 2025. Tarpinian-Jachym was shot while walking near the D.C. Convention Center when he was hit by a bullet not intended for him, according to investigators. His shocking death served as a catalyst ahead of Trump’s crime crackdown. Another pair of teenagers, Laurence Cotton-Powell, 19, and Anthony Taylor, 18, were arrested in October 2025 for the alleged attempted carjacking, robbery and beating of a former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer in August 2025. TRUMP DEFENDS MINNEAPOLIS FEDERAL ENFORCEMENT, SAYS CRIME PLUNGED AFTER ‘THOUSANDS OF CRIMINALS’ REMOVED Task force leader Serralta said in a statement to Fox News Digital that the 10,000th arrest marks a “monumental achievement.” “By removing 1,000 illicit firearms from D.C. streets and making 10,000 arrests, we have achieved unprecedented results, not just for the Task Force, but for all the residents, commuters, students, and visitors to Washington, D.C.,” Serralta said. “But rest assured, our work is not done. Washington, D.C is the beating heart of our great Nation, and we will not stop until we fulfill President Trump’s promise to make its communities safe again.” Other arrests include the apprehension of Alvin Young, 47, who was charged with first-degree murder while armed following a fatal shooting in March 2022. There also was the December 2025 arrest of a man named Christopher Watts, who had a warrant out of Florida for cruelty toward a child, promoting sexual performance and solicitation of a child via computer, Fox News Digital learned. WHITE HOUSE SAYS MURDER RATE PLUMMETED TO LOWEST LEVEL SINCE 1900 UNDER TRUMP ADMINISTRATION Another man, Richard Brown, was arrested earlier in February for a lengthy list of alleged offenses, including possession of a machine gun, carrying a pistol without a license, possession of an unregistered firearm and ammunition, possession of a large-capacity feeding device, unauthorized use of a vehicle, two counts of receiving stolen property, unlawful entry of a vehicle, fleeing from a law enforcement officer in a vehicle and reckless driving, Fox News Digital learned. Brown fled task force members during a routine traffic stop, drove to Maryland while being pursued and jumped out of his car before he was ultimately nabbed by officials, according to details on the task force. Removing 1,000 guns from the violent offenders “is not symbolic, it is decisive action to restore law and order in our nation’s capital,” Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Deputy Director Rob Cekada told Fox News Digital. “President Trump made it clear
DC Mayor Bowser declares emergency over Potomac sewage spill, asks for federal help
Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a disaster emergency over the Potomac sewage spill on Wednesday and requested federal assistance with the cleanup. The sewage spill has now become the largest in U.S. history, dumping over 240 million gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac River. President Donald Trump has already lashed out at Maryland Gov. Wes Moore for his handling of the spill, saying he is concerned the river winding around the nation’s capital will still stink when America250 celebrations kick off this summer. Bowser wrote a letter to Trump on Wednesday formally requesting that he issue an emergency disaster declaration, freeing up federal resources to help deal with the spill. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt emphasized Trump’s concerns in a press conference on Wednesday. Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked Leavitt if Trump is concerned the nation’s capital will “smell like poop.” TRUMP EPA SLASHES 12 YEARS OFF SEWAGE CLEANUP CRISIS THAT HAS ROCKED CALIFORNIA FOR DECADES “Yeah, he is worried about that,” Leavitt said. “Which is why the federal government wants to fix it. And we hope that the local authorities will cooperate with us in doing so.” Leavitt called on leaders in Maryland, Virginia and D.C. to “step forward and to ask the federal government for help and to ask for the Stafford Act to be implemented here so that the federal government can go and take control of this local infrastructure that has been abandoned and neglected by Gov. Moore in Maryland for far too long.” “It’s no secret that Maryland’s water and infrastructure have been in dire need of repair,” Leavitt said. “Their infrastructure has received a nearly failing grade in the 2025 report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers. This is the same grade they’ve received, five years earlier. There has been no improvement under the leadership of Gov. Moore. He’s clearly shown he’s incapable of fixing this problem, which is why President Trump and the federal government are standing by to step in.” TRUMP SAYS HE COULD SEND THE NATIONAL GUARD TO MARYLAND TO ADDRESS CRIME Moore’s office has pushed back on the administration’s rhetoric surrounding the leak, claiming the federal government has oversight over DC Water, the District’s water and sewer utility. “Since the last century, the federal government has been responsible for the Potomac Interceptor, which is the origin of the sewage leak. For the last four weeks, the Trump Administration has failed to act, shirking its responsibility and putting people’s health at risk,” a representative from Moore’s office said on Monday. “Notably, the president’s own EPA explicitly refused to participate in the major legislative hearing about the cleanup last Friday.” Leavitt continued Wednesday that environmentalists should “pray” that local jurisdictions call on Trump to step in and shore up infrastructure and carry out cleanup. “For all of the environmentalists in the room and across the District of Columbia, let’s all hope and pray that this governor does the right thing and ask President Trump to get involved, because it will be an ecological and environmental disaster if the federal government does not step in to help,” she said. “But of course, we need the state and local jurisdictions to make that formal request.”
RNC sues to stop Democrats’ Virginia redistricting push
The Republican National Committee (RNC) and two GOP members of Congress sued Virginia election officials Wednesday in an effort to block Democrats’ push to redraw the state’s congressional map, arguing a proposed constitutional amendment and upcoming special election violate Virginia’s Constitution. In a 48-page complaint filed in Tazewell County Circuit Court, the RNC, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and Reps. Ben Cline and Morgan Griffith of Virginia contend that legislation passed by the Democratic-controlled General Assembly would allow lawmakers to temporarily take over congressional redistricting from the state’s voter-approved independent commission. The lawsuit challenges House Bill 1384, which sets a special election on April 21 for voters to decide whether to amend the Virginia Constitution to allow the General Assembly to temporarily redraw the state’s congressional districts to “restore fairness in the upcoming elections.” Early voting for the special election is scheduled to begin March 6. LATINA HOUSE REPUBLICAN ASKS SUPREME COURT TO BLOCK DEMS’ BID TO ‘RACIALLY GERRYMANDER’ HER OUT OF CONGRESS The plaintiffs argue the measure was not properly adopted by two separate General Assemblies with an “intervening election,” as required under Article XII of the Virginia Constitution. The Republicans also allege the ballot language is misleading and that holding the special election less than 90 days after the amendment’s final passage violates constitutional timing requirements. MIDTERM ELECTIONS: GOP REDISTRICTING SETBACKS PROMPT LAWSUITS, GERRYMANDERING ACCUSATIONS The suit asks the court to block state officials from conducting the special election, transmitting ballots, or submitting the proposed amendment to voters, on the grounds that it fails to comply with the state constitution’s amendment process. Virginia Democrats’ redistricting push comes as other blue states have pursued mid-decade map changes in response to Republican-led states, including Texas, ahead of the 2026 midterms. PARTY OF ‘CRAZIES’: DEMS COMPLY WITH OUTRAGEOUS REDISTRICTING STUNTS DUE TO PRIMARY THREATS, STATE REP SAYS California voters approved Proposition 50 in November, a measure that could give Democrats the opportunity to gain up to five additional U.S. House seats, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.
How ICE went from post-9/11 counterterror agency to center of the immigration fight
As Democrats continue to withhold funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), former agency leaders argue their demands for new guardrails would mark the most direct congressional intervention in the agency’s operations — a turn for a post-9/11 agency that has largely defined its own operations. John Sandweg, a former acting director of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and a former general counsel for DHS, said Congress has occasionally given ICE instruction but stayed away from managing its operations. “There had been some congressional mandates, some of them through appropriations, some through authorizing statutes that compelled the creation of this system,” Sandweg said. Sarah Saldaña, former director of ICE from 2014 to 2017, believes it’s unusual for Congress to get into the weeds of how any agency carries out its mission. FETTERMAN BUCKS DEMOCRATS, SAYS PARTY PUT POLITICS OVER COUNTRY IN DHS SHUTDOWN STANDOFF “Congress has a legitimate role in oversight in the expenditure of any taxpayer funds, including ICE’s expenditure, whether it’s proper or not. It has nothing to do with dictating specific operations or tactics,” Saldaña said, while noting she’s not surprised by the attention the agency’s recent tactics have received from lawmakers. “But Congress doesn’t operate anything. They pass statutes.” ICE’s operational autonomy has led to its enforcement looking different through the years since its founding in 2003. Especially at its outset, this allowed the agency to wander from its focus, according to Sandweg. But it’s also that flexibility that he believes has allowed President Donald Trump to aggressively push its immigration enforcement operations. In response to Trump’s ICE crackdown and two deadly encounters between immigration enforcement and civilians, Democratic demands include an end to roving patrols, a ban on mask use and visible identification for agents. Democrats say they won’t vote to fund DHS, which includes ICE, until those changes are made. DHS funding lapsed at the end of last week. ICE originally stemmed from the Homeland Security Act of 2002 — the bill that created DHS in response to the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Although the agency and its operations were new, the laws ICE was tasked with enforcing had been on the books long before that. “We’re statutory,” Saldaña said. “We were created after Sept. 11 as a part of all that confusion with respect to intelligence regarding the visa overstays that ended up blowing up the World Trade Center.” That law charged DHS with assuming many of the country’s existing immigration functions: the Border Patrol program, detention and removal, intelligence, investigations and inspections. But it also came without any operational framework and didn’t even mention ICE by name. DHS FUNDING BILL FAILS AFTER SCHUMER REJECTS TRUMP’S ICE REFORM OFFER In 2004 spending legislation, lawmakers gave the agency $2.1 billion in funding along with its first congressional directives. ICE was told to set aside $100,000 for public awareness of a child pornography tipline, $500,000 for reimbursing other federal agencies and their work on recovering smuggled illegal aliens, $3 million for enforcing laws against child labor and a handful of other instructions. Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, a conservative immigration policy group, explained that ICE officials back then wanted to stay clear of immigration enforcement. “They wanted to devote resources to child sex trafficking and counterfeit goods and gangs and things like that while not doing routine immigration enforcement,” Vaughan said. “The ex-customs people in charge, they were like, ‘Yeah, we’re not doing this immigration stuff anymore.’ They wanted to do stuff that was not as politically sensitive,” she said. Sandweg agreed and described the culture as a kind of internal conflict that stretched into the Obama years. “It was a bit of a culture war, right?” Sandweg said. “Is it going to be more of this immigration-focused stuff, looking at worksite enforcement and employers who might be cheating? Or is it gonna be more investigating banks for not having adequate money laundering controls and things like that?” “That second culture took over, the customs culture,” Sandweg recalled. However, Saldaña disagrees that the agency really ever had another focus other than immigration enforcement. “There’s always been a clear mandate,” Saldaña said. “Now, every administration has its own enforcement priorities, which it’s entitled to do. And so there will be memos, executive orders, et cetera, et cetera to shape the mission,” she added. But it was a frustration with ICE’s operations that eventually got Congress a little more involved. SHUTDOWN CLOCK TICKS AS SCHUMER, DEMOCRATS DIG IN ON DHS FUNDING DEMANDS Frustrated with the lack of enforcement, lawmakers began filling in some of the blanks of what they wanted to see. In 2009, for instance, Congress passed a mandate that ICE had to accommodate no fewer than 34,000 beds for detainees when lawmakers grew concerned the agency was releasing too many people. In Vaughan’s view, the agency has only recently been asked to flex its muscles to pursue its original goal. “There has never been a president before Donald Trump who openly valued the immigration enforcement mission as much as he does,” Vaughan said. “There’s no question that ICE has been allowed to do its job the way Congress wrote the laws for them to be able to do it. And they have not had that kind of support and backing before.” For now, portions of DHS remain unfunded as lawmakers wrestle over the 10 Democratic demands. ICE itself, which received $75 billion in funding when Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act was signed into law in July, is continuing operations in the midst of the government shutdown.
DHS shutdown leaves local emergency responders on their own amid extreme weather, expert warns
EXCLUSIVE: The partial government shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security could have a critical impact on local disaster response without assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a public safety expert warned. In an interview with Fox News Digital, Jeffrey Halstead, the director of strategic accounts at Genasys, a communications hardware and software provider to help communities during disasters, said the DHS shutdown could impact emergency response and recovery efforts now that FEMA support has been restricted. “Every time that the government enters into one of these shutdowns, there’s a distinctive part of the federal government that is impacted, both reviewing the grant program or distributing funds from pre-awarded grant programs. This is exactly the area of DHS as well as FEMA that affects emergency managers, emergency response and recovering different cities, counties, and regions should they face a weather and/or disaster-related event,” Halstead said. Halstead, also a retired chief of police in Fort Worth, Texas, with more than 30 years in law enforcement, explained that government shutdowns delaying federal funds “drastically impacts” the local response to disasters. ICE SHUTDOWN FIGHT MIGHT RESTRICT FEMA, COAST GUARD TO ‘LIFE-THREATENING’ EMERGENCIES “I know personally, I was in Arizona for over 21 years, in Texas as chief of police for over seven, and then I was in Nevada for a long time, and I worked directly with a few states in the Western United States,” he said. “The last government shutdown pretty much ended their grant application process, meaning the grants would not be approved, not even be assigned and/or funds not released,” he continued. “This drastically impacts their ability to plan and to coordinate a lot of their planned response events. In Arizona, the central UASI region or the Urban Area Security Initiative, they have none of their grants being reviewed, which replaces outdated equipment, vehicles and funds training so that every quarter they can meet the standards and then be ready should something happen.” This comes as the Trump administration ordered FEMA to suspend the deployment of hundreds of aid workers to disaster-torn areas across the country during the DHS shutdown. More than 300 FEMA disaster responders were preparing for upcoming assignments, but were told to halt their travel plans. Grant systems are also not fully operational until lawmakers can reach a deal to fund the department. “The biggest impact is funding, the grants being distributed and then getting all that equipment and training aligned so that they can actually have a very successful year getting ready for a disaster,” Halstead said. DHS SHUTDOWN EXPLAINED: WHO WORKS WITHOUT PAY, WHAT HAPPENS TO AIRPORTS AND DISASTER RESPONSE “Should there be a traumatic weather event, critical incident or something that would require FEMA support, FEMA staff or FEMA resources, those may not be available,” he added. “This drastically impacts the city, county, state and federal collaboration efforts that literally are immediately engaged, aligned and resources deployed, sometimes within 12 hours. So this greatly inhibits their ability to plan effectively should a critical event, disaster event, or weather-related event come their way. They won’t have all these federal assets and resources that they have come to depend on, rely on, and work with in both their planning as well as training events or previous disasters where they responded and provided support.” As part of the move to end FEMA deployments, staffers currently working on major recovery efforts will remain on the sites and cannot return home unless their assignment ends, but no new personnel can join or relieve them without DHS approval. Recovery efforts are still ongoing in places like North Carolina, where Hurricane Helene devastated the region in the fall of 2024. As Halstead noted, the recovery effort is the “final piece for the emergency management cycle to get back to normalcy for that region.” “When that is dramatically impacted, you still see some areas of North Carolina a couple of years later still struggling in the recovery phase being completed,” he said. “That is directly related to all of these stalls and delays in FEMA, FEMA funding and the financial support needed to get the recovery phase completed.” PARTIAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN DRAGS ON AS DHS FUNDING TALKS STALL Asked about the importance of federal funding given recent extreme weather across the U.S. such as snow on the East Coast, flooding in California and fire disasters in the High Plains that forced evacuations, Halstead said it is “extremely critical” and that the delay in funds can impact the safety of local residents. “It’s absolutely extremely critical for emergency managers, your fire departments as well as law enforcement, to utilize not just these partnerships and the resources, but the funding allocations so that they can plan effectively in responding, operational control of the disaster, and then getting into that recovery mode … Then sometimes that delay, it’s going to impact the safety and the welfare of Americans,” Halstead explained. Republicans and Democrats in Congress have yet to reach a deal to end the partial shutdown, in large part due to Democrats’ demand for stricter oversight and reforms of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) following the fatal shootings last month of two U.S. citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis, which the GOP has thus far resisted. President Donald Trump argued earlier this week that it is a “Democrat shutdown” and “has nothing to do with Republicans.” Halstead said he would like lawmakers on Capitol Hill to negotiate in good faith to end the shutdown so that first responders will have “effective means to do our jobs safely and very, very efficiently.” “I know a lot of people are really upset because they leverage a significant political issue over a common funding agreement that should have been approved very quickly,” he said. “This has happened a lot in the last two to three years. We’ve seen shutdown after shutdown after shutdown. What a lot of citizens don’t realize is that when the government is shut down, all of this work — grant reviews, proposals,
NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani reverses course on homeless encampments after pausing clearings
Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Wednesday that New York City will resume clearing homeless encampments after pausing the policy for a few weeks. Mamdani paused the policy in January, arguing that it did not do enough to get people into housing. The Democrat said his new initiative will be led by the Department of Homeless Services rather than the police and will involve sustained outreach, which he said will lead to better results. “We will meet them looking to connect them with shelter, looking to connect them with services, looking to connect them with a city that wants them to be sheltered and indoors and warm and safe. And that is something that I believe will yield far better results, because it hasn’t even been the driving directive of these policies before,” Mamdani said during an unrelated news conference. Before taking office in December, Mamdani criticized how Mayor Eric Adams approached the city’s homeless encampments, and he officially paused his predecessor’s policy on Jan. 5. AFFLUENT UPPER EAST SIDE EXPLODES IN OUTRAGE OVER CONTROVERSIAL HOMELESS SHELTER: ‘UNACCEPTABLE!’ Mamdani reiterated on Wednesday that he believes Adams’ policy was a “failure.” “I made a decision with my team to put a pause on that prior administration’s policy as we started to develop our own policy that would generate far better outcomes for the city,” he said. Under the new approach, the city will first post a notice that a homeless encampment will be cleared and then send homeless department outreach workers there daily for a week to guide people into social services. On the seventh day, sanitation workers will dismantle the encampment, with the expectation that individuals have vacated the area. Mamdani said that relentless outreach would help connect with homeless New Yorkers whose “first reaction might be that of skepticism.” LIZ PEEK: HERE IS THE ONE AND ONLY THING THAT DEMOCRATS ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT “Their second reaction might be that of wariness, given their prior experiences within the shelter system,” he said. “But their third, their fourth, their fifth or sixth reaction may be one of interest in the possibility of shelter services, programing support, supportive housing.” David Giffen, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless, said his organization was “blindsided” by Mamdani’s announcement, calling it a “political response” that would do little to help the homeless population, according to the Associated Press. Giffen said the new approach would hurt trust between the city’s outreach workers and unsheltered residents, and may potentially lead to more deaths during extreme weather events. “When a city worker shows up and throws out all your belongings, you’re not going to trust that person the next time they show up offering you a place to sleep inside,” Giffen said. At least 19 people have died outside during a prolonged cold stretch in the city, raising concerns about the city’s response. The mayor’s office said there is no evidence that anyone who died was living in encampments, and it has encouraged homeless people to get to new shelters, heated buses and warming centers. Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani’s office for comment. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Trump DOJ probes Michigan schools over gender curriculum, joins lawsuit against LA race-based program
The Trump Justice Department on Wednesday launched investigations into three Michigan public school districts over gender-related classroom instruction and sought to intervene in a federal lawsuit challenging a race-based admission and funding program in Los Angeles — intensifying the administration’s push into school policy disputes nationwide. The Civil Rights Division said it is examining whether the Detroit Public Schools Community District, Godfrey-Lee Public Schools and the Lansing School District included “sexual orientation and gender ideology (SOGI) content in any class for grades pre-K-12.” If such instruction is provided, investigators will assess whether parents were notified of their right to opt their children out and whether the districts “limit access to single-sex intimate spaces, such as bathrooms and locker rooms, based on biological sex.” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said the department is focused on enforcing parental rights and Title IX. TRUMP ADMINISTRATION THREATENS TO PULL FEDERAL FUNDS FROM VIRGINIA SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN GENDER POLICY DISPUTE “This Department of Justice is fiercely committed to ending the growing trend of local school authorities embedding sexuality and gender ideology in every aspect of public education,” Dhillon said. She added that “Supreme Court precedent is clear: parents have the right to direct the religious upbringing of their children,” including exempting them from instruction that conflicts with their beliefs. Dhillon also said Title IX requires protecting “the safety, dignity, and innocence of our youngest citizens… by ensuring that they have unfettered access to bathrooms and locker rooms of their biological sex.” GOP SENATOR PROBES 18 BLUE STATES, DC OVER TRUMP’S TRANSGENDER ATHLETE ORDER The department noted the Michigan districts receive “hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer funding” and said investigators will evaluate compliance with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and the Supreme Court’s 2025 decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor. Officials emphasized the Civil Rights Division “has not reached any conclusions about the subject matter of the investigations.” In a separate action, the Justice Department said it is seeking to intervene in a lawsuit filed by the nonprofit 1776 Project Foundation challenging the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Predominately Hispanic, Black, Asian, and Other (PHBAO) Program. According to the department’s proposed complaint, the program categorizes students by race and neighborhood demographics for funding and magnet school admissions, separating students into “Anglo,” meaning White, and other racial categories. Neighborhoods with fewer than 30% White residents are designated as disadvantaged, and certain schools receive additional funding, a reduced student-teacher ratio by 5.5 students, and magnet admissions preferences. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SUES PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT OVER ALLEGEDLY DISCRIMINATORY POLICIES The complaint states LAUSD treats attending school with non-White students “as a disadvantage equal to attending an overcrowded school.” Attorney General Pam Bondi said the federal government is intervening to enforce equal protection guarantees. “Treating Americans equally is not a suggestion — it is a core constitutional guarantee that educational institutions must follow,” Bondi said. Dhillon said students “should never be classified or treated differently because of their race,” adding that “Racial discrimination is unlawful and un-American.” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said LAUSD’s desegregation program has “outlived its usefulness to the point of being unconstitutional.” The Michigan investigations remain ongoing, and the LAUSD case is pending in federal court. Representatives for the Michigan districts did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment. “Because this matter involves pending litigation, we are unable to comment on the specifics,” LAUSD said in a statement. “However, Los Angeles Unified remains firmly committed to ensuring all students have meaningful access to services and enriching educational opportunities.”
Democrats risk FEMA disaster funding collapse as DHS shutdown hits Day 5
Senate Democrats and the White House remain locked in a standoff over proposed reforms to immigration operations nationwide, a dispute that could carry unintended consequences for disaster response efforts. Without a fresh infusion of funding, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) could soon face constraints with its disaster relief operations. As hurricane season approaches, limited funding could hamper the agency’s ability to respond to major storms and other emergencies. The partial government shutdown affecting FEMA’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), entered its fifth day with no resolution in sight. GOP WARNS DEMOCRATS USING DHS SHUTDOWN TO STALL SENATE VOTER ID PUSH Before the shutdown began last week, a top FEMA official warned lawmakers that shuttering DHS could significantly strain the agency’s disaster response capabilities. Office of Response and Recovery Associate Administrator Gregg Phillips told a House panel examining the effects of a DHS shutdown that while FEMA’s disaster relief fund holds roughly $7 billion — enough to sustain emergency responses for the “foreseeable future” — a catastrophic event could quickly exhaust those resources. “That said, if a catastrophic disaster occurred, the [disaster relief fund] would be seriously strained,” Phillips said. For comparison, the federal government spent more than $50 billion on disaster relief during the last fiscal year. Phillips also noted that, during his nearly two-month tenure, FEMA had already spent $3 billion in 45 days on roughly 5,000 projects. THUNE GUARANTEES VOTER ID BILL TO HIT THE SENATE DESPITE SCHUMER, DEM OPPOSITION: ‘WE WILL HAVE A VOTE’ Earlier this week, President Donald Trump said FEMA would play a “key role” in responding to a sewage spill into the Potomac River, where roughly 200 million gallons of raw sewage poured into the waterway that runs through the nation’s capital. The cost of FEMA’s involvement in that cleanup effort has not yet been determined, a DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital. The current DHS funding bill, which Senate Democrats rejected last week, includes roughly $26 billion for FEMA’s disaster relief fund. But negotiations remain stalled as Democrats push for reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ‘IT’S ABSURD’: DHS SHUTDOWN BEARS DOWN ON US AS LAWMAKERS JET OFF TO EUROPE There has been little progress this week. Congressional Democrats sent a counterproposal to the White House late Monday, responding to an offer from the administration made last week. A White House official told Fox News Digital “the parties are still pretty far apart.” “The administration remains interested in good-faith conversations to end the Democrat shutdown before more Americans feel the impacts,” the official said. “But the administration also remains committed to carrying out the president’s promise to enforce federal immigration law.” Spokespeople for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said congressional Democrats have “been clear for weeks about the reforms needed to rein in ICE and stop the violence.” “We’ve continued working through language and additional issues to make progress, but Republicans have largely ignored the core guardrails Americans are demanding,” they said. “Dems are negotiating in good faith. It’s time for Republicans to do the same.” Unless a deal is reached before next week, the Senate is expected to vote Monday on the original full-year DHS funding bill, a measure likely to be blocked again by Schumer and his caucus.