Powerful teachers’ unions share striking link with states struggling to teach kids to read
States with stronger teachers’ unions tend to have weaker literacy performance and have adopted fewer of the policies credited with improving reading outcomes, according to a new analysis from a center-left think tank. Eight of the 10 states to score among the worst in the Progressive Policy Institute’s (PPI) assessment of early-literacy policies were home to powerful teachers’ unions. Among the top 60% of states in terms of early-literacy policy scores, only four had strong teachers’ unions. Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina and Indiana, all Republican-leaning states with weak unions, were among the states with the best literacy outcomes. Maine, New York, Illinois, Hawaii, Washington and Rhode Island, blue states, were among the worst. ARKANSAS STUDENTS OUTPERFORM NATIONAL AVERAGE AFTER UNIVERSAL SCHOOL CHOICE EXPANSION, GOVERNOR SAYS The pattern isn’t universal. Maryland, a blue state with a strong teachers’ union, has posted strong reading results, while South Dakota, a red state with a weaker union, has struggled. The differences suggest union strength and party control alone don’t explain states’ reading performance. Rachel Canter, PPI’s director of education policy, conducted the analysis with colleagues by comparing teacher-union strength rankings with states’ early-literacy policy scores. Canter is also one of the people behind the slate of educational reforms in Mississippi that propelled the state from among the worst in the country for educational outcomes to among the best. “Democrats, however, don’t often ask me how to replicate Mississippi’s success,” Canter said. “They ask if it’s possible at all, given the power of teachers’ unions in their home states.” Teachers’ unions, according to Canter, exert massive amounts of influence over both educational policies and how those policies are implemented in the classroom. This can make schools in states with stronger unions slower to adapt to challenges or to adopt new, better methods. TEACHERS UNION FACING YEARS OF DEFICITS SEEKS TO BECOME OREGON’S LARGEST PAC, INTERNAL DOCUMENTS SHOW Mississippi’s reforms, among other things, added kindergarten-through-third-grade screenings, literacy coaches, individual reading plans and held back third-graders who failed the state reading test. The state reinforced those measures with science-based reading instruction, increased teacher training and tougher licensing requirements. Tweaks to teaching like these can be difficult to achieve in states with influential teachers’ unions, with labor reps arguing that the changes place undue burdens on educators. ILLINOIS DEMOCRATIC GOVERNOR BUCKS TEACHERS’ UNIONS IN SUPPORT FOR STATEWIDE CLASSROOM PHONE BAN Many of the states that underperformed in the Progressive Policy Institute’s study also have Democratic leadership. Teachers’ unions spend hundreds of millions of dollars every electoral cycle on electing Democrats and pushing left-of-center policies. “States dominated by Democrats have been slower to embrace similar reforms,” Canter said. “Organized labor might explain some of this gap.” Multiple GOP-led Southern states have adopted educational reforms similar to those introduced in Mississippi. Those same states dominated the Progressive Policy Institute’s rankings of the states with the best student literacy.
Trump’s $5K checks could join stack of past unfulfilled promises, former Congress budget chief warns
President Donald Trump’s latest cash promise to Americans is unlikely to come to fruition, just like others before it, an economist and former congressional budget hawk told Fox News Digital. “So the president has promised a lot of checks, the most recent being $5,000 to every American if Republicans hold on to the House and Senate. We ever going to see these? Well, I don’t think so,” said Douglas Holz-Eakin, president of fiscal policy think tank American Action Forum. Holz-Eakin previously served as the director of the Congressional Budget Office and as the director of domestic and economic policy for late Republican Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. TRUMP DEFENDS $5,000 DIVIDEND PROPOSAL, PRAISES ‘BEAUTIFUL’ TARIFFS ON ‘INGRAHAM ANGLE’ “The DOGE checks were never realistic because DOGE was never going to save that much money,” said Holz-Eakin in reference to the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency’s sweeping layoffs and budget cuts to federal agencies. He continued: “And the tariff checks were never that realistic because [Trump] didn’t have the authority to issue the checks, and that’s actually true of all of these promises.” Holz-Eakin also mentioned the Trump administration’s recently proposed plan to give $9,000 checks to stay-at-home mothers likely won’t come through either. “Trying to get money to stay at home moms for childcare, there’s a route to that, but it’s gonna be tough … we’ll see if they actually pull it off,” he said. “So, I would be skeptical that any of these checks are gonna be in your mailbox very soon.” The internationally-known economist likened the Trump administration’s fiscal policy to that of former President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration. “I think we’ve seen two successive administrations get themselves in the following position: inflation is too high and wages aren’t keeping up with it. Well, that’s failing at the American dream,” Holz-Eakin explained. THE FED JUST THREW A WRENCH IN TRUMP’S MIDTERM ECONOMIC MESSAGE He said that getting inflation under control was the first step in restoring order, as well as being “utterly supportive” of the Federal Reserve, which Holz-Eakin says is working to achieve that goal. The Fed hiked interest rates Wednesday for the first time in three years, and signaled that more rate increases could be coming. This comes despite Trump’s push to have the world’s most powerful central bank lower interest rates to lessen the monthly burden on Americans seeking home and auto loans. “Inflation remains elevated,” the Federal Open Market Committee said in a post-meeting statement. “Today’s policy action will support a timelier return to the Committee’s 2 percent goal. The Committee will deliver price stability.” “You need to have, I think, a more vibrant economy, and this economy is doing okay, but it’s putting up with a lot of headwinds,” said Holz-Eakin. He named specific Trump administration policy decisions he says are to blame for the lackluster economy, which has burdened the middle class as grocery prices continue to rise. “The first headwinds were tariffs, second headwinds were the oil prices and fight with Iran, and we need to get past those battles, and let the economy just go, and … that would be a better environment for the families,” he told Fox News Digital. CONGRESS SPENDS $7 TRILLION. HERE’S HOW THAT MATH WORKS OUT IF YOU THINK OF JUST $100 As for overall fiscal policy, Holz-Eakin says he’s worried that the country is going in the wrong direction when it comes to economic and fiscal policy. “I’m a former director of the Congressional Budget Office. I have to every day get up and look at the books and wonder, ‘how’s this going to add up?’” he said. “And right now it doesn’t add up.” “We’re $41 trillion in debt. The deficit is $2 trillion every year and it’s getting larger. You can’t just keep putting people on the on government programs. It won’t add up.” He proposed a fix — reverting to “old-school conservative” politics. “I’d like to see a bit of a U-turn that got the debt under control, didn’t spend quite so much money, and got through this without having to raise our taxes. So, that sounds like an old-school conservative plan to me, but that’s not what we’re seeing right now.” Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on Trump’s economic promises, but did not hear back at time of publication.
Federal judge ties ICE agents’ hands with ruling on warrantless Southern California arrests
A federal judge with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California issued a preliminary injunction to block the U.S. government from conducting warrantless civil immigration arrests in the district unless the arrestee is deemed likely to escape before a warrant can be procured. “Defendants are enjoined from enforcing their policy and practice of making warrantless civil immigration arrests in this District without a prearrest individualized determination by the arresting agent or officer of probable cause that the person being arrested is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained, as required by 8 U.S.C. 1357(a)(2) and 8 C.F.R. § 287.8(c)(2),” the order signed by U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong reads, in part. Frimpong was nominated by former President Joe Biden during his White House tenure. EXCLUSIVE: 25 YEARS AFTER 9/11, ICE SAYS MORE THAN 2K KNOWN OR SUSPECTED TERRORISTS HAVE BEEN DEPORTED “Mere presence within the United States in violation of United States immigration law is not, by itself, sufficient to conclude that a person is likely to escape before a warrant for arrest can be obtained,” the judge’s order notes. The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California encompasses the following counties: Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. ANGEL DAD REBUKES DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKERS OVER SANCTUARY POLICIES AFTER DAUGHTER KILLED BY TWICE-DEPORTED FELON “This ruling is one of the most important decisions to date in the community’s effort to end the federal government’s cruel and illegal practice of abducting people and separating them from their families,” ACLU Foundation of Southern California senior staff attorney Mayra Joachin declared in a statement. “By requiring immigration agents to follow the law’s requirement to make escape risk determinations before they can arrest someone without a warrant, this court order should put an end to hundreds — if not more — of unlawful arrests that continue throughout Southern California. We will closely monitor compliance with this court order, and expect the federal government to abide by it,” Joachin added. MAMDANI BLASTS FEDS FOR WAGING ‘CAMPAIGN OF VIOLENCE AND TERROR’ AGAINST NYC’S IMMIGRANTS The Department of Homeland Security provided Fox News Digital with the following statement on Thursday: “ICE has authority for lawful arrests where authorized under 8 USC 1357. Law enforcement officers use ‘reasonable suspicion’ to investigate immigration status and probable cause to make arrests consistent with the statute and the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Supreme Court has already vindicated us on these practices.”
Political insider turns anti-incumbent table on 8-year Dem in key Senate race: ‘Hasn’t delivered’
CONCORD, N.H. – A Republican running to flip a blue Senate seat in a crucial battleground state is flipping the script on the Democrats’ anti-incumbent argument. Former Sen. John E. Sununu, the GOP Senate nominee who’s running to return to Capitol Hill after 18 years away, charges that his Democratic rival, Rep. Chris Pappas, has “been in Washington for 8 years and hasn’t delivered for New Hampshire.” Sununu and Pappas are facing off in the midterm election in the battle to succeed retiring longtime Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in a race that’s one of roughly a dozen that will determine if Republicans hold their control of the Senate. “He has attempted very little in Congress. He’s accomplished even less,” Sununu said in an exclusive Fox News Digital interview this week, as he blasted Pappas, a four-term congressman. THESE 12 MIDTERM RACES WILL DETERMINE IF REPUBLICANS HOLD THE SENATE Sununu was interviewed ahead of a move by the Cook Political Report, a top nonpartisan campaign handicapper, to shift the race in New Hampshire from lean Democrat to toss-up. Earlier this month, another leading nonpartisan handicapper, Inside Elections, also changed their rating to a toss-up. It was a rare move in favor of the Republicans amid a political cycle where the GOP is facing traditional political headwinds for the party in power in D.C.. Republicans are also confronting an extremely rough political climate fueled by persistent inflation, soaring fuel prices due to the ongoing war with Iran, and President Donald Trump‘s underwater approval ratings. So what’s Sununu’s secret sauce? Part of it is his last name, which is a political brand in New Hampshire. Sununu’s father, John E. Sununu, served six years as governor before heading to Washington, D.C., as then-President George H.W. Bush’s White House chief of staff. And one of his younger brothers, Chris Sununu, recently served eight years as governor before taking a break from politics. But also boosting Sununu, his strategy to blast Pappas as a do-nothing member of Congress during another anti-incumbent election cycle, which is a turn of the tables on the Democrats’ playbook. CHECK OUT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS IN THE BATTLE FOR THE SENATE “He’s been on the Transportation Committee for eight years, and New Hampshire is dead last in highway funding in New England. That hurts New Hampshire. His ineffectiveness is doing damage to the state because we’re not getting the support we need from Washington,” Sununu claimed. While it doesn’t rank dead last in every single metric or category, New Hampshire receives some of the lowest total and per-capita levels of federal funding for roads, highways and bridges of any state in the country, according to federal and state figures. Pappas, earlier this year, introduced the Highway Fair Share Act, a bill to increase federal funding for infrastructure and transportation projects for New Hampshire by requiring that each state receive at least 0.5% of the total federal-aid highway formula funding. Pappas and the rest of the all-Democratic congressional delegation in June highlighted $9 million in federal funding for New Hampshire projects. “Chris Pappas has led efforts to expand healthcare benefits for 3.5 million veterans, bring high-speed internet to towns across New Hampshire, put more money back in the pockets of working parents, and secure millions of dollars to improve and repair roads, bridges, and buildings,” Pappas Campaign Manager Rachel Petri told Fox News Digital, as she shared a long list of funding accomplishments by the congressman. Petri said, “Chris is rated among the most effective and bipartisan lawmakers and his record stands in stark contrast to John Sununu’s record of voting to cut Medicare, leading efforts to privatize Social Security, and backing Donald Trump’s tariffs and war with Iran.” Sununu’s anti-incumbent argument is a bit ironic, considering he spent six years in the House and a term in the Senate before losing a rematch with then-former Gov. Shaheen in the 2008 election. Looking back at his years on Capitol Hill, Sununu touted his record “of writing and passing legislation under Democrat presidents, Republican presidents, a Democrat Congress, Republican Congress.” But he also emphasized, “I’ve been in the private sector for the last 16 years. That’s a good thing, working for tech firms and small businesses, the Waterville Valley ski area [the Sununu family has had a controlling interest in the resort since 2010], teaching college. It’s… a perspective that I think is missing from Washington.” WHAT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLS IN KEY MIDTERM RACES SHOW Pappas, in a recent Fox News Digital interview, highlighted that New Hampshire is “a state of voters who are pragmatic, who want their lives to be better and want problems to be solved, and I can demonstrate the ways that I’ve been working on those issues.” “It’s expanding access to health care, building more affordable housing in New Hampshire, and ensuring that we’re standing up to an administration that’s ignoring the day-to-day concerns of Granite Staters,” he added. But Sununu wasn’t the only one taking aim at Pappas as a do-nothing incumbent. Even his long-shot socialist rival in last week’s primary took a shot. First-time candidate and scientist Karishma Manzur, in a recent Fox News Digital interview, charged that “all [Pappas] wants to do is just get his little cushy job and go to D.C., go to all these parties and these restaurants and just do whatever the bare minimum is.” Pappas ended up crushing Manzur in the primary by a two-to-one margin, and Sununu defeated former Sen. Scott Brown in a landslide to capture the GOP nomination. DEMOCRACY ’26: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER With the general election sprint underway, Republican-aligned outside groups are now pouring millions into the state to target Pappas. And Pappas is using this week’s Cook Political Report race rating to ring an alarm. “MAGA super PACs are pouring millions of dollars a week into New Hampshire to try to flip this seat. And this race
Leaked Trump plan sparks GOP showdown over how far Republicans should go to support families
The Trump administration is reportedly floating a plan to let some married families with a stay-at-home parent tap federal childcare dollars — a proposal that has triggered a growing fight among conservatives over how far Washington should go to support family life. The reported proposal would expand eligibility for Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) assistance to some married families in which one spouse works at least 35 hours a week and the other stays home, with the benefit averaging about $9,000 per child annually, according to reports. The New York Times reported Sept. 5 that the administration was considering the proposal in the context of Vice President JD Vance’s long-standing advocacy for extending childcare assistance to stay-at-home parents, although a White House official told Fox News Digital that Vance has not pushed this specific proposal. AMERICA’S CHILD CARE CRISIS NEEDS MORE PARENTAL FREEDOM — NOT MORE WASHINGTON CONTROL “Until the administration officially unveils a policy push, any leaked reporting about potential policy ideas that have been neither fully baked nor released should be regarded as pointless speculation,” said the official. The Child Care and Development Block Grant was enacted in 1990 under President George H.W. Bush, and the 1996 welfare overhaul under President Bill Clinton amended the program and integrated it with mandatory childcare funding streams that are now commonly known as the Child Care and Development Fund. In a White House press release posted close to Mother’s Day, Trump touted how his administration is working to “better empower stay-at-home parents.” In May, the Department of Health and Human Services issued new CCDF guidance clarifying states’ flexibility in how parents can choose among federally permitted childcare providers and services. Critics of the reported proposal, including some Republican and conservative advocates, have warned that it could increase government oversight and create new concerns involving fraud, benefit cliffs, dependency or incentives around work. Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene also labeled the idea as “socialism” in an X video, while conservative radio host Erick Erickson said on X the plan is “welfare for married people,” and allegedly showed a recent pattern of the GOP pivoting toward “Diet Coke of Socialism.” TRUMP FACES RECKONING AS GOP FIGURES LABEL $5K PROMISE A ‘SOCIALIST VOTE-BUYING SCHEME’ “I am old enough to remember a time when Republicans were against government entitlement programs,” said Meghan McCain. Some conservative figures and advocates have expressed support for the concept, arguing that federal policy should provide greater support to families that choose to have a parent remain home with children. American Principles Project President Terry Schilling told Fox News Digital that the nuclear family needs to be reconsidered after years of government policies promoting multiple undergraduate and graduate degrees while delaying marriage and homeownership. “For decades, Washington paid institutions to raise kids while lonely young people delayed marriage, homeownership and children,” said Schilling. “If policy helped break the family, policy can help restore it to the center of American life by putting money in parents’ hands, not in the pockets of daycare chains, unions, and nonprofits.” The Advancing American Freedom (AAF) organization, founded by former Vice President Mike Pence, urged conservatives to oppose the reported plan. Rachel Greszler, AAF economist and welfare expert, told Fox News Digital in an interview that “government is not the solution to family life.” “I fear that if we cross into that, that is taking what is supposed to be like a work-oriented welfare program and turning it into social engineering,” she said. Greszler expressed concern that sending government checks to stay-at-home parents would inevitably require guardrails to prevent fraud and abuse — potentially bringing greater government scrutiny into the home. TRUMP’S WELFARE REFORMS ARE A MAJOR VICTORY. BUREAUCRATS COULD STILL WRECK THEM “If we are going to invite checks for parents who are staying home with their children, you are also going to be inviting the government into your home to make sure that you are doing what they think you should be doing with a stay-at-home parent check,” said Greszler. She warned that even if conservatives are comfortable with how a Republican administration uses the program, establishing that government power could have unintended consequences if control of the White House changes hands. “I worry that this would open the door into using taxpayer funds for social engineering. That in a different administration after another election could be used for the exact opposite intent of what certain conservatives are looking for right now to use it,” Greszler added. DRIVEN BY PROGRESSIVE DOOMISM, LIBERALS ARE HAVING FEWER BABIES THAN CONSERVATIVE FAMILIES Schilling said the earlier Americans marry and start families, the more prosperous the country will be, and this program will give support to married families over commercial daycare networks to raise children. “Traditional welfare routes money through middlemen and too often subsidized family breakdown. This proposal works on the same principle as Republican healthcare reforms: instead of sending subsidies to insurance companies, put the money directly in the hands of families,” he said. Schilling says critics call it dependency when a parent stays home, but call it “investment” when a bureaucracy does it. Florida GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna shared an article on the plan and wrote, “Being a stay-at-home parent is a full-time job and there should be resources and reward available to families that do this.” Fox News Digital reached out to the office of the vice president and the White House for comment.
Democrats reluctantly hand Trump major victory on fraud program targeting Tim Walz
President Donald Trump’s crackdown on government fraud is getting unexpected backup from a majority of House Democrats, including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. More than 140 House Democrats voted with all Republicans to make the National Fraud Enforcement Division permanent on Wednesday. The bill passed in an overwhelming 352 to 72 vote, with all of its opponents being Democrats as well. Trump’s White House first announced the creation of a new division within the Department of Justice (DOJ) to combat fraud in January 2026, primarily targeting “fraud affecting the federal government, federally funded programs, and private citizens,” according to a release by the administration. It was notably used as a cudgel against Trump’s political enemies earlier this year, when Vice President JD Vance referred Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and state Attorney General Keith Ellison to the fraud division for a potential criminal investigation. WHITE HOUSE PUSHES ‘WATERSHED’ FRAUD-FIGHTING REFORM IN CONGRESS AS VANCE CONVENES TASK FORCE Republicans accused Walz and Ellison of helping facilitate what’s become a ballooning fraud scandal affecting Minnesota’s social welfare programs. Both have acknowledged that taxpayer dollars were taken advantage of but accused GOP actors of casting the situation as worse than it actually is as a political attack. VANCE REFERS TIM WALZ, MINNESOTA ATTORNEY GENERAL TO DOJ FOR CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION OVER STATE’S ALLEGED FRAUD The Trump administration’s announcement of the fraud division also touted its actions in Minnesota, which it said was experiencing a “fraud epidemic.” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a top House progressive, said he would give “tepid support” to the legislation, while pointing out a fraud division has already existed within the DOJ for decades. REPUBLICANS DECLARE WAR ON ‘ORGANIZED THEFT’ WITH GOVERNMENT FRAUD CRACKDOWN “This is hardly some kind of great breakthrough in law enforcement or criminal justice, but it is perhaps the least offensive piece of legislative flotsam and jetsam that has washed ashore in the last 48 hours of Republican chaos and retreat here in the House of Representatives,” Raskin said on the House floor. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., responded, “This conversation is about a piece of legislation. It’s about a piece of legislation that we want to be enacted into law. It’s not a partisan initiative. It’s a permanent, nonpartisan commitment that we do something better because the people who are listening here… the people who are watching, they’re getting tired of it.” “They’re getting tired of all the money that has been wasted. And to try to pretend that just a few years ago, a couple of years ago, everything was perfect, everything was taken care of and that there was no corruption, we know better,” Van Drew said. Raskin spent a significant amount of time accusing Trump and his administration allies of corruption at the expense of prosecuting actual fraud cases, something Republicans pushed back against. “What has come out of Minnesota over the last year, what has been exposed, is absolutely criminal in nature,” said Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo. “I think what is coming, what is being exposed in blue cities and blue states run by Democrats, demonstrates that it’s probably higher by an order of magnitude.” Raskin then targeted Van Drew directly in his comments: “My dear friend from New Jersey wants to make it sound like I’m doing something partisan. I’m joining his bill.” “It would be very easy for me to say I reject everything you do because you’re on the side of this pro-fraud president, but I’m not doing that. Your bill says, let’s call this the ‘National Fraud Enforcement Unit.’ I say, fine, that makes sense to me,” Raskin said. “Why don’t you cross the aisle and say it’s wrong for them to be pardoning white-collar fraudster after white-collar fraudster, or at least pardoning them from having to pay the fines and the restitution back? It’s an honest question. Do you really think that $1.7 billion should go from what was going to be the pockets of the victims back into the bank account of the perpetrators?” Van Drew responded, “The gentleman has his numbers. He has his vision, he has his partisan ideas, and that’s up to him. But I’m trying to point out today… we’re trying to make something that is right now just an executive order and make it law to help the people.”
Republicans just got a powerful new playbook for the battle for Congress. Here’s what’s inside
FIRST ON FOX: With control of Congress on the line and pocketbook issues dominating the campaign trail, a prominent conservative group is unveiling a sweeping affordability agenda aimed at giving Republicans a sharper economic message ahead of the November midterm elections. The Advancing American Freedom report, “Affordability 101,” obtained first by Fox News Digital ahead of its Capitol Hill rollout Thursday, lays out more than 100 recommendations to lower the costs of housing, energy, food and healthcare by expanding supply, increasing competition and reducing government barriers. The blueprint is a potential resource for Republican lawmakers and congressional staff while affordability emerges as one of the defining issues of the 2026 midterm elections. Founded by former Vice President Mike Pence, Advancing American Freedom argues costs can be lowered by reducing regulations, encouraging competition and boosting domestic production rather than creating new federal subsidies. “We want free market conservative candidates to go out there and not just put on the red jersey or not just fight against the blue jersey, but to go there and give people ideas that actually work,” Advancing American Freedom President Tim Chapman told Fox News Digital. TRUMP’S AFFORDABILITY PLAN FACES CONSERVATIVE PUSHBACK AS POCKETBOOK ISSUES LOOM OVER MIDTERMS Chapman argued the size and scope of government plays a larger role in affordability than many Americans realize. “The size and scope of the government matters more than people understand in terms of its impact on the economy,” Chapman said. “If you look at interest rates right now and how much of the skyrocketing interest rates are fueled by the debt and deficit problem, that’s something we need to be concerned about as Americans.” Many of the proposals align with Trump administration priorities, including expanding domestic energy production, building more homes, reducing regulations and encouraging innovation. But the blueprint also breaks with the administration on several issues. TRUMP JUST EXPANDED HIS TARIFF PLAYBOOK WITH A POWERFUL TRADE WEAPON NO PRESIDENT HAS EVER USED One flashpoint is Vice President JD Vance’s proposal to expand childcare subsidies by broadening eligibility under the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), potentially providing some married families with a stay-at-home parent up to about $9,000 per child annually. “His proposal sounds great, right?” Richard Stern, vice president of the Plymouth Institute for Free Enterprise at Advancing American Freedom, told Fox News Digital. “But the truth is, in many cases, it’s a $9,000 divorce bonus.” On housing, the report says government regulations add 26.4% to the cost of a new single-family home and calls for permitting, zoning and land-use reforms to lower construction costs. “I think those memos that deal with construction regulations and land use are the core group that would help affordability the most,” Stern said. 5 STATES COULD BE THE BIGGEST LOSERS IN TRUMP’S TRADE WAR WITH CANADA, EXPERT WARNS The report also argues tariffs raise consumer prices, another point of disagreement with the administration. “If you look at your grocery bill, how much of that is impacted by tariffs?” Chapman said. “That’s driving up the price of goods and it’s hurting people in their pocketbooks.” The blueprint also argues that expanding domestic energy production and easing regulations on artificial intelligence and data centers can help lower costs. Trump has championed rapid data center development despite growing concerns over electricity demand and local impacts. “The counties that have data centers are making money off of it,” Stern said. “They’re actually reducing energy prices for those homes.” As candidates sharpen their economic messages ahead of November, Chapman said the report is meant to give lawmakers concrete policy proposals they can take back to voters. “We want people to have those solutions,” Chapman said. “When they go home and talk to their constituents about the future of the country, they can say, ‘I actually have an idea. Here’s an idea for getting interest rates down or here’s an idea for more small business growth.’”
Brandon Johnson’s latest viral moment sends Chicago critics into a frenzy: ‘What the actual F?’
Social media is erupting over a viral video of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson showing off his dance moves, with the clip quickly spreading across X as users call the performance “embarrassing.” The clip, circulating on X this week, shows Johnson dancing to “Hideaway” by Kiesza alongside a group on a rooftop, prompting conservative commentators to call out the mayor for seemingly neglecting the city’s crime problem. Johnson’s campaign confirmed to Fox News Digital that he participated in the video but did not provide details about when it was filmed. The video circulated on X over the same weekend that Johnson announced Sunday that he would seek a second term. PROGRESSIVE MINNEAPOLIS MAYOR’S VIRAL HIP-HOP MOVES SPARK ‘HUMILIATION RITUAL’ MOCKERY ONLINE “What the actual F?,” asked Fox News contributor Joe Concha. “1,320 people shot in Chicago in 2026 so far,” wrote popular X account End Wokeness, sharing the video. “Chicago does not need another influencer with a title,” wrote popular X account True Patriot Voice. “23% approval rating. 40 people shot per week. Thugs doing ‘street takeovers’ every week. Businesses fleeing,” said conservative commentator Benny Johnson. “Pathetic,” said New York Post contributor Miranda Devine. BRANDON JOHNSON BLASTED BY FELLOW DEMOCRAT AFTER TEEN ALLEGEDLY STRIKES 5 OFFICERS DURING TAKEOVER CHAOS “Embarrassing and pathetic,” said another user. “Brandon Johnson should be impeached for making this video,” said Ambassador Nick Adams, special presidential envoy for American tourism, exceptionalism and values. “Keep voting failures in Chicagoans,” said Kaltbaum Capital President Gary Kaltbaum. TRUMP TAKES AIM AT POPE LEO XIV MEETING WITH ‘USELESS’ CHICAGO MAYOR BRANDON JOHNSON AT VATICAN Johnson was first elected as the Windy City’s mayor in 2023 and announced he will be seeking a second term over the weekend. Chicago has long struggled with crime, and Chicago Police Department data through June 26 showed shootings up about 3% from the same period last year and motor-vehicle thefts up 10%. Preliminary Cook County Medical Examiner data showed 219 homicides through June 30, compared with 208 during the first half of 2025.
Democrat candidate seen sobbing, praying in patrol car after DUI arrest: Video
Washington state Democrat Krista Perez, who is running for a state House seat, was seen on police video admitting to drinking wine, declining field sobriety tests and begging to go home before praying and crying in the back of a patrol car after her DUI arrest. Perez finished first in last month’s primary in the 29th Legislative District, Position 1, and will face incumbent state Rep. Melanie Morgan, also a Democrat, in November, as the top two candidates advance to the general. Tacoma Police said Perez’s 2019 Chevrolet Silverado allegedly struck a parked car on South G Street shortly after midnight on August 11, setting off a chain reaction that damaged five vehicles, according to The Jason Rantz Show on Seattle Red. Prosecutors charged her with DUI, with a refusal enhancement in connection with the collision and a later encounter with police. MASSACHUSETTS DEMOCRATIC PARTY CHAIRMAN ADMITS TO SUFFICIENT FACTS IN JUNE DRUNKEN DRIVING CASE Body camera footage shows police questioning Perez after the crash and her subsequent arrest, while footage from the backseat of the patrol car shows her praying and sobbing, according to video obtained by The Jason Rantz Show on Seattle Red. After police arrive at the scene, Perez told an officer she did not understand what was going on and claims she was not involved in an accident, the footage shows. “Did you get into an accident here?” the officer asks. “I did not,” Perez responded. The officer then asked what happened. “I don’t know. I’ve never been in an accident before,” she replied. She also said she switched insurers just weeks before the incident when asked for her documents. She was able to tell the officer the name of the insurance company. Perez told the officer she was driving from a friend’s business on Tacoma Avenue South when the collision happened. “Did you have anything to drink tonight?” the officer asked. “I just had some wine while I was there,” Perez replied. Asked how much wine she had, Perez said she had one glass. When the officer asked how big the glass was, she told him, “I think you might need to contact the business.” The officer then asked her to rate her sobriety on a scale of zero to 10, with zero being completely sober. She first told the officer that she wants to go home. But when asked a second time, she rated herself a four. The officer then asked her to take standardized field sobriety tests but stated multiple times that the tests are optional. “So it’s a series of tests that I take you through to make sure to see if you’re impaired by alcohol, or you’re not. Are you okay with doing that? It’s totally voluntary,” he said. Perez declined the tests, kept saying she wanted to go home and repeatedly said that she was “confused.” “Not right now. I’d like to go home first,” she said. “You’re not going to go home first. I’m going to tell you that right now, okay? So your options between the test, yes or no, that’s going to be determined tonight, right now, not when you go home. So would you like to take these tests or no?” the officer asked. Perez responded by asking if she was allowed to decline the tests. “You do have a choice. You can either say yes, or you can say no. They’re totally voluntary tests,” the officer answered. “Yeah, I would like to go home first,” she replied. The officer asked whether her answer meant she was declining the tests, and she said yes. She was then told she was under arrest for DUI and to put her hands behind her back. “Hold on. Hold on. One second. Hold on,” she said. Perez repeatedly told the officer that she did “not know what any of this means.” He told her it means she is under arrest for DUI. Under Washington state law, roadside sobriety tests are not required and declining them is separate from the refusal enhancement prosecutors allege in Perez’s case. According to an arrest report cited by The Jason Rantz Show on Seattle Red, the enhancement stems from what occurred later at Tacoma Police headquarters, where police said she did not provide a usable breath sample after three attempts before the machine timed out. BODYCAM SHOWS TONY ROMO ARGUING WITH OFFICER BEFORE REFUSING BREATH TEST DURING DUI ARREST Inside the patrol car, she can be seen in the footage sobbing, praying and asking God to help her, with her crying lasting several minutes. “Help me, God. Help me. Help me. Holy Spirit, help me, God,” she said. State law does not prohibit someone with a DUI charge from serving in the legislature. Other Democrat lawmakers have kept their seats after an alcohol-related incident, including House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon, who apologized after acknowledging he drank alcohol before a House Appropriations Committee hearing in February. “I made a poor choice last night by drinking alcohol before we had finished our work for the day. I am disappointed in myself and take responsibility for that poor choice. It won’t happen again, and I’m committed to completing my work this session without alcohol,” Fitzgibbon said in a statement at the time to The Jason Rantz Show on Seattle Red.
Dem insurgent turns on the charm with party establishment as Schumer leaves bitter feud hanging
Michigan’s insurgent progressive Senate nominee ran as far as he could from Washington, D.C., but, on Wednesday, he traveled to the nation’s Capitol for a closed-door meeting with top Democratic brass as the race for power intensifies. Abdul El-Sayed met with top Senate Democrats just hundreds of yards away from Congress, where lawmakers and the wunderkind candidate huddled to discuss his campaign and how to keep Michigan blue. Many left boasting that the Wolverine State would not turn a shade of purple. But few, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., would say whether the fences broken during El-Sayed’s primary fight had been mended. SCHUMER DUCKS QUESTION ON CAMPAIGNING WITH SOCIALIST CANDIDATE WHO REFUSES TO BACK HIM AS LEADER “Look, we have to win Michigan, and we had a great and friendly meeting,” Schumer said when asked by Fox News Digital if he and El-Sayed had moved on from their differences. Still, El-Sayed held court with Democratic brass for hours at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s (DSCC) headquarters in Washington, where a steady flow of lawmakers — both allies and skeptics of his Senate bid — milled in and out of the building throughout the day. Schumer and Democrats are confident and determined that they can flip the Senate, which Republicans hold with a 53-47 margin. Losing Michigan to the GOP and former Rep. Mike Rogers would serve a mortal blow to that push. “He’s gonna win,” Sen. Kirstin Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who is also the DSCC chair, said. The key mission for Democrats is getting independents and Republicans on the fence. But few, including Schumer, said they would actually hit the campaign trail with El-Sayed. It all comes after El-Sayed and Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., locked horns in one of the most bitter Democratic primary fights of this cycle that pitted the Democratic old guard versus a progressive movement gaining steam across the country. SEE IT: DEM SENATORS RALLY BEHIND EL-SAYED BUT DUCK QUESTIONS ON PROGRESSIVE AGENDA Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who initially endorsed Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow before she dropped out, told Fox News Digital, “Obviously, primaries can get really hot, and the Michigan primary got hot. “This is what you do after a primary is you try to unite the party and then you do the work to reach out and cross over to independent voters and Republican voters,” Murphy added. “So, I don’t think anybody should be surprised that he’s trying to build bridges after a heated primary. That’s what good candidates, that’s what winning candidates do.” Another McMorrow backer, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., painted a rosy picture of the closed-door session and noted it was “hard to hear in there because so many people were talking and laughing and wanted to hear about the campaign. “He makes good connections because it’s a lot of people in there who are talking about, ‘What can we do next? What can we do to lower costs for families? What can we do to make this government work better for working people?’ So, it was a very enthusiastic, very cheerful group of people.” Retiring Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., whose seat El-Sayed is gunning for, initially endorsed Stevens. Now, he’s shifting gears. DEMS’ LEFTWARD LURCH GETS LEGS AS EL-SAYED’S MICHIGAN SENATE VICTORY SPARKS PARTY DEBATE “I’m endorsing him, and he’s been getting support across the board in Michigan. The Democrats are coming together,” Peters said in response to a question about whether the Democratic establishment was uniting behind El-Sayed. “We understand how important this election is.” Others were more keen to lend an assist to El-Sayed, including Murphy and Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., who said, “I’m gonna be in Michigan here in a couple of weeks.” Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who is running for re-election in deep blue Massachusetts, said that Democrats’ strategy heading into the final stretch was pitching an affordability agenda, and El-Sayed “is the answer.” “I’m helping him. I think we’re all gonna help,” Markey said when asked if he would raise money for El-Sayed. The specter of El-Sayed’s relationship with controversial Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who helped to amplify his campaign in the primary battle, wasn’t something that Democrats focused on during their huddle. “Hasan what?,” Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told Fox News Digital when asked if he came up during the meeting. “I don’t even know who that is.” When asked if Piker came up or if Democrats encouraged El-Sayed to further distance himself from him, Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., said, “Not in terms of the conversation. Like I said, I was just trying to get to know him.” After initially dodging Fox News Digital’s question on whether he would campaign with Piker, El-Sayed later told reporters, “This conversation is so far removed from what people are talking about. “Everyday, in Michigan, people sit at their kitchen tables and ask, ‘How am I going to make this work next month?’ That’s not a middle, right, left issue, that’s a basic affordability issue.” When further pressed, he countered that Michigan voters “really don’t care about that.” “They really don’t,” El-Sayed said.