Wednesday, February 12
Trump picks Project 2025 co-author Russell Vought to lead budget office
News

Trump picks Project 2025 co-author Russell Vought to lead budget office

Russell Vought, a co-author of Project 2025 and a platform policy director for the Republican National Committee, was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump on Friday as his choice to head the Office of Management and Budget. In his announcement, Trump called Vought, who served in the position during his first term, "an aggressive cost cutter and deregulator who will help us implement our America First Agenda across all Agencies." "Russ knows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State and end Weaponized Government, and he will help us return Self Governance to the People," Trump stated. "We will restore fiscal sanity to our Nation, and unleash the American People to new levels of Prosperity and Ingenuity." "Thank you @realDonaldTrump!" was Vought's message on Xon on Friday night in respons...
Daniel Penny won’t testify in his manslaughter trial as defense rests in chokehold death case
News

Daniel Penny won’t testify in his manslaughter trial as defense rests in chokehold death case

Daniel Penny's lawyers rested their case Friday. Penny is on trial for manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in connection with the May 2023 chokehold death of homeless man Jordan Neely on the New York City subway. After Thanksgiving, the jury is anticipated to begin deliberations and hear closing statements. Penny may spend up to 15 years behind bars if found guilty of the more serious charge of manslaughter. According to authorities, Neely, 30, a Michael Jackson lookalike with a history of mental illness, had been acting strangely but not aggressively. He and Penny were on a F train when Penny flung him to the ground and choked him for six minutes. They claimed that when Penny continued to choke Neely after he was no longer a threat, his conduct were illegal. The two men's bysta...
Trump picks Dr. Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins surgeon, for FDA chief
News

Trump picks Dr. Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins surgeon, for FDA chief

On Friday, Johns Hopkins University pancreatic surgeon Dr. Marty Makary, who has made contentious statements regarding COVID, was named by President-elect Donald Trump to be the Food and Drug Administration's commissioner. According to the university's website, Makary is the head of Islet Transplant Surgery at Johns Hopkins. A member of the National Academy of Medicine, a division of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, he also held a leadership position at the World Health Organization Patient Safety Program. In addition, he frequently appears on Fox News and has been a prominent adviser to the conservative health care think group Paragon Health Institute. "Americans no longer trust the FDA, and the agency has forgotten its main regulatory objective. Trump stated ...
2 convicted in human smuggling case after Indian family froze to death while crossing U.S.-Canada border
News

2 convicted in human smuggling case after Indian family froze to death while crossing U.S.-Canada border

FERGUS FALLS, Minn.—A jury found two men guilty on Friday of human smuggling charges for their involvement in a global operation that killed a family of Indian migrants who froze while attempting to cross the border between Canada and the United States during a 2022 blizzard. Prosecutors claim that Steve Shand, 50, an American from Florida, and Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, an Indian national who went by the pseudonym Dirty Harry, were involved in a complex unlawful scheme that has resulted in an increase in the number of Indians entering the United States. Each of them was found guilty on four charges of human smuggling, including conspiring to illegally enter the nation with migrants. According to Minnesota U.S. Attorney Andy Luger, this trial revealed the unspeakable brutality of human...
Trump picks Scott Bessent to serve as treasury secretary
News

Trump picks Scott Bessent to serve as treasury secretary

On Friday, President-elect Donald Trump declared that he had requested hedge fund executive and campaign top fundraiser Scott Bessent to become secretary of the Treasury Department. Bessent will help me usher in a new Golden Age for the United States, Trump stated in a statement about his choice. We will make sure that no Americans are left behind in the next and greatest economic boom, unlike previous administrations, and Scott will spearhead that effort on my behalf, Trump stated. According to him, Scott will back my policies that will boost American competitiveness, eliminate unfair trade imbalances, and try to build an economy that prioritizes growth, particularly through our upcoming global energy dominance. We will work together to restore America's wealth, prosperity, affordability...
Jason and Kylie Kelce expecting baby No. 4
News

Jason and Kylie Kelce expecting baby No. 4

Kylie Kelce and Jason are expanding their group of female friends: The couple revealed their fourth daughter's pregnancy on Friday. On Instagram, Kylie Kelce announced the news along with a photo of her three daughters: Wyatt, age five; Elliotte "Ellie," age three; and Bennett, age one. The words "big sister" are written in white letters on the front of the girls' matching pink sweaters. In the picture, Bennett has tears streaming down her crimson cheeks, Ellie smiles, and Wyatt displays what looks to be a terrified expression. "I feel like we captured a very accurate representation of how each of the girls feel about getting another sister," Kylie Kelce stated in her post. "At least Ellie, mom and dad are on the same page!" she said. Papa Kelce had a great day on Friday. Earlier in the da...
Judge in Trump hush money trial postpones sentencing to consider whether the case should be tossed
News

Judge in Trump hush money trial postpones sentencing to consider whether the case should be tossed

In order to give more time for arguments on whether the case should be dismissed, the judge overseeing Donald Trump's hush money trial in New York postponed the sentencing that was originally planned for next week. After Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office stated in a court filing this week that it would not challenge a motion by Trump's lawyers to postpone his sentencing on 34 felony counts of fabricating business documents, State Judge Juan Merchan made his decision. In a succinct ruling, Merchan gave Trump's attorneys and prosecutors further time in early December to present their cases regarding whether the case ought to be dropped in light of his election as president. The prosecution has until December 9 to reply, and the defense must file by December 2. The Supreme Cour...
Vaccines don’t cause autism. What does?
News

Vaccines don’t cause autism. What does?

Now that President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services, a large organization with a $1.7 trillion budget that manages research into both autism and vaccines, his unfounded claims that childhood vaccinations cause autism are coming under increased scrutiny. The idea that childhood immunizations cause autism was first put up in 1998 by a British physician who was later barred from practicing medicine in the UK, although it has since been disproved. Vaccines are safe, according to hundreds of research. According to estimates from the World Health Organization, vaccinations have prevented 154 million deaths worldwide in the last 50 years. Kennedy has blamed vaccines for the significant increase in autism diagnoses in recent de...
Kendrick Lamar drops surprise album ‘GNX’
News

Kendrick Lamar drops surprise album ‘GNX’

"GNX" was Kendrick Lamar's sixth studio album, which was released on Friday without much notice. On Friday afternoon, Lamar released a teaser for the album, and soon after, the project was made available on streaming sites. One of the twelve new songs on "GNX" is "squabble up," which was hinted at in the music video for Kendrick Lamar's popular diss tune "Not Like Us." In 2022, Lamar released an album titled "Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers." "Wacced out murals," the album's opening track, contains lyrics that reference Kendrick Lamar's earlier criticisms about the condition of rap today. The song references the unnamed song that he posted on Instagram in September and the criticism that other rappers gave him once he was revealed as the next Super Bowl halftime show performer. The new rec...
Researchers capture baleen whales for the first time to study their hearing
News

Researchers capture baleen whales for the first time to study their hearing

In a contentious move that advances our knowledge of how some of the biggest and smartest creatures on the planet view their surroundings, scientists have temporarily trapped baleen whales and tested their hearing for the first time. Researchers caught two young minke whales off the Norwegian coast in 2023, used suction cups to apply gold-plated electrodes to their skin, and then watched their brain waves as various sound frequencies were played. Each baby whale weighed roughly one ton and was at least twelve feet in length. Whale researchers were taken aback by the study's findings, which were released Thursday in the journal Science and indicate that whales are capable of hearing at far higher frequencies than previously thought. According to the research, the mammals' abilities are sign...