WASHINGTON D.C. - The Department of Education under President Joe Biden loosened requirements for a student loan program specifically for public servants and nonprofit employees a few months after unions that stood to benefit from the change sent a letter to then-Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.

The watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust, which obtained the letter via a Freedom of Information Act request, faulted the unions for self-dealing when they demanded the Biden administration cancel the student loan debt of all public sector and nonprofit workers who completed 10 or more years of service, leaving taxpayers to pay off the balances. The revelation comes as the Department of Education under President Donald Trump is revising the program to root out alleged abuses. Click here to read more.

 

NEW YORK CITY — Sean "Diddy" Combs' federal sex trafficking trial is officially underway in New York City. Jury selection wrapped up Monday after being postponed over the weekend.

Opening statements followed, then two witnesses took the stand, including Israel Florez, a former security guard at the Intercontinental Hotel in Century City, where Combs allegedly assaulted Ventura in 2016.

"The most important thing he was able to do for the government was authenticate the video so it can come into evidence," said Sheena Winkfield, a criminal defense attorney based out of Dallas-Fort Worth.

In his testimony, Florez detailed being called to the floor they were staying on, talking with the two, and even claimed he was offered a bribe by Combs. Prosecutors also played the original security footage from that day.

The second witness called to testify was Daniel Phillip, who said Ventura paid him for sex multiple times, often in Combs' presence. Phillip also claimed Combs would occasionally give direction Click here to read more. Click here to read more.

 

GULFPORT, Miss. - A woman in Mississippi allegedly robbed a Dollar General and then went back for her phone at the scene while authorities were investigating.

According to the Gulfport Police Department, the armed robbery happened around 9:32 p.m. on Sunday, May 11, at the Dollar General at 12600 Dedeaux Road.

Police said 34-year-old Jessinya Faye Ezell entered the store with a firearm and demanded money.

Ezell then allegedly got into a fight with an employee before leaving the scene with an undisclosed amount of money.

Officers said they were at the store investigating when Ezell returned to the scene and asked about a cellphone she dropped during the robbery.

Ezell was arrested and taken to the Harrison County jail.

She is being held on a $100,000 bond.

 

SCHENECTADY, N.Y.—A principal-turned-consultant has built a movement—and a business—on overturning how teachers have graded for generations. His alternative: “grading for equity.”

Joe Feldman preaches that students should be able to retake tests and redo assignments. There should be no penalties for late work and no grades for homework. No points for good behavior, classroom participation or perfect attendance, either.

“When you include those in a grade, you’re bringing your implicit bias into the grade because not all students learn in that particular way,” Feldman told dozens of teachers gathered for a training session in Schenectady, N.Y., one Wednesday afternoon in March. Students should be graded only on their demonstrated learning of class material, Feldman said. Click here to read more.

 

WASHINGTON — At the heart of National Police Week, on a quiet Sunday afternoon in Washington, D.C., the bond between officer and K-9 was remembered in solemn tribute.

On May 11, law enforcement officers, K-9 handlers, families and supporters gathered at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial for the Annual National Police K-9 Memorial Service — a ceremony that honored the courage and sacrifice of 22 police K-9s who gave their lives in the line of duty in 2024.

The event, hosted by the National Police Dog Foundation, included a wreath-laying ceremony and the recitation of each fallen K-9’s name: Wessel, Nyx, Maze, Leo, Luca, Raiden, Rivan, Dax, Max, Coba, Wick, Horus, Archer, Vader, Odin, Dolar, Mikka, Riddick, Kodak, Draco, Titan and Bumi.

"[The K-9’s] loyalty and sacrifice will never be forgotten. Each K-9 we remember today was more than just a working partner: they were protectors and a vital part of our law enforcement family. Their commitment to duty and love for their handlers were unwaivered, and their sacrifice is something we hold in our hearts forever,” an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department Metro K-9 Unit said. Click here to read more.

LANSING — Michigan Republicans on Wednesday introduced a three-bill package that would ban gender transition procedures for minors, including hormone treatments, surgeries that alter genital appearance, and any surgeries resulting in sterilization. The bills, introduced by Rep. Brad Paquette (R-Niles) and Sen. Thomas Albert (R-Lowell), allow exceptions only for minors with medically verifiable disorders of sex development or life-threatening conditions.

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"It is time for the experimentation on children in the name of care to come to an end," Paquette said during a press conference announcing the legislation. "Children are not born in the wrong body. No one has the right to maim a healthy child’s body to try to achieve the unachievable."

The legislation would also expand patients’ ability to seek damages for medical malpractice related to transition procedures and would require insurance companies to cover detransition care if they cover transition treatments.

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Paquette and Albert's proposal follows a new review issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which expressed concerns about the safety and long-term effects of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender-related surgeries in minors. The procedures cited in the federal review would be prohibited under the Michigan legislation.

Paquette and Albert were joined by Prisha Mosley, a detransitioner living in Big Rapids, and Jamie Reed, a former case manager at the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital, both outspoken critics of gender-affirming care.

"It is critical that legislative bodies step in to protect children in this state from these dangerous and reckless practices," Reed said. "I was complicit in harming patients because the protocol itself harms patients. There is no safe or legal way to sterilize a child, and there is no safe way to medically disrupt a functioning endocrine system."

The three bills were introduced in the Michigan House as House Bills 4466-4468 and referred to the House Committee on Health Policy.

Opposition from LGBTQ advocates and medical groups
Although no Michigan-specific organizations had immediately issued statements about the new bills as of Wednesday afternoon, LGBTQ rights groups and major medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association, have previously opposed similar bans introduced in other states.

They argue that gender-affirming care is evidence-based, medically necessary, and often critical for the mental health and well-being of transgender youth. Critics of such bans say denying access to care can lead to higher rates of depression and suicide among transgender adolescents.

Democratic leaders, who hold a majority in both the Michigan House and Senate, have not yet announced whether they will consider the legislation.

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LANSING, Mich - Michigan residents and small business owners targeted by the Whitmer administration got a long-delayed chance to speak on April 23 as the Republican-controlled state House held its first hearings on government overreach during the COVID lockdowns.

Two business owners and a lawyer described how they were targeted by Attorney General Dana Nessel, the Whitmer administration, and local government at the House's Weaponization of State Government hearing.

Gov. Whitmer declared barbers and hairdressers “nonessential” in 2020. Six barbers and hairdressers defied the lockdown orders and were criminally charged for cutting hair at the Michigan Capitol on May 20, 2020. Click here to read more.

 

KIMBALLTON, Iowa - A water tower malfunction is forcing people in the western Iowa town of Kimballton to use bottles.

City officials have told residents it could be a while before the problem is fixed.

When Pat Crosley turned her faucet on, it was a shock.

“I thought maybe the radishes were leaking into the water, and then I realized it was actually coming out of the spigot, and so I was surprised that the water was pink,” the Kimballton resident said.

Officials said there was a problem with filters. Now, more than 200 people in town have to drink bottled water.

“You know, we never realize how much water we use,” Paul Christensen, another Kimballton resident, said. Click here to read more.

 

LOS ANGELES, CALIF - I have spent a lot of time covering psychiatric drugs like SSRIs. The problem with these drugs is that they’re incredibly potent, potentially dangerous, and they effect the mind in ways that the doctors prescribing them don’t fully understand. And all of these problems are compounded by the fact that they are increasingly easy to obtain. In fact, as the problems with psychiatric medications become more evident, the barriers to access them only become lower. It seems that things should be working the opposite way. But that’s how it goes now. If you want to get a highly potent, dangerous, mind altering drug, you can. In fact, you probably don’t even have to leave your house.

This trend is becoming more and more common with an ever increasing array of drugs. They are very easy to get, there is very little oversight, and you don’t have to leave your house to obtain them. This is a major problem that will require all kinds of legislation to fix. But there are some steps we can, and must, take immediately to address the problem of fraudulent, life-altering drugs being handed out in large quantities to young people, basically on demand. One of those steps is to defund some of the largest distributors of these life-altering drugs, which is something that should’ve happened a long time ago. Click here to read more.

 

Two women found their long-lost sister after a 57-year search thanks DNA test results that sounded like an ‘April Fools prank’.

Now in their 60s, sisters Trish and June spent their lives searching for their oldest sibling, Geraldine, who is more than a decade older.

Geraldine was a four-year-old when her mother Mary Wills was forced to put her up for adoption by a religious order of Catholic nuns in the convent where the single mom and her daughter spent their early years.

Mary moved on and later met Peter Wills, with whom she had three children after marrying in 1956, settling in Somerset, England.

Despite always knowing they had an older sister, Trish and June weren’t able to find her before their mom died from liver cancer in 2011.

When Trish gave her daughter, Laura, 34, an Ancestry DNA test for Christmas in 2023 it didn’t turn up any matches—until last month.

Little did they know that their biological half-sister Geraldine would upload her details onto the same website database and Laura would be notified that Ancestry had uncovered a match “without a doubt”.

 

WASHINGTON D.C. - The State Department had revoked about 1,500 visas throughout the United States as of late April, Inside Higher Ed estimates. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has investigated some of them, and some visa holders will be asked to leave or be deported if they have broken the conditions of their student status per U.S. immigration law. A small number may be deported if the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, deems their presence detrimental to U.S. foreign policy.

Two professors at Cornell and Yale claimed in The Washington Post that “our foreign students are terrified, and they’re right to be.”

Please. No foreign student who is obeying the conditions of his visa and staying focused on his studies has anything to worry about.

Who else should worry? Yale professors such as Erika and Nicholas Christakis, who treat students as adults, only to then deal with tantrums and Ivy League cancel culture. Click here to read more.

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