Democratic Underground: Forums for U.S. Liberals and Democrats

Rejecting Decades of Science, Vaccine Panel Chair Says Polio and Other Shots Should Be Optional

Jan. 23, 2026, 11:51 a.m. ET Offering a startlingly candid view into the philosophy guiding vaccine recommendations under the Trump administration, the leader of the federal panel that recommends vaccines for Americans said shots against polio and measles — and perhaps all diseases — should be optional, offered only in consultation with a clinician. Dr. Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist who is chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, said that he did have “concerns” tha ...

Omaha Steve

Vance's message in Minneapolis: Local officials must cooperate with the immigration crackdown

By MICHELLE L. PRICE, JULIE CARR SMYTH and STEVE PEOPLES Updated 5:27 PM CST, January 22, 2026 MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Insisting that he was in Minnesota to calm tensions, Vice President JD Vance on Thursday blamed “far-left people” and state and local law enforcement officials for the chaos that has unfolded during the White House’s aggressive deportation campaign. The Republican vice president said, “We’re doing everything that we can to lower the temperature,” adding that Minnesota leaders shoul ...

BumRushDaShow

Trump administration weighs naval blockade to halt Cuban oil imports

01/23/2026 02:12 PM EST Updated: 01/23/2026 02:31 PM EST The Trump administration is weighing new tactics to drive regime change in Cuba, including imposing a total blockade on oil imports to the Caribbean country, three people familiar with the plan said Thursday. That escalation has been sought by some critics of the Cuban government in the administration and backed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to two of the three people, who were granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive d ...

riversedge

FEMA halts disaster worker cuts as massive winter storm threatens millions of Americans

by ALEXX ALTMAN-DEVILBISS Fri, January 23, 2026 at 8:55 AM Updated Fri, January 23, 2026 at 9:46 AM WASHINGTON (TNND) — The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) informed staff on Thursday that disaster worker terminations would be halted due to the massive impending winter storm set to impact at least 160 million Americans. FEMA said in the email obtained by CNN that it would "cease offboarding" for disaster workers whose employment contracts are set to expire in the comin ...

BumRushDaShow

Marco Rubio personally signed off on arrests of pro-Palestine students, documents show

Friday 23 January 2026 12:05 EST Secretary of State Marco Rubio personally approved the arrest and removal of five international student activists for their Palestinian advocacy and writings against the war in Gaza, according to government documents unsealed by a federal judge. The release of the documents follows a months-long legal battle which has accused the Trump administration of an unconstitutional and retaliatory campaign against campus activists. Last week, District Judge William You ...

Pototan

ARG Poll: Trump Approval 35% to 63% Disapproval

(Newsweek) President Donald Trump has recorded the lowest approval rating of his second term, according to new polling from the American Research Group (ARG), which shows the president’s standing with the public continuing a long downward slide. The latest survey finds Trump at 35 percent approval and 63 percent disapproval, yielding a net approval of –28 points—his worst recorded by ARG since the Republican's return to office. The findings also show that just 32 percent of Americans approve of Trump's handling of the economy, while 64 percent disapprove.

Coldwater

Trump threatens pollsters after New York Times survey shows sagging disapproval

(Politico) President Donald Trump threatened legal consequences for The New York Times after a poll released by the outlet found that independent voters have soured on his leadership at the one-year mark of his second term. Just 34 percent of independent voters told the New York Times/Siena poll that they approve of the president’s job performance. Fifty-two percent of independents told the Times that they believe the country is worse off than it was last year before Trump took office

BumRushDaShow

Kash Patel used meeting after Charlie Kirk's assassination to plot agency's social media posting plan, agents say

(The Independent) FBI Director Kash Patel reportedly prioritized planning social media posts for himself, former Deputy Dan Bongino and the Salt Lake City field office in the moments after Charlie Kirk was assassinated, as senior executives and field offices were trying to brief officials on the situation. Recounting the moments after Kirk, a right-wing political activist, was killed in Utah, a senior FBI executive told the New York Times that a “super emotional” Patel got on a conference call and “berated” the special agent in charge of the field office before planning social media posts.

bigtree

Vance says he'll look into "accusations" of racial profiling (that Trump DOJ asked SCOTUS to allow)

(KARE-TV) Vance stopped in Minneapolis Thursday to meet with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and spoke about their immigration operations. When pressed about the accusations made by local law enforcement surrounding racial profiling, Vance said he would look into it when he returns to Washington, D.C., but then shifted the focus to local law enforcement and their failure to cooperate with the federal operations. "It's something that we take very seriously. We will take accusations of racial profiling back to Washington — we'll certainly look into them when they come up — but this is not a group that's going around and looking for people who violated the law based on skin color, they're looking for people who violated the actual law."

Mr. Sparkle

House Narrowly Passes ICE Funding Bill With Democratic Support After Jeffries Declined To Whip Against It

(Mediaite) A bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security narrowly passed the House on Thursday, 220-207. Seven Democrats joined Republicans in supporting the measure, which ensures that DHS and its agencies, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, will be funded through the end of September. ICE will receive $10 billion for the fiscal year.

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Latest Breaking News

Trump is canceling $30B in Biden-era green loans

1 hr ago - 01/23/26 11:27 AM ET The Trump administration is canceling $30 billion in green loans and revising another $53 billion, it said Thursday night. The administration said the changes or eliminations from the $83 billion in total funding come after its r ... (The Hill)

Former New York Rep. Chris Collins, pardoned by Trump, seeks comeback in Florida

1 hr ago - Posted January 23, 2026 at 10:21am Republican former Rep. Chris Collins, who represented a Western New York district until he resigned in 2019 and pleaded guilty in a corruption scandal, on Friday announced his comeback bid in Florida. Collins, who w ... (Roll Call)

DOJ sought to probe Renee Good for criminal liability, even after her death: Sources

2 hrs ago - Aides to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche directed the U.S. Attorney's office and FBI agents based in Minnesota to shut down a civil rights investigation into an officer's fatal shooting of Renee Good and instead alter it to probe Good for possib ... (MS NOW)

Women arrested over anti-ICE church protest in St Paul freed from detention

2 hrs ago - Fri 23 Jan 2026 19.06 EST Nekima Levy Armstrong and Chauntyll Allen, who were arrested and charged for their role in an anti-ICE demonstration that disrupted Sunday church services in St Paul, Minnesota, have been released. Video of the two women pos ... (The Guardian)

F.B.I. Agent Who Tried to Investigate ICE Officer in Shooting Resigns

2 hrs ago - F.B.I. Agent Who Tried to Investigate ICE Officer in Shooting Resigns The resignation of the agent, Tracee Mergen, was only the latest shock wave to have emerged from the Justice Department's handling of the shooting of Renee Good. Police and federal ... (New York Times)

US military says 2 killed in eastern Pacific boat strike, with 1 survivor

2 hrs ago - Politics * 1 min read US military says 2 killed in eastern Pacific boat strike, with 1 survivor Updated 36 min ago Updated Jan 23, 2026, 6:07 PM ET PUBLISHED Jan 23, 2026, 5:36 PM ET By Clay Voytek This screengrab taken from a video shows an alleged ... (CNN)

Michigan sues oil companies, saying they colluded to restrain EV competition

2 hrs ago - Jan 23, 2026 | 11:27 AM WASHINGTON, Jan 23 (Reuters) – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on Friday filed an antitrust lawsuit against four major oil companies, asserting they have colluded for decades to forestall competition from renewable ... (WKZO-TV Kalamazoo, MI/Reuters)

Trump administration weighs naval blockade to halt Cuban oil imports

3 hrs ago - 01/23/2026 02:12 PM EST Updated: 01/23/2026 02:31 PM EST The Trump administration is weighing new tactics to drive regime change in Cuba, including imposing a total blockade on oil imports to the Caribbean country, three people familiar with the plan ... (Politico)

Grammy winner Rene Fleming cancels Kennedy Center appearances

3 hrs ago - Grammy Award-winning opera singer Renée Fleming will no longer participate in a pair of symphony performances at the Kennedy Center this spring, according to a message on the center’s website. Fleming was scheduled to appear with the Nati ... (The Hill)

Prosecutors allege gang members tried to kill Indiana judge to derail domestic abuse trial

3 hrs ago - Members of a motorcycle club and a street gang worked together in an attempt to kill an Indiana judge in hopes of derailing a domestic abuse case against one of their own, prosecutors alleged Friday, hours after police announced they had arrested fiv ... (AP News)

Minnesota judges continue to reject arrest warrants in ICE protests

3 hrs ago - Jan. 23, 2026, 6:00 AM EST Federal judges in Minnesota have several times in recent weeks rejected arrest warrants for people protesting a surge of immigration officers in that state, finding that federal agents do not have sufficient evidence that p ... (MS NOW)

TikTok Is Now Collecting Even More Data About Its Users. Here Are the 3 Biggest Changes

3 hrs ago - Now that it’s under US-based ownership, TikTok potentially collects more detailed information about its users, including precise location data. A spokesperson for TikTok USDS declined to comment. -snip- TikTok’s change in location tracking ... (Wired)

U.K., including Prince Harry, voices outrage at Trump's Afghanistan remarks

4 hrs ago - U.K., including Prince Harry, voices outrage at Trump’s Afghanistan remarks President Donald Trump’s inaccurate belittling of the British role in Afghanistan recalled previous occasions when he has insulted injured or fallen soldiers. Janua ... (Washington Post)

Trump's FBI director 'wanted to go to Premier League game instead of meeting MI5'

4 hrs ago - Friday 23 January 2026 10:14 EST FBI director Kash Patel reportedly wanted to go to Premier League football matches instead of attending office-based meetings with international allies, including the UK’s MI5 director. A senior FBI executive tol ... (The Independent)

US completes withdrawal from World Health Organization

4 hrs ago - The U.S. has finalized its withdrawal from the World Health Organization, one year after President Donald Trump announced America was ending its 78-year-old commitment, federal officials said Thursday. [....] The U.S. owes about $280 million to the g ... (AP News)

Judge rules Trump admin. must keep funding child care subsidies in 5 states for now

5 hrs ago - A federal judge ruled Friday that President Donald Trump’s administration must keep federal funds flowing to child care subsidies and other social service programs in five Democratic-controlled states* — at least for now. ... (AP)

Researchers say Russian government hackers were behind attempted Poland power outage

5 hrs ago - A failed December effort to bring down parts of Poland’s energy grid was the work of Russian government hackers known for causing past energy disruptions, according to a security research firm that investigated the incident. Last week, Polish E ... (TechCrunch)

Clergy arrested, businesses shutter as Minnesotans protest Trump's surge in immigration agents

5 hrs ago - Local police arrested dozens of clergy members who sang hymns and prayed as they knelt on a road at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport as part of a day of protests and walkouts on Friday against U.S. President Donald Trump's deployment of t ... (Reuters)

Judge warns administration against changing immigration status of students who sued over free speech

5 hrs ago - January 23, 2026, 11:22 AM A federal judge in Boston has ruled that academics and students who were part of a lawsuit alleging an "unconstitutional conspiracy" by the Trump administration to target them for their pro-Palestinian activism may seek imm ... (ABC News)

FEMA halts disaster worker cuts as massive winter storm threatens millions of Americans

6 hrs ago - by ALEXX ALTMAN-DEVILBISS Fri, January 23, 2026 at 8:55 AM Updated Fri, January 23, 2026 at 9:46 AM WASHINGTON (TNND) — The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) informed staff on Thursday that disaster worker terminations would be halte ... (wset.com)