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Trump's chief of staff bans international travel for Cabinet members unless approved by the White House: report

Thursday 23 April 2026 14:17 EDT President Donald Trump's Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is limiting the amount of overseas travel that Cabinet members can take heading into the midterms, according to insiders. Wiles reportedly told staff in February that they should only be leaving the country when absolutely necessary, according to three people with knowledge of the meeting who spoke to Politico. The changes come ahead of what some — including Trump himself — predict will be a brutal midterm y ...

BumRushDaShow

Met Opera's Multimillion-Dollar Deal With Saudis Falls Through

April 23, 2026, 4:00 p.m. ET In a major blow to the Metropolitan Opera, the Saudi Arabian government has backed out of a deal that would have provided significant relief to the nation's premier opera company as it struggles to recover from the most acute financial crisis in its history, Met officials announced on Thursday. Peter Gelb, the Met's general manager, said the Saudis cited damage to the country's economy caused by the war in Iran and the blockading of oil passing through the Strait ...

BumRushDaShow

Trump's correspondents' dinner appearance sparks boycotts and petition: 'You're having dinner with him?'

Thursday 23 April 2026 13:09 EDT President Donald Trump's expected attendance at the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner this weekend has brought renewed scrutiny to the event that honors the press. The administration's animus toward journalists has been a fixture of Trump's second term, from berating individual reporters, fighting organizations like The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Associated Press in court to restricting press access to the Pentagon. It's anothe ...

BumRushDaShow

US special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400,000 on Maduro raid

Updated Apr 23, 2026, 6:14 PM ET PUBLISHED Apr 23, 2026, 5:35 PM ET A US special forces soldier involved in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was arrested and charged for allegedly betting on that operation, netting him $400,000 in profits. The outsized trade involved with Operation Absolute Resolve caught the attention of law enforcement almost immediately. According to an indictment unsealed Thursday, Master Sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke opened an account in late December ...

BumRushDaShow

RFK Jr. draws backlash for ripping Medicaid programs that pay people to care for relatives

April 23, 2026, 11:41 AM EDT Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sparked outrage among disability rights advocates with recent comments alleging widespread fraud in Medicaid programs that pay people to care for elderly or disabled family members — a system millions of Americans rely on to survive. During testimony before the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee last week, Kennedy criticized Medicaid-funded programs that pay relatives to serve as caregivers, alleging they ...

mahatmakanejeeves

James Comer Is Effectively Killing the Epstein Investigation

(New Republic) Republicans have found a new way to conduct the Epstein investigation. Democrats insist it’s just another attempt to sweep the whole scandal under the rug. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee flamed House Oversight Chair James Comer in a congressional memo for “running scared,” accusing the Kentucky Republican of changing the Epstein investigation proceedings into informal “roundtables” that lack any rules.

BumRushDaShow

Senate defeats Democrats' 5th attempt to limit Trump's war powers in Iran

(CBS News) The Senate rejected another attempt to rein in President Trump's ability to use further military force against Iran on Wednesday, marking Democrats' fifth effort to do so since the war began eight weeks ago. In a 46 to 51 vote, a motion to discharge the measure from committee failed. Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania voted with Republicans against it, while GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky voted with Democrats in favor.

Dulcinea

Senate passes budget plan for ICE and Border Patrol in bid to reopen Homeland Security Department

(AP) The Senate took the first steps in a new effort to reopen the Department of Homeland Security early Thursday, voting to adopt a budget plan that would fund ICE and Border Patrol over Democratic objections and sending it to the House. The entire department has been shut down since mid-February as Democrats have demanded policy changes in the wake of fatal shootings of two protesters by federal agents. Republicans are now trying to fund the two immigration enforcement agencies through the complicated, time-consuming process called budget reconciliation.

mahatmakanejeeves

How Trump Accidentally Handed Dems Their Big Win in Virginia

(New Republic) In the “vote yes” campaign’s final days, 100 percent of the ads that aired in Northern Virginia markets heavily emphasized or featured very prominent imagery of Trump, a source familiar with ad buy information tells me. “Trump’s mug was all over the communications that voters were receiving, specifically among the lion’s share of the voters we needed,” the source says. “Trump’s name and face were plastered all over the mess he made.”

BumRushDaShow

Trump Started A Redistricting War. Democrats Are Winning It.

(Huff Post) Nine months after President Donald Trump and Republicans launched an unprecedented effort to redraw the lines of congressional districts mid-decade and tilt them in their favor, Democrats appear more likely to benefit from the effort. Following a Tuesday vote in Virginia in which voters approved a new map that would likely eliminate four of five Republican districts in November, Democrats are now set to gain up to 10 seats nationally. Republicans will consider themselves lucky to flip eight.

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ICE is cutting back on cuffing immigrants in courthouses and warrantless arrests: report

44 min ago - Thursday 23 April 2026 12:14 EDT Donald Trump’s administration has reportedly instructed immigration enforcement officers to cut back on arrests inside courthouses and to no longer enter homes without a warrant, backing off two controversial pol ... (The Independent)

Texas Tech Issues Ban On Students Writing On LGBTQ+ Topics

57 min ago - Texas Tech Issues Ban On Students Writing On LGBTQ+ Topics The ban applies to theses and dissertations, and is expected to begin going into effect on a rolling basis. Erin Reed Apr 23, 2026 Texas Tech University Erin In The Morning is a reader-suppor ... (Erin in the Morning)

Lawmakers rip Republican plan to make DC 'square again'

1 hr ago - April 23, 2026 WASHINGTON (CN) — Democratic lawmakers from Virginia and Washington, D.C., are rolling their eyes at a Republican-led bill that would return some land east of the Potomac River to the nation’s capital, saying the measure woul ... (Courthouse News Service)

Microsoft and Meta announce large staff reductions as they spend big on AI

1 hr ago - Meta and Microsoft are trimming their workforces by thousands as they make heavy investments in AI and executives claim that the technology is meeting their companies’ productivity needs. Meta told staff on Thursday that on 20 May it would cut s ... (The Guardian)

Senate rejects measures meant to lower the cost of gas, groceries

1 hr ago - Updated April 23, 2026, 11:34 a.m. ET WASHINGTON – In a flurry of rapid-fire votes, most Senate Republicans spurned a group of measures Democrats said would lower everyday costs for Americans while separately moving to approve $70 billion for im ... (USA Today)

Fire truck heard 'stop, stop, stop' before deadly LaGuardia crash but didn't know warning was for them: NTSB

1 hr ago - World Fire truck heard 'stop, stop, stop' before deadly LaGuardia crash but didn't know warning was for them: NTSB Lack of transponders on emergency vehicles played a role in collision, preliminary report finds Rhianna Schmunk · CBC News &midd ... (CBC)

US special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400,000 on Maduro raid

2 hrs ago - Updated Apr 23, 2026, 6:14 PM ET PUBLISHED Apr 23, 2026, 5:35 PM ET A US special forces soldier involved in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was arrested and charged for allegedly betting on that operation, netting him $400, ... (CNN Politics)

Dozens of Mexican mafia members arrested in California crackdown

2 hrs ago - Prosecutors say 43 people indicted on charges including murder, kidnapping, extortion and drug trafficking More than two dozen members and associates of the Mexican mafia were arrested during an early morning crackdown in southern California, federal ... (The Guardian)

Pentagon fires ombudsman overseeing military newspaper after calling it 'woke'

2 hrs ago - 11m Three months after the Pentagon decried the U.S. military newspaper Stars and Stripes as “woke” and announced it would be overhauled, Defense Department official Sean Parnell fired the publication’s ombudsman, a role charged by Con ... (msn/Washington Post)

RFK Jr. draws backlash for ripping Medicaid programs that pay people to care for relatives

2 hrs ago - April 23, 2026, 11:41 AM EDT Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sparked outrage among disability rights advocates with recent comments alleging widespread fraud in Medicaid programs that pay people to care for elderly or disabl ... (NBC News)

Exclusive Iran War Complicates Contingency Plans to Defend Taiwan, Some U.S. Officials Say

2 hrs ago - WASHINGTON—The U.S. has burned through so many munitions in Iran that some administration officials increasingly assess that America couldn’t fully execute contingency plans to defend Taiwan from a Chinese invasion if it occurred in the nea ... (WSJ)

Americans' Economic Confidence Drops in April

3 hrs ago - 47% of U.S. adults believe economic conditions are poor; 73% say they are getting worse ... (Gallup)

Trump's correspondents' dinner appearance sparks boycotts and petition: 'You're having dinner with him?'

3 hrs ago - Thursday 23 April 2026 13:09 EDT President Donald Trump's expected attendance at the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner this weekend has brought renewed scrutiny to the event that honors the press. The administration's animus towar ... (The Independent)

US senators seek probe into FAA administrator stock sale

3 hrs ago - April 23, 2026 9:56 AM EDT Updated 6 hours ago WASHINGTON, April 23 (Reuters) - Three Democratic U.S. senators asked a federal watchdog to investigate if the head of the Federal Aviation Administration violated his ethics agreement by delaying ... (Reuters)

Sheridan School District leaders, teachers union restart negotiations under orders from Gov. Jared Polis

3 hrs ago - 3 weeks into a teachers strike in the Denver metro district, staff were notified Wednesday their health insurance benefits would end in May Erica Breunli 9:12 AM MDT on Apr 23, 2026 Teachers and staff in Sheridan School District could lose their heal ... (Colorado Sun)

Millions of Americans may now also be considered Canadian under a new law

4 hrs ago - Updated 1:52 PM EDT, April 23, 2026 SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Millions more Americans might qualify for dual Canadian citizenship under a recent change to Canada’s requirements that has led to a surge in applications from its southern neighb ... (AP)

Met Opera's Multimillion-Dollar Deal With Saudis Falls Through

5 hrs ago - April 23, 2026, 4:00 p.m. ET In a major blow to the Metropolitan Opera, the Saudi Arabian government has backed out of a deal that would have provided significant relief to the nation's premier opera company as it struggles to recover from the most a ... (New York Times)

Trump's chief of staff bans international travel for Cabinet members unless approved by the White House: report

5 hrs ago - Thursday 23 April 2026 14:17 EDT President Donald Trump's Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is limiting the amount of overseas travel that Cabinet members can take heading into the midterms, according to insiders. Wiles reportedly told staff in February th ... (The Independent)

H-1B Visas Could Be Dramatically Slashed Under New Bill

6 hrs ago - Published Apr 23, 2026 at 08:06 AM EDT updated Apr 23, 2026 at 09:32 AM EDT Republican Representative Eli Crane has introduced a bill to pause the issuance of new H-1B visas for three years and implement significant changes thereafter. H-1B visas all ... (Newsweek)

House lawmakers clamoring for ethics reforms after wave of resignations

6 hrs ago - 04/23/26 6:00 AM ET The surge of House resignations this month has triggered calls from both parties for a broader overhaul of the ethics process and how the chamber polices its own. While many lawmakers have welcomed the hasty departures of former ... (The Hill)