Prepared for the Office of Public Affairs (OPA)
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Editorial Note: The DHS Daily Briefing is a collection of news articles related to Department’s mission. The inclusion of particular stories is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse the political viewpoints or affiliations included in news coverage.

FOX News [8/3/2025 3:01 PM, Staff, 46878K] reports DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin sounds off over sanctuary city policies and reacts to the Los Angeles mayor lauding a ruling restricting ICE. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [8/3/2025 9:30 PM, Staff, 46878K] reports Acting I.C.E. director Todd Lyons discusses President Donald Trump’s immigration policies and deportation efforts on ‘Sunday Night in America.’ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

San Diego Union Tribune [8/3/2025 11:23 AM, Jeff Horseman, 1611K] reports the Trump administration is illegally obstructing lawmakers by denying them access to federal immigration detention centers, according to a lawsuit filed by Democrats, including several Southern California representatives in Congress. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, July 30, seeks to force the administration to allow members of Congress access to facilities used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain individuals suspected of being in the country illegally. “As a member of Congress, I have a legal and moral obligation to provide oversight, and I will not stand idly by while people in our community are locked up in facilities that may be violating their rights,” Representative Norma Torres, D-Ontario, one of the plaintiffs, said in a press release. Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said via email that the plaintiffs “could have scheduled a visit; instead, they are coming to court to generate clicks and fundraising emails.” “Here are the facts. Given that ICE law enforcement has seen an increase in assaults, disruptions, and obstructions of law enforcement, including by members of Congress themselves, any request to visit processing centers and field offices must be approved by the Secretary of Homeland Security,” McLaughlin wrote. “Regarding visits to detention centers, requests should be submitted with sufficient time to avoid interference with the president’s (constitutional) authority to oversee the functions of the executive branch; one week is sufficient to ensure that the president’s constitutional authority is not infringed.” Democratic Representatives Robert Garcia and Jimmy Gomez of Los Angeles County; Lou Correa of Orange County; and Raul Ruiz, who represents part of the Inland Empire, are among the plaintiffs. Others include Joe Neguse and Jason Crow of Colorado, Adriano Espaillat and Dan Goldman of New York, Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, and Veronica Escobar of Texas.

San Diego Union Tribune [8/3/2025 9:16 PM, Ryan Carter, 1611K] reports a federal appeals court panel on Friday, Aug. 1, largely upheld a temporary restraining order that halted the federal government’s month-long immigration crackdown in Southern California. In a 61-page ruling issued Friday night, the three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals mostly agreed with a lower court’s ruling, which found that the government’s roving immigration patrols were conducted illegally without reasonable suspicion. Attorneys for the federal government requested that the panel stay that ruling and the restraining order, arguing that U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong erred in her July 11 ruling. A stay would have lifted the restraining order, allowing agents to resume their massive raid in Southern California counties. However, the panel - Judges Ronald M. Gould, Marsha S. Berzon and Jennifer Sung - found that "the individual plaintiffs have sufficiently demonstrated the possibility of future harm to justify their standing to seek injunctive relief" and that Justice Department lawyers had not met the factors that would have allowed the government to stay the lower court’s decision. In effect, officers will continue to be prohibited from stopping people without reasonable suspicion, or based solely on apparent race or ethnicity; speaking Spanish or English with an accent; presence at a specific location such as a bus stop, car wash, or farm; or the type of work a person performs. The court agreed with the federal government on only one clause, but upheld the rest of Frimpong’s earlier ruling. On Friday night, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass celebrated the ruling. "Today is a victory for the rule of law and for the city of Los Angeles," he declared. "The Temporary Restraining Order that has protected our communities from racial profiling and other illegal tactics by immigration agents when conducting their cruel and aggressive raids and police operations will remain in place for now." Citing case law, the panel focused on the issue of reasonable suspicion, the legal requirement for arrests, noting that the government’s arguments describe only "broad profiling" that does not constitute the reasonable suspicion necessary to justify a preventive detention. "Reasonable suspicion cannot be based on ‘generalizations that, if accepted, would generate suspicion about broad segments of the law-abiding population,’" they wrote. Rather, the specific facts articulated ‘must provide a rational basis for distinguishing undocumented immigrants from U.S. citizens and legal immigrants.’ The federal government, they asserted, failed to meet a more specific standard.

Telemundo51 [8/3/2025 4:28 PM, Alexis Boentes, 177K] reports a federal judge in the District of Columbia temporarily blocked accelerated deportations of immigrants with humanitarian parole, in response to a lawsuit challenging this practice as illegal and inadequate in due process. The judge, nominated by former President Joe Biden, wrote in her ruling that these migrants acted in accordance with the rules - and questioned whether they should be summarily deported from a country that might increasingly resemble the countries from which they tried to escape. The decision puts a halt to a reported ICE tactic in several cities, including Miami, where agents reportedly waited outside immigration courts to arrest people whose cases were dismissed by prosecutors. A few weeks ago, immigration prosecutors began to dismiss the cases, and then, ICE agents were outside, waiting for them to take them away, and put them in these expeditious deportation processes, explained immigration attorney Rosaly Chaviano. The order benefits people who legally entered the United States through an inbound port, airport or through the CBP One system, and who received a humanitarian stoppage. "It applies to all the people who entered the United States, legally, through an entrance port, airport, CBP One, and they were given a stoppage," Chaviano explained. According to the lawsuit, the Department of Homeland Security would have treated these immigrants as if they had entered illegally, deporting them without a hearing before a judge.

Daily Caller [8/3/2025 4:59 PM, Jason Hopkins, 1010K] reports Federal judges are increasingly ruling against the Trump administration’s agenda and in defiance of Supreme Court orders. The executive branch finds itself fending off endless counter-opinions from federal judges in the courtroom as it continues to implement its hard-line immigration policies. While the Trump administration has scored major victories in the nation’s highest court, including successfully reining in the scope of nationwide injunctions by federal judges, some have chosen to defy Supreme Court rulings. U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, an appointee of the Biden administration, blocked the Trump administration on Friday from using a process known as "expedited removal" to quickly remove illegal migrants from the country, according to court documents. The order could, at least for the time being, dramatically curtail the White House’s ability to carry out its deportation agenda. In a public statement about the ruling, an administration spokesperson slammed the Biden-appointed judge, accusing her of defying a previous Supreme Court ruling. "Judge Cobb is flagrantly ignoring the United States Supreme Court which upheld expedited removals of illegal aliens by a 7-2 majority," Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a public statement. "This ruling is lawless and won’t stand.".

Daily Caller [8/3/2025 2:55 PM, Hailey Gomez, 1010K] reports Democrat California Sen. Alex Padilla said Sunday on NBC’s "Meet the Press" that illegal migrants in the U.S. are simply "long-term residents" who "happen to be undocumented.". As President Donald Trump’s second administration attempts to fulfill his campaign promise of locking down the border and conducting mass deportations, illegal crossings have dropped to record lows. Highlighting Padilla’s opposition to Trump’s efforts, NBC’s Kristen Welker asked the senator if he would give Trump "credit" for the "record low crossings at the border." "Look, we should debate how the reduction in crossings has come about," Padilla said. "But I think most importantly, let’s look at the different pieces of what the immigration system looks like. Border security, everybody agrees we need an orderly, humane border. There’s an element of people wanting to come to the United States and how those programs need to be modernized and updated.". "My focus has been on the people who have been here," Padilla added. "Millions of long-term residents of the United States who happen to be undocumented that have been the target of this administration’s increasingly aggressive and cruel arrest, detention and deportation policies. If, and this is important to emphasize, they were truly only going after the dangerous violent criminals they so often talk about, there would be no debate, there would be no discussion.". Under the Biden-Harris administration, millions of illegal migrants crossed through the U.S.’ open borders, fueling a nationwide crisis. Sanctuary cities like New York City and Denver became overrun, with housing and service costs skyrocketing as a result. "But the vast majority of the people they’re arresting, detaining, and even deporting, many without due process, do not have those criminal violent convictions on their records," Padilla continued. "They’re actually people who are critical to our economy.". Effects from the border crisis included a rise in drug trafficking, the brutal deaths of a handful of Americans like 22-year-old Laken Riley and an estimated 300,000 missing migrant children, many believed to have been trafficked for sex and labor. As part of Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) prioritized arresting public safety threats — those with records including rapists, child predators and gang members. However, border czar Tom Homan repeatedly emphasized that DHS and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) wouldn’t limit arrests to criminals but will also target all who have entered the U.S. illegally.

Daily Caller [8/3/2025 4:12 PM, Hailey Gomez, 1010K] reports CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten said Saturday on "CNN Newsroom" that net migration into the U.S. is on track to be negative —something that hasn’t happened in "at least 50 years.". On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump focused on issues that resonated with voters, including immigration, inflation and the economy. While discussing how the administration has followed through on campaign promises, Enten noted that immigration is projected to drop "at least 60%." "It is not the only way that Trump is remaking America," Enten said. "The other big thing that Trump ran on, right, was immigration. How about net migration in the United States? Get this. It’s down. It’s going to be down at least 60%. We may be dealing with, get this, negative net migration to the United States in 2025. That would be the first time there is negative net migration in this country in at least 50 years.". "We’re talking about down from 2.8 million in 2024," Enten added. "So Donald Trump has always run on tariffs and he’s running a hawkish line on immigration. And on both of those issues, we are seeing record high tariff rates for this century going all the way back, well back into the early part of the 20th century. When it comes to immigration, net migration, we are seeing record low levels, way down from where we were during the Biden administration.". With the border crisis peaking under the Biden-Harris administration, the U.S. quickly felt the impact of millions of illegal migrants entering the country. Sanctuary cities like New York City and Denver were overwhelmed, with resources depleted and some mayors pleading with the administration for help. Issues like drug trafficking, the brutal deaths of a handful of Americans and reports of hundreds of thousands of missing migrant children also were major issues during the Biden administration. Since Trump’s January inauguration, he has signed a wave of executive orders targeting the border and drug cartels, including measures that enabled mass arrests of illegal migrants. According to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data, nationwide illegal crossings in June hit a record low of just 25,228 encounters. In addition to immigration, Enten highlighted Trump’s trade agenda. When a CNN host asked whether Trump "always chickens out" on tariffs, Enten pushed back, emphasizing that the president has followed through. "No, I don’t think that’s true, Omar. I think the theme of this segment is going to be love it, like it, lump it, Trump’s remaking the United States of America. We can start there with tariffs," Enten continued. "What are we talking about? No tacos for Trump. The effective tariff rate, get this, 18%. It is the highest, the highest since the 1930s up from, get this, just 2% last year. As I’m going to talk about in this segment, I can’t think of a more influential president during this century. ".

Washington Examiner [8/3/2025 1:55 PM, Steve Wilson, 1934K] reports the Highway Patrol will also create a new immigration enforcement section within the Bureau of Criminal Investigations. Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Wilton Simpson said his law enforcement branch is building a new interdiction station on U.S. 231 at the Alabama-Florida border. He said his agency’s law enforcement officers are acting as a "force multiplier" for local and federal partners involved in immigration enforcement efforts. According to DeSantis, 1,800 Florida Highway Patrol officers as of Friday have received their training and credentials as immigration officers under the 287(g) agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The second-term GOP governor also said that 100 troopers have been deputized as U.S. marshals, allowing them to carry out federal search warrants. DeSantis said he has even considered adding Camp Blanding, the Florida National Guard’s primary training facility in north-central Florida, as a possible site to detain people illegally in the country. The former presidential candidate said that all 67 of Florida’s county sheriffs’ offices are also participating in the 287(g) program. "There’s no other state in the country that can match our efforts," DeSantis said. "In fact, there’s no other state that is even in the ballpark of our efforts. I don’t think you’ve seen any state in the country work more closely with these federal agencies to fulfill a very key mission, a mandate from the American people after the 2024 election, to get this job done. So we’re showing that it can be done. DeSantis cited Operation Tidal Wave as one example of how cooperation between state, local and federal law enforcement agencies is helping enforce the nation’s immigration laws. Operation Tidal Wave was executed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and state and local law enforcement agencies in south Florida in April that arrested 1,120 people suspected of illegally entering the country, the most in the agency’s history in one state.

New York Times [8/4/2025 3:00 AM, Luis Ferré-Sadurní and Ashley Cai, 138952K] reports that, when President Trump returned to power, Democratic officials and immigrant communities braced for the prospect of mass raids in New York City, with predictions of roundups at migrant shelters, restaurant kitchens and street corners, and federal agents flooding schools, hospitals and even churches. But a starkly different reality has emerged in America’s largest city during the first six months of Mr. Trump’s second term. Unlike in Los Angeles and other parts of the country, immigration agents in New York have, for the most part, employed a much simpler strategy. They have had immigrants come to them. New federal data shows that half the migrants arrested in the New York City area since Jan. 20 have been detained after being summoned to the federal immigration offices in Manhattan or to the immigration courts there. They come for routine and mandated appearances, with judges typically determining whether someone who is in the country unlawfully can be deported or is eligible for asylum. Instead, in recent months, hundreds of people have been handcuffed without notice, largely out of public view. As the use of that tactic has accelerated, so have detentions. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested at least 2,365 immigrants in the region between late January and the end of June, a nearly 200 percent increase from the five months before Mr. Trump took office, according to the data. The new figures offer the clearest picture yet of the president’s crackdown in the city with the country’s largest immigrant population. Despite that distinction, New York has not topped the list of cities with the most immigrant arrests, even if apprehensions are above Biden-era levels. Since late May, about 33 immigrants on average have been detained each day in the area, up from about 11 in the preceding months, after Stephen Miller, the president’s top immigration adviser, demanded that ICE ramp up deportations. Most people arrested in New York during the Biden administration were released within a few hours so that they could wait for their asylum hearing and because it was impractical to hold everyone crossing the border. The Trump administration has taken a stricter approach, holding most people in detention, for weeks and months, as their deportation cases play out in the courts.

Politico [8/3/2025 1:24 PM, Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein, 16523K] reports Stephen Miller was unequivocal: Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers would seek to arrest 3,000 or more immigrants per day, a staggering target that he said was necessary to carry out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda. “Under President Trump’s leadership, we are looking to set a goal of a minimum of 3,000 arrests for ICE every day and President Trump is going to keep pushing to get that number up higher each and every day,” the senior White House adviser told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in May. But when federal judges pressed for details about that figure last week, the administration denied any such quota existed. The contradiction came in a lawsuit that alleged the intense pressure to rack up arrests had led ICE to conduct illegal sweeps in Los Angeles. It’s not the only case that has featured the 3,000-arrest-per-day target as a crucial piece of evidence that the administration’s single-minded drive to rack up arrests may have prompted immigration authorities to cut corners or break the law. Washington-based Judge Jia Cobb, a Biden appointee, cited the figure when she ruled Friday that the administration’s dramatic expansion of “expedited” deportation proceedings violated the law. And Judge Trina Thompson, a Biden appointee in San Francisco, pointed to the purported goal Thursday when she blocked the administration’s bid to end temporary protected status for tens of thousands of Nicaraguan, Honduran and Nepali immigrants. But on Wednesday, the Justice Department said no such orders had ever been given. “DHS has confirmed that neither ICE leadership nor its field offices have been directed to meet any numerical quota or target for arrests, detentions, removals, field encounters, or any other operational activities that ICE or its components undertake in the course of enforcing federal immigration law,” a Justice Department attorney reported to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. While DOJ attorney Yaakov Roth attributed the quota claim to “anonymous reports in the newspapers,” he didn’t mention that Miller — Trump’s deputy chief of staff and homeland security adviser — had publicly confirmed the 3,000-daily-arrest “goal” in the televised interview on Fox.

New York Times [8/3/2025 8:00 AM, Todd Heisler, Luis Ferré-Sadurní and Wesley Parnell, 330K] reports this has become the new normal in America’s immigration courts. In New York City, especially, courthouse arrests have driven a spike in detentions of undocumented immigrants without criminal records. Immigration authorities used to stay away from courthouses. They were aware that their presence could scare migrants from engaging with the legal system. That changed in May when the Trump administration began arresting some immigrants showing up for mandatory court dates so that their deportations could be expedited. The arrests turned the courthouses into places to witness Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown unfold in real time every day. Masked agents stand sentry outside the courtrooms. Migrants show up for their hearings, not knowing if they’re walking into a trap. The arrests sometimes devolve into volatile tussles in hallways also crowded with news photographers, activists and politicians. Family members are often left reeling. “His arrest was like the show of the day,” Porfiria Lopez, one of Mr. Lopez Benitez’s sisters, said. “The question we were left with is: How do they decide who to arrest? Is it chance or just theater?” Mr. Lopez Benitez, who is from Paraguay, crossed the southern border in May 2023. He was briefly apprehended by border patrol agents in Arizona, placed in deportation proceedings and released into the United States as his case wound through the courts. He traveled to New York, where he reunited with his two sisters, who are U.S. citizens. He lived in Queens, worked in construction and did not have a criminal record, according to his family and his lawyers. Like many people charged with entering the country unlawfully, Mr. Lopez Benitez showed up regularly for court dates related to his deportation proceedings, a legal process in which an immigration judge decides whether a person who entered illegally should be removed from the country. As part of that process, Mr. Lopez Benitez had applied for asylum, a type of legal protection for immigrants who fear returning to their home countries. His sisters encouraged her brother to show up to his latest hearing on July 16 at the courthouse at 26 Federal Plaza, despite the arrests taking place there. He arrived with his sisters and the hearing seemed to go well, with the judge scheduling his next hearing for 2029, to hear the merits of his asylum claim. But upon leaving the courtroom, he was surrounded by federal agents, arrested and taken away. He was sent to a crowded holding cell at 26 Federal Plaza for three days before the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency transferred him to a detention facility 1,600 miles away — in Houston.

Axios [8/4/2025 4:50 AM, Russell Contreras, 13599K] reports Republican-leaning states, once at the forefront of laws helping undocumented students pay in-state college tuition, are trying to roll back that access thanks to pressure from President Trump. Around 8% of the nation’s estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants are under 18, and the ending of in-state tuition would make college unaffordable if those laws are reversed. Without in-state tuition, undocumented immigrants who have gone through the state’s public school system would still have to pay out-of-state or international rates to attend public colleges and universities. The repeal efforts follow a Trump administration federal lawsuit filed in June to block the enforcement of Texas laws that grant in-state tuition rates to undocumented immigrants. The complaint states that federal policy bars undocumented immigrants from receiving "tuition benefits denied to out-of-state U.S. citizens," citing Trump’s executive orders that instructed agencies to block such practices. The Department of Justice and Texas then reached an agreement to end the two-decades-old law. The DOJ followed with similar lawsuits in Minnesota and Kentucky. "No state can be allowed to treat Americans like second-class citizens in their own country by offering financial benefits to illegal aliens," said Attorney General Pamela Bondi in a statement. The Trump administration says federal law prohibits public institutions of higher education from providing benefits to undocumented immigrants that are not offered to U.S. citizens.

Daily Wire [8/4/2025 12:25 AM, Spencer Lindquist, 3816K] reports a far-left organization partnered with financial institutions, activist groups, and the Mexican consulate to push banks to offer mortgage loans to illegal aliens and “protect undocumented immigrants.” Rise Economy, a leftist organization formerly called the California Reinvestment Coalition, was behind a report advocating for mortgage loans to be made available to illegal aliens who obtain an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), a financial tool that often enables illegals to obtain home and auto loans. The report indicates that the marketing and distribution of loans to illegal aliens, which The Daily Wire has documented extensively, may in part be the result of leftwing ideology and activism rather than simply a response to market incentives. The group thanked a wide range of supporting organizations, which it said “were essential in framing the research and tailoring the recommendations outlined in this report.” Among those dubbed “community partners” are the Consulate General of Mexico in San Francisco and La Raza Centro Legal, a San Francisco-based ethnic advocacy organization that offers deportation defense. The La Raza Community Resource Center, which also offers deportation defense assistance to illegal aliens, was listed as a partner of the organization. Also listed is the Beneficial State Foundation, the project of a bank run by a Democrat billionaire that The Daily Wire previously reported offers auto loans targeted to illegal aliens.

The Hill [8/3/2025 1:00 PM, Kim Hart and D. Wes Rist, 18649K] reports the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act of 2018, which overwhelmingly passed across party lines in the House and Senate, institutionalizes atrocity prevention in the U.S. government. This includes legally mandating an interagency atrocity prevention coordination body, requiring training for foreign service officers on the prevention of atrocities, requiring an atrocity prevention strategy and, critically, annual reporting to Congress on the government’s efforts. But this law is being ignored, to America’s detriment. Democratic and Republican administrations have agreed for almost two decades that preventing mass atrocities around the world is a central foreign policy interest of the United States. Preventing genocides, crimes against humanity, war crimes and ethnic cleansing is so central to America’s own values, interests and security that in 2018, Trump signed the Elie Wiesel Act with strong bipartisan support. This law was groundbreaking, making the U.S. the first country in the world to enshrine the objective of presenting mass atrocities globally into national law. Yet today, this law and the work it advanced are under dire threat. Mass atrocities are an anathema to American interests. Large scale, deliberate attacks on civilians shock the conscience. They undermine U.S moral, diplomatic, development and security interests. Preventing mass atrocities not only advances American interests, but it also strengthens our international cooperation and global leadership while advancing a peaceful and more just world. Most importantly, America should help prevent mass atrocities because it can. It has the tools and capabilities to help protect civilians and prevent the worst forms of human rights violations. The Trump administration should have submitted its Elie Wiesel Act annual report to Congress by July 15 — this didn’t happen. The report is a critical tool for communicating to Congress and the American people what the U.S. is doing to advance this work. It is a mile marker for what has been done and what the needs are. It creates an opportunity for experts outside of government to weigh in. And it allows Congress to conduct oversight over the implementation of its law. But not only was the report not submitted by the normal deadline, nearly all of the U.S. government’s atrocity experts have been subjected to reductions in force, forced to accept reassignment or retirement or placed on administrative leave. Without these experts and the offices that employed them, the U.S. lacks the expertise and systems to, at a minimum, fulfill its legal mandate under the law, let alone to effectively prevent, respond to and help countries recover from mass atrocities.

Washington Times [8/3/2025 3:51 PM, Michael McKenna, 2106K] reports President Trump promised during his campaign that, if elected, he would finish the job he had started in the first term — namely, he would fix America’s broken immigration system and stop the slow-motion invasion of the United States. The good news is that he has been better than his word concerning securing the border. The bad news is that there are still perhaps as many as 20 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. Deporting that many people, even if desirable, would be extraordinarily difficult. Mr. Trump is doing what he can: enforcing our immigration laws and deporting illegal aliens when circumstances allow. Unfortunately, he is not getting a lot of help. Instead of standing with Mr. Trump and supporting our country’s laws, those on the left (of course) and some companies and associations are resisting. For example, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducts operations near Home Depot, the company encourages employees to leave work with pay if they feel uncomfortable. “We’re not notified when raids are going to happen, and we are not involved in the operations,” said Margaret Smith, a spokesperson for Home Depot. “When ICE arrives at a parking lot or outside one of our stores, we ask our associates to report it immediately, not engage with the activity, and if associates feel uncomfortable after witnessing ICE activity, we offer associates the option to go home for the day with pay.” The National Restaurant Association has released a memo advising restaurants on how to best handle ICE and the enforcement of our nation’s laws. The memo states in part, “Of course, creating new HR solutions that properly sync with the new government portal may prove to be quite difficult. We do not recommend whether to use E-Verify.” Uh-oh. E-Verify is, of course, a web-based system that allows enrolled employers to confirm the eligibility of their employees to work in the United States. The program is simple and effective at ensuring that jobs go to legal workers. If the businesses, which certainly include restaurants, that employ illegal immigrants in this nation, confirmed the eligibility of their employees to work in the United States, they wouldn’t be pushing back on the activities of ICE or lobbying for new foreign labor pipelines. It is a complete mystery why E-Verify, which is simple and cheap, isn’t an absolute requirement for employers. Well, maybe not a complete mystery. The sad truth of illegal immigration is that many employers are happy to violate the law and employ illegal immigrants because those workers suppress wages and, of course, they make no trouble in the workplace. If we really want to address illegal immigration, we need to require E-Verify, and we need to increase the penalties we impose on those who employ illegal immigrants.

CBS’ Face The Nation [8/3/2025 12:11 PM, Staff, 4217K] reports Canadian Minister for U.S.-Canada trade, Dominic LeBlanc was recently in Washington negotiating. While the talks are officially continuing, he left town without a deal, and left town with, now, what is a 35% tariff on goods. How much of a setback was the President’s decision to do that while LeBlanc was still at the table? "We were obviously disappointed by that decision. We believe there’s a great deal of common ground between the United States and Canada in terms of building two strong economies that work well together. That’s been the history of the 40-year Free Trade Agreement that goes back to President Reagan. We were pleased the United States is respecting the terms of the USMCA agreement. That’s vital, we think, to the cost of living and affordability, certainly in the United States, it’s true in Canada, as well. So, we’re going to continue to do the work. We left, always, with a better understanding of the American concerns in the trading relationship. Ambassador Greer, Secretary Lutnick, engaged with us in constructive, cordial conversations. So we’re prepared to stick around and do the work needed. We think, Ms. Brennan, that the economies of both countries are strengthened when we do things together, the trading relationship between Canada and the United States is unlike other partners. One description, without which I thought was very apt; we don’t sell things to each other as much as we build things together. And that’s why it’s- it’s difficult in this relationship when so much is integrated. But we remain very optimistic." states LeBlanc.

CBS’ Face The Nation [8/3/2025 12:11 PM, Staff, 4217K] reports American automakers, GM, Ford, Stellantis, they have all said that these tariffs are hurting their profits. The 50% metal tariffs, which use Canadian aluminum, the Secretary of the Treasury was talking about those just the other day, they’re seeing the impact here in the United States, a bit of a backfire in some ways. Does LeBlanc see room for maneuver on these? Are they willing to negotiate with him on those tariffs? "We hope so. And, as I say, we’re encouraged by the conversations with Secretary Lutnick and Ambassador Greer, but we’re not yet where we need to go to get the deal that’s in the best interest of the two economies. But your example is a good one. Canadian aluminum companies massively supply the American market. And by putting a 50% tariff on aluminum from Canada, you’ve increased the price of a whole series of goods. The automobile sector, again, is an example where there’s been deep integration. We’re the biggest customer of U.S. made automobiles. Heavily, heavily importing into Canada light and heavy-duty trucks. 50% of the cars that we finish in Canada and sell to the United States are made up of American parts. So, therein lies a perfect example where, instead of tariffing one another, or President Trump for his national security reasons, under his Section 232, tariffs, wants to have a strong domestic steel, aluminum automobile sector. Well, so does Canada. And we understand and respect totally the President’s view in terms of the national security interest. In fact, we share it, and what we’ve said to our American counterparts is, how can we structure the right agreement, where we can both continue to supply one another in a reliable, cost-effective way that preserves jobs essential to the American economy, but the same thing is true, obviously in Canada as well. Are there any plans for the two leaders to speak? "Of course we do. As I say, the conversations have been informative, constructive, and cordial. I would expect the Prime Minister will have a conversation with the President over the next number of days. That’s certainly my plan, again with Secretary Lutnick, recognizing that we think there is an option of striking a deal that will bring down some of these tariffs, provide greater certainty to investment. We, Ms. Brennan, we passed, in Canada, our version of the President’s One Big, Beautiful Bill. It’s called the One Canadian Economy Act, which we think will unlock up to $500 billion of investment in Canada for things like pipelines, port infrastructure, mines, all of which offer huge opportunities to American businesses as well. So, we think there’s a great deal- a great deal to work on together." states LeBlanc.

FOX News Sunday [8/3/2025 11:20 AM, Staff] reports Tim Lilley, father of co-pilot killed in DC crash Sam Lilley, discusses his fight for aviation safety changes after a National Transportation Safety Board hearing over the procedural errors that caused the January crash.

NBC’s Meet the Press [8/3/2025 11:20 AM, Staff] reports now that the president is appointing a replacement to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the question for is, will Sen. Alex Padilla trust the job numbers when they come out? Padilla says that the big question for members of Congress that have to confirm. "It’s what confirmation hearings are supposed to be about, is it going to be somebody that will maintain the independence of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, like so many other departments and agencies that need to have the independence from political pressure of the White House to do their job reliably, or will this be another “yes” person for the president that’s going to be more interested in propaganda than statistics, more interested in propaganda than the facts." Padilla states. Two former BLS commissioners wrote a letter, calling on Congress, actually, to investigate what led to the firing of the commissioner and possibly to reverse the move. There have even been some criticism from Republican colleagues. Will there be enough bipartisan support to launch an investigation into the firing of the BLS commissioner? "I think an investigation is certainly in order, right? Just as I’ve called for an investigation, by the way, on Hatch Act violations on the redistricting in Texas conversation. There is example after example of Donald Trump weaponizing, no longer just the Department of Justice — but when he’s trying to weaponize the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that tells you a lot about their insecurity about the economy and the state of economic affairs in America because everything that they’re claiming to be true is not true. Prices are still going up. And this is from a president who promised to bring prices down. And so American people are feeling it. The impact of tariffs, $2,400 a year for working families across the country, that’s the reality of tariffs." Padilla states.

NBC’s Meet the Press [8/3/2025 11:20 AM, Staff] reports the midterms, congressional maps obviously in focus. They are usually redrawn every decade. But in Texas, Republicans there rolled out a new map that could actually add up to five GOP seats. Governor Gavin Newsom promises that California would respond with a new map that would boost Democratic seats in that state. Is it hypocritical for Democrats to deploy the same strategy that they’re criticizing by Republicans in Texas? "Let’s understand why Donald Trump is asking for five more Republican seats out of Texas. It’s because his policies, especially his economic policies, have been so bad, right? The prior guest referenced the Big Beautiful Bill. Wait until people start losing their healthcare and their healthcare costs go up, right? If Republicans were confident on their policy agenda, they would be eager to defend it with the people and to defend it at the ballot box, next November. But they know they’re in trouble. And so they’re trying to rig the system to hold on to power next November. That’s what this redistricting move is really about." Padilla comments. "Rig the system." is a powerful statement, some of the Democratic party warn that going down this path could actually erode trust in the system. Do Democrats run the risk of destroying voters’ faith in the entire system? "I’ll tell you what’s destroying faith in the system. It’s everything coming out of the White House right now. The ideal scenario, Kristen, is for Texas to stand down. They don’t have to do this. They shouldn’t do this. But if they were to go forward and deliver Trump his five additional Republican seats, that’s what he’s asked for, just like he asked the Georgia secretary of state for 11,000 more votes after the 2020 election. The stakes are simply too high; the economic stakes, the state of our democracy, the health of our institutions, the checks and balances in our country. So, yes, California and others are going to look at what options we have to defend what we believe America should stand for." Padilla states.

Breitbart [8/3/2025 11:49 AM, Randy Clark, 3077K] reports as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and other federal agents and officers attempt to enforce U.S. immigration law, they are increasingly coming under physical attack. Recent arrests related to the assaults may be a sign that the federal government has had enough of the rising trend of violent assaults on federal immigration agents. On Friday, Gregory K. Bovino, Commander-Operation at Large California and current Chief of the El Centro Border Patrol Sector, highlighted the service of an arrest warrant on a United States citizen accused of assaulting federal agents involved in enforcing immigration laws in Los Angeles. Bovino posted a video on X (formerly Twitter) of the Border Patrol’s highly trained BORTAC special operations group swiftly arresting the suspect who is alleged to have spit on agents as they attempted to conduct deportation operations in Los Angeles. In the post, a video shows the suspect, wearing an anti-ICE t-shirt, being arrested by agents at a business. Bovino wrote, "This U.S. citizen is accused of assaulting a federal agent by spitting on him during an immigration arrest under Operation at Large. Our agents swiftly served him a warrant in Los Angeles. California may coddle criminals, but we don’t. If you assault a federal agent, you earn federal consequences. Remember: When talking to federal law enforcement officers, say it, don’t spray it.". In another recent arrest, the United States Attorney’s office in Oregon announced the arrest of a Portland man suspected of committing various offenses, including aggravated assault of a federal officer and damaging federal property during a violent protest at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in South Portland. On Monday, 24-year-old Robert Jacob Hoopes made his initial court appearance on the felony charges of aggravated assault of a federal officer with a dangerous weapon and depredation of federal property in an amount exceeding $1,000. According to court documents and information shared in court, on June 14, 2025, Hoopes was present at a protest at the Portland ICE building and was allegedly seen and photographed throwing large rocks at the building. He threw one of those rocks at an ICE officer and struck the officer in the head, causing a significant laceration over the officer’s eye. Later that same day, authorities alleged that Hoopes and two other individuals were seen using an upended stop sign as a makeshift battering ram, which resulted in significant damage to the main entry door to the ICE building. Hoopes was identified from a photo online later that same day.

New York Times [8/3/2025 10:36 AM, Alicia Chen, 138952K] reports ever since immigration raids swept Los Angeles in June, Han Lihua, 46, has spent much of his time hiding in his apartment, skipping his Amazon delivery shifts and scrolling on social media to look for nearby sightings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. In 2022, he fled China, where he ran an independent student newspaper and taught high school literature. He crossed the treacherous Darién Gap on the border of Colombia and Panama before crossing the southern border of the United States illegally in early 2023. Now, with the Trump administration carrying out a sweeping immigration crackdown, he is among the Chinese immigrants who say fear has eclipsed their fragile new lives, forcing difficult questions about whether the United States can offer them a better situation after they fled an authoritarian government. “Everyone is so afraid,” Mr. Han said. “I didn’t expect this would happen in the United States.” Since China reopened its borders in January 2023 after Covid lockdowns, more than 63,000 Chinese citizens like Mr. Han have fled and crossed the U.S. southern border without authorization, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, making them the fourth-largest group by nationality after migrants from Venezuela, Haiti, and Ecuador. Under President Trump’s policies, however, illegal crossings along the southern border have dropped dramatically, reaching 6,000 arrests in June, a low not seen in decades. Most Chinese immigrants fled strict censorship, growing political repression or Beijing’s zero-Covid policies, which often shut down entire cities for weeks, if not months, trapping people in their homes with little access to food, medical care or work. Those who spoke out against the policies could face harassment or detention. But with the Trump administration’s escalating immigration enforcement, many Chinese immigrants like Mr. Han now confront a question they never imagined they would face: Should they stay or leave? Huang Xiaosheng, a Los Angeles-based Chinese immigration lawyer, described the situation as “much harsher” since May, when the Trump administration set a goal of a minimum of 3,000 arrests a day. Securing bail has become nearly impossible, he said. And dozens of videos of ICE arrests have circulated on Chinese social media, fueling fear among the community, he said. Some Chinese immigrants “are thinking about their Plan B,” Mr. Huang said. “They’re considering Canada or other countries, or even going back to China.” Chinese immigrants are far from alone in their heightened fears during the Trump administration. ICE has stepped up arrests across the country of all nationalities, conducting raids in major cities such as San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles. Arrests and detentions have swept through restaurants, courthouses and other public spaces. In the past six months, the administration has also deported migrants to third countries that agreed to take them, including Panama, Costa Rica and El Salvador. Immigration lawyers said Chinese immigrants could face criminal prosecution by the Chinese government if they are deported by the United States, but those who return voluntarily probably would only be fined.

New York Times [8/3/2025 7:34 AM, Mitch Smith, 138952K] reports like many people in Leavenworth, Kan., Jeff Fagan spent his career working in prisons. The son of a corrections officer at Fort Leavenworth’s military prison, Mr. Fagan described going to work as a young man in Leavenworth’s silver-domed federal penitentiary. He later got a job at the state prison just outside city limits, where he said he spent nearly four decades as an officer. So when Mr. Fagan heard about plans for a private company to run an immigration detention center in his city, it seemed like a natural fit. Leavenworth is a prison town, after all, and the company was offering a starting wage of more than $28 an hour. “I’d like to see all the revenue that would come into our community, all the jobs,” Mr. Fagan said, adding that Leavenworth, which has 37,000 residents, is “not like a community that’s completely, totally afraid of the fact that you have prisons.” But even in a place that has been in the corrections business for more than 150 years, plans for an immigration detention center have proved divisive, fusing national tensions into municipal debates. Vity leaders filed two lawsuits against the detention center’s private operator, CoreCivic, after conversations about a local permit fell apart. A judge temporarily blocked the company from housing detainees. Lawyers and activists raised alarms about understaffing and violence when the facility last housed inmates. All the while, supporters of the project have grown frustrated with what they see as an attempt to undermine President Trump and, in the process, deny Leavenworth hundreds of jobs. As the Trump administration increases deportations and builds a network of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention sites, from “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida to an airport in Louisiana, Leavenworth residents have found themselves engulfed by the country’s immigration debate and questioning what the rift means for their city’s signature industry. “What’s happening across our nation — the abuse, the neglect, the stories coming out of Florida — do we want that in our community?” asked Shannon Lehman, a stay-at-home mother in Leavenworth who is part of a group protesting the ICE plans. Opponents of the detention center, many of whom oppose an array of Mr. Trump’s policies, also invoke national politics. Several dozen residents gathered recently to protest the detention center plan, holding signs with messages like “No Human Being Is Illegal” as they marched through downtown, pausing next to a shrunken-down Statue of Liberty and a sculpture of Abraham Lincoln on the lawn of City Hall. Skie Pearson, a Leavenworth resident who helped plan the protest, said she worried that “we’re sliding into fascism” as Mr. Trump rolls out his agenda and increases funding for ICE. “Is it happening here in our very small town? Yes,” Ms. Pearson said of the detention center debate. “But I hope this gives other small towns the idea that they can fight back.”

New York Post [8/3/2025 12:04 PM, Jorge Fitz-Gibbon, 49956K] reports a pair of illegal migrants tried to ram federal immigration agents during a bust in Denver before fleeing the feds – with one, a child sex abuse convict, still on the loose. Mexican national Jose Mendez-Chavez, a pedophile who entered the US illegally at least a half-dozen times, was behind the wheel Thursday when he tried to slam into Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents near Colorado Springs, KMGH-TV News reported. "Mendez was not an ‘innocent victim,’" an ICE spokesperson told the outlet. "He is an abuser who plays the system and is now wanted for assault on a federal officer.". The feds were conducting a raid at a construction site in Black Forest when they were attacked. The agents fired three shots as the migrants sped away, but authorities nabbed the passenger in the vehicle, identified as Francisco Zapata-Pacheco, a few hours later. He is being held for deportation proceedings, KMGH said. Meanwhile, ICE slammed a local anti-ICE group that has been tipping off migrants about pending federal raids and disrupting arrest operations in the area, as "despicable.". "Two criminal aliens attempted to ram their vehicle into ICE officers during a targeted enforcement operation in Colorado Springs," a department spokesperson said. "It is despicable that Colorado Rapid Response Network would show up in defense of an alien who has abused children and attempted to injure our officers," the spokesperson said. "ICE officers are facing an 830% increase in assaults," they said. "Lies and violent rhetoric incite hostility against the brave men and women of ICE who put their lives on the line every day to protect American communities, as we witnessed in Colorado [on Thursday].".

FOX News [8/3/2025 9:01 M, Staff, 46878K] reports an officer sued by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser for allegedly sharing information with federal immigration agents in violation of state law continues to be under investigation, but he could face a hefty fine. "The complaint filed against the deputy is a civil lawsuit (not criminal). Violations of these laws … can result in an injunction and civil penalties up to $50,000," Lawrence Pacheco, director of communications at the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, said in an email to Fox News Digital Friday. Mesa County Sheriff’s Deputy Alexander Zwinck and another deputy were disciplined by the sheriff’s office for allegedly sharing information with federal immigration agents on a drug task force during a Brazilian college student’s arrest for an expired visa, according to The Associated Press. Mesa County Sheriff Todd Rowell said Caroline Dias-Goncalves, a 19-year-old nursing student, was pulled over by Zwinck for a traffic stop June 5 after she was allegedly driving too close to a semi-truck. While Dias-Goncalves was released with a warning after about 20 minutes, federal immigration agents stopped her and arrested her shortly after. Zwinck was placed on three weeks of unpaid leave, and Erik Olson was placed on two weeks of unpaid leave, Rowell said in a statement. Both were removed from the task force. Two supervisors were also disciplined, with one suspended without pay for two days and another receiving a letter of reprimand. A third supervisor received counseling. "Based on our findings, the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office should not have had any role in the chain of events leading to Miss Dias-Goncalves’s detention, and I regret that this occurred. I apologize to Miss Dias-Goncalves," Mesa County Sheriff Todd Rowell said in a statement on Wednesday. "I have pushed for collaboration with state and federal partners to solve crime in our community. In the area of drug interdiction, HSI has been our primary federal law enforcement partner. Although discussions were had with HSI supervision in the months preceding this incident to ensure my deputies would not be involved in immigration enforcement, the administrative review showed that those lines of collaboration were crossed.". Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed legislation earlier this year that prevents local governments from sharing immigration information with immigration officials at the federal level. "Basically, this new law gives a narrow exception for Colorado law enforcement to cooperate with the federal government if ICE or the Department of Homeland Security asks for assistance in a particular crime investigation," Kristi Burton Brown, executive vice president of Advance Colorado, wrote in an email to Fox News Digital.

Univision [8/3/2025 1:05 PM, Staff, 4992K] reports an Ohio city whose Haitian community was the subject of derogatory comments by President Donald Trump last year is now preparing to defend those immigrants against possible deportations. A group of about 100 people from the community, religious leaders and Haitian representatives in Springfield, Ohio, met this week for several days to receive training and prepare to defend potential deportees and offer them refuge. People of faith generally comply with the law. But if there are laws that are unjust, if there are laws that do not respect human dignity, we believe that our commitment to Christ forces us to put ourselves in the place where we possibly face the same threats," said Carl Ruby, chief pastor of the Central Christian Church. Ruby said the group’s ultimate goal is to convince the Trump administration to reverse its decision to end the legal protections of hundreds of thousands of Haitians in the United States under temporary protection status (TPS). One way to support Haitians is to spread the message of how much value they bring to the city of Springfield, he said. It would be an absolute disaster if we lost 10,000 of our best workers overnight because their TPS ends and they can no longer work. In the event that this change is not achieved, Ruby explained that participants are learning other ways to help Haitians. This includes establishing relationships, accompanying migrants to their appointments with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) and providing physical shelter to their families. Springfield was an unwanted spotlight last year after Trump fleaned false rumors during a presidential debate that members of the city’s growing Haitian community kidnapped and ate dogs and cats. It was the kind of incendiary, anti-immigrant rhetoric he promoted throughout his campaign. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced in June that it would end the TPS as soon as September 2 for about 500,000 Haitians already in the United States, some of whom have lived here for more than a decade. The department said conditions at home have improved enough to allow for safe return. DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said at the time that the Trump administration would end up imposing itself and that its predecessors had treated the TPS as a de facto asylum program. Meanwhile, the government set the expiry date for early February.

Breitbart [8/3/2025 1:13 PM, Bob Price, 3077K] reports Texas Department of Public Safety troopers, National Guardsmen, and Border Patrol agents continue to arrest migrants who illegally crossed the border between ports of entry and made their way into the U.S. interior. Recent arrests include three Chinese nationals who got away from the border after crossing near Mission, Texas. DPS Lt. Chris Olivares posted a video to social media showing the continuing activities of troopers, guardsmen, and Border Patrol agents who, despite record low apprehensions at the border, continue to find migrants being smuggled into the interior of Texas after not being apprehended at the border. Law enforcement teams also continue to seize drugs being smuggled into Texas. An example reported by Lt. Olivares on July 31 shows a Border Patrol Mounted Patrol team tracking migrants in Duval County, Texas. The team tracked the illegal aliens who attempted to escape by using thick brush as cover. A Texas DPS K-9 team managed to apprehend the two illegal aliens and turn them over to Border Patrol agents. Earlier on Thursday, Olivares reported the arrest of three Chinese nationals apprehended near Mission after clearing the border without encountering a Border Patrol agent. Troopers also stopped a human smuggling attempt last week in Dimmitt County, Texas, when they pulled over a Florida driver. The troopers found two Mexican nationals, illegally present in the U.S., hiding in the rear cargo area of the SUV. On July 3, Olivares reported the arrest of ten illegal aliens near Mission. These included four migrants from Uzbekistan.

Houston Chronicle [8/4/2025 5:03 AM, Matt Zdun, Benjamin Wermund, and Jason Buch] reports Gov. Greg Abbott has doled out more than $100 million in recent years to counties and cities that take part in his border crackdown, Operation Lone Star. Much of that funding has paid for border-related expenses, like police officers and sheriff’s deputies, added jail capacity and search-and-rescue operations. But millions have also gone toward office renovations, tricked-out pickups, laptops and dog food. The Express-News and the Houston Chronicle pieced together the most detailed picture to date of spending under the program by interviewing officeholders and law enforcement officials, and by reviewing records on more than 4,600 Lone Star grants approved by Abbott’s office from 2021 to early this year.

FOX News [8/3/2025 10:00 AM, Kurt Knutsson, 46878K] reports that, if you’re planning to breeze through airport security using TSA PreCheck, you should first check the URL. The TSA just posted an urgent warning on Facebook reminding travelers to use only the official government site when signing up for PreCheck. The post says, "Signing up for TSA PreCheck? Make sure you’re using a safe and trusted .gov website" and includes this official link, tsa.gov/precheck. Why the warning? Because scammers are out in full force, hoping to trick busy travelers into handing over personal information, and even money, by posing as TSA PreCheck. Scammers have created fake emails and websites that look exactly like TSA PreCheck. They send these phishing emails to people who are eager to skip airport security lines. The messages urge you to click a link, enroll fast and pay the fee. But here’s the problem. You’re not signing up for anything legitimate. You’re giving your data, and possibly your credit card, to a scammer. Even worse, you may not find out until you’re standing at the airport, expecting a smoother journey that never comes. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also issued a warning to help travelers spot the scam before it’s too late. Here are the key steps and our recommendations to stay safe. Always start your application at tsa.gov/precheck. Type the URL directly into your browser. Never trust a link from an unexpected email or text. Avoid clicking on links in emails or texts you weren’t expecting, even if they look polished and professional. Scammers are getting better at impersonating trusted sources. A strong antivirus can flag phishing emails and block malicious websites before you click. It’s an essential line of defense, especially when scammers are spoofing trusted organizations like the TSA.

Politico [8/3/2025 4:00 PM, Benjamin Guggenheim, 2100K] reports Senate GOP privacy hawks are stewing over the derailment of a bill earlier this week that would limit face scanning technologies — and blaming the TSA for interference in an under-the-radar legislative battle. On the surface, Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz had to cancel consideration of the bipartisan bill that would put guardrails on the airport security screening tool due to intense lobbying from the travel industry, which had sowed seeds of doubt among committee members. Privately, though, Republicans who support the measure say it was the TSA itself, with the encouragement of its politically appointed leadership, that assumed a critical role in orchestrating the lobbying campaign that grew opposition and forced the legislation to be scrapped at the last minute from the markup docket. The episode is now exposing a rift between an administration that wants to increase the use of technology to slash bureaucracy at federal agencies and Republican privacy hawks on Capitol Hill who don’t like being undermined. “The short answer is yes; the long answer is hell yes,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a co-sponsor of the bill, when asked if TSA had been raising concerns. “They’re working like an ugly stripper to kill this bill, which tells me we’re doing the right thing.” A senior Senate GOP aide, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said earlier in the week that the “smears against [the] bill have TSA’s fingerprints all over it.” The aide also said TSA’s effective lobbying against the bill would “not bode well” for the potential confirmation prospects of Ha Nguyen McNeill, the current acting head of the agency whom President Donald Trump is expected to nominate to serve as permanent administrator. It also potentially puts McNeill at odds with Kristi Noem, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, which houses TSA: Noem is not opposed to the legislation, according to a senior DHS official granted anonymity to share the secretary’s private views.

FOX News [8/3/2025 4:11 PM, Peter Burke, 46878K] reports Pope Leo XIV received a surprise gift this week while appearing before the Catholic faithful in Vatican City: a box of pizza from his home state of Illinois. But the story of how the pizza reached his hands is even more surprising. The pontiff was handed a box of pizza from Aurelio’s as he arrived in St. Peter’s Square in the Popemobile for his weekly audience. Video of the pizza delivery showed the Popemobile coming to a stop in front of a sign that read, "We have Aurelio’s Pizza.". Another sign read, "Pope Leo, I brought you Pizza from Chicago.". One of Pope Leo’s bodyguards is seen in the video grabbing the pizza box and handing it to him. The pope, who seemed to be smiling as he received the box, then gave a thumbs-up to Madeline Daley, the Cincinnati resident who had made the trip, in part, to deliver it to him. So how did a Chicago-style pizza make its way from Illinois to Italy? The journey, in earnest, began in Ohio. That’s where Jayden Remias, a 24-year-old Catholic content creator living in Columbus, first baked up the idea. "It was an act of love," he told Fox News Digital. "I know what the world wants," he said. "It wants truth, beauty and goodness. And so how can I give that to the world? And I started brainstorming ideas – what’s something impossible that would require God to intervene and help me get there? Delivering a pizza to the pope.". But not just any pizza. It had to come from the flagship Auerilo’s location in Homewood, Illinois – a suburb of Chicago – and home of the "Poperoni Pizza.". Why Auerilo’s? It’s been widely reported that this is Pope Leo’s favorite pizza after a 2024 photo that went viral showed then-Cardinal Robert F. Prevost posing for a picture with friends at the restaurant. Remias recruited a childhood friend to drive with him to pick up the pizza. But on their way from Columbus to Chicago, the van’s battery died. They eventually made it to Aurelio’s, where Remias announced his intention to deliver the pizza to the pope. Remias initially intended to fly to Rome himself, but a personal situation interfered — so he called upon Daley. She collected dry ice, put the pizza in a cooler and conferred with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to make sure it would pass security screening and customs. On the day of the intended delivery, Daley said she "wrote a note to Pope Leo on the inside of the box saying, ‘This pizza is most likely perfectly fine to eat, but I probably wouldn’t eat it myself.’".

NBC News [8/3/2025 5:41 PM, Rebecca Cohen and Christine Rapp, 44540K] reports an air quality advisory was sent out to New Yorkers for Monday, when smoke from wildfires in Canada is expected to reach the state. Unhealthy air quality conditions continued in the Upper Midwest and Northeast on Sunday afternoon, with the worst of it in eastern Wisconsin and Michigan. Alerts were in effect for nine states Sunday and included the cities of Minneapolis, Chicago and Detroit, as well as Syracuse and Buffalo in New York and Burlington, Vermont. The smoke will make its way to New York City on Monday. The state Department of Environmental Conservation sent an alert Sunday warning of unhealthy air for some people. The air quality index is expected to be between 101 and 150, which is known as Level Orange and is unhealthy for sensitive groups and may be unhealthy for those sensitive to air pollution, the alert said. Those groups include adults over 65 and children younger than 14, people who are pregnant, outdoor workers and those with medical conditions like heart or lung disease, or those with respiratory issues like asthma. Sensitive groups should manage outdoor activities and monitor for symptoms related to air quality. Healthy individuals should not be strongly affected by the air quality, the alert said. Flood alerts are in place for 13 million people in the Southeast including in Atlanta and the Florida cities of Jacksonville and Tallahassee through Monday. Slow-moving storms are dumping 2 to 5 inches of rain over the area, with up to 8 inches possible in some places. In the High Plains, from Colorado through West Texas, 1 million people were at risk for very large hail and damaging wind gusts Sunday afternoon. Heat alerts are in effect for 14 million in the Southwest, Texas and Miami, where heat indexes were predicted to top 105 to 109 degrees. In Arizona and California, the heat indexes could reach 110 to 115 degrees. The heat alerts in the Southwest will remain in effect through Friday.

Reported similarly:
Bloomberg [8/3/2025 3:53 PM, Brian K. Sullivan, 19320K]
NPR [8/3/2025 2:47 PM, Kristin Wright, 37958K]

New York Times [8/3/2025 1:13 PM, David Gelles and Maxine Joselow, 138952K] reports ever since 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson’s science advisory committee warned of the dangers of unchecked global warming, the United States has taken steps to protect people from these risks. Now, however, the Trump administration appears to be essentially abandoning this principle, claiming that the costs of addressing climate change outweigh the benefits. The effect is to shift more of the risk and responsibility onto states and, ultimately, individual Americans, even as rising temperatures fuel more extreme and costly weather disasters nationwide, experts say. “It’s a radical transformation of government’s role, in terms of its intervention into the economy to try to promote the health and safety of citizens,” said Donald Kettl, a professor emeritus at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy. Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, this week proposed to repeal the landmark scientific finding that enables the federal government to regulate the greenhouse gases that are warming the planet. In effect, the E.P.A. will eliminate its own authority to combat climate change. Speaking at a truck dealership in Indianapolis, Mr. Zeldin said the E.P.A. would reverse a 2009 scientific conclusion, known as the endangerment finding, that greenhouse gas emissions pose a threat to public health. He said the agency would also rescind Biden-era regulations designed to reduce planet-warming emissions from automobile tailpipes. While few people have heard of the endangerment finding, it has had a profound effect on society. Its establishment cleared the way for the Obama administration to set the country’s first limits on greenhouse gases from cars and power plants, with the goal of putting more electric vehicles on the roads and adding more renewable energy to the electric grid. But Mr. Zeldin’s announcement was only the latest in a rapid-fire series of actions to weaken or eliminate protections against climate change. In April the Trump administration dismissed hundreds of scientists and experts who had been compiling the federal government’s flagship analysis of how climate change is affecting the country. In May, Mr. Trump proposed to stop collecting key measurements of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere as part of his 2026 budget plan. And since January he has called for eliminating or overhauling the Federal Emergency Management Agency to shift disaster response to the states. Alongside other sweeping policy changes, like recent cuts to food stamps and the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development, the rollback of federal climate efforts has also had the cumulative effect of leaving vulnerable people more exposed.

CBS Colorado [8/4/2025 12:03 PM, Christa Swanson, 51860K] reports Gov. Jared Polis verbally declared a disaster emergency Sunday for a wildfire burning in northwest Colorado. The Elk Fire began around 12:30 p.m. Saturday in Rio Blanco County. Early Sunday, the fire was estimated to have burned around 600 acres to the southeast of Meeker, but that number jumped to 3,000 acres throughout the day, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. The Rio Blanco County Sheriff’s Office said the wildfire is actively burning across land belonging to the Colorado Division of Wildland, the Bureau of Land Management and private owners, fueled by pinyon, juniper and oak brush in the area. They added that no structures are currently at risk. At 5:15 p.m., the Sheriff’s Office said it sent out a reverse 911 for residents from Mile Marker 11 (County Road 57 Miller Creek) to Mile Marker 16 on County Road 8. An evacuation center has been set up at Fairfield Center, 200 Main Street, in Meeker. The evacuation is for both the North and South sides of County Road 8. Authorities said the smoke from the wildfire can be seen from Meeker, and the hot and dry conditions are contributing to active fire behavior. The sheriff’s office requested that residents and travelers avoid the area while emergency personnel are working to contain the fire. Due to the rugged terrain in the area, Hotshot crews are being dropped into the fire zone to assist ground crews with suppression efforts. The sheriff’s office warned, "DO NOT STOP along County Road 8, stopping or parking in the area may interfere with fire operations and pose a danger to yourself and responders." The sheriff’s office later announced the closure of County Road 8 between mile marker 8 at Miller Creet and mile marker 17 at Sleepy Cat. Today’s declaration provides additional resources and state support to help in fire suppression efforts. A statement from the governor’s office said: "Fire conditions in northwest Colorado are at near record levels, and elevated fire weather and fire risk is forecast for the coming week. With the disaster declaration, the State Emergency Operations and Resource Mobilization Plans are activated and the Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (DHSEM) coordinates the state response through management of the State Emergency Operations Center and deployment of field operations staff to directly support county emergency managers with consequence management. The Division of Fire Prevention and Control (DFPC) is leading the incident management and suppression efforts in conjunction with the other CDPS Divisions." Lightning from recent thunderstorms also sparked two wildfires southwest of Meeker. According to the Bureau of Land Management, the Lee Fire has burned approximately 700 acres so far in an area 20 miles southwest of Meeker. Authorities said the fire is threatening oil and gas infrastructure in the Magnolia area. The Lee fire is visible from Colorado State Highway 13 and Rio Blanco County Road 5, Piceance Creek Road. The BLM said fire weather conditions will be critical Monday and a Fire Weather Watch has been issued. The third wildfire, named the Grease Fire, is currently located on BLM land slightly northeast of the Lee Fire. The BLM has not yet sent a release on that fire. According to the NIFC, the fire has grown to 1,000 acres. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS Colorado [8/3/2025 5:55 PM, Austen Erblat, 51860K] reports svacuation orders have been lifted for an area north of Carbondale as western Colorado sees new wildfires spark on Sunday. The Carbondale & Rural Fire Protection District called for an evacuation of the Panorama subdivision and areas east of County Road 100 to Upper Cattle Creek Road Sunday around noon, but lifted those orders around 5 p.m. Officials have named it the Coulter Creek Fire. Air resources were en route and people with livestock can call Alpine Equine Hospital at 970-366-1320 to arrange keeping them there. The fire department has been posting updates on evacuation orders on its Facebook page, and you can sign up for emergency notifications on the ReachWell app. The fire was mapped at 115 acres at 4:30 p.m. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

SFGate [8/3/2025 8:08 PM, Amanda Bartlett, 11859K] reports four evacuation orders warning of “an immediate threat to life” have been issued for zones that stretch north to south from Arrowhead Road to Olympic Drive and west to east from Sulphur Bank Road to Highway 53. Clearlake City Hall, Lake County Tribal Health Southshore Clinic, Burns Valley Mall and Borax Lake are among some of the impacted locations. Two evacuation warnings have also been issued west of the area for zones running north to south from Polk Avenue to Junction Plaza and west to east from Highway 53 to Ogulin Canyon Road. As of 3:21 p.m., Cal Fire said 15 engines, five dozers, four hand crews, three water tenders, two helicopters, six airtankers and one tactical aircraft were responding to the blaze. Weather conditions remain hot and dry, with 85 degree temperatures in the area. By 5:01 p.m., the unit said on social media the fire "has been exhibiting moderate to erratic fire behavior with short-range spotting, but crews are making progress." "Airtankers have been concentrating at the head of the fire and have a fire retardant line tied into the dozer and hand lines established on the left flank and left shoulder off Pond Road," the update read. "The right (eastern most) flank of the fire is looking good." No injuries or deaths have been reported. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Aug. 3, 5:08 p.m. A vegetation fire broke out in Clearlake in Northern California on Sunday afternoon, prompting mandatory evacuations as it spread over 340 acres within two hours. As of 5 p.m., it has reached 5% containment. Aug. 3, 5:47 p.m. The four zones containing 3,386 people that were placed under evacuation order in the Lake Fire have been downgraded to evacuation warnings, Cal Fire said. Two other zones remain under evacuation warnings. LATEST Aug. 3, 7:35 p.m. All evacuation orders and evacuation warnings on the Lake Fire in Northern California were lifted, Cal Fire said. With forward progress stopped Sunday night, the fire had burned just over 340 acres, and it was 25% contained. Cal Fire said it was assessing damage to structures, and the cause of the fire was being investigated.

ABC News [8/3/2025 3:31 PM, Bill Hutchinson, 31733K] reports a 20-foot-long Minke whale has died after it collided and nearly capsized a pleasure boat in New Jersey’s Barnegat Bay on Saturday, an incident that knocked one boater overboard, officials said. The scary wildlife encounter unfolded in an area north of the Double Creek Channel in Barnegat Bay in Ocean County, officials said. "At approximately 3:40 p.m., a boater in the area reported that a vessel had struck the whale, causing the vessel to nearly capsize and a passenger to go overboard," according to a statement from the New jersey Marine Mammal Stranding Center (MMSC). The person who was knocked into the water was not injured, officials said. Kim Mancini of Lacey Township told ABC Philadelphia station WPVI that she witnessed the incident and recorded video of the distressed Minke whale coming up under the boat and nearly tipping it over. Mancini said it appeared the whale was trying desperately to get to deeper water. The Marine Mammal Stranding Center said that about 50 minutes before the accident, it received a call that a whale had been spotted in Barnegat Bay near the inlet. Staff from the center, the Coast Guard, New Jersey Marine Police and the New Jersey Fish and Wildlife Conservation officers responded to the area. Officials said that after the collision, the whale was spotted resting on a sandbar in shallow water. FOX News [8/3/2025 5:42 PM, Sophia Compton, 46878K] reports that the mammal — later identified as a minke whale — can then be seen slowly swimming away from the vessel. "Oh my God, they’re going over," a witness to the incident can be heard saying in the dramatic video. "Ooh, man overboard!". Officials said the person sent overboard is believed to be OK, CBS News reported. The Marine Mammal Stranding Center said it was first alerted about the whale at around 2:45 p.m. on Saturday. The animal rescue service said it got a call from New Jersey State Police that said the mammal had been spotted near the inlet of Barnegat Bay. Less than an hour later, at around 3:40 p.m., a boater in the area reported the collision, according to the Marine Mammal Stranding Center. The mammal was later found dead in shallow water outside the channel. The whale carcass is slated to be moved on Monday morning to a nearby state park for a necropsy, the Marine Mammal Stranding Center said.

New York Times [8/3/2025 5:13 PM, Johnny Diaz, 138952K] reports a girl who was in critical condition after a barge hit a sailboat off Miami Beach on Monday has died, making her the third fatality connected to the crash, the authorities said on Sunday. The girl was one of six passengers, including a 19-year-old counselor, participating in a sailing camp run by the Miami Youth Sailing Foundation, according to the Miami Yacht Club. “Our hearts continue to mourn with all those impacted by Monday’s tragic incident, especially with the passing of another one of Miami’s children today,” Capt. Frank Florio, commander of Coast Guard Sector Miami, said in a statement on Sunday. The yacht club said on Sunday that “now, with the passing of a third sailor, the entire sailing community is shattered by grief.” Gabriel Groisman, the former mayor of Bal Harbour, a coastal village just north of Miami Beach, confirmed that his 10-year-old cousin Arielle Buchman died on Sunday. She was one of four children who were taken to the Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, where two of them died on Monday after the crash, according to the Coast Guard. The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner’s Office on Tuesday identified them as Mila Yankelevich, 7, and Erin Ko, 13. Another girl who was transported in critical condition to the hospital on Monday has since been released, said Petty Officer Third Class Nicholas Strasburg of the Coast Guard. A fifth child was evaluated at the scene but did not go to a hospital, Lt. Pete Sanchez, a spokesman for the Miami Department of Fire-Rescue, said on Monday. The Coast Guard later said that victim was a 12-year-old girl. The counselor did not go to the hospital, officials said.

Reported similarly:
AP [8/3/2025 8:12 PM, Staff, 24051K]

CyberScoop [8/3/2025 1:12 PM, Tim Starks] reports the Senate voted to confirm Sean Cairncross as national cyber director Saturday, giving the Trump administration one of its top cyber officials after a more than five-month process. The vote was 59-35. President Donald Trump nominated Cairncross on Feb. 12. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held a hearing on his nomination in early June, then voted to advance him that same month. “I want to thank President Trump for this opportunity. It is an incredible honor to serve our country and this President as the National Cyber Director,” Cairncross said in a written statement. “As the cyber strategic environment continues to evolve, we must ensure our policy efforts and capabilities deliver results for our national security and the American people. The United States must dominate the cyber domain through strong collaboration across departments and agencies, as well as private industry. Under President Trump’s leadership, we will enter a new era of effective cybersecurity policy.” At his hearing, Cairncross said he’d be focused on policy coordination. He fielded questions from senators about his lack of cyber experience, the biggest cyber threats, cuts to federal cybersecurity personnel and more.

FOX News [8/3/2025 3:00 PM, Kurt Knutsson, 46878K] reports Hackers are actively exploiting a new zero-day bug in Microsoft’s SharePoint Server software. The same software is used by key U.S. government agencies, including those tied to national security. The vulnerability affects on-premise versions of SharePoint, allowing attackers to break into systems, steal data and quietly move through connected services. While the cloud version is unaffected, the on-premise version is widely used by major U.S. agencies, universities and private companies. That puts far more than just internal systems at risk. The exploit was first identified by cybersecurity firm Eye Security July 18. Researchers say it stems from a previously unknown vulnerability chain that can give attackers full control of vulnerable SharePoint servers without needing any credentials. The flaw lets them steal machine keys used to sign authentication tokens, meaning attackers can impersonate legitimate users or services even after a system is patched or rebooted. According to Eye Security, the vulnerability appears to be based on two bugs demonstrated at the Pwn2Own security conference earlier this year. While those exploits were initially shared as proof-of-concept research, attackers have now weaponized the technique to target real-world organizations. The exploit chain has been dubbed "ToolShell.". Once inside a compromised SharePoint server, hackers can access connected Microsoft services. These include Outlook, Teams and OneDrive. This puts a wide range of corporate data at risk. The attack also allows hackers to maintain long-term access. They can do this by stealing cryptographic material that signs authentication tokens. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is urging organizations to act. It recommends checking systems for signs of compromise and isolating vulnerable servers from the internet.

CyberScoop [8/4/2025 3:10 AM, Matt Kapko] reports North Korean operatives seeking and gaining technical jobs with foreign companies kept CrowdStrike busy, accounting for almost one incident response case or investigation per day in the past year, the company said in its annual threat hunting report released Monday. “We saw a 220% year-over-year increase in the last 12 months of Famous Chollima activity,” Adam Meyers, senior vice president of counter adversary operations, said during a media briefing about the report. “We see them almost every day now,” he said, referring to the North Korean state-sponsored group of North Korean technical specialists that has crept into the workforce of Fortune 500 companies and small-to-midsized organizations across the globe. CrowdStrike’s threat-hunting team investigated more than 320 incidents involving North Korean operatives gaining remote employment as IT workers during the one-year period ending June 30. “It’s not just in the United States anymore,” Meyers said. The threat group escalated its operations throughout the past year, landing jobs at companies based in Europe, Latin America and elsewhere to earn salaries that are sent back to Pyongyang. CrowdStrike researchers found that Famous Chollima fueled that pace of activity with an assist from generative artificial intelligence tools that helped North Korean operatives maneuver workflows and evade detection during the hiring process.

Blaze [8/3/2025 7:30 PM, Bill Donohue, 1805K] reports on July 22, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) released a new interim staff report on former President Joe Biden’s Catholic spy ring. Thanks to FBI Director Kash Patel, some of the information is new. And when pieced together with what we already knew, the picture that emerges is one of an FBI that went off the rails. Christopher Wray, who led the FBI under Biden, bears much of the blame. The FBI was apparently focused on "radical-traditionalist Catholics." Who are these people? According to the FBI’s own internal review of this matter, "investigators found that many FBI employees could not even define the meaning of ‘radical-traditionalist Catholic’ when preparing, editing, or reviewing" the Richmond Field Office memorandum that authorized the probe. In other words, the FBI decided that these Catholics were a problem, even though agents were unable to explain who they are. FBI agents were convinced that the so-called rad-trads were "linked" to "racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists.". What made them think this way is still a mystery, but we know they found nothing. That’s because there is no record of very conservative Catholics linking up with violent thugs. Indeed, on this basis alone there was no reason to investigate them. This didn’t stop some FBI operatives from categorizing "certain Catholic Americans as potential domestic terrorists." They came to this absurd conclusion based on articles employees read. "How Extremist Gun Culture Is Trying to Co-opt the Rosary" is one of the gems they named as evidence of the nefarious agenda of "rad-trad" Catholics. If there is one Catholic group that the FBI thought was emblematic of very conservative Catholics, it is the Society of Saint Pius X. This was not a good choice — this group is not in full communion with the Catholic Church. This is a breakaway association of Catholics founded in 1970 who were upset with the reforms of Vatican II in the 1960s. They were once excommunicated, then reinstated, but are still one step removed from being an authentic part of the Catholic Church. I have been saying all along that the FBI’s focus on SSPX and the "rad-trads" is a ruse. Quite frankly, this was a pretext to opening the door to a much wider investigation of practicing Catholics, most of whom tend to be more conservative than non-practicing Catholics.

New York Post [8/3/2025 12:13 PM, David Propper and Khristina Narizhnaya, 49956K] reports he was a hero in a hail of bullets. A courageous greeter in the lobby at 345 Park Ave. saved eight lives by shoving people into a closet after they unwittingly stumbled into the scene of last week’s mass shooting, The Post has learned. Andre Morris, 39, insists he only did what "needed to be done" when crazed gunman Shane Tamura opened fire just as a group of workers got off an elevator at the Midtown high-rise last Monday. He didn’t think twice as he rushed the employees into a nearby closet where the group hunkered down in panicked silence — texting loved ones and bracing the door against the AR-15-wielding gunman outside. "I just did my job," Morris told The Post, adding. "I’m not a hero. I am completely devastated by the tragic and senseless deaths.". Morris has worked for building owner Rudin Management for 10 years and as a lobby ambassador in the Park Avenue location for the past three. The mass shooting — the deadliest in New York City in a quarter century — claimed the lives of off-duty NYPD cop Didarul Islam, building security guard Aland Etienne, Blackstone executive Wesley LePatner and Rudin Management staffer Julia Hyman. One other person was wounded. Tamura, the 27-year-old gunman, turned his rifle on himself, ending his reign of terror on the 33rd floor. Morris was getting water at his post when he heard between 10 and 15 gunshots, but couldn’t locate the gunman. As he saw bullets ricochet and a puff of smoke, he dialed 911 and then radioed to warn other building staff. The heavily secured building is home to a slew of high-end clients, including investment management firm Blackstone and the NFL — the latter of which Tamura was targeting. Morris corralled the eight workers as they left the elevator and led them to a closet, where he turned off his radio so it wouldn’t give away their hiding spot and directed everyone to swallow their terror and keep silent. When he heard cops on the scene, he opened the door and led the workers out while reminding them to keep their hands up as they were taken to safety. "As lobby ambassador I know the people who come to work here every day, they become family," he said. "Building management had provided training for all kinds of emergencies, you think they’ll never happen. But when this happened, my training and instincts kicked in, I knew what needed to be done and gathered as many people as I could.".

USA Today [8/3/2025 9:03 PM, Thao Nguyen, 75552K] reports officers found 14 improvised explosive devices in a Tennessee home while apprehending a man who had threatened to kill public officials and local law enforcement personnel, authorities said Aug. 2. Investigators and sheriff’s deputies went to a residence on Aug. 1 in the community of Old Fort, located just north of the Tennessee-Georgia border, seeking to arrest Kevin Wade O’Neal on active warrants, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. O’Neal, 54, was accused of threatening to kill public officials and law enforcement personnel in the county. While taking him into custody, the sheriff’s office said in a statement that deputies noticed "something was smoldering" in the bedroom where the suspect was found. They observed what appeared to be an improvised explosive device, also known as IED. The deputies immediately evacuated the residence, and alerted the Chattanooga Police Department bomb squad and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), according to the sheriff’s office. Officers and agents later discovered 14 IEDs inside the home. Further investigation revealed O’Neal had planned to detonate the devices as law enforcement arrived to arrest him, the sheriff’s office said. The suspect faces 11 counts of attempted first-degree murder, 14 counts of prohibited weapons and one count of possession of explosive components. O’Neal is currently being held at the Polk County Jail and bond has yet to be determined, according to the sheriff’s office. IEDs have "remained a persistent threat" and attacks using the devices are a common security concern related to terrorism and violence in the United States, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). IEDs, which are also referred to as "homemade" bombs, are easy to construct and can cause significant disruption and harm, the CISA says on its website. "Because they are improvised, IEDs can come in many forms, ranging from a small pipe bomb to a sophisticated device capable of causing massive damage and loss of life," according to the DHS. "IEDs can be carried or delivered in a vehicle; carried, placed, or thrown by a person; delivered in a package; or concealed on the roadside."

CBS Chicago [8/3/2025 1:02 PM, Jeramie Bizzle, Shardaa Gray, 51860K] reports seven people, among them a child, were wounded following a mass shooting at a house party Saturday night in Harvey, Illinois. A spokesperson for the City of Harvey said shortly after 8 p.m., officers responded to the 14400 block of Des Plaines Street in the south Chicago suburb for a shooting at a house party. Two shooters arrived at the scene and opened fire on the gathering, the city said. As of late Sunday afternoon, shattered glass and evidence markers remained at the scene. Preliminary reports indicated that seven people were shot — including a 4-year-old boy who suffered non-life-threatening injuries, and his condition was stabilized. Four additional people were shot and taken to area hospitals in unknown conditions. Their conditions were also stabilized. "This is something you would hear if you were at war," said Willie Hill, 73, who was sitting on his porch when he heard several gunshots. "It was terrible. Loud. I mean, you could tell it was nothing to play with." A concealed carry license holder who was at the party returned fire — striking and killing one of the suspects at the scene. "It’s good that someone had a weapon to return fire, but the first question is, why would fire be directed to that location?" said Hill. The second suspect was injured and taken to the hospital, and later placed in police custody. Michael Parker lives across the street from the shooting and says this was too close to home for him. "Bullets fly," Parker said. "They don’t have a name on the bullet." The City of Harvey said the shooting was an isolated incident, with no ongoing threat to the public. The spokesperson said just before 5 a.m. Sunday, officers responded to reports of gunfire near the 200 block of Calumet Boulevard. A man was found inside a minivan who had suffered multiple gunshot wounds. Despite emergency response efforts, the victim was pronounced dead at the scene. The Cook County Medical Examiner’s office identified him as 24-year-old Charles Lipsey. Preliminary information indicated the shooting may have been in retaliation for the mass shooting. Investigators are actively following leads, and witnesses are cooperating with police, the spokesperson said. Investigation into the shootings remains ongoing. No further information was available. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS News [8/4/2025 1:55 AM, Staff] Video HERE reports the manhunt for a military veteran suspected of fatally shooting four people at a bar in Montana stretched into a fourth day Monday. Police are looking for Michael Paul Brown, 45, who is wanted for allegedly shooting the four inside The Owl Bar in the small town of Anaconda before fleeing in a white pickup, which he ditched at some point. But law enforcement now believes Brown ditched that vehicle and stole a different one that had camping gear, shoes and clothes in it. Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen told reporters on Sunday that Brown was believed to still be armed and dangerous. A $7,500 reward has been offered for any information that leads to his arrest. "This is an unstable individual who walked in and murdered four people in cold blood for no reason whatsoever. So there absolutely is concern for the public," Knudsen said. Investigators are considering all possible options for Brown’s whereabouts, the attorney general said. That includes scouring the woods where Brown hunted and camped while he was a kid. But Knudsen noted that during peak tourist season in western Montana some law enforcement officials would have to return to their local jurisdictions for their regular responsibilities. The search involves deputies traversing the rugged mountainous around west of Anaconda, both on the ground and by air. It included multiple local, state, and federal agencies. As law enforcement scour the wild terrain, the woods southwest of Anaconda have been closed to the public by the National Forest System.

Reported similarly:
Reuters [8/3/2025 6:24 PM, Steve Gorman, 51390K]
ABC News [8/3/2025 1:59 PM, Staff, 31733K] Video: HERE

Breitbart [8/3/2025 12:43 PM, Lowell Cauffiel, 3077K] reports FBI Director Kash Patel challenged news media to own who is really "lying" about his discovery of a stash of classified documents connected to the Trump-Russia collusion narrative weaponized against Donald Trump in his first term. The director’s comments came in the wake of recent reports that "burn bags" filled with thousands of documents dating back to the Trump-Russia probe were discovered in a room in FBI headquarters. Posting on X Saturday, the director evoked his role as senior counsel for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence during the first Trump term and wrote: In 2017/18, I proved the Steele Dossier was fictitious intelligence, weaponized by corrupt FBI officials to deceive a federal judge and unlawfully spy on then presidential candidate Trump’s campaign — all paid for by his opponent. He added, “The media called me a liar.” Patel continued, "Now I’m the FBI Director: We just uncovered burn bags/room filled with hidden Russia Gate files, including the Durham annex, and declassified them. Once again, I released the prior FBI’s own documents and exposed the truth. The same media is calling me a liar again.". Then came the challenge, with Patel writing, "Maybe this FBI will release more docs directly, from FBI HQ… so we can see who is lying — wouldn’t want to deprive the fake news of more bogus Pulitzers. And then…". Fox News reported that one potentially explosive find is "the classified annex to former special counsel John Durham’s final report." It would include the underlying intelligence in that probe. The find is yet another in a series of document revelations that point to a hidden agenda aimed at sabotaging Trump’s first term in office.

Daily Wire [8/3/2025 1:01 PM, Daniel Chaitin, 3816K] reports Russiagate was "literally" a coup against President Donald Trump that meets the "criminal elements" of a conspiracy, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller declared on Sunday. Documents that were declassified by the Trump administration indicate Hillary Clinton may have approved a Russia collusion hoax against Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. In addition, former special Counsel John Durham found the Obama-era FBI appeared to ignore intelligence that indicated Clinton’s campaign, its supporters, or Russian disinformation fueled allegations of ties between Trump’s camp and Moscow in order to distract from her email controversy. "The Russia collusion hoax against President Trump remains the single greatest hoax and the greatest assault on our democracy in the history of this country," Miller said during a Fox News interview with "Sunday Morning Futures" host Maria Bartiromo. "There’s no comparison, there’s no parallel to anything else. It was a coup. And I’m using that term literally. … It meets the criminal elements of a conspiracy against the government and the criminal elements of a conspiracy to deprive citizens of their civil rights under color of law, one egregious felony after another." Former President Barack Obama and top national security veterans from his administration have pushed back on claims of there being a "treasonous conspiracy" associated with the Russia collusion fiasco. "The special counsel John Durham, who was appointed during Mr. Trump’s first term to investigate how the Russia probe was conducted, similarly found no evidence of an Obama administration conspiracy against Mr. Trump," Former CIA Director John Brennan and ex-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper wrote in a New York Times op-ed. "But he affirmed the findings of the special counsel Robert Mueller, who conducted a separate investigation into the allegations, which found ample evidence of Russian interference in the election." But Miller argued the new information "eliminates any scintilla of doubt about the intention, the premeditation, the planning and orchestration of this conspiracy." Miller also agreed with CIA Director John Ratcliffe, a former prosecutor and congressman who told Bartiromo last week that he did not believe the statute of limitations would be a hinderance because the alleged conspiracy is ongoing. Attorney General Pam Bondi has initiated a "strike force" tasked with evaluating the evidence relating the Obama administration’s efforts to drive the Russia collusion allegations in response to various documents that are being disclosed to the public, such as findings that purportedly show officials manufactured and manipulated intelligence regarding Russia to undermine Trump.

Washington Times [8/3/2025 8:48 AM, Ben Wolfgang, 2106K] reports President Trump’s ambitious push for a Golden Dome missile shield will be a key theme this week at the Space & Missile Defense Symposium, where some of the world’s most futuristic military technology will be on display and key Pentagon officials will address 21st-century missile- and space-based threats facing the American homeland. The three-day event in Huntsville, Alabama, which begins Tuesday, is expected to draw well over 7,000 people and a host of leading defense companies from around the world. Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of U.S. Space Command, and Lt. Gen. Sean Gainey, commander of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command and Joint Functional Component Command for Integrated Missile Defense, are among the top Pentagon figures slated to speak. Army officials said Gen. Gainey’s remarks, at a pivotal moment in the evolution of U.S. space and missile defense, will focus on the “outsized value that SMDC brings to warfighting and the criticality of space and missile defense for national security.” “The U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command is the Army’s space and missile defense warfighting headquarters,” Gen. Gainey said in a statement. “At SMDC we’re adding operational value wherever we can.” Other Pentagon officials will speak at the symposium and participate in high-level panel discussions on using artificial intelligence to improve missile defense and other issues. The symposium is sponsored by the Air, Space and Missile Defense Association, the Tennessee Valley Chapter of the National Defense Industrial Association, and the Huntsville Air Defense Artillery Association. The conference’s location is key. Huntsville is one of the nation’s epicenters for cutting-edge research, development and fielding capabilities in the space, military and other domains critical to U.S. national security. It is also home to Redstone Arsenal, a sprawling 38,000-acre federal complex hosting more than 70 organizations, including NASA, Army Materiel Command, the Missile Defense Agency and other crucial arms of the government. “Very soon, we will have the capability to manufacture the vast majority of the system in-house, with government-owned tech data, if you will,” said Gen. Mohan, detailing one of the capabilities designed to keep the U.S. military a step ahead of its adversaries. The proposed Golden Dome missile shield, the Trump administration’s signature defense and technology initiative, is critical to protecting the homeland from adversaries, particularly Russia and China. Both nations have highly advanced missile programs. China is expected to expand its arsenal of 600 hypersonic missiles to as many as 4,000 by 2035, according to U.S. government estimates. Russia is expected to have 1,000 hypersonic weapons within a decade. To guard against missile attacks, including potential assaults from space, Mr. Trump has ordered the Pentagon to complete the Golden Dome before he leaves office. The project is expected to integrate advanced space-based interceptors with existing missile defense capabilities, likely including Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, anti-ballistic missile defense batteries.

CBS News [8/3/2025 2:12 PM, Kaia Hubbard, 51860K] reports Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Sunday that "we’re prepared to stick around and do the work needed" despite having left Washington without a new trade deal amid increased tariffs from President Trump. "We believe there’s a great deal of common ground between the United States and Canada in terms of building two strong economies that work well together," LeBlanc said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.". The White House announced last week that duties would jump from 25% to 35% on Canadian goods not covered under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, claiming that the U.S.’ second-largest trading partner hasn’t done enough to address immigration and the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. LeBlanc said that while "we were obviously disappointed by that decision," negotiators would "continue to do the work.". LeBlanc said his team left with "a better understanding of the American concerns in the trading relationship" and characterizing the meetings with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick as "constructive, cordial conversations.". "We’re encouraged by the conversations with Secretary Lutnick and Ambassador Greer, but we’re not yet where we need to go to get the deal that’s in the best interest of the two economies," LeBlanc said. Mr. Trump announced higher tariffs against more than 60 U.S. trading partners late last week. But Canada is the largest American trading partner included, being the world’s largest buyer of American goods and the third-largest seller of goods to the U.S. last year, according to Census Bureau data. The country bought some $350 billion worth of American goods and sold $412 billion to the U.S. market in 2024. In an interview for "Face the Nation" on Friday, Greer cited Canada’s retaliatory tariffs imposed earlier this year under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for the increase, saying, "if the president’s going to take an action and the Canadians retaliate, the United States needs to maintain the integrity of our action, the effectiveness, so we have to go up too.". "Our view is the president is trying to fix the terms of trade with Canada, and if there’s a way to a deal, we’ll find it," Greer said. "And if it’s not, we’ll have the tariff levels that we have.". In a statement released Friday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was "disappointed" by Mr. Trump’s actions. He noted that "Canada accounts for only 1% of U.S. fentanyl imports and has been working intensively to further reduce these volumes.". On Sunday, LeBlanc said he expects Carney will have a conversation with Mr. Trump "over the next number of days," while noting that the Canadian prime minister has "built a very business-like, respectful relationship with President Trump.".

Bloomberg [8/3/2025 12:47 PM, Randy Thanthong-Knight and María Paula Mijares Torres, 19320K] reports Prime Minister Mark Carney and US President Donald Trump are expected to talk “over the next number of days,” a Canadian official said, after the two governments failed to reach a deal before an Aug. 1 tariff deadline. “We think there is an option of striking a deal that will bring down some of these tariffs and provide greater certainty to investment,” Dominic LeBlanc, Canada’s minister in charge of US trade, said on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday. LeBlanc also said he plans to speak with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. The Trump administration on Friday raised the tariff rate on some Canadian imports to 35% from 25% imposed in early March, while maintaining an exemption for goods traded under the rules of the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. The effective US tariff rate on Canadian products is estimated to rise slightly to between 6% and 7%, from about 5%. Carney and his government have described the talks with the US as difficult. LeBlanc on Sunday said talks have been “informative, constructive and cordial,” and reiterated mutual benefits for both economies from reaching a deal. “What we’ve said to our American counterparts is how can we structure the right agreement where we can both continue to supply one another in a reliable, cost-effective way that preserves jobs essential to the American economy and in Canada as well,” he said. The minister touted his government’s One Canadian Economy Act as a Canadian version of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, the tax-cut and spending plan the president signed in July. Leblanc said the Canadian law seeks to ramp up investment in ports, pipelines and mines, “all of which offer huge opportunities to American business.”

Daily Wire [8/3/2025 12:52 PM, Daniel Chaitin, 3816K] reports House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said he prayed for the United States to "always stand" with Israel during a visit to Jerusalem over the weekend. In remarks at the Western Wall, Johnson explained that he was part of a delegation with fellow members of the House, which is taking place after the Louisiana Republican postponed a planned trip to Israel in June as tensions with Iran were escalating. "We are grateful for the privilege of being here in Israel today, on the day we recognize the destruction of the Temple twice in history.". "We are grateful for the privilege of being here in Israel today, particularly on this day," Johnson said, alluding to how it was Tisha B’Av, the annual day in the Jewish calendar of mourning that marks the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem. "It is a moving time for us to be here at the Wailing Wall. We’ve offered our prayers. We put our notes into the wall as is traditional. And we’re so moved by the hospitality of the people and the great love of Israel," Johnson added. "Our prayer is that America will always stand with Israel and we pray for the preservation and peace of Jerusalem. That’s what scripture tells us to do, it’s a matter of faith for us, and a commitment that we have.". The visit comes a few days after President Donald Trump said there was "real starvation" going on in Gaza, a rare break with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who contends Hamas is hoarding supplies and no famine is taking place. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said on Friday that he and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee met with Israeli officials to discuss the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, where the fight against Hamas continues.

UPI [8/3/2025 5:01 PM, Adam Schrader, 3077K] reports the Iranian government announced Sunday that it had formed a new National Defense Council for handling the country’s affairs in wartime. The establishment of the council was approved by the Supreme National Security Council within the framework of Article 176 of the country’s constitution, according to reports in Iranian state media agency IRNA and the semi-official Tasnim News Agency. The Iranian government said that the council also aims to review defense plans and centralize military decision-making. The new council will be chaired by President Masoud Pezeshkian and will include the heads of the Iranian Armed Forces and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, among other ministries, according to the pro-Iranian political blogger Middle East Spectator. In another article, the Tasnim News Agency likened the structure and purpose of the new council to that of the United States’ National Security Council, noting that the American agency "plays a coordination in national security and defense policymaking.". The move comes in the aftermath of the 12-day war between Iran and Israel earlier this year, which marked one of the most direct and intense confrontations between the two nations in decades. Although both sides claimed victory, Iran emerged from the conflict with significant military and economic setbacks. Israeli strikes reportedly damaged key air defense systems, missile infrastructure, and IRGC command centers in western Iran.

USA Today [8/3/2025 11:07 PM, Francesca Chambers, 75552K] reports President Donald Trump says the nuclear submarines he said he was deploying in response to threatening comments from Russia’s former president are "in the region." Trump also signaled that he’s preparing to hit Moscow with economic sanctions over its war against Ukraine. “I’ve already put out a statement, the answer is, they are in the region," Trump told reporters traveling with him in New Jersey before he boarded Air Force One. Trump ordered two nuclear submarines to the "appropriate region" on Aug. 1 after former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev referenced Soviet-era nuclear strike capabilities in a social media post that heightened tension with the U.S. leader. The dispute stemmed from Trump’s ultimatum to Russia last month: make peace with Ukraine or brace for sanctions and secondary tariffs aimed at choking off the country’s oil revenue. He gave Russian President Vladimir Putin a 50 day-deadline, which he later revised to Aug. 8. The president told reporters on Aug. 3 that if the deadline arrives and Russia has not agreed to a ceasefire, "there’ll be sanctions." "But they seem to be pretty good at avoiding sanctions," he added. "You know, they’re wily characters. ... So we’ll see what happens." Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff had been expected to visit Russia before the deadline, but the president signaled to reporters that trip had not yet taken place. He said Witkoff is currently focused on addressing starvation in Gaza, but could go to Russia later in the week. The president stressed the need for a deal in Ukraine in which people stop being killed. "And now we’re adding towns, where they’re being hit by missiles," Trump said. Medvedev serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council. He said in a July 28 post on X that Trump should remember that "each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country." Trump hit back in a Truth Social post that said: "Tell Medvedev, the failed former President of Russia, who thinks he’s still President, to watch his words. He’s entering very dangerous territory!" After Medvedev said Trump should remember "how dangerous the fabled ‘Dead Hand’ can be," in a post on the messaging app Telegram that referenced the Soviet Union’s doomsday nuclear system, the U.S. president said he would reposition the submarines. Calling the comments "highly provocative," Trump said on Truth Social that he was taking action, "just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that."

{End of Report} RETURN TO TOP