News

Summary

New Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has ordered an immediate rollback of U.S. fuel efficiency regulations, targeting stricter standards set by the Biden administration.

Duffy argues that weakening emissions rules will lower car costs and expand consumer choice.

The memo also seeks to revoke California’s right to set its own air quality standards and criticizes EV subsidies.

This move aligns with Trump’s broader push to dismantle climate policies, including a recent ban on federal purchases of zero-emissions vehicles.

Environmental groups are expected to challenge the changes.

Summary

Senior Justice Department officials are discussing the possibility of dropping corruption charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams, though federal prosecutors have not signaled they will do so.

Adams, indicted on bribery and campaign finance violations in September, has pleaded not guilty and faces trial in April.

The timing raises questions, as it follows Adams' meeting with Donald Trump, who previously suggested Adams was treated unfairly and hinted at a possible pardon.

Meanwhile, prosecutors recently claimed to have uncovered additional criminal conduct by Adams.

Phyllis Fong, a 22-year veteran of the department, had earlier told colleagues that she intended to stay after the White House terminated her on Friday, saying that she didn’t believe the administration had followed proper protocols, the sources said.

In an email to colleagues on Saturday, reviewed by Reuters, she said the independent council of the inspectors general on integrity and efficiency “has taken the position that these termination notices do not comply with the requirements set out in law and therefore are not effective at this time”.

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/22433558

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he would sign an executive order to begin preparing a facility on the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base to detain tens of thousands of “the worst” undocumented immigrants.

The order, which Trump said he would sign later Wednesday, will instruct the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security to prepare 30,000 beds at the site of the infamous U.S. military prison in Cuba, the president said, “to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people.”

“Some of them are so bad we don’t even trust the countries to hold them, because we don’t want them coming back, so we’re gonna send them out to Guantanamo,” Trump said.

“This will double our capacity immediately,” he said, calling it “a tough place to get out of.”

Trump’s remarks came just before he signed the Laken Riley Act, a hardline immigration measure pushed through with some Democratic support — and the first law the president has signed in his second term.

The Guantanamo Bay Naval Base — both a military base and the site of a controversial U.S. military prison that has held terrorism suspects for more than two decades — housed Hatian refugees in the 1990s, before the detention facility was built there. Cubans were also housed there in the 1990s, and former President Joe Biden last year explored plans to house Haitians there if the nation’s precarious government collapsed.

But other presidents who held refugees on the base, or considered doing so, cast their plans as emergency humanitarian measures, rather than harsh deterrents.

The 45-square-mile land and water base, on the southeastern portion of Cuba, has been controlled by the U.S. since 1903 and has long been a thorn in the side of Cuba’s communist government, which resents the U.S. presence on the island. In addition to housing the military prison, whose detainee population had shrunk to 15 people by the end of the Biden administration, the base is used by the Navy as “a key operational and logistics hub, supporting a variety of missions including maritime security, humanitarian assistance, and joint operations,” according to The Navy.

A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for additional details on the contents of the executive order or when Trump would sign it.

In July, he publicly referred to people on SSRI’s and ADHD medications as “addicts.”

Supporters of Cornelius Taylor — the Black man who officials say was killed on Jan. 17 by a construction vehicle clearing an encampment of unhoused people in Atlanta’s Auburn Avenue neighborhood — are demanding city policy changes following his horrific demise.

Atlanta City Council member Liliana Bakhtiari introduced a resolution Thursday calling for officials to pause demolition of other camps while authorities review their procedures to ensure what happened to Taylor never occurs again.

Authorities, including the office of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, haven’t provided details about how Taylor died. Activists and clergy members working with Taylor’s family say he was crushed by a bulldozer clearing unhoused people’s tents on Old Wheat Street across from Ebenezer Baptist Church, the house of worship once led by Martin Luther King Jr. They attempted to hand deliver a letter to Dickens’ office Thursday afternoon, but were denied access by several Atlanta Police officers who blocked their path.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250129202914/https://atlanta.capitalbnews.org/cornelius-taylor-death-homeless-encampment/

Kennedy identified as “pro-choice” during his presidential campaign as a Democrat, but said repeatedly in Wednesday’s hearing for secretary of health and human services (HHS) that he agreed with Trump that “every abortion is a tragedy”.

“I agree with him that we cannot be a moral nation if we have 1.2 million abortions a year. I agree with him that the states should control abortion,” Kennedy said in response to questions from Senator James Lankford, a Republican from Oklahoma, where abortion is banned.

“I serve at the pleasure of the president. I’m going to implement his policies,” he continued.

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) rescinded a memo Wednesday that had ordered a "temporary pause" on federal funding and unleashed major confusion across the country.

Why it matters: It's an astonishing reversal by the Trump administration, a day after top officials defended the funding freeze — which a judge temporarily halted on Tuesday — as necessary to ensure all government spending was aligned with the president's vision.

Nearly two weeks after opening the Gentilly facility, the unhoused moved into the warehouse still can’t access much of their personal belongings, including identification, cash cards and other needed items. And, according to Harris, only two people have been moved into permanent housing.

“I’m encouraged to see progress with the heat and care in the development of the state-run transitional site, but I’m concerned by the lack of results so far,” Harris told Gambit in a statement. “In two weeks, only two individuals have been housed, and it’s only now that some caseworker support and wraparound services are being offered.”

Harris, who has become the council’s point person on unhoused issues, visited the state-run “transition center” on Tuesday, following a week’s time in which the state refused to give her updates on the situation or include her in update calls with other officials.

It does appear that some of the initial problems with the facility — notably a lack of sufficient heat, running water and a functioning kitchen — have been addressed.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250129183118/https://www.nola.com/gambit/news/the_latest/more-problems-gentilly-warehouse-unhoused/article_d6eacfe4-ddc9-11ef-bce5-674b359ae204.html

More background from NPR (archived)

STEPHAN BISAHA, BYLINE: Before they were broken up, these encampments were expansive.

...

... What's left includes abandoned clothes, a walker and a deflated air mattress, all under signs that read no encampments. The governor's office set up a transitional center about 6 miles away for people to stay at instead. It's a modified warehouse with about 200 beds, hot meals and heating. It's planned to be open for two months and paid for with millions in state dollars. Going there is supposed to be voluntary, but Angela Owczarek with the homeless advocacy group No Harm (ph) says some people were told they'd be arrested if they didn't.

ANGELA OWCZAREK: And they were separated from their belongings. People's belongings were brought separately from them, and many people have not yet been able to access their belongings again.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250129183319/https://www.npr.org/2025/01/29/nx-s1-5252810/months-after-georgia-chemical-plant-fire-residents-still-grapple-with-health-issues