Supreme Court Rejects Meta’s Appeal in Social Media Addiction Case

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Supreme Court Rejects Meta’s Appeal in Social Media Addiction Case

(Headline USA) The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a push to avoid a lawsuit alleging that Facebook and Instagram harmed young users, a decision that comes as social media companies increasingly face legal scrutiny.

Parent company Meta Platforms Inc. appealed after Vermont’s highest court allowed a suit filed by its attorney general in 2023 to move forward. The company is facing similar lawsuits from states across the country, accusing it of knowingly designing addictive features.

Meta had argued that it can’t be sued in Vermont court because neither the company nor the app design has specific ties to the state. Vermont countered that the sites’ large number of teen users gives its courts jurisdiction.

The Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal in a brief, unexplained order, as is typical. The procedural decision comes after court losses for Meta and YouTube in social media addiction lawsuits in California and New Mexico.

Vermont’s lawsuit was filed after an investigation by a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general in several states. Newspaper reports based on Meta’s own research also found that the company knew about the harms Instagram can cause teenagers — especially teen girls — when it comes to mental health and body image issues. One internal study cited 13.5% of teen girls saying Instagram makes thoughts of suicide worse and 17% of teen girls saying it makes eating disorders worse.

Almost all teens ages 13 to 17 in the U.S. report using a social media platform, with about a third saying they use social media “almost constantly,” according to the Pew Research Center.

Meta, for its part, has said that it has already introduced dozens of tools to support teens and their families and suggested it would have worked with the states on standards for youth social media use.

Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark applauded the decision, saying it affirms “that companies that choose to do business in Vermont, like Meta, can be held accountable when they harm kids.”

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press. 

Federal Judge Drops Charges Against ex-Fox Executive in Soccer Corruption Prosecution

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Federal Judge Drops Charges Against ex-Fox Executive in Soccer Corruption Prosecution

(Headline USA) A federal judge in Brooklyn agreed Wednesday to dismiss charges against a former Fox executive and South American sports media company in a corruption case related to TV rights for international soccer tournaments.

Judge Pamela K. Chen accepted an explanation provided by U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. that the prosecution of Hernan Lopez “doesn’t fit within” the Trump administration’s prosecutorial priorities.

As a smiling Lopez, the former CEO of Fox International Channels, left the Brooklyn federal courthouse, he told reporters he was relieved that “a case that never should have started is finally over.”

Nocella told Chen that the administration preferred to focus on domestic and foreign terrorist organizations, national security, narcotics trafficking, human trafficking and violent gangs.

The judge said Nocella’s reason provided in court, along with an explanation in a written document submitted to the court, “does provide sufficient justification” to accept the request to dismiss the indictment.

Lopez and Full Play Group SA were convicted in 2023 of paying tens of millions of dollars in bribes to nab broadcasting rights to the World Cup and other top soccer matches. But they were subsequently granted an acquittal by Chen.

An appeals court reinstated the convictions in July, but additional appeals followed and the fate of the prosecution had been uncertain.

Chen said during Wednesday’s hearing that she was not basing her decision to dismiss the indictment “in any way” on her prior decision granting the acquittal.

Prosecutors told the Supreme Court in December that the government has now determined that “dismissal of this criminal case is in the interests of justice,” though they did not expand on their rationale.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press. 

US Will Need Years to Replenish Stockpiles of Advanced Weapons Used in Iran War

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US Will Need Years to Replenish Stockpiles of Advanced Weapons Used in Iran War

(Headline USA) U.S. military contractors need at least three years to replenish stockpiles of three key weapons systems used heavily in the Iran war, according to an analysis released Wednesday, adding to concerns that American forces would have limited firepower in any future conflict with China.

The weapons systems are Tomahawk cruise missiles, which are used to strike targets deep inside enemy territory, and Patriot and THAAD interceptors that defend against incoming missiles and drones.

“The United States has enough munitions for any plausible scenario in the Iran war, but the depleted inventories have created a window of vulnerability for a potential Western Pacific conflict,” the Center for Strategic and International Studies said in its new report, provided to The Associated Press. “The time needed to rebuild those inventories has thus become a major concern.”

China has a stated goal of ensuring its military is capable of taking Taiwan by force if necessary by 2027, which experts see as more aspirational than a hard deadline. But Chinese President Xi Jinping warned this month that if Washington mishandles its relations with the self-governing island, the U.S. and China could end up clashing or even in open conflict.

The analysis by the Washington think tank factors in the Republican Trump administration’s historic $1.5 trillion defense budget proposal for 2027, which significantly accelerates spending on high-end munitions that began under the Democratic Biden administration. While there’s bipartisan agreement in Congress to boost inventories, “the problem today isn’t money; it’s time,” the report said.

“It takes time to expand production capacity and to build these complex systems,” the report said, adding that the window of vulnerability will last “for several years until inventories return to their previous levels and another several years before they get to the levels that war planners desire.”

Although munitions inventories are classified, CSIS said sufficient public information exists in Pentagon budget materials to estimate production timelines.

President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have insisted the U.S. is capable of fighting any war. They have pushed defense contractors to speed up munitions production, with Hegseth telling lawmakers last month that military spending under Trump will help manufacturers double or even triple their capacities.

During Trump’s Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Hegseth lauded the president’s efforts to expand the nation’s defense manufacturing sector, with private contractors investing in new plants and production lines “so that we’re getting weapons faster than ever.”

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement that the military “has everything it needs to execute at the time and place of the President’s choosing.”

“We have executed multiple successful operations across combatant commands while ensuring the U.S. military possesses a deep arsenal of capabilities to protect our people and our interests,” Parnell said.

Some military experts have pushed back. Pentagon officials “knew the reality of our military stockpiles and hopefully told someone, ‘Hey, if we go to this fight, even in the most conservative estimates, we are drawing down our stockpiles to a critical level,’” said Virginia Burger, a senior defense policy analyst at the Project On Government Oversight watchdog group and a former Marine officer.

Concerns about diminished stockpiles were a theme at recent congressional hearings. For Democrats, the munitions supply is a damning metric against the Iran war, which Trump launched without lawmakers’ approval. Some Republicans argue that the problem stems from the U.S. sending Patriot missile defense systems to Ukraine after Russia invaded in 2022, although several American allies use those systems.

The roots of the predicament can be traced to the end of the Cold War, said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel and senior adviser at CSIS who co-authored the study with research associate Chris H. Park.

After the fall of the Soviet Union in late 1991, the U.S. assumed future wars would be short and regional with little need for large numbers of such high-end weapons, Cancian said in an interview. The Pentagon ordered relatively low numbers, assuming the military would not need many of them. Military contractors responded in kind, relying on a relatively small manufacturing footprint to build them.

Russia’s war with Ukraine showed that wars could be protracted and require deep inventories of advanced weapons, Cancian said. At the same time, U.S. military strategists were war-gaming possible conflicts in the western Pacific.

“The thinking started to change, but it just takes time to build inventories,” Cancian said, adding that part of the challenge is bringing up to speed a complicated web of supply chains and subcontractors that produce very novel components.

President Joe Biden’s administration should get some credit for starting conversations with the defense industry, putting money into the industrial base and ramping up production, said Cancian, who oversaw acquisitions of military hardware at the Office of Management and Budget under Presidents George W. Bush, a Republican, and Barack Obama, a Democrat.

“A lot of people in the Trump administration are inclined to say that everything was terrible until they arrived, and that’s not true,” Cancian said. “Now, it is true that the Trump administration really increased funding.”

The U.S. fired 1,000-plus Tomahawk missiles at Iran, and it could take until late 2030 to fully replenish the prewar inventory, CSIS estimates show.

Fewer than 200 Tomahawks are made a year because of small orders in the past, the report says. However, manufacturer Raytheon has a goal of ramping up capacity to more than 1,000 per year.

RTX, Raytheon’s parent company, declined to comment on the CSIS findings because it had not yet seen the report. But RTX pointed to investments of several billion dollars to boost production, including expanding facilities in Alabama and Arizona.

For in-demand air defense systems, replacing as many as 290 THAAD, or Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, interceptors that shot down incoming Iranian drones and missiles could take until the end of 2029, CSIS estimates. Replenishing more than 1,000 Patriot interceptors should wrap up in mid-2029.

Lockheed Martin is significantly boosting production of rounds for both systems, while deliveries of THAADs “were apparently re-sequenced to prioritize U.S. needs over those of allies and partners,” CSIS noted.

“Patriot deliveries pose a dilemma for the United States because of the need to replenish its own inventories, help Ukraine defend against Russian missile attacks, and meet the needs of 17 other countries that use the interceptor,” the report said.

Lockheed Martin said in a statement that it’s investing $9 billion through 2030 and “is already delivering tangible results to meet heightened munitions demand, including a new facility in Alabama announced last week along with more than 20 others across the United States.”

In the meantime, CSIS said a potential conflict with China is “not all bleak,” with the U.S. military recently displaying its capabilities against Iran, Venezuela and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

“China is deeply aware that it has no recent combat experience and that it performed poorly in its last war — against Vietnam in 1979,” the report said. “That difference in experience may preserve deterrence until munitions inventories are restored.”

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press. 

Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Region Will No Longer Be a ‘Safe Haven’ for US Military Bases

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Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Region Will No Longer Be a ‘Safe Haven’ for US Military Bases

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said in a written statement on Tuesday that the United States will no longer have a “safe haven” in the Middle East for its military bases, remarks that come after the Iranian military struck US bases across the region during the US-Israeli bombing campaign against Iran.

In the statement, released to mark the Hajj season, when Muslim pilgrims travel to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Khamenei addressed other Muslim nations in comments that appeared to be directed at the Gulf Arab states that host US bases and were struck by Iranian missiles and drones.

“I, with sincerity and purity of intention, invite all Islamic countries and governments to friendship and cooperation in goodness, so that by working together we may take steps toward the advancement of the Islamic Ummah and the resolution of the Islamic world’s problems,” Khamenei said, according to an English translation of the statement posted on his website.

“What is certain in this regard is that the hands of time will not turn back, and the nations and lands of the region will no longer serve as shields for US bases. The United States not only will no longer have a safe haven for its mischief and for establishing military bases in the region but day by day, it is growing more distant from its former status,” he added.

The Iranian leader also referenced Israel, saying that the “shaken Zionist regime and the cancerous tumor of Israel are likewise approaching the final stages of their wretched existence.”

Khamenei has yet to make a public appearance since replacing his father, Ali Khamenei, who was killed by an Israeli strike alongside other members of his family on February 28, the first day of the joint US-Israeli bombing campaign. Western media reports have said that Mojtaba Khamenei was wounded in the strike but that he is still playing a critical role in shaping Iran’s war strategy.

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com. 

White House Urges State AGs to Target, Punish Medicaid Fraudsters

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White House Urges State AGs to Target, Punish Medicaid Fraudsters

(Thérèse Boudreaux, The Center Square) White House officials urged a group of state attorneys general to partner with the Trump administration to combat fraud in welfare programs and hold fraudsters accountable.

“One of the things we’ve realized in combating fraud is that the resources of the federal government, while vast, can be supplemented and aided by a lot of the people who know best what’s happening in their states, which is the attorneys general represented here today,” Vice President J.D. Vance, head of the White House’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, said Tuesday.

“[W]e’re protecting two classes of victims here: We’re protecting the American taxpayers who shouldn’t have their money stolen by fraudsters, and of course we’re protecting the people who need these services,” Vance added. “[A]ll of our fellow Americans have been taken advantage of by fraudsters, and the task force is here to stop it.”

The Trump administration, which recently charged 15 people in Minnesota of stealing tens of millions of dollars from Medicaid, specifically wants states to focus on Medicaid fraud.

Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson, a member of the task force, told the Republican attorneys general present Tuesday that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will be conducting a “thorough review” of states’ Medicaid fraud control units.

Ferguson claimed that “huge groups of people in this country” are responsible for “hundreds of billions” in welfare fraud, which he called “one of the most pressing problems this nation confronts.”

“Fraud is bleeding these programs dry,” he added. “Unless fraudsters believe that there will be consequences attached with attacking America’s benefits programs, they will keep doing it. Our fraud detection systems will stop much of it, but cannot stop it all. The only way to defeat the fraudsters is by making sure that they know, every single one of them, that if they try to commit fraud, they will be pursued, arrested, prosecuted, and jailed.”

The Government Accountability Office found that 15 federal agencies together made at least $186 billion in improper payments in fiscal year 2025, with improper Medicaid payments amounting to $37 billion. Improper payments are not necessarily fraudulent.

GAO estimated that since 2003, federal agencies have improperly paid out at least $3 trillion via benefits programs.

In recent months, the Trump administration has deferred or blocked billions in program funding due to fraud concerns, including $1.3 billion in Medicaid reimbursements to California and $1.4 billion in home health and hospice funding nationwide.

It has also targeted billions in “fraudulent or delinquent” pandemic-era loans and $60 million in allegedly fraudulent student loan applications, as well as launched an investigation into $6.3 billion in suspected fraudulent government contracts.

Every Democratic attorney general declined to attend the Tuesday meeting, writing in a response letter that the “short notice does not match the spirit of collaboration that has long defined our joint efforts with federal partners.”

“With appropriate notice and a genuine opportunity for engagement, we would welcome the chance to participate in a future meeting and contribute to a productive dialogue,” they added.

Instead, the group hosted its own virtual meeting later that day on combatting government program fraud.

Vance argued that addressing fraud “should not be a partisan effort.”

“Everybody should care about fraud, everybody should care about rooting out fraud, everybody should care about saving the American taxpayers’ money,” Vance said. “And importantly, everybody should care about actually protecting the programs that only work and are only properly funded if the money funding those programs isn’t being stolen by fraudsters.”

White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller, who also attended the meeting, claimed that fraud levels are so high that rooting out all program fraud would close the federal deficit.

“I believe, based on what I’ve seen and what I’ve heard, that we could balance the federal budget if the only dollars that went out of the Treasury went to individuals who are properly, lawfully, correctly eligible to receive them,” Miller said. “And that ultimately is going to be what we have to do as a country.”

The amount of fraud in government programs would have to be more than eight times GAO’s improper payments estimate in order for Miller’s statement to be true.

The federal deficit for the past two years has teetered around $1.8 trillion and is projected to hit $2 trillion by the end of the current fiscal year.

Chemical Tank Implosion in Washington Kills 1 and Leaves 9 Missing

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Chemical Tank Implosion in Washington Kills 1 and Leaves 9 Missing

(Headline USA) A massive chemical tank holding nearly a million gallons of a highly corrosive liquid imploded and collapsed Tuesday at a Washington paper mill, killing at least one worker and leaving nine others unaccounted for with no hope for rescue, authorities said.

Another nine people were injured, some severely, in the spill at Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co. in Longview. The cause remained unclear.

“At the moment we are not aware of any rescues that are yet to be made,” Cowlitz Fire and Rescue Chief Scott Goldstein said during a Tuesday evening news conference in which officials repeatedly referred to the situation as a recovery effort.

That effort would not resume until Wednesday morning, when emergency responders planned to work on stabilizing the collapsed tank, which still had about 90,000 gallons of a chemical brew known as “white liquor” inside, and then search for the missing, Goldstein said.

The severity of the injuries ranged from minor to critical, with some suffering burns or inhalation injuries, authorities said. Among those injured was a responding firefighter.

Officials said they would only work during daylight hours because there was a risk of the tank leaking more caustic liquid and potentially collapsing.

“We don’t know until we know, hopefully tomorrow, how we can stabilize the tank. Do we remove the product first? Do we stabilize the tank first or the vice versa?” Goldstein said.

Authorities said there was no threat to the public.

Community waits for more information

At a community vigil Tuesday night, dozens gathered at a local park to pray, light candles and embrace teary-eyed loved ones.

Crystal Moldenhauer, a Longview resident who served on the school board, said she has friends who work at the plant and remained unaccounted for. She described the stress of the day as people called and texted each other trying to figure out what happened.

“We’re all still waiting for answers,” she said. “There’s families that have been torn apart, and we don’t know why.”

Two upset parents who said their two sons worked at the plant interjected at the end of the news conference, saying they hadn’t been contacted. While officials including Gov. Bob Ferguson, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray and U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez addressed those gathered, no one from the company spoke at the news conference.

Some people waited at the company’s visitor entrance earlier Tuesday, seeking information about loved ones. They declined to comment to an Associated Press reporter. At a nearby union hall that was serving as a family assistance center, three women shared a tearful embrace before heading inside. Others coming and going were also in tears.

Facility is central to the community

The Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co. facility is a pulp and paper mill and liquid packaging plant along the Columbia River in Longview, a city of about 38,000 that has had a relationship with the paper and lumber industries since its founding by a Kansas City timber baron in the 1920s.

The facility, which employs about 1,000 people and dates to 1953, makes material for tissues, printing paper, cups, plates, cartons and other goods. It is located in an industrial zone shared by other timber, paper and chemical businesses, and it remains central to the community.

“The people who are responders here have friends and relatives that work on site,” Cowlitz Fire and Rescue Chief Scott Goldstein noted. “It is something that is impactful, and we have support networks to support the workers as well as the emergency responders.”

Officials initially reported that the tank had a capacity of 80,000 gallons, but later revised that number to say it was holding about 900,000 gallons of the “white liquor.” That’s nearly enough to fill a typical Olympic-sized swimming pool one and a half times. The liquid, which consists mainly of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide, is used with heat to break down wood to make kraft paper, a durable material used in packaging, shopping bags and other products.

Cause is not yet known

It was too early to determine the cause of the implosion, Goldstein said.

Following the tank’s rupture, the white liquor spilled into a drainage ditch, said Brittny Goodsell, a state Ecology Department spokesperson. The department sent a team to evaluate the impacts, Goodsell said.

“I know there’s a lot of questions about how all of this happened and I want to assure you that we will all continue to pressure to get answers to those questions,” Murray said during the Tuesday evening news conference. “This community deserves that.”

The implosion came as thousands of residents of Southern California remained evacuated Tuesday due to a damaged chemical tank at an aerospace plant. All evacuation orders were lifted Tuesday night.

Just over 40 people died between January 2021 and mid-October 2023 as a result of hazardous chemical incidents, according to a paper released by a network of environmental justice organizations in late 2023.

Previous health and safety violations

Safety complaints were filed against Nippon Dynawave on March 4 and May 6. The state’s labor and industries department said on X that both are unrelated to the current situation and remain open. The former was an anonymous complaint about a valve on an aqua ammonia clarifier tank, according to the department, which noted that “it was not the tank that imploded.” The other was opened about a sinkhole created by a drain that failed, according to the department.

Nippon Dynawave, a subsidiary of Japan-based Nippon Paper Group, has been fined a total of $3,400 for three separate health and safety violations found by Washington Department of Labor and Industries inspectors since the start of 2021, according to the department’s online database.

In one inspection, the company was cited because face coverings were not worn by every employee when required. In another, the inspector determined that an employee was exposed to the risk of falling while working on a platform more than 4 feet (1.2 meters) off the ground.

In the third incident, the department determined that equipment involved in a work-related accident — an amputated finger — was moved from its original position before the state’s investigation into the accident was complete.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

WATCH: LA Mayor Candidate Says Homeless Will Go to Seattle

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WATCH: LA Mayor Candidate Says Homeless Will Go to Seattle

(, The Center Square) Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt is claiming that his hardline policies on the homeless will mean that thousands of the unhoused will relocate to Seattle, with its more permissive policies, if he is elected to office.

The former reality television star-turned-political candidate has made the homelessness issue a major part of his campaign.

He argued in a recent interview with ABC Television that the vast majority of individuals living on the streets of Los Angeles are battling addiction rather than traditional homelessness, and he would require that they get treatment.

Pratt asserted that if the city halts its funding for what he described as a “broken nonprofit system,” many of these individuals will choose to leave Los Angeles for cities with more permissive policies, specifically citing Seattle.

“They’re not homeless, they’re drug addicts,” Pratt said during the interview. “These people have been bused in by scam rehabs, scam NGOs, scam homeless nonprofits. They’re all going to Seattle, where the mayor will welcome them.”

Mayor Katie Wilson’s office did not respond to requests for response to Pratt’s comments.

Andrea Suarez, with We Heart Seattle, an organization that works with Seattle’s addicted homeless, said she was concerned by Pratt’s statement because it reflected Seattle’s relaxed policies on drug usage, which have caused crime at some of the city’s current temporary homeless housing.

“I’m alarmed by LA mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt’s remarks, whether sarcastic or literal,” she told The Center Square on Tuesday.

“His warning that addicts will simply relocate to Seattle because ‘the mayor will welcome them’ highlights how our city’s tolerant policies on open drug use,” she added.

Suarez said unsanctioned camping in Seattle parks and soft-on-crime prosecutors and judges continue to invite the same antisocial behavior that other cities are trying to eliminate.

Wilson, who took office in January, had made her plan to create 4,000 units of emergency or temporary housing for the unhoused over the next four years a key part of her agenda.

While counselors providing drug addiction and mental health counseling will be based at the new housing, there is no requirement that residents avail themselves of the services, raising public safety fears.

Republican Pratt is running for Los Angeles mayor in the open primary elections scheduled for June 2. He has spent more than $3 million on his campaign to unseat incumbent Karen Bass, with a strong focus on his plan to revamp services and housing for the homeless.

While there are 13 candidates, polls have narrowed the race to Bass, Pratt, and Nithya Raman, who is considered a liberal and was a supporter of Bass. If no candidate gets 50% of the vote on June 2, the top two vote-getters will have a rematch in November.

Throughout his campaign, Pratt has consistently argued that the crisis on Los Angeles’ streets is not the result of underfunding, but rather a consequence of excessive waste and executing the wrong strategies.

Under Pratt’s plan, drug-addicted persons would be forced to receive services. He said he would build prefabricated rehabilitation campuses on federal land outside Los Angeles, where individuals would be sent for treatment.

Paxton Pushes Cornyn Out of Longtime U.S. Senate Seat

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Paxton Pushes Cornyn Out of Longtime U.S. Senate Seat

(Bethany Blankley, The Center Square) Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday ousted four-term incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn during a night of major upsets and a race that got national attention.

Paxton won the long anticipated Republican runoff for the Senate despite Cornyn, a former Senate Republican whip, getting endorsements from the majority of law enforcement, faith-based groups and conservatives.

After early voting started last week, President Donald Trump endorsed Paxton, aided by a flurry of posts in support made by paid social media influencers appealing to the far right. Primary and runoff elections normally have low voter turnout, as was the case in the March 3 primary, although Democrats outvoted Republicans by large margins, The Center Square reported.

Paxton won the U.S. Senate race, receiving more than 60% of the vote, according to unofficial resultspublished by the Texas Secretary of State’s Office with more than 60% of votes counted.

In the Republican runoff election for attorney general, state Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, defeated U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, with 55% of the vote. Middleton has been ahead in the polls throughout the race.

In the Democratic race for attorney general, Middleton’s Texas Senate colleague, Nathan Johnson, won by more than 20 points, defeating former Galveston mayor Joe Jaworski, according to the unofficial results.

In key Democratic races, state Sen. Vikki Goodwin won her race for lieutenant governor and will be challenging Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, in November.

In Texas’ 18th Congressional District race, U.S. Rep. Christian Menefee, who won a special election, ran against incumbent U.S. Rep. Al Green, a Democrat who was redistricted, and won. Menefee declared victory not soon after the polls closed.

Other congressional races called within less than two hours of polls closing were Democrats Yolanda Prince in Congressional District 1 and Kevin Burge in Congressional District 24 and Republicans Tom Sell in Congressional District 19, Alexander Hale in Congressional District 7 and Alex Mealer in Congressional District 9 — all newly redistricted districts.

Other races appear to be too close to call.

The Texas Democratic Party reported ballot irregularities in Fort Bend County and issued a statement denouncing Paxton’s win.

Paxton, who was the only attorney general to be impeached in Texas history in 2023, “spent decades in office abusing his power to serve special interests and enrich himself at Texans’ expense – and in November, we’re going to put a stop to his corruption,” Texas Democratic Party Chairman Kendall Scudder said in an emailed statement. “As Attorney General, Paxton traded favors with lobbyists and his wealthy donors so shamelessly that even his own party tried to remove him from office for alleged bribery and abuse of his position.”

The Texas Senate acquitted Paxton of all charges, largely along party lines.

“We are sick and tired of this kind of corruption from self-serving politicians – and that’s why voters are going to elect James Talarico in November to represent all Texans, not just the rich and powerful,” Scudder said.

Talarico, a Democrat, earlier this year broke all fundraising records for any U.S. Senate candidate in U.S. history, The Center Square reported.

Ex-Sen. Bob Menendez’s Son, a Congressman, Snaps at Pro-ICE Protester

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Ex-Sen. Bob Menendez’s Son, a Congressman, Snaps at Pro-ICE Protester

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Ex-Sen. Bob Menendez may be behind bars on corruption charges, but his son, Rep. Rob Menendez, appeared eager to defend the family name during a heated confrontation with a peaceful protester outside a New Jersey ICE facility over Memorial Day weekend.

Menendez, a Democrat representing the same New Jersey district his father held for over a decade before joining the Senate, was caught on tape verbally attacking and flipping off a pro-ICE protester after being confronted about his incarcerated father.

“Fuck you!” Menendez shouted while aggressively approaching the protester outside the Delaney Hall Detention Facility. Video of the incident was captured by independent journalist Yaakov Strasberg.

The protester was standing outside the facility holding a sign bearing the name of a New Jersey woman killed after an illegal alien allegedly crashed head-on into her vehicle while intoxicated. Cortes’s 11-year-old daughter, Maria, was also killed in the harrowing crash.

“How’s your dad, congressman?” the protester asked while Menendez spoke to reporters. “Congressman, you helped kill Dayanara Cortes.”

Menendez, seemingly agitated by the protester, abruptly stopped answering questions and confronted him directly.

“Do you believe pregnant women should be there right now?” Menendez asked, likely in reference to the detention center.

“Yes, you just have to sign a paper and go home,” the protester replied.

After a brief back-and-forth exchange, Menendez snapped, “Fuck you!” while raising his middle finger toward the man.

“How’s your dad? Tell me more,” the man fired back.

Menendez continued arguing with the man even as aides tried to calm him down. At one point, the congressman aggressively pointed at the protester while shouting: “You’re a liar!”

The altercation unfolded as anti-ICE activists and Democrat lawmakers demonstrated outside Delaney Hall to protest the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

Rob Menendez is the youngest son of the disgraced former senator, while Alicia Menendez, the left-wing MSNBC host, is the eldest sibling.

Bob Menendez is currently serving his sentence at LSCI Allenwood, a low-security federal prison in Pennsylvania, after being convicted on bribery, foreign agent and obstruction-related offenses.

Oops! Anti-ICE Hecklers Thought Hispanic ICE Agents Were Detainees

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Oops! Anti-ICE Hecklers Thought Hispanic ICE Agents Were Detainees

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) An awkward moment unfolded outside an anti-ICE protest at a New Jersey detention facility when demonstrators loudly cheered two Hispanic men exiting the building — only to discover the pair were actually federal agents in plainclothes. 

“Welcome, brothers,” a protester said in Spanish, as two men emerged from Delaney Hall Detention Facility through a secured gate under guard supervision. 

“Wohoo! Yay!” other protesters cheered, as captured by Footage from FreedomNews.TV. 

Their celebration was short-lived as officers quickly pointed out the irony: the two men were federal agents outside their federal uniforms. 

“They work here,” one officer said, with another adding, “They work here, you dumbasses.”

The exchange played out as the agents laughed.  

Protesters had gathered outside Delaney Hall over allegations of human rights violations at the detention center during the Memorial Day weekend. 

Among those present were New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, Sen. Andy Kim, and Rep. Rob Menendez. 

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