Senate Bars Members from Getting Paychecks During Shutdowns

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Senate Bars Members from Getting Paychecks During Shutdowns

(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) Two weeks since Democrats finally ended the longest federal shutdown in history — surpassing by more than a month the record they set last year — the Senate unanimously passed a resolution via voice vote that would stop its own members from receiving paychecks during future shutdowns.

Senate Resolution 526 updates the Congressional Register to require the secretary of the Senate to withhold all payments to the senators themselves until “practicable after the date on which the Government shutdown ends.”

It will take effect on Nov. 4, the day following the next general election.

The measure, sponsored by Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., was well received in the public, although critics said it was largely performative since most senators did not need their paychecks to live month-to-month, as many U.S. workers do.

Kennedy himself ranks as the 62nd wealthiest member of Congress, with an estimated net worth of just over $21 million. His fellow Louisianan, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, is among the poorest, with a reported net worth of $8,000.

Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif. is reported as the most penurious member of the upper chamber, with a net worth of around $86,690.

Kennedy acknowledged in a floor speech Wednesday that in order to get the votes to pass the resolution, it ultimately had to have little practical impact.

“Frankly, if I were king for a day and I wanted to stop government shutdowns, I’d do more than this. I would do two things,” he said.

“If government shuts down, a senator loses his pay. It’s not escrowed (you get it back later) — you just don’t get your pay,” he added. “I’m also saying you can’t leave Washington, can’t go home.”

The most recent shutdown, spearheaded by Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., lasted from Feb. 14 to April 30, a period of 76 days, and was designed to undermine the efforts of Immigration and Customs Enforcement as they pursued mass deportation of criminal illegal immigrants.

Instead, it put Americans at greater risk for acts of terrorism, including an April 25 assassination attempt on President Donald Trump during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton.

The shutdown, targeting only the Department of Homeland Security, also resulted in massive wait times at the airport screening stations operated by the Transportation Security Administration. Trump was able to ease the strain, in part, by dispatching ICE agents to fill in for absent TSA screeners.

The dysfunction came on the heels of a then-record-breaking full government shutdown last year, which lasted 43 days from Oct. 1 to Nov. 12.

Both were part of a disturbing trend of Democrats lurching farther leftward and opting to weaponize chaos over compromise, at the expense of U.S. citizens. Schumer caught flack in early 2025 for capitulating to the GOP majority, which led to calls from his socialist-leaning base that he resign or be primaried.

Coincidentally, the third-longest shutdown also was ushered by the Democrat minority during the halfway point of Trump’s first presidential term. It lasted 35 days, from Dec. 22, 2018, to Jan. 25, 2019. Trump famously got back at then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., by grounding her flight on an international public-relations trip after she canceled his State of the Union address.

Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.

Anti-Trump Republican Senator Ousted in Louisiana Primary

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Anti-Trump Republican Senator Ousted in Louisiana Primary

(Headline USA) Sen. Bill Cassidy was decisively defeated in Saturday’s Republican primary in Louisiana, unable to convince voters that he deserved another term five years after voting to convict President Donald Trump during an impeachment trial over the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

He finished behind U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, who capitalized on the power of Trump’s endorsement as the president continues purging his party of people he views as disloyal, and John Fleming, the state treasurer. Letlow and Fleming will compete in a runoff on June 27.

The result was the latest example of Trump’s unrivaled power over the Republican Party. Unlike some other senators who declined to run again after crossing Trump, Cassidy pushed hard for reelection and spent nearly double the combined amount of his opponents.

But none of that was enough for Cassidy to qualify for a runoff, let alone win a third term.

“Our country is not about one individual,” he told supporters after his loss. “It is about the welfare of all Americans, and it is about the Constitution.”

Letlow, on the other hand, swiftly embraced Trump’s central role when she spoke at her victory party.

“I want to say thank you to a very special man who you all know, the best president this country has ever had, President Donald Trump,” she said while flanked by her two young children.

Asked about Cassidy’s vote at the impeachment trial, Letlow called it “a sign that he had turned his back on the Louisiana voters.”

Trump cheered the victory on social media, saying “that’s what you get by voting to Impeach an innocent man.”

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

3 People Killed after Driver Crashes into Crowd in Oakland

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3 People Killed after Driver Crashes into Crowd in Oakland

(Headline USA) Three people were killed and several others were injured after a driver crashed into multiple cars and pedestrians late Saturday night in Oakland, California, authorities said.

The crash happened shortly after 11 p.m., according to officials.

Three people were pronounced dead at the scene and five others were injured, the Oakland Fire Department said. Two of those injured were in critical condition. The driver involved in the crash was also injured, though officials described those injuries as minor.

Authorities did not immediately release additional details about what led to the crash, and the driver’s identity was not made public.

The crash remains under investigation, officials said.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Senators Introduce Assimilation Act to Tighten Borders Loopholes

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Senators Introduce Assimilation Act to Tighten Borders Loopholes

(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) With Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., last month having declared that the pro-election-integrity SAVE Act was now off the legislative agenda entirely, a few “America First” lawmakers were stepping up to fill the gap.

On Friday, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., unveiled the Assimilation Act, which would close longstanding immigration loopholes used to undermine democratic institutions — including elections — in a variety of ways.

“We cannot allow people to come here to change our culture, our constitution, our laws,” Tuberville said in an interview with Fox News’s Will Cain.

“… If people come here, they come here to assimilate,” he added. “If they don’t, they go home.”

The bill seeks to ensure that only highly skilled and otherwise qualified immigrants benefit from America’s immigration system, requiring that eligible candidates demonstrate merit and good moral character.

The bill — formally known as the “American System for Sustainable Immigration and Mass Immigration Limitations Achieved Through Imposing Oversight Nationally” Act — has drawn several Freedom Caucus members in the House as cosponsors, including Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Eli Crane of Arizona and Ralph Norman of South Carolina.

But its path in the Senate remains unclear, with recent data showing that Thune and several other RINO lawmakers may benefit politically from maintaining dirty, nebulous voter rolls.

Also in question is whether President Donald Trump will have the will to crack down further on immigration after his recent summit in Beijing with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Trump reportedly backpedaled on hardline stances related to national security, including bans on China’s acquisition of U.S. farmland.

“You want to see farm prices drop, you want to see farmers lose a lot of money? Just take that out of the market,” Trump said, appearing to support China’s purchase of farmland near military instillations during a recent interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity.

Trump has previously wavered on his stance over H-1B highly-skilled worker visas, which allow tech companies and other high-dollar industries to outsource their work internationally.

But Trump also has been a staunch supporter of immigration reform in his second term, notably pursuing mass deportations and signing an executive order that would ban controversial “birthright citizenship” if the Supreme Court clears its path.

Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.

Chart Perfectly Explains Senate Resistance to SAVE Act

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Chart Perfectly Explains Senate Resistance to SAVE Act

(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) A report from federal agencies showing discrepancies between population and voter registration in a dozen states may help to explain why Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has forced the election-integrity reform bill known as the SAVE Act off the legislative agenda.

Nearly a quarter of all U.S. senators live in states that have more registered voters than voting-age citizens, according to a viral chart shared by Shiloh Marx, founder and president of the Integrity First Alliance. The chart was based on data from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and the U.S. Census Bureau.

Eight of the 12 states (two-thirds) were those with two Democrat senators, while three of the 12 (one-fourth) states had two Republican senators. Maine, which currently has Republican Susan Collins and Independent Angus King, was the only split state.

The fact that the dodgy data broke in Democrats’ favor likely surprised few, considering the Left has become steadfast in its opposition to enforcement of both immigration and election-integrity laws.

But tellingly, it showed that four of the five high-profile Republican opponents of the SAVE Act also stood to benefit from less scrutinized elections.

In addition to Collins and Thune, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell made the chart, leaving retiring North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis as the only outlier. (Tillis’s Trump Derangement Syndrome has been credited as a prime motivator in his insistence on sabotaging GOP political prospects.)

Like Tillis, McConnell, 84, plans to retire at the end of his current term. However, his hand-picked successor, Rep. Andy Barr, is favored to secure the nomination in Kentucky’s Republican primary on Tuesday over more conservative choices like former state Attorney General Daniel Cameron.

Murkowski’s path to power, meanwhile, has been notoriously spotty, particularly due to the possible manipulation of Alaska’s confusing ranked-choice voting system, which eliminates parties’ ability to select their candidates via primary.

Some X users took note of the overlap between averred RINOs who had received an “F” rating on the Conservative Review’s Liberty Scorecard and those who lived in states with dirty voter rolls.

“Is this how they usually beat challengers in GOP Primaries?” wrote user @doug86027, a lifelong conservative and Marine veteran from Minnesota. “Hmm….I wonder if they are connected.”

The SAVE Act, championed by President Donald Trump and his allies, would close several election loopholes by requiring photo ID and in-person submission of voter registration. It also would add new mandates for states to clean their voter rolls.

The bill already has cleared the House, but it lacks the 60 votes needed to end debate in the Senate, effectively allowing an informal “silent filibuster” to block it with all 47 Democrats (including Independents) opposing it.

Proponents of the SAVE Act have said that Thune should either abolish the filibuster altogether or impose a traditional “talking filibuster” that would allow the bill to leave its debate phase once opponents had exhausted their allotted opportunities to speak.

However, Thune has insisted that enforcing the normal filibuster rules would be too time consuming.

The lengthy process famously was deployed by Democrats in 1957 as part of a doomed effort to block the Civil Rights Act.

Other SAVE Act supporters have suggested attaching it to an appropriations bill or other legislation, such as renewal of the controversial FISA spying powers, that deep-state RINOs would have no choice but to get behind.

Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.

Russia-Gate Lawyer Marc Elias Calls for Overthrow of Va. Government

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Russia-Gate Lawyer Marc Elias Calls for Overthrow of Va. Government

(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) The man at the heart of the 2016 Russia hoax that sought to usurp the duly elected president of the United States has now set his sights on overthrowing the commonwealth of Virginia.

Steele Dossier architect Marc Elias issued an X post Tuesday that urged Virginia citizens to “reform, alter, or abolish” the state government while calling the current leadership “inadequate.”

The post drew directly from Article 1, Section 3 of the Virginia constitution.

It came as embattled Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger and the state’s Democrat legislative majorities find themselves on the ropes after a failed gambit to gerrymander congressional districts in their favor wound up backfiring spectacularly.

Elias weighed in a few days before Virginia Democrats officially lost their last-gasp appeal to U.S. Supreme Court, although precedent pointed to their error-riddled case failing from the starting gate.

In fact, Elias was one of the champions of 2019’s Rucho v. Common Cause, a North Carolina-based lawsuit in which the high court conclusively determined that cases involving partisan gerrymandering were the purview of the state courts.

Ironically, even though Elias has routinely counted on left-leaning judges to reverse the law in his favor, this time he appeared to be lashing out specifically at the judicial branch for failing to be cowed by Democrats’ demands to reinterpret the law.

“Now, Elias is reminding Virginians that they can respond to an opposing court decision by eliminating some or all of the Virginia state government,” wrote Georgetown University law professor Jonathan Turley. “It is the logic of the Jacobin.”

As Turley noted, Elias is notorious for flip-flopping his positions on issues based on what would be politically advantageous to Democrats in that moment.

He has selectively supported blue-state gerrymandering while fighting it in red states, and he has likewise fought against ballot-harvesting in red states while using it on multiple occasions to reverse the election-night outcome of tightly contested races.

Elias recently was appointed by Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., to oversee an Orwellian-named “Election Integrity Group” bent on using lawfare tactics to undermine the procedures, such as voter ID, that are most likely to hurt Democrats’ cheating efforts while decrying them as undemocratic.

President Donald Trump slammed the appointment of Elias and former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder, who also has been at the forefront of Democrats’ selective gerrymandering via “sue till blue” initiatives.

In a May 10 post on Truth Social, Trump promised his own “army” of lawyers and poll-watchers “to preserve the sanctity of each legal vote.”

However, Elias clapped back, saying “Trump’s latest attack on me is as unhinged as ever. I wear his scorn as a badge of honor.”

Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.

Firefighter Killed, 11 Injured in Lumber Mill Explosion in Maine

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Firefighter Killed, 11 Injured in Lumber Mill Explosion in Maine

(Headline USA) A massive fire and explosion at a lumber mill in Maine’s midcoast region killed a firefighter and injured at least 11 other people Friday, authorities said.

The firefighter was found dead at the mill, state officials said. The firefighter was part of a huge emergency response to flames tearing through Robbins Lumber in a rural area when a silo exploded, authorities said.

The investigation into the cause may not immediately offer answers, Maine fire marshal Shawn Esler said.

MaineHealth Maine Medical Center in Portland, which has a Level 1 trauma designation, said it was treating 10 patients who were transferred from local hospitals. Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor was treating one patient who was in critical condition, a spokesperson said.

The mill is in Searsmont, a town of about 1,500 people about 95 miles from Portland.

State and local emergency responders helped as fire departments worked for hours to contain the flames.

“We have dumped all of the resources from the whole county over to that area,” Waldo County 911 director Mike Larrivee said.

Robbins Lumber’s website describes the company as a “high-tech lumber manufacturer” that has been in existence since 1881 and family-owned for five generations.

Christian Halsted, a family spokesperson, said the fire was a “hugely devastating day for the family” and the mill will not be operating in the near future. The family was cooperating with authorities on the investigation, he said.

Lumber and wood products are a critical and historic industry in Maine. The Maine Forest Products Council said it contributed more than $8 billion to the state’s economy in 2024 and provides about 29,000 jobs.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

US Kills ISIS Leader in Nigeria

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US Kills ISIS Leader in Nigeria

(Headline USA) U.S. and Nigerian forces killed a leader of the Islamic State group in Nigeria in a mission carried out Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump said.

Trump announced the joint operation in Africa’s most populous country in a late-night social media post that offered few details. He said Abu Bakr al-Mainuki was second-in-command of the Islamic State group globally and “thought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had sources who kept us informed on what he was doing.”

Al-Mainuki was viewed as the key figure in IS organizing and finance, and had been plotting attacks against the United States and its interests, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share sensitive information.

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu confirmed the operation and said Al-Mainuki was killed alongside “several of his lieutenants, during a strike on his compound in the Lake Chad Basin.”

According to the spokesperson for the Nigerian military task force that carried out the operation, the operation was a “highly complex precision air-land operation” and was carried out during three hours of darkness early Saturday without any casualties or loss of assets.

“His elimination represents the single most consequential counterterrorism outcome” in the region since the inception of the operation in 2015, Sani Uba, the spokesperson for the task force, said in a statement.

Born in Nigeria’s Borno province in 1982, al-Mainuki took the helm of the IS branch in West Africa after the group’s previous leader in the region, Mamman Nur, was killed in 2018, according to the Counter Extremism Project, which tracks militant groups.

Al-Mainuki was based in the Sahel area, the monitoring group said, adding that it is believed that he fought in Libya when IS was active in the North African nation more than a decade ago. He was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2023.

Questions over Al-Mainuki’s exact status in IS

Trump, in his social media announcement, said Al-Mainuki was “second in command globally,” hiding in Africa, a claim that some analysts say is off the mark. The Nigerian military, in a statement, also said intelligence shows that earlier this year, Al-Mainuki might have been “elevated to the position of Head of the General Directorate of States, placing him the second most senior leader within the ISIS global hierarchy.”

There is no way to verify his position within IS independently. Analysts say Al-Mainuki was the deputy to Abu Musab al-Barnawi, the leader of the Islamic State West African Province who was reported to have died in 2021. He is regarded as one of the central proponents of the formation of ISWAP, after its split with Boko Haram in 2016.

“If confirmed, the killing of Al-Mainuki is huge because this is the first time a security agency has killed someone this high in the ranking of ISWAP,” Malik Samuel, a senior researcher at Good Governance Africa who specializes in insurgent groups in Nigeria, said.

“The potential to cause chaos within the group is also there because the operation must have been carried out in the heart of ISWAP’s fortified base, which is very difficult to access.”

Trump in December directed U.S. forces to launch strikes against the Islamic State group in Nigeria, though he released little detail then about the impact.

US and Nigeria step up joint operations

The Nigerian military said the operation was a result of recently formed U.S.-Nigeria partnership and intelligence-sharing efforts. Samalia Uba, the military spokesperson, said in a statement that the operation has also “disrupted a violent terrorist network that endangered Nigeria and the broader West African region.”

Nigeria has been battling multiple armed groups, including at least two affiliated with IS, as it has grappled with a multifaceted security crisis. IS affiliates in Africa have emerged as some of the continent’s most active militant groups following the collapse of the so-called IS caliphate in Syria and Iraq in 2017.

The U.S. in February sent troops to the West African nation to help advise its military, and in March, the U.S. also deployed drones there after Trump alleged that Christians are being targeted in Nigeria’s security crisis.

The Friday night operation was the latest instance in a string of covert missions abroad that Trump has announced this year, starting with the stunning overnight raid in January to capture and remove Venezuela’s then-leader Nicolás Maduro and whisk him to the U.S., followed nearly two months later by the launch of strikes that kicked off the war with Iran.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Colorado Governor Shortens Tina Peters’ Sentence for Election Tampering

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Colorado Governor Shortens Tina Peters’ Sentence for Election Tampering

(Liam Hibbert, The Center Square) Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has shortened the prison sentence of former county clerk Tina Peters, convicted of election tampering related to the 2020 election.

The move follows months of pressure from President Donald Trump on the high-profile case, with Peters now eligible for parole on June 1.

“I believe based on the facts of the case that her sentence is simply disproportionate for a first time, non-violent offender,” Polis, a Democrat, wrote in a Facebook post sent to The Center Square. “It’s one of my bedrock beliefs that our laws should be applied fairly, and I simply do not believe that was what happened in this case. A three judge panel of the Colorado Court of Appeals agrees, ordering just last month that she be resentenced.”

Peters was sentenced to nine years in prison by a jury in October 2024 for helping an unauthorized person gain access to voting machines after the 2020 election, while acting as the Mesa County clerk. Information they learned about the machines was then given out publicly.

Peters said she granted illegal access to the voting machines to prove the 2020 election was rigged against Trump.

Polis’ Facebook post included a short apology from Peters, “Four years ago, I misled the Secretary of State when allowing a person to gain access to county voting equipment. That was wrong.”

In December, Trump granted Peters a largely symbolic pardon, as she was held in a Colorado state prison. The president can only issue pardons for federal crimes.

When asked for comment by The Center Square, the White House Friday forwarded a link to a social media post on Truth Social by Trump minutes after the clemency announcement that read, “FREE TINA!”

“The President has no standing to grant pardons for state level crimes just like I can’t grant pardons for federal crimes,” Polis said in his Facebook post. He added that he is not pardoning Peters because “she deserves to serve time in prison.”

In April, a Colorado Appeals Court upheld Peters’ case, but said the sentencing was too long and argued the sentencing judge at the time violated her freedom of speech.

“It hits a nerve for people on both sides of the aisle,” wrote Polis. “Some incorrectly feel that she did not commit a crime and should not have been convicted at all. Others see her as a symbol and want her to be in prison for as long as possible. Our legal system should not be based on symbols, politics and passions – it should be based on the law being applied fairly in every instance.”

Colorado Democrats criticized Polis’ decision.

“It’s a sad day for Colorado,” state Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a video on Facebook.

“She was sentenced for undermining elections, convicted by a jury. The judge found the right sentence,” said Weiser, a Democrat who’s running to succeed Polis, who’s termed out on Jan. 12, 2027.

Former Mexican Secretary is 1st of 10 Indicted Officials to Surrender to US

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Former Mexican Secretary is 1st of 10 Indicted Officials to Surrender to US

(Headline USA) The former secretary of public security for Mexico’s Sinaloa state appeared in a U.S. court Friday, days after his arrest in Arizona on charges he and other officials took bribes to help the Sinaloa Cartel smuggle vast quantities of drugs into the U.S.

Gerardo Mérida Sánchez, 66, was not required to enter a plea during his initial appearance in federal court in Manhattan. He was ordered jailed but could request bail at a later date. He is due back in court on June 1. A message seeking comment was left for his lawyer.

Mérida Sánchez is one of 10 current or former Sinaloa government or law enforcement officials charged by the U.S. last month and the first to appear in court. He is charged with narcotics importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices and faces 40 years to life in prison if convicted.

Other defendants include Gov. Rubén Rocha Moya and Mayor Juan de Dios Gámez Mendívil of the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacán, both of whom said they were taking temporary leaves of absence to deal with the charges. They have yet to be apprehended.

Mexico’s Security Cabinet stated on social media that Mérida Sánchez entered the U.S. from Hermosillo, Sonora, on Monday, and was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service at the Nogales border crossing into Arizona. He appeared in court in Arizona before being moved to New York, court records show.

Mérida Sánchez was Secretary of Public Security, an appointed cabinet-level position in Moya’s Sinaloa government, from September 2023 until his resignation in December 2024. He was responsible for overseeing the Sinaloa State Police and appointing its director.

Mérida Sánchez is accused of taking at least $100,000 in monthly cash bribes from “Los Chapitos,” a Sinaloa Cartel faction run by the sons of incarcerated ex-cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, in exchange for arresting rivals and providing information about ongoing investigations and planned drug raids.

In 2023 alone, Mérida Sánchez warned the Chapitos about at least 10 upcoming raids on labs and safe houses where they stored drugs, weapons, and money, allowing them to remove personnel and evidence of criminal activity before they happened, according to an indictment unsealed last month.

Some of the indicted officials are members of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum ’s progressive Morena party.

After the indictment was announced, Sheinbaum said she wouldn’t defend anyone found to have committed a crime but argued that, if authorities uncovered “irrefutable” evidence linking the officials to cartel crime, they should be tried in Mexico, not the U.S.

“We will never subordinate ourselves because this is a matter of the dignity of the Mexican people,” she said, risking backlash from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has threatened military action against cartels on Mexican soil.

Mexico’s Foreign Ministry and Security Cabinet have been maintaining institutional communication with U.S. authorities within the framework of international cooperation mechanisms.

“El Chapo” was convicted in 2019 and sentenced to life in prison.

Another Sinaloa kingpin, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, pleaded guilty last year to U.S. drug trafficking charges and apologized for helping flood the country with cocaine, heroin and other illicit substances and for fueling deadly violence in Mexico. He is scheduled to be sentenced in July to life in prison.

Under Zambada and Guzmán’s leadership, prosecutors say, the Sinaloa cartel evolved from a regional player into the largest drug trafficking organization in the world.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

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