(Ken Silva, Headline USA) F-16 fighter jets were scrambled over President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort after a civilian plane breached restricted airspace near the property on Sunday.
Trump was reportedly on property grounds at the time.
As first reported by Defense Visual Information Distributed Service, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) fighter jets intercepted a plane that violated the temporary flight restriction area at roughly 1:15 p.m.
“During the intercept, NORAD aircraft dispensed flares, which may have been visible to the public,” dvidshub.net reported. “The flares were used to draw attention from or communicate with the pilot. Flares are employed with the highest regard for safety, burn out quickly and completely, and pose no danger to people on the ground.”
CBS News noted that there have been dozens of incidents near Mar-a-Lago in recent months. But Sunday’s event drew particular attention in large part because a video from within a Delta Air Lines flight, in which a pilot is heard informing passengers of a “ground stop” due to a potential security breach. The pilot mentioned rumors of a drone.
NOW: Announcement on Delta flight that there is a ground stop at PBI Airport in Florida Palm Beach, due to a drone that came in too close flying during Airforce 1 take off. Helicopters have flown in to investigate. pic.twitter.com/uI0fV0WgFC
— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) March 29, 2026
“They’re not sure what it was, but apparently there was a drone that came in too close to the airport,” the pilot said, as reported by CBS. “They had to scramble some helicopters to go and investigate that.”
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
(Mike Maharrey, Money Metals News Service) Despite price volatility and the recent dip in gold prices, the Swiss Bankers Association says the yellow metal will continue to become more important as a store of value in an increasingly fragmented and politically uncertain global economy.
Swiss Bankers Association advisor for regulation and economics, Nina-Alessa Michel, said that headlines will likely drive continued volatility. However, gold’s trajectory will likely be determined “not only by isolated events but also by fundamental structural trends.”
“Against a backdrop of geopolitical and economic tensions and rising government debt, demand for safe investments is increasing.”
Those trends are fraught with uncertainty, making gold an excellent investment given its relative stability over the long term.
“Fluctuating inflation and changing interest rate expectations continue to favor demand for investments that tend to be stable.”
While gold has experienced significant price swings, especially since the outbreak of the Iran war, it tends to be much less volatile than other assets, especially during periods of geopolitical uncertainty.
Michel said that in the current environment, gold will likely have an even more significant role as a “strategic anchor” in investment portfolios and international reserves.
While current price volatility and worries about energy prices may slow central bank gold buying in the near term (Turkey recently sold more than 60 tonnes of gold), Michel said she expects central bank gold buying to remain robust in the years ahead.
“Geopolitical uncertainty will play a central role: the bigger the shifts in global balances of power, the more attractive gold will become as a strategic reserve. At the same time, gold’s importance for central banks will increase further as many of them seek to diversify their currency reserves and reduce their dependency on traditional hard currencies.”
“In the first half of 2025 alone, Switzerland exported more than 476 tonnes of gold with a value of CHF 39 billion to the U.S., where uncertainty, inflation, and concerns over a further increase in government debt were pushing demand substantially higher.”
These dynamics all remain solidly in place and will likely be exacerbated by the Iran war, especially if it drags on.
Michel emphasized that the trajectory of monetary policy will be “a key influencing factor” in the direction of the gold price.
Price inflation concerns, as oil prices spike, have soured the market’s optimism on rate hikes. The conventional wisdom is that inflationary pressure will force the Federal Reserve to hold rates higher for longer.
There is even speculation that the Fed might raise rates. This has created significant headwinds for gold in recent weeks. However, this analysis ignores the Debt Black Hole in the middle of the living room. This puts central bankers in a Catch-22.
While they do need to keep monetary policy tight to tamp down inflation worries (not from oil price, but from money creation), they also need to cut rates to keep the debt-riddled, bubble economy inflated. At some point, it will have to choose between the economy and fighting inflation. Historically, central bankers have picked the economy – inflation be damned.
Michel concludes that gold will remain an integral asset in a broader investment strategy.
“Gold can be a central component of diversification, but only as part of an overall investment strategy. These days, stability stems less from individual asset classes than from forward-looking risk management that factors in geopolitical and regulatory developments.”
Michel’s analysis underscores a key point. Gold’s fundamental role is wealth preservation and monetary stability in a world of rapidly depreciating fiat currencies.
Headlines may drive the price, even causing significant swings, but they won’t change the underlying dynamics. Governments won’t suddenly stop printing money and debasing their currency.
Any swing in the gold price should always be analyzed within that context.
Mike Maharrey is a journalist and market analyst for Money Metals with over a decade of experience in precious metals. He holds a BS in accounting from the University of Kentucky and a BA in journalism from the University of South Florida.
(Jared Strong, The Center Square) U.S. senators collectively spend more than a million taxpayer dollars each year for pricey flights on private planes for themselves and their staff, even though Senate rules greatly discourage the practice, an investigation by The Center Square found.
The spending includes a Midwestern senator who regularly charters flights to travel to and from Washington, D.C., at an expense that is about 10 times what he would pay to fly commercially from his local airport.
It also includes New York’s two senators who have repeatedly used the charter planes to crisscross their state for public appearances and press conferences, including for initiatives to protect the environment. Private jets are notorious polluters and oftencriticized by environmentalists when celebrities use them.
And one former Arizona senator spent about $50,000 for one flight from Washington, D.C., to the Grand Canyon in 2023 to attend an event with then-President Joe Biden, who signed a proclamation to protect sacred tribal land in the area.
“It shows that when you’re spending somebody else’s money, you aren’t looking for the best deal,” said David Williams, president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, a national government spending hawk. “There’s got to be better guidelines, better regulations and better oversight to make sure that they’re not spending thousands of dollars on a round-trip flight that could cost hundreds of dollars.”
Senate rules allow for reimbursement for charter aircraft with no more than two engines and six seats under certain circumstances. Those situations include: flights that exceed 14 hours; the transportation of someone with a medical disability; security concerns; no other available flights; and “other exceptional circumstances.”
A representative of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics — which oversees the spending — did not respond to a request to comment on the rules and the flights of senators.
The senators’ spending is reported twice each year by the Secretary of the Senate, but it is published in a way that makes it difficult for the general public to evaluate. The text documents are thousands of pages long and cannot be easily transferred to spreadsheets for analysis. The U.S. House provides the information in spreadsheet form.
The Center Square used artificial intelligence tools to extract the data and manually verified the key information that is the basis of this article.
Senate spending for charter flights has far outpaced that of the U.S. House, where the top spender averaged about $10,000 per year. The Senate spending has been driven primarily by three people.
The top spender
Sen. Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican, spends by far the most on charter flights. In 2024, the most-recent full calendar year available in the Senate expense reports, he spent about $480,000.
That was nearly half of the total spent by all senators.
Senators who live in sparsely populated and geographically large states often opt for private planes for some of their travel to visit far-flung constituents, but Rounds’ spending is mostly for travel to Washington, D.C., the Senate’s records show.
He often spends between $10,000 and $15,000 each week for the travel. On Mondays he typically flies from his city of Pierre — in the middle of South Dakota — on a charter plane to a suburb of Minneapolis, where he switches to a typical commercial flight to Washington. Later in the week, he returns by a similar combination of commercial and charter flights.
Each charter flight to the Minneapolis area costs about $6,000. Roundtrip commercial flights from Pierre to Washington, D.C. often cost between $500 and $1,000.
There are no direct commercial flights to Washington from Pierre, which despite being the state’s capital has a population of about 14,000. Yet some of the available commercial flights can take as little as about six hours to reach the nation’s capital, The Center Square found through commercial flight booking websites.
Rounds’ office did not respond to repeated requests to comment for this article, but a Center Square reporter approached Rounds in Washington and asked about the flights.
“That’s the frustrating part,” Rounds said, referring to a lack of direct flights to and from Washington to South Dakota. “We’ve actually tried driving to different places and then getting on a flight, but then you need a connecting flight. This is the best we can do right now and actually make our votes on Mondays and Thursdays.”
The total travel time for Rounds’ typical trips was not immediately available. He is required to report how much they cost and when they happened, but federal lawmakers have shielded themselves from public records requests that might reveal more information about their travels.
Most of the charter flights Rounds commissions are from Mustang Aviation, a decades-old company that also offers aircraft maintenance and flight training. Its owner, Jim Peitz, did not respond to a request for comment.
Campaign finance disclosures show that Peitz donated $4,000 to Rounds in his last election cycle, which culminated with a dominant win in 2020. Rounds, a former governor, was first elected to the Senate in 2014.
Rounds also told The Center Square, when one of its reporters caught up to him at the Capitol last week, that his office returns more money from his Senate office account than many lawmakers.
“We’re normally giving back more money out of our budget than about 50% of all the members of the Senate,” Rounds said. “We try to follow up pretty closely so that we’re actually sending money back to the sergeant at arms.”
But he could not say how much money the office returns.
South Dakota’s other senator — Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican from Sioux Falls — also flies from an out-of-state airport to Washington, Senate records show. Thune flies between Omaha, Neb., and D.C., at a cost that is often less than $1,000. The records do not indicate how he travels to and from Omaha.
Thune’s office did not respond to a request to comment for this article.
Thune is also one of the top spenders for charter flights, often spending about $50,000 each year. Records show he uses the flights for in-state travel. His home in Sioux Falls is in the far southeast corner of the state.
New York’s senators
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, both New York Democrats, are routinely the second- and third-highest spenders for charter flights, according to the Senate data.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks during a Congressional Gold Medal award ceremony at the Capitol in Washington, Sept. 3, 2025. Photo: Christopher Kaufmann / U.S. Army photo via DVIDS / Public Domain
In 2024, Gillibrand spent about $270,000, and Schumer spent about $160,000.
They often use the flights to make multiple stops across their state, usually for public appearances and press conferences. For instance, Schumer’s flights last year coincided with events in which he discussed federal health care funding freezes, the impact of tariffs on businesses and efforts he opposed to eliminate clean energy tax credits, according to a review of his schedule.
The final destinations of the Schumer flights were sometimes Washington, D.C.
The senators spent even more money on flights in 2022 — a mid-term election year that featured a tighter-than-usual governor’s race and a strong Republican turnout. That year, Gillibrand spent about $350,000, which approached the amount Rounds spent.
Gillibrand and Schumer’s staff did not respond to requests to comment for this article.
Many of the destinations for both senators were larger New York cities with regular commercial flights available for hundreds of dollars. Instead, Schumer commissioned flights that typically cost between $7,000 and $10,000.
Gillibrand’s were about twice as expensive per trip, with many of them originating in Washington. The flights ranged in cost from about $15,000 to $19,000.
Gillibrand typically charters flights from Venture Jets, a Pennsylvania-based company. Schumer uses Flying Zebra in New York.
Most expensive flight
Former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, an Arizona independent, was a Top 5 spender for chartered flights in 2022 and 2023. She spent a comparable amount to Gillibrand in 2023, largely because of the most-expensive flight listed in Senate expenditure data in recent years.
Sinema and several members of her staff flew on a charter plane from Washington to the Grand Canyon, which is in her state, in August 2023 at a cost of about $50,000, the data show.
One-way direct flights from Washington to Flagstaff, Ariz., — near the Grand Canyon — can cost less than $200 per person, according to current commercial airline ticket prices.
On the day of her flight, she attended an event in which then-President Joe Biden signed a proclamation to protect more than 900,000 acres of land important to native Americans near Grand Canyon National Park. Sinema was a lead advocate of banning future uranium mining in the area.
Senate records indicate Sinema chartered further flights that day and the next to visit several other cities at an additional cost of $19,000. She did not respond to a request to comment for this article.
(Thérèse Boudreaux, The Center Square) Only 10 U.S. senators voted against the bipartisan housing bill that restricts large institutional investors from buying up single family homes and requires investors to sell build-to-rent homes within seven years.
Those lawmakers also each received tens or sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars in 2024 election-cycle campaign donations from groups whose profits could drop if the bill becomes law.
Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C.; Todd Young, R-Ind.; Mike Lee, R-Utah; Ted Cruz, R-Texas; Rick Scott, R-Fla.; Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii; Rand Paul, R-Ky.; Ted Budd, R-N.C.; Ron Johnson, R-Wis.; and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.; all opposed the 21st Century Road to Housing Act.
Their donors include private equity firms, large institutional investors in single family homes, organizations that develop build-to-rent communities, and companies that secure financing for those organizations.
Some senators also received funds from rental housing advocates who publicly opposed the housing bill due to its proposed restrictions.
Due to campaign financing rules, organizations themselves do not donate to the politicians. Instead, their political action committees and employees make the contributions.
Receiving campaign donations from a PAC does not prove that a lawmaker votes or acts according to donor interests. All data is pulled from political donation tracker OpenSecrets.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C.:
Tillis’ donor profile shows he received at least $468,916 in campaign contributions from large institutional investors and other interested parties.
His top donor was Blackstone Group, one of the most prominent players in the single-family home rental market. Capital Group Companies, Koch Inc., Rock Holdings, and other organizations donated as well.
Tillis did not respond to The Center Square’s request for comment.
Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind.:
Young received at least $291,755 including from large institutional investors Capital Group Companies and KKR &Co. Multiple advocacy groups that oppose the housing bill’s build-to-rent restrictions, such as the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (Nareit), also made donations.
A spokesperson for Young told The Center Square that Young’s vote was not influenced by those donations, but rather “was based on additional changes he hopes can be made to the package to address the clear barriers to building more housing, including encouraging localities to look critically at burdensome zoning regulations.”
Lee received at least $159,459 from potentially impacted organizations, including Blackstone, KKR &Co., and Koch Inc.
A spokesperson for Lee said that the senator “votes according to his own convictions – in this case, because the bill expanded HUD programs eliminated in previous budget requests by President Trump, directed taxpayer dollars to progressive advocacy networks, pushed the federal government further into local zoning and land-use decisions, and failed to deliver the extensive reforms federal public housing programs require.”
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas:
Cruz received at least $145,752 from large institutional investors and other potentially impacted parties, including Maury L Carter & Associates, KKR &Co., Blackstone.
In a statement to The Center Square, Cruz laid out multiple reasons why he voted against the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, including zoning changes in the bill and the impact he thinks the build-to-rent restrictions could have on housing supply.
“Lowering housing costs for all Americans is a priority for this Republican Congress, but this bill fell far short of that goal. Although this legislation prevents the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC), it only pauses the development until December 31, 2030. My Anti-CBDC Act takes the correct approach by permanently prohibiting the Federal Reserve from ever issuing a CBDC, directly or indirectly. I agree with President Trump that large banks should not be buying single-family homes. Unfortunately, this legislation goes beyond that principle and restricts those hoping to build new rental housing for Americans by requiring build-to-rent homes to be sold within seven years. Restricting the supply of newly built rental units should not be enshrined in law,” Cruz said.
“Additionally, giving the Department of Housing and Urban Development authority to develop zoning and land-use frameworks raises serious concerns. Washington bureaucrats should not dictate zoning decisions for local communities like my hometown of Houston,” Cruz added. “The bill also risked giving a future Democratic administration the ability to impose policies like a rent moratorium by granting the Treasury Secretary broad authority to rewrite key provisions through the regulatory state. I remain optimistic that House Financial Services Chairman French Hill can address these significant concerns through the conference process. I look forward to working toward a final product that actually makes housing more affordable for all Americans instead of expanding the government’s authority to regulate who buys homes.”
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla.:
Scott received at least $135,795 from organizations involved in the build-to-rent sector, including Koch Inc. and Blackstone.
Scott did not respond to The Center Square’s request for comment.
In early March, he introduced a bill that would create untaxed savings accounts for Americans saving up for a down payment on their first home.
Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii:
Schatz received at least $131,500 from organizations that oppose the bill due to its build-to-rent provisions, including the Mortgage Bankers Association, as well as Rock Holdings.
Schatz did not respond to The Center Square’s request for comment.
Schatz had previously told lawmakers that the institutional investor provisions would “demonize people who want to build rental housing for folks.”
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.:
Paul received at least $89,028 from organizations that could suffer adverse impacts from the bill’s build-to-rent restrictions.
Paul did not respond to The Center Square’s request for comment.
In a March social media article, Paul said the bill was equivalent to “the surrender of property and contract rights.”
Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C.:
Budd received at least $83,525 from interested or potentially impacted groups, including Blackstone, Koch Inc., and the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Budd did not respond to The Center Square’s request for comment.
He introduced a bill in February that would widen eligibility requirements for the federal Home Investment Partnerships (HOME) Program.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.:
Johnson received at least $81,662 from institutional investors, including Rock Holdings and Koch Inc.
A spokeswoman for Johnson told The Center Square that “Neither the Senator nor anyone in his office was contacted by those donors.”
“His vote was not influenced by those donations or donors. He voted against the bill for several reasons – many of them laid out in the WSJ column cited below,” she added. “The Senator does not like the government imposing itself into the marketplace and artificially reducing the demand, the number of buyers, and the price homeowners can obtain when they sell their homes.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.:
Tuberville received at least $48,650 in contributions from real estate investment groups that might be adversely impacted by the legislation, including Jim Wilson & Associates.
He did not respond to The Center Square’s request for comment.
Tuberville had previously explained that his ‘no’ vote on the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act was not because he opposed the bill, but because he believed the Senate should focus on passing the SAVE America Act – an unrelated Republican voter ID bill – before addressing issues like housing.
What about House lawmakers?
The U.S. House has yet to take up the Senate-passed legislation, but cautionary comments from lawmakers like Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., and Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., indicate the bill will face a tough crowd in the lower chamber.
(José Niño,Headline USA) A Miami Beach woman has filed a federal lawsuit against the city, its mayor, and police chief, claiming her First Amendment rights were violated after officers visited her home following a social media post critical of city leadership, according to a report by CBS News.
Raquel Pacheco, an Army National Guard veteran and activist, alleges that city leaders and law enforcement retaliated against her and discriminated against her viewpoint after she posted a critical comment on Facebook about Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner. She says the post led to officers showing up at her door.
“I think this is a tremendous opportunity for us to set a precedent that puts an end to abuse of power and attack on civil liberties of residents by both the mayor and law enforcement,” Pacheco stated.
According to thelawsuit filed last Monday, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, the incidents began with Pacheco’s criticism of Mayor Meiner’s public support for Israel and his alleged discriminatory behavior toward Palestinians and the LGBTQ community.
On January 12, 2026, Miami Beach police officers visited Pacheco’s home, interrogated her about her Facebook posts, and instructed her to “refrain from posting things like that.”
Pacheco alleges this visit was intended to intimidate her and suppress her constitutionally protected speech. She claims the incident caused her to refrain from posting further criticisms out of fear of retaliation.
In her lawsuit, Pacheco claims the mayor, police chief, and other city leaders targeted her for a negative Facebook comment in which she claimed the mayor called for the death of Palestinians. She believes her post was singled out and prompted the police response.
According to CBS, Mayor Steven Meinerpreviously stated he sent the comment to the Chief, which he commonly does with what he deems hate speech at the request of the Chief.
Pacheco documented the encounter and shared it on Facebook, including video of officers asking whether the account belonged to her.
Responding to the lawsuit, Meiner said the filing contains inaccuracies and suggested the statements at issue could be defamatory.
“We will defend the right for every person of every background to live freely here in Miami Beach and certainly for our Jewish community,” Meiner stated.
Pacheco said her lawsuit is aimed at preventing similar incidents from happening to others.
“I want to make sure that this doesn’t continue, this isn’t a pattern, and that other people, other residents don’t fall victim to this,” she stated.
The complaint also highlights a broader pattern of alleged viewpoint discrimination by Miami Beach officials. It accuses the city of enacting ordinances and policies that suppress pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli viewpoints, such as an anti-protest ordinance and a ban on contracting with entities that boycott Israel. Additionally, the complaint describes incidents at city commission meetings where officials interrupted and criticized speakers who expressed pro-Palestinian views while allowing pro-Israeli comments to proceed uninterrupted.
Pacheco further alleges that commissioners Tanya Katzoff Bhatt and David Suarez blocked her from their official Facebook accounts, preventing her from engaging in public discourse and accessing information about government activities. The complaint argues this constitutes viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment.
The lawsuit names the City of Miami Beach, Mayor Steven Meiner, commissioners David Suarez and Tanya Katzoff Bhatt, Police Chief Wayne A. Jones, City Manager Eric Carpenter, and two unnamed police detectives as defendants.
The plaintiff seeks declaratory and injunctive relief to prevent further violations of her rights, compensatory damages for distress and reputational harm, and attorneys’ fees. The complaint emphasizes that “the government may not single out certain politically controversial viewpoints for punishment or suppression” and that political speech is entitled to the highest level of First Amendment protection.
(Headline USA) Shawn Harris, a farmer and retired Army general, is running to replace conservative firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene, who resigned in January after a falling-out with President Donald Trump. He’s up against Republican candidate Clay Fuller, a district attorney, and faces slim chances in a runoff on April 7.
But as early voting begins on Monday, some Democrats are still feeling hopeful after their party performed better than expected in recent special elections leading up to the November midterms, which will determine control of Congress.
Harris is testing the limits of that theory with his second campaign for Georgia’s 14th District, banking that nationwide Democratic enthusiasm and simmering discontent with Trump could help him defy political gravity.
Republicans doubt Harris’ chances
Harris finished first on the ballot in the March 10 election. But while he was the best-known Democrat, Republicans split their vote among several candidates. Consultants from both parties caution against extrapolating too much from special elections with limited turnout.
“It’s just too solid a red district,” said conservative commentator and former state Rep. Buzz Brockway. “But it might be closer than it should.”
Jay Morgan, former executive director of the Georgia Republican Party, said, if anything, the district could become even redder, and he described Fuller as “central casting.”
“You have a guy who’s a stand-up law enforcement guy who is an extremely attractive candidate,” he said. “To have somebody like that follow Marjorie Taylor Greene is just a huge boost for the party.”
Many Republicans were relieved to see Fuller make it to the runoff over former state Sen. Colton Moore, the brasher, more controversial far-right candidate whose style mirrors Greene’s.
”The people of Northwest Georgia stand with President Trump and Clay Fuller,” Fuller campaign manager Dabriel Graham said.
Floyd County Democratic Chair Vincent Mendes works as a chiropractor and said many of his Republican patients are considering voting for Harris. He believes Harris has a shot because the district is “tired of being a talking point.”
“We’re ready for real representation,” Mendes said. “We had somebody who was mostly interested in chasing headlines for years.”
Georgia Democratic Party Chair Charlie Bailey hopes that excitement will lift candidates across the state in the midterms, especially as Republicans attempt to oust Sen. Jon Ossoff.
“This race is critical for Georgia’s 14th District, but it’s even bigger than that,” Bailey said. “Shawn is building momentum right now that will keep growing all the way through November, boosting Democrats at every level of the ticket in North Georgia and beyond.”
(Bethany Blankley, The Center Square) Five years into Texas’ border security mission Operation Lone Star, law enforcement efforts in South Texas have become so successful that transnational criminal organizations are moving stolen vehicles and equipment south out of Texas to Mexico and using shipping containers to transport people across the Gulf of America to other states, OLS officials said.
Although southwest illegal border crossings have dropped by 95% in the first year of the Trump administration, OLS 2.0 is ongoing, with law enforcement targeting transnational crime. And in Jackson County, roughly two hours south of Houston, they’re getting caught.
OLS has become so effective that instead of cartel operatives moving large groups of people north into the U.S. through Texas, they’re using shipping containers to go around Texas and cross the Gulf, OLS participants told The Center Square.
“They’re doing that instead of getting caught in the OLS net on I-59. Our operations have saturated the highways,” Jackson County Sheriff Rick Boone told The Center Square in an exclusive interview.
Jackson County Sheriff’s Office is a founding member of an OLS Task Force led by Goliad County Sheriff Roy Boyd. If OLS funds stop and task force operations don’t continue, illegal traffic “is coming right back,” Boone said.
“Proactively hitting hotspots as heavily as we have has really paid off. When we started OLS, we began saturating routes like Highway 59. Then we pushed the illegal traffic to I-10 and then we saturated that area. Then we pushed the illegal traffic further north where they were going into Dallas. Then we formed additional OLS partnerships in new regions and saturated those areas. Then we pushed them as far west as the state of Arizona to the point where law enforcement wanted to come down and see what we were doing so they could do the same thing.
“Every day the cartels are looking for a route or a hole to get through to get here,” he said. “That hasn’t stopped. They’ve just morphed into different ways to move their product, and that’s people, drugs, cash, weapons, stolen vehicles and other contraband.”
One OLS Task Force member, JCSO Criminal Interdiction Deputy Jorge Franco, is actively working to stop them. He’s well-skilled at finding stolen license plates, vehicles, equipment, tools and has an instinct for catching thieves, Boone and others have told The Center Square. His position is fully funded by OLS.
One night, Franco made a major bust. He noticed a semi-truck driver hauling five stacked chassis on a trailer. Most in law enforcement may not think twice about the haul, but because of OLS training, Franco suspected theft and he was right, officials said. He also uncovered something bigger.
The driver was a Guatemalan national with a California commercial driver’s license who spoke broken English. Franco, fluent in Spanish, learned he’d flown into Phoenix and then drove to Houston where he switched vehicles. He then picked up the 18-wheeler and stacked chassis and drove south. Franco said he used resources he already had to recover other stolen vehicles and discovered the chassis were stolen from the Houston Shipyard.
The shipyard’s security team determined “not only were all of those stolen but they realized they were missing hundreds more, up to 600 trailers that were either missing or stolen,” Boone said. The five chassis would transport five shipping containers that could fit hundreds of people inside. It’s unknown how many lives Franco saved, Boone said.
An OLS DPS trooper working in the Rio Grande Valley has made a similar bust as has another OLS Task Force member in another county, The Center Square has learned. Border Patrol in Corpus Christi have confirmed a new trend: cartel operatives are using shipping containers and equipment stolen in the U.S. and elsewhere to ship foreign nationals and stolen goods from Mexico across the Gulf.
“That is why they are stealing the chassis trailers. That is the only reason a truck would be hauling that many, to use for shipping containers,” Franco said.
Once the cartels get the equipment to a port, “they put people, vehicles other items in a shipping container and ship them out,” Franco said. “The cars are stacked and shipped to Africa and the East Coast. People are being shipped across the Gulf to ports in Florida and elsewhere.”
“Most of the chassis and trailers are in terrible condition,” he said. “They’d been stored in a lot to be fixed up and most of the time the owners don’t even know they were stolen.”
Franco is working with multiple agencies on interdiction efforts from Dallas to Brownsville, targeting transnational crime. OLS Task Force sheriffs say this wouldn’t be possible without OLS funding.
“Crime is never going to stop,” Franco said. A task force member jurisdiction has recently been hit hard with several shootings and requested help. OLS Task Force members responded. “We multiple our forces. It helps other agencies that are struggling,” he said. “When we come together, we take our expertise to different areas of investigations. We bring the best of the best to wherever we are.”
The sheriff’s office impounded the truck, named “El Chapo,” after the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel kingpin, who is now incarcerated in the U.S. The Guatemalan driver was arrested and faces several charges.
He didn’t know the chassis were stolen and headed to Mexico, Franco said. Instead, he got arrested and ended up in the Jackson County Jail.
(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) The Pentagon is preparing for “weeks” of ground operations in Iran, The Washington Post has reported, citing unnamed US officials, as thousands more US troops have arrived in the Middle East in recent days.
Any potential US ground operations would mean a major escalation of the war and would likely result in significant US casualties as American forces would face significant Iranian missile and drone fire, and Iranian media is reporting that Iran is mobilizing one million soldiers to face any ground invasion.
The Post report said that any US ground operations would stop short of a full-scale invasion, which would require hundreds of thousands of troops, but could involve raids that involve a mix of special operations forces and conventional ground troops that would target Iranian islands or strategic areas along the coast.
US Marines conduct a live fire deck shoot aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli in the Philippine Sea on March 16, 2026 (US Marine Corps photo)
Sources told the Post that the options on the table include seizing Kharg Island, a major export hub for Iran’s oil that’s located deep inside the Persian Gulf, or raids in other coastal areas near the Strait of Hormuz to destroy weapons that can target shipping. Other reports have said the US is considering a special operations raid to capture Iran’s stockpile of uranium that’s enriched to 60%, though it’s believed to be buried under rubble following the June 2025 US airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
One official speaking to the Post said the objectives could take “weeks, not months,” to achieve, while another source put the potential timeline at a “couple of months.” But all signs indicate that if the US escalates the war to include ground operations, the conflict could become open-ended and last many months or even years.
Polling has shown that the idea of sending US troops into Iran is extremely unpopular among Americans, though the Trump administration continues to plan for the possibility. US Central Command said on Saturday that an additional 3,500 US troops, including 2,500 Marines, have arrived on US warships in the region.
A second Marine Expeditionary Unit is also on its way to the region, and at least 1,000 US Army Airborne troops are also expected to be deployed. The White House said in response to the Post report that the preparations for potential ground operations does not mean President Trump “has made a decision.”
(Bethany Blankley, The Center Square) Congress’ failure to reach an agreement to continue funding the Department of Homeland is not only impacting TSA workers, it’s also impacting local law enforcement agencies that rely on federal grants.
Texas law enforcement officials argue that state lawmakers cannot rely on federal money and a long-term approach is needed to fund ongoing border security operations.
DHS has experienced a partial shutdown since Feb. 14, with Democrats expressing outrage over how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations were run under former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. Multiple agencies are impacted, including the Coast Guard, TSA, FEMA, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Secret Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Although March 28 marks day 46 for many DHS employees not receiving a paycheck, Border Patrol and ICE agents are still being paid due to provisions in the “Big Beautiful Bill” signed into law by President Donald Trump last July.
In Texas, TSA agents have been selling blood plasma to make ends meet, and major airports are operating with nearly 50% fewer TSA agents, The Center Square reported.
Lack of federal funding is also impacting Texas law enforcement agencies that receive federal grants. They include port security, emergency preparedness and response, cybersecurity, ICE 287(g) programs and Operation Stonegarden, a vital resource for Texas border sheriffs.
Texas law enforcement officers are entering their fifth year in Texas’ border security mission, Operation Lone Star, and the fourth year of a multiagency OLS Task Force initiative.
Due to a stipulation with the state’s OLS grant, recipients are required to use federal grants before they use OLS grants. But when federal grant money doesn’t come in, as it hasn’t for some in this case, OLS funds are used, and they’re already gone for some.
Several Texas sheriffs have received emails stating their federal grant funding is being held up because of the partial DHS shutdown, including Jackson County Sheriff Rick Boone.
“I was wondering when we are going to see the ripple effect. Here it is,” he told The Center Square.
With no Stonegarden funds and no more OLS funds, Boone says his OLS deputies won’t be able to work overtime or prioritize interdiction. ICE 287(g) funds for those participating in all three programs also haven’t come in. Terrell County Sherriff Thad Cleveland says he hasn’t received his 287(g) funds. Lavaca County Sheriff Steve Greenwell said the previous shutdown impacted his grant funding. The sheriffs are OLS Task Force members.
In Kinney County, Sheriff Brad Coe had to let three deputies go to fund jail and transportation costs due to lack of OLS funding, The Center Square reported.
With the Texas Department of Criminal Justice no longer housing OLS arrests and limited or no OLS funds, sheriffs find themselves “between a rock and hard place,” they told The Center Square. A lack of federal funds exacerbates the issue.
Part of the problem is the state legislature’s and Congress’ “lack an understanding of the nature of the criminal justice system and what we do,” Goliad County Sheriff Roy Boyd told The Center Square.
“We are fortunate because Gov. Greg Abbott has sustained funding. But you can’t fund operations for short periods of time and then quit funding. If that happens, we will never be able to complete investigations and tasks we set out to complete that we’ve encountered as a result of the OLS initiative. You can’t sporadically fund programs and turn them off. This doesn’t help law enforcement fight crime.”
“Political decisions have real world implications for people out in the field doing the work,” he added. In 2020, the sheriff’s office handled 8,888 calls a year. In 2025, it handled 15,739 calls. “We almost doubled our call volume from 2020 to 2025 and we’re not getting additional manpower,” he said.
If OLS funding were to dry up, Boyd said he’d lose one-third of his deputies and their criminal investigations and multijurisdictional operations would be grounded to a halt.
“It doesn’t matter whether the numbers drop at the border,” he added. “We still have cartel presence throughout Texas and the United States. There’s still a lot of work to be done. There are still tens of millions of illegal aliens that are beholden to the cartels that are that are here. The only way for us to dismantle the cartel business model is to make a long hard push and that could take years.
“The cartel has people in every community. It doesn’t matter how small. It doesn’t matter how large. They’re still selling drugs like they’ve always sold drugs. Our interdiction efforts are still ongoing. Our intelligence efforts are still ongoing. Ongoing funds are needed to fund staff and resources to sustain this operation.”
Brooks County Sheriff Benny Martinez told The Center Square, “We like to work. We aren’t politicians. We know what’s in the best interest of defending the rule of law regardless of the politics and we cannot lose that.”
“We are looking at saving generations down the road: protecting them from drug and sex trafficking. The norm of society is changing but the rule of law doesn’t change. We need support to continue combatting crime and enforcing the rule of law.”
(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) At least 15 US troops were wounded by an Iranian attack on the Prince Sultan air base in Saudi Arabia on Friday, The Associated Press has reported.
Sources told the AP that the attack involved Iran firing six ballistic missiles and 29 drones at the base, which is about 60 miles southeast of Riyadh. Five of the US troops who were wounded are in serious condition.
Several US military refueling aircraft were also damaged in the attack, and a photo from the base verified by the BBC shows that an E-3 Sentry aircraft was split in half. So far, US Central Command hasn’t issued any statements about the attack.
The AP report said that the number of US troops injured in the war since it was launched by the US and Israel on February 28 is now over 300. At least 13 US troops have been confirmed killed by the Pentagon, including one who was killed by an earlier attack on the Prince Sultan base.
Despite the weeks of heavy US-Israeli strikes on Iran, Iranian attacks continue to make it past US and Israeli air defenses. According to a report from The New York Times, the majority of US bases in the Middle East are now basically uninhabitable due to the Iranian strikes.
