(Andrew Rice, The Center Square) The U.S. military is prepared to strike Iran’s energy infrastructure if it does not agree to a peace deal, War Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday.
“If Iran chooses poorly, they will have a blockade and bombs dropping on infrastructure, power and energy,” Hegseth said.
Hegseth spoke to reporters alongside chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine and Admiral Brad Cooper with an update on the U.S. blockade in the Strait of Hormuz as negotiators settle on a peace deal.
The U.S. blockade on Iranian ports went into effect on Monday. Caine said more than 10,000 sailors marines, and airmen using ships, planes and helicopters are enforcing the blockade.
The military fires warning shots to any vessel that approaches the blockade and leaves open the possibility that ships could be boarded. So far, no ship has been boarded by the U.S. military. U.S. forces have turned away 13 vessels as part of the blockade, Caine said.
“Any ship that would cross the blockade would result in our sailors executing pre-planned tactics designed to bring the force to that ship, if need be, board the ship and and take her over,” Caine said.
Hegseth issued a warning to Iran during the news conference. He criticized the Islamic Republic for having degraded military capabilities.
“You have no defense industry, no ability to replenish your offensive or defensive capabilities. You only have what you have. You know that. And we know that you can move things around, but you can’t actually rebuild. You can dig out for now, but you can’t reconstitute. But we can,” he said.
Caine clarified that the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz is only targeted to ships entering or exiting Iranian ports, regardless of nationality.
“The U.S. action is a blockade of Iran’s coastline, not a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz,” Caine said.
Hegseth called on allied nations in Europe and Asia to aid the U.S. in its blockade on Iranian ports. He did not name a specific nation. Hegseth and President Donald Trump have been critical of the United Kingdom and France for not providing military support in the conflict.
“We should live in a world where other countries can defend waterways, not just the United States Navy,” Hegseth said. “Other allies need to invest in their capabilities so they can project power and do basic tasks like clearing a strait.”
(Headline USA).Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, a rising star in the Democratic Party before his career was derailed by sexual assault allegations several years ago, killed his wife before killing himself, police said Thursday.
Fairfax, 47, and his wife, Dr. Cerina Fairfax, 49, were found dead in their home in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Annandale after their teenage son called 911 shortly after midnight, Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said.
The couple were separated and going through a divorce but living in the same house with their two children, who were home when the shootings occurred, he said. A court filing said the couple separated in 2024 and filed for divorce last year.
Justin Fairfax was served recently with paperwork telling him when next to appear in court, Davis said. In January, officers went to the home after Justin Fairfax alleged that his wife had assaulted him, he said.
“Apparently, Mrs. Fairfax, at some point during these divorce proceedings, set up a lot of cameras inside the home. We reviewed those cameras, and we corroborated that the alleged assault never occurred,” Davis said.
The couple, who met as undergraduates at Duke University, had been married since 2006. Cerina Fairfax ran a family dentistry practice. After graduating from Duke, she attended the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Dentistry, which honored her in 2015 as its most outstanding alumna of the last decade.
A profile page on her dental practice’s website described her as an avid reader who liked to travel, practice yoga, go on trail runs with her Vizsla-breed dogs, and “spend time with her wonderful family.”
“It’s very sad for this community,” Davis said. “A lot of people who know the Fairfax family, everybody’s shocked. We’re shocked.”
For a brief period in 2019, Justin Fairfax seemed poised to become Virginia’s second Black governor as Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam became engulfed in a scandal over a racist photo in his medical school yearbook that led to calls for his resignation.
But then two women came forward accusing Fairfax of sexually assaulting them years earlier. He adamantly denied the allegations and was never charged.
Vanessa Tyson said Fairfax — at the time a Columbia Law School student serving as an aide to Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards — forced her to perform oral sex in his hotel room during the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2004. Two days after Tyson’s statement, Meredith Watson issued her own, accusing Fairfax of raping her in 2000, when they were students at Duke University.
The Associated Press generally doesn’t name people who say they are victims of sexual assault, but both women came forward publicly. Fairfax said the encounters were consensual and refused calls to resign. Fairfax later tried to run for governor in 2021, some said to clear his name, but was largely shunned by Virginia Democrats.
Fairfax said he believed voters would see through what he described as a smear campaign against him. But he was defeated in the Democratic primary.
Court filings show that Fairfax had financial challenges following the sexual assault allegations, which prompted his resignation as a partner at a prestigious law firm. The IRS filed a lien against the couple for more than $91,000 in unpaid taxes that was resolved in 2021.
A former federal prosecutor and civil litigator, Fairfax first unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for attorney general in 2013, then won the race for lieutenant governor in 2017.
The deaths stunned political leaders throughout the state.
“We are keeping Cerina and Justin Fairfax’s family — especially their two children — in our prayers as we all process this shocking and horrifying news,” Virginia’s Democratic U.S. senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, said in a joint statement.
Fairfax had served as co-chair for Warner’s 2014 reelection campaign.
Ghazala Hashmi, Virginia’s current lieutenant governor, called the deaths devastating.
“My thoughts are with their children, loved ones, and numerous friends,” Hashmi said in a statement. “Along with so many in the Commonwealth, I am filled with sorrow; I await further insights from our law enforcement officials.”
(Mike Maharrey, Money Metals News Service) The silver’s supply deficit finally caught up with it in 2025.
Late last year, the price surged above the $50 resistance that had been in place since the 1980s. The rally continued into the first month of 2026, as the silver price rocketed to over $100 per ounce before correcting and settling in the $80 range.
As Metals Focus explained in its World Silver Survey, “Lower inventories and metal being pulled out of London or tied up in exchange-traded products (ETPs) created explosive conditions for lease rates and prices. Against that backdrop, silver delivered a remarkable year.”
The speed of the rally was truly astonishing. In fact, silver languished most of the year as gold took the spotlight.
Silver opened 2025 at $28.84 and didn’t crack $40 until September. When the year ended, the price sat at $71.30. At its peak, silver was up 147 percent intra-year. The average price came in at $40, a 42 percent increase.
While gold hogged the spotlight through most of the year, silver stole the show at the end. According to Metals Focus, several factors converged to drive the rally.
“Exceptionally strong physical demand, tight inventories, and robust industrial metal prices, copper in particular, fueled silver’s outperformance of gold during that period. This trend eventually became self-fulfilling, as investors that had previously favored gold shifted their attention to the white metal.”
We can see the trajectory of the silver rally in the movement of the gold-silver ratio. This ratio tells you how many ounces of silver it takes to buy one ounce of gold, given the current spot price of both metals.
In the modern era, the gold-silver ratio has averaged between 40:1 and 60:1. Through the first 10 months of 2025, the gold-silver ratio was historically high, averaging 91:1. The ratio peaked in April at 107:1. By the end of the year, the ratio had plunged to 61:1 before falling into the sub-50s early this year. This indicates a significant correction in the silver price.
A convergence of factors from market dynamics to logistical problems led to an unprecedented silver shortage. While the market dynamics that got us here might be difficult to untangle, the situation is about as basic as it gets.
There’s not enough silver.
The silver market recorded a supply deficit for the fifth consecutive year in 2026.
Last year, demand outstripped supply by 40.2 million ounces (1,252 tonnes). That drove the 5-year market deficit to 716 million ounces. To put that into perspective, total silver mining output last year was 846 million ounces.
Metals Focus forecasts a 46.3-million-ounce supply deficit this year.
Before this string of successive market deficits, there was a cumulative above-ground stock rise of 243 million ounces between 2010 and 2020. Taken together, there has been a stock rundown of around 473 million ounces in the last 15 years.
A Silver Squeeze
When silver demand outstrips mining and recycling output, silver users must tap into aboveground stocks. That generally means rising prices to incentivize those holding silver to give it up.
As Metals Focus explained, that’s exactly what happened last fall.
“Against this backdrop, shifts in inventories into CME vaults, rising ETP holdings, and a spike in physical demand created an unprecedented liquidity squeeze in October.”
The stage was set for a silver squeeze in the spring of 2025 as Trump began levying tariffs. Worries that silver would get caught up in the tariff net drove a massive movement of silver from London to Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) vaults in New York.
As silver streamed into the U.S., CME silver holdings eclipsed the record set during the pandemic at 531 million ounces.
Much of the silver remaining in London vaults was already committed to ETFs. That left very little “free float” metal to provide liquidity to the London market. According to Metals Focus, the share of London silver stocks, not allocated to ETPs, fell to just 17 percent by the end of September 2025.
A surge in Indian silver demand last fall was the pin that popped the bubble. As Indian consumers began to pivot toward silver, the price premium began to rise. Typically, Indian prices run a few cents higher than global averages, but that spread began to grow. It was slow at first – from a few cents to 50 cents. And then to a dollar. And then above a dollar. At the peak of the squeeze, premiums rose as high as $5 an ounce.
Initially, Indian buyers were primarily sourcing silver from Hong Kong, but they reportedly shifted more toward London during the Chinese Golden Week Holiday in the first week of October.
But London vaults were already tapped out.
As the squeeze intensified, silver lease rates exceeded 200 percent, reflecting the strain in the market.
Metal has flowed back into London vaults, easing the strain for the time being. However, the fundamental dynamic has not changed. There is still a shortage of metal. And unlike fiat currency, governments can’t just print silver.
Metals Focus calls this “the crucial point.”
“The market has clearly entered an era of reduced stocks. Tightness will not be constant, but liquidity will generally be thinner, lease rates more volatile and price moves likely to be larger than investors have grown used to. With deficits set to remain in place, however, it is unlikely that we will see a return to the previous status quo any time soon.”
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.
(Money Metals News Service) Yesterday was Tax Day. It’s a source of misery for many of us as we write a big check to the IRS. But did you know the IRS isn’t the source of your biggest tax bill? In fact, you don’t even get a bill. You just pay the tax every time you buy something.
No, I’m not talking about the sales tax. I’m referring to the inflation tax.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen. Inflation is a tax.
When the government spends far more than it takes in, it has to borrow money. To support the borrowing, the Federal Reserve runs quantitative easing operations, buying Treasuries with money created out of thin air. This creates artificial demand for U.S. debt, suppressing interest rates and allowing the government to borrow more than it otherwise could.
You get goodies, and the government avoids raising taxes.
It’s a win-win, right?
Except you’re still paying taxes, you just don’t see it as clearly.
When the Fed creates money out of thin air and injects it into the economy, it drives price inflation.
The COVID Inflation Tax
Remember all those stimmy checks during the pandemic? Uncle Sam handed out some $930 billion in stimulus to individuals with three rounds of stimmy checks in 2020 and 2021. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve expanded its balance sheet by nearly $5 trillion.
You’re still paying for that stimulus today.
The thing about inflation is it’s cumulative. It creeps up gradually – a few tenths of a percent this month, a few tenths of a percent the next. It can almost seem like no big deal, but it adds up.
Since January 2021, price inflation is up between 23.6 percent and 27.1 percent, depending on which metric you choose to use.
To put it another way, the government has stolen around a quarter of your purchasing power in just five years.
It’s actually worse than that because every one of these metrics understates inflation.
The government revised the CPI formula in the 1990s so that it understated the actual rise in prices. Based on the formula used in the 1970s, CPI is closer to double the official numbers. So, if the BLS used the old formula, we’d be looking at CPI closer to 50 percent. And using an honest formula, it would probably be worse than that.
The good news is your earnings are also impacted by inflation. The bad news is that wage inflation typically lags price inflation, so you are constantly playing catch-up. As consumers wait for their wages to catch up to prices, they’re forced to rely on savings and credit cards.
According to Federal Reserve data, average hourly earnings rose 24.9 percent in that same period. Based on the CPI data, even with that hefty raise, you’re just treading water. And when you consider that the CPI is understating price increases, you’re losing ground fast.
This underscores a couple of realities you should keep in mind.
Nothing the government does for you is free. You and your children are going to pay – either through direct taxation or the inflation tax.
Even in the best of times, you’re paying the inflation tax. Keep in mind that the government’s stated plan is to devalue your money by a little more than 10 percent every five years.
This is why it’s crucial to save in real money. As the inflation tax rises, so does the price of gold and silver. It protects your wealth from the insidious debasement that is part and parcel to this fiat system.
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.
(Money Metals News Service) Mike Maharrey’s latest Money Metals Midweek Memo zeroed in on two big themes with major implications for sound money investors.
Second, the silver market could be heading into even tighter supply conditions as a new disruption tied to China threatens copper production and, by extension, silver output.
The result was an episode that tied together history, monetary policy, and today’s metals markets in a way that made the stakes feel immediate.
Maharrey’s central argument was simple.
Physical metal still matters, and the flaws in the fiat system become easier to see when you look closely at what the United States actually holds in reserve and what is happening in global silver supply chains.
Most of Fort Knox Gold May Be “Non-Standard”
Maharrey opened with a colorful analogy, comparing the difference between beer league hockey and the NHL to the difference between lower-purity gold and true investment-grade metal. Gold may be gold, but not all gold is created equal when it comes to reserve quality.
He explained that 24-karat gold is essentially pure, generally .990 fine or higher in the United States. By contrast, 22-karat gold is 91.6% pure, and 14-karat gold is only 58.3% gold.
That matters because while lower-purity gold may work well in jewelry, reserve gold intended for international settlements is expected to meet much stricter standards.
According to Maharrey, that is where the United States has a problem.
Officially, U.S. gold reserves total 8,133.5 metric tons, or about 261.5 million troy ounces, the largest national gold stockpile in the world. About 147.3 million ounces are reportedly stored at Fort Knox, with the rest held at the Denver Mint, the West Point Bullion Depository in New York, and the Federal Reserve vault in New York City.
But much of that metal, especially at Fort Knox, reportedly consists of non-standard bars that would not qualify for use in modern international settlements.
Maharrey noted that the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) requires a minimum fineness of .995 for acceptable good-delivery bars, with the global market increasingly favoring .999 fine gold.
Based on documents released during a 2011 House Committee on Financial Services hearing, Maharrey said only about 17% of the gold bars at Fort Knox meet that modern standard. He cited a breakdown showing that 64% of the bars fall between .899 and .901 fineness, 2% fall between .9011 and .9154, 17% fall between .9155 and .917, and only the final 17% are .995 or higher.
That would put the average fineness of U.S. gold reserves at .9167, or 91.67% pure. In other words, much of America’s reserve gold is closer to 22-karat gold than the high-purity bullion expected in today’s global market. Maharrey’s point was not that the gold is fake, but that much of it may be illiquid or impractical in an international settlement context without refining.
The Fort Knox Audit Problem
The bigger issue, Maharrey argued, is that Americans still do not really know what is in Fort Knox with any confidence. He stressed that U.S. gold holdings have not been properly audited since at least the 1970s.
He dismissed the famous 1974 Fort Knox event as a media spectacle, not a real audit. During that exercise, the Treasury opened only 1 of the depository’s 15 vault compartments for politicians and reporters. Maharrey pointed out that none of the bars shown were matched to serial numbers, assayed for purity, or verified against a full inventory.
He also criticized subsequent Treasury reviews for failing to meet normal accounting standards. In his telling, there is no complete public record of comprehensive assaying, weighing, or transactional history. That last point is critical because even if the gold is physically present, the public still would not know whether some of it has been leased, loaned, or otherwise encumbered.
Maharrey mentioned legislation introduced by Senator Mike Lee, along with a House companion bill from Representative Thomas Massie, that would require a full audit of U.S. gold reserves and an accounting of any transactions involving that gold. The measure would also require non-standard bars to be refined so they meet modern international standards.
Why the U.S. Holds Lower-Purity Gold
Maharrey traced the problem back to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Executive Order 6102, signed on April 5, 1933. That order effectively made most private gold ownership illegal and pushed gold out of private hands and into government control.
Americans who turned in their gold were paid $20.67 per ounce. But Maharrey noted that Roosevelt then revalued gold to $35 per ounce six months later, effectively devaluing the dollar by about 40%.
In his view, this was a pivotal step in allowing the government to expand the money supply beyond what the old gold standard had permitted.
Much of the gold taken in during that period came in the form of circulating U.S. gold coins, which were typically 90% pure. Once private ownership and redemption were curtailed, the government melted those coins into bars.
According to Maharrey, that is why so much of the gold now associated with Fort Knox is lower-purity “coin gold” rather than high-grade bullion.
That history matters because it shows how America’s reserve gold became a relic of the old monetary order. Maharrey argued that the metal composition inside Fort Knox reflects the transition from a gold-backed system, where gold flowed in and out of the banking system, to a fiat system where dollars can be created without hard restraint.
China’s Sulfuric Acid Move Could Hit Silver Supply
In the second half of the episode, Maharrey turned to silver and flagged a development he believes could worsen an already tight market. Chinese officials have reportedly indicated they will stop exporting sulfuric acid beginning in May, and the restriction could last through the rest of 2026.
That matters because sulfuric acid is a key input in copper mining. If copper production slows because miners cannot get enough sulfuric acid or face sharply higher costs, silver output could suffer as well. Maharrey emphasized that about 70% of the annual silver mine supply comes as a byproduct of copper production.
He connected the sulfuric acid issue to broader geopolitical disruption involving Iran and shipping constraints through the Strait of Hormuz.
The Middle East produces about one-third of the world’s sulfur, and Maharrey said the resulting squeeze has already sent sulfuric acid prices surging.
In Chile, the world’s top copper producer, prices have reportedly jumped 44% in the past month. Chile also buys about 1 million tons of sulfuric acid from China each year.
Silver Deficits Keep Building
Maharrey argued that this new supply threat is landing at exactly the wrong time. Silver demand is already forecast to outstrip supply for a sixth straight year in 2026, driven in part by a projected 20% increase in physical investment demand.
Using preliminary Silver Institute data, he said the market ran a deficit of about 95 million ounces last year, marking the fifth consecutive annual shortfall. Over five years, cumulative deficits are on track to exceed 800 million ounces, roughly equal to an entire year of global mining output.
He also pointed to falling inventories across major silver hubs. London Bullion Market Association vault holdings are down about 40% over the last five years, COMEX registered inventories in the United States are down nearly 70%, and Shanghai inventories have fallen to their lowest level in a decade.
That does not mean the world is out of silver, but it does mean above-ground supplies are being drawn down. Maharrey’s argument was that tighter physical availability eventually forces higher prices as the market tries to draw metal out of private hands.
Why the Episode Matters
At its core, this episode argued that physical precious metals still expose the weaknesses of fiat money. America may claim the largest gold reserves in the world, but much of that gold may be lower-quality, under-audited, and not ready for modern international use. At the same time, silver faces another possible supply shock in a market already defined by repeated deficits and shrinking inventories.
That combination made Maharrey’s message especially clear. You can print dollars, but you cannot print gold or silver. And when the financial system grows more fragile, that difference starts to matter very quickly.
(Headline USA) A man has been charged in a string of attacks near Atlanta that left two women dead and a man in critical condition, drawing the Trump administration’s attention after one victim was identified as a Department of Homeland Security employee who was walking her dog.
The killing of the DHS worker, Lauren Bullis, and shootings of the two other victims on Monday led Homeland Secretary Markwayne Mullin to issue a statement raising concerns that the 26-year-old defendant, U.K.-native Olaolukitan Adon Abel, was granted U.S. citizenship in 2022, when Democrat Joe Biden was president.
“These acts of pure evil have devastated our Department and my prayers are with the families of the victims,” Mullin wrote in a statement posted on social media, cataloging a litany of the defendant’s previous alleged crimes but not specifying whether they happened before he was granted citizenship.
Court records show that Olaolukitan Adon Abel, whose name appears in different variations in court and government records, pleaded guilty in California in October 2024 to assaulting two police officers with a deadly weapon and attacking another person when he was stationed at Naval Base Coronado.
Authorities have said they believe at least one victim in this week’s shootings was targeted at random, and possibly more.
A morning of violence
The first victim was found with multiple gunshot wounds near a restaurant in the Decatur area at around 1 a.m. Monday. She was taken to a hospital but died, DeKalb County Police Chief Gregory Padrick said at a news conference. Police have not publicly identified her.
About an hour later in Brookhaven, an Atlanta suburb about 12 miles (19 kilometers) northwest of the first attack, a 49-year-old homeless man sleeping outside of a grocery store was shot multiple times, Brookhaven Police Chief Brandon Gurley said. The man, whose name hasn’t been released, remains hospitalized in critical condition.
“It is apparent to us that it was a completely random attack on a member of our unhoused community,” Gurley said.
Just before 7 a.m. and more than 10 miles (16 kilometers) away in the suburb of Panthersville, officers responding to a call found Bullis with gunshot and stab wounds, Padrick said. She died at the scene.
Investigators in Brookhaven determined that the three attacks were connected, Gurley said.
Adon Abel was taken into custody later Monday during a traffic stop in Troup County, which borders Alabama. He is charged with two counts of malice murder, aggravated assault and firearms counts, court records show. He waived an initial court appearance Tuesday, and a public defender listed as his attorney did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Toyin Adon Abel Jr., the defendant’s brother, said he did not want to talk about his brother when reached by phone but expressed sympathy for the victims. “I feel terrible for the victims, their families and their connections,” he said. “It’s a horrible thing.”
Remembered for her warmth and compassion
Bullis served in multiple roles at DHS Office of Inspector General, including as an auditor in the Office of Audits and as a Team Leader in the Office of Innovation, DHS posted on social media, saying she brought “warmth, kindness, and a genuine sense of care to her colleagues each day.”
Relatives said in a statement, that she loved her family, running, reading and traveling, and “her warmth and generosity touched everyone surrounding her.”
Fellow DHS auditor Ashley Toillion of Denver said she met Bullis at a work conference last year. The two became fast friends as they bonded over running and quickly made plans to do a race at Walt Disney World.
“You couldn’t meet her and not be her friend,” Toillion said, choking back tears. “She was just the nicest, sweetest, most encouraging person I’ve ever met.”
Naval service and criminal case in California
Military records show the defendant enlisted in the Navy in 2020, last serving in the Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron in Coronado, California, and as a petty officer received a Navy “E” Ribbon for superior performance for battle readiness.
But in 2024 he was arrested and charged with assaulting two Coronado police officers and attacking another person. He pleaded guilty, court records show, and he was kicked out of the Navy in September of that year.
Mullin says suspect had criminal record
Mullin said Adon Abel has a criminal record that includes a sexual battery conviction.
Online court records show that someone listed with a similar name and the same birth date pleaded guilty last June in Chatham County, Georgia, to four misdemeanor counts of sexual battery.
Mullin also noted that since President Donald Trump took office, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which DHS oversees, has worked to ensure that people with criminal histories don’t attain citizenship. But the U.S. has long barred people convicted of most violent felonies from becoming citizens, and it wasn’t immediately clear if Adon Abel had a criminal record that predated him becoming a citizen in 2022.
In response to a request for further details about the case and the defendant’s criminal history, DHS referred The Associated Press to its post about Bullis and her death.
(José Niño,Headline USA) President Donald Trump was strolling through the lobby of his Florida golf club earlier this year when a group of business associatesapproached him with a request to boost the allocation of seasonal guest worker visas, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Bernd Lembcke, who retired as Mar-a-Lago’s manager after serving three decades at Trump’s properties, and Peter Petrina, a longtime member of the club, pressed the president in January on the hospitality industry’s urgent need for additional workers before the peak winter and spring tourism season arrived. Adrian Tudor, who manages the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, helped arrange the meeting.
This conversation took place after the administration had declared late last year its intention to reduce seasonal worker positions, designated H-2B visas, to roughly 30,000 below the approximately 65,000 from the previous year. Just weeks following the January meeting, the administration silently reversed its position andreleased the full number of visas permitted by law.
Trump’s various enterprises have relied on the H-2B program for years to employ temporary foreign workers at properties throughout the country, Mar-a-Lago included.
The January gathering represented the culmination of a vigorous lobbying push by industry executives and congressional allies, including Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, a Trump backer whose district on Maryland’s eastern shore is deeply dependent on these visas for seasonal crab harvesting.
“I think they convinced the president that this was worthwhile, and that, in fact, going up to the amount that had been issued in the past years, which brought up to about 65,000 additional visas, was the right thing to do,” Harris told the WSJ.
Petrina serves as head of the Seasonal Employment Alliance, which works to secure the highest possible number of H-2B visas each year. The program is widely utilized by landscaping companies, fishing operations, and tourist destinations that cannot find sufficient American workers willing or able to accept jobs lasting only a few months.
The White House justified the decision to expand the visa allocation.
“The Trump Administration’s number one priority is protecting American jobs and wages, while adequately responding to the demands of President Trump’s rapidly growing economy,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said.
The visa program persists as a recurring point of conflict between Trump’s anti-immigration supporters, who argue Americans would fill these positions if employers offered better pay, and Republicans with stronger business ties. Trump’s leading immigration adviser Stephen Miller harbors reservations about the program, whereas Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer views it more favorably, according to the Wall Street Journal.
(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The California government may struggle to provide basic housing for the homeless, but it appears willing to fund gender-transition procedures with taxpayer dollars, including illegal aliens, according to a new report.
A Wednesday report from City Journal found that San Francisco homeless shelters, with the assistance of state and local governments, are facilitating transgender surgeries for males who identify as female.
A pair of Honduran nationals living at the shelter, Lyca and Alondra, reportedly identify as transgender, and both said they receive Medi-Cal, California’s taxpayer-funded Medicaid program.
According to City Journal, the taxpayer-funded program covers transgender procedures, or “gender-affirming care,” and provides “full-scope” coverage to illegal aliens.
Lyca, who reportedly showed signs of a sex change, said he is receiving cross-sex hormone therapy.
Meanwhile, Alondra, who appeared more masculine in physique, said he entered the U.S. illegally after claiming asylum. A translator told City Journal that Alondra declined a housing offer due to affordability concerns, though the government offered to pay one month’s rent.
Another shelter, the Embarcadero SAFE Navigation Center, reportedly houses a transgender-identifying individual named Jacqueline.
Originally from Mexico, Jacqueline told City Journal that illegal aliens reside at the shelter and said he received breast implants through Medi-Cal.
Jacqueline claimed to be a permanent resident but acknowledged that the program also covers procedures for illegal aliens.
“Even though you’re undocumented, you can get them,” he stated, as quoted by City Journal. “You have to have a process, the hormones … go through therapy.”
Asked whether he had received so-called “bottom surgery,” Jacqueline replied, “I’m waiting for that one.”
Headline USA reached out to MSC-South for clarification, including whether such procedures are facilitated by the shelter, but a front-desk receptionist said no one was available to comment.
When pressed further, he added, “We’re busy right now, boss man.”
Attempts to contact the Embarcadero SAFE Navigation Center were unsuccessful, as its main line appeared disconnected. Five Keys Housing, the shelter’s parent company, was closed when Headline USA called.
A Newsom spokesperson stood by the state’s taxpayer-funded program, saying, “Undocumented Californians don’t get special treatment. Everyone on Medi-Cal gets the same access to care. If you want to call California woke for not letting politicians interfere with doctors – or not wanting people to die in the streets – then go ahead.”
The City Journal report comes as California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration faces mounting scrutiny over potential exploitation of taxpayer-funded programs, from hospice fraud to the expansion of taxpayer-funded gender procedures for illegal aliens.
BREAKING: Gavin Newsom’s office has confirmed that California is giving free sex-change surgeries to homeless illegal aliens.
They’re doubling down—and, inexplicably, suggesting that without state-funded breast implants and artificial vaginas, migrants will “die in the streets.” pic.twitter.com/1bMt2rbSKE
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@christopherrufo) April 16, 2026
(José Niño,Headline USA) Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) is urging the House of Representatives to initiate impeachment proceedings against Judge James Boasberg after a federal appeals court concluded that the judge overstepped his authority in his contempt investigation targeting the Trump administration, asJust the News reported.
“The D.C. Circuit ruled Boasberg’s contempt crusade against Trump officials is an ‘improper investigation’ and ‘clear abuse of discretion.’ He tried to imprison Trump officials for deporting Venezuelan gang members. I’m calling on the House: Impeach Rogue Judge Boasberg,” Schmittposted on Wednesday.
The senator’s impeachment demand came after athree-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit instructed Boasberg to shut down the investigation earlier this week, according to Just the News.
Boasberg had attempted to press forward with contempt proceedings against the Trump administration after officials did not follow an order he issued demanding that aircraft transporting illegal immigrants to El Salvador be turned around while still in flight.
The appeals court issued a stern condemnation of Boasberg’s conduct.
“The district court proposes to probe high-level Executive Branch deliberations about matters of national security and diplomacy,” thecourt asserted. “These proceedings are a clear abuse of discretion, as the district court’s order said nothing about transferring custody of the plaintiffs and therefore lacks the clarity to support criminal contempt based on the transfer of custody. Moreover, the government has already provided the name of the responsible official, so further judicial investigation is unnecessary and therefore improper.”
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Bar discipline enforcement reached John Eastman, the legal scholar who questioned the legality of certifying the 2020 presidential election.
Eastman on Wednesday lost his final bid to salvage his California law license after the California Supreme Court declined to overturn a lower court ruling.
The action follows a disciplinary process that began after Eastman was among the attorneys who pushed for the 2020 election results to be properly investigated before certification to Joe Biden.
A judge in the California State Bar Court ordered his disbarment in 2024, according to Politico. Eastman appealed the ruling but was nonetheless barred from practicing law during the process.
According to the outlet, while the California Supreme Court’s decision applies only to that state, other jurisdictions often take similar disbarment actions into account.
Eastman’s Washington, D.C., license was already suspended.
The ruling was met with sharp backlash, as Eastman is considered one of the most prominent legal scholars in the conservative movement and in the field of constitutional law.
The California Supreme Court sent a clear and terrorizing message:
If attorneys represent disfavored political candidates who challenge disputed elections, California will disbar them.
While this happens in failed third-world countries, this should never happen in America. https://t.co/AuMtAULoIy
He is the founding director of the Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence and a senior fellow at the organization.
He previously taught at Chapman University’s Dale E. Fowler School of Law and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas from 1996 to 1997.
He has authored multiple scholarly publications.
Court records show he was also ordered to pay $5,000 in monetary sanctions.
Eastman’s attorney, Randall Miller, criticized the decision, vowing to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“The California Supreme Court has allowed to stand a State Bar Court recommendation that we contend departs from long-standing United States Supreme Court precedent protecting First Amendment rights, especially in the attorney discipline context,” Miller said. “We disagree with that outcome and believe it raises pivotal constitutional concerns regarding the limits of state regulation of attorney speech.”
Miller stated he expects the U.S. Supreme Court “to repudiate this threat to the rule of law and our nation’s adversarial system of justice.”
