One Year In, a ‘Ho-Hum’ Jobs Report

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One Year In, a ‘Ho-Hum’ Jobs Report

(, The Center Square) December’s jobs data changed little from November, rounding out an underwhelming year for the U.S. labor market.

Initial estimates put job gains at 50,000, though if December is like every other month this year, that number will be revised downward in the coming months.

By comparison, last December saw an increase roughly 6.5 times greater, with 323,000 jobs added from the previous month. Payrolls rose by an estimated 269,000 from November to December 2023, while pre-pandemic December 2019 posted nonfarm employment growth of 127,000 jobs.

Bruce Yandle, an adjunct fellow at George Mason University’s market-oriented Mercatus Center, described it as “ho-hum.”

“We have about the same level of total employment here in December as we had in January, when the year was starting. And so in a sense, when you look at the report and stare at it… it looks like the world is flat,” Yandle told The Center Square.

The year started off stronger than it finished, with monthly job creation exceeding 100,000 January through April. But May added fewer than 20,000 jobs, and payrolls shrunk by 13,000 from May to June. The rest of the year was inconsistent — modest gains mixed with outright losses.

The latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey provided a sobering glimpse into the realities of the current job market, according to Dave Hebert, a senior research fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research. The JOLTS report reflected a low-hire, low-fire market.

“We’ve been told that a lot of new jobs are going to be coming,” Hebert said. “The claim was that by Q4 of 2025, the economy would be humming.”

GDP growth did accelerate, however, from 3.8% to 4.3% in the third quarter, though fourth quarter growth has yet to be released. But GDP growth is of limited practical value if it doesn’t translate into more jobs.

“We don’t eat GDP growth rates. People work,” Hebert said.

A cooling labor market and strong economic growth might seem incongruous, but Yandle pointed to third-quarter productivity gains of 4.9% as an explanation.

“We’ve had zero growth in employment for a year, and we’ve had 4.9% growth in productivity. Zero plus 4.9 is 4.9,” Yandle said.

Yandle and others, including Stanford University economics professor Nicholas Bloom, have said the productivity gains without corresponding labor growth can likely be attributed in part to the proliferation of artificial intelligence. Otherwise, many economists believe the economic uncertainty caused by the continually shifting tariff policy is stifling the labor market.

Though unemployment has remained relatively low, finishing 2025 at 4.4%, job growth has remained subdued.

“We’re just not seeing that job growth that I think everyone wants,” Hebert said.

Cuba’s Next President: Marco Rubio?

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Cuba’s Next President: Marco Rubio?

(Headline USA) President Donald Trump on Sunday fired off another warning to the government of Cuba as the close ally of Venezuela braces for potential widespread unrest after Nicolás Maduro was deposed as Venezuela’s leader.

Cuba, a major beneficiary of Venezuelan oil, has now been cut off from those shipments as U.S. forces continue to seize tankers in an effort to control the production, refining and global distribution of the country’s oil products.

Trump said on social media that Cuba long lived off Venezuelan oil and money and had offered security in return, “BUT NOT ANYMORE!”

“THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO!” Trump said in the post as he spent the weekend at his home in southern Florida. “I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.” He did not explain what kind of deal.

Hours later, Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, responded on X by saying “those who turn everything into a business, even human lives, have no moral authority to point the finger at Cuba in any way, absolutely in any way.”

The Cuban government said 32 of its military personnel were killed during the American operation last weekend that captured Maduro. The personnel from Cuba’s two main security agencies were in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, as part of an agreement between Cuba and Venezuela.

 

“Venezuela doesn’t need protection anymore from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for so many years,” Trump said Sunday. “Venezuela now has the United States of America, the most powerful military in the World (by far!), to protect them, and protect them we will.”

Trump also responded to another account’s social media post predicting that his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will be president of Cuba: “Sounds good to me!” Trump said.

Trump and top administration officials have taken an increasingly aggressive tone toward Cuba, which had been kept economically afloat by Venezuela. Long before Maduro’s capture, severe blackouts were sidelining life in Cuba, where people endured long lines at gas stations and supermarkets amid the island’s worst economic crisis in decades.

“Those who hysterically accuse our nation today do so out of rage at this people’s sovereign decision to choose their political model,” Díaz-Canel said in his post. He added that “those who blame the Revolution for the severe economic shortages we suffer should be ashamed to keep quiet” and he railed against the “draconian measures” imposed by the U.S. on Cuba.

The island’s communist government has said U.S. sanctions cost the country more than $7.5 billionbetween March 2024 and February 2025.

Trump has said previously that the Cuban economy, battered by years of an American embargo, would slide further with the ouster of Maduro.

“It’s going down,” Trump said of Cuba. “It’s going down for the count.”

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

 

Federal Judge Blocks Mamdani from Halting Bankruptcy Sales

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Federal Judge Blocks Mamdani from Halting Bankruptcy Sales

(Chris Wade, The Center Square) New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s push to stop the bankruptcy sale of more than 5,000 rent-subsidized apartments in the city has been blocked, temporarily, by the federal courts.

Mamdani, who was sworn into office last week, directed the city’s Law Department shortly after taking over City Hall to intervene in the bankruptcy proceedings of more than 90 buildings with apartments all owned by Pinnacle, a real estate group.

The Mamdani administration says the company owes the city $12.7 million in unpaid fines for housing code violations. The company declared bankruptcy in May after defaulting on more than $560 million in loans.

But U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge for the Southern District of New York David Jones has declined the city’s motion to intervene in the legal fight, and reportedly informed the city that the bankruptcy sale will proceed.

Pinnacle Group, which is owned by billionaire Joel Wiener, is one of the largest landlords in New York City with roughly 140 buildings and 9,000 apartments, according to the court filings. After the company filed for bankruptcy last year, Summit Real Estate Holdings made a $450 million offer to buy dozens of buildings in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Bronx and Queens. The sale must be finalized by Jones before it can proceed.

“Completion of the bankruptcy auction process will bring financial stability along with the opportunity to stabilize services, outcomes which we would expect the City would not want to disrupt,” Pinnacle lawyer Ken Fisher said in a recent statement about the looming sale.

But lawyers for the city said in court filings that there are also concerns about the economics of the bankruptcy sale, suggesting that Summit might not have the financial resources to improve conditions in the housing complexes that it wants to take over.

“Continuing losses and mounting expenses might lead to the need for additional bankruptcies or reorganizations, a state of financial and social chaos potentially worse than the current situation of the debtors themselves,” the city said.

The Union of Pinnacle Tenants, a group of tenants who organized to oppose the sale, say the current landlord has neglected maintenance, failed to pay its utility bills and allowed apartments to deteriorate and worry that the next owner won’t improve conditions.

Mamdani campaigned on protecting rent-subsidized apartments, and visited one of Pinnacle’s properties in Brooklyn on inauguration day to meet with tenants and criticize living conditions in the buildings.

The court loss also comes as Mamdani faces scrutiny over his pick to lead the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, Cea Weaver, who has been criticized for prior social media posts calling homeownership a “weapon of white supremacy.” Mamdani has defended Weaver, who has stated that she regrets her previous social media posts, which have since been deleted.

Secret Service Recruit Reportedly Shot and Killed His Brother

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Secret Service Recruit Reportedly Shot and Killed His Brother

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) On New Year’s Eve, a man shot and killed a 16-year-old in Tamarac, Florida. That man is a Secret Service recruit, the agency reportedly confirmed Friday.

“The United States Secret Service is aware of an open investigation by the Broward County Sheriff’s Office that involves a recently hired special agent trainee, who was awaiting entry into an upcoming training academy,” USSS officials said in a statement on Friday, as reported first by Real Clear Politics reporter Susan Crabtree.

“This is an extremely tragic situation, and we are fully cooperating with the Broward Sheriff’s Office as they lead this investigation. Once completed, the results of the independent review will be presented to the Broward State Attorney’s Office.”

The 16-year-old victim was identified as Orlando Wedderburn. A woman was also grazed. The Secret Service recruit, for his part, is claiming self-defense.

According to Crabtree, Secret Service Director Sean Curran is receiving internal criticism for not doing enough to eliminate the agency’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies, which were implemented starting in the Obama era.

In her 2021 award-winning history of the Secret Service, “Zero Fail,” Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig detailed how Obama-era DEI policies caused the Secret Service to toss “three hundred files of pending applicants who had all been painstakingly prescreened and were likely hires”—replacing them with applicants who didn’t even know what the agency did.

“Field office supervisors were griping that they were drowning, having to interview hundreds of online applicants in their area who couldn’t possibly pass muster as agents,” she wrote in “Zero Fail.”

“They met one four-hundred-pound man, another with a prosthetic arm. Applicants showed up in gym shorts. Some said they couldn’t agree to a required home interview because their roommates didn’t like having cops around. These interviews sucked up supervisors’ valuable time—with almost no results.”

According to Leonnig, the Service only hired 18 agents out of a whopping 35,000 applicants at the time.

The Secret Service is now looking to hire 4,000 new employees by 2028.

Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.

Biden’s DOJ Paid FBI Informant $20,000 to Spy on Trump

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Biden’s DOJ Paid FBI Informant $20,000 to Spy on Trump

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The FBI has released new documents showing that one of its informants was paid $20,000 to spy on Donald Trump during the Biden administration’s effort to throw him in prison.

The FBI documents, first reported by Just the News, are related to the Justice Department’s “Arctic Frost” operation, which investigated Trump and his allies for contesting the 2020 election.

A June 2023 FBI memo cites a “payment for information in the amount of $20,000.00 to [REDACTED] for information provided in support of captioned investigation.”

The memo was accompanied by an email, in which an agent wrote to the DOJ: “As discussed, request your office’s concurrence in our proposed payment of $20,000 for [the FBI informant’s] provision of information in support of the investigation.”

Arctic Frost documents have shown that at least 156 individuals were subjected to the secret probe. Some of them, including the abovementioned FBI informant, may have flipped on Trump.

Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, for instance, was alleged to have been an FBI informant who wore a wire to spy on Trump.

Rumors of Meadows’s defection from Team Trump have persisted ever since his subpoena from the House Jan. 6 committee in 2021. Sources close to the matter said specifically that Meadows was granted immunity if he would agree to testify before a grand jury.

According to those same sources, Meadows repeatedly emphasized to Smith and his legal team that he tried to persuade Trump that the 2020 election voter-fraud allegations had no basis.

However, Meadows doesn’t appear to be the informant named in the newly released FBI records, as his name is too long to fit the redacted space in the documents.

Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.

After Threatening the Colombian Leader, Trump Invites Petro to the White House

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After Threatening the Colombian Leader, Trump Invites Petro to the White House

(Kyle Anzalone, Libertarian Institute) President Donald Trump said he held a productive phone call with President Gustavo Petro and invited the Colombian leader to a summit in the US. Following the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Trump threatened several other countries, including Colombia.

“It was a Great Honor to speak with the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who called to explain the situation of drugs and other disagreements that we have had. I appreciated his call and tone, and look forward to meeting him in the near future,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Wednesday.

“Arrangements are being made between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Foreign Minister of Colombia. The meeting will take place in the White House in Washington, DC.”

After the phone call, Petro told demonstrators at a rally in Colombia that he planned to attend the summit. “If we don’t speak, there is war. Colombia’s history has taught us that,” Petro said at the rally. “And what happened is that we talked and re-established communication for the first time. I talked about two things: Venezuela and the issue of drug trafficking. I gave him our numbers of what we are doing to fight drugs.”

The leaders did not set a date for the White House summit.

The phone call came days after the US bombed Venezuela and captured President Maduro. On Monday, Trump said, Petro should “watch his ass.” He was later asked if the US could replicate its attack on Venezuela in Colombia, and the President responded, “It sounds good to me.”

Petro has been critical of Trump’s military action in Latin America and Israel’s onslaught in Gaza.

This article originally appeared at The Libertarian Institute.

US Bombs Syria after Deadly Ambush

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US Bombs Syria after Deadly Ambush

(Headline USA) The U.S. has launched another round of retaliatory strikes against the Islamic State group in Syria following last month’s ambush that killed two U.S. soldiers and one American civilian interpreter in the country.

The large-scale strikes, conducted by the U.S. alongside partner forces, occurred around 12:30 p.m. ET (1730 GMT) Saturday, according to the U.S. Central Command. The strikes hit multiple IS targets across Syria.

The Jordanian military later announced it had taken part in the strikes.

Saturday’s strikes are part of a broader operation that is part of President Donald Trump’s response to the deadly IS attack that killed Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, and Ayad Mansoor Sakat, the civilian interpreter, in Palmyra last month.

“Our message remains strong: if you harm our warfighters, we will find you and kill you anywhere in the world, no matter how hard you try to evade justice,” U.S. Central Command said in a statement Saturday.

A day earlier, Syrian officials said their security forces had arrested the military leader of IS operations in the Levant.

The U.S. military said Saturday’s strikes were carried out alongside partner forces without specifying which forces had taken part.

The Trump administration is calling the response to the Palmyra attacks Operation Hawkeye Strike. Both Torres-Tovar and Howard were members of the Iowa National Guard.

It launched Dec. 19 with another large-scale strike that hit 70 targets across central Syria that had IS infrastructure and weapons.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces has for years been the U.S.’s main partner in the fight against IS in Syria, but since the ouster of former Syrian President Bashar Assad in December 2024, Washington has increasingly been coordinating with the central government in Damascus.

Syria recently joined the global coalition against the IS.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

 

‘Lectern Guy’ from Jan. 6 Protest Now Running for County Office

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‘Lectern Guy’ from Jan. 6 Protest Now Running for County Office

(Headline USA) A man who grabbed then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s podium and posed with it for photographs during the U.S. Capitol riot is running for county office in Florida.

Adam Johnson filed to run as a Republican for an at-large seat on the Manatee County Commission on Tuesday. That was the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot, where he was photographed smiling and waving as he carried Pelosi’s podium on Jan. 6, 2021.

Johnson told WWSB-TV that it was “not a coincidence” that he filed for office on Jan. 6, saying “it’s definitely good for getting the buzz out there.” His campaign logo is an outline of the viral photograph of him carrying the podium.

Johnson placed the podium in the center of the Capitol Rotunda, posed for pictures and pretended to make a speech, prosecutors said. He pleaded guilty in 2021 of entering and remaining in a restricted building or ground, a misdemeanor that he equated to “jaywalking” in the interview.

“I think I exercised my First Amendment right to speak and protest,” Johnson said.

After driving home, Johnson bragged that he “broke the internet” and was “finally famous,” prosecutors said.

Johnson served 75 days in prison followed by one year of supervised release. The judge also ordered Johnson to pay a $5,000 fine and perform 200 hours of community service.

Johnson told U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton at sentencing that posing with Pelosi’s podium was a “very stupid idea” but now says he only regrets his action because of the prison sentence.

“I walked into a building, I took a picture with a piece of furniture, and I left,” he now says.

Four other Republicans have filed to run so far in the Aug. 18 primary in what’s a deeply Republican county. The incumbent isn’t seeking reelection.

In March 2025, Johnson filed a lawsuit against Manatee County and six of its commissioners, objecting to the county’s decision not to seek attorney’s fees from someone who sued the county and dropped the lawsuit. The county has called Johnson’s claims “completely meritless and unsupported by law.”

Johnson said he objects to high property taxes and overdevelopment in the county south of Tampa, claiming current county leaders are wasteful.

“I will be more heavily scrutinized than any other candidate who is running in this race,” Johnson said. “This is a positive and a good takeaway for every single citizen, because for once in our life, we will know our local politicians who are doing things.”

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Report: Child Care as Expensive as College

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Report: Child Care as Expensive as College

(, The Center Square) The average cost of child care for infants in Tennessee is $13,926, more expensive than tuition at the state’s four public universities, according to a report from the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth.

The State of the Child in Tennessee 2025 Report examined child-related metrics from birth through the teenage years. The economic metrics showed some improvements but also some declines.

The commission said that for many families, child care is their largest expense, in some cases exceeding rent or mortgage.

“Child care costs continue to be out of reach for many families, particularly single-income households,” the report said.

Child care is a necessity for most Tennessee parents, as 65% of children under the age of 6 had at least one parent in the workforce in 2026, according to the report.

Tennessee’s child poverty rate remains below the national average at 19.1%, but it decreased slightly in 2024. Also declining is the child poverty rate for children under the age of 5 from 29% to 18.1%, which is the lowest in 10 years, the commission said in the report. The rate increased from 16.8% in 2022 to 19.5% in 2024 for children aged five to 17.

The report also looked at the number of homeless children based on statistics from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which measured the last week of January 2024. During that time, the homeless included 1,013 Tennessee children and 514 people between the ages of 18 to 24. The Memphis and Nashville areas had the highest numbers of homeless children and young adults, according to the report.

Researchers said the number of families reaching out to food banks increased during the government shutdown in the fall of 2025, with four regional food banks reporting an increase in demand. The Chattanooga Area Food Bank served 60% more households during the first week of November 2025 than during the same time period in November 2024.

Most Tennessee families lived above the poverty level of 2024 ($25,820 for a family of three), according to the report. Thirty-two percent were 500% above, which is an average of $129,000 a year. The report shows 16.1% of Tennessee families lived at or below the poverty level. Over 4% lived at 50% below the poverty line, which is an average of $12,910 a year, according to the report.

Trump Signs Order Protecting Venezuelan Oil Revenue from Legal Claims

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Trump Signs Order Protecting Venezuelan Oil Revenue from Legal Claims

(, The Center Square) President Donald Trump on Saturday signed an executive order to protect revenue from all sales of Venezuelan oil held in U.S. Treasury accounts from seizure by courts or creditors.

Citing the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the National Emergencies Act, Trump said the executive order is necessary to protect the national security and foreign policy of the United States and its efforts to bring political stability to Venezuela.

“Specifically, the attachment or the imposition of other judicial process against the Foreign Government Deposit Funds will substantially interfere with our critical efforts to ensure economic and political stability in Venezuela,” the order reads.

“The failure of these critical efforts would jeopardize major foreign policy objectives of the United States, including:  ending the dangerous influx of illegal immigrants and the flood of illicit narcotics, which has resulted in the death of countless thousands of American citizens; protecting American interests against malign actors such as Iran and Hezbollah; and bringing peace, prosperity, and stability to the Venezuelan people and to the Western Hemisphere more generally.”

A week ago, the U.S. carried out an air, land and sea operation in Venezuela’s capital and apprehended Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, who are now being held in New York on federal charges related to running an international narco-terrorism operation.

Trump later said the U.S. would help run Venezuela until it is politically and economically stable.

The Foreign Government Deposit Funds are sovereign assets of Venezuela and need to be protected from private legal claims, according to a White House statement.

“The Foreign Government Deposit Funds constitute property of the Government of Venezuela and do not constitute the property of any private party, including judgment creditors of Venezuela or its agencies or instrumentalities, or commercial actors that transacted or are transacting business with Venezuela or its agencies or instrumentalities,” the order reads.

“The United States Government will hold the Foreign Government Deposit Funds solely in a custodial and governmental capacity, and not as a market participant.”

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