Contributing Writers

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that violent crime in Chicago has fallen sharply since the start of a federal crackdown known as “Operation Midway Blitz,” crediting the Department of Homeland Security-led effort with driving shootings and robberies down across the Windy City.The president’s Truth Social post claimed that shootings are down 35%, robberies down 41% and carjackings nearly 50% since the operation began several weeks ago.

Tensions flared at a House hearing to advance legislation aimed at ending the government shutdown on Tuesday night, with two senior lawmakers on opposite sides of the aisle trading barbs over the fallout.House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., clashed with Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee repeatedly at the outset of the hearing.

Democrats will attempt to attach a three-year extension of expiring Obamacare subsidies to spending legislation that looks poised to end the ongoing government shutdown.Jeffries and a handful of other Democrats at a press conference on Tuesday said the last-gasp effort would be submitted as an amendment.

Rep. Elise Stefanik on Monday night accepted the World Jewish Congress’ highest honor, vowing to continue fighting antisemitism and defending what she called “the very Western values that have shaped America” just days after announcing her bid for New York governor.Speaking before 400 guests at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan, Stefanik received the Theodor Herzl Award from Ronald Lauder, the businessman and former U.S.

The shutdown stalemate that has dragged on in the Senate officially ended late Monday night, and it places Congress on a path to reopen the government later this week.Senators advanced a bipartisan funding package to end the government shutdown after a group of Senate Democrats broke from their colleagues and joined Republicans in their bid to reopen the government.

A conservative student from Beloit College in Wisconsin says her school is blocking students from establishing a new Turning Point USA (TPUSA) club on campus and has failed to adequately protect its members from harassment and threats they have faced for trying to do so. On Oct.

Following months of controversy, President Donald Trump issued a proclamation in September decrying the systemic abuse of the H-1B visa program, which he said is fueling the “large-scale replacement of American workers” that “has undermined both our economic and national security.”To address this, Trump instituted a $100,000 fee for companies seeking to obtain an H-1B visa, a move that has been widely criticized by business leaders, especially in the tech industry.

Turning Point CEO Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk, attended the swearing-in of family friend Sergio Gor as President Donald Trump’s new ambassador to India.Gor was sworn in during a packed ceremony in the Oval Office on Monday, where Trump invited Erika Kirk to speak.”Charlie loved you,” she told Gor, highlighting her late husband’s friendship with Gor. “He would have been the first phone call when he found out if you were going to be taking this position.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., criticized the eight Senate Democrats who joined Republicans in voting to advance a continuing resolution during the procedural vote in the U.S. Senate on Sunday.Sanders called the move “a very, very bad vote” in a video posted to his X account.”Tonight, 8 Democrats voted with the Republicans to allow them to go forward on this continuing resolution,” Sanders said. “And to my mind, this was a very, very bad vote.

President Donald Trump has granted “full, complete and unconditional” pardons to several key allies accused of attempting to overturn the 2020 election, U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin announced Sunday night.In a post on X, Martin shared Trump’s proclamation granting pardons for dozens of people, including notable figures like Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows and Sidney Powell.

The Senate took a massive step forward on its way to reopening the government on Sunday, with a group of Senate Democrats caving and joining Republicans in their bid to pass a revamped plan to end the shutdown.Signs that the shutdown, which entered its 40th day, could be ending became more and more clear as the day went on, particularly with the unveiling of a bipartisan package of spending bills that lawmakers hope to attach to a modified bill to reopen the government.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) started reducing air traffic across 40 airports Friday due to air traffic controller staffing issues stemming from the government shutdown.As the government shutdown has hit 40 days, more air traffic control workers have refused to come to work as they’re about to miss a second paycheck next week — prompting the FAA to make cuts to ensure no safety issues arise.

EXCLUSIVE – Though she stopped short of a formal endorsement, billionaire philanthropist Miriam Adelson voiced support for Rep. Elise Stefanik’s New York gubernatorial bid during the Zionist Organization of America’s Justice Louis D. Brandeis Award Dinner on Sunday night, praising her for confronting antisemitism in government and higher education.

Vice President JD Vance took the stage at the Marine Corps’ 250th Birthday Ball in Washington, D.C., on Saurday, greeting a crowd of Marines in dress blues with a booming, “How we doing, Marines?”He grinned as the ballroom erupted in cheers. “It’s so great to be here to celebrate 250 years of the United States Marine Corps,” he said, drawing loud applause.”That, my friends, is what the Marine Corps does — it keeps us honest.

The Senate could take a test vote as early as tomorrow afternoon on a revamped Republican bill to end the government shutdown and fund parts of the government for the rest of the fiscal year. We are still waiting on bill text on a measure that would fund the government through late January and provide money for the Agriculture Department (which funds SNAP), the Veterans Affairs Department and military construction projects and Congress through Sept. 30, 2026.

A reckoning is coming.Or shall we say “reckonings.”And they’re coming, whether the government reopens soon or remains shuttered.If the government stays closed, voters will likely torch both parties for not hammering out a deal. Air traffic delays are stacking up. Those problems only intensify as we near Thanksgiving and Christmas.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom told a crowd in Texas Saturday that Democrats winning back the House of Representatives in 2026 is “the whole thing.”Newsom, 58, continued to ride high over the weekend, four days after California’s Proposition 50 — to redistrict the state’s congressional map in favor of Democrats — passed in a landslide.Newsom also couldn’t resist taking a jab at his frequent foe, President Donald Trump.

Amid a 39-day government shutdown, Republican after Republican took to the Senate floor on Saturday to blast the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, calling the program a failed approach to addressing the country’s health care needs.Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., went as far as to say the current system might need replacing.

A federal appeals court has ruled that Texas can enforce a 2023 law that prohibits drag shows in public or when children are present, although the ruling indicates that the judges do not believe all drag shows would be restricted under the measure.Senate Bill 12 bans drag performers from dancing suggestively or wearing certain prosthetics on public property or in front of children.

A federal judge on Friday ruled that the Trump administration’s attempt to deploy National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon, was unconstitutional.On Sunday, U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee, temporarily extended an order blocking the administration from deploying troops to The Rose City, saying the government failed to justify the move.

Fox has learned that Senate Republicans are hopeful that just enough Senate Democrats may be willing to join with them to help break a filibuster on a test vote to fund the government through sometime in January. This proposal would also fund the Department of Agriculture and Department of Veterans Affairs, plus, Congress until Sept. 30, 2026.

Cornell Law professor William A. Jacobson, founder of the Equal Protection Project, has filed a federal civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s civil rights office accusing the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) of running more than a dozen scholarships that exclude students based on race, sex or national origin.

Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., defended her interruption of Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson’s press conference that went viral this week, arguing her rage was justifiable because Johnson has been unwilling to negotiate with Democratic Party leaders to reopen the government.GOP lawmakers have argued the two warring parties could agree to a budget resolution and negotiate public healthcare subsidies Democrats are holding out for down the road.

“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” – Winston ChurchillIt’s not an agreement. Just a plan.But the political ice which has frozen lawmakers and closed the government for 37 days is softening.Just barely.THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO WHERE WE STAND WITH A POTENTIAL BREAK IN THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN”There seems to be some indication of a thaw,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.

Rep. Elise Stefanik will officially launch her long-anticipated campaign for New York governor on Friday, entering the 2026 race as a Republican challenger to Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, multiple sources confirmed to Fox News on Thursday.Stefanik, a top House Republican and one of former President Donald Trump’s closest allies, represents a conservative-leaning district in upstate New York and has been weighing a gubernatorial run for months.

The Helena, Montana city commissioner candidate who made headlines for lobbing threats and wishing a painful cancer death on Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., in an expletive-filled voicemail, failed to crack the threshold of the top 2 candidates.Haley McKnight made national headlines earlier this week after audio of her voicemail she left for the senator in July came to light.

The Trump administration said it has rescinded tens of thousands of nonimmigrant visas since January, pointing to criminal activity as the primary reason.The State Department announced Thursday that 80,000 visas have been revoked this year, noting this is more than twice the number revoked last year.More than 8,000 student visas were among those affected.

President Donald Trump said more countries are lining up to join the Abraham Accords in an effort to normalize relations with Israel. Kazakhstan is expected to join the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, which had formalized relations with the Jewish state. On Thursday, Trump said he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan.

Kansas leaders brought criminal charges Wednesday against Joe Ceballos, the mayor of a small city in rural Kansas, alleging he voted in several elections but is not a U.S. citizen.Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab and Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, both elected Republicans, announced they filed six charges in Comanche County against Ceballos, a lawful permanent resident from Mexico, for voting in elections in 2022, 2023 and 2024.