Salem News Channel

A magnitude 4.6 earthquake shook Northern California early Thursday morning, awakening residents across a 100-mile area, including San Francisco. The U.S. Geological Survey reported that the quake was centered near Boulder Creek in the Santa Cruz Mountains at around 1:40 a.m. Residents as far north as Petaluma also reported feeling the tremor. There are no immediate reports of serious damage, and authorities say the region is assessing the impact. This follows a series of smaller quakes in the San Francisco Bay Area earlier this year, the largest of which was a magnitude 4.2 in February.

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The Senate is expected to move quickly Thursday to pass a measure funding most of the Department of Homeland Security, as lawmakers work to end the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune announced a two-step plan Wednesday aimed at fully funding DHS. While the measure has support from President Donald Trump, it remains unclear how soon the House will act, and some Republican lawmakers are expected to oppose parts of the proposal. Under the plan, the Senate would fund most DHS operations immediately, while Republicans plan to address U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol funding separately in later legislation. Lawmakers say the two-step approach is designed to restore funding quickly while navigating internal party disagreements. The shutdown, now the longest in U.S. history, has left thousands of DHS employees working without pay, contributing to delays and disruptions in services, including airport security.

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Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has rescinded a policy that required his office to personally approve Department of Homeland Security spending over $100,000. The rule, implemented by former Secretary Kristi Noem, faced criticism for slowing disaster response efforts, particularly at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Critics said it created unnecessary delays in delivering relief to communities affected by hurricanes, floods, and other emergencies. Mullin, who was sworn in last week, said the change will help speed up funding and improve response times for states and local agencies. “We want to make sure relief gets to the people who need it as quickly and efficiently as possible,” Mullin said in a statement. The move represents Mullin’s first major policy adjustment since taking office and is seen as a step toward reducing bureaucratic bottlenecks that had hampered disaster recovery operations.

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A state investigation has found that the deaths of three Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies in a 2025 grenade explosion involved serious and willful safety violations. Officials said the department failed to provide proper training and left explosives unattended, contributing to one of the department’s deadliest single-incident losses. The July 2025 explosion at a training facility killed detectives Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Victor Lemus, and William Osborn, members of the arson and explosives team. The deputies had recovered two grenades the previous day, believing them to be inert. One detonated at the training site, while the second remains missing. California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health issued eight citations totaling about $350,000 in fines in January. The sheriff’s department is appealing the fines, citing limited access to federal training materials and ongoing investigations. The department has said it is cooperating with state authorities while updating its training protocols and equipment to prevent future tragedies.

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President Donald Trump is once again threatening to pull the United States out of NATO, describing the alliance as a “paper tiger.” His comments come amid ongoing debates over U.S. defense commitments and the role of NATO in global security. White House correspondent Greg Clugston reports that Trump’s remarks signal a continuation of his critical stance toward the alliance, which has long been a cornerstone of American foreign policy. The president did not provide a clear timeline for any potential withdrawal but emphasized that he believes NATO member countries are not contributing enough to the collective defense. Trump’s threat raises questions about how allies in Europe might respond and whether the United States would face diplomatic or strategic repercussions. Analysts say such statements could heighten uncertainty about Washington’s long-term commitments to the alliance, though past administrations have stressed that the U.S. remains a key NATO partner.

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How is the War Perceived in the Tar Heel State

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U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday Washington's "core strategic objectives" in the Iran war were nearing completion. "I'm pleased to say that these core strategic objectives are nearing completion," Trump said in a primetime address. Trump said on Wednesday Washington will strike Iran "extremely hard" over the next two to three weeks and hit the country into the "Stone Ages." "We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We are going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong," Trump said in a nationally televised address.

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Explaining the funding deal POTUS mediated between the House & Senate GOP

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President Trump's Full Address to the nation on "Operation Epic Fury".

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This Won't Be a Forever War

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Back to the Moon!

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Police responded to shots fired in Brooklyn, NY Wednesday afternoon around 1 p.m. Authorities say a 7-month-old girl in a stroller was shot in the head and killed. She was pronounced dead at a hospital soon after. An investigation is underway, with ballistic evidence recovered at the scene.

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NASA is preparing to launch the first crew of astronauts toward the moon in over 53 years with its second Artemis mission, a critical test flight in humanity's broader lunar goals as the U.S. races to reassert leadership in space faced with growing competition from China. Three U.S. and one Canadian astronaut are due for liftoff aboard NASA's Orion capsule and Space Launch System rocket on Wednesday for a 10-day test mission swinging around the moon and back, a winding journey taking them deeper into space than humans have ever gone before. The mission is the first crewed test flight in NASA's Artemis program, the flagship U.S. effort to begin regular flights to the moon, at an estimated cost of at least $93 billion since 2012. Not since Apollo 17 in 1972 have humans touched down on the moon's surface, a tricky feat NASA aims to repeat in 2028 at the rugged lunar south pole. The U.S. is the only country to have put humans on another celestial body with its six lunar landings of the Apollo program, driven by competition with the former Soviet Union. U.S. officials have more recently focused on China, a formidable technological rival that has made steady progress in its own moon program in recent years with a string of robotic lunar landings and a 2030 goal to put its own crew on the surface. NASA astronaut Christina Koch, Artemis II mission specialist, on Sunday said the moon is a "witness plate" to the solar system's formation, and a stepping stone to Mars, "where we might have the most likelihood of finding evidence of past life." "Many, many countries have recognized the value that there is in exploring further into the solar system, to the moon and on to Mars," she told reporters. "They recognize that not only can we gain all these extremely tangible benefits, but that we have the opportunity to answer the question that could be the question of our lifetime, which is, are we alone?" "Answering that question starts at the moon," she said. "The question is not should we go, but should we lead, or should we follow?" Through a series of increasingly advanced Artemis missions extending into the next decade, the U.S. aims to set precedent for how others will operate and coexist on the moon's surface, where someday countries and companies can exploit rocky lunar resources and practice for much more difficult missions to Mars. The other crew members are NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman, and Jeremy Hansen, who will be the first Canadian astronaut to reach the lunar vicinity. Hansen's participation was part of a 2020 agreement between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency. "It was the result of decades of contribution and strategic investment on our part that led to this participation," said Mathieu Caron, head of CSA's astronaut office, citing Canadian robotics contributions on the International Space Station. COMMERCIAL LUNAR MARKET NASA is relying on an array of companies in its moon program, hoping to stimulate a commercial lunar market in the future, the value of which is hard to estimate, analysts say. Boeing and Northrop Grumman lead SLS and Lockheed Martin builds Orion for NASA. SpaceX and Blue Origin are developing their own landers with NASA funding, but under contracts that allow them to offer the spacecraft to other customers. A January PricewaterhouseCoopers report estimates $127 billion in revenues by 2050 from lunar surface activities, with investments potentially reaching $72 billion to $88 billion through the same period. For now, and in the near future, governments will drive companies' lunar strategies and revenue. It will be a long time before key infrastructure, such as energy and communications systems, develop to the point where commercial growth exists on the moon independently of government funding, said Akhil Rao, an economist at analysis firm Rational Futures who was a research economist at NASA. Rao, who was among the group of NASA economists and space policy staff laid off last year during the Trump administration's sweeping federal workforce cuts, said he does "not see a short-run economic value that companies would be able to derive that would allow NASA to be hands-off." The Artemis II mission will pose a greater test of NASA's Orion capsule and SLS, which conducted a similar uncrewed mission in 2022. The astronauts on board will test critical life-support systems, crew interfaces, navigation and communications. Liftoff is scheduled for April 1, though it could happen any day after until April 6, depending on weather conditions in Florida and any last-minute snags with the rocket. Thereafter, another launch window, determined largely by orbital mechanics between Earth and the moon, opens on April 30. Artemis III, planned for 2027, will involve the Orion capsule docking in Earth's orbit with NASA's two lunar landers - the Blue Moon system from Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Starship from Elon Musk's SpaceX. The delicate tag-up will demonstrate how the landers will pick up astronauts before heading for the moon's surface. That mission was added to the program in February by NASA's new administrator, Jared Isaacman, a billionaire private astronaut who has more broadly shaken up the program with new objectives. His decision pushed the program's first crewed lunar landing to Artemis IV.

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NASA is preparing to launch the first crew of astronauts toward the moon in over 53 years with its second Artemis mission, a critical test flight in humanity's broader lunar goals as the U.S. races to reassert leadership in space faced with growing competition from China. Three U.S. and one Canadian astronaut are due for liftoff aboard NASA's Orion capsule and Space Launch System rocket on Wednesday for a 10-day test mission swinging around the moon and back, a winding journey taking them deeper into space than humans have ever gone before. The mission is the first crewed test flight in NASA's Artemis program, the flagship U.S. effort to begin regular flights to the moon, at an estimated cost of at least $93 billion since 2012. Not since Apollo 17 in 1972 have humans touched down on the moon's surface, a tricky feat NASA aims to repeat in 2028 at the rugged lunar south pole. The U.S. is the only country to have put humans on another celestial body with its six lunar landings of the Apollo program, driven by competition with the former Soviet Union. U.S. officials have more recently focused on China, a formidable technological rival that has made steady progress in its own moon program in recent years with a string of robotic lunar landings and a 2030 goal to put its own crew on the surface. NASA astronaut Christina Koch, Artemis II mission specialist, on Sunday said the moon is a "witness plate" to the solar system's formation, and a stepping stone to Mars, "where we might have the most likelihood of finding evidence of past life." "Many, many countries have recognized the value that there is in exploring further into the solar system, to the moon and on to Mars," she told reporters. "They recognize that not only can we gain all these extremely tangible benefits, but that we have the opportunity to answer the question that could be the question of our lifetime, which is, are we alone?" "Answering that question starts at the moon," she said. "The question is not should we go, but should we lead, or should we follow?" Through a series of increasingly advanced Artemis missions extending into the next decade, the U.S. aims to set precedent for how others will operate and coexist on the moon's surface, where someday countries and companies can exploit rocky lunar resources and practice for much more difficult missions to Mars. The other crew members are NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman, and Jeremy Hansen, who will be the first Canadian astronaut to reach the lunar vicinity. Hansen's participation was part of a 2020 agreement between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency. "It was the result of decades of contribution and strategic investment on our part that led to this participation," said Mathieu Caron, head of CSA's astronaut office, citing Canadian robotics contributions on the International Space Station. COMMERCIAL LUNAR MARKET NASA is relying on an array of companies in its moon program, hoping to stimulate a commercial lunar market in the future, the value of which is hard to estimate, analysts say. Boeing and Northrop Grumman lead SLS and Lockheed Martin builds Orion for NASA. SpaceX and Blue Origin are developing their own landers with NASA funding, but under contracts that allow them to offer the spacecraft to other customers. A January PricewaterhouseCoopers report estimates $127 billion in revenues by 2050 from lunar surface activities, with investments potentially reaching $72 billion to $88 billion through the same period. For now, and in the near future, governments will drive companies' lunar strategies and revenue. It will be a long time before key infrastructure, such as energy and communications systems, develop to the point where commercial growth exists on the moon independently of government funding, said Akhil Rao, an economist at analysis firm Rational Futures who was a research economist at NASA. Rao, who was among the group of NASA economists and space policy staff laid off last year during the Trump administration's sweeping federal workforce cuts, said he does "not see a short-run economic value that companies would be able to derive that would allow NASA to be hands-off." The Artemis II mission will pose a greater test of NASA's Orion capsule and SLS, which conducted a similar uncrewed mission in 2022. The astronauts on board will test critical life-support systems, crew interfaces, navigation and communications. Liftoff is scheduled for April 1, though it could happen any day after until April 6, depending on weather conditions in Florida and any last-minute snags with the rocket. Thereafter, another launch window, determined largely by orbital mechanics between Earth and the moon, opens on April 30. Artemis III, planned for 2027, will involve the Orion capsule docking in Earth's orbit with NASA's two lunar landers - the Blue Moon system from Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Starship from Elon Musk's SpaceX. The delicate tag-up will demonstrate how the landers will pick up astronauts before heading for the moon's surface. That mission was added to the program in February by NASA's new administrator, Jared Isaacman, a billionaire private astronaut who has more broadly shaken up the program with new objectives. His decision pushed the program's first crewed lunar landing to Artemis IV.

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Scott Jennings provides a behind the scenes interview with NASA, as it prepares for tonight's launch.

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For the first time since 1972, NASA is sending astronauts to the moon again.

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An American journalist who was kidnapped in Baghdad had tried to cross from Syria into Iraq three weeks earlier and was initially turned back, an Iraqi official said Wednesday. U.S. and Iraqi officials said Shelly Renee Kittleson had also been warned of threats against her in the days before her abduction. A freelance journalist who has worked for years in Iraq and Syria and was described by those who knew her as deeply knowledgeable about the region and the communities she covered, Kittleson was kidnapped from a street in the Iraqi capital Tuesday and remains missing. Hussein Alawi, an adviser to Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, said Kittleson had sought to enter via the al-Qaim crossing from Syria on March 9 but was turned back because she did not have a press work permit and because security concerns due to “the escalation of the war and aerial projectiles over Iraqi airspace as a result of the war on Iran.” She later entered the country after obtaining a single-entry visa to Iraq valid for 60 days issued to allow foreign citizens stranded in neighboring countries to “transit through Iraq to reach their home countries via available transport routes,” he said. Kittleson entered Baghdad a few days before she was kidnapped and was staying in a hotel in the capital, he said. “The incident is being followed closely by Iraqi security and intelligence agencies under the supervision of” al-Sudani, Alawi said. He noted that one suspect believed to be involved in the kidnapping plot has been arrested and is being interrogated. Iraqi security forces gave chase to her captors and arrested one suspect after the car he was driving crashed, but other kidnappers were able to escape with the journalist in a second car. An Iraqi intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, said Iraqi authorities believe she is being held in Baghdad and are trying to locate her and secure her release. He said authorities “have information about the abducting party” but declined to give more details. U.S. officials have alleged that Kittleson was taken by Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-linked Iraqi militia that has been implicated in previous kidnappings of foreigners. The group has not claimed the kidnapping and the Iraqi government has not publicly said anything about the kidnappers' affiliation. The Iraqi intelligence official said that prior to Kittleson's abduction, Iraqis had contacted U.S. officials to notify them that there was a specific kidnapping threat against her by Iran-affiliated militias. Dylan Johnson, U.S. assistant secretary of state for public affairs, said on X Tuesday that the “State Department previously fulfilled our duty to warn this individual of threats against them.” A U.S. official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly, said, “She was contacted multiple times with warnings of the threats against her," including as late as the night before the kidnapping. Kittleson’s mother, 72-year-old Barb Kittleson, who spoke to The Associated Press at her home in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, said she heard about the kidnapping from a news report on Tuesday and was visited by the FBI at her house on Tuesday night. When asked how she felt about the kidnapping she said, “Terrible. Scared. I’ll pray for her.” Barb Kittleson said she last exchanged emails with her daughter on Monday. Shelly Kittleson sent photos of herself from Iraq, her mother said. “Journalism is what she wanted to do so bad,” Barb Kittleson said. “I wanted her to come home and not do it, but she said, ‘I’m helping people.’” Surveillance footage from Baghdad that was obtained by the AP shows what seems to be the moment the journalist was kidnapped. It shows two men approaching a person standing on a street corner and ushering the person into the back of a car. There appears to be a brief struggle to shut the car door before the men get into the vehicle and it drives away. Iran-backed militias in Iraq have launched regular attacks on U.S. facilities in the country since the beginning of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

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On today’s show, Josh discusses President Trump becoming the first sitting president in history to sit in on Supreme Court oral arguments, as the Court hears the case surrounding Trump’s executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship. Josh breaks down the legal arguments and explains why he believes the outcome could ultimately hinge on one or two of the Court’s conservative justices. Josh also examines the latest developments involving Iran, outlining what he believes could be the next step in the conflict and why he thinks military action may once again be on the horizon. Finally, Josh weighs in on the ongoing debate surrounding NATO, discussing why critics argue the alliance has become increasingly ineffective and whether the United States could eventually reconsider its role in the organization.

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Homeland Security is pausing plans to buy new warehouses for immigrant detention as it reviews contracts signed under former secretary Kristi Noem. A senior Homeland Security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, told the Associated Press that the department is also rechecking warehouse deals it has already made. The news comes just a week after Sen. Markwayne Mullin took over the department from Noem. Mullin inherits a big push to expand detention space. But the plan to buy large-scale facilities to house immigrants drew sharp local backlash. Communities raised moral concerns and worries about the strain on the sewer and water systems. Homeland Security has bought 11 warehouses so far.

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A judge has granted Luigi Mangione only a slight delay of his federal trial in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett agreed Wednesday to move the trial from September to October instead of next year, as Mangione’s lawyers had wanted. Garnett tied her decision to the schedule of Mangione’s state murder trial, which is set to begin June 8 and take four to six weeks. She rejected a defense request to postpone the federal case until January or February 2027 so that it could then seek to delay the state case until September.

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