Salem News Channel

98 mayors across the state send letter to Minnesota lawmakers demanding accountability.

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Lawmakers across the United States are weighing whether to adopt new federal tax breaks that cover tips, overtime, and certain business expenses. The Trump administration is urging states to implement the cuts at the state level, but approaches vary. In some states, the tax breaks automatically apply unless legislatures opt out, while others require legislative approval before they take effect. So far, Michigan is the first state to opt in, extending the federal tax breaks for tips and overtime to its residents. Other states are expected to make decisions in the coming months as legislative sessions get underway.

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A transgender employee at the National Security Agency has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, challenging a presidential executive order that requires the federal government to recognize only two sexes. Filed in federal court in Maryland, the lawsuit argues that the policy violates federal civil rights law and creates a hostile work environment for the employee, an NSA data scientist. The plaintiff is seeking to block enforcement of the executive order and is also pursuing financial damages.

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A small Mexican Navy plane crashed near Galveston yesterday afternoon, killing five people on board. The aircraft was transporting a young medical patient along with seven other passengers, including several Navy officers. Half of those on board were members of the Mexican Navy. Authorities are investigating the cause of the crash.

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The Congresswoman from Minnesota/LilSomalia needs to be investigated at the very least.

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Is The Spiritual Revival Still Here?

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Is Trump a good speaker? 

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Gas Prices Continue to Drop

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President Donald Trump has named Louisiana’s governor, Jeff Landry, as a special envoy to Greenland. It follows Trump's calls for Greenland to become part of the United States, even though it belongs to the Kingdom of Denmark. Landry’s appointment quickly drew fresh fire from the prime ministers of Denmark and Greenland. They said in a joint statement that, quote, “You cannot annex another country. Not even with an argument about international security… Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders and the U.S. shall not take over Greenland." Speaking via video link to Denmark's TV2, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said he would summon the U.S. ambassador to Denmark. "We thought that we now had a U.S. ambassador in Denmark, with whom we would have a relationship throughout the Kingdom. I think we have already developed a good working relationship, and it is also my impression that the ambassador has that opinion. Out of nowhere, there is now a special U.S. presidential representative, who, according to himself, is tasked with taking over Greenland. This is, of course, completely unacceptable." Trump has cited Greenland’s strategic importance and rare earth mineral resources as why he wants it, and Landry publicly supports the idea of U.S. control. Landry thanked Trump in a social media post, calling it a “volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the U.S.” Greenland is a former Danish colony that has the right to declare independence from the Kingdom of Denmark, but heavily relies on fishing and Danish subsidies. The U.S. already operates a ballistic missile defense system site there and has voiced interest in expanding its military presence. That includes placing radars to monitor the waters nearby, a gateway for Russian navy vessels and nuclear submarines. In October, Denmark tried to answer U.S. criticism that it has neglected Greenland's defense capabilities, which Denmark agrees it has, by pledging billions in military spending for its presence there and plans to buy 16 new F-35 jets.

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The White House announced plans Monday to build a new, large warship that President Donald Trump is calling a “battleship” as part of a larger vision to create a "Golden Fleet," according to people familiar with the plans. Retired Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, who is now a senior director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and familiar with the discussions, said the announcement will include a new, large “surface combatant class” of ship and as many as 25 support ships. The announcement will come just a month after the Navy scrapped its plans to build a new, small warship, citing growing delays and cost overruns, deciding instead to go with a modified version of a Coast Guard cutter that was being produced until recently. Trump was joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Navy Secretary John Phelan for what is being billed by the White House as a “major announcement.” Trump plans to discuss a shipbuilding initiative, according to a White House official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. It’s being unveiled at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort while he vacations in Florida and as U.S. forces take part in operations in the Caribbean that Trump says are aimed at stemming the flow of illegal drugs into the U.S. and beyond and mounting pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government. Montgomery said that while he supports the idea to build more support ships, he was critical of the plan to build a new battleship-like warship. Historically, the term battleship has referred to a very specific type of ship — a large, heavily armored vessel armed with massive guns designed to bombard other ships or targets ashore. This type of ship was at the height of prominence during World War II, and the largest of the U.S. battleships, the Iowa-class, were roughly 60,000 tons. After World War II, the battleship's role in modern fleets diminished rapidly in favor of aircraft carriers and long-range missiles. The U.S. Navy did modernize four Iowa-class battleships in the 1980s by adding cruise missiles and anti-ship missiles, along with modern radars, but by the 1990s all four were decommissioned. Trump has long held strong opinions on specific aspects of the Navy’s fleet, sometimes with a view toward keeping older technology instead of modernizing. During his first term, he unsuccessfully called for the return to steam-powered catapults to launch jets from the Navy’s newest aircraft carriers instead of the more modern electromagnetic system. He has also complained to Phelan about the look of the Navy’s destroyers and decried Navy ships being covered in rust. Phelan told senators at his confirmation hearing that Trump "has texted me numerous times very late at night, sometimes after one (o’clock) in the morning” about “rusty ships or ships in a yard, asking me what am I doing about it.” On a visit to a shipyard that was working on the now-canceled Constellation-class frigate in 2020, Trump said he personally changed the design of the ship. “I looked at it, I said, ‘That’s a terrible-looking ship, let’s make it beautiful,’” Trump said at the time.

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3 Year Extension of Obamacare? 

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Hundreds of Alabama funeralgoers mourned a Brown University sophomore killed in a recent campus attack. Friends and family members gathered at the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham to honor the memory of 19-year-old Ella Cook. Cook and another student were killed Dec. 13 when a gunman opened fire during a study session. Authorities believe a former graduate student carried out the attack. He was later found dead in New Hampshire. Cook was described as smart, confident, and kind. Cook was an accomplished pianist who was studying French, math and economics at Brown, where she also served as vice president of the college Republicans.

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Three inmates — including one who was being held on a murder charge — have escaped from a county jail just east of Atlanta, authorities said. The breakout happened early Monday morning at the DeKalb County Jail and was discovered during a routine security check, the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office said. “We take this breach very seriously and are working diligently to ensure these individuals are safely returned to custody as quickly as possible,” DeKalb County Sheriff Melody Maddox said in a statement. There were no immediate details about how the escape was carried out. The men might be armed and are considered dangerous, the sheriff's office warned. “The public is urged to exercise extreme caution and should not approach them,” the sheriff’s office said. The inmates range in age from 24 to 31, with the youngest one charged with murder and armed robbery. The other two inmates face charges that include armed robbery and arson. The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office Fugitive Unit is working with patrol officers and other law enforcement agencies in the search. The jail is in Decatur, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) east of downtown Atlanta.

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Today, Josh breaks down the state of the conservative movement after Turning Point USA’s AmFest weekend—laying out the growing divide between the grifters dragging the Right into chaos and the voices fighting to keep the movement sane and serious. He explains why the conservative movement is standing at a true tipping point, and what has to happen next if the Right wants to win the future.

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Rapper Nicki Minaj has made a surprise appearance at a gathering of conservatives in Arizona. Speaking on stage at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest convention, the artist praised President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, calling them “role models” for young men. The rap star was interviewed by Erika Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk, who has since taken over as leader of Turning Point. Kirk asked Minaj about her newly found support for Trump, whom she had condemned in the past. Minaj's appearance Sunday at the flagship event for the powerful conservative youth organization may shore up her status as a MAGA acolyte.

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President Donald Trump is gathering with top national security officials on Monday, a meeting that comes as the U.S. Coast Guard steps up efforts to interdict oil tankers in the Caribbean Sea as part of the Republican administration's escalating pressure campaign on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's government. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Navy Secretary John Phelan are scheduled to join Trump, who is vacationing at his Mar-a-Lago resort, for what the White House called a "major announcement." Trump plans to discuss a shipbuilding initiative at the event, according to a White House official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. But Trump's gathering of key members of his national security team also comes at yet another inflection point in Trump's four-month pressure campaign on the Maduro government, which began with the stated purpose of stemming the flow of illegal drugs from the South American nation but has developed into something more amorphous. Russia’s Foreign Ministry has started evacuating the families of diplomats from Venezuela, according to a European intelligence official speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information. The official told The Associated Press the evacuations include women and children and began on Friday. The official said Russian Foreign Ministry officials are assessing the situation in Venezuela in “very grim tones.” The White House and Kremlin did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In the Caribbean, the U.S. Coast Guard on Monday continued for the second day to chase a sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration describes as part of a “dark fleet” Venezuela is using to evade U.S. sanctions. The tanker, the official added, is flying under a false flag and is under a U.S. judicial seizure order. It is the third ship pursued by the Coast Guard, which on Saturday seized a Panama-flagged vessel called Centuries that U.S. officials said was part of the Venezuelan shadow fleet. The Coast Guard, with assistance from the Navy, seized a sanctioned tanker called Skipper on Dec. 10, also part of the shadow fleet of tankers that the U.S. says operates on the fringes of the law to move sanctioned cargo. That ship was registered in Panama. Trump, after that first seizure, said the U.S. would carry out a “blockade” of Venezuela. Trump has repeatedly said that Maduro's days in power are numbered. Last week, Trump demanded that Venezuela return assets that it seized from U.S. oil companies years ago, justifying anew his announcement of a “blockade” against sanctioned oil tankers traveling to or from the South American country. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose agency oversees the Coast Guard, said in a Monday appearance on “Fox & Friends” that the targeting of tankers is intended to send “a message around the world that the illegal activity that Maduro is participating in cannot stand, he needs to be gone, and that we will stand up for our people.” Meanwhile, the Defense Department, under Trump's orders, continues its campaign of attacks on smaller vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean that it alleges are carrying drugs to the United States and beyond. At least 104 people have been killed in 28 known strikes since early September. The strikes have faced scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers and human rights activists, who say the administration has offered scant evidence that its targets are indeed drug smugglers and that the fatal strikes amount to extrajudicial killings.

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The Trump administration is pausing leases for five large-scale offshore wind projects under construction along the East Coast. President Trump has not been shy about his disdain for wind energy. But the administration says it’s pausing the offshore projects because of national security risks identified by the Pentagon. A statement from the Interior secretary did not offer any details about those risks. The administration said the pause will give it time to address the security risks, while proponents of wind and renewable energy slammed the announcement.

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The Trump administration says it held “productive and constructive” weekend talks about ending the Russia Ukraine war. That was the assessment from White House envoy Steve Witkoff, who met in Florida with Ukrainian and European representatives to end the nearly four-year war. Ukraine’s president also pointed to progress, saying all sides were moving “quickly.” Although just last week, President Zelensky said he didn’t think Russia’s Vladimir Putin wants peace.

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Deputy AG Todd Blanche defends partial release of the Epstein Files, stating that eventually the DOJ will meet the obligaion to release all of the files.

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