It’s a July 4th tradition every four years in Iowa and New Hampshire – White House hopefuls marching in Independence Day parades in the year before the presidential caucuses and primaries.

Iowa and New Hampshire have led off both major parties’ presidential nominating calendars for half a century, and while the Democrats are upending their schedule, the two states will once again kick off the GOP lineup in 2024.

And on Tuesday, five Republican presidential candidates are marching in parades in New Hampshire, with three more in Iowa.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, ex-CIA spy and former Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, and Michigan businessman Perry Johnson are marching in parades in Amherst, Wolfeboro and Merrimack, New Hampshire. DeSantis was seen marching the entire route of the parade and was met with a lot of cheers – but some jeers as well.

‘The fourth is not only celebrating independence but celebrating liberty and freedom that are synonyms for independence. I love the fourth of July because it reminds me of the men and the women who are willing to sacrifice everything for the cause of freedom,’ Scott said in a Fox News Digital interview in Merrimack, New Hampshire.  ‘I can’t think of a better day to celebrate are men in uniform, whether it’s backing the blue or whether it’s our military men and women. This is a great day to celebrate who we are.’

Scott emphasized that ‘there’s not a better place to call home than America and I can’t think of a better place to celebrate it than this state – the Granite State – Live free or Die. It’s really synonymous with who we are as Americans.’ 

Former Vice President Mike Pence marched in the Urbandale, Iowa, Independence Day parade, with former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and former nationally syndicated radio host and 2021 California gubernatorial recall election candidate Larry Elder marching in Clear Lake, Iowa. Mayor Francis Suarez of Miami, Florida, is also in Iowa, taking part in July 4th festivities in Cedar Rapids.

Here are some sights from today as the presidential campaign trail and the parade routes intersected.

FIRST ON FOX — Former Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey is launching his bid for Congress in Illinois’ 12th District against five-term Republican incumbent Mike Bost, R-Ill.

‘It’s time for a change,’ Bailey told Fox News Digital. ‘We need more people to stand up and stop the compromise that’s destroying our values.’

Bailey says he can beat Bost through a ‘grassroots movement’ he built during his 2022 gubernatorial bid, which he lost to Democrat JB Pritzker.  The southern Illinois farmer also calls Bost ‘a career politician’ who caves to ‘the left-wing agenda.’

‘This is not a career,’ said Bailey. ‘I’ve been out there working and fighting against the adversity and the failures of career politicians, and I’m tired of it.’

Bailey and Bost have both been endorsed by former President Donald Trump in their previous political campaigns. However, Bailey says he will be working hard to get Trump’s endorsement in the primary. 

‘I’m in communication [with Trump]. I’ve had conversations with him in the last several months, and my goal is to prove that I am the fighter,’ said Bailey.

Bailey also said Trump asked him if Mike Bost was ‘a good guy’ a year ago. 

‘I said, here’s the deal. He was a congressman the entire time that you were president. And the fact that you don’t know if he’s the good guy or not, that should say a lot,’ said Bailey.

However, the former president did say Bost was a ‘proud ally’ and ‘terrific representative’ in his 2022 endorsement. Bost won the seat by 50 points.

‘[Bost] knows there’s a threat, and he’s certainly become more conservative in the last year than he has ever been,’ said Bailey. 

Trump won Illinois’ 12th District in 2020 with 56% of the vote. 

The southern Illinois farmer also says he is no stranger to being outspent by his opponents after facing off against JB Pritzker’s $152 million re-election bid.

‘I do not anticipate that I’m going to match, by any means, dollar for dollar, but no one outworked me,’ said Bailey. ‘I spent all my life being a farmer, getting up early, putting the work in. And I will do that.’

The primary election for Illinois’s 12th Congressional District is March 19, 2024.

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Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom took time during a weekend trip to deep-red Idaho to celebrate a bookstore claiming it sells ‘banned’ books.

‘Book bans are at a record high – there have been over 1,200 challenges in the last year, nearly double the (then-record) total from 2021,’ Newsom tweeted on Sunday, including a video of his visit to Rediscovered Books in Boise.

‘Couldn’t leave Boise without dropping by this incredible bookstore. The owners of Rediscovered Books are doing everything they can to push back against these insane bans happening across the country,’ he added.

The video Newsom posted included shots of him browsing through the store, an image of what appeared to be a bumper sticker reading, ‘Stick it to the ban. Read banned books,’ and an image of sign reading, ‘Read these banned books.’

According to an April report, nearly 1,500 books were ‘banned’ in the first half of the 2022-2023 school year across the country as conservatives push back against what many view as attempts to indoctrinate children with books on the themes of race, racism and LGBTQ ideology. The book ‘bans’ – which consist of removing sexually-explicit books from public school libraries, or restricting access to older students – have been largely prevalent in red states.

Newsom, who has been a frequent critic of such ‘bans,’ visited Idaho to campaign for President Biden. It was his latest visit to a red state to share his liberal message that many Americans view as the source of what’s driving many Californians to pick up and move.

Despite his campaigning in support of Biden, Newsom has been seen as a potential rival to the president in the 2024 presidential race. Polls have shown that a majority of Americans, including Democrats, don’t want Biden to run for a second term.

It’s unclear what Newsom’s future presidential aspirations might be, but he did tell Fox News’ Sean Hannity last month that he had ‘great confidence’ in Biden’s leadership.

Fox News’ Joshua Q. Nelson contributed to this report.

A new Gallup poll released one day ahead of Independence Day shows confidence in the U.S. government to be the lowest across all countries in the G7.

According to the poll, just 31% of American adults ‘have confidence’ in the U.S. government, down from 56%, the highest in the G7, in 2006. A whopping 69% of Americans said they did not have confidence in the government.

The U.S. was followed closely by the U.K., with just 33% of British adults having confidence in its government.

Among the other G7 countries, Germany ranked the highest with 61% of its citizens having confidence in its government, followed by Canada at 51%, France at 46%, Japan at 43%, and Italy at 41%.

According to Gallup, Americans’ confidence in their government has declined sharply over the years, but saw a drop from 46% to 40% after President Biden took office in 2021, and again to 31% in 2022, on par with the lowest levels of confidence reached in 2013, 2016 and 2018.

The poll comes as Biden continues to be plagued by low approval ratings, hovering between 42% and 46% for the past year, according to a recent Fox News poll.

A separate Gallup poll released last week found that just 39% of U.S. adults expressed ‘extreme pride’ in the country, just one percent higher than 2022’s record-low number.

The California Reparations Task Force is asking the Democrat-controlled state legislature to eliminate interest on past-due child support, as well as any back child support debt for Black residents of the state.

In its final report released last week, the group claimed ‘discriminatory’ laws ‘have torn African American families apart,’ and that one effect of that is the ‘harms’ caused by ‘the disproportionate amount of African Americans who are burdened with child support debt.’ 

The nearly 1,100-page document stated that Black Californians represent a larger percentage of those who owe child support debt than their proportion of the state’s population. 

It also claimed the 10% interest the state charges on back child support ‘hinders’ their ability to finance further education, attend job training, find employment and maintain housing because of the legal consequences of not paying such debt.

The report cited a 2003 California Department of Child Support Services study that estimated 27% of owed child support in the state was unpaid interest, that those who owed child support had lower incomes than ‘the typical California worker’ and that such interest required a larger portion of their income to actually pay the debt.

‘The Task Force recommends that the Legislature enact legislation to terminate all interest accrued on back child support, requiring only the payment of the principal owed. At a minimum, the proposal recommends that the Legislature eliminate the prospective accrual of interest on child support debt for low-income parents,’ the report said. 

‘The Task Force further recommends that the Legislature amend Family Code section 17560, the ‘offers in compromise’ provision, to allow for offers in compromise and forgiveness of child support debt based solely on a parent’s fnancial (sic) circumstances and ability to pay,’ it added.

The report is a culmination of two years of research done by the task force into what it says is the historical discrimination faced by Black Californians and their ancestors in the state. 

It also offers a broad account of the ways it accuses the state of wronging descendants of Black slaves.

The state legislature will now determine what aspects of the report, including monetary compensation for Black residents, it will approve or deny.

EXCLUSIVE: A coalition of pro-life groups is calling on House Republicans to rescind the Department of Defense’s policy allowing service members time off and travel reimbursements for abortions through the annual National Defense Authorization Act.

In a letter obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital, nearly 50 think tanks and activist organizations accused the Biden administration of politicizing the DoD by using taxpayer money to fund elective abortions for service members.

The letter, which was sent to lawmakers on Thursday, asked Republicans on Capitol Hill to fully repeal the department’s ‘illegal’ policy through the NDAA ‘in order for a ‘clean’ bill to move forward.’

Organizations that signed the plea include the Heritage Foundation, Heritage Action for America, Students for Life Action, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Family Research Council and the American Cornerstone Institute.

‘The Pentagon firmly entered the political space when it opted to change policy and start granting paid vacation and funding of travel expenses for service members to obtain abortions,’ Thomas​ Spoehr, Director at the Center for National Defense at the Heritage Foundation told Fox News Digital. ‘This despite longstanding laws prohibiting federal support for abortions. The NDAA, where Congress provides the annual direction for [the] DoD to operate, is the most appropriate vehicle for Congress to direct the Pentagon to return to its previous policies on abortion.’

The letter was addressed to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Calif.; House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, La.; House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, Minn.; House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, N.Y.; House Republican Policy Committee Chair Gary Palmer, Ala.; House Rules Committee Chair Tom Cole, Okla.; House Armed Services Committee Chair Mike Rogers, Ala.; and House Appropriations Committee Chair Kay Granger, Texas.

None of the House Republicans who received the letter responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment before publication.

The House Armed Services Committee passed the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2024 last month, and House Republicans could take up the bill as early as next week. GOP lawmakers filed numerous amendments last week that they hope to be included in the NDAA for 2024.

‘Clear language defunding Biden’s abortion travel policy has passed the Appropriations Committee in the Department of Defense Appropriations bill, but the NDAA is the legislative vehicle to reassert Congress’ authority over policymaking and ensure that our nation’s laws and policies reflect the will of the American people,’ the groups wrote in the letter. ‘Now that the House Armed Services Committee has passed the FY24 NDAA, it is imperative that this policy be fully repealed in any NDAA that passes on the House floor.’

The Pentagon’s policy allowing service members time off for an elective abortion and reimbursing them for travel costs related to the procedure was put in place last year following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which gave states the authority to determine their own abortion laws.

After the ruling, Biden affirmed his position that his administration was committed to protecting access to abortion.

‘After the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs, President Biden declared his intent to further his pro-abortion agenda through every means possible,’ the coalition wrote in the letter. ‘Four days after the decision, on June 28, 2022, Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, Gilbert Cisneros Jr. released a memo detailing the department’s existing authority on paying for abortions stating clearly that travel for non-covered abortions would be paid ‘at the service member’s own expense.”

The letter continued: ‘However, continued pressure from the Biden Administration’s Taskforce on Reproductive Healthcare Access led the Department of Defense to reconsider their stance to follow all applicable laws on performing and paying for abortions. An October 22, 2022, memo from Secretary Lloyd Austin outlined new policies that use taxpayer funds to pay for time off, lodging and travel for elective abortions, and these policies were made official on February 16, 2023.’

Heritage Action for America Acting Executive Director Ryan Walker told Fox News Digital that Austin bypassed Congress and the federal rulemaking process with the October memo.

‘This not only violated longstanding federal law prohibiting taxpayer funding for abortions, but it also heavily politicized the traditionally bipartisan NDAA process,’ Walker said. ‘Now, as the coalition points out, the only way Congress can ensure a bipartisan NDAA moves forward is by rescinding this DOD policy through amendments on the floor.’

Representatives now have their first opportunity to reauthorize the DoD and its policies since the decision went into effect. 

House Republicans have put forward amendments in the NDAA bill in support of rescinding this policy and have also included provisions to shut down the Biden administration’s ‘woke’ policies related to gender and diversity, equity and inclusion.

The Pentagon has faced criticism throughout the Biden administration for pushing social issues into the military that Republicans argue distract from war preparedness.

The groups began to wrap the letter up by saying Americans expect the military to ‘focus on winning actual wars, not fighting culture wars’ and ‘the majority (60%) do not approve of using taxpayer money to fund abortions.’

‘Rather than focusing on confronting the serious challenges facing our country, President Biden and Secretary Austin have unnecessarily dragged the military into the middle of a divisive political issue and attempted to co-opt military resources in furtherance of an unrelated, partisan, ideological agenda,’ the organizations concluded. ‘The House of Representatives now has an opportunity to remedy these egregious actions and pass a truly clean NDAA.’

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California’s reparations task force wants state lawmakers to ban the arrest and prosecution of people who violate laws against public urination and other ‘public disorder offenses,’ the task force said in its final report released last week. 

The call to end police enforcement of laws, including those that prohibit public urination, is among the official policy recommendations listed in the final report, which contains 40 chapters and runs well over 1,000 pages. 

‘A signification [sic] proportion of law enforcement contact with the public relates to low-level, non-violent offenses. Thus, for example, law enforcement is frequently tasked with enforcing public disorder offenses, such as illegal camping, public intoxication, disorderly conduct, minor trespass, and public urination. Although the subjects of these contacts are often experiencing homelessness, a mental health crisis, or both, the responding officers typically possess neither training nor expertise in working with these vulnerable populations,’ the report charges. 

‘This disconnect often results in the use of excessive and sometimes fatal force that falls disproportionately on Black individuals. Given the devastating impacts of this kind of over-policing, the Task Force recommends that the Legislature prohibit law enforcement from criminally enforcing public disorder infractions and other low-level crimes,’ the report continues. 

‘Instead, a public health and safety institution, without criminal arrest or prosecution powers, would enforce prohibitions such as sleeping on the sidewalk, fare evasion, and similar transit-related or other public disorder violations that criminalize poverty. People arrested or criminally prosecuted for these administrative violations should be granted a private right of action to sue for damages or should automatically receive a damages payout.’

The report stops short of giving an exact dollar amount it wants for descendants of slaves who live in the state, though it makes clear the task force thinks the dollar amount should be significant. It also includes dozens of policy recommendations, including the ban on prosecution of ‘public disorder offenses.’ 

This is not the first time that Californian left-wing voices have said law enforcement should turn a blind eye to publicly emptying one’s bladder. 

Former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, whose parents were part of the domestic terrorist Weather Underground group, promised during his 2019 campaign that he would not prosecute ‘cases involving quality-of-life crimes. Crimes such as public camping, offering or soliciting sex, public urination, blocking a sidewalk, etc., should not and will not be prosecuted. Many of these crimes are still being prosecuted; we have a long way to go to decriminalize poverty and homelessness.’

Boudin was recalled in June 2022, less than three years after he was elected, in a campaign that was marked by public outrage over Boudin’s soft-on-crime approach. 

The reparations task force did not immediately return Fox News Digital’s request for further clarification on why police officers shouldn’t enforce public urination laws. 

Republican presidential candidate and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has called the arguments by some of his presidential rivals to end American birthright citizenship ‘really idiotic,’ and suggested he might not have become a U.S. citizen without the existence of the 14th Amendment.

‘Our Founding Fathers decided that people born here were immediately citizens. Cracking open the Constitution to eliminate that right seems really idiotic,’ Suarez, whose parents were both immigrants from Cuba, told the Daily Caller last week. 

‘My parents both came here to escape communism. They came legally, but I became a citizen because I was born here. We need to close our borders to illegal immigration not open up the Constitution. One out of every five Americans is Hispanic. We can get their votes, but this isn’t a way to do it,’ he added.

The 14th Amendment, which was ratified in July 1868, grants citizenship to anyone ‘born or naturalized in the United States,’ and has become a point of contention amid the migrant crisis at the U.S. border with Mexico.

Former President Donald Trump first promised to end birthright citizenship in 2018 in response to massive migrant caravans made up of largely Central and South Americans heading to the border by traversing through Mexico. He ultimately didn’t follow through, but vowed in May to do so again if elected to another term.

A number of other Republican presidential candidates have also signaled they would look to end certain aspects of birthright citizenship, including former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has sided with Suarez, telling the Daily Caller last week that such vows to end birthright citizenship through executive order were ’empty promises’ and ‘disrespectful to our Constitution.’ 

The swanky, celebrity-studded city of West Hollywood officially has the highest minimum wage of any U.S. city after pay zoomed to $19.08 an hour Saturday.

Workers in West Hollywood welcomed the increase amid rising rent, gas and food prices, although employers grumbled about growing labor costs that they say could drive them out of business.

Lucian Tudor, chief executive of upscale restaurant La Boheme, told the Los Angeles Times he has cut staff from 120 to 80 to trim costs. The city’s minimum wage climbed $1 in January to $17.50 an hour for businesses with at least 50 employees.

‘These pay increases are about superficiality and about opportunistic politicians who are just trying to make a name for themselves,’ Tudor, who would prefer a minimum wage that accounts for tips like what New York City has, told the news outlet.

West Hollywood, tucked between the cities of Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, has about 35,000 people.

The minimum wage also went up in other cities on Saturday.

San Francisco’s minimum wage increased more than a $1 to $18.07 an hour. Los Angeles is now $16.78 an hour, and the minimum wage in Washington, D.C. is $17, up from $16.10 an hour.

For workers in Los Angeles hotels with 60 rooms or more, the minimum pay increased to $19.73 an hour on Saturday, up from $18.86. Hotel workers in Santa Monica also saw their pay climb to $19.73.

Seattle had the highest minimum wage of any U.S. city in January when its hourly rate increased to $18.69.

Norberto Ruiz, who works in a liquor store in West Hollywood, told the Los Angeles Times that a wage increase last summer allowed his family to purchase a $150 air conditioner.

‘I don’t think people understand how much an extra dollar or two can change people’s lives,’ Ruiz told the news outlet.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has declined to approve Amneal Pharmaceuticals’ drug for Parkinson’s disease due to inadequate safety data on the treatment to help control symptoms in patients for a longer duration, the company said on Monday.

Shares of Amneal Pharmaceuticals fell 13.1% to $2.7 in choppy after-market trading.

The FDA in a complete response letter said while the company established the safety of one ingredient, levodopa, based on some studies, it was not able to adequately establish safety for the other ingredient, carbidopa.

The health regulator has requested additional information on the safety of the drug, while it did not identify any efficacy or manufacturing issues with the drug.

Amneal’s drug is a new formulation of carbidopa-levodopa, the standard of care for Parkinson’s, and is designed in a way that allows it to remain in a certain area of the small intestine for a longer period, helping in its consistent absorption.

The company said it will work closely with the health regulator to address the issues and plans to meet with the agency.

The health regulator’s decision is a potential hurdle to the company, which has been looking to grow its portfolio of branded drugs, expecting over $500 million in revenues from its specialty business by 2027.

The drugmaker said the decision does not impact its 2023 financial forecast as it did not include the revenue from the drug.

Amneal currently has another Parkinson’s drug, Rytary, which was approved in 2015 in the market but had been struggling to gain a foothold in the treatment space, with only 4% of patients using it.

Parkinson’s is a brain disorder that causes unintended or uncontrollable movements and is the second most-deadly neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s. There is no cure for Parkinson’s currently, but medicines and other therapies can help relieve symptoms.

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