EXCLUSIVE: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his family visited first lady Casey DeSantis’ hometown in Troy, Ohio, this week, touring her elementary school and paying a visit to a favorite local diner for hamburgers and milkshakes between political events in the Buckeye State.

The governor and first lady, along with their children Madison and Mason, took a trip down memory lane Thursday between speaking events for the Republican governor in Akron and West Chester Township.

According to DeSantis’ office, the family visited K’s Hamburger Shop, a favorite local eatery of Casey DeSantis growing up, and met with employees and diners. They also looked through the first lady’s yearbook over burgers and milkshakes.

Later, they toured Heywood Elementary School, meeting teachers and staff before finding Casey DeSantis’ class picture from her days as a student and the classroom where her mother taught as a speech pathologist.

Ron and Casey spoke to a crowd of 900 at a dinner hosted by the Butler County Republican Party. The governor also spoke to a crowd at the Summit County GOP’s Lincoln Day Breakfast in Akron, Ohio.

DeSantis, a former congressman, saw his popularity soar among conservatives across the country over the past three years due to his forceful pushback against COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and fighting against the media, corporations and teachers unions while improving the state’s economy. He won re-election by a comfortable 19 points last year.

DeSantis is widely considered an eventual candidate for president in 2024 and has already been the target of attacks from former President Trump, the polling front-runner for the GOP nomination next year.

After visiting Ohio Thursday, DeSantis gave speeches Friday in Lynchburg, Virginia, and Manchester, New Hampshire. The governor didn’t mention his anticipated presidential campaign in his speech in New Hampshire, other than to repeat his frequently used line that ‘I have only begun to fight.’

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

FIRST ON FOX: The Democrats in the Oregon state legislature were excoriated by the legislature’s Republican leaders for passing the ‘most extreme abortion and gender-altering legislation in our nation’s history’ out of committee.

Thursday saw Oregon House Bill 2002A expanding abortion access and ‘gender-affirming treatment’ pass through the Beaver State’s Joint Committee on Ways and Means on Thursday without any Republican support.

Oregon Senate Republican Leader Tim Knopp and House Republican Leader Vikki Breese-Iverson released a lengthy statement condemning the passage of the bill out of committee.

‘Tonight, during the Joint Committee on Ways and Means, despite uncertain facts and unanswered questions, Oregon Democrats passed the most extreme abortion and gender-altering legislation in our nation’s history,’ the GOP leaders wrote.

‘The legislative manipulation witnessed tonight was too fast and too extreme for Oregon. In less than an hour of debate in tonight’s meeting, without public input and minimal time for Q&A, Democrat leadership forced this bill through knowing that there will be no further opportunity for public input,’ they continued.

‘During the committee meeting, Democrat committee leadership audibly gasped when Legislative Counsel confirmed that 10-year-olds would be able to get abortions without parental knowledge under the legislation they were ‘intimately involved with crafting,’’ the lawmakers wrote.

Knopp and Breese-Iverson said that as ‘Democrat committee leadership stated tonight, Republicans ‘should have known this was coming’ and prepared accordingly.’

‘We did know, we did prepare, we did come equipped with thorough questions,’ the GOP leaders said. ‘They simply could not answer them and would not give us more time.’

‘If this policy was truly a well-crafted, well-vetted Democrat priority, why were government attorneys unable to answer the questions asked of them tonight with even an ounce of certainty?’ they asked.

The lawmakers noted there ‘are 73 days left in this Legislative Session’ and said the ‘time constraint argued by the Democrats is self-imposed,’ as they ‘are in the majority, and they set the agenda.’

‘House and Senate Republicans will continue to stand for the safety of children and the rights of parents,’ Knopp and Breese-Iverson said. ‘This is a day we won’t soon forget.’

The bill would shield patients and providers from civil or criminal liability as more states ban abortion following the Dobbs ruling and allow a person to sue someone who interfered with their receipt of reproductive health care.

The bill prohibits health care providers from disclosing minor patients’ use of ‘reproductive health care information or services’ to their parent or legal guardian without authorization from the patient.

The measure would allow doctors to provide reproductive health care services, including abortion, ‘to any person without regard to the age.’

‘If a physician, physician assistant, nurse practitioner, pharmacist or naturopathic physician provides reproductive health care information or services to a minor as described in ORS 109.640 (2), the physician, physician assistant, nurse practitioner, pharmacist or naturopathic physician may not disclose to the minor’s parent or legal guardian information regarding the information and services provided unless: (a) The minor has authorized the disclosure in writing; (b) The disclosure is authorized under ORS 192.567; or (c) The disclosure is otherwise required by federal law.’

A spokesperson for the Oregon Senate Democratic Caucus told Fox News Digital this ‘bill protects Oregonians’ basic rights and freedoms, specifically the right to make decisions about their own bodies.’

‘This is a right our state has protected for decades. We’re taking common sense steps to restore the rights Oregonians’ had before Roe was overturned,’ the spokesperson continued. ‘This bill does not tell doctors or patients what medical decisions to make, nor change parental consent protocols, nor allow doctors to go against standard medical procedure.’

‘Following standard process, this bill has been thoroughly vetted by multiple committees, subject-matter experts, and the public,’ they continued. ‘Republicans followed these same procedures when they were in the majority.’

Additionally, the bill would require gender-affirming care that is medically prescribed to be covered under insurance. 

Oregon Democrats made the bill one of their top priorities after Roe v. Wade was overturned last year.

Democrat Rep. Tawna Sanchez did not immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has charged itself with damaging the habitat of threatened and endangered birds it is legally bound to protect.The Garden State’s Division of Fish and Wildlife was sent a violation notice for unauthorized habitat construction for the American woodcock, which unwittingly displaced barred owl and red-shouldered hawk populations in Gloucester County.’This never should have happened. They must also take steps to improve their clearly inadequate internal review process and meaningfully engage the public,’ New Jersey Conservation Foundation head Tom Gilbert said.

New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection has charged itself with damaging habitat for threatened and endangered birds that it was supposed to protect.

The work was designed to create habitat for one species of bird, but actually wound up destroying habitat for two others.

The department acknowledged it sent a violation notice and threatened penalties against its own Division of Fish and Wildlife regarding unauthorized work in February and March at the Glassboro Wildlife Management Area in Clayton, Gloucester County.

It was unclear how any penalties might work when the DEP is both the accuser and the accused. It also was not immediately clear whether any money might actually change hands. The department did not respond to questions about potential fines.

The work involved the clearing of vegetation and disturbance of soils on nearly 3 acres of what the state calls ‘exceptional resource value freshwater wetlands.’ Before the work was done, this land was considered suitable habitat for the barred owl, which is listed as a threatened species, and the red-shouldered hawk, an endangered species.

The project also cleared and disturbed an additional 12 acres of land near wetlands known as transition areas, which also are protected.

The DEP refused Friday to discuss how the work happened without authorization.

On its website, the department wrote on Feb. 1 that the work sought to create 21 acres of habitat for the American woodcock, a member of the sandpiper family that uses its long, narrow beak to forage for earthworms in damp soil. The project was designed to create ‘meadow habitat.’

But in doing so, the state destroyed mature oak and pine forests in and near wetlands, and filled in some wetlands, four conservation groups said in a letter to the department in early March complaining about the work. The agency issued the violation notice on April 6.

‘The wetland soil and flora that were previously undisturbed have been destroyed, and the mature forest that was already habitat for numerous rare species of plants and birds was clear-cut logged,’ the groups wrote. ‘All trees have been cut, and all stumps bulldozed.’

Tom Gilbert, a leader of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, said, ‘This never should have happened. They must also take steps to improve their clearly inadequate internal review process and meaningfully engage the public.’

Jaclyn Rhoads, assistant executive director of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, commended the state for owning up to its mistake, but said the DEP should provide a list of current projects on its website for public review.

‘It is because of the public that we were able to stop further destruction of this landscape,’ she said.

Agency spokesman Larry Hajna said the Fish and Wildlife Division’s Bureau of Land Management must implement appropriate soil conservation measures within 10 days and submit a plan within 30 days to restore the site. That must include removal of wood chips placed there.

By the end of April, the DEP intends to issue a notice of penalty assessment.

Fish and Wildlife will propose additional environmentally beneficial measures, which will be subject to a public comment period, Hajna said.

Pentagon files leaker Jack Teixeira faces a lengthy prison sentence and hefty fines for his crime, but any sentence will depend on the full impact of the leaked information. 

‘If he downloaded 50 documents at one time, they could charge him with the retention of 50 documents or they could do 50 different charges of retention,’ Cully Stimson, senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation and former Navy JAG, told Fox News Digital. ‘There’s sort of an art in how you charge these things or how you indict these things.’

FBI agents arrested Teixeira, a Massachusetts Air National Guardsmen, at a home in North Dighton, Massachusetts, on Thursday in relation to a trove of classified documents that have been leaked online in recent months.

President Biden has said nothing leaked was ‘of great consequence,’ but White House national security spokesman John Kirby warned Wednesday, ‘We don’t know what else this individual or individuals might have and might still release.’  

Prosecutors on Friday charged Teixeira with unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information and willful retention of classified documents. He did not enter a plea and was ordered detained pending a hearing set for Wednesday, April 19, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.

Merrick Garland, the U.S. attorney general, used the 1917 Espionage Act when discussing charges against Teixeira, which would carry a sentence of up to 15 years in prison – ten years for the first charge, and five for the second. 

‘This criminal complaint gives us a hint, a big hint, about what the government thinks they have, what he did and where they’re going,’ Stimson said. He explained that if the case is as ‘cut and dry’ as the current facts indicate, the case will not take long to try. 

‘You can predict what a defense would be here,’ he continued. ‘This is a young, confused man. He was lonely. He had no one outside his little chat group to see this. He trusted them. He’s not a foreign agent. He’s not acting at the behest of a foreign agent. He’s a young guy. There’s no reason to ruin his life.’

The evidence may be so clear that Pentagon files leaker Jack Teixeira’s guilty sentence is just a matter of time, but the scope of his punishment depends on how damaging the leak proved to be – meaning that nothing is off the table, including the death penalty. 

‘In federal law, depending on how this is charged and depending on what they find out in their exploitation and collection of evidence – if, for example, we found out that the disclosures resulted in the death or deaths of individuals, and that was reasonably foreseeable, I can envision a hypothetical, factual scenario where the government asks for capital punishment.’ 

He pointed to the case of Chelsea Manning, who downloaded hundreds of thousands of files and gave them to WikiLeaks, who subsequently published the documents in full. The leak included the identities of people in Afghanistan who were helping the U.S. military. 

‘It was reasonably foreseeable that the Taliban and al-Qaeda would hunt those Afghan translators and others down and kill them, and in fact, that’s what happened,’ Stimson said. ‘But we didn’t know that at the beginning of the case, and we don’t know yet the full extent of what [Teixeira’s] done, and we don’t know the full extent of the damage that these disclosures have done.’

Biden has publicly opposed execution as a method of punishment, but his Department of Justice pushed for the use of capital punishment in the case of the Boston Marathon bomber, seeking to overturn a lower court ruling that vacated the decision. 

Rebekah Koffler, president of Doctrine & Strategy Consulting and a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer, claimed that the disclosures could have a ‘destructive impact’ on the country’s ability to collect intelligence.

‘It takes years to recruit human sources who are willing to betray their country and steal secrets from his/her country’s government and provide them to the United States,’ she explained. ‘It takes years and billions of dollars to map out access to adversarial (or allied) networks and systems, in order to intervene in their communications,’ Koffler said.

‘Now, some of these sources and channels will be patched up, closed and unusable by U.S. spy agencies. And massive amounts of taxpayers’ money will be wasted,’ she added. ‘Overall, the impact of this leak is disastrous.’

The evidence against Teixeira, who shared the documents with a small group of friends in a private online chat server, creates what Stimson referred to as a ‘slow plea,’ in which the guilt is ‘so overwhelmingly obvious that the defense can either try the case if the defendant wants to have a trial, or they just seek the best plea they can get and get it over with.’

‘You’re either an authorized recipient of classified information or you’re not – there’s no gray zone,’ Stimson added. ‘It doesn’t matter if you have a super secret cabal of little gamer weirdos and there’s only 12 or 15 or 25 in your little weirdo group.’

‘If they haven’t been vetted by the government and given top-secret security clearances, it doesn’t matter if it’s private or not: It matters whether it’s authorized to receive classified information.’

A bill that would channel public money to scholarships for private school tuition in Nebraska is headed to a final step needed for passage this year.

The bill, introduced by Omaha Sen. Lou Ann Linehan, does not appropriate taxpayer dollars directly toward private school vouchers. Instead, it would allow businesses, individuals, estates and trusts to donate a portion of owed state income tax to be used for scholarships covering private school tuition.

Businesses and individuals could donate up to $100,000 per year; estates and trusts could offer up to $1 million a year. The bill would allocate $25 million a year over the next two years and up to $100 million annually thereafter to cover such donations — money that otherwise would have gone into the state’s general revenue fund.

The money would be overseen and allocated by nonprofit groups. On Thursday, lawmakers voted to include an amendment that would cap the amount those groups could take from donations for administrative costs at no more than 10%. The amendment also included reporting requirements to track the scholarship allocations.

The bill includes a tier system for scholarships that prioritizes low-income students and those being bullied in their current school.

Public school advocates have blasted the measure as a ‘school voucher scheme’ that will hurt the state’s K-12 public school system.

‘Proponent’s game plan to force passage of their private school tax scheme is to threaten to hold hostage state funding of public schools –- public schools that educate 90% of all the kids in Nebraska,’ Nebraska State Education Association President Jenni Benson said in a statement. ‘If lawmakers cut promised state funding for public schools, it puts more pressure on our already-high property taxes.’

A group representing Roman Catholic-run schools in the state — which would be the recipients of the most of the scholarship funds — celebrated the bill’s advancement, echoing Linehan’s stance that the move is geared to help families in need.

But the Nebraska Catholic Conference did not address opponents’ concerns that its schools might discriminate against students and families — particularly those within the LGBTQ+ community — on the basis of religious tenets.

Omaha Sen. Megan Hunt, who opposes the bill, introduced an amendment earlier in the session that would have banned private schools benefiting from the vouchers from discriminating against families — including those within the LGBTQ+ community. It failed on a largely party-line vote.

If passed, Nebraska would become one of the last states to offer some form of public money for private school tuition.

The San Diego City Council will soon vote on whether to ban homeless encampments in many public locations, but some activists aren’t happy about it.

‘You are failing at your job and you’re blaming the unhoused population for your failure,’ one woman said during a heated public comment period. ‘You suck,’ she added, walking away from the microphone to applause and cheers.

More than 100 people attended the city’s Land Use and Housing Committee meeting Thursday to offer their opinions. Even more called in or emailed the committee about the proposal.

After more than two hours of public comment, the committee passed the ordinance 3-1, sending it to the full council for a vote.

The proposed ordinance would ban people from erecting tents within two blocks of schools or homeless shelters, in parks, along trolley tracks or near waterways. City workers regularly find items like electronics, drugs, human waste, fuel and more in these areas, which pose a risk to the environment and public health, according to a staff report on the proposal.

‘We want a city that feels and looks safe and healthy, and we can’t do that with the encampments on the street right now,’ said Councilmember Stephen Whitburn, according to local news station CBS 8.

Many business owners and residents testified in favor of the ordinance, saying they witness almost daily public drug use, litter and other illicit behavior. Some said walking around the city with their families has become unsafe with tents blocking sidewalks and aggressive behavior from people suffering mental health issues.

‘Now I am as liberal as they come,’ one man said, adding, ‘For those who want help, we have to have a heart for them. For those who don’t want help, we have to have a hard line that says it’s not okay to block [sidewalks].’

But homeless advocates said the ordinance will only hurt people who are already suffering.

‘The ordinance basically just criminalizes homelessness,’ Felipe Cervantes, a volunteer with a student-run group The Mustard Seed Project told CBS 8. ‘It doesn’t solve a problem and it punishes people.’

Whitburn, who proposed the ordinance, said it would only be enforced if there is shelter space available for homeless people.

‘But there are also plenty of unsheltered folks who don’t welcome assistance,’ Whitburn said during Thursday’s hearing. ‘Individuals who for whatever reason have just decided they’re just going to live in an encampment on the sidewalk or a park or a canyon or riverbed. This ordinance addresses those individuals.’

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall is taking control of prison litigation away from the Department of Corrections and moving it to his office in their latest public disagreement.

Marshall informed the department that the attorney general intends to remove the assistant attorney general status of the department’s six attorneys, the Alabama Department of Corrections said Thursday in an emailed statement.

‘We will not speculate about the impact the AG’s decision will have on the ADOC, but I am confident in the ability of our Legal Division to protect the interests of this department throughout this transition. We will continue to focus on the critical mission of the ADOC — to provide public safety through the secure confinement, rehabilitation, and reentry of offenders,’ Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said in a statement Thursday.

A spokesperson for Marshall did not immediately return an email seeking comment about the reasons for the change. The governor’s office directed questions to the prison system.

The prison system is in the midst of high-stakes litigation that is pricey and carries potential long-term ramifications for the direction of the state’s prison system. The Department of Justice has sued the state, alleging that male prisoners are housed in violent prisons that violate the constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. A federal judge has also ordered the state to increase prison staff in an ongoing lawsuit over prison health care.

Marshall has had prior disagreements with the prison system. Earlier this year, he sued the ADOC and the Board of Pardons and Paroles to try to block the release of inmates to supervised release, arguing that victims’ families had not been properly notified.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday temporarily allowed access to the abortion pill mifepristone after a Texas ruling last week set limits to the use of the drug. 

Justice Samuel Alito halted the lower court rulings that seek to limit access to mifepristone Friday, which in turn freezes the litigation being pursued by anti-abortion groups and maintains availability. 

The conservative justice asked for challenges to the lower court ruling to be filed by Tuesday at noon.

Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled last week that the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) improperly approved mifepristone.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed emergency requests Friday to freeze Kacsmaryk’s injunction, along with Danco Laboratories. 

The halt on the ruling gives the Biden administration more time to issue challenges.

Kacsmaryk’s ruling would limit the drug’s distribution and jeopardize mifepristone’s FDA approval.

The Biden administration is planning to defend mifepristone’s availability in light of the landmark Dobbs decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in June 2022. 

Anti-abortion groups and Republican legislators across the country are advocating for abortion bans and restrictions. 

The Supreme Court will keep the Texas ruling on hold until 11:59 p.m. Wednesday. The court is expected to issue another order by that time.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved mifepristone in 2000. It has been used to terminate more than 5 million pregnancies.

Reuters contributed to this report.

The Supreme Court is allowing challenges to the structure of two federal agencies to go forward in federal court.

The high court ruled unanimously Friday to allow challenges to the structures of the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission to go forward in federal court. Lower courts had split on whether those challenges could proceed.

In one case, the FTC had brought an enforcement action against Axon Enterprise, the Arizona-based company best known for developing the Taser, arguing that its purchase of its competitor Vievu for approximately $13 million was improper. The other case involved an SEC enforcement action against Michelle Cochran, a certified public accountant. Axon and Cochran responded by suing in federal court and arguing that the structure of the FTC and SEC respectively are unconstitutional. Each said that the administrative law judges that oversee enforcement actions are insufficiently accountable to the president, in violation of separation-of-powers principles in the Constitution.

Both lawsuits were initially dismissed. Axon and Cochran appealed and while a federal appeals court in California said Axon’s lawsuit could not go forward, a federal appeals court based in New Orleans said Cochran’s case could move ahead.

Justice Elena Kagan wrote in an opinion that the question for the court was whether federal courts can ‘resolve the parties’ constitutional challenges to the Commissions’ structure.’ ‘The answer is yes,’ she wrote, saying federal courts are not barred from ‘entertaining these extraordinary claims.’

The cases the court ruled in are Axon Enterprise v. Federal Trade Commission, 21-86, and Securities and Exchange Commission et. al. v. Cochran, 21-1239.

MANCHESTER, N.H. – Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida’s address to the New Hampshire GOP’s annual fundraising dinner on Friday was momentarily interrupted a couple of minutes into his speech by a handful of female protesters.

The demonstrators, who appeared to chant ‘Jews Against DeSantis’ made their way all the way to the podium at the sold-out event at a hotel ballroom in downtown Manchester, New Hampshire’s largest city, before they were quickly removed by security.

DeSantis, remaking on the incident, told the audience to cheers and applause that ‘you’ve got to have a little spice in the speech. Right,’ before quickly returning to his prepared remarks.

All guests attending the event, which is the state party’s top annual fundraiser, had to pass through a security sweep before entering the ballroom.

New Hampshire state party chairman Chris Ager told Fox News earlier on Friday that the fundraising dinner would bring in over $250,000, which Ager said is a ‘record.’ And he noted that over 500 people would be in the audience, adding that ‘we had to close ticket sales earlier this week at 520 people.’

The trip is DeSantis’ first this cycle to New Hampshire, the state that holds the first primary and second contest overall in the GOP presidential nominating calendar. The popular conservative governor from Florida has already stopped this year in Iowa (which holds caucuses kicking off the Republican schedule) and Nevada (which holds the fourth contest) and next week visits South Carolina (which votes third).

While DeSantis remains on the 2024 sidelines, he’s expected to launch a presidential campaign sometime after the end of Florida’s legislative session, which concludes next month. But behind the scenes, he’s already made plenty of moves toward launching a campaign, including beefing up staff in Tallahassee.

The New Hampshire fundraising dinner is named after Amos Tuck, who is considered by many to have founded the Republican Party in the 1850s in Exeter, New Hampshire. Exeter, along with Ripon, Wisconsin, and Jackson, Michigan, claim to be the birthplace of the GOP.