The Los Angeles City Council voted 12-0 Friday to advance an ordinance that would officially make it a ‘sanctuary city’ for immigrants. 

The ordinance in California’s largest city would prohibit ‘city resources, property, or personnel from being utilized for any federal immigration enforcement, and related matters,’ according to a record of the vote on the City Council’s website. 

The motion had previously been approved by the City Council’s Civil Rights, Equity, Immigration, Aging and Disability Committee and the Public Safety Committee, and asks the city attorney to write a draft making LA a ‘sanctuary city,’ FOX 11 reported. 

‘For many people in Los Angeles who have been advocating for the city to become an official sanctuary city for many years, this is a long overdue process,’ Council member Nithya Raman, who was one of three members who introduced the motion, said.

Eunisses Hernandez, who also introduced the motion, said before the vote Friday, ‘This represents a message to our immigrant communities that you are important to us, we care about you, we know that you represent the nervous system of this city, the heart of this city and we got your back.’ 

Hernandez later tweeted, along with a video of her Friday remarks, ‘Today, our motion to draft legislation that would permanently enshrine sanctuary policies into City law was approved by City Council, a huge step forward in making Los Angeles a true Sanctuary City.’ 

Along with Raman, Hernandez and Hugo Soto-Martínez, who also co-introduced the motion, Council members Kevin DeLeon, Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Heather Hutt, Paul Krekorian, Tim Mcosker, Traci Park, Curren D. Price, Monica Rodriguez, and Katy Yaroslavsky all voted yes on the motion, while Bob Blumenfield and John Lee were absent. 

‘One in ten Angelenos are undocumented, and this community needs to be able to trust the government and access critical services just like anyone else,’ Soto-Martínez tweeted Friday. 

LA CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS INTRODUCE ‘SANCTUARY CITY’ LEGISLATION 

He added: ‘As immigrants across the country are facing increasing attacks from Republicans trying to use them as political pawns, it’s more important than ever to codify protections for our neighbors and ensure that LA is a true Sanctuary City.’ 

The motion was first introduced in March and would codify a similar 2017 directive issued by former L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti after former President Trump took office. 

The motion would also reportedly also instruct the city to prohibit inquiring about or collecting information about an individual’s immigration status, engaging in investigation or enforcement related to an individual’s immigration status, providing immigration authorities access to any non-public areas without a valid search or arrest warrant and providing access to city databases or any individual’s personal information or other data to federal immigration authorities. 

While the City Council previously passed a resolution that declared Los Angeles a ‘city of sanctuary,’ The Los Angeles Times reported it was a symbolic gesture that offered no legal protections.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the City Council’s members. 

Fox News’ Julia Musto contributed to this report. 

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President Biden hosted a ‘Pride Month 2023’ event on the White House lawn Saturday, decorating the area with rainbow motifs and the ‘Progress Pride flag.’

The event, hosting performers and speakers representing LGBT causes, acclaimed the Pride community as ‘the bravest and most inspiring people’ and an ‘example’ for the US and the entire world.

‘Outside the gates of this house are those who want to drag our country backwards, and so many battles yet to be braved. But today, we’re not here to be strong. We’re not here to be courageous. Even though for so many of you, just coming to this event is an act of bravery,’ said First Lady Jill Biden.

‘Every day that you’re alive and someone loves you is a miracle,’ Jill Biden said, quoting feminist author Rita Brown. She added, ‘And when you leave here to go back to the place that needs so much change, take that miracle with you.’

The first lady was followed by Scarlett Harvey, a health and fitness coach from Houston, Texas. 

Harvey told the crowd outside the White House that she has experienced discrimination as a lesbian mother in a conservative state and thanked Biden for his support of LGBT movements before giving the podium to the president.

‘Happy Pride Month!’ Biden told the crowd. ‘Happy Pride Year! Happy Pride Life!’

A ‘Progress Pride Flag’ was hung on the balcony of the White House for the event, flanked by two American Flags.

During his speech, the president repeated an anecdote he has told frequently in the past — claiming that when he was a child he witnessed two men kissing and turned to his father for an explanation.

Biden claims his father told him, ‘It’s simple, Joe. They love each other.’

He also specifically noted his intense support for ‘LGBTQ children’ and ‘transgender children.’

The president went on to call the LGBT community ‘the bravest and most inspiring’ people he’s ever met, calling them an example for the entire world to follow.

‘You’re some of the bravest and most inspiring people I’ve ever known. And I’ve known a lot of good folks,’ Biden said. ‘You set an example for the nation — and quite frankly for the world.’

‘You know, we all move forward when we move together with your joy, with your pride lighting the way,’ the president continued. ‘So today, let us proudly remember who we are — the United States of America.’

Biden was followed by a musical performance by singer Betty Who — however, the president, who was shaking hands off-stage, was called back up to the stage by the first lady.

The president did not make it back to the stage before the performance began, and the audience was told he would be back afterward to say a few words.

Biden did not reappear after Betty Who’s performance, but the singer was thanked and received a hug from the first lady.

North Carolina Republican delegates voted Saturday to censure U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis for allegedly straying from conservative values with his stances on immigration and LGBTQ+ rights.

At the state party’s annual convention in Greensboro, delegates accused the senator of violating key principles of the Republican platform. The censure needed two-thirds majority to pass, and there were 1,801 voting delegates present.

Tillis, who has served in the Senate since 2015, is known for his willingness to compromise with Democrats on issues such as immigration, gun violence and LGBTQ+ rights. He worked on the Respect For Marriage Act last year, which gave federal protections to interracial and same-sex marriages.

Tillis also supported funding for red flag laws, which give state courts power to remove firearms from people who may pose a threat to others or themselves. 

‘We need people who are unwavering in their support for conservative ideals,’ 81-year-old delegate Jim Forster told the Associated Press. ‘His recent actions don’t reflect the party’s shift to the right – in fact, they’re moving in the exact wrong direction.’

But other delegates disagreed with the censure, fearing it would divide Republicans further. State Senator Jim Burgin told the Associated Press that the vote sets a dangerous precedent for the party. 

‘I believe that a mob mentality doesn’t do us any good,’ North Carolina State Senator Bobby Hanig argued. ‘Senator Tillis does a lot for North Carolina, he does a lot for the coastal communities, so why would I want to make him mad?’

Tillis spokesperson Daniel Keylin defended the senator’s conservatism to Fox News Digital, citing his support for conservative legislation.

‘He will never apologize for his work passing the largest tax cut in history, introducing legislation to secure the border and end sanctuary cities, delivering desperately-needed funding to strengthen school safety and protecting the rights of churches to worship freely based on their belief in traditional marriage,’ Keylin said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Saturday picked up the endorsement of fellow Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt for the GOP’s 2024 presidential primary — marking a key endorsement for DeSantis as he seeks to replace former President Donald Trump as the frontrunner.

‘Governor DeSantis is a strong conservative and principled leader, and I am proud to endorse him for president,’ Stitt, the governor of Oklahoma, said in a statement.

Stitt praised DeSantis’ handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing that the Florida governor ‘did not surrender states’ rights and individual liberties over to groupthink.’

‘In this election cycle, Oklahomans will remember that DeSantis was one of the few who never backed down in the face of adversity, because DeSantis operated with dogged conviction and shared our values for a limited government and free country,’ he said.

Stitt went on to praise DeSantis as having ‘boldly delivered results for the people of Florida that laid the groundwork for a booming economy, an education system focused on student outcomes, and better infrastructure for working families.’ 

‘To deliver these same results all across America and unwind the disastrous liberal mandates of the Biden administration is going to demand a candidate who can win and keep winning as a two-term president. I am confident that leader is Ron DeSantis,’ he said.

Stitt’s backing is the latest pickup for DeSantis in the Sooner State. Earlier this week, 20 Oklahoma state legislators, as well as former NASA administrator and congressman Jim Bridenstine, announced their support for DeSantis’ bid.

The endorsement marks a key voice of support from a governor with a reputation as a strong conservative. Stitt made Oklahoma the first state to ban abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade and has also signed legislation authorizing the ‘constitutional carry’ of firearms in the state.

FORMER NEW JERSEY GOV CHRIS CHRISTIE LAUNCHES SECOND BID FOR WHITE HOUSE

Last year, he signed legislation barring males from participating in women’s sports and this year banned all sex reassignment procedures for minors in the state, including irreversible gender transition surgeries and hormone therapies.

The endorsements come as DeSantis seeks to close the gap on Trump, who polls show as the clear front-runner for the nomination. Meanwhile, the field is getting larger with the recent entries of both former Vice President Mike Pence and former N.J. Gov. Chris Christie into the 2024 field.

DeSantis has sought to contrast his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic with Trump’s. The DeSantis campaign this week debuted an AI-generated image depicting Trump hugging Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Trump has shot back, recently saying that Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ‘did better’ at handling the pandemic than his fellow Republican.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under President Biden is facing intense scrutiny for what critics have described as ineffective regulation of tobacco and nicotine, allegedly caving to political pressure to ban vapes and e-cigarettes as potential alternatives to traditional smoking while simultaneously allowing Chinese products to flood the U.S. market.

The FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) is charged with regulating the manufacture, distribution and marketing of tobacco products. However, the CTP has been under fire for its approach to vapes, e-cigarettes and other electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS).

While the FDA is cracking down on ENDS, it’s also allowing illicit and unregulated products to flood the market — including from China.

The FDA has sent hundreds of warning letters to companies marketing illegal e-cigarettes containing tobacco-derived nicotine, but it’s unclear whether additional enforcement actions were taken. Reports have highlighted how vape companies regularly flout the FDA’s orders and make, stock and sell illicit goods that can be seen at countless smoke shops and online retailers that aren’t approved by the FDA.

Many of these products were made in China. Indeed, at least 20 brands continue to sell China-made disposable devices with kid-friendly flavors such as ‘peach blueberry candy’ and ‘pineapple strawnana’ at liquor stores, smoke shops and convenience stores across the U.S., according to Reuters.

Former FDA chief Scott Gottlieb is one prominent voice who’s spotlighted the problem.

‘Synthetic nicotine is being used in products like Puff Bar, that are manufactured in China and other nations, and imported into the U.S. and specifically targeted to youth,’ he tweeted. ‘This is exactly opposite what Congress intended through its public health efforts. There are also U.S. tobacco companies that are largely following the rules, that are making investment in potentially less harmful alternatives to combustible tobacco, that pay taxes and fees on products – all while the foreign-made synthetic products evade the same requirements.’

In Congress, meanwhile, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla, in February introduced legislation to close loopholes concerning ENDS containing flavors that could be enticing to children.

‘Chinese manufacturers and suppliers are flooding the U.S. market with unregulated, harmful substances that are altering our children’s brain development and live,’ she said in a statement.

A month later, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called on the FDA to investigate Elf Bar, a new Chinese e-cigarette that is being advertised on social media.

‘Elf Bar is littering TikTok and Instagram, using influencers they pay directly, to push the e-cig to kids and teens,’ he said in a statement. ‘This kind of ploy might totally evade FDA advertising rules, and we have to get ahead of it.’

However, critics warn that targeting one company at a time won’t solve the problem, because replacements will just pop up, posing a particular challenge for children. According to the Department of Health and Human Service’s inspector general, the FDA’s approach to overseeing online tobacco retailers ‘raises questions about the effectiveness of FDA’s efforts to prevent youth access to tobacco products online. In the first 10 years of its oversight, FDA’s actions toward online tobacco retailers were limited to warning letters and its oversight has had poor transparency.’

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the House Oversight Committee, wrote a letter in March to FDA Commissioner Robert Califf demanding documents to conduct oversight of the agency’s regulation of tobacco and nicotine products through CTP. He didn’t hold back in expressing his concerns, arguing that the agency’s regulatory system has led to ‘enforcement failures’ and ‘suspicions of political interference.’

‘CTP has fostered uncertainty in the marketplace and has allowed unsafe and unregulated products to proliferate,’ wrote Comer. ‘Therefore, we seek documents and information regarding CTP’s activities to enable transparency and to ensure the CTP is performing required functions. . . . If products are allowed to go to market or stay on the market without authorized applications, then the entire regulatory effort would appear to be pointless.’

Comer’s letter came after the Reagan-Udall Foundation published a recent report at the request of Califf evaluating the CTP’s tobacco regulatory programs. The report — the product of a panel of independent experts who concluded that ‘fundamental policy and scientific issues remain unanswered that the center must address’ — was unable to identify a comprehensive plan that clearly articulates CTP’s goals and priorities.

‘CTP is perceived as being reactive and overwhelmed, versus proactive and strategic,’ the report said, adding that the center lacks clarity and transparency in how it makes decisions — especially when it comes to weighing scientific information versus policy judgments.

‘Failure to take timely enforcement action jeopardizes public health and undermines FDA’s credibility and effectiveness in tobacco product regulation,’ the report added. ‘The agency has not been transparent regarding the reasons it has failed to clear the market of illegal products, or even whether its policy preference is to do so, contributing to stakeholder frustration and, in some situations, additional litigation.’

According to Comer, the evaluation shows that the agency ‘appears to be unable to perform its basic functions and ensure that Americans have access to products that have the potential to lower the rate of smoking-related disease and death.’

When reached for comment for this story, the FDA pointed Fox News Digital to recent agency statements concerning tobacco regulation. In the agency’s official response to the Reagan-Udall report, Brian King, director of CTP, indicated that it would place a newfound emphasis on strategic planning.

‘Effective immediately, CTP will initiate the development of a comprehensive 5-year strategic plan, building upon the foundation of the center’s previous strategic plans,’ King said in the response. ‘Given the profound impact of tobacco-related disparities across CTP’s programmatic portfolio, the plan will include advancing health equity as a central tenet and focus on being proactive in its activities.’

The agency also listed other ways it plans on responding to the report’s varied recommendations.

However, it is unclear how the FDA will address one of the major concerns of close observers: the politicization of agency decision-making.

‘We have deep concerns that CTP’s decisions have been influenced by political concerns
rather than scientific evidence,’ Comer wrote in his letter.

Such concerns are apparent in comments from FDA staff to the Reagan-Udall Foundation that are no longer available on its website but present an agency that is struggling to fulfill its mandate. According to the Tobacco Reporter, one commenter said that ‘scientific disagreement is frowned upon, if not entirely suppressed, and punished through various backhanded methods.’ They added that leadership is ‘unsupportive of a reviewer’s fundamental duty to provide an unbiased review using the best available science.’ Another commenter said that ‘in cases where reviews are finished and scientific decisions are made, they are also overruled by political agendas and pushed to change decisions.’

Meanwhile, the FDA is facing political pressure from Capitol Hill to prevent ENDS from going to market. For example, several Democrats in Congress have pushed the agency to deny the applications of Juul Labs Inc., an e-cigarette company, and remove its products from the market. 

At a congressional hearing in June 2021, at which the FDA commissioner was testifying, Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., said that ‘e-cigarettes have hooked a generation of young people on nicotine. The FDA has an obligation to intervene and protect our children.’ Fellow Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz added, ‘To be clear, you should reject all of Juul’s products, all of them, given what we know about how Juul marketed and addicted kids to their product.’

Several other Democrats, including in the Senate, similarly demanded a ban on Juul.

The demands continued into 2022, with Democratic lawmakers writing letters to the FDA chief. Then, on June 22 of that year, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., issued a statement calling on Califf to more tightly regulate e-cigarettes or ‘step aside.’ The next day, the FDA banned Juul products from being sold in the U.S. by issuing marketing-denial orders.

The day after that, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., said he was ‘heartened’ by the FDA’s decisions following a ‘long conversation’ he had with agency officials. He added he’s ‘glad that at least we have an ally in the FDA commissioner.’

The agency has since put its order denying Juul on hold, saying that ‘there are scientific issues unique to the Juul application that warrant additional review.’

Beyond Juul and e-cigarettes, Democrats have similarly pressured the FDA to crack down on menthol vape products, arguing that ENDS flavored as anything other than tobacco can appeal to kids. Throughout 2021 and 2022, Democratic lawmakers repeatedly sent letters to the FDA chief and said in hearings that the agency should continue denying all flavored ENDS — especially menthol ones, despite the agency previously stating that kids prefer and use flavors such as fruit and mint ‘much more’ than tobacco or menthol. In January 2020, before the Biden administration, the FDA said that tobacco and menthol-flavored ENDS were not among the agency’s enforcement priorities.

Nonetheless, following an ongoing campaign on Capitol Hill, the FDA in October 2022 issued its first marketing-denial orders for menthol ENDS based on a full scientific review.

Months later, the drug-focused publication Filter reported that internal FDA memos showed that the CTP’s Office of Science had actually recommended to authorize menthol-flavored vaping products as permissible to go to market. However, according to the report, the office later reversed course due to pressure from agency leadership after the office of CTP Director Brian King intervened.

‘These documents appear to reveal substantial disagreement within CTP, one that could be framed as the agency’s scientists battling against its bureaucratic upper ranks, who have the FDA commissioner, and ultimately Congress, to answer to,’ the Filter wrote of the documents it had reviewed. ‘It can all be viewed, in other words, as a fight between science and politics.’

In April, the watchdog group Protect the Public’s Trust filed a complaint accusing the FDA of ‘knowing dissemination of scientifically unfounded statements about the vaping industry that were contrary to the FDA’s own research’ and ‘overruling its own scientists’ recommendations to authorize menthol-vapes without proper scientific justification and in contradiction of the FDA’s own research.’

A product is deemed permissible to go to market and appropriate for public health based largely on the likelihood of it transitioning adults away from cigarettes without introducing a new generation to nicotine.

An estimated 47 million U.S. adults currently use tobacco products, and nearly 80% of them use combustible products such as cigarettes, ‘which are responsible for the overwhelming burden of tobacco-related disease and death,’ Califf and King note in a recent article they co-authored.

Since 2005, the percentage of adult smokers in the U.S. has decreased from 20.9% to 12.5%. However, there are still about 30 million adult smokers across the country, where cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

According to one study cited by Califf and King in their article, ‘there was high certainty that quit rates were higher in people randomized to nicotine [e-cigarettes] than in those randomized to nicotine replacement therapy.’

Other research indicates that daily ENDS use ‘was significantly associated with an 8-fold greater odds of cigarette discontinuation compared with no e-cigarette use’ for U.S. adults who had no plans to ever quit smoking.

The FDA, which maintains that no tobacco product can be considered safe, has not authorized a single menthol-flavored ENDS product to date. As of January, the agency had completed review of, and made determinations on, more than 99% of tobacco products and authorized 23 tobacco-flavored e-cigarette products and devices. These are the only e-cigarette products that currently may be lawfully sold in the U.S.

House Republicans should be cooking with gas right now.

A debt ceiling crisis behind them, Republicans turned their attention to shielding the public from a federal intrusion into the kitchen. GOPers howled for months about potential regulation, if not prohibition, of gas stoves due to environmental concerns from the left. So Republicans drafted two bills to protect gas stoves.

If only some Republicans would let House Republicans even debate Republican bills about gas stoves.

Here’s what happened:

A conservative faction of House GOPers feel betrayed by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. They don’t like the debt ceiling pact McCarthy forged with President Biden to avoid a federal default. They abhor the fact that more Democrats than Republicans – way more – voted for the debt ceiling measure. That’s even though McCarthy managed to convince about two-thirds of all House Republicans to vote in favor of a plan to suspend the debt limit.

Political observers were skeptical McCarthy could thread such a needle: carve a deal with the President yet maintain credibility with a wide swath of House GOPers. It was quite an achievement by McCarthy.

But, in the eyes of some conservatives, McCarthy’s success barely flickers like a pilot light.

A revolt among right-wing Republicans blocked the House from even considering the dual gas stove bills on Tuesday. After two days of unsuccessful negotiations with the rebel Republicans, McCarthy and the GOP brass canceled votes in the House until next Monday.

House Republicans prepped the gas stove bills for debate early this week. Most bills headed to the House floor require what’s called a ‘rule’ before debate commences. The ‘rule’ sets the guidelines for how the House debates the legislation. That includes time restrictions and if any amendments are in order. The House must first adopt the rule before starting debate on the underlying legislation. No rule, no debate.

What is past is prologue.

There were a few tense moments on the House floor last week when the House prepared to bring the debt ceiling package to the floor for debate. Remember that House GOPers can only lose four of their own and still pass a measure without help from the Democrats. More than two dozen Republicans voted nay on the the ‘rule’ for the debt ceiling package. Defeating the rule would have stymied the House and prevented the underlying legislation from ever hitting the floor. But after the vote wore on, a trove of Democrats sat on the sidelines, not casting their ballots. With the vote on the rule failing, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., then held up a green voting card in the chamber. That was the signal to ‘release’ Democrats to vote in favor of the debt ceiling rule and make up the GOP deficit.

The rule passed, depositing the debt ceiling bill on the floor for debate.

However, the Republican majority would earn no such bailout from Jeffries and Democrats on the gas stove bills. A band of arch-conservatives didn’t inform the GOP brass of their plans to vote no on the rule for the gas stove measures. They ultimately tanked the rule – blocking the House from even initiating debate on legislation which the party designed to show up the Biden Administration.

And so commenced two days of backdoor meetings between various Republicans, McCarthy and other top GOP leaders about how to quell the uprising.

There were even suggestions of sniping between McCarthy and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La. It’s not absolutely clear that the duo is on the same page. Fox has been told for months to watch Scalise should McCarthy stumble in the Speakership.

It’s notable that Scalise was not part of the debt ceiling negotiations. McCarthy conscripted two lieutenants for the job: House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry, R-N.C. and Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., for the job. When asked about scheduling questions, McCarthy often replies ‘that’s a question for the Majority Leader.’ That’s absolutely true. The floor schedule is Scalise’s purview. But it’s unclear if McCarthy’s response is an attempt to stay in his lane or pawn off potential problems to Scalise.

After the sessions with recalcitrant GOPers, McCarthy finally declared a timeout on Wednesday. He dismissed the House with hopes of having things back to normal on Monday.

The House Rules Committee has teed up a meeting for Monday afternoon on a measure backed by Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., to block a rule by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) on pistol braces. Gun rights advocates note that disabled persons use pistol braces. They argue the government is infringing on Second Amendment rights by enforcing the ATF rule.

The Clyde bill is tied to the center of the controversy among some conservatives. Fox was told there was a problem gaining support for his legislation. Thus, it wasn’t ready for the floor. But conservatives claim there was retaliation by the leadership against Clyde. They contend the GOP leadership refused to bring the pistol brace legislation to the floor because Clyde voted against the rule on the gas stove bill this week.

McCarthy has tried to remain outwardly positive in his conversations with the press corps after the lengthy meetings with fellow Republicans. He trotted out a familiar line – used by both Democrats and Republicans – when their respective parties suffered internal strife. The Speaker said the GOP would have a ‘family discussion.’

‘I’m not going to get upset. I’m not going to get frustrated in this process. I know this job is not an easy job. I didn’t seek it because it’s easy. I like the challenge,’ said McCarthy.

However, the Speaker conceded he was baffled by the dissent.

‘I’m not quite sure what they’re concerned about,’ said McCarthy.

Fox is told there is anger at both McCarthy and Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky.. Massie is a member of the Rules Committee. Massie voted for the ‘rule’ to allow the debt ceiling bill to come to the floor. Had Massie not greenlighted the debt ceiling bill in the Rules Committee, the GOP would have lacked the votes to jettison the measure to the floor. That enrages members of the Freedom Caucus.

‘Massie’s been co-opted by the leadership,’ said one House conservative source.

Fox is told that some GOP members told Massie it’s time that he remove the debt clock pin he wears from his lapel after supporting the debt ceiling package.

‘The Rules Committee is not working the way it should,’ griped one Freedom Caucus member.

So the House is back at it on Monday. Scalise has tentatively returned the gas stove measures to the House’s docket for Tuesday. We’ll see if Republicans are indeed cooking with gas by then.

Or, the whole thing could explode.

Democratic Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly has named Drug Enforcement Administration Inspection Division head Erik Smith as the state’s next highway patrol superintendent.Smith’s predecessor, Herman Jones, retired amid sexual harassment allegations and federal lawsuits over policing practices.Smith, an Ellsworth, Kansas native, will take office on July 7. Until then, Lt. Col. Jason DeVore will head the department.

The Kansas governor chose a high-ranking U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration official Friday to head the state highway patrol, replacing a retiring superintendent who is facing federal lawsuits over the agency’s policing and allegations that he sexually harassed female employees.

Gov. Laura Kelly’s appointment of Erik Smith came on retiring Superintendent and Col. Herman Jones’ last day. Until Smith can take over as superintendent July 7, patrol Lt. Col. Jason DeVore, who also was named as a defendant in the sexual harassment lawsuit, pursued by five patrol employees.

Smith has strong ties to Kansas. He is a native of the small central Kansas town of Ellsworth, holds a criminal justice degree from Friends University in Wichita, and served nine years with the Sedgwick County sheriff’s office, also in Wichita, before joining the DEA. He has been chief of the DEA’s Inspection Division since 2021.

Smith’s appointment must be confirmed by the Kansas Senate next year. Lawmakers are out of session for the year, but a committee of Senate leaders will determine this summer whether Smith can serve as acting superintendent until a confirmation vote.

Kelly had faced pressure from the Republican-controlled Legislature to dismiss Jones, but he announced in February that he would retire. In announcing Smith’s appointment, Kelly made no mention of the allegations surrounding Jones and the patrol and thanked Jones for his 45 years in law enforcement. In a statement released by the governor’s office, DeVore thanked Kelly for her ‘steadfast support’ of the agency.

A federal judge is considering the legality of a patrol tactic known as the ‘Kansas two step,’ in which troopers make traffic stops and then draw out their interactions with drivers, allegedly so that they get time to find incriminating information or get a drug-sniffing dog to the scene. The judge had a trial last month in a lawsuit that argues that troopers use the tactic even when they have no reasonable suspicion of a crime.

Critics contend that the patrol targets motorists coming from other states where marijuana is legal. Kansas is among the few states with no legalized form of marijuana.

Meanwhile, a trial is scheduled in September in the sexual harassment lawsuit against Jones, DeVore and the state, alleging that the female employees faced a hostile work environment.

Jones has denied allegations of improper conduct, and Kelly has stood by him, telling The Topeka Capital-Journal in December that the state conducted two independent investigations and found ‘no substance to the allegations.’

Jones and DeVore settled a third lawsuit last year, filed by two majors who alleged that they were pushed out of the patrol in 2020 in retaliation for helping female employees file sexual harassment complaints. The patrol restored the two men to their previous positions, and they received more than year’s worth of back pay.

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The White House is still requiring guests who are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to wear face masks and practice social distancing, despite the federal government already terminating the national emergency declaration for the pandemic.

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden are inviting dozens of NCAA men’s and women’s national championship teams from Divisions I, II, and III to ‘College Athlete Day’ to celebrate their victories at the White House on Monday.

Earlier this week, the White House Office of Legislative Affairs sent out an email invitation to members of Congress obtained by Fox News Digital requesting their attendance at the event. The email included additional logistical details as well as COVID protocols.

According to the White House, while lawmakers are not required to receive a COVID test in advance of this event, they will need to wear a mask and socially distance if they’re unvaccinated.

‘Masking Guidance: Fully vaccinated guests are not required to wear a mask on the White House grounds,’ the email states [bold font in original email]. ‘Guests who are not fully vaccinated must wear a mask at all times and maintain at least 6 feet distance from others while on the White House grounds.‘

The White House email comes as hospitals and other health care facilities increasingly discard their masking rules with COVID becoming a smaller presence for most Americans in daily life.

Meanwhile, experts have been calling into question the efficacy of face masks.  A recent study published by the prestigious Cochrane Library, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health, dug into the findings of 78 randomized controlled trials to determine whether ‘physical interventions’ — including face masks and hand-washing — lessened the spread of respiratory viruses.

The conclusion about masks undercuts the scientific basis for masking, according to the study’s lead author.

 ‘There is just no evidence that they make any difference. Full stop,’ Tom Jefferson, the study’s lead author, said in an interview. When asked specifically about fitted N95 masks in health care settings, Jefferson said: ‘It makes no difference – none of it.’

The White House email calling for the unvaccinated to socially distance also comes as more researchers are skeptical of the idea that the COVID vaccine mandates limited transmission of the virus.

A recent study from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University concluded that COVID vaccine mandates in nine major cities didn’t appear to make a difference in terms of curbing cases deaths from the pandemic.

The study came after last year, a director of the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer admitted at a hearing before the European Parliament that, at the time of its introduction, the COVID vaccine had never been tested for stopping transmission of the virus, according to a video of the exchange posted by parliamentarian Rob Roos. 

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory group said in February that it wasn’t recommending more than one annual coronavirus vaccine booster.

Biden previously attacked those unvaccinated against COVID for not doing the ‘right thing’ and ‘costing all of us.’ He accused them of causing ‘a lot of damage’ by ‘making people sick and causing… people to die’ and standing in the way of ‘getting back to normal.’

When announcing his vaccine mandates last year, Biden warned those hesitant to receive the vaccination: ‘We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin.’

Despite the White House’s mask mandate for the unvaccinated, the federal government officially ended the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) on May 11. The secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services can declare a public health emergency under the Public Health Service Act. The COVID-19 PHE had been in effect since January 2020.

Days before the PHE termination, the World Health Organization announced that COVID no longer qualifies as a global emergency, marking a symbolic end to the pandemic.

A few weeks earlier, President Biden signed a bill in April terminating the national emergency declaration that allowed the government to respond to COVID with certain authorities that it otherwise wouldn’t have. That decisions came several months after Biden publicly declared ‘the pandemic is over’ last September in an interview.

The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story.

Former President Donald Trump attacked Special Counsel Jack Smith after his unsealed indictment shows the ex-commander-in-chief was charged with 37 counts of criminal wrongdoing over his handling of classified documents, calling him a ‘deranged lunatic.’

Posting a photo of Smith to his Truth Social app, Trump accused the prosecutor of being behind a 2013 controversy in which the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was revealed to be targeting political groups, mainly those on the right, for increased auditing.

‘This is the man who caused the Lois Lerner catastrophe with the IRS. He went after Evangelicals and Great Americans of Faith. The United States had to apologize, and pay major damages for what this deranged lunatic did,’ Trump wrote. 

Lerner was a central figure in the IRS scandal, with lawmakers voting to hold her in contempt of Congress for what they said was insufficient testimony on the issue in 2014.

In his attack on Smith, Trump also cited the corruption case of ex-Virginia GOP governor Robert McDonnell. Smith successfully secured his conviction, though it was later overturned by the Supreme Court. 

‘He had a unanimous loss in the Supreme Court. His wife is a Trump Hater, just as he is a Trump Hater—a deranged ‘psycho’ that shouldn’t be involved in any case having to do with ‘Justice,’ other than to look at Biden as a criminal, which he is!’ Trump wrote.

Trump was charged for improperly handling classified documents and obstructing justice. His aide Walt Nauta was also indicted on six obstruction and concealment-related charges. 

The former president has said that he is not guilty of any crimes and has decried this investigation and others into his conduct as partisan witch hunts.

Smith stood before cameras on Friday afternoon, pointing to the ‘gravity’ of the crimes.

‘Today an indictment was unsealed, charging Donald J. Trump with felony violations of our national security laws as well as participating in a conspiracy to obstruct justice,’ Smith said. ‘We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone.’

Former President Trump could face decades in prison if convicted on all 37 federal counts stemming from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation.

Trump was indicted on 37 federal counts, including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and false statements.

The maximum terms of imprisonment per count were included on the ‘penalty sheet’ of the indictment. 

But those maximum terms of imprisonment are guidelines, and ultimately, each count’s maximum sentence is up to the discretion of the judge presiding over the case.

Special Counsel Jack Smith on Friday pointed to the ‘gravity’ of the charges against the former president, but stressed that the defendants ‘must be presumed innocent until proven guilty.’

‘It’s very important for me to note that the defendants in this case must be presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law,’ Smith said Friday. ‘To that end, my office will seek a speedy trial in this matter, consistent with the public interest and the rights of the accused.’

Trump is charged with 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information, which falls under the Espionage Act, each carrying a maximum prison sentence of 10 years in prison and/or a maximum fine of $250,000. 

Trump is also charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years and/or a maximum fine of $250,000. 

Trump was also charged with two counts of withholding documents or records, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years and/or a maximum fine of $250,000. 

Trump was also charged with one count of concealing a document in a federal investigation, which carries a 20-year maximum sentence and/or a maximum fine of $250,000. 

Trump is also charged with making a false statement, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 5 years and/or a maximum fine of $250,000, and one count of ‘scheme to conceal,’ which also carries a maximum prison sentence of 5 years and/or a maximum fine of $250,000. 

Trump has been ordered to appear in federal court in Miami on Tuesday.

Trump told Fox News Digital he plans to plead not guilty.