UNBIASED Politics (1/23/25): Trump Did NOT Repeal Equal Employment Act, ICE Raids in Major Cities, Birthright Citizenship Order BLOCKED, Order Rescinding Biden's Drug Prices Explained, and More.
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Welcome back to Unbiased. Today is Thursday, January 23rd. Let's talk about some news. As a reminder, on Tuesday, I covered roughly 15 of President Trump's executive orders, and I know a lot of you are still asking me to cover those. So if you haven't tuned into Tuesday's episode yet, I would highly recommend doing that.

For today, let's start with some immigration stories. I know there are a lot of questions about ICE now being able to detain undocumented immigrants in places like schools, hospitals, and churches. Some questions about the new Lake and Riley Act, questions about these ICE raids. So let's talk about all of it, starting with the new directives issued by Acting DHS Secretary Ben Huffman.

And I do want to say before we get into what the directives say, it's important to just explain what a directive is. So a directive is an official guideline for that agency's employees, right? So if the DHS secretary issues a directive, that directive tells the employees within the DHS, which includes ICE and CBP agents, what to do and what not to do.

So the first of the two newly issued directives is the one that revokes existing guidelines that prohibit enforcement of immigration law in what are called sensitive areas.

Back in 2011, under the Obama administration, ICE set a policy preventing agents from making arrests in places like schools, hospitals, churches, and other institutions of worship, funerals, weddings, other public religious ceremonies, and sites during the occurrence of a public demonstration, so marches, rallies, or parades.

Then in 2013, Customs and Border Protection, which is separate from ICE, issued similar guidance. And more recently, under the Biden administration, the DHS secretary issued new guidance that expanded these protected areas to places like social service establishments, food banks, and disaster or emergency response and relief centers.

So to be clear, at these sites and under these previous directives, immigration officials with ICE and CBP were not allowed to perform arrests, interviews, searches, or immigration surveillance.

unless either there was a planned enforcement action that had prior approval or there was a national security risk or some other exception. But now with this new directive that Huffman issued, these areas are fair game for immigration enforcement and do not need pre-approval.

In a statement, officials with the DHS said, "...this action empowers the brave men and women in CBP and ICE to enforce our immigration laws and catch criminal aliens, including murderers and rapists who have illegally come into our country. Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America's schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement and instead trust them to use common sense."

End quote. The DHS memo further stated that it is not necessary for the DHS secretary to create bright line rules regarding where immigration laws are permitted to be enforced, but rather agents are encouraged to use, quote, a healthy dose of common sense. Now, some of you might be wondering if there's any truth to the DHS's claim about criminals hiding out in schools and churches here in the United States to avoid arrest. And here's the truth.

There are people here in the United States that are not here lawfully that do take shelter in places like churches to avoid detention. However, it's not true to say that they're all criminals, and it's not true to say that all illegal immigrants do this. Since 2014, so a little over 10 years, there have been at least 70 publicly known cases of people seeking shelter in churches,

you know, to escape detention. That's not to say that there's only been 70, right? This is just the number of cases that are publicly known. Of those 70, 19 of those instances happened prior to Trump's first administration. 51 have happened since Trump first took office in 2017. So this does happen. But again, it's not an accurate claim to say that the people who hide out in churches are all criminals, right?

Now, in light of the recent DHS directive, some school districts and churches around the country have said that they will refuse to cooperate with migrant arrests and

and have started posting notices on their buildings which say that immigration police are not welcome on their property. And on top of this, some immigration advocates are expressing concerns that removing the existing guidance will cause fear in immigrant communities, which may lead to keeping children out of school or people not seeking medical care at hospitals.

Moving on to the second directive issued by Huffman, which will end the broad use of humanitarian parole and return the program to a case-by-case basis. In early 2023, the Biden administration introduced a humanitarian parole program allowing migrants from four countries, Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Venezuela, to come into the United States if they had a financial sponsor and passed various security checks.

Under this program, the migrants were allowed to stay in the United States for at least two years and were eligible for employment authorization. This week, though, DHS clarified that it is ending the program for broad use and emphasized the idea that humanitarian parole is something that may be used with limited authority, applicable only in a very narrow set of circumstances, and that the parole programs as they're currently used will be slowly phased out.

To give you some context as to what broad means, under the program, up to 30,000 nationals from these four countries were allowed in each month, or 360,000 each year.

In a statement, the DHS wrote, quote,

And I do also want to note that this move was somewhat expected because there was actually a lawsuit filed by 20 different Republican states back in 2023, which alleged that this program violated the law, specifically a law that says that the attorney general can parole aliens into the United States temporarily only on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.

Notably, that lawsuit was dismissed because a judge found that the states lacked the legal right to sue, otherwise known as standing. But this is to say that we know Republican led states took issue with the program and therefore it's not entirely surprising that the Trump administration is now doing away with it.

As for the other side of the argument when it comes to this parole program, immigration advocates feel as though this program was a safe and orderly pathway for people to come to the United States while at the same time improving border security and reducing unlawful migration. In making this argument, they cite two preliminary data which shows that when the Biden administration first implemented the Venezuela parole process with a 24,000 person cap,

On October 12, 2022, Border Patrol encounters of Venezuelan nationals dropped from more than 1,100 daily encounters from October 5 to the 11th to less than 200 daily encounters from October 18 to the 24th.

Following those first two weeks, the number continued to decrease over a three-month period, getting to as low as 28 encounters per day in January. And again, that's just Venezuelan nationals. So that's the other perspective, that this parole program was a safe and effective way to allow those into the United States that needed the escape for humanitarian reasons while also improving illegal encounters at the border.

And the same people that feel this way also feel that by undoing the parole program, you are going to see more illegal border encounters now that there is no safe and effective way, you know, by way of the sponsor.

Now, I came across an interesting set of data about current immigration beliefs here in the United States, which I figured I would share with you. And we all know that polls can be slightly biased depending on who's conducting the poll. So take the numbers with a grain of salt. But I figure at the very least, it provides an opportunity to kind of think about our own personal views a little bit. So the poll was conducted by the Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

It was there was eleven hundred to one thousand one hundred and forty seven U.S. adults that were polled between January 9th and January 13th of this year. According to those results, 50 percent of U.S. adults think increasing security at the border should be a high priority for the federal government. Thirty five percent think it should be a moderate priority and 17 percent think it should be a low priority.

65% of U.S. adults strongly favor deporting illegal immigrants that have been convicted of a violent crime, 18% somewhat favor, 10% were indifferent, 2% somewhat oppose, and 4% strongly oppose.

And then finally, when it comes to those sensitive areas that we talked about, 27% of poll respondents either strongly or somewhat favor arresting illegal immigrants while they're in the hospital. 20% were indifferent and 52% strongly or somewhat oppose. But what's interesting, too, is that more people.

people oppose arresting illegal immigrants while they're at church as opposed to the hospital. So 57% strongly or somewhat oppose arresting illegal immigrants while they're at church compared to the 52% that oppose arrests at the hospital.

Feel free to ask yourself those same questions and see where you fall. You know, should border security be a high, moderate, or low priority for the government? And how do you feel about arresting illegal immigrants in hospitals or at churches? Strongly favor, somewhat favor, indifferent, somewhat oppose, or strongly oppose?

All right, let's now, we're going to stay on the topic of immigration, but I want to talk about what's going on with these raids because you all had a lot of questions. There are a lot of storylines going around. Let's clear up what we know to be fact. The first we heard about these raids was actually early this week when the Trump administration scrapped plans for a Chicago raid because the plans had been leaked.

But now we know ICE has started these raids in a few major cities, those being Boston, Denver, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Seattle, Miami, and D.C. According to ICE agents, they're targeting, quote, the worst of the worst, end quote, calling them also violent criminals.

Some of the targets arrested so far in Boston include an MS-13 gang member who had an Interpol Red Notice, which is essentially an international warrant for aggravated murder. Another MS-13 gang member facing gun charges and multiple rape and sexual assault suspects, several of whom had been released from sanctuary jurisdictions.

I have not come across any credible reports of any illegal immigrants being detained that don't have a criminal record, and I have not seen any footage of these raids being conducted in any of those sensitive places we talked about earlier. The raids that I've seen footage of thus far have only taken place on the streets. And so far, ICE agents say they've arrested more than 300 undocumented migrants, and they were all wanted for outstanding crimes.

Naturally, with the revocation of the order prohibiting immigration enforcement in sensitive areas, some parents are afraid to send their undocumented children to school. But it is worth noting, one, it seems at least for now ICE is only targeting criminals. And two, should ICE attempt to arrest a child at school, an action like that would almost certainly see the Supreme Court.

Also, as a note, these raids against criminal illegal immigrants have been happening for roughly 20 years under various presidents, even under the Biden administration. The difference now is that Trump is going at it with more intensity. So, for instance, he undid some of Biden's rules that limited who ICE should prioritize for arrest and deportation. Trump has instead imposed rules that allow more illegal immigrants to be eligible for detainment.

Also, Biden's administration went easier on sanctuary cities, even though towards the end of his presidency, he was asking those cities to cooperate. But Trump isn't necessarily asking them to cooperate. He's just going in and taking action. And then as we know, another difference is that Trump lifted that prohibition on immigration enforcement in those sensitive places. So these raids are not necessarily a new Trump thing. Trump is just implementing them with more intensity than we've seen in the past.

The next immigration-related story is a quick one, but I figured we could just lump it in with all of the other immigration stories.

The Pentagon will send 1,500 additional troops to the U.S.-Mexico border following Trump's Monday order declaring a national emergency. The new troops will join roughly 2,500 Army Reserve and National Guard soldiers the Biden administration had previously called to active duty to support the already existing federal law enforcement presence. A senior military official said the additional troops will carry out some of the same tasks

that were being carried out before, but also conduct some new missions like help build the border wall.

And for the fourth and final immigration related story, let's talk about the Lake and Riley Act that is awaiting President Trump's signature. We actually first spoke about this bill last week when the House initially passed it, but then it went to the Senate. The Senate made some changes before ultimately passing it themselves. So then it had to go back to the House for the House to vote on those changes. And now that the new bill has been approved by the House, it'll go to the president.

So when the bill first passed the House, what it said in sum was that the Attorney General would be required to detain any alien who is inadmissible in the United States, either because they're present in the United States without being admitted or paroled, they failed to attend a removal proceeding, or because they lack the proper documentation.

And that alien is charged with or arrested for or convicted of burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting. So it didn't include violent crimes. And you might wonder why. The reason is because the killer of Lake and Riley was previously arrested in New York City and Georgia for nonviolent crimes and subsequently released.

Obviously, as we know, he went on to commit murder. So this law is meant to target those specific people that maybe didn't commit a violent offense to begin with, but could do so upon release. So once this bill passed the House and went to the Senate, the Senate actually adopted amendments to expand the list of offenses covered under the bill to include assault on a law enforcement officer and crimes resulting in death or serious bodily injury.

Once those amendments were added, the Senate passed the bill in a 64 to 35 vote with 12 Democrats joining all Republicans. And then when the amended bill went to the House, the House vote was 263 to 156 with 46 Democrats joining all Republicans. I do want to flag one thing, though.

So the law is guaranteed to get the president's signature, but there are going to be obstacles as far as implementation. ICE has already said it would be impossible to fully execute this law with its current resources. And it also said that its initial cost estimate of $3.2 billion to execute on the act does not represent the full cost of implementation.

The agency said it's currently funded for 41,500 beds, but as of last month, there were already more than 39,000 people in ICE custody. It said it would need an additional 110,000 beds to support the number of people the new act will cover. So this will likely require some more funding from Congress, as well as some additional time and resources to be fully executed.

Let's take our first break here. When we come back, we'll talk about some more of Trump's pardons and orders and much, much more.

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Now switching gears a bit to Pete Hegseth, Trump's nominee for defense secretary who is currently awaiting a Senate vote and is now facing new assault allegations. For those that maybe aren't up to speed on Hegseth, he's one of Trump's more controversial picks. And as with any controversial pick, those that support him really support him. Those that oppose him really oppose him.

Since Trump announced Hegseth as his pick for defense secretary, though, there have been various allegations thrown his way from excessive drinking to sexual assault to infidelity. The reason Trump chose Hegseth, though, is because Hegseth is a veteran himself. He fought in Afghanistan from 2005 to 2006.

and he doesn't have much experience in government. Trump has said that whatever we've been doing as far as defense secretary picks in the past hasn't worked, and it's time that we switch it up. So he went with someone a little less traditional as far as job resume goes.

Despite the various allegations against Hegseth, though, he actually managed to answer the questions at his confirmation hearing sufficiently enough to where he was approved by the Senate committee in a 14 to 13 vote. Notably, that vote was a long party line. So all 14 Republicans voted in his favor. All 13 Democrats voted against him. Now that he got the committee's vote, the full Senate will vote on his confirmation. And that that vote could take place potentially tomorrow, potentially even next week.

And so far, one Republican senator has actually come out against him. Two other Republican senators are questionable. If he gets four no's from the Republicans, he won't be confirmed. So we'll see what happens there. But

That anyway, we'll get to that when the time comes. Now that you know the backstory behind the allegations, fast forward about a week from that Senate confirmation hearing to this past Tuesday and senators receive and this is after, by the way, the Senate committee had voted to send his confirmation to the full Senate floor. Right.

So while the senators are kind of like getting situated, ready to cast their vote, not really, but getting ready to cast their vote, the senators receive an affidavit from a woman named Danielle Hegseth, who was previously married to Pete's brother, meaning she was Hegseth's former sister-in-law.

Notably, the copy of the affidavit has not been released to the public, so we can only go off of what reports are saying about the allegations. But what those reports claim to have seen in the affidavit is this.

The affidavit says that Hegseth allegedly abused his ex-wife, Samantha Hegseth, during their marriage from 2010 to 2018, that he had an alcohol abuse problem, that he exhibited erratic behavior, and that his former wife, Samantha, feared for her safety and created escape plans, including texting a code word to family and friends if she felt she needed to get away from him. Importantly, though, we have since heard from Samantha Hegseth herself.

NBC News reached out to her following the news of the affidavit, and this was her response.

I do not believe your information to be accurate, and I have cc'd my lawyer. There is no physical abuse in my marriage. This is the only further statement I will make to you. I have let you know that I am not speaking and will not speak on my marriage to Pete. Please respect this decision. So to be clear, the former wife of Hegseth's brother is the one that wrote the affidavit about Hegseth's alleged abuse against his former wife, but the former wife said she never suffered physical abuse.

So again, that full Senate confirmation vote is happening either this week or next. And we'll see if that affidavit has any effect. Moving on, on Tuesday, President Trump granted a pardon to Ross William Ulbricht, who is the founder of Silk Road, a now defunct online marketplace that had just under 1 million registered users by its end.

and operated on an anonymous network using Bitcoin as currency. So the original Silk Road, right, was a network of trade routes back in the day. We're talking 130 BCE and it connected Asia, Europe and North Africa.

The Silk Road that Ulbricht founded was a bit different. It was founded in 2011. It was, as I said, an online marketplace. It was used as a platform for people to sell goods with high anonymity and protection, given the anonymous network and, you know, use of Bitcoin as currency. This ultimately led to it becoming a commonplace for the sale of illegal things, mostly drugs, but also things like fake IDs, porn, etc.,

Two years after it was founded in 2013, Ulbricht was arrested and Silk Road was shut down. Two years after that, in 2017, a unanimous jury found Ulbricht guilty on seven counts in connection with his operation and ownership of Silk Road: distributing narcotics, distributing narcotics by means of the internet, conspiring to distribute narcotics, engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise,

conspiring to commit computer hacking, conspiring to traffic in false identity documents, and conspiring to commit money laundering. He was given five sentences to be served concurrently, including two life imprisonment sentences without the possibility of parole.

Throughout this trial, Ulbricht denied any involvement in the actual illegal trading on Silk Road, claiming he just wanted to empower people to make choices in their lives and have privacy and anonymity consistent with the libertarian idealism. Ulbricht also claimed that despite founding the site, he transferred control of the site to other people after its founding. Now, at the time of the trial and conviction, there was a lot of uproar from certain individuals, mostly libertarians, that felt as if Ulbricht's arrest was...

government overreach and that Ulbricht merely created the platform, but it wasn't, you know, Ulbricht himself that sold illegal items on the platform, nor could he be responsible for what others sold. So in May of last year, Trump was speaking at the Libertarian National Convention, at which supporters of Ulbricht could be seen holding signs that said free Ross. And

And at one point during that speech, Trump said to the crowd, if you vote for me on day one, I will commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht to a sentence of time served. He's already served 11 years. We're going to get him home. And

that's what he did, right? So pardoning Ulbricht appears, at least in part, to be a fulfillment of that promise he made to the Libertarian Party. In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote, quote, I just called the mother of Ross William Ulbricht to let her know that in honor of her and the Libertarian movement, which

End quote.

all right let's not talk about this new ai investment briefly because we do still have a lot more to get to but on tuesday the the three top tech firms openai softbank and oracle announced a new joint a new joint company called stargate to boost ai infrastructure here in the united states initially the companies will invest 100 billion dollars into the project but hope to eventually contribute up to 500 billion one

One of the main objectives of Stargate will be to build both a physical and virtual infrastructure for the evolution of AI, which includes data centers around the country, something leaders of AI have been discussing the need for to accommodate the growth of AI. Data centers along with the chips, electricity, and water resources needed to run the data centers.

So the first of the project's data centers are actually already under construction in Texas, but ultimately Stargate wants to build 20 data centers at half a million square feet each. And with the data centers being one of the main initial objectives, Oracle being part of the partnership makes sense given that Oracle is among the biggest U.S. data center operators.

Open AI is obviously leading the AI charge in today's world, and then SoftBank has the money needed to fund the expansion. Obviously, AI has the potential to do amazing things. It can also be harmful depending on how it's used. But Open AI has said that Stargate will help ensure that the U.S. AI tools win out over Chinese technology, as well as create new jobs and economic opportunity here in the United States.

The chairman of Oracle, while speaking at the press conference, said the project will also be tied to digital health records and making it easier to treat diseases such as cancer by possibly developing a customized cancer vaccine down the road.

All right, our next big story of the day is one everyone has asked me to talk about. What is going on with Trump revoking the Equal Employment Opportunity Act? He didn't. A president cannot unilaterally revoke a law, but let's get into it because there is a lot of misinformation out there. So President Trump is obviously on a mission to dismantle DEI initiatives in the federal government and return to a merit-based hiring system.

As part of the many actions that he has taken to accomplish that, he signed an executive order yesterday which rolled back multiple older executive orders, including a 1965 executive order signed by President Johnson. What that 1965 order said is that the Secretary of Labor is in charge of ensuring that the federal government does not discriminate against employees or applicants based on race, creed, color, or national origin.

and that the Secretary of Labor must take affirmative action to ensure that discrimination doesn't happen. Over time, that order has been amended to include other characteristics like sexual orientation and gender identity.

Please note that this 1965 executive order is different than the 1972 Equal Employment Opportunity Act, which Congress enacted after the executive order to increase the number of employees that were covered by these workplace protections. A president cannot unilaterally overturn a law. What that means is that the 1972 Equal Employment Opportunity Act is still in effect, for

Furthermore, in addition to the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, we have the Civil Rights Act of 1964, specifically Title VII, which prohibits employment discrimination by federally assisted programs on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. Again, the president cannot undo this because it was an act of Congress. It is a law.

The reason people are worried is because the 1965 executive order signed by President Johnson was the bedrock, the foundation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act. But doing away with the executive order does not do away with the law that followed that executive order. In fact, in Trump's executive order, he wrote this, "...longstanding federal civil rights laws protect individual Americans from discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin."

These civil rights protections serve as a bedrock supporting equality of opportunity for all Americans. As president, I have a solemn duty to ensure that these laws are enforced for the benefit of all Americans. Yet today, roughly 60 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,

Critical and influential institutions of American society, including the federal government, major corporations, financial institutions, the medical industry, large commercial airlines, law enforcement agencies, and institutions of higher education, have adopted and actively use dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race and sex-based practices.

preferences under the guise of so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion, DEI, or diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, DEIA, that can violate the civil rights laws of this nation.

End quote. So what he's saying here is that we have civil rights laws in this country that prohibit discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, etc. Those are not going anywhere. What he feels has happened, regardless of whether you agree or not, is that by promoting certain minority individuals through these relatively modern DEI programs, they

The DEI programs have actually had the opposite effect of what the civil rights laws intended, which is to treat everyone equally. So according to him, he wants to do away with these DEI programs and return to a merit-based system where everyone is treated based on qualifications and not their race, religion, sex, color, etc. But just because, and I want to be clear,

Just because people won't be given preferential treatment now based on their race, religion, sex, color, etc. does not mean those people can now be discriminated against. That is unlawful.

So look, I don't care where you stand on this. What I care about is that you know the facts because like I said in the beginning, there is so much misinformation going around not only on social media but amongst the news outlets as well. The number of article corrections that I have seen on various news stories is absurd. These huge media organizations with every resource at their fingertips are

should not be releasing the information until they have their facts straight. Because now what you have is millions and millions of people that really have no idea what's going on and are spreading the word that the Equal Employment Opportunity Act has been revoked. That's just simply not true. So to be clear, the Equal Employment Opportunity Act still exists. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 still exists.

Okay, please let's all be on the same page with that because it really...

There's certain stories that really get spun and people just go and they run with it. And it worries me because I know that there are people out there that get really worked up and anxious about this stuff. And it's just not true.

So with that, let's keep going. The next story is a development from Tuesday's episode in which I talked about Trump attempting to end birthright citizenship via executive order. A judge has now temporarily blocked that executive order as expected. And we also have a little bit of a look into the main argument that Trump's administration plans to put forth in support of its executive order. On Tuesday, I explained that under Trump's order, individuals who are born in the United States are not automatically entitled to U.S. citizenship.

Currently, if you are born on U.S. soil, you are a U.S. citizen. The legal status of your parents is irrelevant. Under Trump's order, though, in order to gain U.S. citizenship upon your birth in the United States, at least one of your parents has to either be a permanent resident or a U.S. citizen. Now, as I mentioned on Tuesday, a lawsuit was immediately filed challenging the constitutionality of this order because the 14th Amendment says, and I quote, all

Furthermore, in 1898, more than 120 years ago, the Supreme Court held that anyone born on U.S. soil is automatically a U.S. citizen.

So the two updates in this story are one, the Trump administration has filed its response to the lawsuit against it, which lets us in on its arguments as to why the order should be upheld. And two, the judge overseeing the case has temporarily blocked the order from taking effect, which means that it will not take effect 30 days from the date it was signed as it was originally supposed to.

The judge wrote in his ruling, quote, I've been on the bench for four decades. I can't remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order, end quote. As for the Trump administration's argument, though, it all comes down to jurisdiction in the 14th Amendment, which is exactly the argument that was laid out in the 1898 case before the Supreme Court, which was ultimately rejected.

So Trump's legal team said, quote, End quote.

Now, as I said, this argument is identical to the argument set forth in that 1898 case. But in rejecting that argument more than 120 years ago, the Supreme Court held that every citizen or subject of another country while domiciled here is subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. And therefore, the 14th Amendment Citizenship Clause applies to anyone born on U.S. soil.

Now, if this challenge to President Trump's order makes it all the way up to the Supreme Court, which it very well could, it'll be an interesting question, particularly for the justices that are opposed to the influx of immigration, yet highly value this nation's history, its precedent, and the text of the Constitution. Justice Thomas specifically comes to mind here. So it'll be interesting to see what the Supreme Court does with it, even though

I, from a legal perspective, have a very good inclination of how this case will end, but I will keep you updated as the case continues on. Just know that for now, the order will not take effect, and if it does eventually take effect, it won't be until the judge issues a final decision on the matter, which could take months. And then even from there, it'll be appealed. So there's definitely a lot that will happen between now and when we could see this order go into effect.

All right, time for our final break of the day so we can hear from the sponsors who help keep the show up and running. Today's episode is sponsored by Acorns. Acorns is a financial wellness app that makes it easy to start saving and investing for your future. You don't need to be an expert. Acorns will recommend a diversified portfolio that matches you and your money goals. You don't need to be rich. Acorns lets you start with the spare money you've got right now, even if all you've got is spare change. Acorns is a great app for you to start with.

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All right. Now for the last leg of the show, let's talk about the Trump administration temporarily pausing HHS communications. And then we'll dive into some quick hitters and rumor has it. And we'll finish with a positive news story just to kind of up the vibes going into the weekend. So the Department of Health and Human Services directed agency leaders within the department to halt external communications through February 1st. Why?

The most likely reason for the pause is so that the Trump administration can sort of find its footing and complete the administrative communication or administrative transfer. Temporary communication pauses like this actually are not abnormal when one administration leaves and another comes in, especially if the new administration is planning on making big changes like Trump's administration has said that it will.

Benjamin Haynes, the director of media relations for the CDC's Office of Communications, said today, "...the Department of HHS has issued a pause on mass communications and public appearances that are not directly related to emergencies or critical to preserving health. This is a short pause to allow the new team to set up a process for review and prioritization. There are exceptions for announcements that HHS divisions believe are mission critical, but they will be made on a case-by-case basis."

In other words, press releases, guidance, reports, website posts, speaking engagements that are not directly related to emergencies or critical to preserving health will not happen during this temporary pause. In addition, NIH meetings, which are meant to issue grant funding to research labs across the country, those were canceled, along with the meetings of the Vaccine Advisory Committee and the Committee on Antibiotic Resistance.

One thing that is a departure from usual precedent is the fact that the FDA, CDC, and NIH, all agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services, do not have acting heads listed on their website. So it's unclear who's running those agencies as of now. But that also could be a reason for the pause too.

So the memo implementing the communication pause also stated that staff should coordinate with presidential appointees before issuing official communications to public officials, including members of Congress, and that nothing in the directive is intended to prevent staff from communicating with members of Congress in their personal capacity or with other third parties.

Furthermore, if staff members believe any communications should be exempt from the freeze, either because they are required by law or affect critical health, safety, environmental, financial, or national security functions of HHS, they should notify the executive secretary. And as a final note to this story, President Trump's pick for HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy will stand for his confirmation hearing next Wednesday.

All right, now it's time for some quick hitters. President Biden left a letter for President Trump in the desk of the Oval Office, which is a tradition at the White House. But now we know what that letter said. Biden wrote, quote, As I take leave of this sacred office, I wish you and your family all the best in the next four years.

The American people and people around the world look to this house for steadiness in the inevitable storms of history, and my prayer is that the coming years will be a time of prosperity, peace, and grace in our nation. May God bless you and guide you as he has blessed and guided our beloved country since our founding. Joe Biden.

In other news, a new fire has ignited in northern L.A. County. The fire started just before 11 a.m. local time yesterday, quickly expanded to 5,000 acres in just over two hours, and it's estimated that by 10 p.m. last night, the fire had grown to about 10,000 acres and was 14% contained.

And Trump has picked the Secret Service agent who rushed to the stage during the assassination attempt in July to serve as the new director of the Secret Service. Sean Curran, who has been serving on Trump's personal security detail, will replace Ronald Rowe, who was...

was filling in for Kimberly Cheadle after she resigned following the assassination attempt. And in some not-so-political news, Netflix is raising its prices after reporting its biggest ever subscriber jump. Netflix reported 19 million new subscribers in the last quarter of 2024 and announced Tuesday that it'll raise prices on most of its subscription tiers.

The standard monthly membership without ads will increase by $2.50 from $15.49 to $17.99, which

While the standard membership with ads will increase by $1 from $6.99 to $7.99, and then its highest tier will increase by $2 from $22.99 to $24.99. And if you're wondering why Netflix saw such a jump in subscribers, Netflix is attributing it to the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul boxing match in November. It drew 108 million viewers worldwide.

A couple from California is suing JetBlue after it says an ice block, which fell from one of its flights, crashed into their house, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. The lawsuit says that shortly after 8 p.m. on January 1st, a chunk of ice the size of a watermelon crashed through their roof and landed directly over their bed.

The suit says the ice came from a flight that was flying from LAX to NYC and passed over their house during its departure. The couple cited to a FAA investigation into that particular aircraft, which found the plane had a potable water issue dating back six months from the incident. Apparently, aviation officials found the aircraft's water system had a valve flange that was misaligned, which caused a leak that turned into ice at high altitude.

The FAA also linked the aircraft to a similar 2023 incident in Massachusetts.

And a rare winter storm this week brought snow to parts of the country that have not seen snow in more than 100 years. Milton, Florida, which is in the panhandle close to Alabama and Georgia, saw the most snow it's ever seen on record with 9.8 inches. Pensacola, also in North Florida, broke an all-time record with 8.9 inches. Beaumont, Texas, broke a record with 5.2 inches. Mobile, Alabama, broke a record with 7.5 inches. And New Orleans recorded 8.

And finally, Trump's pick for CIA Director John Ratcliffe was confirmed by the Senate today in a 74-25 vote. 21 Democrats joined all Republicans in supporting Ratcliffe's nomination. Ratcliffe is now the second nominee confirmed. Marco Rubio was the first.

Alright, now it's time for Rumor Has It, my weekly segment where I address recent rumors submitted by all of you and I either confirm them, dispel them, or add context. First one, Rumor Has It that ICE is offering a $750 reward for reporting undocumented immigrants. This is false.

A flyer being shared on social media reads, Report illegal aliens. It's the law. If you would like to report illegal aliens, please call ICE. They will need to know names, locations, and any other specific information you can provide. For more information, please visit www.ice.gov.

This post, which now has more than 2 million views, says that ICE is allegedly offering $750 per illegal U-turn in. An ICE spokesperson has confirmed that ICE does not offer rewards for tips in support of civil immigration enforcement objectives and that the flyers circulating online were not official ICE documents. Next one, rumor has it that Trump rescinded Biden's executive order, which lowered prescription drug costs for people on Medicare and Medicaid.

Let's add some context here. Back up to 2022 when President Biden issued an executive order that directed the DHS secretary to consider and test new health care payment and delivery models that would eventually lower drug costs and promote access to innovative drug therapies for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. As a result of that order, the CMS, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, had been planning to test thousands

three models to lower prices. Importantly, none of those tests had begun and therefore no drug prices were lowered. So while Trump rescinded Biden's executive order that had the intended effect of eventually lowering drug prices, Trump's rescission won't cause an increase in drug prices for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries because costs were never lowered.

Rumor has it that former President Barack Obama and actress Jennifer Aniston are dating. This was a surprisingly popular rumor request today. First and foremost, this rumor actually first surfaced last year. It initially came about after the tabloid InTouch wrote an article titled, "'The Truth About Jen and Barack' and detailed their alleged affair."

Following that, Jen Aniston was on Jimmy Kimmel Live when Kimmel asked her about the rumor, and she said InTouch was just a cheesy tabloid and said, I'm not mad about it, but it's entirely untrue. She said then that she had met Obama once back in 2007, but knew Michelle more than him, and that was it. After that, the rumor kind of died down.

But then in the last couple of months, Michelle did not accompany Barack to either President Carter's funeral or President Trump's inauguration. So the rumors started to pick up again. People have assumed there are issues within the Obama's marriage. And therefore, perhaps there's some truth to the dating rumor.

As for why Michelle didn't accompany Obama to the recent events, Michelle's office has said that she had scheduling conflicts the day of Carter's funeral, but her office has not yet provided reason for her not attending the inauguration. And former President Obama, he has not said anything about it himself,

Either, so as of now, it's just all speculation. And finally, rumor has it that Meta is causing Instagram accounts to automatically follow the accounts of President Trump and Vice President Vance. Let's add some context. Many Instagram users are accusing Meta of automatically following both Trump and Vance post-inauguration, and that even when they've actively gone and unfollowed the accounts, they're somehow still following them.

Meta has spoken out about the issue, and it said that for those users that previously followed President Biden and Vice President Harris, those accounts automatically default to the next president and vice president. In other words, the Instagram account POTUS just switches over depending on who's in office. So if you're following either President Biden or Vice President Harris before Trump's inauguration, you'll be automatically following President Trump and Vice President Vance now.

And the same thing applies for the First Lady, too. If you were previously following Jill under the handle FLOTUS, you'll now be following Melania under that same handle. As for the claims that people unfollowed Trump or Vance and found themselves following the accounts again somehow, Meta says that they are looking into those claims.

Okay, let's finish with some uplifting news. A local entrepreneur in Tanzania has transformed old cement bags into backpacks that include a small solar panel to power a reading light. The founder, Innocent James, was born in North Tanzania and grew up studying for school by the light of a kerosene lantern. More than two decades later, many rural households still depend on those same kerosene lamps.

Inspired by a university professor he met who carried around a solar panel to charge his phone sewn into the fabric of his jacket, James founded SonaBags. Funded by the European Union and the UK government, James' bags are now able to provide children with a source of light after dark to allow them to continue their studies even after the sun goes down.

That is what I have for you today. Thank you so much for being here. As always, have a fantastic weekend and I will talk to you on Monday.

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