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The Shutdown is Unnecessary

Sen. Susan Collins says the shutdown is unnecessary.

The Shutdown Affects our Military

Trump Sends National Guard To Chicago

President Donald Trump has authorized the deployment of 300 National Guard members to Chicago, where on the same day Border Patrol agents shot and injured a woman they said tried to run them over. The White House cited ongoing violence and lawlessness as reasons for the deployment. Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker criticized the decision, calling it unnecessary and a performance rather than a genuine safety effort. Federal agents shot the woman Saturday morning, and investigators said she was armed with a semiautomatic weapon. The woman was treated at a hospital and released. Trump has long threatened to send troops to Chicago. In response, Illinois has followed California and Oregon in filing lawsuits to stop President Trump from sending in hundreds of National Guard troops to Democrat-led big cities. The lawsuit filed Monday by Illinois and Chicago alleges that Trump’s authorization Saturday to deploy 300 troops to the Windy City is “unlawful and dangerous.” A federal judge on Sunday told Trump he couldn’t send troops to Oregon — hours after that state’s governor said 101 California National Guard members already had arrived Saturday with more on the way and headed to Portland.

CDC Stops Recommending COVID-19 Shots For All

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention adopted recommendations by a new group of vaccine advisers, and stopped recommending COVID-19 shots for anyone — leaving the choice up to patients. The government health agency on Monday announced it had adopted recommendations made last month by advisers picked by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Before this year, U.S. health officials — following recommendations by infectious disease experts — recommended annual COVID-19 boosters for all Americans ages 6 months and older. The idea was to update protection against the coronavirus as it continues to evolve. As the COVID-19 pandemic waned, experts increasingly discussed the possibility of focusing vaccination efforts on people 65 and older — who are among those most at risk for death and hospitalization. But Kennedy, who has questioned the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, abruptly announced in May that COVID-19 vaccines were no longer recommended for healthy children and pregnant women. He also dismissed the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and replaced them with a handpicked group. The new group voted last month to say all Americans should make their own decisions. But the CDC also says vaccine decisions, especially for seniors, should involve checking with a doctor, nurse or pharmacist. The recommendation was endorsed by Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O'Neill, who is serving as the CDC’s acting director. O’Neill signed off on it last week, but HHS officials announced it Monday. The panel also urged the CDC to adopt stronger language around claims of vaccine risks, despite pushback from outside medical groups who said the shots had a proven safety record from the billions of doses administered worldwide. In a statement Monday, O’Neill celebrated the change, saying past guidance "deterred health care providers from talking about the risks and benefits of vaccination.” “Informed consent is back,” O'Neill said in a statement some doctors objected to. Doctors routinely discuss vaccines with patients and parents, and share printed information about the risks and benefits of each shot, said Dr. Jesse Hackell, a retired New York physician who has coauthored several American Academy of Pediatrics policy statements on vaccinations. “To make a statement that informed consent is back implies that it had gone away. In no way has it gone away,” he said. Major medical societies continue to recommend shots for younger children, pregnant women and others at higher risk of severe illness. They say the Trump administration's discussion of risk overemphasizes rare side effects and doesn't account for the dangers of coronavirus infection itself. The decision clears the government’s Vaccines for Children program to ship COVID-19 vaccine doses. The program provides routine vaccinations at no cost to children whose families qualify. O’Neill also signed off on a panel recommendation that children under 4 get their first vaccine dose for varicella — also known as chickenpox — as a standalone shot rather than in combination shot with measles, mumps and rubella. There is a single shot that contains all four, but it carries a higher risk of fevers and fever-related seizures. Since 2009, the CDC had said it prefers separate shots for initial doses of those vaccines and 85% of toddlers already get the chickenpox vaccine separately.

Will Hamas Honor Trump's Deal?

Speaker Mike Johnson: Democrats are Inflicting Pain on Real Americans

Voting Underway In CA On Maps That Could Swing House Control

The fight for control of the U.S. House is underway in California. Voters are considering whether to drastically reshape congressional districts to add as many as five Democratic seats in advance of the 2026 midterm elections. The plan championed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is intended to offset Trump’s moves in Texas to gain five Republican districts ahead of the midterms. Ballots are arriving at voters' homes and voting concludes on Nov. 4. The outcome of the election could determine which party controls the closely divided House and the reach of President Donald Trump’s power in the second half of his term.

Speaker Johnson Says It's Up To Democrats To End Government Shutdown

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson says it's up to a handful of Democrats to “stop the madness” on the sixth day of the government shutdown and pass a stopgap spending bill that earlier passed the House. Johnson said Monday the House “has done its job” and there's nothing to negotiate. Republican and Democratic lawmakers have provided few public signs of meaningful negotiations to break an impasse on reopening the federal government, which shut down last week. Democrats are insisting on renewing subsidies to cover health insurance costs for millions of households, while President Donald Trump and fellow Republicans want to preserve existing spending levels.

Democrat Candidate's Violent Text Message Exposed

White House to appeal ruling on Portland troop deployment

A federal judge in Oregon on Sunday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from sending any National Guard troops to police Portland.

Israeli and Hamas officials discuss US peace plan for Gaza

Israeli and Hamas officials are holding indirect talks in an Egyptian coastal resort on Monday on a U.S.-drafted peace plan to end the war in Gaza on the eve of its second anniversary. The talks focus on the ceasefire's first stage, including the partial withdrawal of Israeli forces as well as the release of hostages held by militants in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention, according to a Hamas statement. U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are also expected to join the talks, Egypt’s state-run media outlet Al-Ahram reported. Many uncertainties remain about some elements of the plan including the disarmament of Hamas and the future governance of Gaza. Israel is still pounding Gaza with deadly airstrikes despite Trump’s order to stop. Gaza’s Health Ministry said the Palestinian death toll in the war reached 67,160 on Monday.