US Justice Dept releasing new batch of Epstein files

(The Center Square) – Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday afternoon joined California National Guard and California Highway Patrol leaders to announce the state’s success in seizing a half billion dollars' worth of fentanyl pills since 2021.

Newsom also addressed issues ranging from rebuilding Los Angeles after last year's wildfires to the fatal shootings by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis during the approximately 45-minute news conference in San Diego.

The conference started with fentanyl. Newsom and other officials spoke against the backdrop of military helicopters in a hangar and cited the success of the California National Guard and California Highway Patrol working together.

Major Gen. Matt Beevers, the adjutant general in charge of the California National Guard, noted seizure efforts take place at all ports of entry, including Los Angeles International Airport and the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. 

Efforts are equally dedicated to stopping the flow of American firearms and cash to drug cartels in Mexico, Beevers told reporters.

The California National Guard has seized more than 5 million pills containing fentanyl, with a street value of more than $506.6 million since drug interdiction efforts started in 2021, Newsom said Monday. 

Since 2021, 34,357 pounds of fentanyl have been seized, Newsom said Monday.

California Highway Patrol Commissioner Sean Duryee noted the CHP recently trained all its dogs to detect fentanyl.

“It takes one dose to be deadly,” Duryee told reporters. “It takes getting one crime gun off the street to make a difference.”

Newsom also noted the success with the state's more than $2.1 billion in investments to fight crime, help local governments hire more law enforcement and improve public safety since 2019.

The Governor's Office has cited data showing crime is down.

During reporters’ questions, Newsom switched to immigration and was critical of Gregory Bovino, who was removed from his leadership of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol operations in Minneapolis. Bovino was transferred back to El Centro, Calif., following immigration agents' fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

“He’s sent back to California," Newsom said about Bovino. "We’re hardly celebrating that."

“I’m shocked he still has his job. I’m shocked Kristi Noem still has her job, although she’s been pushed aside,” the Democratic governor said. Newsom was referring to President Donald Trump sending his border czar, Tom Homan, to Minneapolis to take over operations from Noem, the secretary of homeland security, and Bovino.

The Department of Homeland Security is traumatizing not only illegal immigrants but immigrants who are legal residents and U.S. citizens, Newsom said.

The governor addressed the recent detention of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, who returned to Minnesota Sunday after a judge ordered ICE to release them from a Texas facility.

“I don’t know how you can be a human being and feel any sense of pride and patriotism with an angelic boy who’s 5 years old who is sent to a detention center in Texas,” Newsom said as he discussed the Minneapolis family.

The Center Square Monday reached out to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the White House for comment. DHS did not respond as of late Monday afternoon. The White House referred The Center Square to DHS.

Homeland Security has repeatedly told The Center Square that vilifying immigration agents has greatly increased assaults on them and puts them in danger. The department has stressed it's working to make America safer from criminals.

On another subject, a reporter asked Newsom about Trump’s executive order, allowing the federal government the ability to take over the permit process to encourage a faster rebuilding of the Los Angeles area one year after the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires.

“We are fully focused on fast-tracking the permit process in Southern California,” Newsom said, noting 2,981 rebuilding permits have been issued. Those permits were issued in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, Malibu and Pasadena.

“If there is something more we can do with permits, we’ll do it at the state level,” he said. 

California is waiting for Trump to ask Congress for $33.9 billion to address the gap between insurance coverage and construction costs, Newsom said.

He added construction costs have increased because of the tariffs Trump introduced, the mass deportation of immigrants and the resulting labor shortage. The governor said the president can address all of that.

(The Center Square) – Whether or not the Seattle Seahawks are sold after Super Bowl LX remains to be seen, but the timing of such speculation comes shortly after the details of an income-based “jock tax” on professional athletes in Washington state went public.

A proposed 9.9% "millionaire's income tax" being worked on by majority-party Democrats in Washington state, if enacted, would include a component that would force high-earning visiting athletes and performers to pay income tax on earnings generated during their time in the state. 

“While the 'jock tax' is standard in states with income taxes, I doubt our Seahawks, Mariners and Kraken players will be thrilled about losing 10% of their salaries,” explained Ryan Frost, director of Budget and Tax Policy at the free-market Washington Policy Center think tank. “But the 'jock tax' is really just a symptom of the bigger problem. Olympia can't stick to a budget even with record revenues, so they keep creating new tax mechanisms to extract more wealth from the private sector.”

As reported by The Center Square, state spending has increased dramatically over the last decade, with operating budgets far outpacing inflation and population growth.

The possible sale of the franchise was the talk of the sports world on Friday when ESPN, citing National Football League and ownership sources familiar with the situation, reported that the team will be put up for sale after the Feb. 8 championship game between the Seahawks and the New England Patriots at Levi Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.

Shortly thereafter, The Seattle Times reported that the Paul G. Allen Estate put out a statement that refuted, at least to a degree, the notion that the team is currently for sale: “We don’t comment on rumors or speculation, and the team is not for sale. We’ve already said that will change at some point per Paul’s wishes, but there is no news to share. Our focus right now is winning the Super Bowl and completing the sale of the Portland Trail Blazers in the coming months.”

Jody Allen took ownership of the Seahawks following the death of her brother, Paul, in October 2018.

Under a Washington state income tax proposal under discussion, professional athletes could pay a 9.9% tax on income earned in the state, potentially costing them tens of thousands of dollars per game for top earners. The tax, targeting income above $1 million, would apply to both visiting and home-team athletes based on “duty days” spent in Washington starting Jan. 1, 2029. 

"Duty days" are the total number of days a professional athlete performs services for their team – games, practices, meetings and travel – in a specific state, used to calculate income tax liability for nonresidents.

Supporters justify a state tax on high earners as a necessary step to fix what they say is Washington’s regressive tax system. Proponents argue the tax would raise more than $3 billion annually to fund education, enhance the Working Families Tax Credit, and eliminate sales taxes on necessities. 

The Center Square reached out via email to the office of Gov. Bob Ferguson and to state Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, for comment on the “jock tax,” given the potential sale of the Seahawks, asking if the team’s possible sale makes it harder to persuade the public on the merits of a high-earners income tax. Neither responded to a request for comment. 

Bill and Hillary Clinton will testify in a US House investigation surrounding deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a spokesman for the ex-president said, heading off a potential vote to hold the couple in contempt.

They had originally refused to appear before lawmakers examining how authorities handled earlier investigations into the disgraced financier, who had connections and correspondence with the world’s business and political elite.

"The former President and former Secretary of State will be there. They look forward to setting a precedent that applies to everyone," Angel Urena said on X.

The House Rules Committee had advanced resolutions accusing the Clintons of defying subpoenas to appear in person to explain their links to Epstein, who died in custody in 2019.

The Epstein affair continues to cast a long shadow over Washington, entangling some of the most prominent names in US politics and highlighting the sharp partisan battles that have shaped the scandal.

Democrats say the probe is being weaponized to attack political opponents of President Donald Trump -- himself a longtime Epstein associate who has not been called to testify -- rather than to conduct legitimate oversight.

Trump spent months trying to block the disclosure of investigative files linked to Epstein, who moved in elite circles for years, cultivating ties with billionaires, politicians, academics and celebrities.

- Democratic divisions -

Neither Trump nor the Clintons have been accused of criminal wrongdoing related to Epstein's activities.

In letters where they initially refused to appear in Washington, the Clintons had argued that the subpoenas were invalid because they lacked a clear legislative purpose.

Republicans say the Democratic couple's past links to the business tycoon, including Bill Clinton's use of his private jet in the early 2000s, justify in‑person questioning under oath.

Instead, the couple submitted sworn written statements describing their knowledge of Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking.

Bill Clinton acknowledged flying on Epstein's plane for Clinton Foundation-related humanitarian work, but said he never visited his private island. 

Hillary Clinton said she had no meaningful interactions with Epstein, never flew on his plane and never visited his island. 

The contempt vote and its targeting of the Clintons could have exposed divisions among congressional Democrats.

Some Democrats have privately acknowledged that their party has long argued no one should be beyond scrutiny in efforts to uncover the full scope of Epstein's crimes. 

But others feared that advancing the contempt resolutions would have played into a partisan strategy to shift attention away from Trump's  past contacts with Epstein.

The Justice Department released last week what it said would be the final batch of files related to the investigation into Epstein.

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Cuba's government on Monday told AFP that it was in "communication" with US President Donald Trump's administration but not yet in formal talks on a deal to end Washington's pressure campaign on the island.

"Today we cannot talk about having dialogue with the United States, but it is true that there have been communications between the two governments," deputy foreign minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio said in an interview.

Trump on Sunday claimed the United States was in talks with "the highest people" in communist Cuba and that he expected to "make a deal" with its leadership, without saying what a deal might look like.

De Cossio repeated that Cuba was "open to dialogue" with the United States amid calls from Cubans for the government to negotiate to avert a humanitarian crisis.

Trump has been ratcheting up pressure on Havana since the January 3 capture by US special forces of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, a top Cuba ally and financial backer.

Pressured by Washington, Venezuela's new administration has cut crude shipments to Cuba.

Trump said Monday that Cuba's other main supplier, Mexico, would also "cease sending them oil" after he threatened tariff hikes on any country that allowed Cuba to circumvent the de-facto blockade.

There was no immediate response from Mexico.

The United States' largest trade partner had incurred Trump's ire by sending oil to Cuba to make up for a sharp decline in Venezuela's output under Maduro.

As recently as December, Mexico was still sending crude to Cuba.

President Claudia Sheinbaum had been loathe to cut the lifeline to Cuba, warning of a "far-reaching humanitarian crisis directly affecting hospitals, food supplies, and other basic services for the Cuban people."

But she also admitted last week: "We don't want to put our country at risk in terms of tariffs."

A decree signed by Trump last week effectively forced her and other Cuban partners to choose.

- 'The highest people' -

The pressure tactics threaten to plunge Cuba into complete darkness, with its power plants already struggling to keep the lights on due to fuel shortages.

Jorge Grosso, a 23-year-old student who spent nearly 24 hours last week queueing at a petrol station to fill up his Lada, told AFP he backed talks "to see what conditions are imposed (by Trump) because in the end they're strangling us."

For months Cubans have been forced to cope with power outages lasting up to 20 hours a day in rural areas. 

On Monday, Trump repeated his claim that Cuba, which is limping through its worst economic crisis in decades, is a "failed nation."

He added he believed "we are pretty close (to a deal), but we are dealing with the Cuban leaders right now."

His pressure on Sheinbaum comes as the United States and its southern neighbor begin talks on a review of a tripartite free-trade deal with Canada which is crucial to Mexico's economy.

Over the past year, Sheinbaum has been scrambling to stave off the kind of tariffs pain Trump has imposed on other allies.

In a move widely seen as an attempt to appease him, Mexico in January imposed stiff tariffs on imports from China.

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A month ago Donald Trump told Gustavo Petro to "watch his ass." On Tuesday, the US president will meet his Colombian counterpart for the first time at the White House.

The unlikely encounter comes just weeks after leftist Petro found himself in Republican Trump's crosshairs following the US toppling of Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro.

Trump branded Petro a "sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States" and said that a similar US intervention in Colombia "sounds good to me." 

Coming from vastly different ends of the political spectrum, Trump and Petro had had already spent months of trading insults from their social media accounts.

But their tone changed after a hastily arranged phone call between the two men on January 7.

"I mean, he's been very nice over the last month or two," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on the eve of their meeting.

"He was certainly critical before that, but somehow, after the Venezuelan raid, he became very nice. I look forward to seeing him."

The ban on Petro's US visa will be suspended for the visit -- which comes after months of US sanctions, funding cuts and threats to bomb targets in Colombia. 

And an olive branch came ahead of the meeting, when Colombia abruptly agreed to accept US deportation flights on Friday.

The meeting itself is a sign of improved relations, but in Bogota there is deep nervousness about what might happen. 

Diplomats joke darkly about Petro being "Zelenskyed" -- receiving an Oval Office dressing down like the Ukrainian president did in February 2025.

"Both Trump and Petro are volatile," said Felipe Botero, a political expert at the University of the Andes. "The meeting could easily go off the rails." 

- 'Talking about drugs' -

The Colombian leader is an ardent leftist and an ex-guerrilla prone to long monologues while former reality star Trump rarely likes to share the spotlight.

But they are also deeply opposed on ideological grounds.

Petro was a long-term defender of his ideological soulmate Maduro as the US piled pressure on Caracas in the run-up to military action and has branded Trump "racist" and "authoritarian."

Trump meanwhile has said the Venezuela operation was just the start of the United States reasserting its two-century-old claim to dominance over its backyard, which includes Colombia.

Tuesday's meeting will also focus on drugs. Colombia is the world's biggest producer of cocaine, and the United States by far its largest consumer. 

"We're going to be talking about drugs, because tremendous amounts of drugs come out of his country," Trump said on Monday.

For decades, Colombia was Washington's closest partner in Latin America, with billions of dollars flowing to Bogota to boost the country's military and intelligence services in the drug fight. 

But under Petro, coca production and cocaine exports have surged. 

Critics blame the end of eradication programs and his policy of negotiating with an alphabet soup of drug-running guerrillas, cartels and paramilitaries who still control swaths of the country. 

Petro leaves office later this year, but for Colombia, the stakes are huge: hundreds of millions of dollars a year in military and other aid and the country's most important trading relationship. 

The visit comes before Colombia's May elections, where left-wing candidate Ivan Cepeda leads polls to succeed Petro. Cepeda recently accused the United States of trying to "influence" the election. 

Ahead of the meeting, Petro took steps to please Washington, announcing the resumption of migrant deportation flights to Colombia, the original trigger of the Petro–Trump conflict.

Colombia will also restart fumigation to destroy coca crops, a practice halted since 2015 and strongly opposed by Petro as a senator. 

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(The Center Square) - A new bill introduced in Colorado would require gun barrel purchases to be made in-person at a firearm dealer.

US President Donald Trump said Monday he would not demolish the Kennedy Center but hinted at major changes, a day after announcing he is closing the famed Washington arts venue for two years for renovations.

Trump revealed on Sunday that he was temporarily shuttering the complex -- where several prominent artists have canceled shows after he branded the center too "woke" and then affixed his own name to the facade.

"I'm not ripping it down, I'll be using the steel," Trump, a former construction magnate, told reporters in the Oval Office when asked if he planned to tear down the building.

"So we're using the structure, we're using some of the marble, and some of the marble comes down. 

"But when it's opened it'll be brand new and really beautiful."

Trump said the Kennedy Center renovations, which are due to start on July 4, would cost "probably around $200 million" but did not say where the funding would come from.

The billionaire Republican previously gave a similar cost for his construction of a new White House ballroom, which is paid for by private donors, although he has since said that project will now cost $400 million.

Trump has long declared that the structure -- built as a living memorial to slain US president John F. Kennedy and opened in 1971 -- is dilapidated and in need of a facelift.

Since his return to power just over a year ago, Trump has launched a forceful takeover of the once non-partisan center, branding some of its performing arts programming as too "woke." 

The 79-year-old Trump is chairman of a handpicked board that runs the complex in the US capital, and which voted in December to rename it the "Trump-Kennedy Center."

A number of artists have in recent months called off appearances, including a production of the musical "Hamilton," operatic soprano Renee Fleming and composer Philip Glass.

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Elon Musk's SpaceX has taken over his artificial intelligence company xAI in a merger aimed at deploying space-based data centers, a statement said on Monday.

The acquisition combines SpaceX's rocket capabilities with xAI's technology to create what Musk in the statement called "the most ambitious, vertically-integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth."

The merger comes as funding for the AI buildout embraced by big tech companies begins to show signs of tension.

Musk said SpaceX plans to launch a constellation of satellites that would function as orbital data centers, harnessing solar power in space to meet growing electricity demands for AI computing.

Musk said those needs cannot be met on Earth "without imposing hardship on communities and the environment."

"By directly harnessing near-constant solar power with little operating or maintenance costs, these satellites will transform our ability to scale compute," Musk wrote in the announcement.

SpaceX aims to launch one million satellites operating as data centers using its Starship rocket, which the company said will soon achieve launch rates of one flight per hour carrying 200 tons of payload.

The announcement did not disclose financial terms of the acquisition or provide a timeline for initial satellite deployments.

According to Bloomberg, the combined company would have a valuation of $1.25 trillion.

The deal further intertwines Musk's sprawling business empire, which already includes carmaker Tesla and social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

Musk merged X with xAI after acquiring Twitter in late 2022.

xAI, which operates the Grok chatbot, was valued at $230 billion in a January funding round.

The combined company would pool capital, computing resources and talent as Musk pursues his vision of placing data centers in space for AI computing.

SpaceX is reportedly targeting a mid-June initial public offering that could raise as much as $50 billion, according to US media.

The company dominates the space launch market with its reusable rockets and owns the largest satellite constellation through Starlink.

Musk had previously opposed an IPO for SpaceX because he had not enjoyed the required scrutiny of publicly traded Tesla.

He also argued that the market's desire for financial returns was at odds with his ultimate goal of settling Mars.

But the company's latest priorities will require significant investment.

These include developing Starship, the largest rocket ever built, for missions to the Moon and Mars.

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(The Center Square) - The Trump Administration is set to revisit regulations on data privacy and consumer protections between banks and financial technology firms such as Venmo.

The administration is looking to review the section of the Dodd-Frank Act, a 2010 regulation designed to end taxpayer bailouts and protect consumers from unfair financial practices. A provision in the act required financial institutions to provide consumers with access to their financial data.

Paul Watkins, managing partner at Fusion Law, called the provision an “essential part of our financial lives.” He said the provision allowed consumers to share their financial data with mortgage lenders or companies like Venmo and Plaid. 

“The consumer, because they have access to their data, is able to unbundle products and use the information at their bank in order to get a mortgage or to get a line of credit or to transfer funds into a different account,” Watkins said.

While financial tech companies increased in power and growth, data sharing became more common. The Biden Administration then formalized the largely untouched provision in 2024 to give consumers greater access to financial data and make it easier to shop around for competing services.

While attempting to help consumers, some advocates said the Biden administration’s rules made regulations too narrow. The advocates also warned future regulations need to adequately protect consumers' financial data.

“What we want is a system where the information can be used well, it can be used to benefit all consumers, to grow competition and the like,” said Todd Zywicki, law professor at George Mason University.

Zywicki also warned against allowing large banks to act as monopolies with future rulemaking. He said banks could charge millions of dollars to financial tech companies like Plaid to grant access for customers to receive data.

“I think there is a role here for some sort of government control over price,” Zywicki said. “If we don't make this information available at reasonable costs to consumers so that they can use it for their benefits, people are going to come up with workarounds that could very well be less secure.”

Advocates said the decision for the CFPB will hinge on how it chooses to define “authorized third parties” that can get access to consumer data from banks.

“If that definition is interpreted the way I think it will be, then we’re going to end up with a very pro-consumer fintech and the banks are going to lose on most of these issues,” Watkins said.

(The Center Square) - U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada, has co-introduced bipartisan legislation to extend a federal $450 million water recycling grant for Western states until 2032.

The federal grant, signed by former President Joe Biden in 2021, has already allocated roughly $308 million on water recycling projects in Colorado River states. Without its renewal, the remaining nearly $150 million could go unspent.

“There is still $150 million in unused funds, and the authorization for the grant program is set to sunset this year,” the Office of Sen. Cortez Masto wrote, answering The Center Square's questions by email. “Without the passage of her bipartisan Large-Scale Water Recycling Reauthorization Act, those funds – which have already been appropriated – face an uncertain future.”

The Large-Scale Water Recycling Project Grant Program funds are available to all Western states, but have only been granted to five programs in Utah and Southern California, totaling roughly $308 million.

If the program were not extended, it would expire at the end of the U.S. government’s 2026 fiscal year on Sept. 30. The grant’s extension, the Large-Scale Water Recycling Reauthorization Act, proposed by Cortez Masto and U.S. Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, would give allow grant funds to be allocated through the end of 2032.

The Office of Cortez Masto told The Center Square it did not know what exactly would happen with the funds if they were not allocated in time or if the timeline was not extended.

“They may not get distributed. They could be repurposed for other uses, or they could be prematurely rushed out the door at the end of 2026 without a thorough vetting process,” said Cortez Masto’s office.

Combined, the five grant recipient programs are estimated to produce 154.5 million gallons of recycled water per day – enough to serve 1.8 million Americans, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

The federal grants can only cover up to 25% of projects that cost at least $500 million in total. The largest grant recipient, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s Pure Water Southern California program, received $125.5 million for an estimated $4 billion-$5 billion project. The Southern Nevada Water Authority agreed to contribute $750 million in 2021 to the Californian project, in exchange for additional water usage rights to Lake Mead, located along the Nevada-Arizona border.

Colorado River Basin states - Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming - today recycle on average 26% of municipal wastewater. But these states have shown varying degrees of success and commitment to the water recycling programs, according to a 2025 report from University of California’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. 

No Colorado River Basin state has had more success than Nevada, with an estimated 85% of municipal wastewater recycled. Next best is Arizona (52%), followed by the largest producer of wastewater in California (22%) and New Mexico (18%). Colorado (3.6%), Wyoming (3.4%) and Utah (less than 1%) do not reuse “meaningful volumes of treated wastewater,” according to the UCLA report.

The Office of Cortez Masto stressed that the program’s continuation was an important piece of the region's water infrastructure.

“So far, $300 million of that funding has been used to help fund large-scale water recycling projects that will conserve water and mitigate drought for years to come,” the office said. “This legislation will provide certainty and clarity for local and state governments and water authorities looking to start large-scale water recycling projects in the years to come.”