US Justice Dept to probe its handling of Epstein files

(The Center Square) – U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., and three of his colleagues have introduced a bill that would allow beneficiaries enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, to buy hot rotisserie chicken with their benefits.

Called the “Hot Rotisserie Chicken Act,” it’s just the latest in a series of proposals from the first-term senator that would modernize the program, which is used by 2 million low-income Pennsylvanians.

“America’s best (and delicious) affordability play is Costco’s $4.99 rotisserie chicken,” said Fetterman. “It’s one of my family’s favorites and I’m proud to join this bill with Senator Justice for all to try.” 

U.S. Sens. Jim Justice, R-W.Va.; Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Michael Bennet, D-Colo., are leading the charge with Pennsylvania’s senior senator.

“SNAP funds would be well spent to feed our nation’s families who need it,” Fetterman said. 

Under current statute, SNAP recipients can purchase cooked rotisserie chickens that have been cooled down, but it does not allow the purchase of hot prepared foods. The proposal would change that by amending the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to modify the definition of food to include “hot rotisserie chicken.” 

Justice described it as “just common sense.”

“It’s as basic as you can get to help busy parents or grandparents put something as simple as this on the table to feed their families,” he said. “We have to give people the option to put a healthy, protein-dense choice on the table that actually tastes good and doesn’t take an hour and a half to cook.”

Capito called the bill a “simple, practical step to make the program work better for the people it serves.” 

“For seniors, working families, and those without reliable access to cooking equipment, this is about convenience and dignity,” Capito said. “With multiple states—including West Virginia—already requesting flexibility in this area, this bill brings SNAP in line with real-world needs while making smart, efficient use of taxpayer dollars.”

At around $5 a piece at grocery stores, supporters argue that rotisserie chicken is “unmatched in value, especially when factoring in how much time it saves.”

The proposal does not increase funding or participant eligibility for SNAP or include all other hot food. It also only applies to eligible retailers, maintaining that SNAP will not be expanded to restaurants.

“Congress should be making it easier, not harder, for families to put food on the table,” Bennet said.

About 70% of SNAP participants are children, elderly, or have disabilities, according to the National Association of Convenience Stores.

The hot foods ban has been in place since the 1970s, when most Americans prepared meals from scratch. A 2021 USDA report found that 30% of SNAP participants cite lack of time as a barrier to cooking, while 15% cite physical disability and 11% cite lack of kitchen equipment.

Federal data shows 12.3% of U.S. residents receive SNAP benefits. Two million in Pennsylvania, or roughly 15% of the population, use the program, spending more than $350 million monthly across 38,000 stores, some of which depend mostly on these sales to survive.

Fetterman, a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, has also backed Bennet’s Hot Food Act, which would allow all hot foods to be eligible under the program, and the Cybersecurity for SNAP Act, which would increase the security of EBT cards to prevent skimming. 

The Fairness for Victims of SNAP Skimming Act, which Fetterman also introduced, would allow USDA to repay recipients whose EBT funds were stolen from their cards.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday ruled out striking Iran with a nuclear weapon, after his previous threats to completely destroy Iranian civilization.

"No, I wouldn't use it," Trump told reporters at the White House.

"Why would I use a nuclear weapon when we've, in a very conventional way, decimated them without it?" he asked.

"A nuclear weapon should never be allowed to be used by anybody."

Trump on April 7 issued a genocidal threat to Iran that a "whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back," but within hours agreed to a ceasefire that he has since extended in the war launched by the United States and Israel.

Vice President JD Vance during the conflict warned that the United States was ready to intensify damage on Iran with weapons not previously used, but the White House denied he was threatening nuclear strikes.

Vance in failed negotiations had pushed Iran for greater concessions on its contested nuclear work.

Trump told reporters that he was seeking an Iran "without a nuclear weapon that's going to try and blow up one of our cities or blow up the entire Middle East."

Iran denies seeking a nuclear weapon and the UN nuclear watchdog says that an atomic bomb was not imminent before the war.

The United States is the only country to have used nuclear weapons in combat, obliterating the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II, killing some 214,000 people.

Israel is widely known to have nuclear weapons but does not publicly acknowledge them.

Trump's blanket statement against any nuclear use would appear to be at odds with longstanding US nuclear doctrine, which reserves the right to use nuclear weapons.

Trump has previously called for an end to a US moratorium on nuclear testing in response to US allegations of secret testing by China and Russia.

Former president Barack Obama had called for an eventual goal of a world without nuclear weapons, but his administration also said that so long as they existed, the US arsenal would serve as a deterrent.

The United States has rejected calls to declare that it will never use nuclear weapons first in a conflict.

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(The Center Square) – Two female teenagers have been charged in connection to what authorities say was a plot to commit a terrorist attack against a Jewish synagogue and day school in Houston. 

A multistate investigation involving the FBI in North Carolina and Texas resulted in the state’s oldest congregation going on lockdown Wednesday. Within 24 hours, two arrests were made in two states. 

On Wednesday, Congregation Beth Israel and The Shlenker School on its property both were closed after the Houston Police Department notified them of a potential targeted attack, authorites said. The notification came from an FBI Charlotte Joint Terrorism Task Force, which began an investigation Tuesday night after receiving a tip from a North Carolina law enforcement agency. 

The Reform Jewish congregation serves more than 1,500 households in the Houston area and is the oldest Jewish congregation in Texas.  

“HPD Major Offenders Division was made aware of a threat directed towards certain Jewish institutions in our area," police said in a statement. "With the assistance of FBI Houston and Alief ISD Police Department, a 16-year-old has been arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit capital murder. At this time there is no other known credible threat. No other information is available at this time.”

Authorities also arrested an 18-year-old woman in North Carolina, accused of conspiring to “kill as many Jews as possible.” 

“A fast-moving, multistate FBI investigation led to the arrests of one adult and one juvenile accused of planning an attack at a Jewish Day School in Houston, Texas,” FBI Charlotte announced Thursday afternoon. “18-year-old Angelina Hicks is currently facing two state charges brought by the Davidson County Sheriff's Office in Lexington, North Carolina. A juvenile was charged in Harris County, Texas.” 

The task force investigation working with local law enforcement was “an exceptional example of when you see something concerning, you say something to law enforcement,” FBI Charlotte said. It also recognized FBI-Houston partners and the Jewish community in North Carolina, Texas, and nationwide, including the Jewish Federation for their assistance. 

A joint FBI multistate investigation is ongoing, it said.

Authorities said the plan involved driving into the building to harm congregants and school children, similar to what occurred in Michigan last month. 

In March, a Lebanese man drove into Temple Israel, also a reformed synagogue, in West Bloomfield Township near Detroit. None of the synagogue’s staff, teachers or 140 children in its early childhood center were injured. The driver was shot dead by police.

The Davidson County, North Carolina, Sheriff’s Office said its Criminal Investigation Division working with the FBI launched an investigation. Deputies went to Hicks’ home and found evidence “showing Hicks and co-conspirators were planning a mass casualty event at a synagogue in Houston. The planned attack was targeted at the Congregation Beth Israel.” 

Hicks was arrested and charged with felony conspiracy to commit assault with a deadly weapon to kill or commit serious injury and felony conspiracy to commit murder. The judge set bond at $10 million. 

The Jewish Federation of Greater Houston said on Wednesday that it had been in communication with law enforcement “related to information around potential threats to the [Beth Israel] campus.” The Shlenker School said closing its campus came “out of an abundance of caution and after speaking with authorities.” Both were reopened on Thursday.

The federation also said local law enforcement agencies were increasing patrols around Houston-area Jewish institutions. The federation also posted information about security, including a way for the public to report threats, incidents, and suspicious activity related to Jewish organizations, facilities or community members. 

After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack against Israel, Gov. Greg Abbott directed additional security measures statewide, especially around Jewish organizations and schools, and surged antiterrorism resources, The Center Square reported. Abbott and the legislature have also advanced several measures to combat antisemitism. 

Within one year, the number of antisemitic attacks tracked by the Anti-Defamation League were the largest on record in the U.S. in 2024 of 9,354. They included harassment, vandalism and assault against Jewish- and Israeli-Americans or Jewish institutions and houses of worship, The Center Square reported.

Beth Israel is hosting a 30-minute gun safety training for its congregants on Sunday to promote “responsible gun ownership to reduce deaths, injuries, and trauma among children and teens.”

Taylor Jenkins, who spent six seasons as coach of the Memphis Grizzlies, was set to be hired as coach of the NBA Milwaukee Bucks, according to multiple reports on Thursday.

The 41-year-old American served as an assistant coach for the Bucks in the 2018-19 season on coach Mike Budenholzer's staff.

Jenkins departed in June 2019 to become head coach at Memphis and went 250-214 before being fired in March 2025 with nine games remaining in the season.

Jenkins would replace Doc Rivers, who resigned as head coach of the Bucks 10 days ago after three seasons at Milwaukee, losing twice in the first round of the playoffs before missing the post-season this year after nine years in a row in the playoffs.

Rivers, 64, guided Boston to the 2008 NBA crown and has a career NBA coaching record of 1,194-866.

The move comes as the Bucks are trying to convince Greek star Giannis Antetokounmpo to remain with the club.

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The US Justice Department's internal watchdog said Thursday it will investigate its compliance with a law mandating the release of millions of pages of documents in the case of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The law passed last November obligated the Trump administration to exhibit total transparency on the politically explosive case file of Epstein, the billionaire playboy who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

But after making reams of documents public in a process that culminated with a drop of some three million pages in late January, the Justice Department (DOJ) came in for heated criticism.

Lawmakers from both parties complained about information being withheld, in particular the redaction of parts of the massive case file.

At the same time the department released names and photos of Epstein victims who until then had not been named publicly, triggering outrage. These sensitive parts of the file were later removed from the public domain.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act compelled the DOJ to release all documents in its possession related to Epstein within 30 days.

It required redaction of names or other personally identifiable information about Epstein's victims, who numbered more than 1,000, according to the FBI.

But powerful figures who were friendly with Epstein could not be shielded "on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity," the law states.

The department's Office of the Inspector General announced Thursday it was opening a probe into how the department complied with the law called the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

The probe will "evaluate the DOJ’s processes for identifying, redacting, and releasing records in its possession as required by the Act." A final report will be issued.

In February, lawmakers from both parties who were allowed to view the fully unredacted Epstein files at DOJ facilities complained that some information in the publicly released files was still improperly shielded.

Simply being mentioned in the Epstein files does not denote the commission of wrongdoing.

But since the huge document drop on January 30, prominent people around the world have been rocked by revelations of their ties with Epstein. This has led to criminal probes, arrests and resignations, mainly in Europe.

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(The Center Square) – Regeneron is the latest pharmaceutical manufacturer to make a deal with the administration to offer some of their drugs at most-favored-nation pricing.

Now, 17 of the largest drug manufacturers in the world have announced similar deals with the White House to offer some of their medicines at rates no higher than other economic peer countries because for decades, Americans have often paid much higher prices for prescription drugs.

The deals have been announced over the course of less than a year, after President Donald Trump issued an executive order in May 2025 aimed at securing most-favored-nation pricing. The president has said that the U.S. has effectively been paying for the high costs of pharmaceutical research and development and subsidizing prescription drugs for other countries.

The companies have agreed to sell their drugs to state Medicaid programs at most-favored-nation pricing, as well as offering some drugs at deeply discounted rates on government website TrumpRx for Americans not using insurance. Many of the agreements have also mentioned guaranteeing most-favored-nation pricing on all “new, innovative medicines” they bring to market, though it’s unclear whether that only applies to state Medicaid programs or commercial sales.

The president said these deals would result in “the largest drop in prescription drug prices in the history of the United States of America,” but he expressed doubt that it would factor into Americans’ decisions at the polls come November. 

“It's the biggest price reduction in drugs in history. By itself, we should win the midterms. But it doesn't work that way,” Trump said. “Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. People forget too quickly.”

As part of its joint announcement with Regeneron Thursday, the White House also announced that the Food and Drug Administration had just approved one of Regeneron’s drugs, Otarmeni, which the president described as a “gene therapy curing a rare disease that causes deafness.”

He added that Regeneron would, for a time, be offering the drug for free.

A mother and two-year-old boy who was born with the ultra-rare condition were there Thursday to attest to the drug’s impact.

“It's absolutely incredible,” she said. “With Regeneron and this amazing surgery, he can listen to music, and he loves it, and he loves to dance, and he loves instruments.”

Meta plans to cut a tenth of its workforce, looking for productivity gains from its remaining workers as it invests heavily in artificial intelligence.

Meta will lay off about 8,000 employees and leave thousands of other positions unfilled next month, a source told AFP.

The move comes as co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg makes a priority of delivering "superintelligence" in a costly AI race against rivals including Amazon, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI.

Reports on Thursday also indicated that Microsoft is looking to trim its ranks with voluntary buyouts of some US employees in an unprecedented move by the tech stalwart founded in 1975.

About seven percent of US employees at Microsoft were reported to be eligible for an offer aimed at workers senior director level or lower whose years of employment and age add up to 70 or more, according to a CNBC report.

Microsoft, which has also been pouring billions of dollars into AI, did not respond to a request for comment.

Meta and Microsoft are both set to report quarterly earnings next week.

Meta in January reported quarterly earnings that topped market expectations, as revenue grew along with investments in AI.

Meanwhile costs tallied $35.15 billion, an increase of 40 percent from the same period a year earlier, the earnings reported noted.

Capital expenses, including infrastructure such as data centers to power AI, were $22.14 billion in the quarter, according to the company.

Meta anticipated capital expenditures in the $115 billion to $135 billion range this fiscal year, driven by increased investment in Meta Superintelligence Labs and its core business.

"I'm looking forward to advancing personal superintelligence for people around the world in 2026," Zuckerberg said on an earnings call.

Meta is locked in a bitter rivalry with other tech behemoths racing to invest heavily in AI, aiming to ensure the technology generates profits in the not-so-distant future.

Most analysts believe Meta will make the investment pay off by improving advertising efficiency and creating new opportunities, such as with its smart glasses through a partnership with Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica.

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Only one person has been approved for US President Donald Trump's "gold card" visa program so far, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Thursday, referring to a million-dollar residency card unveiled last year.

The US leader signed an order last September to create the program offering residency for a fee of $1 million. It started accepting applications in December.

US officials have recently approved one person, Lutnick told a US House committee on Thursday.

"And there are hundreds in the queue" who are going through the process, he added.

Applicants also have to pay a $15,000 Department of Homeland Security processing fee, and Lutnick said they would go through a "most serious vetting and analysis."

The "gold card" residency program charges a $1 million fee for individuals and $2 million for sponsorships by corporations.

Its creation came at the same time that Trump ordered an annual $100,000 fee be added to H-1B skilled worker visas.

Trump initially said the new visa would bring in job creators and could be used to reduce the national deficit.

Since returning to the presidency in 2025, Trump has tightened immigration and his administration has conducted harsh deportation raids.

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(The Center Square) – In honor and ahead of America’s 250th birthday, polling and analysis organization the Napolitan Institute released a “declaration” of 27 shared American ideals Thursday based on the findings of an extensive artificial intelligence-powered survey.

Pollster Scott Rasmussen, the founder of the Napolitan Institute, said that the results showed him that the U.S. isn’t as polarized as it can appear.

“We are not a 50-50 polarized nation. What I believe we are is a 10-10-80 nation,” Rasmussen said at the unveiling of the declaration. “There are people on both the left and the right who reject America’s founding ideals… [but] 80% of Americans hate the political fighting.”

More than 2,400 people across all 435 congressional districts responded in their own words to a series of prompts online asking them about freedom and equality. With oversight, advanced AI models were then used to synthesize those results into 27 core summary statements, “most of which had over 80% agreement from everyone who participated,” according to the website chronicling the initiative.

At Thursday’s annual meeting of the American Philosophical Society, Rasmussen read the declaration. The first statement was a slightly modernized version of the most recognized excerpt from the Declaration of Independence: “We have been endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Another borrowed from Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech, saying “We should be judged by the content of our character, not by the color of our skin.”

That statement was the “only ideal that had not a single congressional district in opposition,” according to Rasmussen.

Others included “People are born with basic rights that the government does not give them and cannot take away” and “Freedom is the power to make your own choices and control your own life.”

On equality, some of the AI-generated summary statements were, “Equality is everyone having the same opportunity to succeed based on their own efforts, not a guarantee of the same results,” and “The law should apply to everyone in the same way, no matter who they are.”

Participants not only responded to the prompts in their own words, but they were also able to up- or down-vote statements from others. 

The institute was founded in 2024 by founder of RMG Research Rasmussen to “lift up and amplify the voice of the American people so loudly that it cannot be ignored in the halls of power.” 

Napolitan partnered with Google incubator Jigsaw to develop an AI model to support the We the People initiative. 

“One of the domains that we’ve been working on is giving people more agency in their civic life,” said Spencer Baim, head of brand, creative and marketing for Jigsaw. “What if AI could help you chat better with someone else, human-to-human in a world that is increasingly divided? Would it be possible to help people have better conversations and have a feeling that their voice and their table matters?”

One woman at the meeting posed a question to Rasmussen after the unveiling.

“It’s great to hear about these agreements on very general, feel-good kinds of claims. But I would wonder how those people would line up if you asked them about gun control, immigration and their feeling about January 6,” she said.

“One of the great parts of the whole process was that people told us from the very beginning that they were skeptical that they would find common ground with anybody else. Having gone through the process, they were shocked at how much common ground they found on different topics,” Rasmussen said.

The survey was held online for just over five weeks in September and October, and participants were informed at the beginning that they would need to complete three rounds of the survey. To select a nationally representative sampling of participants, the Napolitan Institute partnered with the recruitment firm Rep Data, which recruited U.S. citizens across the country along the dimensions of sex, age, race and political affiliation and aligned with 2024 data from the U.S. Census Bureau. All respondents were compensated for their participation and informed of the purpose of the survey and AI’s role in the process.

(The Center Square) – QatarEnergy, the world’s second largest liquified natural gas exporter in 2025, announced Wednesday it has begun shipping gas from the Golden Pass facility on the east Texas Gulf Coast.

The Golden Pass LNG project, a joint venture owned 70% by state-owned QatarEnergy and 30% by ExxonMobil, shipped the facility’s inaugural commercial cargo on the 174,000-cubic-meter vessel Al-Qaiyyah. The ship, owned and operated by QatarEnergy, is in transit to fulfill a long-term contract with a customer in Italy, according to a report in Reuters.

According to shipping analytics company Kpler, Qatar was the world's second-largest exporter of LNG in 2025, behind only the United States.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted final permission for so-called “commissioning cargoes" from the Golden Pass terminal just two days prior to the ship’s departure.

“This is a significant industry milestone that marks a new chapter in QatarEnergy’s global efforts to meet rising LNG demand and ensure reliable supplies to global markets,” said Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the minister of state for energy affairs who also serves as president and CEO of QatarEnergy.

QatarEnergy has signed contracts for 128 vessels in its shipbuilding program as part of a fleet expansion that aims to reach 200 vessels in total by 2028.

A March 18 Iranian missile strike on Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City – the world’s largest LNG export hub – damaged two of the 14 production trains at QatarEnergy’s main plant, which took about 17% of the country’s total output offline. Qatari officials estimate the LNG production trains will be inoperable for three to five years.

QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi stated that the damage at Ras Laffan could result in an estimated $20 billion in lost annual revenue.

Partners QatarEnergy and ExxonMobil expect to begin operating the second and third trains at the Golden Pass export plant in the second half of 2026 and the first half of 2027, respectively. Once fully operational, the facility’s total planned production capacity will reach 18.1 million tons per year, representing a total investment exceeding $10 billion, according to the companies.

The Golden Pass terminal was originally built in 2009 as an import facility intended to bring Qatari LNG into the United States, but the shale revolution soon made domestic gas supplies so abundant the facility sat dormant. In 2012, the two joint-venture partners decided to convert the terminal into an export hub.

Golden Pass is the 10th operational LNG export facility in the United States and will represent the only addition to production capacity on American soil expected in 2026, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.