Alumni.jpg

(The Center Square) - Paramount Skydance won a federal judge’s approval Wednesday to proceed with a $111-billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery in a historic Hollywood merger.

U.S. District Judge Martínez-Olguín in Oakland approved Paramount Skydance’s settlement with Democratic attorneys general from 12 states, who sued to stop the merger. The plaintiffs included Arizona, California, Nevada, Colorado and Washington.

Martínez-Olguín did not add conditions beyond what were made during the agreement between Paramount Skydance and the attorneys general.

The companies own two longtime iconic movie and TV studios – Paramount Pictures in Hollywood and Warner Bros., on a larger campus in nearby Burbank, Calif. Paramount is known for franchises such as "Star Trek," "Transformers" and "Mission Impossible." Warner Bros. is famous for everything from Bugs Bunny to "Casablanca," Batman and Superman movies, and the Harry Potter franchise.

As part of the agreement, Paramount Skydance will produce 30 movies in each of the first two years of the deal and 32 movies in each of the following three years.

In addition to Paramount Pictures, Paramount Skydance owns the CBS broadcast network, the Paramount+ streaming service and cable networks such as Showtime, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and BET.

Besides its longtime movie and TV studio, Warner Bros. Discovery owns HBO Max, CNN, TNT, TBS, the Discovery Channel, Cartoon Network, DC Comics and DC Studios.

The antitrust lawsuit was scheduled to go to court in 2027.

The other state attorneys general involved in the antitrust lawsuit are from Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington.

(The Center Square) – Education leaders and organizations are weighing in following the Trump administration's formal rescission of the Biden administration's Title IX rule, discussing what it means for student protections in education. 

Now that the U.S. Department of Education has formally rescinded the Biden administration's Title IX rule and reinstated the Title IX regulations adopted by the Trump administration back in 2020, supporters note that this change will protect girls in sports, while critics say this will put more LGBTQ+ students in danger. 

This move follows federal court decisions that invalidated the Biden administration's 2024 Title IX rule. The Education Department also highlighted that the original purpose of Title IX is to “protect women’s safety, dignity, and educational opportunities in schools that receive federal funding.”

Sarah Parshall Perry, vice president and senior legal fellow at Defending Education, told The Center Square that the change clarifies Title IX requirements for school officials. 

“I think this was a very necessary housekeeping measure,” Perry said. “I think it cleared up a lot for federal stakeholders across the country … school principals, the school board presidents, the people who are actually on the ground having to deal with these precise sort of tricky administrative issues.”

She also said the rescission removes what she described as legal protection that some states had relied on in disputes with the Department of Education, particularly over transgender athletes. 

“We don't want to diminish the very purpose and the very mission of the statute in and of itself, simply because we have a disproportionate weight of one student's interests over the vast majority of the other students,” Perry told The Center Square. 

The California Family Council also supported the Trump administration's action. The organization has focused on opposing transgender participation in girls' sports and legislation in Sacramento related to transgender athletes.

Sophia Lorey, outreach director for the California Family Council, told The Center Square that the Trump administration's action returns Title IX to what she described as its original purpose.

Lorey said the Biden administration “kind of got this all confused” by allowing transgender athletes to participate in girls' sports, while arguing that the Trump administration's restoration of the 2020 rule returns Title IX to its original intent.

Lorey said the change does not immediately alter California policy.

“For California families, nothing really changes until Sacramento acts,” Lorey said. 

She noted that the federal change could strengthen legal arguments in cases involving protections for girls under Title IX.

Critics of the administration's action argue that rescinding the Biden-era rule reduces protections for transgender students and students who experience sexual harassment or sexual violence. 

Caius Willingham, senior policy analyst at Advocates for Trans Equality, said the decision rolls back protections for students who are victims of sexual assault.

“It is absolutely shameful that the Trump administration is turning its back on survivors of campus sexual assault,” Willingham told The Center Square. 

As the Education Department continues to dismantle itself and move its divisions to other departments, Willingham criticized the administration's focus on transgender students, saying resources should instead be directed toward enforcing the rights of students on campus.  

“While the administration has been putting its resources towards persecuting transgender students, they've completely alighted their responsibility to enforce the rights of students who are victims of sexual harassment and sexual violence on campus,” Willingham said. 

Willingham pointed to a report from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that said despite the Office for Civil Rights receiving an expected record number of civil rights complaints in 2025, the Trump administration's Office for Civil Rights reached 112 resolution agreements, the fewest in at least 12 years.

The report said the office reached no resolution agreements in 2025 regarding sexual harassment and sexual violence, among other issues. 

“We're just going to continue seeing the Trump administration failing students by both shrinking the amount of resources that these departments have, while redirecting their resources towards cases that really don't benefit anybody,” Willingham told The Center Square. “Persecuting transgender students is not actually furthering the interests of any other student.”

Melanie Willingham-Jaggers, CEO of the pro-LGBTQ+ nonprofit Glisten, also criticized the administration's decision.

"The federal government stands on the side of harassers and abusers of children. It is not surprising in a government led by a convicted felon, that his department of education removes barriers to the exploitation of children," Willingham-Jaggers said in a statement sent to The Center Square. "Every student deserves to learn without fear, and today our government walked away from that promise."

Homecoming weekend is about bringing people back to Columbia, but for Missouri men’s basketball, it is also about showing future Tigers what the program looks like when the city comes alive.

As Mizzou football prepares to welcome Florida to Faurot Field on Saturday, the basketball program will have a group of recruits in town for the weekend. According to On3’s MizzouToday, five prospects are scheduled to visit for the Homecoming game, giving coach Dennis Gates and his staff another opportunity to show recruits what they could be joining while the current Tigers continue preparing for their own season.

The group includes two recruits in the 2027 class, one who is already a familiar name around the program. Scottie Adkinson, a 6-foot-4 point guard from Webster Groves, is already committed to Missouri, currently sits at No. 35 nationally according to On3. Devin Cleveland, a 6-foot-3 shooting guard from La Lumiere School in LaPorte County, Indiana, is also scheduled for an official visit and is ranked No. 32 nationally.

The weekend also gives Mizzou a chance to look further down the recruiting calendar. Nijaun Harris, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard from Boca Ciega High School in Gulfport, Florida, is a 2028 prospect who has drawn attention from the Tigers. Then there is Majok Ater, a 6-foot-9 center from Principia in St. Louis who is part of the 2029 class. Ater is ranked No. 30 nationally and No. 6 among centers in the Rivals rankings, which puts him among the top players in Missouri's 2029 class.

For Ater, the timing is notable because he is still three graduating classes away from becoming a college player. Mizzou's interest in a prospect that young illustrates how recruiting has changed at the highest level of college basketball. The work does not begin when a player is ready to sign. It can begin years earlier, with coaches establishing relationships, watching players develop and making sure their program remains part of the conversation.

That long-term approach is already visible in the Tigers' current roster. Mizzou's 2026 class was built around players who had been recruited well before they arrived in Columbia, including Jason Crowe Jr., Toni Bryant and Aidan Chronister.

Crowe, the second highest-ranked commitment in Mizzou basketball history, became a five-star prospect and signed with Missouri after a high school career in which he scored 4,718 points at Inglewood High School and became California's all-time leading scorer. On3's MizzouToday reported that the Tigers landed Crowe after emerging as the favorite during the summer before his senior season.

Crowe's recruitment also shows how personal those relationships can become. His father, Jason Crowe Sr., joined Gates' staff this offseason as an assistant coach for player development after coaching his son at Inglewood.

Mizzou did not simply recruit a highly-regarded guard from California; the program now has another member of its coaching staff with deep ties to the same basketball community that produced one of its most anticipated freshmen.

The Tigers have paired that high school recruiting with work in the transfer portal. Bryson Tiller, Jamier Jones, Jaylen Carey and other experience transfers arrived through the portal to give Mizzou a mixture of experience and youth. The result is a roster that includes players who followed different paths to Columbia, but now have to fit together under Gates. 

That matters because the Tigers are not rebuilding around one recruiting class. They are trying to maintain a program in which the roster can change without the identity disappearing. The departures of Jayden Stone, Anthony Robinson, T.O. Barrett, Shawn Phillips Jr. and others created significant holes, but Mizzou responded by bringing in young talent and experienced transfers. Plus, it gives other players the opportunity to grow into larger roles.

Homecoming provides a natural setting for that process. While the current Tigers prepare for the season ahead, the slate of visitors will get a firsthand look at the environment Mizzou is asking them to join. They will see the crowds, the campus and the energy surrounding a major SEC weekend rather than hearing about it from a coach sitting across a table.

That is what makes the countdown to Kansas State more than a countdown to one exhibition.

With 23 days remaining until Mizzou travels to Manhattan, Kansas, for the Oct. 23 exhibition, the program is simultaneously preparing the 2026 roster and recruiting the players who could eventually replace it. Some of those players, like Adkinson, have already decided Columbia is where they want to be. Others, like Cleveland, are still weighing their options. Ater represents an even earlier stage, with Mizzou trying to build a relationship before his college decision is anywhere close.

On a weekend devoted to bringing Mizzou people home, the Tigers will also be opening the door for the next generation of players who could one day call Columbia home.

(The Center Square) - Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser is suing the federal government as part of a second legal battle against the construction of immigrant detention centers in the state.

The lawsuit was filed in an attempt to stop or temporarily delay the construction of a detention facility housing illegal immigrants in Hudson, Colo. 

Filed Tuesday by Weiser, the suit requested a preliminary injunction to “halt the continued renovation, construction, and planned operation of a new civil immigration detention center in Hudson, Colorado,” according to the court document. 

According to Weiser, the basis of the request for preliminary injunction falls on the grounds that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement must comply with an environmental review before proceeding, as required under the National Environmental Policy Act. 

“DHS and ICE have violated NEPA by contracting for the facility’s operation without considering the potential environmental impacts,” the document further reads. 

DHS and ICE did not immediately respond to The Center Square's request for comment on the lawsuit.

Weiser previously sued the private prison company, GEO Group, in August, in an effort to require the company to comply with state health and safety inspections. GEO Group currently owns and operates an immigration detention facility in another Colorado city, Aurora. This came as a tuberculosis outbreak was reported at the prison, to which the county and state’s department for public safety and environment issued an order requesting the facility also comply with the state’s investigative procedures. 

GEO Group initially sued the state merely weeks before Attorney General Weiser filed his lawsuit against the private company. The company alleged the state could not implement or enforce statewide health and safety inspections because of the federal contract GEO group has with the government, which would effectively bar the state from enforcing regulations over the federal government’s orders. 

Weiser released a press statement on Tuesday for the newest lawsuit, saying “Coloradans are deeply worried about plans to open a new immigrant detention facility in Hudson to carry out the Trump administration’s inhumane — and often illegal — mass deportation scheme.”

Weiser’s chief communications officer, Lawrence Pacheco, declined to provide any additional comments to The Center Square.  

The press release added that the federal government had complied with the federal law’s requirements previously and conducted an environmental review for immigration detention facilities in Texas. He indicated that Colorado’s situation should be no different. 

“We’re asking the court to stop any further activities to open and operate the Hudson site until DHS and ICE conduct the legal analysis required by law,” Weiser said in his statement.

Weiser’s earlier lawsuit against GEO Group did not end in his favor, however, as a Trump-appointed federal judge ruled against the state. The judge effectively blocked major provisions in Colorado’s House Bill 26-1276 by citing the federal supremacy clause, which means federal legislation trumps state legislation, and the state could not require a federally-funded facility to comply with state-mandated orders over the federal government. 

This would be Weiser’s 84th lawsuit against the second Trump administration. The Democratic attorney general, who's running against Republican candidate Victor Marx for governor, tracks the status of his lawsuits on the Attorney General Office’s website, in a section called “Defending Colorado.” 

(The Center Square) – Los Angeles mayoral candidate Nithya Raman defended her previous use of the word "genocide" to describe Israel's actions in Gaza during a debate Tuesday night with Mayor Karen Bass.

Raman, the Los Angeles City Council member who's running against Bass for mayor in the Nov. 3 election, added she condemned the terrorist group Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks in Israel that prompted the Israel-Gaza war.

For her part, Bass said she wouldn't describe Israel's actions as "genocide. " She added she opposes economic actions against companies in Israel or with ties with the Jewish nation.

The two Democratic candidates debated foreign policy, housing, policing and homelessness before an audience of hundreds of people at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles. The forum was co-hosted by the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles.

There is a great diversity of opinions about foreign policies, Raman told the audience.

“This city has to be a place where you can feel free to express those views, where you can feel free to worship as you wish, where you can be visibly Jewish and not feel unsafe," said Raman, who has been endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America.

Raman explained why she used the word “genocide” during a May interview to describe Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks.

“I recognize that genocide is a deeply painful word,” said Raman. “I used it because other experts have used it to describe what’s happening, and I used it because I felt compelled to speak out about issues that we saw, the images that are coming, the targeting of hospitals, the deaths of children.”

Bass noted she grew up with many Jewish students whose parents or grandparents were Holocaust survivors. Speaking as a mayor and former federal and state lawmaker, Bass said she has always fought for vulnerable communities.

Bass added she would oppose any efforts to boycott, divest or sanction Israeli-based companies or companies with ties to Israel.

“I would oppose that and if it came before the City Council, it depends on what it is, but if it was calling for that, I would oppose it,” said Bass, who was first elected in November 2022.

On local issues, Bass said she felt that Los Angeles does not have enough police officers and needs to speed up hiring.

In January 2026, Bass issued a statement to media that the “second largest city in the United States cannot have an effective police department while it is operating with the lowest staffing levels in years.”

Raman said she wants to alleviate strain on law enforcement and optimize 911 dispatch.

"I want to make sure we're building out a citywide system of unarmed response that can be integrated into our 911 system that can be responded to as quickly as we do our armed officer calls right now and that we can actually through that work take call load off of LAPD,” said Raman.

In terms of homelessness, Raman promised to speed up housing construction across the city and move beyond shifting encampments to getting people indoors. Bass said she too has worked on moving unhoused people indoors.

“There just shouldn’t be people sleeping on our streets,” said the mayor, who promised to address homelessness during her 2022 campaign. When she took office in December of that year, she declared a state of emergency and started the Inside Safe Program to bring homeless individuals indoor.

According to the mayor's website, the program brought 5,808 unhoused people inside and found permanent housing for 1,431 of them. The website added many thousands have been helped by all of the city's efforts and that the city addressed 121 encampments.

But critics have charged that a good portion of those helped have returned to the streets after leaving temporary housing during the $300 million program. The Los Angeles Times reported 40% went back on the streets.

The mayor, who faced criticism over her handling of the devastating Palisades Fire in January 2025, admitted that her first term did not get everything right, but she added she believes Angelenos can have a city that is affordable.

“And the No. 1 way a mayor can impact affordability is housing,” said Bass.

(The Center Square) – The Pentagon told The Center Square its Golden Dome missile shield will protect the entire homeland for $185 billion.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates a notional system consistent with the administration's missile defense goals could cost about $1.2 trillion over 20 years, roughly $9,300 for each of the nation's 129.2 million households.

A Pentagon official in the Golden Dome program office, who asked to be identified that way, said the system "protects all Americans to include Guam, Alaska and Hawaii," and is meant to defend all of America, "not part of America."

The official would not say which areas the system will defend or whether it uses U.S. Northern Command's defended asset list, citing operational security, and did not address testimony that not every American can be protected. Northern Command, which maintains the military's list of defended assets, referred questions to the Office of the Secretary of War, which responded through the program office.

A spokesperson for U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., who chairs the Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee, told The Center Square the program's specifics are classified. The program office briefed CBO for the first time Sept. 25, four months after the estimate was published, and Fischer's office said the senator "is glad" the two can now "work toward providing a more accurate cost estimate."

The difference between the two cost figures is more than $1 trillion in taxpayer money, though the two estimates do not cover the same period. The household figure is based on Census Bureau counts for 2020 through 2024. The full $1.2 trillion is roughly a year's worth of federal net interest payments on the debt; the government spent $1.05 trillion on net interest in the first 11 months of this fiscal year, according to CBO's monthly budget review for August.

Among the unanswered questions at the subcommittee's hearing Tuesday: which parts of the country the system will actually defend.

The Pentagon official said the $185 billion covers the program's objective architecture through 2035, and that the office would need more time to say what the figure does and does not include. CBO's figure covers 20 years of building and operating the system, and the agency said the department's number "appears to cover a shorter time frame" and may reflect a different scope of activities and budget categories.

U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, the subcommittee's ranking member, pressed the witnesses on what the program's name promises.

"The implication of the term Golden Dome is a national coverage," King said. "I think all of you will agree that that is just not in the cards."

Asked whether every American could be protected under the system, David Trachtenberg, a former deputy under secretary of defense for policy, replied, "No, I'm not saying every citizen can be protected."

King pressed further.

"So if that's the case, who decides who's protected and who isn't?" he asked.

Trachtenberg said he did not have insight into the architectural plans and expected the system would be deployed in phases.

"I'm a firm believer, Senator, in the old Air Force recruiting motto, aim high," he said.

Later in the hearing, King returned to it.

"Is it going to protect Cleveland but not Sioux Falls? Is it going to protect New York but not Richmond?" he asked. "I think that's an unanswered question. And as near as I can tell, protecting the entire country is impossible. And so there are going to be choices made."

He said the choices have to be made public.

"I just think we need to be a little more real about this and honest with the American people," King said.

King based the Cleveland and Sioux Falls comparison on Guam, where Lt. Gen. Robert Rasch, who runs the Guam Defense System Joint Program Office, told the subcommittee in May 2025 that the island's missile defense represents "about an $8 billion investment." Rasch said that figure was not new spending but the cost of systems the services were already building that would be located on Guam.

CBO's Golden Dome estimate covers the entire United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, and puts the 20-year total at $1.2 trillion in 2026 dollars. The space-based interceptor layer accounts for about $743 billion of that.

Without it, the same system would cost $448 billion over 20 years, according to CBO's written testimony, though the agency said such a system would not meet the objectives in President Donald Trump's January 2025 executive order.

CBO told The Center Square it did not estimate what share of the U.S. population or land area the system would cover, though its testimony says 35 regional sectors would be enough to protect most of the U.S. population. It has not estimated a total cost for an architecture protecting a limited set of sites.

Tom Karako, who directs the missile defense project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and testified Tuesday, wrote in his prepared statement that defended asset lists and other operational details "should remain closely held." He also told King that the place to start in deciding what Golden Dome protects is Northern Command's defended asset list.

Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein, the program's director, wrote in a Sept. 24 Washington Post opinion piece that estimates "approaching $1.2 trillion and higher" are "sensational projections" that "envision a hypothetical system using legacy technology and outdated cost models." He wrote that his office has briefed congressional committees "dozens of times over the past year."

CBO, which is not a congressional committee, told The Center Square it received no information from the program office before publishing its May estimate.

Karako told the subcommittee that both Golden Dome and the broader munitions effort "will stand or fall on 2027 funding."

The fiscal year ends at midnight. Congress provided about $25 billion for Golden Dome in the 2025 reconciliation law. The administration's 2027 request seeks $17.5 billion for the program, $17.1 billion of it contingent on a reconciliation package that has not passed.

(The Center Square) – A new military base is coming to the United States, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Wednesday. 

Hegseth announced several programs the Pentagon will take on in the coming years in an effort to advance technology and increased deterrance. A location for the new base is yet to be determined, but he said the department will take suggestions. 

"This installation will serve as a foundation hub for integrated defense operations, distributed command-and-control, and resilient cyber and technological capabilities," Hegseth wrote in a memorandum. 

Hegseth did not give an estimate for how much construction on the new base would cost taxpayers. The base is set to house 25,000 servicemembers and span hundreds of thousands of acres. 

The Department of War will institute a nationwide site nomination process to determine where the newest base will be located. The memo directed the Assistant Secretary of War for Energy, Installations and Environment to submit an initial execution plan and site selection evaluation within two weeks. 

"The Department's objective is clear: identify the right strategic location, safeguard our nation's competitive advantage against evolving threats, and commence construction without delay," Hegseth wrote. 

For fiscal year 2026, the U.S. military requested nearly $3.8 billion for ongoing construction and maintenance projects. However, a new base would likely exceed this figure. 

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the addition of 40 ground-based missile interceptors in Fort Greely, Alaska, would cost $4 billion in 2021. Camp Humphreys, the most recently built U.S. base in South Korea, cost $10.7 billion to build. 

"The state that cuts the most red tape and offers the best package of land and support will win the historic honor of hosting the most lethal, modern, and beautiful military installation on the planet," the department wrote. 

Hegseth also announced the Autonomous Warfare Command, a four-star combatant command to build, procure and scale drones and other advanced military technology. 

"With the autonomous war command, we institutionalize and we supercharge the era of [Super Intelligence] robotics and autonomous systems, all in order to win," Hegseth said. 

The new command comes as the Pentagon seeks to rapidly increase spending on drone technology and other autonomous warfare. The Pentagon proposed $74 billion for drone and counter-drone technology in its most recent budget request, the largest ever. 

In June, Hegseth consolidated the military's drone technology oversight into the Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager for Unmanned Systems. The combatant command will be overseen by the newly established office. 

Hegseth also announced America's Corps of Cadets, a program in partnership with several universities across the country designed to expand military candidate quality. 

The department is working alongside Louisiana State University, Liberty University, Tuskegee University, Mississippi State University and Hillsdale College to recruit more cadets. The program will provide the institutions with "Honor School" status and designate each as a "Distinguished Military College."

The status is meant to recognize schools with high standards of cadet training, instructions and military organization. A graduate from one of the five schools would get priority in officer commissioning, according to the department.

"From the Ivy Leagues to most liberal arts colleges, our colleges have become anti-American, DEI-worshipping, woke factories," Hegseth said. "Qualities like grit and courage were replaced with political correctness and social justice. God and country traded for Che Guevara and critical theory." 

Hegseth praised Texas A&M and the Citadel for student turnout. However, he said, turnout for quality military candidates would increase drastically with inclusion from the new schools. 

He also announced FORTRESS America, an initiative to ensure every U.S. military base generates its own power supply for security purposes. 

"It hardens every installation on American soil against cyber intrusion, sabotage, and drones," the department wrote. "And it secures the high ground and the airwaves – satellites, spectrum, and the ability to see, navigate, and communicate – so the force is never blinded or silenced."

Finallly, Hegseth announced the Office of Religious Affairs, an agency to support the spiritual lives of military members. He estimated nearly 95% of members in the department have some kind of religious affiliation. 

"This is not going to be a paper-purshing shop," Hegseth said. "It's going to have real teeth. It'll protect budgets, demand infrastructure, and strengthen religious support. The experts, our chaplains, will finally have an advocate at the highest levels."

Hegseth touted the office as a direct line of communcation between religious leaders in the department and the highest levels of power. The department said the office is available for members of all faith backgrounds.

"You're set apart. You are warriors. With that title comes great expectations," Hegeseth said. "Go forth this day and do good things, do hard things. President Trump has your back, and so do I. We are the War Department, and we will never back down."

(The Center Square) – After the Department of Justice announced charges against 10 foreign nationals for unlawful voting and registration offenses in Minnesota, an Illinois state senator said it’s hard to know about election integrity issues in the Land of Lincoln.

Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the indictments at a news conference in Washington on Wednesday.

“Charges include illegally voting in the general elections of 2022, 2024 and the primary elections of August 2026,” Blanche said.

A statement from U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Daniel Rosen said the defendants include three Liberian nationals and individuals from seven other countries.

“We’re making it clear that in addition to protecting Minnesota taxpayers from financial fraud, federal law enforcement is protecting the citizens of Minnesota from voter fraud,” Rosen said.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Homeland Security Investigations is just getting started.

“We have over 1,600 voter fraud cases that we are currently investigating, and we have 300,000 more that we’re getting to,” Mullin said.

Illinois state Sen. Andrew Chesney, R-Freeport, said everyone should welcome the federal investigations.

“If it's 3,000 voters, 300,000 voters or however many voters there are that are a problem, we should try to address it,” Chesney told The Center Square. 

Chesney said Republican county clerks in his district take election integrity seriously.

“But they recognize there are shortcomings within the election laws in the state of Illinois. So the answer is, we don't know because we can't ask,” Chesney said.

Chesney said it’s difficult to manage the process if you’re not allowed to ask for a photo ID.

“It’s a huge issue,” Chesney said.

(The Center Square) – A bill meant to prevent American communities from shouldering rising energy costs caused by data centers has died in the U.S. Senate.

The Ratepayer Protection Act, which nearly unanimously passed the House two weeks ago, failed to advance Wednesday in a 57-43 vote. Only four Democratic senators supported the bill.

The unsuccessful vote robs Republicans of a legislative win to point to as data centers remain a political flashpoint in the looming midterm elections.

“There is overwhelming bipartisan support for making sure working families are not stuck with the bill for a large company’s electricity use. Yet Senate Democrats voted against it,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., posted on social media.

“Republicans supported ratepayer relief and Senate Democrats stood in the way. The American people won't forget it.”

Senate Democrats who opposed the bill argue that it offers protection in name only. It stops short of legally requiring owners of data centers that draw more than 100 MW of power plugging into the electric grid pay for the associated grid upgrade costs.

Rather, it only mandates that state public utility commissioners “commence consideration” of implementing rules that would protect ordinary ratepayers within one year of the bill becoming law.

Sen. Dick Durbin, R-Ill., who voted against advancing the bill, agreed that “AI data centers should pay for the upgrades to the electric grid they need.” But the Ratepayer Protection Act, he argued, “does nothing to establish this requirement.”

“Senate Democrats just blocked this Big Tech distraction,” Durbin posted on social media following the vote. “Americans need real action, not Republican messaging.”

Communities across the country have rebelled against the rapid construction of data centers, even while President Donald Trump remains ardently opposed to a data center moratorium and has claimed the national backlash is a “conspiracy.”

(The Center Square) – The Biden administration’s Afghan refugee program was so flawed that it potentially allowed an untold number of terrorists and dangerous criminals into the country, according to a newly released Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General report.

The OIG launched an investigation after it received complaints from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) employees that a federal lawsuit settlement in Ahmed vs DHS created national security issues due to not having enough time to thoroughly vet claims.

The OIG investigation is the latest to raise national security concerns stemming from the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.

At the time, the administration evacuated 97,000 Afghan nationals through Operation Allies Refuge and resettled them into the U.S. through Operation Allies Welcome, enabling them to apply for asylum. The OAW program was established through the Afghanistan Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2022, which required USCIS to interview each OAW asylum applicant within 45 days of filing an asylum claim with no exceptions.

This wasn’t possible and in April 2023, the National Immigrant Justice Center and Kirkland & Ellis LLP filed a class action against USCIS “for failing to timely adjudicate the asylum applications.” In September 2023, a settlement was reached that “forced USCIS to adjudicate 90% of the program’s asylum applications within 150 days,” the Trump administration DHS said.

USCIS employees filed complaints about the process, warning the rushed timeline prevented them from comprehensively reviewing each application, match or flag records or screen for terrorism. The OIG then launched an investigation evaluating the process from March 2024 through January 2025. 

Its new report says it identified a 40% error rate in the adjudication of OAW asylum files it reviewed. The “prevalence and type of error” suggests that USCIS “may have missed opportunities to potentially link names provided by applicants to derivative information, which in turn would compromise the integrity of alien registration file contents that future users rely on for immigration administration and enforcement activities,” it said. This included USCIS not being able to identify or link alias names provided by applicants that could have made them ineligible for asylum and flagged to be deported.

The OIG analyzed a statistical sample of 768 applications from 13,682 adjudicated applications from the OAW population. Of the data they were able to review, they identified 303 missed aliases, 23 missing security checks, 45 unresolved records, and 115 other document issues. The OIG also highlighted cases related to “potential inadmissibility on terrorism related grounds.”

In response, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said, “Our asylum system should be as strict as possible. If even one dangerous criminal or terrorist slips through and enters our country, it endangers countless American lives. The Biden Administration dangerously mismanaged the Operation Allies Welcome program, disregarding all the thorough and well-established procedures of our asylum system and putting our nation at risk. Unlike the Biden Administration, the Trump Administration is putting the American people first and bringing an end to these reckless and rushed asylum practices.”

As Afghans were being released into the country, several Republican U.S. senators demanded answers on the vetting process, arguing they weren’t being properly vetted, The Center Square reported. Multiple concerns were also raised after thousands were sent to U.S. military bases, including 10,000 to Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. An OIG investigation next found that Afghans caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damages to and consumables at U.S. military bases. 

At least 44,000 Afghans weren’t housed in military bases whose whereabouts were unknown within months of entering the U.S., prompting U.S. senators to demand additional answers from DHS.

Despite this, 49 Republicans in Congress (34 in the House and 15 in the Senate) voted for a $6 billion relief package to expand the Afghan refugee resettlement program, The Center Square reported. The majority of Republicans voted against it: 35 in the Senate and 175 in the House. The program included a special visa used by Afghan nationals who were released into the U.S. who were later arrested for a range of crimes. 

Since Afghans were released into the country through OAW, they’ve been arrested, prosecuted and convicted of a range of crimes, including for terrorism. The first Afghan was deported this month through the U.S. Alien Terrorist Removal Court after a failed attempt to commit a major terrorist attack on Election Day in 2024, The Center Square reported. Her son-in-law pleaded guilty to terrorism charges and is awaiting sentencing.

Last November, an Afghan released through OAW was charged with threatening to build a bomb and commit a suicide attack and kill Americans and “infidels.” Last December, an Afghan released through OAW was arrested on accusations from DHS that he supportedthe Islamic State of Iraq and Syria-Khorasan (ISIS-K). 

Convictions of Afghans released through OAW include lewd or lascivious acts with a minor, sexual battery, hit and run, drug possession, kidnapping, among others.