A hearty congrats to RFK Jr., as the U.S. is poised to lose its measles elimination status after 25 years, with the most cases since the early 1990s.

A federal judge in California on Wednesday voided the Trump administration's move to terminate the Temporary Protected Status of roughly 60,000 immigrants from Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua, calling it a "pre-ordained decision”

Judge throws out Trump order blocking development of wind energy, saying the effort to halt virtually all leasing of wind farms on federal lands and waters was “arbitrary and capricious” and violates U.S. law.

$1,000,000 (minimum bribe Trump will take for a pardon) x 1600 people = $100,000,000. And most of these shameless clowns have paid him much more than that. Dems need to put "outlawing Presidential pardons" on the ever-growing list of stuff we need to fix.

ICE told us it had no body camera footage from Chicago in response to our FOIA — even though a federal judge ordered them to wear cameras and turn them on. So who is ICE lying to? Us, or the judge?

Drugmakers plan to raise U.S. prices on vaccines against COVID, RSV, shingles & cancer treatment Ibrance, despite promises by Trump for price cuts. The number of price increases for 2026 is up from the same point last year. The median of this year's price hikes is around 4%

The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday released the transcript and video of its deposition with former special counsel Jack Smith. Transcript => judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-su... Video => www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR-b...

Happy New Year! (and a soft look into the Jack Smith transcript, if you want to get a head start) open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

Using children as pawns . . . The Trump administration on Wednesday froze federal childcare funding to every state in the US on the dubious grounds of fighting fraud.

NYC Mayor Mamdani has nullified every executive order issued by Eric Adams after he struck his corrupt bargain with Trump to secure dismissal of the indictment against him.

Those impacted include many self-employed workers, small business owners, farmers and ranchers. It comes at the start of a high-stakes midterm election year, with affordability — including the cost of health care — topping the list of voters’ concerns.

On the steps of City Hall, the new mayor was introduced by AOC & ceremonially sworn in by Sen Bernie Sanders. Mamdani: “I’ve long been interested in politics, and yet it took Sanders 2016 run for me to understand how to describe my own politics. And that was as a democratic socialist."

California National Guard returns to state control after the evil Trump administration backs down. “I’m glad President Trump has finally admitted defeat: we’ve said all along the federalization of the National Guard in California is illegal," Gov. Newsom said.

Another loss for Trump . . . Judge Mary McElroy’s ruling on Monday solidified a win for the coalition of 12 AGs that sued the administration earlier this year after being alerted that their states would receive drastically reduced federal grants due to their “sanctuary” jurisdictions.

Trump's first veto of his second term kills a unanimous bill to fund a major drinking water project in Colorado. Trump had threatened punishment for Colorado for imprisoning his ally Tina Peters for election interference.

The propaganda blitz will be aimed at “people who have attended UFC fights, listened to patriotic podcasts, or shown an interest in guns and tactical gear,” according to the Washington Post. The ads depict joining ICE as part of a sacred duty to defend the homeland from foreign invaders.

Trump is eyeing another major project in the nation’s capital, planning to destroy some 13 historic buildings on the grounds of St. Elizabeths in order to expand facilities for the Department of Homeland Security. St. Elizabeths was designated a national landmark in 1990.

Pants on fire! Attorney General Pam Bondi shared and then deleted a graph showing a steep drop in drug overdose deaths after she was busted trying to give the Trump administration credit for progress that was made under Joe Biden.

This move gives Trump, whose private company has developed numerous golf courses in the U.S. and abroad, the chance to remake, and rename, links overlooking the Potomac River and in Rock Creek Park and a site that is part of Black golf history.

Rising costs, tighter credit conditions, and ongoing geopolitical volatility continue to exert pressure on households and businesses already facing financial strain. Unlike past downturns, this wave of bankruptcies appears to be hitting nearly every corner of the economy.

Future site of Trump Tower, Gaza City.

LOOKING BACK: Former Pres Biden pays his respects to Minnesota State Rep. Melissa Hortman & her husband, Mark, as they lie in state at the Minnesota Capitol. The Hortmans were fatally shot in their home in May in what Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz described as “a politically motivated assassination.”

A federal judge in Boston ruled to stop the Trump admin from terminating temporary deportation protections for migrants from South Sudan. The order prevents removals just days before those protections were scheduled to expire, maintaining legal safeguards for roughly 230 South Sudanese nationals.

Why does Netanyahu want to recognize Somaliland (the breakaway province of Somalia that no other nation recognizes)? Israel plans to forcibly move Palestinians from Gaza to Somaliland. Somaliland might take the Gazans, if they get recognition by the U.S. A quid pro quo?

Cuts by the DOGE & constant staff reassignments with little training have left employees overwhelmed & customers stranded. Wait times for callers exceed an hour, with more than 1/4 disconnected or ignored. Poor reorganization & chronic understaffing have left millions struggling.

Doctors Without Borders has been an outspoken critic of what has it described as Israel’s “campaign of total destruction” in Gaza. The group said in a report released last December that its teams’ experiences on the ground in Gaza were consistent with a genocide taking place.