Category: State News

Ohio Cracks Down on CDLs for Foreign-Born Drivers

The Daily Signal
truck driver

Amid federal scrutiny and concerns about commercial driver’s licenses being in the hands of unqualified drivers, Ohio is cracking down on CDLs for those drivers not born in the United States. The CDLs of 1,200 foreign-born drivers will be downgraded to a Class D by the state for failing to adequately meet standards proving they are in the United States legally.

Ohio Department of Public Safety spokesman Bret Crow confirmed the downgrade to The Center Square last week. “Those receiving this notice who believe their documents do meet the updated federal standards may request a hearing with the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to dispute the downgrade and/or submit additional documentation to BMV to prove their eligibility,” he said.

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Florida Supreme Court Allows State Republicans to Use New Congressional Map

Just the News
Florida Supreme Court

The Florida Supreme Court declined Wednesday to halt the use of a new congressional map that state Republicans passed earlier this year amid a mid-decade redistricting push.

Gov. Ron DeSantis had signed the map into law in May, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a Louisiana redistricting case that the state’s existing congressional map that includes an additional majority-black district violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

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AI Software Cuts Sepsis Deaths in Half at Florida Hospital

Daily Caller News Foundation
doctor and computer

A Florida hospital has cut sepsis-related deaths by half by utilizing advanced technology that continuously monitors patients to detect potential early warning signs, The Times reported on Tuesday.

Tampa General Hospital has saved almost 900 lives over four years after implementing the Palantir-developed Sepsis Hub system, The Times reported. The software tracks every patient’s vital signs of every patient around the clock and can notify a “rapid response team” of hospital employees to any slight changes that could indicate sepsis, according to the outlet.

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Anti-ICE Protesters Who Disrupted Minnesota Church Service Avoid State Charges

Just the News
Irene Kao

A Minnesota attorney said dozens of anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protesters will not face state charges for their disruption of a Minnesota church service earlier this year.

The 39 protesters are facing federal civil rights charges for disrupting the church service in St. Paul, Minnesota, in January. The charges came after a livestreamed video showed them interrupting services at Cities Church by chanting “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good,” after the protesters learned that one of the church pastors was also an ICE official.

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Ohio State University Announces $100 Million Settlement in Sexual Assault Cases

Just the News

The Ohio State University said Wednesday it has reached a $100 million settlement with all but one of the 280 former students who claimed a campus doctor sexually assaulted them decades ago.

The settlement marks a significant step toward ending the eight-year legal battle over allegations that the school had been aware of hundreds of claims that Dr. Richard Strauss, who committed suicide in 2005, sexually assaulted primarily male athletes in the mid-1970s to 1990s and did nothing. 

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Florida Sues OpenAI over Claimed AI Harms, Including Aiding Mass Shooters, Encouraging Suicide

Just the News
Florida AG

Florida on Monday became the first U.S. state to sue OpenAI over the alleged harms caused by the artificial intelligence firm, arguing it knowingly released an unsafe product and ignored warnings about its possible harms. 

The lawsuit, filed by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, alleges that OpenAI permitted its flagship AI assistant ChatGPT to aid and abet mass shooters, encourage user suicides, damage users’ critical thinking skills, and addict minors, the Wall Street Journal reported. 

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Ex-CIA Official Charged After FBI Search Finds $40 Million in Gold Bars, $2 Million in Cash, and Rolex Stash

Christina Botteri
David J. Rush

A former Senior Executive Service-level official at the Central Intelligence Agency with Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) clearance was charged with theft of public money after federal agents discovered approximately 303 one-kilogram gold bars valued at more than $40 million, roughly $2 million in U.S. currency, and about 35 luxury watches during a search of his Virginia home.

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Five Republicans Vote with Democrats to Keep South Carolina’s Race-Based Congressional Maps Alive

Daily Caller News Foundation
SC Republicans

Five South Carolina Republicans joined Democrats Tuesday to block a Trump-backed redistricting push that could have helped the GOP target the state’s lone Democratic-held House seat.

The state Senate voted 29-17 on a proposal to take up redistricting after the regular legislative session ends, falling two votes short of the two-thirds threshold needed to move forward. The vote came after President Donald Trump took to Truth Social, urging South Carolina Republicans to “GET IT DONE!” and said he would be “watching closely.”

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Democrats, Media and Legal Scholars Float Wild Proposals to Win Virginia Redistricting Battle

Just the News
spanberger virginia

In the wake of the party’s failed Virginia redistricting gambit, Democrats and their allies in the media and academia have been floating radical proposals to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. In response to their defeat at the Virginia Supreme Court, the Democratic leaders have promised to remain defiant and have labeled the judicial decision “undemocratic” and discriminatory against minorities. 

“Even after being aided and abetted by blatantly undemocratic court decisions, the failed GOP majority will not be able to gerrymander themselves back into power,” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic Minority Leader, wrote in a letter to his caucus on Monday. “Republican extremists spent the last few days applauding their ongoing effort to rig the midterm elections based on two egregious judicial decisions dripping with far-right partisanship,” he also wrote. “We remain undeterred.”

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FBI Raids Office of Virginia State Sen. Louise Lucas

Just the News
Louise Lucas

The FBI on Wednesday raided the office of Virginia Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas in connection with a corruption probe that has ensnared the Democrat power broker and close ally of Gov. Abigail Spanberger, sources told Just the News.

Officials said FBI agents executed search warrants at multiple locations, including a state Senate office in Portsmouth, Va., and a cannabis business with ties to the state senator.

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Virginia Supreme Court Upholds Block on Certifying Referendum Results Allowing Redistricting

Just the News

The Virginia Supreme Court on Tuesday denied a motion from state Attorney General Jay Jones to lift a stay on the certification of the state’s redistricting referendum result.

The decision follows a Tazewell County Circuit court blocking certification while legal challenges to the referendum persist. The referendum faces multiple challenges and a separate court blocked a GOP-driven challenge earlier this week.

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Supreme Court Punts on Parental Rights Case of School District Concealing Gender Transition

The Daily Signal
classroom teacher

The Supreme Court  on Monday opted not to hear a gender secrecy case out of Florida, in which parents objected to a policy that kept their child’s school from informing them of a gender transition.

The case involves the School Board of Leon County, Florida, which in 2018 said that when students informed their school’s administration that they would assert a different gender identity, the school would treat students consistent with that gender identity. The plan said that school administrators revealing this to parents could be dangerous to the well-being of a student, CBS News reported.

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Virginia Judge Stays Certification of Redistricting Vote: Sources

Just the News
Judge bangs the gavel

A Virginia County Court on Wednesday barred certification of the state’s redistricting referendum, pending appeal, according to former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and state Rep. Wren Williams, R-Va.

The Tazewell County Circuit Court issued the injunction barring certification. The order will face certain appeal and likely head to the state Supreme Court, which is already expected to address a challenge to the referendum.

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Soros-Linked Dark Money Puts Lopsided Democrat Gerrymander of Virginia Across Finish Line

Daily Caller News Foundation
George Soros

Virginia voters narrowly approved a gerrymandered House map Tuesday — one expected to add four Democratic seats in the midterms.

The 2026 Virginia redistricting amendment passed with 51% of voters backing the “yes” campaign and 49% casting their ballot for “no” with 94% of votes counted, the Associated Press reported. As a result, the light blue state, where former Vice President Kamala Harris won less than 52% of the vote in 2024, will likely see 91% of its House seats drawn to favor Democrats.

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RNC Chair Gruters Says Group Triggering Lawsuit in Virginia in Response to Dems’ Gerrymandering Win

Just the News
Joe Gruters

Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters said — prior to Virginians on Tuesday night voting in favor of a referendum to redraw the state’s congressional map to give Democrats 10 House members and leave Republicans with just one — that his group has a lawsuit in the legal pipeline to stop or reverse the effort. 

“We already have a case that’s in the courts right now,” he said on Just the News, No Noise, prior to the vote tally in which the referendum passed 51.5% to 48.5%.

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Minnesota Sues Trump Admin for Data on Alex Pretti, Renee Good Deaths

Just the News
Keith Ellison

The state of Minnesota has sued the Trump administration, seeking information related to the deaths of protesters Alex Pretti and Renee Good, both whom died during altercations with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during their deployment in Minneapolis.

Filed in the D.C. District Court, the suit names Attorney General Pam Bondi, former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, the DOJ, and DHS as defendants. The state argues that the administration has withheld the information it has due to orders from senior leadership and not due to any concerns about ongoing cases.

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Trump Signs Executive Order to Create Vance-Led National Fraud Task Force, After Minnesota Scandal

Just the News
JD Vance

President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order forming a national task force to combat public fraud and placed Vice President JD Vance in charge of the effort.

“If we found half the fraud in this country… we would have a balanced budget,” Trump insisted. He further joked that he expected Vance to take the role seriously and not merely accept a nominal post, pointing to his predecessor.

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Justice Department Official Says She Personally Observed ‘Incompetence’ in Maricopa Elections

Just the News
Harmeet Dhillon

The senior U.S. Justice Department official leading a campaign to force states to clean up their voter rolls said she personally witnessed either “incompetence” or “malfeasance” in Maricopa County during past elections where she served as an election lawyer. 

Maricopa County, Arizona, home to the state’s largest city, Phoenix, was recently forced to turn over election records to the FBI pursuant to a grand jury subpoena. 

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Leading GOP Candidate in Georgia Governor’s Race Sues Trump-Backed Opponent for Defamation

Daily Caller News Foundation
Jackson and Jones

Billionaire health care executive Rick Jackson on Monday filed a defamation lawsuit against Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, his Republican primary opponent in the state’s 2026 gubernatorial race.

The lawsuit alleges that Jones, who has President Donald Trump’s endorsement in the race, made three separate “defamatory” statements about Jackson on social media this past week. The complaint was filed in the Superior Court of Fulton County this morning, according to Jackson’s campaign.

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Somali ‘Autism’ Center Chief Pleads Guilty to $6 Million Fraud Scheme

Daily Caller News Foundation

The young CEO of a purported autism center serving Minnesota’s Somali community pleaded guilty Monday to raking in over $6 million in a fraud scheme, according to KARE.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) charged Abdinajib Hassan Yussuf, 27, in December 2025 with making fraudulent Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention (EIDBI) claims to the Minnesota government. Yussuf and his team raked in more than $6 million through the fraudulent claims, according to a DOJ press release at the time.

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Virginia Democrats Pass New Congressional Map Through Legislature amid Court Battle

Just the News
Virginia governor

Virginia Democrats on Friday passed a new congressional map through the commonwealth’s legislature to give their party four additional U.S. House seats amid a court battle with Republicans over the so-called redistricting plan.

The legislature passed the map, which Democrats are hoping to put before voters in a referendum in April, a day after a judge granted a temporary restraining order requested by the Republican National Committee and state GOP over the redistricting effort, The Associated Press reported.

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Virginia Legislature Advances New Congressional Map with 10-1 Democratic Edge

Just the News
VA Governor

The Virginia legislature has advanced a new congressional map with a 10-1 Democratic edge to help the party in the midterm elections.

Both chambers of the legislature on Tuesday advanced the map, which changes the current 6-5 advantage that Democrats have for the commonwealth’s congressional seats, The Hill news outlet reported. Each chamber will now have to pass the other’s legislation, then the map will head to Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s (D) desk for signature. The new map gives Democrats a 10-1 advantage. 

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FBI Has ‘Substantiated’ Irregularities in Georgia 2020 Vote Counts, Probing If They Were Intentional

Just the News

The FBI has “substantiated” some major irregularities in how votes were counted in Georgia’s largest urban area in the aftermath of the 2020 election and is probing whether those failures were intentional efforts to violate federal election law, according to a bombshell affidavit unsealed by a federal court on Tuesday.

FBI Special Agent Hugh Raymond Evans first filed the affidavit last month to establish probable cause for a raid that seized about 700 boxes of Georgia 2020 elections ballots from a storage warehouse in the Atlanta area, after getting a referral from Trump Whote House election integrity czar Kurt Olsen.

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Comer Launches Investigation into Companies Linked to Ilhan Omar’s Husband

Just the News
Ilhan Omar

House Oversight Chairman James Comer said Friday that he is launching an investigation into companies tied to Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s husband over their unexpected surge in value.

Comer claimed in a letter that two of Tim Mynett’s companies went from being worth $51,000 in 2023 to up to $30 million in 2024. Mynett married Omar in 2020.

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