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Some military families want further housing reform

June 19, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Moving cross-country from the Carolinas to California, the Reeder family looked forward to its next assignment in San Diego in the summer of 2022. The couple had originally met in California.

But in the first week, after the Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant and his family had settled into their new home, they had to move out and into a hotel temporarily.

“The first thing you know, military families want to see is, where can my furniture fit?” Antoinette Reeder, whose husband has served for nearly 19 years, told ABC News. Before they unloaded any furniture, Reeder said she started to notice an ant infestation and a strong musty smell coming from the bathroom. She said that was her first hint that mold could be in the home.

Reeder said she knew the smell because she faced similar issues in their former military housing on the East Coast.

“I already knew the protocol,” Reeder said. “[…] When we moved in here, though, we were given a card that said that our home was inspected by a military housing inspector. And it was passed off. It was checked with the box that it passed. And it was just astonishing to me.”

“If it’s happening in all of these different places, this has gotta be a really big issue,” Reeder said.

Issues, such as water intrusion and mold, within their privatized military-provided housing has caused eight home remediations for the family in nearly three years, Reeder said. The repairs are often disruptive. The family says their children have suffered from rashes and respiratory issues.

Reeder said she feels healthier and breathes easier when she leaves her home. She has had her home tested independently for mold and used moisture meters to monitor conditions firsthand.

“My husband’s command has been very helpful, but they’re not involved,” said Reeder, outlining the rigorous process to file disputes involving a series of offices with both the military advocates and private companies that extends beyond servicemembers’ direct leadership.

Some families dealing with similar issues say they often have to pay out of their pockets for expenses that result from displacements. This is a problem currently for Shae Anderson, another military spouse of a Navy chief petty officer, also located in San Diego.

Anderson said her family is in its third housing remediation in a home they moved into in October 2024. They have lived through the disruptions of other home repairs while stationed at military installations. She said her youngest child struggles with rashes and conjunctivitis, which she believes may be caused by exposure to mold in their military homes. Other members of her family have struggled with respiratory symptoms, Anderson added.

“Our experiences have been traumatizing, and we have had so many disruptions to our quality of life,” Anderson told ABC News. “Our children have had to move schools, my husband’s career has been impacted and our family has suffered so much financial loss due to it all.”

While living in San Diego, Anderson and Reeder met and bonded over a common problem, mold in their homes. Along with the two women, Audrey Kray, the wife of a Marine Corps Staff Sergeant, has also been involved in bringing awareness through the nonprofit, “Safe Military Housing Initiative.” The military wives have binders documenting deteriorating conditions and what they describe as substandard housing.

Anderson’s son drew a heart on her notebook binder, which she says, “it’s just a little reminder, every time I go to my notebook and I’m going through and reliving the horror experience we’ve been through, the reason that I’m fighting. And that’s for my kids. I also want every service member and their family to have a safe home.”

These families have lived in homes managed by Liberty Military Housing, the largest employee-owned and Navy and Marine Corps housing provider.

“In my instance, it shouldn’t have taken four homes, three moves, two displacements over 15 months. That should have been day one for us,” said Kray.

“It’s very challenging when husbands are deployed or off on training and you’re going through these housing experiences,” Kray said.

All three women have worked with military advocates who lean on the private housing companies that own these homes to come and fix the problems.

Liberty, their landlord, have offered each family new housing while remediating their properties, but they keep facing similar housing issues, the families said.

The military spouses also told ABC News that the disruption of having to pack again and change homes alone is a challenge after moving bases and assignments. In one instance, Reeder said she noticed mold behind vanities that were being replaced by contractors, alarming her and prompting assistance from the district office and an environmental team to conduct tests.

The issues date back nearly three decades, to the Military Housing Privatization Initiative of 1996. When the Department of Defense got out of the housing business with the MHPI, it was trying to solve a major problem. Government reports from the time showed that a majority of military homes already needed significant repairs. The agreements with the private industry were made because those housing companies offered better expertise than the U.S. military to renovate or replace inadequate housing. And according to congressional research, the government gave the companies contracts that are sometimes 50 years long, to incentivize the massive undertaking. In creating the agreements, the privatized contracts affect how far the government can push these companies to take certain actions today.

In 2023, the U.S. Government Accountability Office identified several unresolved concerns with the Military Housing Privatization Initiative. One of them was the need for a more formal dispute resolution process. GAO also raised that some of the private housing companies may be lacking compliance with elements of the Tenant Bill of Rights established in 2020, among other recommendations.

“I know firsthand that our warfighters cannot deliver if they are sidelined by problems at home, especially those that can negatively affect health and quality of life,” Assistant Secretary of Defense Dale Marks said in a statement to ABC News. “Secretary Hegseth and I are committed to rebuilding military readiness and appreciate the support from Congressional committees to make much-needed housing reforms.”

Today, there are about 14 private companies with MHPI contracts that provide about 200,000 homes for service members and their families.

Through what’s called the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH), the majority of servicemembers receive a tax-free housing allowance, which helps them cover the cost of rent. BAH rates vary due to rank, whether the servicemember has dependents, and the geographical location of the current duty assignment.

Current BAH policies are intended to cover 95% of estimated home costs in the civilian market, but in most cases, the money stretches the farthest in military housing, compared to housing for rent in the civilian world. Some DOD officials and military families have questioned whether the BAH rates for some locations are enough, according to congressional research conducted in 2023.

For many of these families dealing with mold and other issues, they feel they can’t afford to leave military housing.

“We would have to move very far away from where my husband works in order to afford anything,” said Reeder, who raised concerns with the rising costs of the housing market in Southern California.

These military wives said factors like commute time, distance from medical providers and school districts influence families’ decisions to stay in the surrounding base area, in addition to the benefit of community living near other servicemembers and their families.

In response to the experiences of these families in San Diego, the chief executive officer Philip Rizzo of Liberty Military Housing told ABC News in an interview, “We’re not profiting off military families by cutting corners.”

Rizzo stressed that these complaints are not the “norm” with properties under Liberty’s management.

“I think the challenge with 36,000 homes nationwide is if we’re 99% right, that means there is 360 families that aren’t having a good experience. That’s a large number, right?” Rizzo said. “And I would expect if we’re 1/10 of 1% that’s a large number, and our goal is to be zero. We want everybody to be satisfied. We want everybody to be happy in their home.”

As an Army veteran and son of a career U.S. Air Force officer, who grew up in military housing, Rizzo emphasized he didn’t want anyone living in an environment where they are becoming sick. He emphasized that since the 2019 congressional hearings about these concerns, the government has added more oversight over companies like Liberty, focusing on identifying gaps in the repair processes.

He says Liberty Military Housing has since implemented new training for its workers and contractors, and says the company has an average maintenance response time that beats anything in the civilian world. He also points out that his tenants have a formal dispute process internally and can also be navigated with a military resident advocate.

“We’re going to do what we can, following industry guidance and guidelines to eliminate any hazards or risk in the home,” Rizzo said.

Rizzo told ABC News that he knows there will be challenges with both new builds and older houses. He said Liberty Military Housing is committed to responding quickly and effectively to minimize disruption for families.

Reeder hopes for change. “This isn’t just us complaining about ‘we have mold’ and ‘our house is dirty,'” she said. “We have scientific results showing this is a problem and it’s affecting our health.”

Jenny Wagnon Courts contributed to this report.

Hurricane Erick slams Mexico’s Pacific Coast as a powerful Cat 3 storm

June 19, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(OAXACA, Mexico) — Hurricane Erick, which rapidly intensified overnight, made landfall Thursday morning on Mexico’s Pacific Coast as a powerful Category 3 storm, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

Erick came ashore in Mexico’s western state of Oaxaca packing sustained winds of 125 mph and heavy rain, accordin to the NHC.

The hurricane was located on Thursday morning about 20 miles east of Punta Maldonado and was moving northwest at about 9 mph, according to the NHC.

Before making landfall, the Erick had spooled up to an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, but was downgraded to a Cat 3 before making landfall, the NHC center reported.

Erick is the first Pacific Category 3 hurricane on record to make landfall over Mexico in June.

A hurricane warning remained in effect Thursday from Acapulco to Puerto Angel.

It remained unclear if villages along Mexico’s populated Pacific Coast had sustained damaged. There have been no immediate reports of deaths or injuries.

The major hurricane appeared to hit he coastline between the resort towns of Acapulco and Puerto Escondido in an area near the border of Oaxaca and Guerrero states, according to the NHC.

As it sweeps across the state of Oaxaca, Erick is expected to slam parts of the region with strong winds and heavy rain for most of Thursday before weakening over land by Friday.

Erick will produce heavy rainfall up to 6 to 8 inches across southeastern Guerrero and west-coastal Oaxaca through Friday and likely trigger life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides — especially in areas of steep terrain.

Erick formed as a tropical storm early Tuesday in the Pacific Ocean near southern Mexico and rapidly intensified, reaching hurricane strength by Wednesday, according to the NHC.

Minnesota state Sen. Hoffman credits daughter for ‘saving countless other lives’

June 19, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(MINNEAPOLIS) — Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife are crediting their daughter Hope for “saving countless other lives” on the night the couple was shot and wounded at their home in what prosecutors called an assassination attempt.

“Without Hope, we wouldn’t be here right now,” the Democratic state senator and his wife said in a statement on Wednesday, according to Minneapolis ABC affiliate KSTP. “Our daughter’s quick instincts and wherewithal to state that her dad is Senator John Hoffman when she called 911 led the police getting to the Hortman’s so quickly and saving countless other lives.”

Vance Boelter is accused of shooting and wounding John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, at their house in Champlin, Minnesota, as well as shooting and killing state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, at their home in nearby Brooklyn Park early Saturday morning, authorities said. Boelter allegedly showed up to their doors impersonating a police officer, officials said.

But two other lawmakers were spared the night of the shootings, according to acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Joseph Thompson.

After Boelter allegedly shot the Hoffmans, prosecutors said he drove to a state representative’s house in Maple Grove. That lawmaker was not home as she and her family were on vacation, Thompson said, and Boelter left the scene.

Boelter then allegedly drove to a state senator’s home in New Hope and parked on the street, Thompson said.

After learning of the shooting at Hoffman’s home, New Hope police dispatched an officer to the New Hope lawmaker’s house, Thompson said. When the officer arrived, she saw Boelter’s car parked down the block and she believed Boelter was an officer dispatched to the scene, Thompson said.

The officer pulled up next to Boelter, rolled down her window and tried to speak with him, but he did not respond and stared straight ahead, Thompson said. So the New Hope officer drove to the state senator’s home and waited for other law enforcement, and by that time, Boelter had left the scene, Thompson said.

After learning of the shooting at the Hoffmans’, officers were proactively dispatched the Brooklyn Park home of his fellow lawmaker, former Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives Melissa Hortman.

When two Brooklyn Park officers arrived at the Hortmans’, they saw Boelter’s SUV in the driveway with emergency lights flashing and Boelter standing in front of the house, Thompson said.

Boelter saw the officers and allegedly started shooting and running into the house, killing Melissa Hortman and her husband, Thompson said.

The officers fired at Boelter as he allegedly rushed into the home, Thompson said, but the suspect escaped into the house and out the back.

Boelter, who was arrested Sunday night, allegedly had a list of 45 elected officials in notebooks in his car, Thompson said.

He faces federal charges including stalking and firearms charges and state charges including first-degree murder, officials said.

The Hoffmans are recovering from their injuries. John Hoffman was shot nine times and Yvette was shot eight times, Yvette said, according to a message released by Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

After opening success, Israel, US consider endgame in Iran

June 19, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — The repercussions of Israel’s surprise campaign against Iran’s nuclear program and military leadership launched last Friday were evident within hours.

“We are racking up achievements,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after the opening salvo, which appeared to have devastated Iran’s anti-aircraft defense network and decapitated its military, killing many among the top brass, according to Israeli officials.

Netanyahu, his top officials and the Israel Defense Forces have made clear some of their war goals — the destruction of Iran’s nuclear program plus the erasure of the country’s ballistic missile arsenal.

But, as in Israel’s operations in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, there are already signs of “rapid mission creep” in Iran, Julie Norman, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute think tank in the U.K., told ABC News.

Iran’s weakened defense has prompted fresh questions about “regime change” — long a priority for Iran hawks in Israel and the U.S. seeking to topple Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the theocratic system he heads. Critics of such a policy, though, warn that government collapse in Iran could unleash regional chaos.

“The record of regime change is not great, to say the least,” Yossi Mekelberg of the Chatham House think tank in the U.K. told ABC News, warning that the regime’s collapse would more likely produce a dangerous power vacuum in Iran than a coherent and pliant successor.

“You want to experiment with chaos? Well, good luck,” Mekelberg said.

The nuclear front

Netanyahu faces significant challenges to achieve his two expressed goals — an end to Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile threats.

On the nuclear front, Israel has inflicted damage at several of Iran’s key sites. The International Atomic Energy Agency has reported damage to surface facilities at the Natanz and Isfahan enrichment sites. On Tuesday, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said the body “identified additional elements that indicate direct impacts on the underground enrichment halls at Natanz.”

But Israel does not have the capabilities needed to destroy the Fordow enrichment plant — where the IAEA says no damage has been reported — which is built deep inside a mountain outside the city of Qom. Only American strategic bombers could deliver a payload capable of punching through up to 300 feet of mountain to reach the underground facility.

Netanyahu is trying to press the White House into intervention.

“Today, it’s Tel Aviv, tomorrow, it’s New York,” the prime minister told ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl on Monday.

Trump responded to Israel’s opening attacks by calling for Iran to return to negotiations over its nuclear program. He has since dismissed talk of a ceasefire, said he wants a “real end” to the Iran nuclear issue and warned residents of Tehran — of whom there are around 17 million in the wider metropolitan area — to evacuate.

On Tuesday, Trump raised the prospect of killing Khamenei and wrote on his social media platform that “we now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran,” while lauding the impact of U.S. weaponry. The president has also demanded “unconditional surrender,” a concept Iran’s supreme leader rejected.

Despite Trump’s rhetoric, the U.S. has not joined Israel in attacking Iran offensively. Last year the U.S. twice assisted Israel in helping to shoot down Iranian drones and ballistic missiles Iran had launched in retaliation for Israeli attacks in Syria and Tehran. This marked the first time the U.S. actively participated in Israel’s defense, which has historically taken the form of weapons sales, transfers and intelligence sharing support.

As the conflict escalated this week, the U.S. deployed additional fighter jets and refueling tankers to the Middle East. The USS Nimitz aircraft carrier has also been diverted to the region, to join the USS Carl Vinson carrier which was already deployed there. The deployments, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, are “intended to enhance our defensive posture in the region.”

President Trump told top advisers Tuesday that he approved attack plans for Iran that were presented to him, but said he was waiting to see if Iran would be willing to discuss ending their nuclear program and has not made a final decision on US involvement in the conflict, sources familiar with the matter said. The news of the attack plan approval was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

“As President Trump said himself today, all options remain on the table,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday.

Without destroying Fordow, Mekelberg said, the job of neutralizing Tehran’s nuclear program will be incomplete. “If you want to set it three years back, that is not a good enough reason to go for a war of such scale,” he said.

“If the idea was to push Iran to the negotiation table and to scare them — the Iranians are not easily scared. They fought eight years with Iraq in a much inferior situation, and they prevailed. This is not Hezbollah, this is not Hamas, this is not Islamic Jihad.”

Sina Toossi, a senior non-resident fellow at the Center for International Policy think tank, told ABC News that Israel and the U.S. — if Trump opts to engage militarily against Iran — could face a “quagmire.”

“To verifiably destroy what they’ve said they want to destroy, they need boots on the ground eventually,” Toossi said, referring to Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Ballistic missiles

Erasing Iran’s ballistic missile threat is another key goal, Netanyahu has said. The IDF claims to have destroyed at least one-third of Iran’s launch vehicles, along with an unknown number of stockpiled missiles.

The IDF estimated that Tehran started the conflict with 2,000 missiles and as of Tuesday had fired around 400 toward Israel. The number will have been further eroded by ongoing IDF strikes across the country.

“That capacity is going to be weakened,” Norman said, though added that Iran has “a pretty deep arsenal, and I think those will keep coming for some time.”

Toossi noted that American involvement would raise the stakes for Tehran, which still has the capacity to hit American and allied targets in Iraq, across the Persian Gulf and elsewhere. If faced with an existential conflict, “they can inflict a lot of damage in their periphery,” Toossi said.

As time wears on, the burden on Israeli and U.S. anti-missile systems will grow, Toossi said. Interceptor missiles are finite and expensive, plus their production takes time. “There’s an economics to this warfare right now that’s not necessarily in the favor of Israel and the U.S..” Toossi said.

“I think there’s sometimes an overestimation as to how quickly other groups will surrender, or in this case other states will surrender,” Norman said of Netanyahu and his government. While Israel sees its conflicts as existential, so do its enemies, Norman added.

Regime change

Pushing for regime change — a goal the IDF has explicitly denied and Netanyahu has dodged questions on — might prove the biggest gamble of Israel’s attack, experts told ABC News.

Such a policy makes two assumptions, Mekelberg said. “First, that you can bring down the regime, and second, that you’ll get the people that you want.”

Indeed, the 1979 revolution that birthed the Islamic Republic “started with the liberals, not with the religious,” Mekelberg said. “Look how it ended.”

“In any such episode, there is the best case scenario — which usually doesn’t happen — and there is the worst-case scenario,” he said. “And in between, there is the war with its own dynamics and momentum.”

Even if the regime is at risk of collapse, it would be hard to say when. Israel, Mekelberg said, will need to be prepared for an open-ended war of attrition with levels of destruction inside the country that “people are not used to seeing.”

Netanyahu has repeatedly appealed to the people of Iran to act against the government in Tehran. “This is your opportunity to stand up,” he said over the weekend.

But a population under fire may have different priorities. “People are going to be focusing on surviving and getting out, not on starting a revolution,” Norman said.

Continued attacks may also produce a rallying effect. “Many people do not like the Islamic Republic, the theocracy. But Iranians, despite their disgruntlement with the government, when it comes to Iran, its sovereignty, its stability, its territorial integrity, there’s a strong sense of nationalism across the board from secular to religious, to young to old,” Toossi said. “And that is really being stirred right now.”

Skylar Thomson of the Human Rights Activists in Iran NGO — which is based in the U.S. — told ABC News there is a “real atmosphere of fear” among Iranians she is in contact with.

“In the initial days, people were seeing the assassinations of these Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders that were notoriously cruel” and considered “the leading oppressors in their world,” Thomson said. But fear and uncertainty have spread as hospitals, residential areas, infrastructure and other non-military targets have been attacked, she added.

“You’re talking about a population of people that are already struggling because of external matters,” Thomson said. “And this is just another layer of that.”

ABC News’ Katherine Faulders and Luis Martinez contributed to this report.

Fugitive on the run for over 6 weeks after escaping police at airport captured

June 19, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(SEATTLE) — A fugitive who has been on the run for more than six weeks after escaping authorities at an airport while being transported across state lines has been captured, authorities said.

The incident began almost seven weeks ago on May 4 when 29-year-old Sedric Stevenson was in the custody of contracted agents at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and was being transported to Kentucky so he could face outstanding warrants that had been issued to him there when he vanished, according to a statement from the U.S. Marshals Office of Public Affairs in the Western District of Washington.

Stevenson, who was wanted in the State of Kentucky on multiple charges — including convicted felon in possession of a firearm, assault in the third degree and enhanced possession of a controlled substance in the first degree (methamphetamine) — subsequently managed to avoid law enforcement for 45 days before he was caught on Wednesday in Seattle by U.S. Marshals while they were serving an arrest warrant in the 1400 block of Madison Street, police said.

“This arrest sends a clear message: no matter how long it takes or how far someone runs, justice will catch up with them. Our deputies and taskforce officers worked tirelessly and with unwavering dedication to bring Stevenson back into custody. The community can rest easier, knowing a dangerous fugitive is no longer on the streets” said U.S. Marshal Donrien Stephens.

Stevenson’s arrest was a collaborative effort between state and local partners along with the U.S. Marshals Service Western Kentucky Fugitive Task Force, officials said.

Woman in police video appears to say she saw Bryan Kohberger near Idaho murder scene while delivering DoorDash

June 19, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(MOSCOW, Idaho) — Newly surfaced bodycam footage from last year shows an interview with a woman claiming to be a DoorDash driver, who says she saw murder suspect Bryan Kohberger while she was dropping off food just moments before police say four University of Idaho college students were slain in 2022.

In the video, the woman, who is wrapped in a gray blanket, is being questioned in a holding facility in Pullman, Washington, in connection with an unrelated incident.

The woman in the video claims she dropped off food at the King Road home in Moscow, Idaho, shortly before Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Xana Kernodle were stabbed to death.

In the video, the woman is heard saying, “Now I have to testify in that big murder case here, ’cause I’m the DoorDash driver.”

When asked to clarify which case, she says, the “murder case with the college girls … I’m the DoorDash driver. I saw Bryan there. I parked next to him.”

Idaho authorities have said it was Kernodle who placed the order and received her delivery around 4 a.m. on Nov. 13, 2022. Police believe the murders took place shortly after — between 4:07 a.m. and 4:20 a.m.

Cmdr. Ruben Harris, with the Pullman Police Department, confirmed to ABC News that the bodycam video is authentic and that it was taken in September 2024. The woman’s charge was amended to first-degree negligent driving, and she pleaded guilty, according to authorities.

Pullman is located about 10 miles west of Moscow.

Kohberger, a criminology Ph.D. student at nearby Washington State University at the time of the murders, was arrested in December 2022. He’s charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary, and a not guilty plea has been entered on his behalf.

His murder trial is set to begin in August.

North Korea launches more than a dozen rockets, South Korea says

June 19, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(SEOUL and LONDON) — North Korea launched “more than a dozen” rockets on Thursday morning, the South Korean Ministry of Defense said.

The rockets were launched at about 10 a.m. local time from the Sun’an area of North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang, the ministry said, adding that “the details are being analyzed by the Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities.”

“Our military maintains the ability and posture to respond overwhelmingly to any provocation while paying attention to various trends in North Korea under a strong joint defense posture between Korea and the United States so that North Korea does not misjudge in the current security situation,” the ministry said in a statement.

South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that the rockets were fired into the Yellow Sea, which is known in the south as the West Sea.

Republican senators line up behind Trump on Israel-Iran conflict

June 18, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Senate Republicans largely lined up behind President Donald Trump’s handling of the conflict between Iran and Israel and said they trusted Trump’s judgment on whether the United States ought to involve itself.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a defense hawk who said he spoke to Trump last night, endorsed the use of force if diplomatic efforts fail.

“Either you want them to have a nuclear weapon, or you don’t,” Graham said. “And if you don’t, if diplomacy fails, you use force.”

Most Republicans said that they agreed with Trump that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

“I think this is something on which the entire world can agree: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, or the ability to deliver a nuclear warhead, period,” Sen. John Kennedy said.

“American foreign policy is always a balance between … between values and interests. The value here is obvious to everyone. Iran cannot have a bomb. It’s just unthinkable, and I support the president unconditionally on that,” Kennedy said.

Sen. Mike Rounds said there is evidence that Iran was getting closer to building a nuclear weapon.

“If Israel has a plan which is appropriate to take care of the problem, then we don’t need to be there, but we should never take or eliminate options that are available to the president in exercising his authority as the commander-in-chief,” Rounds said.
Sen. Kevin Cramer said he would support Trump’s decision if he decided to enter the conflict, but would also support a decision to instead “assist Israel in getting the job done.”

“Iran’s made that really crystal clear. They pledged to wipe out the United States of America. I prefer not to let them get here,” Cramer said. “I prefer preemptive prevention of war rather than having to end one after it gets to our soil, right?”

Cramer said Trump has been handling the crisis “brilliantly”and applauded Trump’s suggestion that he may or may not get involved.

“I think that’s pretty honest, right? I may or I may not. I think that that the element of of surprise, if you will, is maintained by an answer that doesn’t tell you what he’s going to do,” he said. “It’d be crazy for the president to give a warning, if you will, of what he may do.”

Both Republicans and Democrats said they would like Congress to have a role in determining whether the U.S. gets involved in the conflict, but Republicans were much less forceful.

“I would love to see Congress have a role, but we certainly don’t have time in the midst of what we all see going on for Congress to sit and cogitate for six or eight months,” Kennedy said.

Democrats, on the other hand, said Trump should get Congress’ approval before taking any military action.

“At some point, the president must come to Congress if there is to be active, kinetic military involvement that constitutes war. That’s the Constitution, Sen. Richard Blumenthal said. “And I believe that the president has to face accountability at some point, for the use of military force in combat, in a war. And the question is, when that point is.”

Other Democrats said the U.S. should be trying to de-escalate the conflict rather than inflame it.

“We don’t need to escalate in Iran. That doesn’t make anyone in the Middle East safer, and it certainly doesn’t make the United States any safer right now, Sen. Elizabeth Warren said. “The role of the United States should be to help de-escalate, to push for negotiations, not to try to set more things afire.”

Hegseth spars with Democratic senators during Congressional hearing

June 18, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sparred with some Democratic senators as he was grilled at a congressional hearing Wednesday about the Trump administration’s latest military actions.

The former Fox News host, who faced a contentious confirmation hearing, got into a heated exchange before the Senate Armed Services Committee with Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., who questioned him over the military’s authority to arrest and detain protesters.

“It’s sort of amusing the extent to which the speculation is out there,” Hegseth said.

“So what is the order? Then list it out for us. List it out for us. Be a man. Did you authorize them to detain or arrest?” Slotkin, a former CIA analyst who served in Iraq, said.

The senator questioned Hegseth about the possibility of an order given for the military to use lethal force against protesters.

“I’m just asking the question. Don’t laugh,” Slotkin said after Hegseth brushed off the question.

“What is that based on?” Hegseth responded. “What evidence do you have that that order has ever been given?”

Slotkin responded that his predecessor, Mark Esper, didn’t accept such an order during the first administration.

“He had more guts and balls than you because he said, I’m not going to send in a uniformed military to do something that I know in my gut isn’t right … You’re pooh-poohing this,” the senator said.

Hegseth testified that there was “zero indication that an order was given to shoot protesters and that has not happened.”

But when she asked whether troops could use force against unarmed civilians, Hegseth wouldn’t say.

“I’d be careful what you read in books and believing it. Except for the Bible,” he said.

Hegseth responded similarly when questioned by Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Ariz, earlier in the hearing.

Rosen asked about the firings of several top national security officials, including the director of the National Security Agency, Gen. Timothy Haugh, that were allegedly done at the request of far-right social media influencer Laura Loomer.

“She’s been denounced even by Republicans, and the idea is that any leaders within our agency responsible for our nation’s security, somebody would be dismissed based on the advice of a social media influencer,” Rosen said.

“I don’t discuss who I talk about anything with, but ultimately, this is my decision and he serves at the pleasure of the president and that’s why he’s no longer there,” he said.

“Do you believe it’s appropriate for social media to influence personnel decisions in your department, yes or no?” Rosen asked. Time then expired. The chairman left a moment for Hegseth to answer the question, as witnesses often do after a lawmaker has asked their final question.

Hegseth took a beat, and said, “I believe your time is up.”

Rosen pushed back.

“Oh, it is not up to you to tell me when my time is up. I am going to say, Mr. Secretary, you’re either feckless or complicit. You’re not in control of your department,” she replied. “You [are] unserious. … I yield back and I don’t appreciate the smirk, sir. You are the secretary of defense.”

Karen Read found not guilty of murder in retrial on police officer boyfriend’s death

June 18, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(BOSTON) — A Massachusetts jury found Karen Read not guilty of murdering her Boston police officer boyfriend in 2022, nearly a year after her first prosecution ended in a mistrial.

The jury began deliberating the afternoon of June 13 in Norfolk County before reaching a verdict Wednesday afternoon.

She was acquitted of the most serious charges, including second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene after an accident resulting in death.

The jury did find her guilty of operating under the influence of liquor. The judge immediately sentenced her to one-year probation, the standard for a first-time offense.

Cheers could be heard from outside the courthouse, where supporters of Read have gathered, while the verdict was being read. Read embraced her legal team and cried following the verdict.

Prosecutors alleged Read hit her boyfriend, John O’Keefe, with her car outside the Canton home of fellow police officer Brian Albert in January 2022 and then left him to die there during a major blizzard.

The defense had argued that Read’s vehicle did not hit O’Keefe and instead said O’Keefe was attacked by a dog and beaten by other people who were in the house before he was thrown out in the snow to die.

Read pleaded not guilty to the charges and has maintained her innocence.

Following the verdict, several of the witnesses who testified against Read called the result of the retrial “a devastating miscarriage of justice.”

“Today, our hearts are with John and the entire O’Keefe family. They have suffered through so much and deserved better from our justice system,” members of the Albert and McCabe families said in a statement. “While we may have more to say in the future, today we mourn with John’s family and lament the cruel reality that this prosecution was infected by lies and conspiracy theories spread by Karen Read, her defense team, and some in the media.”

During deliberations, the jury asked four questions, including, “If we find not guilty on two charges but can’t agree on one charge, is it a hung jury on all three charges or just one charge?” the judge told attorneys in court.

The judge told the jury she is not able to respond to their question, telling attorneys it was a “theoretical question.”

The jury also asked about the time frame for when Read is accused of driving under the influence, whether video clips from Read’s interviews about the case are to be considered as evidence and if she is convicted on a sub-charge, if that would mean she is guilty on the overall charge.

In an unusual moment, Judge Beverly Cannone told the courtroom earlier Wednesday that the jury had indicated during the lunch break that they had reached a verdict, then updated that they did not have a verdict. Cannone sealed that verdict slip and informed the court that there was not yet a verdict “because, as we all know, there is no verdict until it is announced and recorded in open court.”

Read’s first trial ended in a mistrial in July 2024 after the jury could not reach a verdict.

At least four jurors who served on her first trial last year have confirmed that she was found not guilty of second-degree murder and leaving a scene of personal injury and death, according to Read’s attorneys. However, the jury could not agree on the third charge of manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence, the attorneys said.

Her lawyers filed multiple appeals, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming Read should not be retried on the counts the jury apparently agreed on, saying it would amount to double jeopardy. Each appeal was denied.

Read’s attorneys made motions for a mistrial twice during her second criminal trial, both of which were denied by the judge.

Like her first trial, Read did not take the stand in her own defense.

“I am not testifying,” Read said to reporters outside the courthouse on June 10. “[The jury has] heard my interview clips. They’ve heard my voice. They’ve heard a lot of me.”

Read had added one of the alternate jurors from her first trial to her legal team for the retrial. Victoria George, the alternate juror, is a licensed civil attorney in Massachusetts.

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