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Several 4th of July celebrations canceled in Los Angeles over fears of ICE raids

July 3, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(LOS ANGELES, Calif.) — Several Fourth of July celebrations have been canceled in Los Angeles over fears of raids by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to local officials and event organizers.

In early June, ICE agents carried out a series of immigration sweeps across Southern California, sparking protests in Los Angeles that spread nationwide as the raids impacted other parts of the country.

The threat of continued ICE raids has continued, prompting some officials and organizers to express concern over the welfare of revelers congregating in large celebratory gatherings.

The County of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation said it postponed the East Los Angeles Rockin’ 4th of July celebration — as well as the Summer Movies and Concert in the Parks series that takes place at Schabarum Park — due to potential ICE raids.

“Out of caution, and in response to recent ICE enforcement activity impacting our communities, we are prioritizing safety and well-being of our residents, visitors, and staff,” the parks department wrote in a statement posted to Instagram.

Organizers for the Gloria Molina Grand Park Summer Block Party in Los Angeles County wrote on an Instagram post that the event is being postponed out of “an abundance of caution.”

“We know this is disappointing news,” organizers said. “We were so looking forward to celebrating with all of you at #TheParkforEveryone. Please know that your safety is our absolute first priority.”

The party was scheduled to take place Friday afternoon through the nighttime fireworks show.

Postponements and cancellations also occurred in the Bell Gardens and Cudahy, which are predominately Hispanic communities, ABC Los Angeles station KABC reported.

In addition, the El Sereno Bicentennial Committee canceled its 66th Annual Independence Day Parade after several entries were withdrawn leading up to the holiday, organizers announced on June 20. The is typically filled with local groups, schools, organizations and performers as well as classic cars and motorcycle stunt shows on Route 66.

“The people who participate in the parade are some of the most patriotic people you would meet,” parade organizers said in a statement. “Our community has always been a melting pot of many cultures and beliefs. It is what has given our town its strength and resiliency.”

Independence Day celebrations at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, however, are expected to continue — but this year with a drone show, rather than fireworks.

But events in public spaces feel “dangerous” for many residents, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ysabel Jurado, who oversees District 14, told KABC.

“This is not the time to host large public gatherings because people are afraid,” Jurado said. “For Fourth of July and Independence, it rings hollow for a lot of our constituents here.”

Elsewhere throughout the country, security protocols were ramping up ahead of the holiday. The New York City Police Department is expected to deploy hundreds of officers and impose closures on roads, bridges and train routes due to a heightened threat environment, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced Wednesday.

Lone wolf actors are anticipated to be the biggest threat to 4th of July festivities in major cities like New York and San Francisco, multiple federal law enforcement agencies warned.

Mexican boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. arrested by ICE for alleged ties to Sinaloa Cartel: DHS

July 3, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(STUDIO CITY, Calif.) — Mexican boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., son of the legendary fighter, has been arrested and is being processed for “expedited removal” from the United States due to alleged ties to the Sinaloa Cartel, the Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday.

Chavez was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday in Studio City, California, DHS said. He is allegedly in the country illegally after overstaying a tourist visa, according to DHS.

Chavez lost to boxer and influencer Jake Paul in a fight on Saturday night in Anaheim, California.

He has an active arrest warrant in Mexico “for his involvement in organized crime and trafficking firearms, ammunition, and explosives,” DHS said in a press release.

“Chavez is also believed to be an affiliate of the Sinaloa Cartel, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization,” DHS said.

The boxer entered the country in August 2023 with a B2 tourist visa that was valid until February 2024, according to DHS. He filed an application for lawful permanent resident status in April 2024, according to DHS.

“Chavez’s application was based on his marriage to a U.S. citizen, who is connected to the Sinaloa Cartel through a prior relationship with the now-deceased son of the infamous cartel leader Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman,” DHS said.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services flagged Chavez as an “egregious public safety threat” to ICE in December 2024, though his removal was not prioritized, according to DHS.

He was determined to be in the country and removable on June 27 after allegedly making “multiple fraudulent statements” on his lawful permanent resident application, DHS said.

“Under President Trump, no one is above the law — including world-famous athletes,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “Our message to any cartel affiliates in the U.S. is clear: We will find you and you will face consequences. The days of unchecked cartel violence are over.”

According to DHS, Chavez has prior convictions in California for driving under the influence of alcohol in 2012 and illegal possession of an assault weapon and manufacture or import of a short-barreled rifle in 2024.

Chavez’s father, Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., is one of the greatest boxers of all-time and a huge celebrity in their native Mexico.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

House passes Trump’s major tax cut and spending bill

July 3, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The House has passed President Trump’s major tax cut and spending bill in a 218 to 214 vote.

The legislation will now go to President Trump’s desk for his signature.

The final vote came after an overnight scramble by Speaker Mike Johnson to secure the necessary GOP votes to proceed, and then a record-breaking speech from House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries that lasted for 8 hours and 44 minutes.

No changes were made by the House to the Senate version of the bill, despite some grumbling from House Republican hardliners over the Senate changes to Medicaid and the deficit. Some of those holdouts say President Trump made promises to get their votes, including saying he’d make the bill “better” in the future.

‘Immoral’: Democrat Hakeem Jeffries blasts Trump megabill in marathon speech

July 3, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries is making a marathon last stand against President Donald Trump’s major tax cut and spending bill.

Jeffries took to the House floor around 5 a.m. on Thursday and shortly after noon had been speaking for more than seven hours, delaying a final vote in the chamber on the domestic policy bill at the heart of Trump’s second-term agenda.

Jeffries has stacks of binders next to him at the podium as he picks apart the bill and some of the Republicans who voted for it.

“Donald Trump’s deadline may be Independence Day. That ain’t my deadline,” Jeffries said. “You know why, Mr. Speaker, we don’t work for Donald Trump, we work for the American people. That’s why we’re here right now on the floor of the House of Representatives, standing up for the American people.”

The “magic minute” speech is a procedure that grants members of House leadership unlimited time to speak after debate on a bill has concluded. For context, then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, spoke for more than eight hours in 2021 when the House passed President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act.

Jeffries is getting close to that mark, and appears to be aiming for a new record.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is expected to speak for about 10 minutes once Jeffries has wrapped up. After that, a final vote will take place on the bill.

Johnson, who has said he has the votes to pass the bill, told reporters he expected a signing ceremony for the bill will be held on Friday.

“Potentially before the B-2s fly,” Johnson said, referencing the White House celebration set to mark the Fourth of July.

Jeffries has focused much of his speech on the bill’s projected impact on Medicaid, the federal program that primarily serves seniors and people with disabilities, sharing personal stories from people he says will struggle as a result of the megabill.

“People will die. Tens of thousands, perhaps year after year after year, as a result of the Republican assault on the healthcare of the American people,” Jeffries said. “I’m sad. I never thought I would be on the House floor saying this is a crime scene.”

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the Medicaid cuts and changes passed by the Senate could cause 11.8 million Americans to lose their health insurance over the next decade.

Jeffries is excoriating the Trump-backed megabill’s “assault on healthcare.”

“Every single house Democrat is fighting hard to protect your Medicaid,” Jeffries said. “We value you and we’re working hard to defend you.”

Republicans have defended the changes as reforms to entitlement programs they claim are riddled with “waste, fraud and abuse.” The Trump administration has also pushed back on the nonpartisan budget office itself and its analysis, claiming bias.

Jeffries didn’t stop at health care and is criticizing other portions of the bill, including its impact on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and its immigration provisions.

“You see, budgets are moral documents. And in our view, Mr. Speaker, budgets should be designed to lift people up,” he said. “This reckless Republican budget that we are debating right now on the floor of the House of Representatives tears people down.”

“This reckless Republican budget is an immoral document,” Jeffries continued. “And everybody should vote no against it because of how it attacks children, seniors, and everyday Americans, and people with disabilities. This reckless Republican budget is an immoral document. And that is why I stand here on the floor of the House of Representatives with my colleagues in the House Democratic caucus to stand up and push back against it with everything we have.”

Those comments prompted House Democrats gathered near Jeffries to stand in applause.

Gas prices near lowest level in 4 years ahead of Fourth of July

July 3, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Gas prices are hovering near their lowest summer level in four years as millions of people ready themselves to hit the roads over the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

The national average for a gallon of gas on Thursday stood at $3.16, which amounts to a nearly 10% decline from a year ago, AAA data showed. Gas prices dropped in recent weeks as crude oil erased a spike set off by the outbreak of war in the Middle East.

Twenty states boast average gas prices below $3, spanning from New Mexico to Missouri to South Carolina. Mississippi, the state with the nation’s lowest gas prices, offers drivers an average gallon for $2.71.

More than 61 million people are expected to travel by car over the July 4 holiday, AAA forecasted.

“The lower gasoline prices provide welcome relief for travelers,” Timothy Fitzgerald, a professor of business economics at the University of Tennessee who studies the petroleum industry, told ABC News.

Cheap crude oil is the main driver of low gas prices, analysts told ABC News.

The U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures price — a key measure of U.S. oil prices – has plummeted more than 17% since a recent peak in January.

Oil prices have dropped as forecasters predicted a slowdown in global economic growth, which would slash demand for oil.

Meanwhile, the alliance of oil-producing countries known as OPEC+ has increased output in recent months, boosting supply. The extra oil on the market has helped accommodate an annual surge in demand that takes hold over the summer traveling season, Aixa Diaz, a spokesperson for AAA, told ABC News.

“Most of what we pay at the pump is in direct correlation to the price of crude oil,” Diaz said.

Crude oil prices surged as war broke out in the Middle East last month, but prices have returned to where they stood before the recent conflict between Israel and Iran.

“The resolution in the Middle East does help,” Patrick de Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, told ABC News.

President Donald Trump has touted the low gas prices on numerous occasions since he took office.

“We have everything down at levels that nobody ever thought possible,” Trump said in a social media post in April.

Speaking at an event in Ochopee, Florida, on Monday, Trump claimed gas prices had fallen below $2 per gallon in five states.

GasBuddy, which tracks prices at thousands of gas stations nationwide, found zero locations offering gasoline below $2 per gallon, de Haan said in a post Monday on X. That remained true as of Thursday, de Haan told ABC News.

Trump could be referring to wholesale gas prices but such price levels hold little relevance since they are not paid by consumers, de Haan said.

“This does not pass the sniff test,” de Haan added.

Gas prices will likely remain at current levels over the remainder of the summer — and they may even drop lower, some analysts said. Gas supply typically increases over the course of the summer, alleviating price pressures, they added.

Still, prices could rise in the event of a geopolitical conflict, disruptive hurricane season or major oil refinery outages, de Haan said, adding the national average price for a gallon of gas could drop below $3 by September.

“It could happen if we don’t see any of those caveats,” de Haan said. “If it’s a normal year.”

Holdouts say Trump promised he’d ‘make the bill better’ in the future

July 3, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — While there were no changes made to the legislative text of President Donald Trump’s megabill after it came back from the Senate, some House Republican holdouts said Trump made promises in order to get their votes.

After meeting with House Republicans at the White House on Wednesday and working the phones through the night and into the early morning Thursday, the president addressed members’ unease in real-time, Speaker Mike Johnson observed, “making sure that everyone’s concerns are addressed and their questions are answered.”

South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman said Trump provided holdouts “assurances” that changes would be made to “getting permits” related to wind and solar tax credits.

“Wind and solar needs to be — we would have cut those out Day 1. We couldn’t do that,” Norman said on CNBC Thursday.

“And, you know, up until late in the night, we were negotiating, you know, things that could change with, you know, the tax credits, which all were put in by Joe Biden, which needed to be extinguished,” Norman said.

Norman also signaled that Trump could use executive power to “make the bill better.”

But during negotiations this week, the lawmakers were unable to extract any changes to the bill.

Nevertheless, Texas Rep. Chip Roy, an outspoken conservative firebrand who led the public pushback against the bill, argued that the Freedom Caucus “has successfully delivered substantive wins” — before adding, “There may be a few more yet.”

“The real story of the OBBB is reforming Medicaid to require work & to return spending to pre-COVID levels, saving over $1 Trillion,” Roy posted on X. “A modest but important reform that would not have happened if the @freedomcaucus had not fought for it.”

Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde said he “fought” to improve the megabill — hoping to include an amendment to remove taxes on firearms — that the Senate ultimately stripped out.

“I also had the opportunity to discuss this critical matter directly with President Trump at the White House. I look forward to working with him and his Administration to further restore our 2A rights. Stay tuned,” Clyde said.

While the firearms tax remains in the bill, Clyde said he ultimately planned to vote in favor of the package “because I support fulfilling President Trump’s America First agenda and the promises we made to the country.”

Supreme Court declines to hear dispute over Montana abortion consent law

July 3, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to take up a dispute over a Montana law that would have required notarized parental consent for a minor to receive an abortion.

State lawmakers have argued that parents have a constitutional right to make decisions concerning the care, custody and control of their children.

Planned Parenthood of Montana, in challenging the law, argued that minors have a constitutional right to privacy that cannot be infringed.

The Montana Supreme Court struck down the law on state constitutional grounds. The U.S. Supreme Court now leaves that decision in place.

Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch said they agreed with the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear the case, saying it “provides a poor vehicle” for addressing the constitutional question about the rights of parents, which they suggested they are open to resolving in a future case.

7 missing after massive explosion and fire at California warehouse filled with fireworks: Officials

July 3, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(ESPARTO, Calif.) — Seven people remain missing after a warehouse filled with fireworks exploded Tuesday evening in Northern California, officials said.

The blast occurred at a pyrotechnics facility in Esparto, located in Yolo County, triggering a series of massive explosions that began around 6:02 p.m., according to fire authorities.

“First responders and investigators are working diligently with the property owner to determine the whereabouts of those individuals,” Cal Fire and the Esparto Fire Protection District said in a joint statement Wednesday.

Officials are using drones to assess the area due to ongoing safety concerns.

“We obviously do our best to train for every type of incident, but an incident like this is like a once-in-a-career type of incident,” Esparto Fire Chief Curtis Lawrence said Wednesday at a press conference, adding they couldn’t immediately get close enough to the building considering the risk.

The site remains under evacuation orders as authorities warn of a continued threat to the immediate area. While officials said the risk has decreased since Tuesday, they’re maintaining the evacuation zone until a full safety assessment can be completed.

The press conference Wednesday was also interrupted by an angry family member who said her boyfriend and brother-in-law were in the building.

“We’re all sick to our stomach, and we’re all waiting on the information [officials say] we should receive until Saturday, when I want to know today,” she said.

Cal Fire’s Office of the State Fire Marshal said it believes the facility belongs to a licensed pyrotechnics operator. Investigators are working to determine if the operation complied with California’s strict pyrotechnics regulations and federal explosive storage requirements.

“This type of incident is very rare,” Cal Fire officials said, noting that such facilities must follow stringent safety protocols.

The California Highway Patrol is assisting with security while investigators treat the location as an active crime scene.

“Our hearts and thoughts are with those we lost, their families, and everyone impacted in our community,” the management for Devastating Pyrotechnics, the company that owns the pyrotechnics business, said in a statement. “We are grateful for the swift response of law enforcement and emergency personnel. Our focus will remain on those directly impacted by this tragedy, and we will cooperate fully with the proper authorities in their investigation.”

Supreme Court to take up state bans on trans student athletes

July 3, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court said Thursday that it would hear appeals from two states seeking to uphold laws excluding transgender student athletes from participation in girls’ and women’s sports teams.

The cases from West Virginia and Idaho — which will be scheduled for argument during the court’s next term — will decide whether the Constitution and Civil Rights Act prohibit the bans based on an athlete’s sex assigned at birth.

Lower courts in each of the cases sided with the student athletes in finding the state laws violated either the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause or Title IX of the Civil Rights Act.

The decision to hear the cases follows a decision by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority last month upholding state bans on gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors.

Chief Justice John Roberts said the laws did not violate the 14th Amendment or discriminate on the basis of sex, even though the same medical treatments are widely available to cisgender minors.

The outcome of the case, U.S. v. Skrmetti, was one of the most significant LGBTQ rulings to come from the nation’s high court and marked the first time the justices weighed in on an anti-trans state law.

The trans-athlete cases will be argued in the fall and decided in 2026.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that the cases involved are from only West Virginia and Idaho, not Arizona.

Democrat Hakeem Jeffries, in marathon ‘magic minute’ speech, blasts Trump bill

July 3, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries is making a marathon last stand against President Donald Trump’s major tax cut and spending bill.

Jeffries took to the House floor just after 5 a.m. on Thursday and has now been speaking for more than four hours, delaying a final vote in the chamber on the domestic policy bill at the heart of Trump’s second term agenda.

Jeffries has stacks of binders next to him at the podium. It does not appear he is wrapping any time soon.

“I’ve been given 15 minutes each on a bill of such significant magnitude as it relates to the health, the safety and the well being of the American people and because that debate was so limited, I feel the obligation, Mr. Speaker, to stand on this house floor and take my sweet time to tell the stories and that’s exactly what I intend to do,” Jeffries said.

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the Medicaid cuts and changes passed by the Senate could cause 11.8 million Americans to lose their health insurance over the next decade.

Jeffries is excoriating the Trump-backed megabill’s “assault on healthcare.”

“Every single house Democrat is fighting hard to protect your Medicaid,” Jeffries said. “We value you and we’re working hard to defend you.”

Jeffries didn’t stop at health care and is criticizing other portions of the bill, including its impact on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and its immigration provisions.

Those comments prompted House Democrats gathered near Jeffries to stand in applause.

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