News – Page 514 – 105.7 WDNY

Trump ramps up criticism of Republican senators who could stall his funding bill

June 3, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is ramping up his criticism of Republican senators who are threatening to complicate the passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which advances his legislative agenda.

On Tuesday, he railed against Sen. Rand Paul in a social media post after the Kentucky Republican publicly criticized the House-passed megabill.

Paul opposes the bill because of a debt ceiling increase in it that he said would “explode deficits.” Paul said at an event in Iowa last week that the cuts in the bill are “wimpy and anemic” and called for slashes to other entitlements, which Trump has made clear are a red line for him.

“Rand Paul has very little understanding of the BBB, especially the tremendous GROWTH that is coming. He loves voting ‘NO’ on everything, he thinks it’s good politics, but it’s not,” Trump said in a post on his conservative social media platform Tuesday morning.

In a separate post, Trump said Paul “never has any practical or constructive ideas.” Over the weekend, Trump said that if Paul votes against the bill, “the GREAT people of Kentucky will never forgive him!”

Trump is working the phones and having meetings with senators to try to get his sweeping agenda passed by Congress.

Trump met with Senate Majority Leader John Thune at the White House yesterday, according to a White House official. The meeting comes as Thune faces the Herculean task of moving this House-backed bill through the Senate as expeditiously as possible.

Thune has so far not made clear what his strategy will be for moving this package through the upper chamber. But as things currently stand, Thune can only afford to lose three of his GOP members to pass the package, and right now, he has more members than that expressing serious doubts about the bill.

The president’s outreach so far has targeted at a number of senators who have publicly expressed a need to see substantive changes to the House-backed bill.

Trump met with Republican Sen. Rick Scott on Monday to discuss the bill, sources confirmed to ABC News. Scott is among a group of Senate hardliners who wants to see larger cuts to government spending in this bill.

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson — who also received a call from Trump on Monday, according to the White House — has also been vocal about his concerns that the bill doesn’t go nearly far enough to slash federal spending.

But anyone wishing to change the bill will have to balance the desire for spending cuts from hardliners against the calls from others in the conference who are insisting there be no cuts to Medicaid. Changes to Medicaid are one of the key ways the House bill slashes spending levels.

Trump seems to be targeting this part of the GOP conference as well, speaking with Republican Sen. Josh Hawley by phone, a White House official confirmed. Hawley, who has said he opposes potential cuts to Medicaid benefits, said in a post on X after that call, that Trump “said again, NO MEDICAID BENEFIT CUTS.”

Trump put pressure on Republican senators to fall in line in a post on his social media site on Monday night, emphasizing that he wants the GOP tax megabill on his desk before the Fourth of July holiday.

“I call on all of my Republican friends in the Senate and House to work as fast as they can to get this Bill to MY DESK before the Fourth of JULY,” Trump wrote.

Echoing sentiments from Trump, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday suggested that Republican senators who vote against Trump’s megabill will have a price to pay.

“Their voters will know about it. That is unacceptable to Republican voters and all voters across the country who elected this president in a Republican majority to get things done on Capitol Hill,” Leavitt said.

Despite expressing some displeasures about the large tax bill last week, Leavitt said Trump was keen on keeping the bill largely in-tact.

“Those discussions are ongoing, but the president is not going to back down from those key priorities that he promised the American public, and they are expecting Capitol Hill to help him deliver,” Leavitt said.

ICE deports 142 migrants to Mexico over 2-week period

June 3, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — As top Trump administration officials press for more deportations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced it had deported 142 migrants in the Houston, Texas, area illegally in the United States and convicted of crimes to Mexico, over a two week period.

From May 19 to 30, ICE says the agency removed eight gang members from the United States, 11 convicted individuals who committed crimes against children and a man who entered the U.S. illegally 21 times.

In total, the migrants were convicted of 473 criminal offenses and entered the United States 480 times, according to ICE.

ICE says there were also 30 who were convicted of robbery and grand larceny, 43 who were convicted of aggravated assault and 48 who were convicted of drug crimes they removed.

Unfortunately, this is not an anomaly,” said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston Field Office Director Bret Bradford. “For the past few years, there was virtually no deterrent to illegally entering the country. As a result, millions of illegal aliens poured into the country including violent criminal aliens, child predators, transnational gang members and foreign fugitives.”

Bradford said that “many of these dangerous criminal aliens went on to prey on law-abiding residents in local communities right here in Southeast Texas and we’re laser focused on identifying them and removing them from the country before they harm anyone else. This is just a small snapshot of those efforts as it only focuses on deportations to one country over the course of a two-week period, but it gives you an idea of how big this problem really is.”

It comes as in mid-May, Stephen Miller, the deputy chief of staff at the White House, was at ICE headquarters alongside DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and urged senior leaders at ICE and Homeland Security Investigations to step up their deportation efforts, according to sources familiar with the meeting.

The meeting was attended by senior ICE leaders and the special agents in charge of Homeland Security Investigations. Border czar Tom Homan was absent from the meeting.

Miller told senior ICE leaders that the Trump administration wants to triple the daily number of arrests agents were making up to 3,000 per day, according to sources.

Alert canceled for 3 young sisters reported missing in Washington after leaving home for visitation with father

June 3, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WENATCHEE, Wash.) — A missing persons alert was canceled for three young sisters in Washington — ages 9, 8 and 5 — who had not been seen since they left home for a scheduled visitation with their father, according to the Wenatchee Police Department.

The girls — 9-year-old Paityn Decker, 8-year-old Evelyn Decker and 5-year-old Olivia Decker — were last seen at approximately 5 p.m. on Friday when they left to be with their father, Travis Decker, on a “planned visitation,” police said.

Decker, 32, is homeless and has been living in his vehicle or at various motels or campgrounds in the area, officials said.

The Endangered Missing Persons Alert for the three girls was canceled late Monday, according to the Washington State Patrol, which did not provide further details.

Police said visitation has been a part of the family’s parenting plan, but Decker has “since gone outside the parameters of it which is not normal and cause for the alarm.”

As of Monday, the girls had not returned home and contact cannot be made with Decker, officials confirmed to ABC News.

Prior to the canceled missing persons alert, the mother of the sisters, Whitney Decker, said in a statement that she “just wants the girls back home safe and sound” and that she was “concerned” about the safety of her children.

“This is an unimaginable situation. I am pleading for everyone to look out for them,” Whitney Decker said in a statement provided to ABC News.

Travis Decker, who is described as 5 feet, 8 inches tall with black hair and brown eyes, was last seen wearing a light shirt and dark shorts and driving a 2017 GMC Sierra with a Washington license plate number of DC0165C, according to the missing persons’ poster.

Paityn Decker, the oldest of the siblings, was last seen wearing a blue shirt, purple shorts and pink Nikes, and Olivia Decker, the youngest, was last seen wearing a coral and pink shirt. Evelyn Decker, the third sibling, has blond hair and brown eyes, officials said.

Ukraine claims new underwater bomb attack on Russia’s Crimean Bridge

June 3, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on Tuesday claimed to have conducted a new attack on Russia’s Kerch Strait Bridge — which links occupied Crimea to Russia’s Krasnodar Krai region — two days after the service’s dramatic drone strikes on Russia’s strategic bomber fleet.

The SBU posted a video, photograph and statement to its official Telegram channel detailing the operation, which it said “lasted several months.”

“SBU agents mined the supports of this illegal facility,” the statement read. “And today, without any civilian casualties, at 4:44 am the first explosive device was activated.”

“The underwater supports of the piers were severely damaged at the bottom level — 1,100 kg of explosives in TNT equivalent contributed to this,” the SBU said. “In fact, the bridge is in a state of emergency.”

SBU chief Vasyl Malyuk said in a statement, “Previously, we hit the Crimean Bridge twice in 2022 and 2023. So, today we continued this tradition under water.”

The official account for the bridge said the structure was “temporarily closed” after the explosion. The Russian Defense Ministry and government are yet to comment.

Meanwhile, at least seven people were killed and 27 were injured across Ukraine overnight into Tuesday as Russia continued long-range attacks on multiple cities, local officials said.

Ukraine’s air force said it recorded 112 Russian drones launched into the country overnight, 75 of which were either shot down or neutralized in flight. The air force reported impacts in 11 locations across the country.

Most of the reported deaths were clustered in two northeastern regions of Ukraine, close to the front lines.

Three people were killed and 20 were injured by a Russian cluster rocket attack on the city of Sumy, local authorities said. At least five rockets landed in open areas of the city center, the Sumy Regional Administration said, including along a busy road filled with cars and morning commuters.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post to social media that the “savage strike” was a “fully deliberate attack on civilians.”

Another three people were killed and six were injured in the Kharkiv region as a result of Russian shelling, the regional military administration said.

One person was killed and 13 were injured by Russian fire in the southern Kherson region, said Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of the local military administration.

Five people were also injured by strikes in the northern city of Chernihiv and five others in the southern Black Sea coast city of Odesa, according to officials there.

In his Tuesday morning message, Zelenskyy said the ongoing Russian attacks indicate that Russian President Vladimir Putin has no genuine interest in peace, despite the Kremlin’s participation in ongoing U.S.-brokered talks to end its 3-year-old invasion.

Ukrainian and Russian representatives met in Istanbul, Turkey, on Monday for a second round of direct negotiations, the two sides having previously gathered in the city for the first round in May. That meeting allowed the first face-to-face peace talks between the two sides since the spring of 2022.

Ukraine is demanding a full 30-day ceasefire during which time peace negotiations can take place. Zelenskyy also said ahead of Monday’s meeting that Kyiv wants the release of all prisoners and the return of Ukrainian children forcibly taken to Russia during Moscow’s invasion. Zelenskyy also suggested direct future talks with Putin.

In a “peace memorandum” delivered to Ukraine’s negotiating team on Monday, Russia set out similar maximalist demands to those issued during the opening days of its spring 2022 invasion.

Among the demands are a Ukrainian withdrawal from all four Ukrainian regions that Russia claims — Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Donetsk and Luhansk — including areas that Russian troops do not occupy. Moscow said it would accept a ceasefire if Ukraine agreed to stop receiving foreign weapons and end mobilization — two demands Kyiv has rejected.

Moscow is also demanding limitations on the size of Ukraine’s armed forces, a permanent block on Ukrainian NATO accession, international recognition of Russian control over the areas of Ukraine it claims, the lifting of all sanctions and Ukraine to abandon its demand for war reparations to be paid by Moscow.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Tuesday that there was no significant breakthrough during Monday’s talks. “It would be wrong to expect any immediate decisions or breakthroughs here,” he said. “But work is ongoing.”

A meeting between Putin, Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump “is unlikely in the near future,” Peskov continued.

Dmitry Medvedev — the former Russian president and prime minister now serving as the deputy chairman of the country’s Security Council — wrote on Telegram that the talks “are not meant to achieve a compromise peace based on some imaginary and unrealistic conditions invented by others, but rather to secure our swift victory and the complete destruction” of Zelenskyy’s government.

Zelenskyy on Tuesday said it is “obvious: without global pressure — without decisive actions from the United States, Europe, and everyone in the world who has the power — Putin will not agree even to a ceasefire.”

“Not a single day goes by without Russia striking Ukrainian cities and villages,” the president continued.

“Every day, we lose our people to Russian terror. Every day, Russia gives new reasons for tougher sanctions and stronger support for our defense. I am grateful to everyone around the world who is promoting exactly this agenda: sanctions for aggression and the killing of people, and assistance in defending the lives of Ukrainians.”

Ukraine continued its own long-range strike campaign into Russia overnight. The Defense Ministry in Moscow said its forces downed eight Ukrainian drones on Monday night into Tuesday morning.

Monday’s Istanbul talks were held despite Ukraine’s audacious covert operation targeting Russian strategic bombers on Sunday, in which drones concealed in the back of trucks attacked at least five airfields deep inside Russian territory.

Zelenskyy told ABC News’ Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz that the attack was a “strategic operation” that “is definitely reducing Russia’s potential, and demonstrates that Ukraine is working on certain steps.”

“Unless they will stop, we will continue,” he said.

Asked whether he was satisfied with the Trump administration’s involvement, Zelenskyy told Raddatz, “We are looking for very strong steps on the part of President Trump to support the sanctions and to force President Putin to stop this war, or at least proceed with the first stage of putting an end to this war — that is the ceasefire.”

ABC News’ Will Gretsky, Oleksiy Pshemyskiy and Patrick Reevell contributed to this report.

Boulder group leader recounts ‘panic’ as attack unfolded: ‘They’re literally on fire’

June 3, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(BOULDER, CO) — As his friends caught fire in front of his eyes in Boulder, Colorado, Omer Shachar felt “panic right away” and said he knew he had to help extinguish the flames.

Shachar, a co-leader of Run for Their Lives in Boulder, told ABC News he was standing in front of the group outside the Boulder courthouse Sunday afternoon when a man threw a Molotov cocktail under their legs.

“They’re literally on fire,” he said of the walk participants. “I don’t know if I can express it enough — literally on fire and trying to pull my friend out of the fire.”

“Once someone could help her, I was reaching out to the [attacker] and try, I don’t know what I thought, but maybe to tackle him … but we saw that he’s approaching to a container full of bottles and realized that it’s not a good idea, so we stepped back,” Shachar said. “We’re trying to keep people away as much as possible, although some of them couldn’t walk. One of them was on the ground where the fire is.”

Shachar said passersby stepped in with water bottles to try to help put out the blaze.

The suspect, 45-year-old Mohamed Soliman, was apprehended after allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails in an “act of terrorism” during the pro-Israel demonstration, officials said.

Twelve people were injured, officials said.

Soliman allegedly told police “he wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead,” federal court documents said. “SOLIMAN stated he would do it (conduct an attack) again.”

He “said this had nothing to do with the Jewish community and was specific in the Zionist group supporting the killings of people on his land (Palestine),” the state documents said.

Soliman has been charged with a federal hate crime and state charges including 16 counts of attempted first-degree murder, according to court documents.

Shachar said Run for Their Lives holds a peaceful walk every Sunday to raise awareness about the hostages who remain held in Gaza by Hamas since Oct. 7, 2023.

Participants include those who are “Jewish and non-Jewish, right and left, Israelis and non-Israelis, Americans and non-Americans,” he said. “And people are coming for the same cause — to bring those hostages back home.”

Shachar said he hopes the group can return to their walks soon.

“At the moment, Run for the Lives, the international group, asked to stop walking until we understand better safety arrangements and security arrangements,” he said. “However, personally, I will say that as long as we can do it, and as long that we’re working with the police and we can do it, I will walk until the last hostage is back home.”

Protests erupt after Massachusetts high school student detained by ICE

June 3, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(MILFORD, MA) — Protests have erupted over the arrest of an 18-year-old Massachusetts high school student who state officials say was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents over the weekend while on his way to volleyball practice.

Marcelo Gomes da Silva, a Brazilian national who is a junior at Milford Public High School, was arrested on Saturday, according to a court filing from his attorney.

Students at the high school staged a walkout on Monday in support of Gomes da Silva, holding signs that said “Free Marcelo.” The protest followed community demonstrations at the Milford Town Hall on Sunday calling for his release.

The teen, who is currently in ICE custody, was not the target of the operation but was a collateral arrest, according to ICE officials.

“When we go out into the community and we find others who are unlawfully here, we are going to arrest them,” ICE acting Field Director Patricia Hyde said at a press briefing on Monday. “We’ve been completely transparent with that. He’s 18 years old. He’s unlawfully in this country.”

Gomes da Silva’s father was the actual target of the operation, according to acting ICE Director Todd Lyons. The father, Joao Paulo Gomes-Pereira, was sought because he “has a habit of reckless driving” at speeds over 100 mph, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Agents made a traffic stop on the father’s vehicle, which Gomes da Silva was driving at the time of his arrest, Lyons said during the briefing. The father has not turned himself in yet, he said.

Gomes da Silva entered the U.S. in 2012 through a student visa, which has since lapsed, according to his attorney. He has no criminal history and is “eligible for and intends to apply for asylum,” his attorney stated in a habeas corpus petition filed Sunday seeking his release.

A federal judge issued an emergency order Sunday afternoon directing the government not to remove Gomes da Silva from the U.S. or to transfer him out of the judicial district of Massachusetts for at least 72 hours. On Monday, a federal judge ordered that the government not transfer the teen out of Massachusetts without first providing the court at least 48 hours advance notice of and reasons for the move.

The ICE detainee locator website lists Gomes da Silva as being in custody but does not list where he is being held. His habeas petition indicates “on information and belief” that ICE is detaining him at a field office in Burlington, Massachusetts.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said she is “demanding immediate answers from ICE” about the teen’s arrest, where he is being held and “how his due process is being protected.”

“I’m disturbed and outraged by reports that a Milford High School student was arrested by ICE on his way to volleyball practice yesterday,” Healey said in a statement on X on Sunday. “Yet again, local officials and law enforcement have been left in the dark with no heads up and no answers to their questions.”

Kevin McIntyre, the Milford superintendent of schools, said in a statement that the student was detained off-campus, and several parents have also been detained by ICE in recent weeks.

“We are all distraught by this news,” McIntyre said in a statement. “The Milford Public Schools play no part in immigration enforcement and support all of our students and families, including those who are immigrants to the United States. They are members of the community, students in our classrooms, athletes that compete representing Milford, musicians, artists, friends, and neighbors. We will do everything in our power to support our students and families during these difficult times.”

Gomes da Silva was supposed to play in the band at the high school’s graduation on Sunday, Boston ABC affiliate WCVB reported. Some graduates marched from the ceremony to the protest at Milford Town Hall, still in their caps and gowns.

The teen’s friends expressed shock and dismay at his arrest. His girlfriend, Julianys Rentas, told WCVB that he plays drums for her church.

“He’s a member of his community and he’s never done anything wrong,” she told the station while fighting back tears.

U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, who attended Sunday’s rally, also expressed disbelief at the teen’s detainment.

“I don’t see how a kid en route to volleyball, who is an honors student, who’s a musician in the high school band — that kid is not a threat to law and order,” the Democrat told WCVB.

ICE arrested 1,461 “alien offenders” in the region in May as part of a large-scale operation, according to Hyde. Over half — 790 — had “significant criminality as well,” she said.

Pressed by reporters on whether Gomes da Silva was a danger to the community, Lyons said, “I didn’t say he was dangerous. I said he’s in this country illegally.”

“We’re not going to walk away from anybody,” he added.

ABC News’ Luke Barr and James Hill contributed to this report.

Woman arrested for leaving dog outside in crate during extreme heat

June 3, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(LAS VEGAS) — A Nevada woman was arrested after her dog was trapped outside in a crate and died due to the extreme heat, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

At approximately 2:02 p.m. on Saturday, police received a call for assistance from the Clark County Animal Protection Services in reference to “a dog who was deceased at a residence” in Las Vegas, police said in a statement on Sunday.

Once on the scene, animal cruelty detectives took over the investigation, determining that the dog had been locked in a crate and had been left outside in the extreme heat for hours by the owner, police said.

According to the National Weather Service, temperatures in Las Vegas reached a high of 105 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday, with officials urging owners to keep their pets inside and out of the excessive heat.

The owner, who was identified as 30-year-old Olivia Underwood, was arrested for willful or malicious torture, maiming or killing of a dog and was booked into the Clark County Detention Center, police said.

It is unclear whether Underwood remains in custody.

Graham among senators escalating calls for severe Russia sanctions bill to advance

June 3, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Senators are escalating calls for a severe Russia sanctions bill to advance, with Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham claiming — after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — that the chamber will move ahead with legislation this week that would impose strict tariffs on Moscow.

Graham took a trip to Kyiv over the weekend with Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who cosponsored the Senate sanctions measure that would slap 500% tariffs on any country that buys Moscow’s energy products.

“I would expect next week that the Senate will start moving the sanctions bill,” Graham said during a press conference in Ukraine on Friday. “There are House members that are ready to move in the House and you will see congressional action.”

President Donald Trump has yet to endorse the sanctions bill. ABC News’ Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz asked Zelenskyy if he were satisfied with the administration’s involvement in the conflict, and the Ukrainian leader called on Trump’s support for the sanctions and a ceasefire.

“We are looking for very for strong steps on the part of President Trump to support the sanctions and to force President Putin to stop this war, or at least proceed with the first stage of putting an end to this war — that is the ceasefire,” Zelenskyy said.

Graham and Blumenthal’s visit came just before Ukrainian officials on Sunday claimed that their country’s drones struck and damaged more than 40 warplanes in attacks on four military airports inside Russia.

Graham, a Putin critic, applauded Ukraine’s drone warfare tactics and urged action against Russia in a post on X following the reports.

“Russia indiscriminately kills men, women and children. It’s time for the world to act decisively against Russia’s aggression by holding China and others accountable for buying cheap Russian oil that props up Putin’s war machine,” Graham wrote.

Blumenthal also responded on X, urging a crackdown on Russia through the sanctions.

“When I visited President Zelenskyy & his team only a few days ago with @LindseyGrahamSC these extraordinary qualities of courage & capability were clearly evident. Russians have spread misinformation that they’re winning. Time to pass our sanctions bill.”

Graham wrote a letter last week in the Wall Street Journal, saying the Senate was “prepared” to place proposed sanctions on Russia depending on how the country responded to Trump’s recent request for Putin to “provide a term sheet outlining the requirements” for a ceasefire.

“Depending on how Russia responds, we will know which course to take,” Graham wrote in the letter.

Graham said he has coordinated with the White House on the Russia sanctions bill — the “Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025” — which has around 80 co-sponsors and bipartisan support.

“The bill would put Russia on a trade island,” Graham said. “The consequences of its barbaric invasion must be made real to those that prop it up. If China or India stopped buying cheap oil, Mr. Putin’s war machine would grind to a halt.”

Graham also highlighted recent comments from Majority Leader John Thune that also suggest the upper chamber would act against Russia if “Putin continues to play games.”

“As Thune said last week, if Mr. Putin continues to play games, the Senate will act. I’m hoping for the best, but when it comes to the thug in Moscow, we should all prepare for more of the same,” Graham wrote.

Thune, speaking to reporters at the Capitol on Monday, said that there’s a “high level” of interest in the bill, and that the Senate might be able to work on it before the end of the month.

“We are in conversations with the White House, obviously, about that subject and that issue … there’s a high level of interest here in the Senate, on both sides of the aisle and moving on it, and it’s very well could be something that we would take up in this work period,” Thune said. “Obviously we’re working with the White House to try and ensure that what we do and when we do it works well with the negotiations that they’ve got underway.”

Other Republican senators, too, are going on offense when it comes to sanctions on Moscow.

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley called for sanctions in a post on X last week — advocating that they are strong enough so Putin knows it “game over.”

In May, Senate Majority Whip John Barasso spoke on the Senate floor, calling for an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine and threatening Russia with sanctions through the Senate bill.

“Russia faces a stark choice: peace or crippling sanctions. President Trump has spoken forcefully of swift, severe consequences if Russia fails to honor a ceasefire. A bipartisan group of senators agrees,” Barasso said.

“Energy is the cash cow of Putin’s war machine. Cut it off, and Russia cannot continue to fight. Russia’s biggest customer is Communist China. The next is India. They will be hit hard,” Barasso continued.

Democratic Sen. John Fetterman called for sanctions on Russia during a discussion in Boston on Monday with Republican Sen. Dave McCormick.

“Russia continues to kill innocent civilians in Ukraine and so here we are — and we have to sanction them and hold Russia accountable,” Fetterman said.

McCormick said he’d back the sanctions package because it continues to pressure Putin to engage in negotiations about ending the conflict.

“The only way to keep the pressure on is for things to happen like what happened today with Ukraine having a very successful military capability and operation, but in addition to that, the kinds of sanctions that are proposed in this legislation, and that is meant to help President Trump deliver on the vision and the deal he’s talked about,” McCormick said.

Los Angeles police release photos of suspects in alleged attacks against transgender woman

June 3, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(LOS ANGELES) — The Los Angeles Police Department is asking for the public’s help in identifying three suspects who are allegedly involved in a series of attacks against a transgender woman — with the most recent incident taking place on Sunday.

Police released photos of the three suspects and said that an initial attack and sexual assault allegedly took place on April 8, while the most recent attacks that police believe to be “perpetrated by the same individuals” allegedly took place at around 11:38 p.m. local time on Saturday.

No arrests had been made in this case as of Monday afternoon, an LAPD spokesperson told ABC News.

“[The suspects] returned to the victim’s location and physically assaulted her, inflicting serious injuries. The suspects fled the scene before officers arrived,” the LAPD said in a statement released on Sunday.

Police said the victim is a 61-year-old transgender woman but did not disclose her identity. However, the victim of the alleged attacks — Sabrina de la Peña — came forward in an April 28 interview with ABC Station in Los Angeles, KABC.

De la Peña, a small business owner in the Westlake neighborhood, recounted the alleged April 8 attack. She told KABC she believed that being transgender made her a target.

She said that the first suspect came into her store and attempted to flirt with her but became angry when she turned him away.

“He pushed me down… on the floor and we start fighting on the floor,” she said.

According to an April 28 police statement, “the suspect sexually assaulted the victim and discovered she was a transgender woman. The suspect pulled away and threatened to kill the victim.”

“Subsequently, the same suspect returned to the location multiple times with additional suspects and committed hate crimes against the victim,” police said.

According to police, during one incident the suspect allegedly struck the victim with a skateboard, and on another occasion, he pepper-sprayed her. During a third incident, the suspect allegedly “threw an unknown liquid at the victim while another suspect attempted to stun her with a Taser,” police said.

De la Peña said that after the initial incident on April 8, the suspect allegedly returned the next day with another man and beat her with a skateboard.

“He take me to the alley, out my door…and he beating me,” she told KABC. “I think he hate transgender women because he tell me many times… ‘I’m gonna kill you.'”

Police are asking for the public’s help in identifying the three alleged suspects and urging people to review the photos and share any tips with LAPD Rampart Division Detectives at (213) 484-3495.

Democrat announces run against Ernst after her ‘We’re all going to die’ comments

June 3, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(DES MOINES, IOWA) — J.D. Scholten, a Democratic Iowa state representative and professional baseball player, has entered the race to take on Republican Sen. Joni Ernst in 2026 — prompted in part by her comments to constituents last week about potential cuts to Medicaid.

Ernst faced a number of agitated constituents at a town hall on Friday who expressed concerns that Republican cuts to Medicaid in the bill that would fund Trump’s legislative agenda. After one person in the audience shouted. “People are going to die!” Ernst responded, “Well, we’re all going to die.”

The incident “really hit home with me,” Scholten told ABC News in a brief interview. “We need better leadership than that.”

On Saturday, Ernst posted a sarcastic “apology” for her comments in what appeared to be a cemetery, saying, “I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that, yes, we are all going to perish from this earth. So I apologize, and I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well.”

Scholten has run for higher office before, coming within a few points of unseating far-right Rep. Steve King in 2018. He lost the 2020 race for King’s old seat to Rep. Randy Feenstra by a wider margin and currently serves in the state house representing the Sioux City area.

He is currently a pitcher for the Sioux City Explorers of the American Association of Baseball, an independent Major League Baseball partner league.

Should he win the Democratic primary, Scholten said he also plans to make the race a referendum on President Donald Trump’s trade policy, noting that Iowa soybean farmers have been caught up in the trade war with China.

While some of Iowa’s House seats are considered competitive in 2026, Democrats have not won a Senate race in the state since 2008.

-ABC News’ Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.

+ More