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SpaceX says hydraulic issue that postponed Starliner mission fixed, clear for launch

March 14, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — SpaceX said that the hydraulic system issue that postponed the Starliner mission on Wednesday has now been fixed and that the crew is once again cleared for take-off on Friday.

The mission will bring the next crew up to work on the International Space Station (ISS) and begin the return of a pair of astronauts back to Earth.

The launch Wednesday was abruptly postponed less than 45 minutes before liftoff due to a problem with a ground support clamp arm on the Falcon 9 rocket.

The clamps hold the rocket on the pad and if they don’t open evenly, could cause the rocket to tip slightly.

NASA’s Ken Bowersox told ABC News that while in this instance, the teams thought there was a low probability of a serious failure, they ultimately decided to not take any chances at all.

As of Thursday evening, SpaceX said ground teams have resolved the issue and successfully flushed a suspected pocket of trapped air in the system.

SpaceX said it’s now targeting a launch on Friday at 7:03 p.m. ET. The company predicts a 95% chance of favorable weather conditions for the launch attempt.

Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams have been in space since June 2024 after they performed the first crewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner. When they launched, they were only supposed to be on the ISS for about a week.

However, NASA and Boeing officials decided to send the uncrewed Starliner back to Earth in September after several issues and keep Wilmore and Williams onboard until early 2025 when Crew-10 was ready to launch on the Dragon spacecraft. Wilmore and Williams are set to return in the Crew-9 capsule.

The pair integrated with the ongoing Crew-9 mission aboard the ISS and could not return to Earth until Crew-9 completed its six-month mission and were replaced by Crew-10.

Wilmore and Williams assisted the crew with research and other responsibilities. However, NASA officials said the pair were using up more supplies meant for the ISS crew.

Steve Stich, program manager for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said that NASA teams spent all summer looking over the data on Starliner and felt there was too much risk with regard to the vehicle’s thrusters.

During a press conference in September, Wilmore said he and Williams did not feel let down by anything during the mission.

“Let down? Absolutely not,” Wilmore said. “It’s never entered my mind. It’s a fair question. I can tell you, I thought a lot about this press conference … and what I wanted to say and convey.”

“NASA does a great job of making a lot of things look easy,” he said, adding, “That’s just the way it goes. sometimes because we are pushing the edges of the envelope in everything that we do.”

If the mission is successful, it’s unclear when exactly Wilmore and Williams will return to Earth on Crew-9.

The crew consists of two NASA astronauts, an astronaut from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and an astronaut from Russia’s Roscosmos.

SpaceX will share a live webcast of the mission beginning one hour and 20 minutes prior to liftoff on its website and on its X account. NASA will also air coverage on its X account.

“During their time on the orbiting laboratory, the crew will conduct new research to prepare for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and to benefit humanity on Earth,” SpaceX said on its website.

SpaceX’s contracted missions are part of the larger Commercial Crew Program at NASA, which are certified to perform routine missions to and from the ISS.

‘Highly unusual’: White House halts FBI background checks for senior staff, shifts them to Pentagon: Sources

March 13, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The White House has quietly directed the FBI to halt the background check process for dozens of President Donald Trump’s top staffers, and has transferred the process to the Pentagon, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.

The directive came last month after agents tasked with completing the background investigations had conducted interviews with a handful of top White House aides — a standard part of the background check process.

White House officials took the unusual step of ordering a stop to the background check investigations after they deemed the process too intrusive, sources said.

The procedure typically involves extensive interviews as well as a review of financial records, foreign contacts, past employment, and any potential security risks.

The White House instead decided to transfer the background check process for White House personnel to the Department of Defense for them to complete the checks, the sources said.

A former FBI official told ABC News the approach was “highly unusual.”

“If any of this is true, and if you apply it to whatever has been historically in the remit of the FBI, then it would be breaking that historic, long-standing precedent, and highly unusual,” a former FBI official told ABC News. “It would be highly unusual if that was taken away from the FBI now, for whatever reason, and given over to the DOD or another agency.”

Newly installed FBI Director Kash Patel told ABC News in a statement, “The FBI is relentlessly focused on our mission to rebuild trust, restore law and order and let good agents be good agents — and we have full confidence DOD can address any needs in the clearance process.”

Pentagon representatives referred questions on the matter to the White House.

The background check process was halted just days before Patel was confirmed by the Senate on Feb. 20, the sources said. The FBI is still conducting background investigations for positions requiring Senate confirmation, said the sources.

The Pentagon’s Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) carries out the bulk of background investigations for the federal government. The FBI carries out investigations for presidential appointees that require Senate confirmation as well as some other presidential appointees, including White House staff.

Historically, administrations have relied on the FBI background check process to ensure that the personnel they are hiring meet stringent ethical standards and don’t risk compromising national security.

“Background investigations for national security positions are conducted to gather information to determine whether you are reliable, trustworthy, of good conduct and character, and loyal to the U.S.,” states the SF-86 form filled out by federal employees seeking security clearances and used for background investigations.

However Trump and many of his allies entered the White House with a bitter distrust of the bureau over what they argued was its “weaponization” through the prosecutions brought against him by former special counsel Jack Smith. His top political appointees in the opening month of the administration quickly moved to purge senior ranks of the FBI and DOJ from anyone tied to the Smith prosecutions and those they believed wouldn’t be politically loyal to Trump.

Among Trump’s first presidential actions was issuing a memorandum granting the highest level of security clearance to top White House officials who had not been fully vetted through the background check process.

That list of officials, while not publicly disclosed, included dozens of high-level White House staffers, according to sources familiar with the matter.

In that memorandum, Trump claimed there was a “backlog” in the security clearance process — an issue he blamed on President Joe Biden’s administration.

However, Trump’s transition team had refused for months to enter into an agreement with the Department of Justice under Biden to begin the background check process for individuals who would staff Trump’s incoming administration, which has contributed in part to the staffing issues they now face.

Republicans use legislative sneak play to tie Democrats’ hands on tariffs

March 13, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — In a sneaky legislative maneuver tied into the effort to pass a funding bill and avert a government shutdown, House Republicans earlier this week successfully blocked Democrats from forcing votes and debate on President Donald Trump’s controversial tariffs.

It was a somewhat complicated move. But it worked — and demonstrated that Republicans are attempting to give cover to Trump and his implementation of sweeping tariffs on top U.S. trading partners that have roiled the stock market and stoked diplomatic tensions.

Had Democrats forced a vote and debate on the tariffs, it could have forced Republicans to go on the record on Trump’s tariff agenda — perhaps splitting with the president’s actions.

To tee up Speaker Mike Johnson’s temporary government funding bill, which the House passed Tuesday evening, the House first needed to pass what’s known as “a rule.” Buried inside the text of that rule was legislative language that prevents Democrats from forcing a potentially politically painful vote to end Trump’s tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China.

How could Democrats compel a vote to end the tariffs?

Trump imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China by declaring illegal migration and fentanyl constituted a national emergency under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the National Emergencies Act.

But, here’s the catch: under the NEA, Congress has the authority to move quickly to terminate that emergency declaration. Top House Democrats tried to do that last week.

But inside that rule, which passed along party lines and cleared the way for a vote on the House GOP’s stopgap funding bill, was a provision prohibiting lawmakers from forcing a vote to terminate the president’s border emergency and the resulting tariffs until at least January 2026.

The section reads, “Each day for the remainder of the first session of the 119th Congress shall not constitute a calendar day for purposes of section 202 of the National Emergencies Act with respect to a joint resolution terminating a national emergency declared by the President on February 1, 2025.”

Democrats are blasting the move.

“Guess what they tucked into this rule, hoping nobody would notice? They slipped in a little clause letting them escape ever having to debate or vote on Trump’s tariffs. Isn’t that clever?” Rep. Jim McGovern, the ranking member on the House Rules Committee, said during floor debate Tuesday.

Congress could still approve a joint resolution to terminate the president’s national emergency. That would require the support of both rank-and-file GOP lawmakers and House Republican leadership, which is unlikely.

Democratic Rep. Don Beyer blasted the maneuver on “ABC News Live Prime with Linsey Davis” Tuesday.

Asked about the Republicans’ move and if Democrats have any way around it, Beyer said “not really,” calling it “tragic.”

“Once again, Trump has ignored existing law and the Constitution with all the tariffs he’s been announcing in recent weeks,” Beyer said. “He inherited on Jan. 20 the strongest economy this country has ever had. And we are rapidly heading towards recession right now just because of the extraordinary uncertainty in business decisions and capital investment and hiring decisions.”

Tornadoes, flash flooding, damaging winds headed to Midwest, South, East Coast

March 13, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A multiday severe weather outbreak is set to bring tornadoes, flash flooding and damaging winds from the Midwest to the South and the East Coast.

The severe weather begins in the Midwest on Friday night. Residents from Peoria, Illinois, to St. Louis, Missouri, to Paducah, Kentucky are in the bull’s-eye for damaging winds and potential tornadoes. This region is labeled level 4 out 5 for severe weather.

On Saturday afternoon and evening, the highest threat for tornadoes moves to the Deep South, focusing on Mississippi and Alabama.

A level 4 out 5 severe risk is in effect for New Orleans; Jackson, Mississippi; Mobile, Alabama; and Birmingham, Alabama, where strong/significant tornadoes and destructive winds are expected.

A level 3 out of 5 severe risk has been issued from Nashville, Tennessee, to Atlanta to the Florida Panhandle.

Severe storms could even stretch as far north as the Ohio Valley on Saturday.

On Sunday, the severe storms will be weaker as they target the East Coast from Florida to Pennsylvania.

Damaging winds, large hail and brief tornadoes will be possible for the Southeast on Sunday afternoon, while heavy rain and damaging winds will hit the Northeast on Sunday night.

Trump expected to invoke wartime Alien Enemies Act to carry out mass deportations: Sources

March 13, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — As early as Friday, President Donald Trump is expected to invoke the Alien Enemies Act — a wartime law that allows the president to detain or deport the natives and citizens of an enemy nation — as part of the efforts to carry out mass deportations, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

The Department of Defense is not expected to have a role in the invoking of the authority, which could be used to deport some migrants without a hearing

There have been discussions inside the administration about invoking the act, multiple sources said.

Trump had previously said on the campaign trail that he planned to invoke the act.

The act hasn’t been used since World War II, when it was used to detain Japanese Americans.

During World War II, the Alien Enemies Act was partially used to justify the internment of Japanese immigrants who had not become U.S. citizens. The broader internment of Japanese-Americans was carried out under executive orders signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and not the Alien Enemies Act since the law does not apply to U.S. citizens.

Experts say Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil can’t be deported without due process

March 13, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The detaining of Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University student and Palestinian activist who possessed a green card, has raised questions about the deportation risks faced by lawful permanent residents amid the Trump administration’s escalating crackdown on immigration.

President Donald Trump’s administration, which has alleged that Khalil was a supporter of Hamas, has said it has the authority to deport Khalil under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

“Secretary [Marco] Rubio reserves the right to revoke the visa of Mahmoud Khalil under the Immigration and Nationality Act, the Secretary of State has the right to revoke a green card or a visa for individuals who are adversarial to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States of America,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press conference this week.

Khalil, whose detention has sparked protests this week, is married to an American citizen who is eight months pregnant.

Under the Immigration Nationality Act, which experts say is rarely invoked, the government can charge a green card holder as being deportable without being convicted of a crime if there are reasonable grounds to believe they engaged in certain criminal or terrorist activities.

But experts and immigration attorneys ABC News spoke with said the statute does not give the secretary of state the power to deport green card holders like Khalil without going through a procedure.

“The way the statute is constructed, it doesn’t mean that Secretary Rubio can just say, ‘Oh, I determined this, and therefore we’re just going to deport you out of the country,'” said Greg Chen of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “You would still need to go through a process.”

After the federal government invokes the statute, individuals like Khalil are entitled to argue their case before an immigration judge. Khalil is set to appear before an immigration judge later this month in Louisiana.

“There are some due process and protective procedures that the person is entitled to,” Chen said, “including being given a notice of the charges, and an opportunity to confront that evidence and to bring his or her own evidence in response.”

Chen told ABC News that typically it can take months or even years for immigration cases to “go from start to finish” — but because of Khalil’s “unique circumstances,” a judge can prioritize a case and expedite the process.

Experts told ABC News there are a number of reasons why an individual could lose their green card, including marriage fraud, immigration fraud, violent crimes and other offenses.

Andrew Nietor, an immigration attorney, told ABC News said that while there are cases where the government invokes the Immigration and Nationality Act for certain green card holders with criminal convictions, he said he has never seen a case like Khalil’s.

“I’ve never seen this ground of deportation invoked,” Nietor said. “It’s almost always a green card holder who is almost always in deportation proceedings because of some type of criminal conviction.”

Dad gunned down in Southern California home invasion, 13-year-old son calls 911

March 13, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(LOS ANGELES) — Authorities are searching for the man who broke into a Los Angeles-area house and gunned down a father while his wife and son were home, officials said.

The 61-year-old victim was attacked at about 6:26 p.m. Tuesday at his home in Arcadia, about 8 miles east of Pasadena, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office said.

The 13-year-old son and his mother were pulling into their driveway when the intruder “approached them and forced them into the home” where there was a “confrontation” between the intruder and the father, sheriff’s Lt. Steven De Jong told Los Angeles ABC station KABC.

It’s not clear if the boy and his mom witnessed the shooting, but De Jong called it a “very frightening situation for the entire family.”

The 13-year-old son called 911 to report that his dad was shot by an intruder, De Jong said.

A motive is not known, but De Jong said “it appears that this is possibly personally motivated, from my preliminary inspection of the crime scene.”

“This individual that made entry into the house engaged the male victim,” he explained. “So it appears that maybe he was the intended target.”

A “couple” weapons were recovered at the house, but it’s not clear if they belonged to the suspect or the family, he said.

It’s possible the dad “armed himself and attempted to defend himself,” De Jong said.

No arrests have been made, according to the sheriff’s office.

Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff’s homicide bureau at 323-890-5500.

Trump stands firm on tariff plans after threat against EU: ‘I’m not going to bend at all’

March 13, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Thursday stood firm on his tariff policy, hours after threatening to escalate a global trade war with a 200% tariff on champagne and other alcohol products from the European Union.

“I’m not going to bend at all,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday. When asked whether he would reconsider a fresh round of tariffs set to go into effect on April 2, Trump offered a one-word reply: “No.”

U.S. stocks tumbled, erasing some gains in the S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq a day earlier. Shares of large European winemakers also fell on Thursday in apparent reaction to Trump’s tariff threat.

The threat of additional U.S. tariffs came after the EU announced plans to slap tariffs on $28 billion worth of U.S. goods, including a 50% tariff on whiskey. Those tariffs marked a response to U.S. duties on steel and aluminum imports.

Trump called on the EU to drop its tariff on whiskey, saying the U.S would otherwise “shortly place” a tariff on alcohol products from the EU.

Trump sharply criticized the EU, describing the organization as “one of the most hostile and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities in the World.”

In a post on X, French Trade Minister Laurent Saint-Martin said: “Donald Trump is escalating the trade war he chose to unleash. France remains determined to retaliate together with the European Commission and our partners. We will not give in to threats and will always protect our sectors.”

If Trump moves forward with his tariff threat, the move could have a significant impact on American consumers.

The US is the world’s largest importer of wine and champagne. The US imported nearly $4.9 billion worth of Wine each year, with $1.6 billion imported from France, according to World Bank Data. In 2023, the US imported more than $1.7 billion worth of champagne.

The Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. is urging the U.S. and EU to come to a resolution that gets the industry back to “zero-to-zero tariffs.”

“This is a model that has allowed spirits exports between the U.S. and EU to flourish and is in line with President Trump’s vision for fair and reciprocal trade,” the council’s President Chris Swonger wrote in a statement.

In his first term, Trump also targeted the alcohol industry. A series of tit-for-tat tariffs hit alcohol products in the U.S. and the EU. The Biden administration suspended those tariffs, but now the industry is once again in the crosshairs. The industry has still been recovering from that first tariff spat.

For the past three years, “U.S. distillers have worked hard to regain solid footing in our largest export market,” Swonger added.

The tariff threats on Thursday mark the latest skirmish in a global trade war. In response to U.S. duties on steel and aluminum, Canada announced retaliatory tariffs applied to $20.7 billion in U.S. goods, government officials said. The U.S. imports more steel and aluminum from Canada than from any other country.

The Trump administration last week slapped a 10% tariff on China, doubling taxes on Chinese imports to 20%. In response, China imposed retaliatory duties on U.S. agricultural goods, deepening a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

The trade tensions triggered recession fears on Wall Street. Goldman Sachs last week hiked its odds of a recession from 15% to 20%. Moody’s Analytics raised its gauge of the probability of a recession to 35%.

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

98 protesters arrested at Trump Tower sit-in for detained activist Mahmoud Khalil

March 13, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — At least 98 people were arrested Thursday at a protest in the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan that called for the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil — the pro-Palestinian activist and green card holder arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement this week.

Protesters are facing charges of trespass and resisting arrest, according to the New York Police Department.

Hundreds of Jewish protesters wearing “Not in Our Name” t-shirts staged a sit-in in the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan. Protesters entered the lobby in two groups, including many who entered the public lobby area in civilian clothes hiding their protest gear underneath, according to police.

The NYPD said it is familiar with this protest group and its tactics. As in other Trump Tower incidents, police were only called to the public lobby area once Trump’s security deemed it necessary

The protesters carried banners in support of Khalil, who was a leader of protests against the war in Gaza at Columbia University, that said “Jews say Free Mahmoud & Free Palestine” and “Fight Nazis Not Students.”

“As Jews of conscience, we know our history and we know where this leads. This is what fascists do as they cement control. This moment requires all people of conscience to take bold action to resist state violence and repression. Free Mahmoud now,” Jane Hirschmann, a Jewish New Yorker whose grandfather and uncle were abducted by the Nazis during Hitler’s rise to power, said in a statement.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations also announced it is filing a federal lawsuit on behalf of Khalil and other students against Columbia University and the U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce over the committee’s request to disclose thousands of student records.

Khalil, who has not been charged with a crime, is currently being held in Louisiana after being detained in New York earlier this week.

His wife, who is 8 months pregnant, said the couple have been preparing for the arrival of their baby.

“Mahmoud has been ripped away from me for no reason at all. I am pleading with the world to continue to speak up against his unjust and horrific detention by the Trump administration,” she said in a statement to ABC News on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump’s administration has alleged that Khalil — who was a leader of the pro-Palestinian encampment protests on Columbia’s campus — was a supporter of Hamas. Baher Azmy, one of Khalil’s lawyers, called his client’s alleged alignment with Hamas “false and preposterous.”

“Setting aside the false and preposterous premise that advocating on behalf of Palestinian human rights and to plead with public officials to stop an ongoing genocide constitutes alignment with Hamas, his speech is absolutely protected by the Constitution, and it should be chilling to everyone that the United States government could punish or try to deport someone because they disapprove of the speech they’re engaged in,” Azmy told ABC News on Monday.

The administration has not provided any evidence showing Khalil’s alleged support for the militant group.

Judge orders thousands of fired probationary federal employees reinstated

March 13, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to reinstate thousands of probationary employees fired last month from a half dozen federal agencies.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup ordered the Trump administration to reinstate employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, the Department of Interior and the Department of Treasury.

He also prohibited the Office of Personnel Management from issuing any guidance about whether employees can be terminated.

Alsup, a Clinton appointee, also ordered the immediate discovery and deposition of Office of Personnel Management senior adviser Noah Peters, who is aligned with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

The judge slammed the attorney representing the Trump Justice Department for refusing to make OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell available for cross examination and for withdrawing his sworn declaration, which the judge called a “sham.”

“The government, I believe, has tried to frustrate the judge’s ability to get at the truth of what happened here, and then set forth sham declarations,” he said. “That’s not the way it works in the U.S. District Court.”

Lawyers representing a group of unions and interest groups asked Alsup to immediately reinstate thousands of probationary government employees who had been terminated allegedly at the direction of Ezell.

“There is a mountain of evidence before the court that OPM directed it. OPM’s actions were unlawful. The plaintiffs have standing, and there is a irreparable harm that is occurring every minute, and it is snowballing,” Danielle Leonard, the plaintiffs’ attorney, said.

Alsup suggested there might be a “need” for an injunction ordering the reinstatement of the employees based on the government’s recent conduct.

“You will not bring the people in here to be cross-examined. You’re afraid to do so, because, you know, cross examination would reveal the truth. This is the U.S. District Court,” he said. “I tend to doubt that you’re telling me the truth.”

If the Trump administration wants to reduce the size of the federal government, they need to follow the process established in federal law, Alsup said.

“The words that I give you today should not be taken as some kind of wild and crazy judge in San Francisco has said that the administration cannot engage in a reduction in force,” he said.

“The reason that OPM wanted to put this ‘based on performance’ was, at least in my judgment, a gimmick to avoid their Reduction in Force Act because the law always allows you to fire somebody for performance,” Alsup said, adding that the employees terminated for “performance” can’t even get unemployment insurance.

The judge also criticized the government for submitting a declaration from Ezell he believed to be false, then withdrew it and made Ezell unavailable for testimony.

“You withdrew his declaration rather than do that. Come on, that’s a sham. It upsets me. I want you to know that I’ve been practicing or serving in this court for over 50 years. And I know how that we get at the truth, and you’re not helping me get to add to the truth. You’re giving me press releases — sham documents,” he said.

While the judge originally suggested the avenue to contest the firings could be administrative, he noted that the Trump administration is attempting to “decimate” and “cannibalize” the Merit Systems Protection Board by firing its head and special counsel Hampton Dellinger.

“I got misled on something that was no jurisdiction,” Alsup said.

The judge also ordered discovery “to get it at the truth because the government is saying one thing, and you’re saying another.”

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