News – Page 756 – 105.7 WDNY

Here are all the agencies that Elon Musk and DOGE have been trying to dismantle so far

February 8, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency group has made swift work of the billionaire’s goal to scale back or dismantle much of the federal government, end diversity policies and otherwise further President Donald Trump’s agenda.

DOGE employees, many of whom have no government experience, have been going through data systems, shutting down DEI programs and in some cases, whole agencies.

The White House and Republicans have claimed, without citing details, that DOGE is accountable to the president and will be kept away from conflicts of interest. Musk, though, according to lawmakers and attorneys representing federal workers, has violated laws, union agreements and civil service protections.

Trump has repeatedly backed Musk.

“Elon is doing a great job, he’s finding tremendous fraud and corruption and waste,” he told reporters Friday.

One DOGE member, Marko Elez, resigned on Feb. 6 amid reports linking him to an account that allegedly posted racist comments.

The next day Musk sent a poll to his X followers asking if the employee should be reinstated and later claimed he would return but did not provide further details. Musk and Vice President J.D. Vance also attacked the female Wall Street Journal reporter who discovered the posts.

Congressional Democrats have staged protests outside affected agencies, tried to enter them but were prevented from doing so by DOGE and Trump officials, and attempted to issue a congressional subpoena for Musk but were blocked by Republicans.

At the same time, opponents have had success fighting Musk’s and DOGE’s moves in the courts, with judges stopping some of DOGE’s orders.

Here is some of what’s known about the DOGE efforts since Trump was sworn in, although there has been little transparency about Musk’s efforts.

Federal government wide

On Jan. 8, the administration sent out buyout offers to over 2 million federal workers, including employees in the CIA.

On Feb. 5, U.S. District Judge George O’Toole Jr. temporarily blocked the offer and extended the deadline to Feb. 10 following lawsuit filed by federal workers’ unions.

NOAA

At least one member of DOGE entered the Department of Commerce — the agency that houses NOAA, the federal agency responsible for forecasting the weather, researching and analyzing climate and weather data and monitoring and tracking extreme weather events like hurricanes. That person was granted access to NOAA’s IT systems, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said on Feb. 5.

DOGE members accessed computer systems to search for staff and data related to diversity programs.

USAID

Musk announced on Feb. 2 that he was going to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is responsible for humanitarian efforts around the globe.

The agency’s website was shut down prior to his announcement, leaving many aid groups and American aid workers abroad in the dark about their programs and future.

A lawsuit was filed on Feb. 6 to prevent the move a day before USAID workers were forced to face being forced from their jobs. A day later Judge Carl J. Nichols, a Trump-nominated federal judge, said announced a temporary restraining order that prevents Trump and the DOGE from placing 2,200 employees on administrative leave.

FAA

The Department of Transportation and Musk announced on Feb. 5 that he had access to Federal Aviation Administration technologies to make “rapid safety upgrades,” the billionaire said on X.

Treasury

The Treasury Department gave Musk and DOGE access to the vast federal payment system responsible for handling trillions of dollars in government expenditures.

However, after three federal unions filed a lawsuit against the move, a federal judge ordered on Feb. 5 that read-only data be given to two DOGE employees.

One of those employees was Elez, who resigned from his post a day later.

On Feb. 8, a New York federal judge granted the states suing over DOGE a temporary restraining order that blocked DOGE from accessing taxpayer records, including the Social Security numbers and bank account information of millions of Americans.

Department of Education

DOGE gained access to the Department of Education, which Trump has vowed to dismantle despite such an action needing congressional approval, according to Democratic leaders.

Senate Democrats said Friday they launched an investigation into reports that DOGE gained access to federal student loan data.

Children, schools face renewed fears over heightened immigration enforcement

February 8, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — In classrooms across the country, children of immigrants are facing heightened fears over news that immigration enforcement officers are now allowed to enter schools, according to educators.

While it’s unclear if immigration raids have actually taken place in schools, the lifting of the prohibition itself by the Trump administration and the highly publicized enforcement activities elsewhere have triggered anxieties in the classroom, educators say.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has not responded to ABC News requests for comment on whether ICE raids have taken place at schools since the implementation of the new policy. However, the end of schoolhouse restrictions on ICE activity and a false alarm incident at a Chicago elementary school has put community members on edge.

The sounds of sirens or a routine lockdown drill can set children on edge, stoking fears about what lies ahead for their families or friends, according to Denise Sheehan, a bilingual teacher in New Mexico.

Sheehan, who works in a school district about 40 minutes from the U.S.-Mexico border, said some students stop coming to school altogether; for others, it’s a challenge for teachers to keep them focused or engaged in the day’s schoolwork when worries hover heavy over the students.

She said that students hear what’s going on in the news – and are racked with questions about raids or documentation, concepts some might not fully understand: “‘Am I going home to an empty house? What’s going to happen to me? Am I going to be here tomorrow? Is my family going to be here tomorrow?’” Sheehan recalled.

The Trump administration has publicized the arrests of thousands of immigrants by federal agents since the president took office, as well as revoking long-standing restrictions that thwarted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from conducting raids on schools and other sensitive areas, such as churches. ICE is now allowed to make arrests in these so-called sensitive areas, but many local officials have made it clear that ICE must have a warrant to enter certain spaces.

In a statement touting the move, the Department of Homeland Security said, “criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest.”

The statement continued, “The Trump administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.”

President Donald Trump made immigration a key focus of his campaign, promising mass deportation efforts targeting the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

However, these fears are not new. In fiscal year 2023, under President Joe Biden, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) conducted 170,590 administrative arrests, representing a 19.5% increase over the previous year, and more than any year of the first Trump presidency.

In the United States, more than 16.7 million people live with at least one undocumented family member – about 6 million of whom are children under the age of 18, according to past estimates from the American Immigration Council. Hundreds of thousands of children in the U.S. are undocumented, according to research from Pew Research Center.

The threat of immigration enforcement has the potential to cause emotional, developmental, or economic challenges for millions of children who live day to day with the anxiety of deportation, according to many sources on the mental health of children impacted by immigration.

“Schools are not places that are open to the public. They’re limited in terms of access and that’s because we want to keep children safe so that they can focus on learning, they can focus on growing and developing and just living their lives as children,” said Nicholas Espíritu, the legal director of the National Immigration Law Center, in an interview.

In an online statement urging educators to know the rights of their students as well as their own, the National Education Association warned that mass immigration enforcement panic “will predictably harm school environments, including by causing increased absences, decreased student achievement, and parental disengagement.”

One study from Children found that there are higher rates of depression, anxiety, social isolation, stress, and aggression in children who live with an undocumented person or have a parent who has been deported.

Deportations and detention efforts send further shockwaves through immigrant communities, and “serve only to complete the trauma” facing undocumented communities, another study states.

Schools – once unauthorized targets for ICE – now play a central role in how children will face the potential threat. Some local officials have said they will “welcome” ICE agents into their schools, while others have urged the community to learn their rights ahead of any ICE encounters in school.

“Silence is not OK,” said Sheehan, a representative on the National Education Association Board of Directors, who has been collaborating with her fellow educators on how to respond ahead of any ICE activity in her schools. “During these times, we need to continue to inform our educators. We need to make sure that everybody’s aware of the resources that our district offers, and make sure that there’s a plan.”

From schools, to churches, to supermarkets, there is an absence of familiar faces, as community members say that some residents are staying out of sight for fear of law and immigration enforcement efforts.

“These are churchgoers. These are hardworking individuals. These are the parents of your children’s best friend at school, right? These are individuals that are living in fear,” immigration attorney Ana Alicia Huerta, granddaughter of famed labor rights leader Dolores Huerta, told ABC News.

For the past month, California resident Adriana, who asked to be identified by only her first name for privacy reasons, has been delivering food to families too scared to leave their homes. Walking to her car with a box of donated food, she describes meeting families with little ones who are scared of what is to come.

“Their kids – some of them, they have babies,” said Adriana. “They can’t go out and buy diapers, baby formula. They’re scared to come out.”

For Adriana, the decision to help the families is not about legal status: “It’s about humanity. It’s about our community. Sometimes you see faces, you see you’re not thinking, ‘Oh, this person is legal.’ ‘Oh, this person is not.’”

How environmental groups are battling the 1st actions of the Trump administration

February 8, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Environmental nonprofits are gearing up to challenge some of the actions President Donald Trump has issued since taking office.

There is litigation coming for the majority of the executive orders Trump has signed so far that affect the environment, conservation and decarbonizing the economy, several nonprofits told ABC News.

Environmental lawyers are also on standby for any directives issued in the future that could violate existing environmental laws, according to several sources familiar with the lawsuits already being prepared against the Trump administration.

The White House did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

How environmental groups are responding to Trump’s executive orders

Trump began his second term as president by signing a slew of executive actions, including an order that attempts to revoke action taken by President Joe Biden in the last weeks of his term to ban all future offshore oil and natural gas drilling on America’s East and West coasts, the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s North Bering Sea.

While Trump immediately vowed to reverse the ban when it was signed on Jan. 6, that could prove difficult. The law Biden invoked, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, was written so a presidential action under its authority is permanent — providing legal precedent to ensure it stands, several environmental lawyers told ABC News, describing Trump’s move as illegal.

“We’ll see them in court at some point,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “I think we will prevail on this.”

Trump’s vow to revoke the ban is an attempt to fulfill his campaign promise to increase fossil fuel production, Sam Sankar, senior vice president at Earthjustice, the nation’s largest public interest environmental law firm, told ABC News.

In doing so, he is ignoring a large swath of U.S. coastline communities who would prefer for drilling to decrease, said Joanne Spalding, director of the environmental law program at the Sierra Club.

“People in Florida don’t want drilling. People in California don’t want drilling,” Spalding told ABC News. “There’s lots of places where people are not interested in having that activity on their coastlines.”

Existing environmental laws could also serve as roadblocks as Trump aims to increase the amount of federal land that will be subject to drilling, the experts said.

Separately, groups criticized Trump’s planned 10-to-1 deregulatory freeze, which would require the federal government to repeal 10 existing rules, regulations or guidance documents in order to adopt a new one, as “completely arbitrary,” Spalding said.

That order is “almost verbatim” to a two-for-one deregulatory freeze issued in 2017 that “never amounted to anything,” Hartl said.

“A lot of what we’ve seen, even in the first two weeks, have been almost just copy-and-paste activities from executive orders that we saw in the first Trump administration,” he said.

What worries conservation nonprofits the most

The potential dismantling of several federal agencies that conduct important work for conservation is a concern for environmental groups.

The Office of Management and Budget Office’s move to suspend federal financial aid programs could be a warning sign for federal agencies that conduct environmental work that does not align with Trump’s agenda, Hartl said.

“Right now, the biggest threat to the environment is Trump’s across-the-board attempt to simply dismantle the federal government,” he said.

In addition, the presence of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and DOGE head Elon Musk’s buyout offer to millions of federal employees could severely disrupt the conservation work of several agencies, he added.

“If you don’t have people working at the EPA, it’s pretty hard to keep the air clean, the water clean,” Hartl said. “If you don’t have folks working at the National Park Service, how are you going to run your national parks? How are you going to protect endangered wildlife?”

In addition, the potential defunding of the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Act — both by enacted by Biden — poses serious setbacks for decarbonizing the country’s economy and moving toward a net-zero economy by 2050, environmental advocates said. Both are “the most important pieces of legislation ever in addressing global climate change,” Spalding said.

As part of his executive actions, Trump temporarily suspended the disbursement of funds from the IRA. Sankar said that has worried NGOs because the money is intended to advance the development of a clean energy economy as well as improve public health and support communities that bore the brunt of the impact of the fossil fuel economy.

“We are looking at and developing lawsuits aimed at ensuring that the money flows to the intended recipients,” he said.

Several lawsuits challenging the authority of DOGE are also being prepared, according to the groups.

Lessons learned from the 1st Trump administration

Many of Trump’s declarations are relatively symbolic or declare an intention but don’t necessarily constitute any actual action, environmental law experts said.

“Trump likes just holding up his signature, and that’s the main reason we we see him doing these flurry of executive orders,” Hartl said, adding that a lot of Trump’s actions were not effective during the first term.

Along with the executive orders comes rumor and speculation about what they actually can achieve, which makes it difficult for nonprofits to take immediate action, Sankar said.

Because of this, environmental groups may be more selective this time around about which executive actions they actually decide to take to court — especially since nonprofits don’t have endless resources to challenge every order, Spalding said.

“We’re always very choosy about our litigation to make sure that we have the best claims with the clients who are most clearly affected,” Sankar said.

This time around, environmental lawyers will be more savvy about responses, Spalding said.

“We’ll continue to focus on those priorities and make sure that we’re engaged every step of the way during the regulatory rollback process,” she said.

Transgender, nonbinary people sue Trump administration over passport policy

February 8, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Seven people have filed a federal lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring that the U.S. government would only recognize a person’s sex assigned at birth on government-issued documents.

The complaint, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, accuses the State Department of rejecting some applications from transgender citizens or issuing documents with their sex assigned at birth. The lawsuit also accused the department of holding some passports and other documents submitted by transgender and nonbinary people.

“I’ve lived virtually my entire adult life as a man. Everyone in my personal and professional life knows me as a man, and any stranger on the street who encountered me would view me as a man,” said Massachusetts resident and plaintiff Reid Solomon-Lane in a statement provided by the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the lawsuit.

“I thought that 18 years after transitioning, I would be able to live my life in safety and ease,” Solomon-Lane added. “Now, as a married father of three, Trump’s executive order and the ensuing passport policy have threatened that life of safety and ease. If my passport were to reflect a sex designation that is inconsistent with who I am, I would be forcibly outed every time I used my passport for travel or identification, causing potential risk to my safety and my family’s safety.”

The lawsuit lists seven plaintiffs. In a news release, the ACLU said more than 1,500 transgender people or their family members have contacted the organization concerned about not being able to get passports that reflect their identity

ABC News has reached out to the State Department for comment on the lawsuit.

Trump’s executive order, signed his first day in office, legally declared that there are only “two sexes, male and female” and defined a “female” as “a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell.” The order defined “male” as “a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell.”

The executive order stated: “Invalidating the true and biological category of ‘woman’ improperly transforms laws and policies designed to protect sex-based opportunities into laws and policies that undermine them, replacing longstanding, cherished legal rights and values with an identity-based, inchoate social concept.”

The move was criticized by some medical and legal advocates, who argued the executive order rejected the reality of sexual and gender diversity.

In 2021, the State Department relaxed its rules, allowing applicants to self-identify as either “M” or “F” without needing medical certification or additional documentation to do so. Shortly after, the agency began issuing “X” gender markers for intersex or nonbinary residents.

In states across the country, some residents are allowed to self-select or change the gender or sex on their birth certificates and driver’s licenses.

Cancer research group calls on Trump administration to restore data access

February 8, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Medical groups are expressing deep concern about the sudden removal or alteration of government data sets and webpages from agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) at the behest of President Donald Trump’s administration.

The American Cancer Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating the disease, called on the administration to “restore access to comprehensive data, refrain from changes that would lead to incomplete future data collection and commit to ensure evidence-based science can proceed without additional bureaucracy or red tape” in a statement published on its website on Thursday.

“Any restriction to gather and release these data could thwart our ability to address and reduce the cancer burden across all communities,” interim CEO Dr. Wayne A. I. Frederick said in the statement.

The organization highlighted the removal of the Social Vulnerability Index, which uses U.S. census data to identify county-level risk and vulnerability factors facing communities, taking into account poverty, race, disability, housing and more, according to the CDC.

“Data from public sources like the Social Vulnerability Index are key to deploying the right resources to those who could benefit the most,” the group said. “Therefore, any barriers to accessing these data can also have repercussions on planning and deployment of support services for cancer patients and survivors.”

The Trump administration transition team didn’t immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

Across the federal government, webpages and datasets were removed or altered following Trump’s executive orders on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and transgender identities called for an “end” to any related policies within the federal government.

Webpages about HIV, LGBTQ+ people and multiple other public health topics were taken down. Some of the terms being flagged for removal include pregnant people, chestfeeding, diversity, DEI and references to vaccines, health and gender equity, according to officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who spoke to ABC News on the condition of anonymity.

Several data tools were also removed or modified, according to Frederick.

Frederick said data collected by a plethora of federal and state agencies play a key role in many of the organization’s reports and publications, including the agency’s “Cancer Statistics, 2025” report and its companion, the “Cancer Facts and Figures” report.

The organization’s reports provide up-to-date trends on cancer occurrence, survival, symptoms, prevention, early detection and treatment, Frederick said.

“ACS develops guidelines for cancer screening and prevention, informed by the latest available data and evidence, to meet the needs of clinicians, the general public, and policy,” he said. “We are very concerned that the changes in data collection and dissemination have the potential to impact these efforts in the future.”

The organization is concerned about how the scope and impact of data removal and potential long-term changes to data collection will impact its research capabilities.

The ACS warning came just days after the medical nonprofit group Doctors For America filed a lawsuit against several Trump administration agencies over its sudden removal of health information from multiple government websites.

The suit targets the Office of Personnel Management and the Department of Health and Human Services (which controls the CDC and FDA), asking a federal court in Washington, D.C. to order the government to restore the webpages and datasets.

ABC News has reached out to the agencies for comment.

In a statement to ABC News, the CDC confirmed that changes “to the HHS website and HHS division websites are in accordance with President Trump’s January 20 Executive Orders, Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government and Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing.”

The Office of Personnel Management provided guidance on both executive orders, prompting HHS and divisions to respond accordingly, the spokesperson stated.

In a separate emailed statement to ABC News, the CDC’s SVI coordinator also attributed the online restrictions to the HHS “pause on mass communications and public appearances that are not directly related to emergencies or critical to preserving health.”

It said the pause will be brief, “to allow the new team to set up a process for review and prioritization.”

In the lawsuit, Doctors for America expressed concerns that the lack of data “creates a dangerous gap in the scientific data available to monitor and respond to disease outbreaks, deprives physicians of resources that guide clinical practice, and takes away key resources for communicating and engaging with patients.”

Asked last Friday afternoon if government websites would be shut down to be scrubbed, the president said it wouldn’t be a “bad idea.”

“DEI … would have ruined our country, and now it’s dead. I think DEI is dead,” Trump said. “So, if they want to scrub the website, that’s OK with me. But I can’t tell you.”

ABC News’ Youri Benadjaoud and Peter Charalambous contributed to this report.

Judge blocks Trump administration from placing 2,200 USAID employees on leave at midnight

February 8, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from orchestrating its plan to place 2,200 employees of the United States Agency for International Development on leave at midnight.

In an order late Friday, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols — a Trump appointee — issued a temporary restraining that prevents Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency from placing the employees on administrative leave as had been planned. The judge also ordered the reinstatement of some 500 USAID workers who had already been put on administrative leave and ordered that no USAID employees should be evacuated from their host countries before Feb. 14 at 11:59 p.m.

The judge’s order came several hours after a hearing Friday afternoon during which Nichols said he would issue the temporary restraining order.

Two foreign service unions had sued the federal government amid the Trump administration’s attempts to reduce USAID’s workforce from 14,000 to only 300 employees as part of its efforts to slash government spending.

Earlier Nichols had said the order would prevent the “accelerated removal” of USAID employees from their posts overseas.

“This is about how employees are harmed in their capacity as employees — in the employee/employer relationship — and it seems to me that, for reasons I will discuss in this order, that I will enter there, the plaintiffs have established at least that there is irreparable harm as it relates to that relationship,” Nichols said at the hearing.

Lawyers from the Department of Justice acknowledged that 500 employees from USAID have already been placed on leave, with 2,000 more set to go on leave at midnight.

Acting assistant attorney Brett Shumate told the judge the layoffs were necessary because “the president has decided there was corruption and fraud at USAID.”

“He doesn’t have to justify to the plaintiffs and the court how he exercises his foreign affairs,” Shumate argued. “The president has determined, in his view, significant serious action needs to be taken tonight to prevent taxpayer funds from being sent outside the United States, used for purposes that he doesn’t think are appropriate.”

The American Foreign Service Organization and the American Federation of Government Employees filed the lawsuit in D.C. federal court Thursday, alleging that Trump engaged in a series of “unconstitutional and illegal actions” to systematically destroy USAID.

“Children are being pulled out of school during the middle of the school year at developmentally fragile time periods,” plaintiffs’ attorneys told the judge Friday. “People are being cut off from their access to health care without being able to make arrangements for new health care providers when they have serious health conditions. People are being asked to go back to the United States where they may not have housing they don’t have a home to come back to, and they’re being asked to do that with no source of income or in prospects.”

These actions have generated a global humanitarian crisis by abruptly halting the crucial work of USAID employees, grantees, and contractors. They have cost thousands of American jobs. And they have imperiled U.S. national security interests,” the lawsuit said.

The plaintiffs said Trump has unilaterally attempted to reduce the agency without congressional authorization, arguing that Congress is the only entity with the authority to dismantle USAID.

The lawsuit reads like a timeline of the last two weeks, laying out each step that formed the groundwork to break USAID, beginning with Trump’s first day in office. Shortly after Trump froze foreign aid via an executive order on his first day, he began to target USAID by ordering his State Department to begin issuing stop work orders, the lawsuit said.

“USAID grantees and contractors reeled as they were — without any notice or process — constrained from carrying out their work alleviating poverty, disease, and humanitarian crises,” the lawsuit said.

Next came the layoffs, the lawsuit alleges, with thousands of contractors and employees of USAID losing their jobs, leading medical clinics, soup kitchens, and refugee assistance programs across the world to be brought “to an immediate halt.”

“The humanitarian consequences of defendants’ actions have already been catastrophic,” the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit alleges the Department of Government Efficiency and Elon Musk — who boasted about “feeding USAID into the woodchipper” — made the final move to gut the agency, locking thousands of employees out of their computers and accessing classified material improperly.

While each step to dismantle the organization differed, the lawsuit alleged that they were unified by one thing: “Not a single one of defendants’ actions to dismantle USAID were taken pursuant to congressional authorization.”

The plaintiffs have asked the court to declare Trump’s actions unlawful and issue an order requiring the Trump administration to “cease actions to shut down USAID’s operations in a manner not authorized by Congress.”

JFK assassination files one step closer to possible public release

February 8, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The decades-long wait for the release of the government’s secret files on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy could be nearing an end, with word from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) that a plan to make the documents public has been delivered to the White House under an order from President Trump.

“In accordance with the President’s executive order, ODNI submitted its plan to the White House,” a spokesperson for the office said in a Friday afternoon statement to ABC News.

However, it remains unclear how soon thousands of assassination-related documents will actually be declassified. The executive order the president signed last month required only the delivery of a plan by Friday’s deadline “for the full and complete release of records relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.”

Researchers and authors have expressed the hope that a national security establishment that has historically insisted on secrecy and dragged its heels for years on such requests from others would be spurred to fast action by Trump. But skepticism lingers among experts that any classified materials will be swiftly unredacted by officials at the CIA, FBI and other agencies.

“They face harder choices than Trump knew when he made this breezy proclamation,” author Jefferson Morley, founder of the website jfkfacts.org, told ABC News Friday. “How serious [Trump] was is going to be tested.”

Morley and other experts are particularly interested in having unfettered access to CIA documents regarding surveillance the spy agency conducted on Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Kennedy’s killing. The CIA first opened a file on Oswald following his attempted defection to the Soviet Union in 1959. In the months prior to the assassination, the agency tracked his visit to Mexico City, where he attempted to obtain a visa to travel to Cuba.

“If the Trump order is seriously implemented, we would get those files,” Morley said.

Congress voted in 1992 to have all of the government’s assassination-related documents declassified by 2017, a deadline that has been repeatedly extended by presidents Trump and Biden due to concerns raised by the national security agencies. Ongoing classification was necessary, they argued, to protect the names of agency employees, intelligence assets, sources and methods still in use by U.S. spies, as well as “still-classified covert action programs still in effect,” per a December 2022 CIA memo to the White House.

President Trump’s Jan. 23 order said he has determined that redactions are no longer “consistent with the public interest” and that “the release of these records is long overdue.”

Trump in that same order also requested a plan for the release of classified records related to the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, with a deadline of early March.

The National Archives, which holds custody of the assassination-related records, said in a statement to ABC News Friday that it “looks forward to implementing the President’s direction in partnership with our agency partners.”

Hamas releases 3 more Israeli hostages in exchange for 183 Palestinian prisoners

February 8, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — Hamas militants freed three more Israeli hostages on Saturday in exchange for Israel releasing another 183 Palestinian prisoners as part of the ceasefire agreement between the warring sides.

The latest round of the hostage release took place in the city of Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday morning. Two Red Cross officials took part in a signing ceremony with a Hamas commander on a stage prior to the handover. A banner could be seen on the stage that read in Arabic “We are the flood … We are the day after” and another banner with the words in Hebrew “Absolute victory” alongside an image of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s face.

The three Israeli hostages — Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi and Or Levi — were then escorted one-by-one out of vehicles by Hamas militants and brought onto the stage. All three appeared very thin and weak but able to walk and stand.

Hamas militants eventually escorted the hostages off the stage and into three Red Cross vehicles, which slowly drove away through the crowd of people. Meanwhile, the hostages’ families watched the events unravel on a television in southern Israel and they were seen crying at the sight of their loved ones.

“According to information communicated by the Red Cross, three hostages were transferred to them, and they are on their way to IDF and ISA forces in the Gaza Strip,” a joint statement from the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Security Agency read following their departure.

The Red Cross later handed over the three newly-released hostages to IDF and ISA forces in Gaza before they crossed into southern Israel, where they underwent an initial medical assessment as their families waited for them at a hospital.

“Three returning hostages are currently being accompanied by IDF special forces and ISA forces on their return to Israeli territory, where they will undergo an initial medical assessment,” the IDF and ISA said in another joint statement. “The commanders and soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces salute and embrace the returning hostages as they make their way home to the State of Israel. The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit asks everyone to respect the privacy of the returning hostages and their families.”

As images of the newly released hostages surfaced, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement saying Netanyahu, who remained in the United States after an official visit to the White House in Washington D.C., “has instructed to not allow the situation to go unaddressed, and to take appropriate measures” because of “the serious condition of the three hostages and the repeated violations by the Hamas terrorist organization.”

In exchange for the three freed hostages, Israel released another 183 Palestinians from its prisons across the country — 72 were transferred to Ramallah and Jerusalem and 111 were transferred to Khan Yunis in southern Gaza Strip. Some of those released appeared frail, including an elderly man on an oxygen tank who had to be carried off one of the buses that arrived in Ramallah.

At least seven of the 72 Palestinian prisoners released in Ramallah and Jerusalem on Saturday were immediately transferred to a hospital, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society. Their conditions were unknown. All 111 of the Palestinian prisoners released in Gaza on Saturday were taken to the European Hospital near Khan Yunis for medical evaluation. Their conditions were also unknown.

ABC News’ Nasser Atta, Jordana Miller, Dana Savir and Samy Zyara contributed to this report.

Quiksilver, Billabong and Volcom stores are closing in the US in 2025

February 8, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Quiksilver, Billabong, and Volcom, known for their surf and skate products, are closing stores in the United States.

The parent company of the brick-and-mortar stores, Liberated Brands, filed voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sunday, which will result in over 100 retail locations across the country being shuttered, according to a filing.

The company attributes its financial difficulties to several factors, including inflation demands as well as a significant change in consumer spending habits.

ABC News has reached out to Liberated Brands for comment but has not yet received a response.

“The Liberated team has worked tirelessly over the last year to propel these iconic brands forward, but a volatile global economy, consumer spending changes amid a rising cost of living, and inflationary pressures have all taken a heavy toll,” Liberated Brands said in a statement, according to Financier Worldwide.

The statement continued, “Despite this difficult change, we are encouraged that many of our talented associates have found new opportunities with other license holders that will carry these great brands into the future.”

The brands themselves are expected to continue under new management, the company said in a statement.

The announcement of these store closings follows other huge department stores such as Macy’s, Kohl’s and more that are also closing their doors at locations throughout the U.S.

In January, Macy’s announced the closure of 66 Macy’s non-go-forward store locations. Macy’s said it intended to close almost 150 underproductive stores in total over a three-year period.

These closures are a part of the Bold New Chapter strategy, which was announced in February 2024, with the goal of returning “the company to sustainable, profitable sales growth,” the company said.

Kohl’s also announced last month that it would be shuttering 27 underperforming stores and all would occur by April.

“As we continue to build on our long-term growth strategy, it is important that we also take difficult but necessary actions to support the health and future of our business for our customers and our teams,” said Tom Kingsbury, Kohl’s chief executive officer, in a statement.

Security camera captures man attacking priest during church service

February 7, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(SPOKANE, Wash.) –A 40-year-old man attacked a priest during a church service in Spokane, Washington, on Tuesday night, according to officials.

Around 350 to 400 people had gathered at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes in downtown Spokane on Tuesday for the second night of novena, a tradition of gathering for prayer for nine days or nine weeks, when the man, identified as Joshua James Sommers, allegedly attacked the priest.

Security camera footage shows Sommers leaving his pew, rushing up to the altar near the end of the service and attempting to strike Rev. David Gaines in the face. Gaines was able to pin down Sommers, with other staff and churchgoers running up to help.

In the footage, Sommers lets out screams, and Gaines continues to say, “It’s OK, just calm down.”

Security guards quickly came to assist, and the Spokane Police Department was also notified immediately of the incident, according to the church. Gaines was not harmed in the attack.

Father Darrin Connall, who was kneeling at the altar when the attack occurred, told ABC News the church has not seen “anything quite this serious.”

“All of us were pretty shaken,” Connall said. “You don’t expect to see something like that when you’re gathering together to pray and worship.”

Once Sommers was escorted out by police, Connall said the entire group stopped the service and prayed for him.

“Whatever demons he was struggling with needed to be healed,” Connall said.

Sommers was arrested on misdemeanor assault charges, and also has a previous record of harming others. In 2023, Sommers was charged with third-degree assault after attacking an employee at a mental health facility. Sommers, who was a patient at this facility, allegedly punched the employee multiple times and stole their keys to try and escape, according to the affidavit on those charges.

Sommers appeared in court Wednesday on assault charges, along with the outstanding warrant from his previous assault. He will return to court later this month and remains behind bars.

ABC News’ Irving Last and Jennifer Watts contributed to this report.

+ More