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Rubio says it’s ‘not our intention’ to uproot USAID workers abroad

February 6, 2025 by WDNY Radio

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told embassy officials in Guatemala this week that it was “not our intention” to uproot families deployed overseas with USAID, despite the agency issuing a 30-day mandate for their return.

“I know it’s hard to ask for patience. I know it’s hard to ask for trust,” Rubio said, according to a partial transcript of his meet-and-greet with embassy staff that was obtained by ABC News.

Rubio, who was tapped to serve as the acting director of the aid agency, also seemed to acknowledge the administration’s haphazard approach to cutting USAID — which handles foreign aid, disaster relief and international development programs — saying it was undertaken “in a manner that we would have preferred to be different, but we’re forced to do because of impediments that we would confront.”

Elon Musk, the head of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, said earlier this week he was “in the process” of “shutting down” the agency with the backing of President Donald Trump, as part of efforts to trim the size of the federal government and eliminate waste.

The Trump administration on Wednesday placed all direct-hire employees at USAID on administrative leave starting Friday, with plans to recall all foreign-based USAID employees back to the U.S. within 30 days.

In the transcript of Rubio’s meeting with Guatemalan embassy staff, he says that the ambassador to Guatemala “handed” him a list of USAID programs in the country that he said “align with our U.S. goals and our interests.” That list was the result of an all-night scramble by staff who were directed to compile it shortly after the secretary arrived in the country, according to an embassy official.

Rubio said that document “gave us the idea that we should ask the same exercise be conducted by every Mission around the world so that intelligent decisions can be made” regarding which programs to keep, before the end of Thursday.

The directive has quickly resulted in pushback from some USAID staff stationed abroad, who say the Thursday deadline set by State Department leadership will be extremely difficult for most posts to meet, and that it may be part of a strategy to avoid lawsuits from agency employees that could slow down its dismantling.

“Absolutely impossible,” one USAID employee told ABC News. “Clearly, the 90-day foreign aid review has been compressed to two days.”

Rubio’s remarks came in response to concerns from Haven Cruz-Hubbard, the USAID mission director for Guatemala, who asked about the administration’s efforts to curb foreign aid. Rubio insisted that “the United States is not walking away from foreign aid. It’s not.”

“I want to tell you that this is not about politics, but foreign aid is the least popular thing Government spends money on,” Rubio said, according to the transcript. “And I spent a lot of time in my career defending it and explaining it, but it’s harder and harder to do across the board — it really is.”

Rubio’s private comments generally reflect what he’s said publicly about the cuts to foreign aid — but his sentiments seemed more sympathetic toward the workers whose careers and livelihoods hang in the balance.

“For those of us in charge of doing the work of foreign policy, we understand [foreign aid] is essential,” he said.

The New York Times was first to report on the partial transcript.

‘Border czar’ Tom Homan threatens military action against Mexican cartels if necessary

February 6, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — “Border czar” Tom Homan said President Donald Trump won’t hesitate to use the U.S. military if Mexican cartels target American troops on the southern border.

“I think the cartels would be foolish to take on the military, but we know they’ve taken on the Mexican military before, but now we have the United States military,” he told ABC News Live on Thursday.

“Do I expect violence to escalate? Absolutely, because the cartels are making record amounts of money,” Homan said, going on to say that they continue to secure the border, “We’re taking money out of their pocket.”

Homan said the troops “need to protect themselves” and that he would send a warning to the cartels if any U.S. soldiers are harmed: “The wrath of President Trump’s going to come down.”

“He has the ability to wipe them off the face of the Earth,” he said.

On his first day in office, Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border, allowing the Department of Defense to deploy armed forces to the region.

He also signed an executive order to designate drug cartels and other criminal organizations as foreign terrorist organizations or specifically designated global terrorists.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has also been conducting raids across the nation to round up undocumented migrants for deportation as part of the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration policies.

The administration has said the first priority in these raids is to target violent criminals.

About three-quarters — 76% — of the 14,000 migrants who have been arrested so far are criminals, Homan told ABC News Live on Thursday.

“Where do the collaterals come? The collateral arrests happen when we’re looking for the bad guy and we find others with them,” he said.

Homan said he doesn’t have a daily quota on arrests of undocumented migrants, saying, “I want to arrest as many as we can arrest.”

“If you’re in the country illegally, you’re not off the table, but you’re not going to be a priority,” he said.

Asked how the administration contends with deporting families back to dangerous countries, Homan responded, “What country is dangerous?”

Many migrants entering the U.S. come from countries such as Haiti and Venezuela, which have the strictest “do not travel” warnings from the State Department due to violence.

“People need to understand what is asylum. Asylum is, you’re escaping fear and persecution from your home government because of race, religion, political affiliation and participation in a specific social group,” he said.

Homan argued there are many “fraudulent” asylum claims that have overwhelmed the system and legitimate asylum-seekers are “sitting in the back seat.”

“What you don’t do to claim asylum is enter the country illegally,” he said. “You go to a port of entry.”

Federal judge issues 2nd preliminary injunction against Trump birthright citizenship order

February 6, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(SEATTLE, Wash.) — A federal judge in Seattle has issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against President Donald Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship — one day after a judge in Maryland also issued a temporary block on the order.

“It has become ever more apparent that to our president, the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals,” Judge John Coughenour said.

“The constitution is not something with which the government may play policy games,” Coughenour added. “The preliminary injunction is granted on a nationwide basis.”

During the hearing, which lasted less than 20 minutes, an attorney representing the state attorneys general argued the preliminary injunction is necessary to protect the plaintiffs in the case.

“When we ratified the 14th Amendment, we rendered a collective judgment and a promise that would guide our nation into the future,” the attorney for the state attorneys general said. “It was a promise that citizenship at birth is beyond the power of the government to take away or destroy. The president and the executive branch cannot alone undo that judgment or that promise.”

Drew Ensign, an attorney for the Department of Justice, called the interpretation of the citizenship clause by the plaintiff “demonstrably and unequivocally incorrect” and argued the citizenship clause applies only “to those in the allegiance and under the protection of the country.” The DOJ has argued that a child born in the United States to a mother without legal status cannot receive citizenship unless his or her father is a citizen or green card holder.

When giving his ruling, Coughenour called birthright citizenship “a fundamental constitutional right.”

“There are moments in the world’s history when people look back and ask, ‘Where were the lawyers, where were the judges?'” Coughenour said. “In these moments, the rule of law becomes especially vulnerable. I refuse to let that beacon go dark today.”

‘What’s going to break?’ DOGE staffers ‘scorching the earth’ as they reshape federal government

February 6, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Before deciding to resign from the Office of Personnel Management, a senior agency official was asked a question by a staffer from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE): “What’s going to break?”

The official, a civil servant serving in a nonpartisan role, who asked that their name not be used, is now one of the tens of thousands of federal workers taking up the “deferred resignation” offer to leave the government.

OPM manages more than $1 trillion in assets and federal retirement, health and life insurance benefits for millions of current and former federal employees and their spouses, along with sensitive data on millions of government employees. It’s now being directed by officials and appointees with links to Musk’s team who have control over its systems, according to sources familiar with its workings.

The agency also helps the government pay its bills: The Treasury Department borrows money from the trust funds OPM manages for employee retirement programs and health benefits under “extraordinary measures” to avoid breaching the debt ceiling. The funds are made whole once Congress acts to suspend or lift the debt ceiling.

OPM is leading efforts directed by President Donald Trump to shrink the federal workforce and could be facing deep cuts of its own, which current and former officials worry could impact its day-to-day business. The agency’s chief financial officer, Erica Roach, was pushed out of her role this week and chose to resign rather than move into another role after being asked to submit 70% cuts to her office, according to multiple sources familiar with the move. And Melvin Brown, who served as OPM’s chief information officer, was replaced on the second day of the Trump administration, sources told ABC News.

“Eighty-five percent of federal workers work outside the D.C. area,” Rob Shriver, the managing director of Democracy Forward’s civil service initiative and the deputy director of OPM under President Biden, told ABC News. “These are VA nurses, they are law enforcement officers. They are people who process Social Security benefit claims, they are people who inspect our food.”

He added, “They deserve to depend on getting their retirement benefits, the health benefits that the American people have promised them. Taking steps to harm that is going to hurt working class and middle-class people.”

Agency veterans worry that removing and reassigning career officials and accountants who manage these systems could lead to potential problems with government payments and systems – and, they say, raise the risk of missed payments or claims.

On Tuesday, OPM released a memo to government agencies recommending that chief information officers be redesignated as “general” roles rather than “career reserved,” a move that could allow for more political appointees to work in roles generally filled by career civil service workers.

“It’s a complex financial ecosystem, with major implications not just for federal employees but the federal government overall,” a source familiar with the agency’s work told ABC News.

A DOGE spokesman did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

Current and former OPM officials told ABC News that Musk’s team includes engineers and aides who have joined him in government from across the private sector. Some of them wear the same “uniform” in the office and have been spotted sleeping overnight in the office building.

Others have refused to identify themselves in conversations with career officials, sources told ABC News.

“They’re scorching the earth,” one former agency official told ABC News, describing Musk’s team. “It’s a different mindset from SpaceX than providing services to the American people.”

“If you’re building an unmanned spaceship and you forget a screw, the ship might crash. You lose money, but no one is hurt,” the former official added. “If you’re delivering services to the American people and you stop financial assistance, that is impacting people.”

An OPM spokesperson declined to comment on internal agency deliberations.

Musk, who is working in the government as a special government employee, campaigned intensely alongside Trump, and vowed to help reshape the government.

Following an executive order signed by Trump directing his efforts, Musk’s team has embedded in agencies across the federal government, gaining access to IT systems and other crucial programs and data at individual departments and agencies, including the Departments of Health and Human Services, Commerce, Veterans Affairs and Transportation.

The Trump administration has effectively shut down the US Agency for International Development, recalling employees in the field and freezing most foreign assistance programs, with the help of Musk’s team and its access to agency systems.

On his social media platform over the weekend, Musk said he discussed the work on USAID with Trump and that the president agreed with “shutting it down.”

“None of this could be done without the full support of the president. And with regard to the USAID stuff, I went over it with him in detail, and he agreed that we should shut it down,” Musk said. “I want to be clear. I actually checked with him a few times, ‘Are you sure?’ Like, yes, so we are shutting it down.”

The White House has repeatedly defended the work of Musk and his team.

“President Trump was an elected with a mandate from the American people to make this government more efficient,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday in a briefing with reporters. “He campaigned across this country with Elon Musk, vowing that Elon was going to head up the Department of Government Efficiency and the two of them with a great team around them. We’re going to look at the receipts of this federal government and ensure its accountable to American taxpayers.”

Percentage of emergency visits related to fire, smoke inhalation rose eightfold after LA wildfires: Report

February 6, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(LOS ANGELES) — The percentage of emergency department (ED) visits related to fire and smoke inhalation rose dramatically in the days immediately after the Los Angeles wildfires last month, new data published Thursday shows.

The wildfires broke out in the Pacific Palisades and in Eaton Canyon on Jan. 7. Although several destructive wildfires emerged, the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire caused the most damage.

Fueled by strong winds and dry weather, the fires burned more than 57,000 acres, destroyed about 16,000 structures, and killed at least 29 people, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

A team from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reviewed data from the county’s Syndromic Surveillance program, which receives and analyzes real-time data from most county EDs.

By collecting this data, the program can detect early warning signals of a potential public health threat that requires a response and alert health care professionals, according to the department of health.

ED visits, referred to in the report as “encounters,” were classified as being wildfire-associated if fire or smoke inhalation–related terms were listed in the chief complaints or the diagnoses sections.

The team looked at three periods: a three-week period before the wildfires began, the first six days of the wildfires and the week after the wildfires began.

Data showed the average percentage of ED visits associated with the wildfires increased eightfold from 0.06% to 0.52% in the six days after the wildfires. The peak was seen on Jan. 8, with 1.01% of all ED visits related to the wildfires.
During the week after the wildfires began, ED visits decreased but still remained elevated at 0.2% compared to baseline.

The average percentage of ED visits was found to be linked to an increase in the average daily Air Quality Index (AQI), which is put out by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Average daily AQI rose from 75, which is classified as “moderate level of concern” to an average of 110, classified as “unhealthy for sensitive groups,” in the six days after the wildfires began. In the week following the outbreak of the fires, average daily AQI returned to “moderate” at 58.

The report found a small increase in the average percentage of burn-related injuries and eye-related injuries but there were no increases seen in the percentage of visits related to asthma or cardiovascular reasons.

In contrast, the report found that immediately after the wildfires began, all-cause ED encounters — meaning visits to the department for any reason — decreased by 9%.

The authors stated that the decrease could for multiple reasons, with some including school closures, business closures, displacements, challenges accessing health care, residents seeking care in clinics or urgent care centers, or residents visiting EDs in neighboring counties.

“Near real-time surveillance of health outcomes during and after wildfires can estimate effects on health care use, serve as an early warning for acute health impacts, and identify opportunities for intervention,” the authors wrote. “Further analyses are planned to identify which illnesses have most affected specific populations.”

‘Combative’ man restrained by fellow passengers on Frontier Airlines flight after breaking window plexiglass

February 6, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(HOUSTON) — A man aboard a Frontier Airlines flight en route to Houston had to be restrained by fellow passengers on Wednesday after he began kicking seats and hitting a window, eventually breaking the plexiglass, police said.

The flight, F9 4856, departed from Denver and was in the air for about 20 to 30 minutes, when a woman asked the man behind her to switch seats, according to passenger Victoria Clark. This man quickly became enraged, profusely kicking the woman’s seat and trying to break the window, Clark said.

“I started having a panic attack,” Clark told ABC News. “[I thought] it could be a terrorist attack.”

The man continued to hit the window and was eventually able to break the plexiglass, passengers said. Without an air marshal on board, flight attendants asked if there was any law enforcement to help, passengers recounted. That’s when Tanner Phillips, a former member of the military, said he stepped in.

“This guy was just going crazy,” Phillips told ABC News. “He was screaming in multiple languages, punching out the window and laying back and trying to kick it out. I wanted to help as much as I could.”

Phillips said he and several others grabbed hold of the man, using zip ties and boot laces to restrain him and put him back in his seat. Instead of making an emergency landing, the flight continued toward its destination of Houston — forcing the group of good Samaritans to ensure the man did not escape for about two hours.

The man’s blood was everywhere around the window and the ceiling of the aircraft, since the plexiglass cut up his hands, Phillips said.

“You never know what someone is capable of,” Phillips said. “I’m really grateful that we were able to handle the situation and no one got harmed.”

Once the plane landed safely in Houston at around 10:20 p.m. local time, Clark said everyone felt an immense sigh of relief.

“People were clapping,” Clark said. “Everyone was saying thank you to all the gentlemen that helped make sure that we got there safely.”

The Houston Police Department said they received a report that there had been a “combative passenger on board,” and were already on the scene by the time the plane had landed.

Frontier Airlines declined to press charges at the scene, and police are reaching out to airport officials to see what happened to the man. Since the man is not currently facing charges, his name was not released, according to police.

Several passengers, including Jessica Brown and her daughter Chloe Starks, hope this incident shows the need for increased security aboard aircrafts, so that something like this does not happen again.

“It’s just insanity. I don’t wish this on my worst enemy,” Brown told ABC News. “I wish in 2025 we would not have situations like this.”

-ABC News’ Lindsey Krill and Jennifer Watts contributed to this report.

4 dead after DOD-contracted aircraft crashes in Philippines

February 6, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — A DOD-contracted aircraft flying an “intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance” mission crashed in the Philippine Province of Maguindanao del Sur, killing all four on board, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said Thursday.

The victims included one U.S. military service member and three defense contractors, according to federal officials.

“The incident occurred during a routine mission in support of U.S.-Philippine security cooperation activities,” U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement, noting that the aircraft was requested by Filipino allies.

The names of the crew are being withheld for at least 24 hours pending next-of-kin notification.

The cause of the crash is under investigation, according to federal officials.

House Republicans meet with Trump to ‘move the ball forward’ on his agenda

February 6, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Speaker Mike Johnson led a cross-section of House Republicans for a trip down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House on Wednesday, where they’re huddling with President Donald Trump to chew over their strategy to advance the president’s ambitious agenda.

“This is part of the process…the America First Agenda. We look forward to furthering that discussion. So, it’s going to be a good meeting,” Johnson, R-La., said before emphasizing the leadership is “working on a one-bill strategy.”

It’s not just elected House GOP leadership attending the meeting, as both conservatives and moderates are expected to join the discussion. Asked about the meeting’s goal, Johnson told reporters that the objective is “to move the ball forward.”

“I think we will,” he said. “We’re at a good place.”

Republicans must pass a budget resolution to unlock a complex process to enact sweeping reforms to taxes, energy, border security and more. But Johnson currently has just a one-vote cushion to pass legislation through the lower chamber, so Republican leaders are cognizant that even a pair of dissenting Republicans could doom their collective efforts.

“We’ve got to work very meticulously with our members to first make sure we have the votes to get a budget passed,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said Wednesday. “We can’t have 22 [Republicans] opposing. We can’t have four opposing. And so we’re working through a lot more detail now on what reconciliation would look like on the front end before we actually get the budget passed.”

Leaving the Capitol Wednesday morning, Scalise boasted that he’s “very confident” Republicans will reach consensus on a budget plan — though he admitted that the meeting today is a “critical step” in the process.

Scalise also raised concerns about the Senate’s evolving approach, which could punt tax reform to a second attempt to overhaul the budget late this year. The No. 2 House Republican explained that delaying tax reform in 2017 undercut the anticipated economic growth at the time.

“You didn’t really get the bounce because it took so long to get the second bill done,” Scalise said. “The President remembers that. You know, it’s one of the reasons we lost the majority. And so do you want to repeat that history, or do you want to do it earlier? You get the benefits earlier, and increase the likelihood that you actually get tax [reform], because the question of whether or not you can even pass a second bill is a real, real, serious concern.”

Senate Budget Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told senators during a closed-door lunch on Wednesday that the Senate will take the reins and begin work to advance its own package next week.

Senate Republicans plan to discuss their two-bill approach with Trump at Mar-A-Lago on Friday.

Judge to consider request to block Trump’s federal government employee buyout

February 6, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(BOSTON) — As more than two million federal employees face a midnight Thursday deadline to accept the Trump administration’s buyout offer, a federal judge in Massachusetts will consider an eleventh-hour request to block the buyout from moving forward.

U.S. District Judge George O’Toole Jr. set Thursday afternoon hearing to consider a request by three federal unions to issue a temporary restraining order that would suspend Thursday’s deadline for the buyout and require the Office of Personnel Management to provide a legal basis for the unprecedented offer, which offers to continue to pay federal employees through Sept. 30, 2025, if they resign by Thursday at 11;59 p.m..

Three unions representing a combined 800,000 federal civil servants argue that the “deferred resignation” offer is unlawful, arbitrary, and would result in a “dangerous one-two punch” to the federal government.

“First, the government will lose expertise in the complex fields and programs that Congress has, by statute, directed the Executive to faithfully implement,” the lawsuit said. “And second, when vacant positions become politicized, as this Administration seeks to do, partisanship is elevated over ability and truth, to the detriment of agency missions and the American people.”

The lawsuit comes as at least 40,000 federal workers — roughly 2% of the civilian federal workforce — have accepted the deferred resignation offer to leave the federal government since last week, ABC News has reported.

The three unions — the American Federation of Government Employees, the National Association of Government Employees, and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — argue that the OPM violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to provide a legal basis for the buyout offer and leaving open the possibility that the government might not follow through with the buyout once federal employees agree to resign.

The lawsuit added that the buyout’s promise of payments through September violates the law because the current appropriation for federal agencies expires in March. Moreover, the buyout is unfair because it was made alongside a threat of future layoffs, the lawsuit said.

The buyout offer, part of DOGE head Elon Musk’s effort to trim the size of government under President Donald Trump, was sent out under the subject line “Fork in the Road” — the same language Musk used when he slashed jobs at Twitter after taking over that company in 2022.

“To leverage employees into accepting the offer and resigning, the Fork Directive threatens employees with eventual job loss in the event that they refuse to resign,” the unions’ lawsuit says.

Overall, the lawsuit alleges that the OPM rushed the offer with a questionable legal basis, largely mimicking Elon Musk’s management style following his takeover of Twitter.

“OPM’s rapid adoption of Musk’s private-sector program confirms that the agency took very little time to consider the suitability of applying an approach used with questionable success in a single for-profit entity to the entirety of the federal workforce,” says the lawsuit.

Internet-connected cameras made in China may be used to spy on US infrastructure: DHS

February 6, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Internet-connected cameras made in China are giving the Chinese government the ability to “conduct espionage or disrupt US critical infrastructure,” according to a Department of Homeland Security bulletin obtained by ABC News.

The cameras typically lack data encryption and security settings and, by default, communicate with their manufacturer. It’s believed there are tens of thousands of Chinese-made cameras on the networks of critical U.S. infrastructure entities, including within the chemical and energy sectors, the bulletin said.

Chinese cyber-operatives have previously exploited internet-connected cameras and the fear is China could gain access and manipulate systems without tighter restrictions on these cameras, the DHS warns.

“A cyber actor could leverage cameras placed on IT networks for initial access and pivot to other devices to exfiltrate sensitive process data that an actor could use for attack planning or disrupting business systems,” the bulletin said. “A cyber actor could use cameras placed on safety systems to suppress alarms, trigger false alarms, or pivot to disable fail-safe mechanisms.”

So far, China has successfully kept U.S. regulators from blocking the use of internet-connected cameras made in China through the use of a practice known as “white labeling,” where the cameras are imported after they’re packaged and sold by another company, according to the bulletin.

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

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