A recent measles outbreak in Texas centered in the western part of the state has topped 500 cases
, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
The outbreak has produced 505 identifiable cases of measles “since late January” and 57 hospitalizations, according to a Tuesday update
.
“There have been two fatalities in school-aged children who lived in the outbreak area. The children were not vaccinated and had no known underlying conditions,” the update reads. “Due to the highly contagious nature of this disease, additional cases are likely to occur in the outbreak area and the surrounding communities.”
“In early March, I deployed a CDC team to bolster local and state capacity for response across multiple Texas regions, supply pharmacies and Texas run clinics with needed MMR vaccines and other medicines and medical supplies, work with local schools and healthcare facilities to support contact investigations, and to reach out to communities, including faith leaders, to answer any questions or respond to locations seeking healthcare,” Kennedy said in his post.
“Since that time, the growth rates for new cases and hospitalizations have flattened. The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine,” he added.
Kennedy has a history of controversial views on health
, notably on vaccines, and founded an anti-vaccine organization. Last month, Kennedy told HHS services staff that a new presidential commission will look at the childhood vaccine schedule as a possible cause
of the U.S.’s epidemic of chronic disease.
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) raised the alarm about Laura Loomer’s influence in the Trump administration following reported firings at the National Security Agency (NSA).
Goldman questioned Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, about why Loomer, a staunch ally of President Trump, was able to be “effectively making decisions about who oversees” the country’s most “sensitive collection agency.”
The Democrat’s questioning came during a House Judiciary Committee hearing and followed the news
that Loomer, a far-right political activist, met with Trump in the White House and brought a list of national security officials who she said couldn’t be trusted.
There was a purge of several officials both in the NSA and the White House’s National Security Council.
Trump called Loomer a “great patriot” but downplayed her final say in the firings, though her involvement in the process was criticized and questioned.
Rep. Don Bacon (Neb.), a moderate Republican, criticized Trump’s decision
to fire NSA director Gen. Timothy Haugh and argued that China and Russia are “laughing at us.”
During the Tuesday hearing, Goldman criticized Loomer’s influence over Haugh’s firing.
“This is the same Laura Loomer who says 9/11 was an inside job, who has openly advocated at a white nationalist conference that she is a white advocate, who said during the campaign that if Kamala Harris, who is half Indian that ‘the White House would smell like curry, and White House speeches will be facilitated by a call center,’” Goldman said.
“Who has said that numerous mass shootings are all hoaxes and conspiracies, who calls herself a proud Islamophobe and perpetuated conspiracy theory about Haitian immigrants in Ohio,” he continued. “And yet, she is given access to the president of the United States to make a national security recommendation.”
Senate Democrats demanded the return of a wrongfully deported Maryland man in a Tuesday letter.
“We write to express our concerns regarding the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, an action which the Administration admitted in a recent court filing was an ‘administrative error,’” reads the letter, addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting Director Todd Lyons.
“It is unacceptable that anyone would be deported without proper due process, especially where an immigration judge has granted the individual protected status that explicitly prohibits his return to El Salvador. We demand that the Administration bring Mr. Abrego Garcia home immediately,” the letter continued.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran and Maryland resident, was mistakenly deported by theTrump administration
, the administration acknowledged last week. Abrego, who was sent to a facility in El Salvador, was protected from removal by a judge in 2019.
Tuesday’s letter was signed by Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).
“Your unwillingness to immediately rectify this ‘administrative error’ is unacceptable,” the senators said in their letter to the Trump administration officials “Under multiple Democratic and Republican administrations, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE followed the rule of law and worked to quickly return people who were wrongfully deported, in the rare instances where such ‘administrative errors’ occurred.”
It added the Trump administration’s “mass deportation agenda does not transcend” the law.
The senators also pressed Lyons and Noem on whether there are other similar cases and asked for how the administration would make certain protected immigrants receive “appropriate due process.”
The Hill has reached out to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
The Keystone oil pipeline was shut down Tuesday morning after a rupture in North Dakota halted the flow from Canada to U.S. refineries.
South Bow, which manages the pipeline, said the pipeline was shut down after a pressure drop was detected by the control center leak detection systems, The Associated Press reported
.
“The affected segment has been isolated, and operations and containment resources have been mobilized to site,” the company said. “Our primary focus right now is the safety of onsite personnel and mitigating the risk to the environment.”
The spill was contained to an agricultural field in the area and no people or structures were impacted, but the cause for the rupture was not immediately known.
Reports said the oil was surfacing 300 yards from the pump station in a field and emergency services responded.
Bill Suess, a spill investigation program manager with North Dakota’s Department of Environmental Quality told the AP that an employee heard a “mechanical bang” and shut down the pipeline within minutes.
He noted that there was a “fairly good volume” spilled but there have been “much, much bigger spills” in the past and he did not think it was going to be “that huge.”
South Bow has managed the pipeline, which was built in 2010, since last year.
There were plans to expand the pipeline, dubbed Keystone XL. But they were dropped by the Biden administration after it drew criticism from environmentalists. President Trump has recently called
for the completion of the controversial pipeline.
Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) criticized Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after she posed with a rifle in Phoenix amid the Trump administration’s deportation crackdown.
“Human traffickers. Drug Smugglers. 18th Street Gang members,” Noem wrote in a post on the social media platform X.
“Spent the morning in Phoenix with our brave @ICEgov and Arizona law enforcement arresting these dirtbags and getting them off our streets.”
Noem also shared a video of her holding a rifle and tactical gear standing alongside two law enforcement officers. The video and post were from a visit to Arizona, Gallego’s homre state.
Gallego, who is a Marine Corps veteran and served in Iraq, criticized Noem
over the way she handled the gun in the video as well as the administration’s continued deportations.
“1. Close your ejection port,” Gallego said, referring to the rifle’s cartridge ejection area.
“2. If you have no rounds in the chamber why do you have a magazine inserted?” Gallego’s post continued.
“3. If you have rounds in the chamber or in the magazine why are you flagging the guy next to you?” he asked, noting that Noem in the video is pointing the barrel of the rifle in the direction of one of the law enforcement officer’s head.
“4. Stop deporting people without due process,” Gallego’s post concluded.
It’s not the first time Noem has received criticism for her posts about deportations. After the Trump administration deported members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, Noem visited the prison
in El Salvador the members were held and recorded a video message.
The Hill has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
Congestion pricing in New York City looks set to remain in place at least until the fall under an agreement on the briefing schedule in a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s move to end the practice.
The letter sent on Friday to the judge overseeing the case from the federal government and the city’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority laid out a proposed schedule for the case that would go throughout the summer and possibly entend into October.
Federal officials have indicated they won’t seek a preliminary injunction to prevent the pricing system, which charges tolls in heavily trafficked parts of the city, from being in effect while the lawsuit proceeds.
The agreement would mark another delay in enforcement of the administration’s move to end congestion pricing. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy had initially set March 21 as the deadline for ending the program before extending
it 30 days to April 20.
New York City and State officials implemented a $9 toll for drivers coming into a portion of Manhattan to curb traffic and reduce air pollution, but Trump rescinded
the Biden-era approval of the plan in February.
The Trump administration has argued that the plan placed unnecessary costs on the working class and small business owners. It has also faced criticism from Democrats in neighboring New Jersey, given the additional costs for some commuters and businesses.
A Siena College poll of New York City residents last month showing 42 percent in support of the program and 35 percent opposed, with 16 percent saying they’re in the middle. That’s a notable improvement from previous polls when a clear majority were against it, before Trump took action to end it.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) has argued that the plan is working, as congestion has dropped, commuters are getting to work faster and many are choosing other ways to travel.
The Associated Press reported
that an initial pretrial conference on the case is set for Wednesday.
The National Park Service has restored references to abolitionist Harriet Tubman to its webpage on the Underground Railroad after initially defending the removal.
“Changes to the Underground Railroad page on the National Park Service’s website were made without approval from NPS leadership nor Department leadership. The webpage was immediately restored to its original content,” a spokesperson for NPS told The Hill.
Over the weekend, the webpage had been changed
to remove a prominent photo of Tubman from the webpage dedicated to the system of trails, rivers and canals used by enslaved Africans to reach freedom.
Tubman’s photo was replaced with a series of commemorative postal stamps of those who escaped or helped others to escape slavery, including Tubman’s stamp.
The webpage’s introduction was also changed to describe the Underground Railroad as “one of the most significant expressions of the American civil rights movement” that “bridged the divides of race.” The phrase “enslaved African Americans” was changed to “enslaved workers,” and in some cases references to slavery were completely removed.
A spokesperson for NPS initially defended the edits in a statement to The Hill.
“We have dozens of pages about Harriet Tubman celebrating and memorializing her impressive role in American history,” the spokesperson said. “The idea that a couple web edits somehow invalidate the National Park Service’s commitment to telling complex and challenging historical narratives is completely false and belies the extensive websites, social media posts, and programs we offer about Harriet Tubman specifically and Black History as a whole.”
The changes came amid a sprawling Trump administration push to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion from federal institutions. And it’s not the first time pages have been restored after public outcry.
The military said it “accidentally” removed webpages
, later restored, dedicated to Jackie Robinson; Colin Powell; Army Maj. Gen. Charles C. Rogers, a Black recipient of the Medal of Honor; the Navajo Code Talkers and Japanese Americans.
Some Democrats and advocates said the removals were intentional, particularly after President Trump’s executive order promising to remove “divisive narratives
” from institutions like the Smithsonian.
“’Sorry’ is meaningful when you don’t have the intention of it happening again,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore recently told The Hill.
“And the problem is, this keeps on happening. It’s much more difficult to give people grace when you understand that there is an intentionality that’s happening around all of this.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a potential nuclear deal with Iran must include the complete destruction of Tehran’s nuclear facilities under U.S. supervision and reiterated that the Islamic republic cannot have a nuclear weapon.
“We agree that Iran must not be allowed to possess nuclear weapons. This can be achieved through an agreement — but only if it is a Libya-style agreement; one where the facilities are entered, dismantled, and destroyed under American supervision and execution — that’s good,” Netanyahu said in a video Tuesday, prior to departure for Israel, referencing the 2003 nuclear disarmament of Libya.
The prime minister said the “second option is that it won’t happen at all, and they will just drag out the negotiations.”
“In that case, the option is military,” he said. “Everyone understands that. We discussed this at length.”
Trump said on Monday, standing alongside Netanyahu, who was at the White House for a meeting, that the U.S. will conduct direct talks with Iran over its nuclear program on Saturday. The talks will happen in Oman.
The president’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, will be leading the U.S. delegation at the upcoming talks, Axios reported
, citing sources familiar with the plan. The Hill has reached out to the National Security Council for comment.
“I think if talks aren’t successful with Iran, I think Iran is going to be in great danger, and I hate to say it, because they can’t have a nuclear weapon. It’s not a complicated formula,” Trump said on Monday.
The president withdrew the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018. The agreement put limits on Iran’s nuclear program, but those critical of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action argued it did not curb Iran’s aggressiveness.
“So we’re going to see if we can avoid it, but it’s getting to be very dangerous territory. And hopefully those talks will be successful. And I think it would be in Iran’s best interests if they are successful, we hope, we hope that’s going to happen,” Trump said.
Comedian Jon Stewart on Monday said that President Trump’s economic policy has the same tagline as the third season of the popular Netflix show “Squid Game.”
Trump said in a post on Truth Social last Friday
that “ONLY THE WEAK WILL FAIL!” amid falling markets and rising economic anxiety following his tariff announcement last week.
“Your economic policy has the same tagline as season three of ‘Squid Game?’” Stewart said on “The Daily Show” in response to the Trump post
, referencing the Souh Korean show in which contestants play
in deadly games to win a huge pot of money. “That’s supposed to make us feel better?”
The White House has displayed no signs of backing away from its implementation of sweeping tariffs. Trump was insistent Monday that the tariffs are required to rebalance trade
and reorient the U.S. economy following years of being taken advantage of.
Trump said Tuesday on his Truth Social platform that there could be a possible trade deal with South Korea, a country he imposed a 25 percent tariff on, on top of a 10 percent baseline import tax
.
“I just had a great call with the Acting President of South Korea. We talked about their tremendous and unsustainable Surplus, Tariffs, Shipbuilding, large scale purchase of U.S. LNG, their joint venture in an Alaska Pipeline, and payment for the big time Military Protection we provide to South Korea,” Trump said on Truth Social.
Trump officials have sent mixed messages over whether the tariffs are a negotiating tactic or whether they are here to stay.
Trump’s tariff policy is even straining his relationship
with congressional Republicans, with seven Republican senators recently signing onto a bill that would make the president notify Congress 48 hours prior to any new tariffs.
“This turmoil could have lasting effects on the global economy, on everyday Americans, and, most worryingly, the stock portfolios of members of Congress,” Stewart said Monday. “Mr. President, now is the time to soothe a worried nation.”
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem issued the first waiver of the administration to speed President Trump’s border wall, bypassing environmental regulations to aid construction.
The waiver will allow for the construction of 2.5 miles of barrier outside of San Diego, California.
“To cut through bureaucratic delays, DHS is waiving environmental laws — including the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) — that can stall vital projects for months or even years. This waiver clears the path for the rapid deployment of physical barriers where they are needed most, reinforcing our commitment to national security and the rule of law,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
The waiver could be the first of many after a Day One executive order from Trump declaring an emergency at the border in order to free funding and speed construction of the wall ignited under his first term in office.
Noem’s move allows for the waiving of more than just NEPA, with Earthjustice citing 29 laws such as the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act that would also require a review of the impacts of construction.
“Waiving environmental, cultural preservation, and good governance laws that protect clean air and clean water, safeguard precious cultural resources, and preserve vibrant ecosystems and biodiversity will only cause further harm to border communities and ecosystems,” Cameron Walkup with Earthjustice said in a statement.
“Rather than rushing to spend tens of billions of dollars to help President Trump build even more wasteful border wall through a budget reconciliation package, Congress should focus on rescinding these waivers and remediating the significant damage that has already been caused by the wall.”
While Trump pushed for a wall along the entirety of the U.S.-Mexico border, little has been constructed.
Critics of the wall say it will do little to help with border security. Portions of existing structures are routinely damaged while drugs such as fentanyl are primarily smuggled into the country by American citizens crossing at ports of entry.
