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Interior Department adopts no-tolerance policy for homeless encampments in Washington, DC
The U.S. Department of the Interior announced Saturday it was adopting a no-tolerance policy for homeless encampments in support of the Trump administration's "beautification" efforts in Washington, D.C. The previous encampment policy suggested homelessness should be "rare, brief and non-recurring," according to the District of Columbia website. It noted the protocol for cleaning public spaces was only triggered when a site presented a security, health or safety risk or if it interfered with community use. "With this in mind, we provide resources to shelter, pathways to housing and access to behavioral health services to individuals at these locations," officials wrote on the website. Top Trump Official Vows To End 'Cycle Of Government Dependency' In Homeless Crackdown White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday those living in homeless encampments will need to either accept treatment at a homeless shelter or go to jail if they refuse. Read On The Fox News App The U.S. Park Police have already removed 70 homeless encampments in D.C., with only a few remaining, Leavitt said. The remaining two sites were expected to be cleared this week by multi-agency teams, including the FBI, Secret Service and D.C. police. Watch: Dc Homeless Weigh In On Trump Cleaning Up City Streets Interior Secretary Doug Burgum also announced other interior policy modifications for criminal activity. Burgum noted that anyone who damages federal property will be "prosecut[ed] to the fullest extent," though it is unclear what the former policy was. Homeless People In Dc Have 2 Choices As Trump Admin Cracks Down He added that U.S. Park Police public information officers (PIO) will be more hands-on, with the ability to pursue fleeing criminals under specified circumstances. Burgum did not specify what led to the PIO policy change. The Department of the Interior did not immediately respond to inquiries from Fox News Digital. Fox News Digital's Anders Hagstrom contributed to this article source: Interior Department adopts no-tolerance policy for homeless encampments in Washington, DC Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
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West Virginia to deploy hundreds of National Guard troops to D.C.
Hundreds of West Virginia National Guard members will deploy across the nation's capital as part of the Trump administration's effort to overhaul policing in the District of Columbia through a federal crackdown on crime and homelessness. The move comes as federal agents and National Guard troops have begun to appear across the heavily Democratic city after President Trump's executive order on Monday, federalizing local police forces and activating about 800 D.C. National Guard troops. Republican West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced Saturday that he was sending a contingent of 300 to 400 members. "West Virginia is proud to stand with President Trump in his effort to restore pride and beauty to our nation's capital," Morrisey said. By adding outside troops to join the existing National Guard deployment and federal law enforcement officers temporarily assigned to Washington, Mr. Trump is exercising even tighter control over the city. It's a power play that the president has justified as an emergency response to crime and homelessness, even though district officials have noted that violent crime is lower than it was during Trump's first term in office. A White House official told CBS News Saturday that National Guard members deployed to D.C. "may be armed," but that they would not make arrests. This was a reversal from earlier in the week, when a Defense Department official told CBS News that deployed Guard members would not be armed at the request of local law enforcement partners. The official also said at the time they would not have weapons in their vehicles. "The National Guard is not making arrests at this time – they may be armed, consistent with their mission and training, to protect federal assets, provide a safe environment for law enforcement officers to make arrests, and deter violent crime with a visible law enforcement presence," the White House official said Saturday. A protest against Mr. Trump's intervention drew scores to Dupont Circle on Saturday afternoon before a march to the White House, about 1.5 miles away. Demonstrators assembled behind a banner that said "No fascist takeover of D.C.," and some in the crowd held signs that said "No military occupation." Mr. Trump was at his Virginia golf club after Friday's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. The West Virginia activation also suggests the administration sees the need for additional manpower after the president personally played down the need for Washington to hire more police officers. Maj. Gen. James Seward, West Virginia's adjutant general, said in a statement that members of the state's National Guard "stand ready to support our partners in the National Capital Region" and that the Guard's "unique capabilities and preparedness make it an invaluable partner in this important undertaking." Federal agents have appeared in some of the city's most highly trafficked neighborhoods, garnering a mix of praise, pushback and alarm from local residents and leaders across the country. City leaders, who are obliged to cooperate with the president's order under the federal laws that direct the district's local governance, have sought to work with the administration, though they have bristled at the scope of the president's takeover. On Friday, the administration reversed course on an order that aimed to place the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration as an "emergency police commissioner" after the district's top lawyer sued to contest. After a court hearing, Attorney General Pam Bond issued a memo that directed the Metropolitan Police Department to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement regardless of any city law. District officials say they are evaluating how to best comply. In his order on Monday, Mr. Trump declared an emergency due to the "city government's failure to maintain public order." He said that impeded the "federal government's ability to operate efficiently to address the nation's broader interests without fear of our workers being subjected to rampant violence." In a letter to city residents, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, wrote that "our limited self-government has never faced the type of test we are facing right now." She added that if Washingtonians stick together, "we will show the entire nation what it looks like to fight for American democracy — even when we don't have full access to it." Air Canada flight attendants' strike grounds hundreds of planes West Virginia sending National Guard troops to D.C. at Trump's request War-weary Ukrainians desperate for a ceasefire Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
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Can the Kennedy Center be renamed for the Trumps?
House Republicans raised a question last week when they advanced an amendment to a spending bill that would change the name of the Kennedy Center's Opera House to the 'First Lady Melania Trump Opera House.' Who has the power to rename part of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — or all of it? Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of the center's namesake, doesn't think anyone can. He posted on Instagram a screenshot from Grok, the AI chatbot integrated with X, which read: 'No, Trump cannot unilaterally rename the Kennedy Center's Opera House after Melania Trump. A Republican-led House panel advanced such a proposal in a spending bill, but JFK's grandson Jack Schlossberg argues it violates federal law (Public Law 88-260), which bans additional memorials in the Center. If passed, it could face legal challenges.' The federal statute to which he refers says that 'the Board shall assure that after December 2, 1983, no additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials shall be designated or installed in the public areas of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.' House Republicans on the Appropriations Committee, though, are not the board of trustees. 'This is an excellent way to recognize [Melania Trump's] support and commitment to promoting the arts,' said Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), whose amendment to a spending bill passed by a vote of 33-25 last Tuesday and should eventually make its way to the House floor. Then, in a further twist on Wednesday, another Republican House member introduced a separate bill that would rename the entire Kennedy Center after President Donald Trump. So, can they? The key fact, according to David Super, a Georgetown law professor, is who is doing the renaming. The Kennedy Center's board of trustees, which makes most of the major decisions regarding the organization and of which Trump is chair, does not have the power to change the name of any part of the center, nor to create any new memorials, in accordance with the aforementioned statute. (The Kennedy Center did not respond to a request for comment.) 'Under current law, there I think is very little question that the Kennedy Center board cannot rename the Opera House after Melania Trump or pretty much anybody else and would need Congress's permission for anything like that,' Super said. '… That statute is pretty unequivocal, and I can't really find any loopholes in it that would allow this to happen. So I assume that's why they're pushing legislation rather than sending letters to the board or whatever.' But the board isn't the one trying to change anything. House Republicans are. 'If they can pass that legislation, then they can do it,' Super said. Of course, Super said, that 'would need 60 votes in the U.S. Senate, and I would be shocked if they could find seven Democratic senators that would vote to name an opera house after the wife of someone who has been cutting arts funding.' Which might be one reason the proposed change is part of an amendment on a spending bill. Then there's the second proposal. A semiserious joke has circulated among the Kennedy Center's staff since Trump took it over in February: How long will it take for it to become the Trump Center? At least one House Republican isn't content to start small with a mere opera house. Rep. Bob Onder (R-Missouri) last week introduced a bill that he calls the Make Entertainment Great Again Act, or Mega Act, which would designate the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts the 'Donald J. Trump Center for the Performing Arts.' 'I cannot think of a more ubiquitous symbol of American exceptionalism in the arts, entertainment, and popular culture at large than President Trump!' Onder wrote on X. Though Trump did not attend a performance at the center during his first presidential term, he recently hosted a fundraiser for the Kennedy Center during a performance of 'Les Misérables' there. He has appointed a confidant, Richard Grenell, as president and tasked him with overhauling its operations. 'This is insane,' Maria Shriver, a niece of Kennedy, wrote on X about the proposal. 'It makes my blood boil. It's so ridiculous, so petty, so small minded. Truly, what is this about? It's always about something. 'Let's get rid of the Rose Garden. Let's rename the Kennedy Center.' What's next?' 'It's not just a theater in Washington,' Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), who serves on the House Appropriations Committee and voted against the Opera House amendment, told The Washington Post. 'It was built as a monument to JFK, who was a strong believer in the arts.' Renaming it, she suggested, would be akin to renaming the Washington Monument or the Lincoln Memorial. Legal or not, Super finds the idea of renaming part of the Kennedy Center after a living person to be odd. 'The notion of naming anything about any public institution after a living person is very unusual in America,' he said. 'It's familiar in Russia, in North Korea, in some other countries, but it's not the way we do things here.' And, legal or not, Pingree wonders whether Trump will just do it anyway. 'I don't put it past the president, who doesn't seem to follow law or convention, to just put a sign up on the Opera House and rename it,' she said.
