Elon Musk's DOGE is coming for JD Vance's hometown
A $500 million grant for steel giant Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF) to help the company upgrade its aging blast furnaces in Middletown, Ohio will not go forward, CNN reports. Middletown is the hometown of the vice-president and featured prominently in his best-selling memoir, 'Hillbilly Elegy.'
The new furnaces, which run on climate-friendly hydrogen, natural gas, and electricity instead of coal, would have helped revitalize the aging steel facility. The grant was awarded by the Biden administration.
The Middletown Works was founded in 1899 as the American Rolling Mill Company and became AK Steel in the 1990s when a Japanese firm, Kawakasi Steel, bought it. USA steel maker Cleveland Cliffs purchased AK Steel in 2020.
Steel companies Armco and AK Steel both played prominently in Vance's book. In it, he wrote:
For my grandparents, Armco was an economic savior — the engine that brought them from the hills of Kentucky into America's middle class. My grandfather loved the company and knew every make and model of car built from Armco steel.
The hulking and sprawling steel mill dominates the small city of 50,000 situated between Dayton and Cincinnati. It employs over 2000 workers.
'If they decide not to go through with it, that's 170 jobs we won't be getting in the next five years,' Shawn Coffey, president of the union representing workers at the mill, told CNN (WBD): 'Does it change the outlook of Middletown works? It depends on what the future holds. We'll regroup and continue to make steel in Middletown the best we can.'
For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
13 minutes ago
- USA Today
'All Things Considered' host Ari Shapiro is leaving NPR amid Trump cuts
"All Things Considered" host Ari Shapiro is leaving NPR. The NPR journalist said in an Aug. 20 statement that as he enters "the next chapter of my own professional evolution, I can't imagine an organization more uniquely prepared to deliver the kind of illumination, understanding, and joy that I have treasured my entire life — and will continue to depend on as a listener." Shapiro, 46, joined NPR as an intern for NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg in 2001, spending the last 10 years as one of the hosts of "ATC." He has served as an international correspondent, a White House correspondent and a justice correspondent. "This has been the second-longest relationship of my adult life (after my marriage), and I am both deeply grateful and exceptionally proud to have become the journalist — and the person — I am because of NPR," Shapiro added. Earlier in his note, Shapiro said that "working at NPR has been a wild privilege," adding that "since I became an ATC host, I've kept the original mission statement from founder Bill Siemering taped in view of my desk." "Our ability to evolve and change without sacrificing that unshakable mission of public service is NPR's greatest strength," Shapiro continued. The exit comes amid President Donald Trump's ongoing push for federal spending cuts, signing a May executive order to pull federal funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, imperiling PBS, NPR and hundreds of associated local and regional radio and television channels. Trump has long accused America's largest public broadcasters of biased reporting. After the order, NPR's president and CEO, Katherine Maher, defended the outlet's journalism and reiterated its commitment to editorial independence in the wake of allegations of bias by the Trump administration. Contributing: Kathryn Palmer
USA Today
13 minutes ago
- USA Today
President Trump calls for Fed governor to resign after accusation of mortgage fraud
Trump's call for Lisa Cook to resign escalates his attacks on the independent Federal Reserve, which set monetary policy including interest rates. WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump called for the resignation of a Biden-appointed Federal Reserve governor, Lisa Cook, following accusations from his administration that she engaged in mortgage fraud. Trump's new focus on Cook, who former President Joe Biden nominated to the board in 2022, escalates the president's attacks on the independent Federal Reserve, which is governed by a seven-member board to set monetary policy. "Cook must resign, now!!!" Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on the morning of Aug. 20, shortly after Bill Pulte, director of the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency, publicized a letter referring the Fed governor for criminal proseccution to the Justice Department. More: Trump tussles with Powell during Federal Reserve visit but backs off firing threat Pulte, in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, accused Cook of falsifying bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms. He said this included falsifying residence statuses in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Atlanta to potentially secure lower interest rates. Cook did not immediately respond to a USA TODAY request for comment on the allegations. Cook, a former economics and international relations professor at Michigan State University, is the first Black woman to ever sit on the Fed's board. Cook previously served as a senior economist on the Council of Economic Advisers in former President Barack Obama's White House. For months, Trump has railed against Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell over the Fed's unwillingness to lower interest rates as Trump has demanded, calling the chairman a "numbskull,' 'stupid person' and 'too late.' Powell has cited inflationary concerns from Trump's robust tariff regime in keeping interest rates steady. More: Trump considering lawsuit against Fed as he bashes Chair Jerome Powell Despite publicly weighing the idea of firing Powell, Trump has instead said he will wait to replace him when the chairman's term ends in 2026. Experts say the president can only remove a Fed chair for cause. Trump has also discussed possible criminal charges against Powell ‒ and perhaps suing Powell ‒ over the ballooning budget in a $2.5 billion renovation of the agency's Washington, DC headquarters. The Federal Open Market Committee, which sets interest rates, is a 12-member panel composed of the seven governors on the Fed board and five Reserve Bank presidents. Two Republican members of the FOMC Committee in July voted to lower interest rates, marking the first time since 1993 that two governors have dissented from a Fed decision. To fill an earlier vacancy on the Fed's board of governors, Trump on Aug. 7 nominated Stephen Miran, who chairs the White House's Council of Economic Advisers. If confirmed by the Sebate, Miran would replace Fed Governor Adriana Kugler, who resigned on Aug. 1 before her term was set to expire. Contributing: Bailey Schulz of USA TODAY Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.
The Hill
13 minutes ago
- The Hill
Texas House set to vote on redistricting map
The video at the top of this story is of previous coverage from Aug. 19, 2025. AUSTIN (Nexstar) — On Wednesday morning, the Texas House will meet to vote on House Bill 4, which would implement a new U.S. congressional map for the state. According to NBC News reporter Ryan Chandler, the House leadership will try to do a second and third reading vote on the bill Wednesday, an unusual move which would expedite the bill being sent to the Texas Senate. Democrats are protesting the map, which President Donald Trump said is an attempt to flip five U.S. House seats from Democratic to Republican. In addition to the map vote, State Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, prefilled an amendment tying the change of the map to Attorney General Pam Bondi releasing the Epstein files. 'Trump is in those files, and that's why he's fighting to keep them hidden,' Wu said. 'At the same time he's demanding Abbott ram through racist maps, he's making sure Congressional Republicans block the release of files that could expose his decades-long relationship with a child sex trafficker. This amendment forces Republicans to choose between their loyalty to Trump and their obligation to expose sexual predators.' On the other side of the aisle, Republicans are happy to move forward from the redistricting battle. 'In about 12 hours, the silly games, petulant name-calling and ridiculous publicity stunts of our Democrat colleagues will be met with the resounding and overwhelming adoption of the fair, legal and constitutional congressional redistricting plan, HB 4,' State Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, wrote. 'I can't wait to vote YES to send the Big Beautiful Map to the desk of [Gov. Greg Abbott]!' A crowd gathered at the Capitol Wednesday morning to protest the plans for a new congressional map. They could be heard chanting 'put Texans first.'
