5 things to know for August 15: DC, Alaska summit, Gerrymandering, ERs, Homelessness
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Time is running out to receive money back on rooftop solar, electric vehicles and energy-efficient appliances. President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress cut clean energy out of the tax code, and now some programs will expire as soon as next month. Here's how to take advantage of those 'green' rebates before it's too late.
Here's what else you need to know to get up to speed and on with your day.
A power struggle is brewing between local and federal authorities in Washington, DC. Last night, Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered DC's mayor and police department to accept Terry Cole, the head of the DEA, as the district's 'emergency police commissioner' and give him full control of the department during the federal takeover. But the mayor pushed back on Bondi's command, posting on social media: 'There is no statute that conveys the District's personnel authority to a federal official.' DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb also reviewed Bondi's order and declared it illegal after determining that the Home Rule Act does not give President Trump the authority to remove or replace the chief of police or alter the MPD chain of command. In a letter to DC Police Chief Pamela Smith, Schwalb wrote, 'It is my opinion that the Bondi order is unlawful, and that you are not legally obligated to follow it.'
As President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin head to Alaska for their historic summit, scores of pro-Ukraine protesters gathered in Anchorage on Thursday. The demonstrators, who waved Ukrainian flags and banners, demanded that Trump offer Putin no concessions in exchange for the Kremlin ending its war in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders hope Trump can arrange a ceasefire agreement that Russia will honor while a trilateral meeting can be organized for peace negotiations. Putin wants any deal to include Russia taking almost a fifth of Ukraine's land. Trump, meanwhile, said Russia will face 'very severe consequences' if Putin doesn't agree to end the war, although he wouldn't specify what that meant. With only a few hours left until the summit begins, deadly fighting continued on the front lines in Ukraine. At least seven civilians were killed in Russian attacks on Thursday and 17 others were injured by drones and bombings, Ukrainian officials said..
For nearly two weeks, Texas Democrats have stymied Republicans' attempts to redraw the state's congressional districts in the middle of the decade by remaining out of state. The GOP's proposed map could potentially eliminate five Democratic US House seats ahead of the 2026 midterms. But on Thursday, the Democratic lawmakers signaled their intention to end the redistricting standoff and return to Austin. In a news release, the Democrats said they would return if Republicans adjourn the special legislative session currently underway — and if California Democrats introduce a new congressional map that would offset the five seats Republicans want to flip in Texas. California Gov. Gavin Newsom responded by formally launching the state's redistricting effort. Republicans in Texas are expected to adjourn the current special session today if a quorum isn't met. However, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott plans to immediately call for a new special session to convene the same day.
In many rural American hospitals, there may not be a single doctor on-site when a patient arrives in the emergency room. Instead, all patients are treated by physician assistants or nurse practitioners. If a case is too severe to be handled, patients are stabilized and transported to another hospital farther away. The reason: a nationwide shortage of doctors. A recent study found that in 2022, at least 7.4% of emergency departments across the US did not have an attending physician on-site 24/7. And more than 90% of those were located in hospitals in small, rural areas. While rural ERs may see fewer patients, they still treat serious cases, said Alison Haddock, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians. 'It's important that folks in those areas have equal access to high-quality emergency care to the greatest extent possible,' she said.
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The Dallas Cowboys owner credits an experimental trial drug for successfully treating his advanced melanoma.
Here are some of the show's most orgasmic highs — and dismal lows.
What was Taylor Swift's big announcement this week?A. A new studio albumB. Plans to launch a podcastC. An official Swiftie book clubD. Her engagement to Travis Kelce
Take me to the quiz!
54%That's the percentage of Americans who say they consume alcohol, according to a new Gallup poll.
'Instead of feeling excited, really what I'm feeling is concern. I am very, very scared, and there is a lot of pressure.'
— Madelyn
The Los Angeles-area 11th grader, who spoke on the condition that her last name not be published because she is in the country without legal permission, on why she is afraid to return to school.
🌤️ Check your local forecast to see what you can expect.
Discussions about masculinity and public displays of emotion have been trending since a University of Nebraska football player shed a few tears during a news conference.
Today's edition of 5 Things AM was edited and produced by CNN's Andrew Torgan.
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Washington Post
5 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Trump's aggressive push to take over DC policing may be a template for an approach in other cities
WASHINGTON — The left sees President Donald Trump's attempted takeover of Washington law enforcement as part of a multifront march to autocracy — 'vindictive authoritarian rule,' as one activist put it — and as an extraordinary thing to do in rather ordinary times on the streets of the capital. To the right, it's a bold move to fracture the crust of Democratic urban bureaucracy and make D.C. a better place to live. Where that debate settles — if it ever does — may determine whether Washington, a symbol for America in all its granite glory, history, achievement, inequality and dysfunction, becomes a model under the imprint of Trump for how cities are policed, cleaned up and run, or ruined. Under the name of his Making D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force, Trump put some 800 National Guard troops on Washington streets this past week, declaring at the outset, 'Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals.' Grunge was also on his mind. 'If our capital is dirty, our whole country is dirty, and they don't respect us.' He then upped the stakes by declaring federal control of the district's police department and naming an emergency chief. That set off alarms and prompted local officials to sue to stop the effort. 'I have never seen a single government action that would cause a greater threat to law and order than this dangerous directive,' Police Chief Pamela Smith said. On Friday, the Trump administration partially retreated from its effort to seize control of the Metropolitan Police Department when a judge, skeptical that the president had the authority to do what he tried to do, urged both sides to reach a compromise, which they did — at least for now. Trump's Justice Department agreed to leave Smith in control, while still intending to instruct her department on law enforcement practices. In a new memo, Attorney General Pam Bondi directed the force to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement regardless of any city law. In this heavily Democratic city, local officials and many citizens did not like the National Guard deployment. At the same time, they acknowledged the Republican president had the right to order it because of the federal government's unique powers in the district. But Trump's attempt to seize formal control of the police department, for the first time since D.C. gained a partial measure of autonomy in the Home Rule Act of 1973, was their red line. For sure, there have been times when the U.S. military has been deployed to American streets, but almost always in the face of a riot or a calamitous event like the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Trump's use of force was born of an emergency that he saw and city officials — and many others — did not. A stranger to nuance, Trump has used the language of emergency to justify much of what he's done: his deportations of foreigners, his tariffs, his short-term deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles, and now his aggressive intervention into Washington policing. Washington does have crime and endemic homelessness, like every city in the country. But there was nothing like an urban fire that the masses thought needed to be quelled. Violent crime is down , as it is in many U.S. cities. Washington is also a city about which most Americans feel ownership — or at least that they have a stake. More than 25 million of them visited in 2024, a record year, plus over 2 million people from abroad. It's where middle schoolers on field trips get to see what they learn about in class — and perhaps to dance to pop tunes with the man with the music player so often in front of the White House. Washington is part federal theme park, with its historic buildings and museums, and part downtown, where restaurants and lobbyists outnumber any corporate presence. Neighborhoods range from the places where Jeff Bezos set a record for a home purchase price to destitute streets in economically depressed areas that are also magnets for drugs and crime. In 1968, the capital was a city on fire with riots. Twenty years later, a murder spree and crack epidemic fed the sense of a place out of control. But over the last 30 years, the city's population and its collective wealth have swelled. Against that backdrop, Philadelphia's top prosecutor, District Attorney Larry Krasner , a Democrat, assailed Trump's moves in Washington. 'You're talking about an emergency, really?' Krasner said, as if speaking with the president. 'Or is it that you're talking about an emergency because you want to pretend everything is an emergency so that you can roll tanks?' In Washington, a coalition of activists called Not Above the Law denounced what they saw as just the latest step by Trump to seize levers of power he has no business grasping. 'The onslaught of lawlessness and autocratic activities has escalated,' said Lisa Gilbert, co-chair of the group and co-president of Public Citizen. 'The last two weeks should have crystallized for all Americans that Donald Trump will not stop until democracy is replaced by vindictive authoritarian rule.' Fifty miles northeast, in the nearest major city, Baltimore's Democratic mayor criticized what he saw as Trump's effort to distract the public from economic pain and 'America's falling standing in the world.' 'Every mayor and police chief in America works with our local federal agents to do great work — to go after gun traffickers, to go after violent organizations,' Brandon Scott said. 'How is taking them off of that job, sending them out to just patrol the street, making our country safer?' But the leader of the D.C. Police Union, Gregg Pemberton, endorsed Trump's intervention — while saying it should not become permanent. 'We stand with the president in recognizing that Washington, D.C., cannot continue on this trajectory,' Pemberton said. From his vantage point, 'Crime is out of control, and our officers are stretched beyond their limits.' The Home Rule Act lets a president invoke certain emergency powers over the police department for 30 days, after which Congress must decide whether to extend the period. Trump's attempt to use that provision stirred interest among some Republicans in Congress in giving him an even freer hand. Among them, Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee drafted a resolution that would eliminate the time limit on federal control. This, he told Fox News Digital, would 'give the president all the time and authority he needs to crush lawlessness, restore order, and reclaim our capital once and for all.' Which raises a question that Trump has robustly hinted at and others are wondering, too: If there is success in the district — at least, success in the president's eyes — what might that mean for other American cities he thinks need to be fixed? Where does — where could — the federal government go next? ___ Associated Press writer Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.
Fox News
7 minutes ago
- Fox News
Bill Maher slams 'zombie lie' that Trump is Putin's ‘bi—h' hours after summit in Alaska
"Real Time" host Bill Maher pushed back against the idea that President Donald Trump is "Putin's bi--h" after Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday. "Let's not have the zombie lie that [Trump] is still backing Putin," Maher told his panel. "First of all, he bombed Iran, that was a Putin ally. He didn't get out of NATO. He mended fences with NATO. And he put sanctions back on Russia." After a three-hour meeting between Trump and Putin in Alaska, where the two discussed the ongoing war in Ukraine, Trump called the meeting "very warm" in an exclusive interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity. He also said Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy want him to attend the next meeting. Hours after that interview, Maher confessed the "one thing" he knows about Trump. If somebody is the kind of person that would "see the good in anybody," this would be "the good" in Trump, the late-night host teased. "He really does hate war," Maher insisted. "He really does not like it when people die in war." One of Maher's panelists, County Highway editor-at-large Walter Kirn, added some wit to the discussion. "You're really coming around, Bill," Kirn joked. "I'm not coming around," Maher countered, insisting he's not "on anyone's team." He went on to call his statement "true s--t." The duo had a sterner discussion when Maher first introduced the "zombie lie" about Trump's relationship with Putin. "I think it's kind of a zombie lie that Trump is Putin's, you know, bi--h," Maher began. "Because he was certainly over friendly to him for a very long time, considering who Putin is. A thug and a murderer." "In 2015, Obama met [Putin] and nobody said anything," Kirn retorted. "He met him, he didn't praise him," Maher argued. "He didn't say he's the greatest guy in the world. I could read 20 compliments that Trump has given to him." Trump has repeatedly called Putin "smart" and blamed former President Joe Biden for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, including at the 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference. "The problem is not that Putin is smart, which, of course, he's smart," Trump told the crowd. "The real problem is that our leaders are dumb. They've allowed him to get away with this travesty and this assault on humanity." The Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates the total number of casualties in the war in Ukraine to be 1.4 million since February 2022.
Yahoo
44 minutes ago
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Ron DeSantis Slams 'Suspiciously-Timed' Congressional Stock Trades, 'Windfall Profits:' Says Nancy Pelosi Outperforms The Best Hedge Funds
Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday aimed at members of Congress over what he characterized as well-timed and unusually profitable stock trades, while singling out former House Speaker, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in his criticism. 'Suspiciously-Timed' Stock Trades In a post on X, DeSantis called out the 'suspiciously-timed' stock trades that seem to 'generate windfall profits,' which he says has become a feature of the modern Congress. He also highlights the fact that the portfolio of certain lawmakers outperforms even the most sophisticated fund managers. 'Pelosi and company do better than the best investment funds in the world,' he says, before adding a note of sarcasm, saying, 'Gee, I wonder why that is?' Trending: The same firms that backed Uber, Venmo and eBay are investing in this pre-IPO company disrupting a $1.8T market — DeSantis posted this while quoting his wife, Casey DeSantis's post on the same topic. In her post, Casey says, 'Serving in Congress should mean serving the people, not your stock portfolio.' Traders In Congress Outperform Leading Fund Managers Amid Calls For A Ban Pelosi and her husband, Paul Pelosi, witnessed a significant rise in their combined net worth in 2024, at $413 million, up from $370 million the prior year. A significant portion of this comes from their investment portfolio, which returned 54% in 2024 and 65% in 2023. Other active traders in Congress have outperformed Pelosi by wide margins, with annualized returns ranging from 70% to 149%, amid growing calls for a ban. However, Pelosi herself has backed a proposal to ban Congressional stock trading, coming out in support of a bill named 'The HONEST Act,' which up until recently was called the PELOSI Act. 'If legislation is advanced to help restore trust in government and ensure that those in power are held to the highest ethical standards, then I am proud to support it,' she said, adding that she will back the proposal, 'no matter what they decide to name.' Read Next: 'Scrolling To UBI' — Deloitte's #1 fastest-growing software company allows users to earn money on their phones. You can invest today for just $0.30/share. If there was a new fund backed by Jeff Bezos offering a 7-9% target yield with monthly dividends would you invest in it? Photo courtesy: Shutterstock This article Ron DeSantis Slams 'Suspiciously-Timed' Congressional Stock Trades, 'Windfall Profits:' Says Nancy Pelosi Outperforms The Best Hedge Funds originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
