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Watch to learn why the project is years late and billions over budget California’s high-speed rail project promised to connect Los Angeles and San Francisco with trains traveling up to 220 mph. Eighteen years after voters approved Proposition 1A, the ambitious transportation project lacks any finished track and faces an uncertain future. Costs are now projected to reach $126 billion with land acquisition and regulatory hurdles still putting America’s largest active infrastructure endeavor in jeopardy. In this video, WSJ travels to construction sites, analyzes satellite images and reviews legal filings to explain what comes next for the multibillion-dollar project.

A Virginia grand jury has indicted Democratic state Sen. L. Louise Lucas and several others, including members of her family, on charges that she engaged in a racketeering conspiracy to sell marijuana and launder the proceeds. According to the indictment, Lucas, the president pro tempore of Virginia’s senate who has pushed for the drug to be legalized, ran several businesses that purchased and sold illegal amounts of marijuana in the state to build her family’s wealth.

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT 🚨 Federal Lawsuit against California shows that 28.8% of noncitizens in California HAVE A VOTING HISTORY California elections are not legitimate, noncitizens are voting at an extremely large scale - Los Angeles County elections officials took a sample batch of 200 ballots - The 200 ballots were taken from a sample of 20,000 that the Trump Admin says are noncitizens - Of the 200 ballots that were taken, 71.2% of the 200 have no voting history This means 28.8% of the noncitizens ballots DID have a voting history Nearly 30% of noncitizens are voting in California elections based...

A Polish soldier who accidentally shot a Syrian refugee who had entered Poland over the border from Belarus has been acquitted of negligent use of a weapon. The Syrian man had been seeking 50,000 zloty (€11,500) in compensation from the soldier. The verdict was welcomed by defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, whose ministry had supported the soldier’s legal defence. The incident in question took place in November 2023 in Poland’s northeastern Podlasie province. The soldier, named only as Adam Ł. under Polish privacy law and who holds the rank of second lieutenant, had only recently received his first posting to the...

Democrats are plotting to weaponize the federal government against Elon Musk if they win back the House or Senate next month. Musk has his own revenge planned, and he just put them on notice. According to a Politico report published Tuesday, senior Democrats have assembled a sprawling list of congressional investigations targeting Musk and his businesses, and the list keeps growing. Musk is the world's richest man and the GOP's biggest donor, and that second detail is the only reason Democrats are going after him. Several committees are already weighing how to target him and his companies. This is a...

(RNS) — Officially, abortion is still a top policy priority for many religious leaders. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops calls preventing abortion its “preeminent priority,” and prominent conservative evangelicals continue to mobilize their voters around the issue. But as Idaho, Missouri, Nevada and Virginia prepare to vote on abortion-related measures in the midterm elections, polling suggests it is less of a priority for voters than in other recent election cycles. According to an October poll by Pew Research Center, significantly fewer registered voters from every religious group surveyed said abortion was “very important” in deciding who to vote for...

Two weeks ahead of the 2026 November midterm elections, which could change the balance of power in Congress, the Washington, D.C., Board of Elections sent me four strangers’ mail-in ballots. This is not a one-off. It is happening to Americans across the country. Early voting has already begun for the midterms, and millions of unsecured mail-in ballots could have already been sent and submitted. The Daily Signal decided to investigate these four ballots further. By obtaining the D.C. voter registration list, we confirmed the identities of the rightful owners and contacted one of them, a former tenant of my current...

Social Security says it has corrected tens of millions of identity records in the largest database cleanup in its history. The changes involve missing death dates and citizenship information, raising understandable questions about what the effort means for people receiving benefits. The agency’s October 20 announcement reports progress on work underway since the beginning of the Trump administration. It does not announce a benefit cut, a new application requirement or a deadline for everyone to verify their Social Security number. The practical issue is accuracy. Better records can help prevent improper payments and identity misuse, while incorrect changes can create...

President is considering restoring a pool once used by Roosevelt, which would lead to the eviction of the media from West Wing, according to reports President Trump has suggested replacing the White House press room with an indoor swimming pool, effectively removing news outlets from the building, according to reports. Trump proposed the idea to Karoline Leavitt, the former White House press secretary, several times before she stepped down from her post in August, the New York Times reported, citing three people with knowledge of the discussions. “America is rightly distrustful of the fake news media because they fabricate stories...

Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano’s policy of leniency toward immigrants has caused his prosecutors to regularly decline to pursue cases involving drunken driving, felony drug possession, shoplifting and grand larceny against migrants, according to a new congressional audit. Investigators for the House Judiciary Committee said they found more than 100 previously unreported cases in which Mr. Descano’s office failed to prosecute or under-prosecuted cases against migrants. That included a Chinese migrant “serial fraudster” who had more than 50 charges dropped. The audit, released Tuesday, tied those cases to Mr. Descano’s stated desire to protect immigrants from having to face...

Baltimore, MD — The Social Security Administration (SSA) today announced substantial progress in its ongoing effort to strengthen the accuracy and integrity of the Social Security Number (SSN) database. This work represents the most comprehensive SSN record clean‑up in the agency’s 91-year history. “The Social Security Number database is our country’s books and records. The database’s accuracy is essential to maintaining integrity of government services for citizens. Accurate SSN records prevent fraud across federal programs and support the proper administration of benefits,” said Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano. “This is the first time SSA has undertaken an effort of this scale,...

American Stephen Hubbard was released by Russia on Wednesday, state news agencies reported, the latest sign of warmer ties with the Kremlin as Washington pressures Kyiv to agree to a deal that ends Moscow’s war. The news of Hubbard’s release followed talks between U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and President Vladimir Putin early Wednesday. Putin said that Hubbard, 74, was at the Pulkovo Airport near St. Petersburg, the TASS state news agency reported. There was no immediate confirmation from the United States. Trump said Tuesday that he had raised with Putin the idea of releasing Hubbard, who was being held in...

On October 20th, Trump invited Nick Shirley to the White House to be present when he announced the Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program. ...

In late August, during one of Karoline Leavitt’s final meetings with President Trump in the Oval Office, he pitched her on an idea in front of several senior aides. He told her to move reporters out of the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, which would effectively remove news organizations from the White House. It would be, he told her, her “last legacy.” But the proposal never moved forward while she was there. The president had put the request to her several times over months, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions who were not authorized to speak...

President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday are set to announce an initiative to offer cash rewards for tipsters who help uncover allegations of fraud in government programs. The president and vice president will appear in the Oval Office with conservative YouTube personality Nick Shirley, whose video series from Minnesota late last year led to fraud investigations of day care centers there that receive federal money. Shirley, who posted videos showing empty buildings that purported to be active day care centers, will be presented with a check for $10,000, according to a White House official who spoke...

Donald Trump ran on a promise to end job-killing regulation, and now is the moment when we’re within sight of the fulfilment of that promise. Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering a bill called the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act. That isn’t a very descriptive name, but the author of a fine Substack called Energy Talking Points has a better one — he calls it “Freedom-to-Build legislation,” and says that it’s the biggest attempt at permitting reform that the United States has made in 46 years.

Worse Than They’re Telling You. Prop 1 — officially the Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act — is being presented to voters as a measure about privacy and routine reproductive care — things like contraception and miscarriage treatment that are already legal in Idaho today and privacy is protected in every instance. But the operative language goes much further than the campaign behind it is letting on.

With civil unrest, rioting and violence increasing across France in recent days, including countless migrants protesting conditions there, another European nation is touting its simple and effective means to enforce the border: Shoot unlawful migrants dead. "Do not come to the Polish border, or you will be dead, shot dead," said Polish Member of European Parliament Dominik Tarczyński in a recent interview. "Do not come to the Polish border. I'm very clear for years." Continued the official: "If you are coming, it's your own risk. Do not cry over that. Do not tell me that you were shot, you were...

Earlier this month, a man walked into a West Side grocery store, according to a police report, and tried to walk out of the shop with two concealed cans of an alcoholic beverage. Even though the cost of the alleged theft was around $13, the 29-year-old man, who the report notes is a U.S. veteran, is facing a felony retail theft charge due to a criminal background that includes a retail theft conviction and a stint in prison for armed robbery. “Do not go back to that Food for Less,” Cook County Judge Luciano Panici Jr. warned as he set...

...Speaking at a University of Chicago event on Oct. 13, the former Obama administration CIA official stated, “I want young people coming out of school to say, ‘Should I go work for the Trump administration? Like, that sounds fun. I might get an opportunity.’” “I want them to be like, Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don’t want, and so let me avoid participating in that,” she continued. “I want that deterrence message sent.”.. ...: U.S. Senator from Michigan Elissa Slotkin hopes planned political prosecutions of republican leaders will scare young conservatives from getting...