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WASHINGTON — Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is fuming over the Army’s decision to withdraw new academic standards for college students in the ROTC program — including requiring a score of at least 1000 on the SAT — to block “stupid people” from becoming military officers. The new standards were announced on Aug. 5 in an internal memo issued by then-assistant secretary of the Army for manpower and reserve affairs Jules Hurst and were withdrawn Wednesday. “The Army must cultivate intelligent and adaptive officers to build a lethal and ready Army prepared to deter, fight, and win our nation’s wars....

A substitute teacher in Louisiana was arrested after authorities say she triggered false active shooter alerts at five schools, prompting security responses across the district. Lytonja Barfield, 58, was booked on five counts of menacing after an investigation into the alerts Wednesday, Caddo Parish Sheriff Henry Whitehorn Sr. announced. The Caddo Parish Sheriff's Office began investigating after officials with the Caddo Parish School Board contacted the agency about possible threats after emergency alerts at several schools. ... "We are cooperating fully with the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office as they continue their investigation into the matter. Ms. Barfield is no longer...

In the second century A.D., Roman emperor Hadrian commissioned a temple dedicated to the gods. To this day, the Pantheon still possesses the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world. How do these ancient Roman concrete structures withstand the test of time? Well, superior engineering for one. For example, skilled artisans used lighter aggregates higher in the Pantheon's dome. Roman seawalls owe their extreme longevity in part to their “self-healing” capacity. Exposure to seawater facilitated the continued growth of crystalline structures in the concrete. Researchers have also focused on volcanic ash as a secret to the durability of Roman concrete...

FIRST ON FOX: ActBlue co-founder Matt DeBergalis pleaded the Fifth Amendment during his closed-door deposition before three key House committees, sources familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital. The Committee on House Administration, House Oversight Committee, and House Judiciary Committee are conducting a joint investigation into ActBlue, a massive fundraising platform for Democrats, over allegations that lax fraud prevention standards may have allowed foreign donations to seep into U.S. campaigns. DeBergalis' deposition, which was scheduled for Thursday morning, lasted less than half an hour. Fox News saw DeBergalis entering and exiting the committee room within roughly 25 minutes.

Former Rep. Eric Swalwell, the disgraced California politician accused of rape, was reportedly confronted by FBI agents at San Francisco International Airport, where they seized his electronics as part of a federal criminal probe. Agents served Swalwell with a search warrant Saturday after he arrived in California and seized his cellphone and other electronics, the Daily Mail reported. Sources told the outlet, agents also executed additional warrants at Swalwell’s Washington, DC, home Sunday, where they seized other potential evidence. Swalwell, 45, was reportedly cooperative during the airport encounter. The investigation comes as the former California congressman faces multiple allegations of...

Stockton City Council candidate Desiree Lynch was arrested on multiple felony counts that allege she filed as a candidate within a district that she did not live in, prosecutors said on Wednesday. The San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office said she was arrested on five felony counts, including three counts of perjury, causing or allowing false voter registration, and filing a false nomination or declaration of candidacy. Prosecutors said an investigation determined that Lynch was living in Lodi and North Stockton, which are within District 1 boundaries. Lynch, a mother and a nurse, said she is running for Stockton's District...

The Trump administration is moving to claw back tens of millions of dollars in pandemic relief that went to celebrities, music artists, and entertainment-industry elites. The Small Business Administration announced Tuesday that it has referred $34 million in outstanding Shuttered Venue Operators Grant(SVOG) debt to the Treasury Department, marking the first time the federal government has referred unresolved debt from the program to the Treasury for collection. The move is part of a broader effort by SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler to recover pandemic-era funds that the agency says were improperly awarded or remain outstanding. “Under the Biden Administration, the SVOG...

A Haines City, Florida, police officer has been charged with official misconduct after allegedly misusing Flock Safety surveillance cameras 717 times to track his estranged wife’s vehicle. According to Tampa TV station WTSP, officer Christopher Goodson, 31, was charged Tuesday with multiple offenses. According to an affidavit obtained by the television station, Goodson used the surveillance system between Sept. 1, 2024, and June 30, 2026, entering his estranged wife’s license plate into the system to track her vehicle. Goodson allegedly used the system 280 times in September 2025 and 104 times in November 2025. When asked for the reason behind...

This is Grammy-winning artist Pras Michel shaking hands with Barack Obama in 2012. Just officially reported to prison to begin a 14-year federal sentence after prosecutors proved he helped funnel millions in illegal foreign money into Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign.The operation: Prosecutors proved Michel accepted more than $100 million from Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho in a covert influence scheme tied to influencing U.S. elections. The laundering network: Michel used straw donors to secretly route foreign cash into Obama’s 2012 campaign, bypassing federal election laws designed to prevent foreign influence in American elections. The verdict: A federal jury convicted him...

Content warning: This story contains references to violence, suicide, child abuse and self-harm. A suicide attempt, depression, substance abuse, insomnia, surveillance, threats. These are just some of the experiences reported by the low-paid moderators tasked with sifting through Facebook and Instagram’s most disturbing images. The tech giant Meta, which owns both platforms, has kept the whereabouts of this operation a closely guarded secret since moving it from Kenya, where the company is facing lawsuits over working conditions and human rights. For months, it has also refused to name the company that won the lucrative contract to provide the content moderators...

Posted on Tue, Aug. 05, 2003 Macon mayor defends trip to Africa Ellis says Ghana could process city's parking tickets By Mike Donila Telegraph Staff Writer Macon Mayor Jack Ellis on Monday defended his plans to visit Africa, saying that his mission, in part, is to encourage Ghanian officials to import more goods from Middle Georgia. Ellis also said that during his weeklong trip he will lay the groundwork to possibly enable Macon's Ghanian sister city of Elmina to process local parking tickets. "Ghana is very important to the city, the state - even the region where we live. They...

Reporting Highlights Ready, Fire, Aim: In a rushed process exempted from normal rules, the Army hired General Dynamics, which brought on a Turkish subcontractor with little vetting, to make artillery shells. Money for Nothing: Despite being paid $533 million, General Dynamics did not produce a single usable shell at its new factory — and has not been held publicly accountable. Wages of Failure: Since the Army halted two production lines at the factory, the General Dynamics unit responsible for the debacle has received contract awards totaling $2.5 billion. A robot was on fire. Again. It was the summer of 2024,...

Samotria Matthews, the top deputy and closest ally of Milwaukee County Clerk of Circuit Court Anna Maria Hodges, was arrested Thursday and is currently incarcerated in the Milwaukee County Jail, the Heartland Post has learned exclusively. Sources tell the Heartland Post that Matthews was arrested during a raid at her home and is being held on potential drug charges. She is one of the longest-tenured employees at the Milwaukee County Courthouse and came out of a brief retirement in 2022 to join Hodges’ staff. Ironically, she had been serving as the senior admiinistrator for Milwaukee County Criminal Court. “An individual...

LAWRENCE, Mass. — Lawrence Mayor Brian DePeña has been arrested on wire fraud and money laundering charges. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts, DePeña allegedly obtained more than $1.5 million in COVID small-business loans and used the money for personal and political expenses. DePeña, 61, is charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. According to federal prosecutors, DePena used the money to pay personal tax debts, fund his mayoral campaign and pay off more than $880,000 in high-interest mortgages on properties he owned in Lawrence. The charges center on Economic Injury Disaster...

This video, presented by Dr. Steve Turley, outlines a series of recent federal arrests and indictments of prominent Democrat politicians and figures, which he characterizes as a "reckoning" for the party under the leadership of Attorney General Todd Blanch. Key corruption allegations discussed include: Heidi Byrick and the SPLC (1:15 - 4:19): Former head of the Southern Poverty Law Center's intelligence project, Heidi Byrick, was arrested for an alleged scheme involving funneling donor money through shell companies to various extremist groups, including those linked to the Charlottesville rally. Sylvia Luke and Hawaii Officials (4:20 - 6:26): Hawaii's Lieutenant Governor Sylvia...

A Denver District Court judge has given Secretary of State Jena Griswold until Thursday to comply with an open records request, or she could be held in contempt. The records involve consulting work, paid for with public funds. Griswold's office says it doesn't have the documents and it refuses to ask the consultant for them, claiming that would impose an undue "burden." Instead, the Secretary of State's office sent four employees and the Attorney General's Office sent three attorneys to court. The consultant was brought in two years after Griswold became Secretary of State. The office had become a revolving...

hen you review all the data on mifepristone (the abortion pill), from those who support it and those who condemn it, the tragic truth is revealed: both viable babies’ and women’s lives are threatened. The most recent horrific situation just took place in North Carolina: A couple in Durham is facing charges for harming a newborn after the woman allegedly took abortion pills in her 3rd trimester.

The FBI and U.S. spy agencies received derogatory evidence about Joe Biden from 14 different informants but embarked on a secret operation to tamp down a Ukrainian corruption scandal engulfing his family during the 2020 election by formally designating Attorney General Bill Barr, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, key members of Congress and journalists as Russian disinformation “conduits,” according to explosive intelligence community documents declassified by the White House. A spreadsheet that was recovered from U.S. intelligence agency files and made public Wednesday by the White House Government Transparency Task Force shows that spy agencies and the FBI created a...

Arc of Justice—the California-based charity established by Code Pink cofounder Medea Benjamin to dole out millions to Code Pink and other far left activist groups—was recently ordered by the state's attorney general to cease all operations after failing to file taxes for three consecutive years and account for more than $51 million in assets that still remain a mystery, according to documents reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. Since California first revoked the foundation's charitable registration 18 months ago and ordered it to provide a full accounting of $51,445,599 in outstanding assets it held as of 2023, "no public document...

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine is reportedly quietly working toward an exit from Donald Trump’s Iran war, even as the president appears to believe more air strikes could force a deal. As the war enters its sixth month, CNN reported Friday that Caine has privately discussed the limits of further military action with other top Trump advisers, warning that continued bombing may not be enough to secure a ceasefire. “Caine is looking for an off-ramp,” one source familiar with the matter told the outlet. The 57-year-old general has discussed the matter with CIA Director John...