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May 18 (UPI) — Authorities said Sunday night that officers arrested three teenagers, ending a weekend shooting spree through southern Austin that left four people wounded, including one critically.

The shootings began Saturday afternoon, with the first calls to police recorded at about 3:45 p.m. CDT. A shelter-in-place order was issued amid the shootings and was lifted shortly before 4:30 p.m. Sunday.

At least 12 separate shootings, mostly in south Austin, were recorded in the crime spree, according to authorities, who said at least two separate fire stations were struck, as were several buildings and homes.

Authorities had been searching Sunday for a stolen white Kia in connection with the shootings. When police pulled it over, three people exited the vehicle and ran. Officers pursued and arrested two suspects — identified as a 15-year-old and a 17-year-old — at the scene, authorities said.

The Manor Police Department announced later Sunday that the third suspect, identified as a Hispanic male in his mid-to-late teens, had been apprehended.

Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis told reporters during a press conference held Sunday night prior to the third arrest that police had been searching for the 15-year-old and 17-year-old and were unsure of the third suspect’s involvement.

Davis described the gunmen as firing indiscriminately from a stolen vehicle that would be abandoned, followed by the theft of another vehicle. More than four vehicles were stolen during the spree, she said.

“And so a motive? I don’t know what a motive is. I don’t know what motive would drive anybody to come and drive around senselessly in the city and in multiple parts of the city shooting,” Davis said.

The investigation began when police were notified of a stolen vehicle from an apartment complex, followed by the alleged theft of a firearm by the 15-year-old from a gun store, Davis said. The 17-year-old was also wanted in connection with an earlier firearm theft from the same store, she said.

“At that point, we were not aware that these two cases were connected. What transpired after that was an estimated of 20 service calls related to these individuals, predominantly in south and east areas of Austin,” she said.

The identities of the victims have not been disclosed.

Davis said a woman was shot from a moving vehicle as she was speaking to another person on Saturday. On Sunday, a man was shot in the back while walking his dog.

All four victims, three with non-life-threatening injuries, were transported to local trauma centers, authorities said.

May 17 (UPI) — Three people were killed and five others were hurt late Saturday when a vehicle struck and killed pedestrians and cars in Oakland, Calif., authorities said.

Three of those injured were hospitalized in critical condition as a result of the 11:45 p.m. incident, the Oakland Fire Department said in a social media post.

Two others, including the suspected juvenile driver, sustained minor injuries, police told local media.

Surveillance video footage from the corner in East Oakland obtained by KGO-TV showed what appears to be a pickup truck driving onto a sidewalk at high speeds and hitting multiple pedestrians.

One witness told the station the driver first hit several vehicles in the street, then sped up and jumped the curb, where they plowed into a group of pedestrians.

The suspected driver then allegedly ran from the truck.

As of Sunday afternoon the Oakland Police Department had yet to issue an official statement on the incident, but Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee sent condolences to the victims’ families and voiced praise for the first responders.

“Oakland is mourning the lives lost in last night’s tragic crash at International Boulevard and 85th Avenue in East Oakland,” she said in a statement issued to media outlets. “Our hearts are with the victims, their families, loved ones, and all of those impacted.

“Thank you to the Oakland Police Department, Oakland Fire Department, and our first responders.”

May 17 (UPI) — Sen. Bill Cassidy, a 15-year veteran of the U.S. Congress, lost Louisiana’s Republican primary this weekend and appeared to take aim at President Donald Trump in his concession speech.

Cassidy, who has represented Louisiana in the U.S. Senate since 2015, said that though the election didn’t turn out the way he wanted, “you don’t pout, you don’t whine, you don’t claim the election was stolen.”

“Let me just set the record straight: Our country is not about one individual,” he said, NBC reported. “It is about the welfare of all Americans, and it is about our Constitution. And it is the welfare of my people and my state and my country and our Constitution, to which I am loyal.

“And if someone doesn’t understand that, and attempts to control others through using the levers of power, they are about serving themselves. They’re not about serving us. And that person is not qualified to be a leader.”

Saturday’s election results showed that U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow received the most votes in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate seat, with 44.84% of the vote. Louisiana State Treasurer John Fleming narrowly took second place with 28.28% of the vote and Cassidy came in third with 24.8%. The results mean Letlow, who has Trump’s backing, will face Fleming in a runoff on June 27, NOLA.com reported.

Trump was less veiled in his attacks on Cassidy in a post on Truth Social on Saturday night. He described the senator’s loss as “unprecedented.”

“That’s what you get by voting to Impeach an innocent man, especially one who made it possible for Cassidy’s Senate win,” Trump wrote.

Cassidy was one of six Republicans in the Senate to vote in favor of proceeding with an impeachment trial for Trump. He ultimately voted to acquit Trump in the president’s second impeachment trial in 2021.

Cassidy represented Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District from 2009 to 2015, when he was first elected to the U.S. Senate.

May 15 (UPI) — President Donald Trump said Friday that wants to build the National Garden of American Heroes, an exhibit of statues in West Potomac Park in Washington, D.C.

Trump posted on social media that the public space would include landscaping and statues of the founding fathers, military soldiers, religious leaders, civil rights figures, athletes, artists and entertainers.

“This magnificent exhibition of statues will be located in West Potomac Park, which we are transforming into one of the World’s most beautiful public spaces,” Trump posted. “Right now, it is a totally BARREN field of Prime Waterfront Real Estate along our Mighty Potomac River.”

The project is the latest of Trump’s announcements to mark the United States’ 250th anniversary. He has said he wants 250 statues included in the garden.

Trump has ordered other projects in Washington, D.C., including renovation of the East Wing of the White House and repainting the basin of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. These projects have drawn criticism over Trump exerting unilateral authority to put them in motion, bypassing congressional approval.

The White House has not clarified whether it will seek congressional approval for the statue garden.

The National Capital Planning Commission and Commission of Fine Arts are typically involved in reviewing projects like this in Washington, D.C.

The newly formed National Garden of American Heroes Foundation is fundraising for the garden project.

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May 15 (UPI) — The Texas Supreme Court refused to remove state Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, from office, despite the efforts of Gov. Greg Abbott after the 2025 redistricting showdown.

Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock, who once worked as an Abbott aide, wrote that the courts “have uniformly recognized that it is not their role to resolve disputes between the other two branches that those branches can resolve for themselves.”

“The courts’ institutional ‘reluctance … to involve themselves in contests of factional political power,’ a reluctance we reiterate and reinforce today, is a check on the judicial power ‘of ancient standing,’ not an optional preference we are at liberty to discard,” Blacklock wrote.

The fight stems from August 2025 when Texas began an effort to redistrict the state’s congressional seats to create more Republican-leaning districts. Democrats in the state’s legislature fled Texas to prevent a quorum in the House. They eventually returned, and the measure passed.

Texas House Democratic Caucus Chairman Gene Wu led the charge during the exodus of his party members, drawing the ire of Abbott. The governor had threatened to expel any Texas House members who fled the state, of whom there were more than 50.

Wu posted on X Friday: “Texas House Democrats refused to be complicit as Texas Republicans delivered Donald Trump the extra congressional seats he begged for, and now, Gov. Abbott’s final attempt at revenge has been put to rest.”

Texas House Democrats posted: “Today, we won. We’re not going anywhere.”

Republicans hold 24 of Texas’ 38 seats in the U.S. House, with one vacancy. The new map is expected to add five Republican representatives from the state.

Blacklock indicated the matter could be considered in the future.

“Whatever wrong may have been committed by the absent House members, the Texas Constitution’s internal political remedies, none of which involve the judicial branch, were sufficient to the task of restoring the House’s ability to do business,” Blacklock wrote. “Should those remedies unexpectedly prove inadequate in a future case, we might have occasion to consider whether any judicial remedy could ever be available in circumstances such as these.”

May 16 (UPI) — The Trump administration is considering the creation of a $1.776 billion fund to compensate people allied with President Donald Trump who were investigated during the Biden administration.

The fund would be part of a settlement with Trump that would result in him dropping his lawsuit with the Internal Revenue Service over the leaking of his tax returns six years ago, ABC News and The New York Times reported.

The deal emerged after months of negotiations between the White House and Department of Justice, which had originally been aiming to directly pay Trump, but conflict of interest concerns steered toward the compensation fund.

Although Trump has the right to sue as a private citizen, his position as president means that he also can instruct agencies within the executive branch, which would make him both the plaintiff and defendant in a trial.

The concept is partially modeled on an Obama administration compensation fund for Native American farmers and ranchers that distributed $760 million from the Treasury Department’s Judgment Fund.

In addition to Trump allies’ legal fees linked to investigations during his first term, the fund also likely would be open to people charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol building that saw the building get ransacked by Trump supporters.

Critics of the plan have called it a “slush fund” for Trump and his allies.

“An insane level of corruption — even for Trump,” U.S. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said of the plan earlier this week.

May 15 (UPI) — Texas Children’s Hospital plans to create the first “detransition clinic” in the United States as part of a settlement with the state for provided transgender care, officials announced Friday.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the settlement, which will also require the hospital to fire and revoke the medical privileges of doctors, as well as pay a $10 million fine.

The hospital will make care at the clinic free of charge for its first five years and offer services for children to detransition to their gender assigned at birth.

Paxton investigated the Houston-based hospital in 2023 for the transgender care services it offered at the same time the state legislature was outlawing gender-affirming care for children.

“I applaud Texas Children’s Hospital for changing course and committing to being part of the solution by agreeing to form a first-of-its kind Detransition Clinic that will provide free care to those who have been victimized by twisted, morally bankrupt transgender ideology,” Paxton said in a statement.

The settlement, he said, is meant to reverse damage caused by “ideologically motivated physicians who harmed patients with their transition care, which the attorney general’s office alleged included the use of false diagnosis codes.

The hospital, in its own statement, said that it had spent the past three years cooperating with the investigation, “navigating an unconscionable campaign of mistrusts and mischaracterizations of gender affirming care.”

It said that multiple internal and external investigations support that the hospital has been compliant with all laws — before and after the state ban on transition care.

“Today, we made the difficult decision to settle with the Texas attorney general and the Department of Justice, closing a chapter that has been wrought with falsehoods and distractions,” the hospital said.

“To be clear — we are settling to protect our resources from endless and costly litigation,” it said. “This settlement will allow us to redirect those precious resources to focus on life-saving care and groundbreaking discoveries of our exceptional clinicians and scientists.”

On this date in history:

In 1804, the French Senate declared Napoleon Bonaparte emperor.

In 1871, U.S. Marines landed in Korea in an attempt to open the country to foreign trade.

In 1920, Joan of Arc was canonized as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church.

In 1929, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had its first Academy Awards ceremony. Wings was named Best Picture in the event at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

In 1932, following the assassination of Premier Inukai Tsuyoshi, fears began to spread that a militarist “super-party” was beginning to take shape in Japan.

File Photo courtesy of the Japan’s National Diet Library

In 1969, the unmanned Soviet spacecraft Venera 5 landed on Venus.

In 1985, the NBA named the Chicago Bulls’ Michael Jordan rookie of the year after he led all players in points.

In 1988, U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop said nicotine was as addictive as heroin or cocaine and called for the licensing of tobacco product vendors.

In 1991, Queen Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to address a joint session of Congress.

UPI File Photo

In 1997, Mobutu Sese Seko — who ruled Zaire for more than 30 years, allegedly looting it of billions of dollars — fled the capital as rebel forces advanced. He died in exile less than four months later.

In 2012, Vermont became the first state to ban hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to extract gas from underground deposits.

In 2013, Britain’s David Beckham announced he would retire from soccer.

In 2014, election results in India gave Narenda Modi and his opposition Bharatiya Janata Party a major victory elevating him to prime minister.

In 2019, the final episode of The Big Bang Theory aired after a 12-season run. The comedy series starred Jim Parsons (Sheldon), Johnny Galecki (Leonard), Kaley Cuoco (Penny), Simon Helberg (Howard), Kunal Nayyar (Raj), Melissa Rauch (Bernadette) and Mayim Bialik (Amy).

File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI

May 15 (UPI) — Representatives of both parties in the House on Friday demanded to know why the Department of Defense stopped deployment of troops to Poland, and top Army leaders didn’t have clear answers.

House Armed Services Committee members said the halting of troop deployment with no notice was a surprise to Congress, Politico reported. They had a hearing Friday with top Army leaders who gave them few answers.

“I just want to say this is a slap in the face to Poland; it’s a slap in the face to our Baltic friends,” Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said. “It’s a slap to the face of this committee.”

The deployment was a long-planned rotation of 4,000 troops based in Texas, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth put a sudden stop to it.

Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., on Friday questioned Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who said the rotation was canceled “just a couple days ago,” though acting Army Chief of Staff Gen. Christopher LaNeve said the decision was made in the “last two weeks.”

Neither man gave an explanation for the decision.

“We don’t know what’s going on here, but I can just tell you we’re not happy with what’s being talked about, particularly since there’s been no statutory consultation with us,” committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., told Driscoll and LaNeve.

On Thursday, acting Pentagon press secretary Joel Valdez said the decision was “not an unexpected, last-minute decision.”

“I don’t see how [the Pentagon] statement can be true,” Scott said.

LaNeve confirmed that some equipment was already in Europe or en route when Hegseth canceled the deployment.

Driscoll said the Army can adjust its plans based on the preferences of regional commanders or the secretary of defense.

“This is not meant to hide the ball; this is to say this type of conversation is going on throughout the year every single year,” he said.

On April 30, President Donald Trump decided to remove 5,000 troops from Germany after German Chancellor Friederich Merz said the United States was “humiliated” by Iran.

Trump has often complained about NATO, but he has called Poland a “model ally” for its move to spend more on defense. In September, Trump said he would support Poland and stand with Warsaw “all the way” after the candidate he backed, Karol Nawrocki, won the election for president.

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., said Army leaders should be able to give a straight answer to Congress.

“The only answer I’ve got is, ‘Well, that’s what they told us to do.’ OK, why?” Smith asked the Army leaders. “If there’s some strategy behind it, then you guys ought to know and you ought to be able to communicate it to us.”

Bacon said that Polish officials were “blindsided” by the move, which he learned from a phone call from Poland.

“They called me yesterday, they did not know, they were blindsided,” The Hill reported Bacon told Driscoll and LaNeve. “These are some of our best allies, and they had no idea. They still don’t know what the plan is.”

Bacon said he knew the Army leaders didn’t make the decision, but he called it “reprehensible” and “an embarrassment to our country … what we just did to Poland.”

He added, “I know I may not represent 100% of people in this committee, but I think I represent the views of the vast majority. We disagree. … We’re sending a terrible message to Russia and to our allies.”

Rep. Marilyn Strickland, D-Wash., said, “When we take that many troops away, it says that we are not a reliable ally.

May 15 (UPI) — The FBI is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of a former Air Force counterintelligence specialist who defected to Iran in 2013.

Monica Elfriede Witt, 47, of El Paso, Texas, is accused of spying for Iran. She was indicted in February 2019 by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., on espionage charges. The charges allege she transmitted classified defense information to Iran.

Witt served in the military between 1997 and 2008 before working as a U.S. government contractor until 2010. She had access to top secret information, including the true names of Americans working undercover, an FBI press release said.

She “allegedly betrayed her oath to the Constitution” by “defecting to Iran and providing the Iranian regime National Defense Information and likely continues to support their nefarious activities,” said Daniel Wierzbicki, special agent in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Counterintelligence and Cyber Division.

“The FBI has not forgotten and believes that during this critical moment in Iran’s history, there is someone who knows something about her whereabouts,” he added.

The press release said that “Witt allegedly intentionally provided information endangering U.S. personnel and their families stationed abroad. She also allegedly conducted research on behalf of the Iranian regime to allow them to target her former colleagues in the U.S. government.”

May 15 (UPI) — President Donald Trump told reporters Friday that the first sentence of Iran’s peace proposal was “unacceptable” and accused the country of backtracking on its nuclear policy, but Iran signaled it’s still ready to negotiate.

Trump said the first sentence was an “unacceptable sentence, because they have fully agreed no nuclear, and if they have any nuclear of any form, I don’t read the rest,” CNN reported he said. He added that he is unsatisfied with the “level of guarantee from them.”

Trump said Iran had agreed to give up its enriched uranium, which he calls “nuclear dust.” But “then they took it back,” he said.

But Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Friday that discussion about uranium enrichment “is currently not on the agenda of discussions or negotiations,” but the country is willing to talk about it later in negotiations, according to Iran’s news agency Tasnim.

Iran has said it doesn’t plan to build a nuclear weapon but has refused to give up its uranium.

Trump’s comments were on his trip from Beijing after meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

When reporters asked if Xi had agreed to pressure Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the president replied, “We don’t need favors,” but that “we may have to do a little cleanup work,” without clarifying what he meant.

“We had a little monthlong cease-fire, I guess you’d call it, but we have a blockade that’s so effective, that’s why we did the cease-fire.”

China appears hesitant to get involved in the conflict, Al Jazeera reported.

Trump said the United States and China agree that the strait must be opened and the war must end. About half of China’s crude oil comes through the strait.

Araghchi said Iran would welcome Chinese diplomacy to help defuse the war with the United States.

“Any effort made by the Chinese to support diplomacy will be welcomed by the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he said at a press conference in New Delhi, India. He was attending the BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting.

But he also said that Iran considers itself as the protector of the strait.

Araghchi said on X that with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, he “clarified that Iran will always carry out [its] historical duty as protector of security” in the Strait of Hormuz.

He added that “all friendly nations” can “rely on safety of commerce.”

Following his visit with Xi, Trump also said he is considering removing sanctions on Chinese companies that have been buying Iranian oil as the war and high gas prices linger.

“I’m going to make a decision over the next few days. We did talk about that,” Trump said on Friday.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNBC Friday that China will likely buy more oil from the United States.

“I suspect we’ll see a growth in their oil imports from the United States,” Wright said.

“But ultimately, the world needs to get the Persian Gulf open. Iran’s attempt to hold the whole world hostage, people know it’s temporary.

“One way or the other, we will see an end to the Iranian nuclear program and we will see free flow of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. That can happen relatively rapidly with an agreement with Iran,” he said.

May 15 (UPI) — The House Ethics Committee has launched an investigation into Rep. Chuck Edwards over allegations of creating a hostile work environment and engaging in sexual harassment.

Little information about the probe was made public.

In a brief statement issued Thursday, the committee said it was “reviewing allegations that Representative Chuck Edwards may have created or fostered a hostile work environment and engaged in sexual harassment in violation of the Code of Official Conduct or any other applicable standard of conduct.”

The committee said that its investigation and public disclosure do not indicate a violation has occurred.

Edwards told The Hill that he welcomes the investigation and plans “to comply fully with the committee.”

“I am confident the investigation will expose the facts, not politically motivated fiction,” he said.

The announcement follows recent reports that the committee was investigating Edwards, with Axios having been the first to report on the development.

Specifics of the allegations were not clear, but Politico earlier this week reported that he allegedly had an improper relationship with a subordinate as well as allegedly engaged in sexually harassment.

The investigation comes on the heels of two high-profile House resignations last month over sexual misconduct allegations.

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., stepped down amid accusations of sexual misconduct and abuse, while Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, resigned after admitting he had an affair with a former aide who died by suicide.

Amid growing concern and anger about alleged abuses by members of the lower chamber, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Ky., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., announced Wednesday the creation of a bipartisan partnership between their parties’ women’s caucuses to combat workplace sexual misconduct in Congress.

Reps. Teresa Leger Fernandez, D-N.M., and Kat Cammack, R-Fla., were designated to lead the effort as respective chairs of the Democratic and Republican Women’s Caucuses in the House.

“To state the obvious, all women should feel comfortable and safe working in the halls of Congress,” Johnson said in a statement, adding that he is happy Cammack and Leger Fernandez “will lead this bipartisan partnership to find ways we can continue to make Capitol Hill safer for women and all staff.”

WASHINGTON, May 14 (UPI) The House on Thursday passed the Cashless Bail Reporting Act, which is intended to deter states and communities from releasing people charged with crimes before trial without paying bail. Ninety-six Democrats joined most Republicans to approve the measure, 308 to 116.

If the Senate were to write a companion bill and pass it, the act could have significant repercussions for the Black, Latino and low-income communities, according to researchers and activists. Advocacy groups also had raised concerns that the bill would lessen states’ rights.

“We have seen state and local governments making reforms to their bail systems in response to the growing body of research which has highlighted the inequities in bail systems, which disproportionately burden racial minorities, women and overwhelmingly the poor,” Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., said in an earlier hearing on the bill

The bill expanded on a 2025 executive order from President Donald Trump, “Taking Steps to End Cashless Bail to Protect Americans,” which required the U.S. Attorney General to send a list of states and local jurisdictions that have eliminated cash bail for some crimes that “pose a clear threat to public safety and order.”

These crimes include violent, sexual and indecent acts, and burglary, looting and vandalism. To encourage elimination of cashless bail, the executive order also directed agencies to identify funding to these communities that could be “suspended or terminated.”

The bill would require annual lists of states and communities that allow cashless bail.

“It would be creating a bit of a hit list for different policymakers to attack and to try to pressure those states, counties, localities to change their policies and practices, to avoid … a lot of public safety funding that they get every year from the federal government getting completely gutted,” Nicole Zayas Manzano, deputy director of policy for the Bail Project, a non-profit group that advocates for bail reform and provides bail assistance, said about the lists.

In a Rules Committee meeting on Tuesday, Republicans said the act would lower crime rates.

“We know violent criminals released on cashless or artificially low bail have reoffended,” said Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md. voted for the bill, but said it would do little more than track bail practices in states and localities.

“It’s hard to see how issuing a report advances community safety or justice, given the strangely hostile rhetoric we are hearing from our colleagues about cashless bail,” Raskin said in the debate before the vote.

In a 2024 study, the Brennan Center for Justice found that there was “no statistically significant relationship” between cashless bail policies and increases in violent crime.

In the Rules Committee meeting, Rep. Michelle Fischbach, R-Minn., referenced the Bail Project, a non-profit organization that pays bail for low-income people who cannot afford it. She claimed that the group put violent offenders back on the street.

“In Indiana, from 2019 to 2021, 24% of the roughly 1,000 defendants cut loose by the Bail Project … had been charged with a crime of violence, so we’re putting violent offenders back on the road. And 35% were facing felony charges and had a previous charge of at least one crime of violence,” Fischbach said.

The group rejected the congresswoman’s description.

“The cutting loose reference mischaracterizes our work. We only step in after a judge has deemed somebody eligible for release, and it is only the affordability of cash bail that is preventing them from getting out, which is also unconstitutional,” Zayas Manzano said. “Then we really connect them with social services in their own communities.”

Moreover, studies found that cash bail disproportionately harms minorities, notably those in Black, Latino and low-income communities. In 2024, the Criminology & Public Policy Journal reported that Black defendants were 34% more likely to be recommended to be held behind bars until their cases were resolved when compared to white defendants.

Zayas Mazano said people jailed before trial were more likely to pre-emptively plead guilty, receive harsher punishments and end up with worse criminal records.

“Your life also just falls apart once you’re trapped inside, right? You could lose your housing if you can’t go and pay rent. You can lose your job if you’re not able to show up after a certain number of days. You could lose custody of your children. I mean, all kinds of things can really happen, but then just really snowball onto communities of color, in particular, and low-income people in general,” she said.

According to the Prison Policy Initiative, 69% of pretrial detainees were people of color, with Black (43%) and Hispanic (19.6%) defendants especially overrepresented compared to their share of the total U.S. population.

“Study after study shows that judges tend to assign people of color higher cash bail amounts and that they are less likely to be able to afford those cash bail amounts. And so they are very often forced into whether or not they must stay behind bars, which we certainly see huge racial disparities in jail, pretrial, and otherwise,” Zayas Manzano said.

During the Rules Committee meeting, Democrats mirrored concerns about the bill passing. Notably, Raskin discussed how the federal court system has functioned on a cashless bail system for about 60 years, instead of making bail decisions based on the danger of flight or violence to others.

“In America, whether you’re a president or a pope or a pauper, you’re innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt as to every element of the charged offense,” Raskin said. “And no one should be detained pretrial simply because they don’t have the financial resources to post bail.”

WASHINGTON, May 14 (UPI) — Every day at 4 a.m., Cesar wakes up to sell burritos on the streets of Los Angeles. He spends a few hours preparing food in his apartment kitchen and later sets up a small canopy tent with a grill, several coolers and a large sign, made by his sister, advertising “burritos for sale.”

He has done this for the last three weeks, after finding out just over a month ago that he was terminated from his human relations job. He lost the job because of renewal delays to his status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill, said Tuesday that 32,000 people have lost their DACA status largely as a result of delays. The Department of Homeland Security has not released data on the number of people waiting for renewals.

More than 500,000 people rely on DACA, according to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. The program requires recipients to renew their status every two years.

“At first, when I was let go, I was feeling devastated, defeated,” said Cesar, who came to the United States when he was 4 and who did not want his last name used for fear of government retribution. “But, after going through those feelings, I knew I couldn’t just sit there.”

Cesar is one of many DACA recipients who have lost their jobs in recent months due to renewal delays, largely caused by increased vetting procedures. The program requires recipients to renew their status every two years.

The Obama-era immigration program provides work authorization to those who qualify, as well as protection from deportation. When their status expires, DACA recipients lose both protections. Many, like Cesar, now have been terminated from their jobs as a result and fear deportation.

Cesar applied for his renewal in early December, nearly six months ago. Like many others, he has received no communication since from USCIS. Previously, renewal applications took one to two months on average, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Last year, the median processing time was 15 days, according to DHS data.

“In its 14 years, we have certainly seen the DACA program face a whole host of attacks,” said Anabel Mendoza, a spokesperson from United We Dream, a youth-led immigrant network. “But what we’re seeing now is truly the most dangerous moment in DACA’s history.

More than 700 people attended a Zoom event hosted by United We Dream last week to help DACA recipients navigate the instability created by these delays. There was a distinct sense of anxiety among the attendees.

Participants flooded the chat feature of the call with anecdotes of losing solid jobs and questions on whether DACA recipients qualified for paid leave or unemployment.

One attendee wrote that, although he would prefer not to use unemployment, he had been waiting five months to receive his renewal. Like many others, he was worried about his ability to pay off significant bills and loans after losing his job.

One person even questioned whether they could sue the current administration.

Another asked whether they could now be deported, with many worrying whether they may even be detained at their immigration appointments.

The two central benefits of DACA, historically, have been legal protection from deportation and work authorization. However, a recent ruling by the Board of Immigration Appeals, an arm of the Department of Justice, said that judges can no longer stop deportation proceedings simply based on the plaintiff having DACA status. This marked a significant shift in immigration policy.

Organizers at the event stressed that DACA still protects recipients from deportation, but judges now have to consider DACA cases more closely. They later acknowledged that many DACA recipients were detained and deported by ICE last year, even before the ruling.

Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons confirmed in April that 343 people with DACA status were detained between January and November 2025, while 176 were deported.

Former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement in February that most of these people had “criminal histories.” However she did not specify their crimes or whether they had been arrested, charged or convicted.

“It is part of a broader pattern of really trying to undermine DACA and erode the very protections that the program was meant to uphold,” Mendoza said.

This was a sentiment echoed by Maria Fernanda Madrigal, a mother of three who recently lost her job as an immigration attorney after losing her work permit because of the delays.

In an interview, she questioned whether the delays were an intentional strategy by the Trump administration. She explained that the renewal process had previously been very straightforward for many of her clients — sometimes taking just a week.

“I’m still trying to figure out what the goal is,” Madrigal said. “Because it’s hard, do they want us to leave?”

She highlighted Trump’s attempted termination of the DACA program in 2017 during his first term. The Supreme Court blocked him and preserved the program in 2020.

Now, she wonders whether it may be easier for her and her family to leave the United States. She explained that, unlike their parents, “a lot of us [DACA recipients] have degrees and careers, so we know that we’ll be able to build lives somewhere else.”

Madrigal now keeps the doors of her house locked at all times out of fear of being detained while she awaits her renewal. She said she and her husband have had discussions about whether their small children should share a bed with them.

“If I’m ever detained, these are the moments that I’m going to want, right? I’m going to look back and say I wish I would have cuddled with them a little longer,” Madrigal said.

As Cesar’s new business continues to grow, he faces similar fears, worrying whether he might be “taken away at any moment.”

“I know a lot of people say we’re resilient and we’ll figure it out. And that’s very true,” Madrigal said. “But, I think the main thing that our people understand is, even though we might be able to stick together and get over this, we shouldn’t have to.”

May 14 (UPI) — U.S. consumers spent $757.1 billion on retail and food services in April, a 0.5% increase over March, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Thursday.

For 12 months ending in April, not adjusted for price changes, sales increased by 4.9%. Total sales for February through April increased 4.4% over the same period in 2025.

Gasoline sales climbed 2.8% in April after jumping 13.7% in March.

Retail trade sales increased by 0.5% over March and 5.2% over last year. Non-store retail went up 11.1% for the year. Sales minus gasoline and building materials increased 0.46%.

While retail sales increased in April, they did so at a slower rate than in March, which increased by 1.6% for the month. Yet it was still the third consecutive monthly increase.

Retail sales as a whole grew but several categories experienced declines, including furniture store sales, down 2%, car dealerships, down 0.5%, department stores, down 3.2%, and clothing stores, down 1.5%.

A consumer survey conducted by the University of Michigan found that consumer sentiments are low due to concerns about high prices and current economic conditions. This has caused consumers to hold off on making major purchases, such as furniture and automobiles.

May 13 (UPI) — The Justice Department filed a lawsuit Wednesday evening against D.C. disciplinary officials who recommended Jeffrey Clark be disbarred over his efforts to overturn 2020 election results, the latest move by the Trump administration to defend allies accused of helping President Donald Trump remain in power after that election loss.

The lawsuit in a federal court in D.C. alleges the disciplinary officials used their powers to punish lawyers over what federal prosecutors describe as “internal Executive Branch deliberations” in order to regulate federal government actions.

“Weaponizing state bar discipline against Executive Branch attorneys in this way chills them from giving candid legal advice to others in the Executive Branch, including the president and attorney general,” the lawsuit states.

“To permit these proceedings is to allow state bar authorities to control the Executive Branch. That is not the law.”

Clark was an assistant attorney general at the Justice Department following Trump’s 2020 election loss to Joe Biden, and urged Justice Department officials to issue a letter he wrote casting doubt on election results, according to congressional investigators and D.C. disciplinary officials.

The letter specifically targeted the results in Georgia, a swing state Trump lost to Biden by 11,779 votes, alleging a Justice Department investigation had uncovered election “irregularities” despite Attorney General William Barr having already announced there was no evidence of outcome-determinative fraud in the election prior to his resignation.

Clark had prepared the letter to be signed by Barr’s replacement, then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, and Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, the second highest-ranking Justice Department lawyer, both of whom refused because they knew its contents were untrue.

Clark continued to push for the Justice Department to issue the letter, which he intended to be used as a template to be sent to other states. Amid the political turmoil, Trump considered appointing Clark as attorney general — a move Clark encouraged so he could launch nationwide investigations to uncover unfounded claims of election issues.

Trump abandoned the idea of appointing Clark only after being informed doing so would cause mass resignations among Justice Department leadership.

The D.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel opened its investigation into Clark’s actions after Sen. Dick Durbin, as then-chairman of the committee, asked it to probe his “serious violations of professional conduct.”

The D.C. Court of Appeals Board on Professional Responsibility in July recommended that Clark be disbarred in D.C., stating that “when a lawyer attempts to make intentional false statements on an issue that the lawyer understands to be a ‘pressing matter of overriding national importance,’ or knowing that the false statement would have serious and far-ranging consequences, they deserve the ultimate sanction.”

A final judgment has not yet been issued in the case.

The Justice Department on Wednesday asked the court to quash the D.C. disciplinary proceedings against Clark, and alleged they violate the Supremacy Clause and Article II of the Constitution by arguing that Clark was acting as a federal government employee who cannot be punished for performing Executive Branch duties.

Federal prosecutors also frame the issue as involving internal discussions. They said Clark attempted to persuade his superiors to issue a draft letter “that he felt reflected the actual law and facts about the 2020 election.”

“D.C. disciplinary authorities may not punish a United States official for disagreeing with a superior or coworker or for sharing an opinion just because those disciplinary authorities disagree with it,” the filing states.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche also accused the D.C. Bar of being “a blatantly partisan arm of leftist causes,” accusing it of being weaponized.

“The D.C. Bar will no longer be permitted to probe sensitive Executive Branch deliberations and target Executive Branch officials with whom they happen to politically disagree, and federal attorneys will once again be free to share their candid legal advice with their bosses and colleagues,” he said in a statement.

Clark was never charged in federal court in connection with his role in the alleged scheme, but he, Trump and 17 others were indicted in Georgia on racketeering charges. The case was dismissed after the prosecutor appointed following Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ removal declined to pursue the charges.

Other Trump allies accused of aiding his efforts to overturn the 2020 election have also been sanctioned in D.C., including Rudy Giuliani, who was disbarred in D.C. and New York, and John Eastman, whose D.C. law license was suspended on an interim basis after he was disbarred in California.

Wednesday’s lawsuit is the latest action by the federal government aiding those who supported Trump’s false election claims.

On Trump’s first day in office, he issued clemency to the roughly 1,500 people charged or convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

He also issued pardons to Giuliani, Eastman, Clark, Sidney Powell and many others accused of aiding his efforts.

May 13 (UPI) — The U.S. Senate voted to confirm Kevin Warsh on Wednesday as the new chairman of the Federal Reserve. Warsh, who was nominated by President Donald Trump, succeeds Jerome Powell, who has been frequently criticized by the president for not lowering interest rates in accordance with Trump’s demands.

The Senate voted 54-45 to confirm Warsh in the most partisan vote for a chair nominee in history, CNN reported. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., was the only Democrat to vote in favor of the confirmation.

Warsh will be the 17th chair of the central bank, which is traditionally politically independent. However, Trump has aimed a great deal of criticism at the Fed and its governors over that independence, insulting Powell harshly at times and threatening to fire him.

The president also supported a Justice Department investigation into Powell, allegedly over costs for the central bank headquarters renovation. Powell has said that Trump targeted him because of the Fed would not follow his orders on interest rates. The Justice Department dropped the investigation in late April.

Democrats have expressed concerns about Warsh’s independence from Trump if confirmed. The new Fed chair has said he will be “an independent actor” but also promised a “regime change” at the central bank, The New York Times reported.

Warsh is the wealthiest Fed chair nominee in recent history, with a net worth over $100 million. He is married to Jane Lauder, who is an heir to the Estee Lauder fortune, and also has about $192 million in assets in combination with her.

Warsh said that he would divest a large amount of his assets and resign from several positions if confirmed. He also served as a governor at the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2011.

Powell’s term as chair ends Friday, but he has said he’ll stay as a fed governor for his remaining two years.

May 13 (UPI) — The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the double murder convictions for former lawyer Alex Murdaugh for the slayings of his wife and son.

The court ordered a new trial for the 2021 deaths of Margaret Murdaugh and Paul Murdaugh. Alex Murdaugh was convicted in 2023 of the two murders — along with two counts of possession of a weapon during a violent crime — and sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole.

In a 5-0 ruling Wednesday, though, the state’s highest court said the murder trial had been improperly influenced by county clerk Becky Hill. The justices said she “placed her fingers on the scales of justice, thereby denying Murdaugh his right to a fair trial by an impartial jury.”

“Although we are aware of the time, money and effort expended for this lengthy trial, we have no choice but to reverse the denial of Murdaugh’s motion for a new trial due to Hill’s improper external influences on the jury and remand for a new trial.”

Hill pleaded guilty last year to charges she lied to the court about showing sealed court documents to a photographer, NBC News reported. She was sentenced to one year of probation.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said in a statement to CNN that he plans to retry Alex Murdaugh.

“While we respectfully disagree with the Court’s decision, my Office will aggressively seek to retry Alex Murdaugh for the murders of Maggie and Paul as soon as possible,” he said.

“No one is above the law and, as always, we will continue to fight for justice.”

Murdaugh’s lawyers welcomed the state supreme court’s decision.

“We look forward to a new trial conducted consistent with the Constitution and the guidance this court has provided,” they said.

May 13 (UPI) — Final demand wholesale inflation rose by 6% on an annual basis in April, marking the largest increase since 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday.

More than three-quarters of the 2% increase in final demand goods in April was attributed to a 7.8% increase in energy prices. Final demand services moved up 1.2%, pushed along largely by a 2.7% increase in trade services.

The producer price index increased by a seasonally adjusted 1.4% in April, double the rate increase in March. The increase outpaced the Dow Jones consensus estimate of 0.5%. It is the largest monthly increase since March 2022.

The annual 6% wholesale inflation increase is the largest since December 2022.

Machinery and equipment wholesaling was another big factor in rising inflation. Final demand service prices for machinery and equipment rose by 3.5%.

Final demand excluding volatile food and energy rose 0.6%, the largest bump since October. For the year ending in April, final demand excluding food and energy was up 4.4%, the largest increase since February 2023.

By commodity type, the index for unprocessed goods went up 4.1%. Intermediate demand goods increased 2.7% for the month, the sixth consecutive monthly increase.

About 80% of the index increase for unprocessed goods for intermediate demand can be attributed to unprocessed energy materials which increased 9.2%. Crude petroleum rose by 11.3%.

Unprocessed non-food materials and excluding energy fell by 1%.

May 13 (UPI) — The United States announced visa restrictions on 13 people linked to a U.S.-sanctioned, India-based online pharmacy that the Trump administration accuses of selling Americans hundreds of thousands of counterfeit prescription pills laced with fentanyl.

The people targeted by the State Department on Tuesday were identified as being “close business associates of KS International Traders and its owner.”

The U.S. Treasury sanctioned KS International and Mohammad Iqbal Shaikh, 34, in September. Shaikh was also among 19 people indicted in New York in the fall of 2024 on charges of selling counterfeit, fentanyl-laced pills to Americans over the Internet and via encrypted messaging platforms.

The targeting of KS International comes amid the Trump administration’s broader crackdown on drug smuggling. Among tactics employed was President Donald Trump‘s December 2025designation of illicit fentanyl and its core precursor chemicals as weapons of mass destruction.

In June, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a new policy to impose visa restrictions on drug traffickers, their family members and close personal and business associates.

State Department spokesperson Thomas Pigott said Tuesday that the barring of entry to the 13 individuals “underscores the United States’ and India’s enduring and shared commitment to dismantling illicit drug entities and disrupting trafficking networks that harm Americans.”

“Those complicit in poisoning Americans will be denied entry to the United States,” he said in a statement.

The Trump administration has increasingly used visa restrictions across several policy areas, from punishing Haitian government officials and members of criminal organizations accused of obstructing the nation’s fight against terrorist gangs to Nicaraguan citizens believed to be facilitating irregular immigration into the United States.

May 12 (UPI) — Missouri’s Supreme Court has approved the state’s new congressional maps, handing a win to the Trump administration as it seeks to create additional Republican-favored seats ahead of November’s midterm elections.

The high court ruled unanimously Tuesday in three cases that challenged the map, stating in a joint opinion affecting two cases that the redraw does not violate the state’s Constitution, and rejected a referendum-related challenge against the bill that permitted the unorthodox mid-decade redraw.

“Today’s Missouri Supreme Court rulings are a HUGE victory for voters,” Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe, a Republican, said in a social media statement Tuesday.

“Missourians are more alike than we are different, and our Missouri Values — rooted in common sense, hard work and personal responsibility — are stronger and far more aligned across both sides of the aisle than the extreme left-wing agendas pushed in states like New York, California and Illinois.

“The Missouri First Map ensures those values are represented fairly and accurately at every level of government.”

Missouri began the effort to redraw its congressional map last summer amid President Donald Trump‘s push for Republican-led states to create more GOP-favored seats for November’s midterm elections. The map, which Kehoe signed in September, redraws Democrat Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s Kansas City-area district to include more rural, Republican-leaning areas, potentially whittling Missouri’s Democratic delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives from two seats to one.

Trump has repeatedly voiced concern about potential impeachment proceedings if Republicans lose the House. Creating additional Republican-leaning seats increases the GOP’s chances of maintaining control of the chamber, making impeachment less likely while limiting Democrats’ ability to conduct investigations into the Trump administration or stymie his agenda.

Texas was the first state to move on mid-decade redistricting, kicking off a gerrymandering arms race in which Democratic-led states sought to counter with their own maps and Republican-led states responded with additional redraws.

Fifteen states have moved to redistrict, with eight — seven Republican-led and one Democratic-led — having implemented new congressional maps, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Democratic-led Virginia also approved a new map, but the state Supreme Court overturned it last week.

The Missouri Supreme Court decisions on Tuesday resolve months of litigation in a trio of separate cases filed by Missouri voters against the redistricting.

In consolidating two cases that similarly challenged the constitutionality of the map’s redraw, the justices unanimously ruled that the appellants failed to show that it unlawfully slip the Kansas City-area district.

The other unanimous ruling sided against Missouri voters seeking to have the issue put to a ballot referendum.

Opponents to the maps criticized the court following its ruling, highlighting the fact that it was issued the same day arguments in the case were presented.

“While one might be inclined to hope that these justices managed to grapple with a highly complex, nuanced and consequential issue in just six hours, it seems clear the justices were not interested in the day’s proceedings and simply had their opinion already finalized, even before this morning’s argument,” Marina Jenkins, executive director of the National Redistricting Foundation, said in a statement.

“With this decision, the Missouri Supreme Court has shown Missourians the lack of seriousness with which it takes cases that pertain to protecting their right to vote — a complete and dangerous abdication of the judiciary’s role.”

The Campaign Legal Center, the American Civil Liberties Union Voting Rights Project and the ACLU of Missouri similarly criticized the ruling.

“Mere hours after argument was held, the court released its decisions siding against voters in every respect,” the groups said in a joint statement.

“We are extremely disappointed in these rulings, and in their failure to protect Missourians’ right to fair maps. This state — and our democracy — are worse off for this outcome.”

May 12 (UPI) — The South Carolina Senate voted Tuesday against a measure to extend its legislative session to redraw the state’s congressional map. President Donald Trump has pressured lawmakers to move forward with redistricting to give Republicans an advantage.

Five Republicans joined Democrats in voting against the resolution, which would have extended the session by a week, NBC News reported. This would have given the Senate more time to vote on a plan that would break up the state’s only Black-majority district. The legislative session ends Thursday, and the state’s primaries are June 9.

The redistricting push by Trump comes after a U.S. Supreme Court decision in late April that badly weakened a key part of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, one that had helped ensure minority groups could elect their choice of candidates.

State Sen. Shane Massey, a Republican and Senate majority leader, spoke out about the efforts before the vote, saying it’s a show of weakness to use redistricting to quash minority votes, Greenville News reported.

“My conscience is clear on this one,” Massey said. “I know what the right thing to do is.”

Massey said he’d received a call from Trump in recent days about pushing forward redistricting. On Monday night, Trump posted on social media that he was watching the vote closely.

“South Carolina Republicans: BE BOLD AND COURAGEOUS, just like the Republicans of the Great State of Tennessee were last week!” he wrote.

Last Thursday, the Tennessee state legislature passed a redistricting map that eliminated the state’s last Democrat-leaning, Black-majority district. Other Southern states have also been moving in this direction.

Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto said the vote sends a message that the state rejects a White House power grab, Greenville News reported.

“The people of this state expect us to focus on real issues affecting their daily lives, not carry out an outside political agenda,” he said.

Later Tuesday, Republican candidates for governor in South Carolina criticized the members of their party who voted against the resolution.

Rep. Nancy Mace, who’s been endorsed by Trump for the governor position, posted on social media that the state needs “a Governor who the statehouse will fear and listen to.”

“You know I’d whip every single ‘NO’ vote into shape if I was Governor,” she posted.