Salem News Channel

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Mamdani is Losing Supporters

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Officials say a volunteer firefighter has died battling a wildfire in Florida, while two large fires in Georgia have destroyed more than 120 homes. The sheriff's office in Nassau County, Florida, said Friday that volunteer firefighter James “Kevin” Crews died Thursday after suffering an unspecified medical emergency while suppressing a brush fire. Meanwhile, crews are battling two large fires in southeast Georgia that Gov. Brian Kemp says have destroyed 120 homes and threaten nearly 1,000 more. Kemp said no other wildfire in Georgia's history have burned so many homes. He said investigators believe the fire in rural Brantley County was sparked by an aluminum party balloon touching power lines.

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President Trump Is Securing Peace in the Middle East

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The Virginia Map is a Nightmare

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How Do We Finish the War?

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We've Been Victorious Over Iran

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Law enforcement authorities in Florida say they have found the body of one of the two missing University of South Florida doctoral students on a bridge over Tampa Bay, and a roommate has been taken into custody. Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said Zamil Limon’s remains were found on the Howard Franklin bridge Friday morning, but Nahida Bristy is still missing. He said Limon’s roommate faces several charges including domestic violence and unlawfully moving a body. The couple from Bangladesh disappeared from campus on April 16.

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President Donald Trump's administration plans to add firing squads, electrocution and gas asphyxiation as alternative methods of executing people convicted of the gravest federal crimes, it announced on Friday, noting difficulties in obtaining drugs for lethal injections. The recommendation came in a Justice Department report fulfilling Trump's promise to resume capital punishment at the federal level in his second term. In his first term, which ended in 2021, he resumed it after a 20-year gap, executing 13 federal prisoners with lethal injections in his final few months in office. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who released the report, has authorized seeking death sentences against nine people after Trump rescinded a moratorium on federal executions by his predecessor, Joe Biden, the department said. "Among the actions taken are readopting the lethal injection protocol utilized during the first Trump Administration, expanding the protocol to include additional manners of execution such as the firing squad, and streamlining internal processes to expedite death penalty cases," it said in a statement. In the report, Blanche instructed the Justice Department's Bureau of Prisons to modify its execution protocol "to include additional, constitutional manners of execution that are currently provided for by the law of certain states," pointing to the older methods of firing squads and electrocution, and the new gas asphyxiation method pioneered by Alabama in 2024. "This modification will help ensure the Department is prepared to carry out lawful executions even if a specific drug is unavailable," the report said. Biden, a Democrat, commuted the sentences of 37 of the people awaiting executions on federal death row, leaving only three men: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted in 2015 for the deadly bombing of the Boston Marathon; Dylann Roof, convicted in 2017 of killing nine worshipers at a South Carolina church; and Robert Bowers, convicted in 2023 of killing 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It can take many years for condemned prisoners to exhaust all legal avenues for challenging their death sentences, and none of the three men have yet received execution dates. Typically, when a U.S. state or the federal government adopts a new execution protocol, death row prisoners can mount legal challenges arguing that the new protocol violates the U.S. Constitution's prohibition of "cruel and unusual punishments." Such challenges have always failed at the U.S. Supreme Court, which has never previously found an adopted execution method to be unconstitutional. Lethal injection remains the most common method in the U.S., but has a higher rate of being botched than most other methods, including the single-drug protocol adopted by the federal government in 2019 using pentobarbital, a powerful barbiturate. A few executions have been aborted as prison officials struggle to find a vein on a strapped-down prisoner. Opponents of the method say autopsies of executed people's lungs show they experienced drowning before dying from the pentobarbital, which they argue amounts to a torturous death. Pharmaceutical companies refuse to sell their drugs that can be used in executions to prison systems, partly to comply with a European Union ban, forcing U.S. prisons to seek out smaller, less-regulated compounding pharmacies willing to brew copies of those drugs. This has led to several U.S. states reviving older methods in recent years. Five states have firing squads, with Idaho set to adopt it as its primary method in July, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit research group in Washington. Last year, South Carolina carried out the first execution by firing squad in the U.S. in 15 years after Brad Sigmon, convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend's parents, chose the method, saying he feared the state's alternatives of the electric chair or lethal injection would risk a slower and more torturous death. In 2024, Alabama became the first state to execute someone by forcing nitrogen into their airways through a face mask, suffocating them, a method that has since been adopted by Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma.

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The U.S. Space Force has awarded contracts worth up to $3.2 billion to 12 companies to develop space-based missile defense interceptor systems, advancing U.S. President Donald Trump's Golden Dome plan. Golden Dome, expected to cost $185 billion, envisions expanding ground-based defenses such as interceptor missiles, sensors and command-and-control systems while adding space-based elements to detect, track and potentially counter incoming threats from orbit. These would include advanced satellite networks and still-debated orbital weaponry. The Space Force granted initial prototype agreements to develop space-based interceptors capable of neutralizing missile threats shortly after launch, marking a significant shift in U.S. missile defense strategy. Unlike existing ground-based systems, the Space-Based Interceptor (SBI) program deploys weapons in orbit, enabling the U.S. military to engage and destroy threats earlier in their flight path. In late 2025 and early 2026, Space Force's Space Systems Command awarded 20 agreements to companies including SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and Anduril, with a potential combined award value of up to $3.2 billion to "ensure the government maintains contracting flexibility to award to the best provider," according to a statement from the Space Force. The program aims to develop a space-based missile defense interceptor system that will demonstrate an integrated capability within the Golden Dome for America architecture by 2028. The Space Force also awarded about half a dozen small Golden Dome contracts to build competing missile defense prototypes, kicking off a race for future deals worth tens of billions of dollars, Reuters reported in November.

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U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday that a U.S. blockade on Iran is going global, adding Tehran had a chance to make a "good deal" with Washington. "Our blockade is growing and going global," Hegseth told reporters. "No one sails from the Strait of Hormuz to anywhere in the world without the permission of the United States Navy," he said. Peace talks between Iran and the United States could resume soon in Pakistan, three Pakistani sources told Reuters on Friday, after the last round of talks expected earlier this week fell through. Standing next to top U.S. General Dan Caine, Hegseth said the U.S. was "not anxious" for a deal with Iran, and repeated Trump's previous comments of having "all the time in the world." "Iran knows that they still have an open window to choose wisely ... at the negotiating table. All they have to do is abandon a nuclear weapon in meaningful and verifiable ways," he said. Caine said the U.S. Central Command continues to maintain a strict blockade on all ports in Iran. Thirty-four ships had been turned around as of Friday morning, he said. The U.S. military would continue to interdict Iranian vessels in the Pacific and Indian oceans, Caine added. "We're enforcing the blockade across the board against any ship of any nationality that is transiting to or from an Iranian port or territory," Caine said. "We're closely tracking vessels of interest headed towards Iran and those moving away from Iran that were outside the blockade area when this blockade was ordered and ... we're prepared and postured to intercept them," he said. The U.S. naval blockade on Iran began on April 13. Hegseth also warned that any attempts by Iran to lay mines in the Strait of Hormuz would be a violation of the ceasefire. "Transit (of the Strait of Hormuz) is occurring, much more limited than anybody would like to see and with more risk than people would like to see, but that's because Iran is doing irresponsible things with small, fast boats ... with weapons on them," Hegseth said.

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An appeals court has blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order suspending asylum access, a key pillar of the Republican president’s plan to crack down on migration at the southern border of the U.S. A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Friday found that immigration laws give people the right to apply for asylum at the border, and the president can’t circumvent that.

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Two buses have crashed head-on near a Pentagon bus stop, injuring 23 people, including Defense Department personnel. The Pentagon Force Protection Agency says the Omni Ride and Fairfax Connector transit buses struck each other shortly before 7:30 a.m. Friday. Emergency personnel transported 18 of the injured to local hospitals for further medical evaluation. Five were treated at the scene. Ten of the 23 injured passengers are from the Defense Department. The accident altered mass transit operations for several hours. It's unclear what caused the crash.

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Officials say a powerful storm churned up multiple tornadoes that barreled through Oklahoma, damaging at least 40 homes and sending emergency crews door-to-door in a hard hit neighborhood. The most extensive damage was in the rural town of Enid in Garfield County on Thursday night, where some homes were reduced to rubble. Video shows a rapidly moving column of air touching down along with totaled homes. The Garfield County Sheriff’s Office said there were no immediate reports of fatalities and only minor injuries hours after the tornado passed through. The mayor of Enid says some people were trapped in their homes and had to be rescued.

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The Relief Factor Pain of the Week!

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President Donald Trump granted a 90-day extension to a shipping waiver that makes it easier to move oil, fuel and fertilizer around the United States, the White House said on Friday, the latest effort to curb rising energy costs linked to the war with Iran. The move reflects a broader push by the White House to dampen politically sensitive fuel price spikes ahead of November’s midterm elections, where affordability is expected to be a defining issue for voters. Recent polling shows Trump and Republicans losing ground on the economy — once a core political strength — with approval of his economic handling falling sharply and rising gasoline prices weighing heavily on public sentiment. The decision adds roughly three months to the existing waiver that was set to expire on May 17, enabling foreign-flagged vessels to move commodities between U.S. ports through mid-August. White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers confirmed on Friday that Trump had issued the extension. "This waiver extension provides both certainty and stability for the U.S. and global economies," Rogers said. The administration is taking the step of extending the waiver three weeks before its expiration to allow ample time for the maritime industry to ensure sufficient vessels are available to keep moving applicable goods to where they are needed, a White House official said. The Jones Act has long been a flashpoint between competing economic and national security priorities. Supporters, including U.S. shipbuilders, maritime unions and some lawmakers, argue the law is critical to maintaining a domestic shipping industry and merchant marine that can support military logistics and national security. But critics — including energy producers, refiners and agricultural groups — say the requirement to use U.S.-built and -crewed vessels sharply raises shipping costs and limits capacity, particularly during disruptions, driving up prices for fuel and other goods. “This extension of an already historically long and ineffective Jones Act waiver is not only an affront to hundreds of thousands of hardworking Americans who put this country first every single day, it sabotages President Trump’s agenda to restore American maritime dominance,” said Jennifer Carpenter, president of the American Maritime Partnership. The action is one of several steps Trump has taken to blunt elevated fuel prices and address growing supply concerns, as the U.S.- and Israeli-led war against Iran has triggered a global energy shock. Trump has said crude and gasoline prices are likely to fall once the Iran conflict subsides, but analysts caution that costs could remain elevated even after hostilities end, as supply disruptions, higher shipping costs and a lingering geopolitical risk premium continue to ripple through global energy markets.

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The Justice Department has ended its investigation into Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, clearing a major roadblock to the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as his successor. U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeannine Pirro said on X on Friday her office was ending its probe into the Fed’s extensive building renovations because the Fed’s inspector general would scrutinize them instead. The move could lead to a swift confirmation vote by the Senate for Warsh, a former Fed official President Donald Trump nominated in January to replace Powell. The investigation was among several undertaken by the Justice Department into the Republican president's perceived adversaries. Powell says the investigation was intended to intimidate the Fed.

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A U.S. special forces soldier who took part in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro will be released on bond on charges accusing him of using classified information about the operation to win more than $400,000 in an online prediction market, a federal magistrate said Friday. The magistrate in North Carolina ordered Gannon Ken Van Dyke to be released on a $250,000 bond and told him to report to a New York federal courthouse by Tuesday to continue his case there. Van Dyke said little during the nearly hourlong hearing, during which he was appointed a federal public defender. Federal prosecutors say Van Dyke used his access to classified information about the operation to capture Maduro in January to win money on the prediction market site Polymarket. Van Dyke, who is stationed at Fort Bragg near Fayetteville, North Carolina, was charged Thursday with the unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud and making an unlawful monetary transaction. He could face years in prison. A publicly listed phone number listed for Van Dyke isn't in service. Van Dyke, 38, was involved for about a month in the planning and execution of capturing Maduro, according to the New York federal prosecutor’s office. He signed nondisclosure agreements promising to not divulge “any classified or sensitive information” related to the operations, but prosecutors say he used what he knew to make a series of bets related to Maduro being out of power by Jan. 31. “This involved a U.S. soldier who allegedly took advantage of his position to profit off of a righteous military operation,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a social media post. Polymarket, one of the largest prediction markets, said it found someone trading on classified government information, alerted the Justice Department and “cooperated with their investigation.” Massive profits from well-timed bets aroused public attention days after the raid in Venezuela and brought bipartisan calls for stricter regulation of the markets, where people can wager on just about anything. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency that regulates prediction markets, announced Thursday that it had filed a parallel complaint against Van Dyke. That complaint alleges that Van Dyke moved $35,000 from his personal bank account into a cryptocurrency exchange account on Dec. 26 — a little over a week before U.S. forces flew into Caracas and seized Maduro. Van Dyke made a series of bets on when Maduro might be removed from power, according to the complaint. He placed those bets between Dec. 30 and Jan. 2, with the vast majority occurring the night of Jan. 2 — just hours before the first missiles struck Caracas. The bets resulted in “more than $404,000 of profits,” the complaint says. “The defendant was entrusted with confidential information about U.S. operations and yet took action that endangered U.S. national security and put the lives of American service members in harm’s way,” said Michael Selig, the commission’s chairman.

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President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner will travel to Pakistan soon for talks with Iran's foreign minister, a U.S. official told Reuters on Friday. Vice President JD Vance is not currently planning to attend but he will be on standby to travel to Islamabad if negotiations progress.

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Whether it’s shielding elite insiders, weaponizing the justice system against a patriot, or prioritizing identity politics over road safety, the pattern is clear: Democrats protect their own, punish their opponents, and scream racism whenever merit or national security gets in the way.

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