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Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), chair of the House Republican Policy Committee, on Sunday defended Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) for the delay in unveiling a budget resolution.
In an interview on NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday” with Chris Stirewalt, Hern said Johnson’s task is especially difficult, noting the GOP can lose virtually no votes in the House, but said he is optimistic that the conference will be able to move forward with a resolution this week.
“When you have the smallest margin in the last 150 years in Congress, we can’t lose a single vote. You think about that for a second, when you have, you know, the people that represent all corners of the country, Speaker Johnson has been working very hard through the weekend to get us where we can notice a budget markup this week so we can move forward with one big, beautiful bill, as President Trump would like,” Hern told Stirewalt.
Johnson, members of his leadership team and an ideological cross-section of lawmakers huddled for hours on Thursday with President Trump and Vice President Vance to discuss a framework for advancing the president’s legislative wish list. These include border funding, immigration policy and an extension of the 2017 tax cuts.
The marathon meeting came days after Johnson was forced to scrap plans to mark up an initial budget resolution amid a conservative revolt over the level of spending cuts. The impasse in the House led top Senate Republicans to announce they would move their effort to enact Trump’s agenda, threatening to steamroll the House.
Johnson reported “very positive developments” after the White House meeting Thursday and sought to push back on the Senate GOP plans, insisting House Republicans were nearing the finish line — even though several thorny issues remained.
Hern echoed that sentiment in the Sunday interview.
“We know how difficult it’s going to be. We understand what the Senate is trying to do, in doing two bills so they move quickly. I believe we’re going to get the budget resolution done so we can start working on the policy,” Hern added.
The Hill is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns NewsNation.
New York’s children and schools could lose vital services to support their educational needs if President Donald Trump and Congress approve the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education, Gov. Kathy Hochul and U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand warned on Sunday.
Over 2.6 million kindergarten through grade 12 students in nearly 5,000 public schools throughout New York stand to lose critical funding if the education department closes, Gillibrand, New York’s junior senator, said during a press conference at P.S. 183 on the Upper East Side.
The senator explained that services that fall under Title 1 could be cut. Title 1 is a federal program that gives supplemental financial assistance to schools and school districts that have a high percentage of low-income families and pay for programs such as special education, early childhood education, and early intervention services for students and infants with disabilities.
She also said students in the state with disabilities could lose nearly $1 billion in annual support. Extracurricular activities could also be impacted if the federal education department is slashed.
“You can’t imagine what working families will go through if kids aren’t busy after school and don’t have the support that they need,” Gillibrand said.
Gillibrand said “hundreds, hundreds, and hundreds” of New Yorkers contact her office every day with concerns about their children’s education.
“Since its creation by Congress in 1979, the Department of Education has played a central role in this country by making sure students don’t fall behind their peers; it helps spur economic progress, allows us to stay competitive on the global stage, and allows our economy to have the workers that they need.”
No federal money = tax hikes in New York
Gov. Kathy Hochul, who also attended the press conference, said abolishing the DOE would have a massive impact on New York–including more taxes.
“This is $5.5 billion that the state receives annually from the Department of Education; $3.2 billion goes directly into our budget,” Hochul said, adding that much of it also goes into localities. “If that money is jeopardized, what I can tell you will happen is if localities lose that money, they will have to raise taxes.”
Trump’s call for the department’s overhaul comes at a time when student reading skills continue to fall drastically. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation’s Report Card, shows significant declines in reading that are not back to pre-pandemic numbers.
In fact, last year, average reading scores on the report declined by two points for both fourth- and eighth-grade students compared to 2022. This steepens the three-point decline seen in both grades between 2022 from 2019, the report showed.
However, Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers, said cutting Title 1 funding will only make things worse.
“What Title 1 does is support reading specialists all across NYS to help create and ensure that kids can level up in reading,” she said. “That’s what we’re talking about when say ‘these cuts.'”
What does Trump support?
An Executive Order that Trump signed on Jan. 29, states that he will “support parents in choosing and directing” the upbringing and education of their children.
“When our public education system fails such a large segment of society, it hinders our national competitiveness and devastates families and communities,” the order states. “For this reason, more than a dozen states have enacted universal K-12 scholarship programs, allowing families, rather than the government, to choose the best educational setting for their children.”
The order alone, however, cannot abolish the U.S. Department of Education. Both houses of Congress must approve legislation to do so.
According to a city Department of Education spokesperson, it is unclear when or if the proposed federal changes will impact NYC public schools.
“We have not received guidance from the federal government about the potential impact on our programs or services and will closely monitor ongoing developments,” the spokesperson said.
A deadly fire in a Brooklyn home early on Sunday morning claimed a man’s life and left two others — including a two-year-old boy — hospitalized.
Fire Department sources said the inferno ignited just before 3:35 a.m. on Feb. 9 inside an apartment building at 510 80th St. in Bay Ridge.
Members of Battalion 40 reported flames shooting out of the third-floor windows upon their arrival at the scene.
While searching the premises, firefighters encountered a 37-year-old man unconscious and unresponsive at the location. EMS rushed him to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn, where he was pronounced dead a short time later. Police have not yet released his identity; the victim’s body was transferred to the Medical Examiner’s office for an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death.
Firefighters also located two other victims, a 34-year-old woman and a 2-year-old boy, who were seriously injured. Paramedics rushed them to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn and listed in stable condition.
Police sources were not able to verify if the three fire victims were related.
More than 60 firefighters from 12 FDNY units, along with officers from the 68th Precinct, responded to put out the blaze, which was brought under control at around 4:39 a.m. Sunday.
FDNY marshals are now investigating what caused the deadly fire.
WASHINGTON — The Trump Administration has ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop nearly all its work, effectively shutting down the agency that was created to protect consumers after the 2008 financial crisis and subprime mortgage-lending scandal.
Russell Vought, the newly installed director of the Office of Management and Budget, directed the CFPB in a Saturday night email to stop work on proposed rules, to suspend the effective dates on any rules that were finalized but not yet effective, and to stop investigative work and not begin any new investigations. The agency has been a target of conservatives since President Barack Obama created it in 2011 following the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
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The email also ordered the bureau to “cease all supervision and examination activity.”
Read More: The Agency That’s Got Your Back
Also late Saturday, Vought said in a social media post that the CFPB would no longer withdraw funds from the Federal Reserve, adding that its current financing of $711.6 million is “excessive.” Congress directed the bureau to be funded by the Fed to insulate it from political pressures.
Vought’s email follows a similar directive from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Feb. 3 and is the latest move by the Trump administration to rapidly curtail the work of federal agencies that they have deemed excessive. Vought suggested that the CFPB is “unaccountable” in his social media post.
Obama created the bureau in the wake of the 2007-2008 housing bubble and financial crisis, which was caused in part by fraudulent mortgage lending. It was the brainchild of Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren and has attracted criticism and lawsuits from large banks and financial industry trade associations.
Vought’s email said that President Donald Trump had made him acting director of the CFPB on Friday. Trump fired the previous director of the bureau, Rohit Chopra, on Feb. 1.
Under Chopra, the CFPB approved rules to cap overdraft fees by banks, limit junk fees, and has proposed restrictions on data brokers selling personal information such as Social Security numbers. The agency had also sought to address complaints about the alleged “debanking” of crypto firms and conservatives by seeking to ban contracts that could cause someone to lose access to financial services for making political statements.
Luigi’s Pizza has all the makings of a perfect pie, but over the past 52 years, it’s grown into something more than just a pizza place for the Park Slope community.
“I want people to come in here and feel like this is their neighborhood store,” owner Giovanni Lanzo told Brooklyn Paper. “Because [when] I grew up here, every store was a neighborhood store. That’s changing.”
The shop’s slices have stayed the same for over 50 years, with fresh, simple ingredients atop a crunchy yet light and airy crust. Lanzo recommends the plain cheese, but whether it’s a margarita, Sicilian, or grandma slice, it does not disappoint.
Lanzo’s father, Luigi, opened the pizzeria in 1973. An Italian immigrant, Luigi began his life in Brooklyn working at Green-Wood Cemetery from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. before starting his shift at a pizzeria from 5 p.m. to 4 a.m.
His father opened Luigi’s Pizza around the time Lanzo was 11. He grew up in the shop and eventually took over in 1999. He has kept his father’s vision alive by keeping the pizzeria a reliable place for his neighbors to grab a great slice.
“Today everything has changed. They try to reinvent the wheel, but the bottom line is, it’s still around,” Lanzo said. “I keep it the way I was brought up, the way my father was taught in 1961.”
Luigi’s draws a steady stream of patrons who fill the narrow walkway and backroom seating. It is hard to ignore the chatter between customers as they recognize one another and strike up conversations about their families.
“At one time, you might have your grandparents here, your parents here, your kids. It was a family neighborhood. Now prices change all that,” Lanzo said.
The pizzaiolo has seen the neighborhood undergo many changes — especially in the last few decades as rising rents for storefronts and apartments have reshaped the community. He has seen families that have lived in Park Slope for generations pack up and leave, and smaller mom-and-pop shops having a harder time staying open.
“I guess it’s part of life. This is what you deal with,” Lanzo said. “But I’ve had customers that have been coming since my father started in this business.”
Despite its old-school roots, Lanzo welcomes a younger crowd to Luigi’s. In 2021, Dave Portnoy’s viral YouTube series, Barstool One Bite Pizza Review, awarded the shop a 9.3 rating for its plain slice.
While Lanzo admits to profiting from extra toppings and more nontraditional pies, he prefers the authenticity of “the real Brooklyn slice.”
“I know you love your pepperoni, you love your sausage, you love your onions…I’d rather you try the fresh regular slice,” he said. “It’s $3.”
The pizza ovens at Luigi’s go into overdrive during the after-school rush as families pick up pies and students come and go.
“I come here for the slices,” said 18-year-old customer Matt Fallah. But “it’s the atmosphere” that keeps him coming back to Luigi’s.
During a recent visit to Luigi’s ahead of National Pizza Day, Brooklyn Paper witnessed a drive-by compliment when a patron shouted through the door window, “This is the best pizza in Brooklyn!”
With a kind “thank you, sweetie,” Lanzo said compliments like that mean more to him than any money he could ever earn from his shop.
“ National Pizza Day is celebrating something that, for life, [has] been something that’s affordable,” Lanzo said. “And I keep it that way.”
Luigi’s Pizza is located at 686 Fifth Ave. in Park Slope and is open Monday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. For more information, visit luigispizzabrooklyn.com.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) could jeopardize trials and investigations at the world’s only permanent global tribunal for war crimes and genocide.
The order Trump signed Thursday accuses the ICC of “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel.” It cites the arrest warrant the ICC issued last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, over alleged war crimes in Gaza.
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The Hague-based court condemned the move. “The Court stands firmly by its personnel and pledges to continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world,” the court said in a statement.
What is the International Criminal Court?
The court was created in 2002 to be a last stop for the most serious international crimes: war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and aggression.
The United States and Israel are not members, but 125 other countries have signed the court’s foundational treaty, the Rome Statute. The ICC becomes involved when nations are unable or unwilling to prosecute crimes on their territory.
The court’s newest member, Ukraine, formally joined in January.
Judges at the court have convicted 11 people. Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga was the first, sentenced in 2012 to 14 years in prison for conscripting child soldiers.
A Congolese warlord known as “The Terminator” was convicted in July 2019 for atrocities committed during a brutal ethnic conflict in a mineral-rich region of Congo in 2002-2003. Bosco Ntaganda was given a 30-year prison sentence.
In 2021, the court convicted Dominic Ongwen of dozens of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including multiple killings and forced marriages in Uganda. Ongwen was a one-time child soldier who morphed into a brutal commander of a notorious rebel group known as the Lord’s Resistance Army.
What will these sanctions do?
The exact impact is unclear. Trump’s executive order invokes emergency powers from several different laws to allow the U.S. Treasury Department and the U.S. State Department to issue specific sanctions.
The court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, is a likely target, as is anyone involved in the Netanyahu investigation, including the three judges who issued the arrest warrants. The sanctions could also target the court itself, grinding its operations to a halt.
During his previous term in office, Trump imposed sanctions on former prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and one of her deputies over her investigation of alleged crimes in Afghanistan. The probe covered offenses allegedly committed by the Taliban, American troops and U.S. foreign intelligence operatives dating back to 2002. Trump’s sanctions blocked Bensouda from accessing any U.S.-based financial assets of court employees and barred her and her immediate family from entering the United States.
President Joe Biden lifted the sanctions when he took office in 2021.
Why has the court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu?
In November, a pretrial panel of judges issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant and Hamas’ military chief, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with the war in Gaza.
The warrants said there was reason to believe Netanyahu and Gallant used “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid, and intentionally targeted civilians in Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. Israeli officials deny the charges.
The warrant marked the first time that a sitting leader of a major Western power has been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity by a global court. The decision makes Netanyahu and the others internationally wanted suspects, putting them at risk of arrest when they travel abroad and potentially further isolating them.
Do these sanctions jeopardize current trials?
The court is currently without a single trial ahead for the first time since it arrested its first suspect in 2006.
It has issued 33 unsealed arrest warrants. Those named range from Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin to Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony and Gamlet Guchmazov, a former government member of the breakaway region of South Ossetia in Georgia. Kony is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Guchmazov is accused of torture.
Three verdicts are pending. Former CAR football federation president Patrice-Edouard Ngaïssona and Alfred Yekatom, alleged leaders of a predominantly Christian rebel group in the Central African Republic, are accused of multiple counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The trial of Ali Mohammed Ali Abdul Rahman Ali, who is accused of committing atrocities as the leader of the Janjaweed militia in Sudan, wrapped up last year.
For a few hours last month, the court appeared poised to take a Libyan warlord into custody. Instead, member state Italy sent Ossama Anjiem home. Also known as Ossama al-Masri, Anjiem heads the Tripoli branch of the Reform and Rehabilitation Institution, a notorious network of detention centers run by the government-backed Special Defense Force.
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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — As a student, Donald Trump played high school football. As a business baron, he owned a team in an upstart rival to the NFL and then sued the established league. As president, he denigrated pros who took a knee during the national anthem as part of a social justice movement.
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On Sunday, he adds to that complicated history with the sport when he becomes the first president in office to attend a Super Bowl.
Trump’s appearance at the Superdome in New Orleans to watch the two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs take on the Philadelphia Eagles follows the NFL’s decision to remove the “End Racism” slogans that have been stenciled on the end zones since 2021.
Read More: Revisiting Trump and Taylor Swift’s Tense History as They Both Attend the Super Bowl
Trump recently ordered the cancelation of programs that encourage diversity, equity and inclusion across the federal government and some critics see the league’s decision as a response to the Republican president’s action. But NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league’s diversity policies are not in conflict with the Trump administration’s efforts to end the federal government’s DEI programs.
Trump, who attended the Super Bowl in 1992, has avoided choosing sides in Sunday’s matchup despite public comments and social media posts that suggest an affinity for Kansas City.
Last week, when asked which team would win, Trump said, “I don’t want to say, but there’s a certain quarterback that seems to be a pretty good winner.” That appeared to be a reference to the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes.
Trump also posted congratulations to the Chiefs in January after they won the AFC Championship.
The president played football as a student at the New York Military Academy. As a New York businessman in the early 1980s, he owned the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League. Trump had sued to force a merger of the USFL and the NFL. The USFL eventually folded.
Read More: What Is DEI and What Challenges Does It Face Amid Trump’s Executive Orders?
Friction existed between Trump and the NFL during his first term as president.
Trump took issue with players kneeling during the national anthem to protest social or racial injustice. That movement began in 2016 with then-49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick taking a knee during “The Star-Spangled Banner” during an exhibition game in Denver.
Trump, through social media and other public comments, insisted that players stand for the national anthem and he called on team owners to fire any player who took a knee.
“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, you’d say, ’Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired,” Trump said to loud applause at a rally in Hunstville, Alabama, in 2017.
Trump is expected to watch the game from a box in the company of House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., among others. Trump won Missouri and Pennsylvania — the states represented in the game — on his way to a second term in November.
His interest in sports extends beyond football. Trump is an avid golfer who owns multiple golf courses and has hosted tournaments. He sponsored boxing matches at his former casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and attended a UFC match at Madison Square Garden weeks after winning a second term.
Trump was playing golf with Tiger Woods on Sunday morning in Florida, where the president spent the weekend, the White House said.
Read More: How Climate Change Is Affecting the NFL
Some NFL team owners have donated to his campaigns and Trump maintains friendships with Herschel Walker and Doug Flutie, who played for the Generals. Trump endorsed Walker’s unsuccessful bid as the Republican candidate for a U.S. Senate seat from Georgia in 2022, and has tapped him to become ambassador to the Bahamas.
Trump signed an order last week that is intended to block transgender women and girls from competing in women’s sports by targeting federal funding for schools that fail to comply.
Alvin Tillery, a politics professor and diversity expert at Northwestern University, said in an interview that the NFL’s decision to remove “End Racism” slogans was “shameful” given that the league “makes tens of billions of dollars largely on the bodies of Black men.”
He said the NFL should explain who it was aiming to please. The NFL said it was stenciling “Choose Love” in one of the end zones for the Super Bowl to encourage the country after a series of tragedies so far this year, including a New Year’s Day truck attack in the host city of New Orleans that killed 14 people and injured dozens more.
Tillery wasn’t convinced. “I think they removed it because Trump’s coming,” he said.
NEW ORLEANS (NewsNation) — Police are investigating the death of a television reporter who was in New Orleans to cover the Super Bowl and on Friday announced the arrest of a woman they say used his credit card.
Adan Manzano, 27, an anchor and reporter for Telemundo in Kansas City, Missouri, was found dead Wednesday in his hotel room in Kenner, a suburb just outside New Orleans, police said.
Police on Thursday evening arrested Louisiana resident Danette Colbert, 48. She is facing four felony charges, as well as a misdemeanor fraud and theft charge, Kenner Police Deputy Chief Mark McCormick said.
She also faces a state felony charge of possession of a stolen firearm, but Kenner Police do not believe it’s related to Manzano’s case, St. Tammany Sheriff’s Office Lt. Suzanne Carboni said.
Colbert was seen on security video footage arriving with Manzano at his hotel room around 5 a.m. the day of his death and then leaving without him about an hour later, police said. She used Manzano’s credit card at several stores in the area and authorities later located Manzano’s credit card and cellphone at Colbert’s residence in Slidell, northeast of New Orleans they said.
Police also uncovered narcotics at Colbert’s residence, Kenner Police Chief Keith Conley said Friday during a press conference. Investigators believe Colbert acted alone, he said.
A phone number affiliated with Colbert’s residence was disconnected and no one responded to a message sent to an email associated with her.
Conley described Colbert as a “career criminal” known to New Orleans police for “fraud schemes.”
“Everybody should be aware of their surroundings,” Conley said. “This brings to light that there are people out there that prey on other people and bring them into their confidence and victimize them.”
Colbert was twice arrested in 2022 in Las Vegas on felony charges of grand larceny and administering a drug to aid in a felony crime, court records show. In both cases, Colbert was accused of drugging men in their hotel rooms on the Las Vegas Strip and stealing from them, according to Daniel Lippmann, the attorney who represented her.
Lippmann told The Associated Press that both cases were later dismissed because the victims did not want to testify in court. Lippmann said he had no comment on the new allegations against Colbert.
One of the victims told police he woke up alone and with a bloody nose after going up to his hotel room with Colbert, who he met at a bar, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported in 2022. He said missing from his room was $50,000 in cash, a Rolex watch, $11,000 in poker chips, his phone and a designer luggage bag.
And last year, a Louisiana jury found Colbert guilty of theft and fraud charges. She was ordered to pay $50,000 in restitution, according to Orleans Parish court records.
Telemundo Kansas City General Manager Steve Downing said Manzano was a “rising star” and “true professional” — a bilingual television anchor and reporter who loved sports, and had covered the Kansas City Chiefs ′ past two Super Bowl victories. He hoped to see a record third straight win Sunday.
“You would always see him with a smile on his face, he enjoyed the work that he did,” Downing said. “He was very committed to serving the local community by providing them the best in sports news.”
Kenner police are awaiting the results of the coroner’s full autopsy, which will determine whether Manzano’s death was a homicide, Conley said.
The coroner’s office is conducting toxicology tests, and results are expected to take three to four weeks, Jefferson Parish Director of Forensic Operations Tim Genevay said. There was no obvious physical trauma found on Manzano’s body, he added.
Manzano was born in Mexico City and later moved to Kansas, NBC affiliate KSNT reported.
He leaves behind a 2-year-old daughter. He had been raising her on his own with help from family after his wife died last year in a car accident, Downing said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
