"The Senate confirmed Russ Vought to be director of the Office of Management and Budget, bringing in a juggernaut who is anticipated to invoke heightened executive power over the budget and the handling of federal employees.

"The vote was along party lines, 53-47, after Democrats used a 30-hour overnight delay tactic, where more than a dozen senators complained about how the institutions they have long controlled are completely falling apart in the early days of the Trump administration. ...

"OMB, one of the most powerful offices in the federal government, has significant influence over the federal budget, regulatory framework, and employment."

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"On Jan. 1, California's new anti-election integrity law went into effect, prohibiting local governments in the Golden State from requiring voters to show identification to cast ballots in elections. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the restrictive legislation into law a little more than a month before November's historic presidential election.

"It's certainly not the first time the far-left governor with higher political aspirations has been on the wrong side of American sentiment.

"A new Rasmussen Reports poll finds that more than three-quarters of likely U.S. voters (77%) say requiring a photo ID to vote is a reasonable way to protect the integrity of elections. Just 17 percent think such measures are unreasonable. The latest numbers are up from 74 percent support in 2021, according to the pollster."

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"One of the most expensive green energy projects ever undertaken in American history looks like it is now on borrowed time after eating up massive amounts of taxpayer dollars and killing thousands of birds.

"Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) -- a major utility company -- announced in January that it is terminating power purchase contracts with the owners of Southwestern California's Ivanpah Solar Power facility, a massive and unique solar project that received hundreds of millions of subsidy dollars as it launched in 2014. Just over a decade after it started operations, the facility appears to be headed toward its demise after killing thousands of birds because it could not provide the utility sufficiently cheap energy.

"'PG&E determined that ending the agreements at this time will save customers money,' the company said in its Jan. 17 statement on the plant. The original owners of the plant -- which cost about $2.2 billion to build -- included Google and NRG Energy, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal."

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"Panamanian president Jose Raul Mulino said his country would not renew its agreement with China's Belt and Road Initiative following a visit from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a move that will make it the first Latin American country to leave the initiative.

"Mulino, speaking to reporters on Sunday after Rubio's first foreign trip as America's top diplomat, said he believes the agreement is due for renewal in a year or two. He said he would study 'whether it can be finished earlier or not.'

"The news is a blow to Beijing, which views Panama as critical to its foreign influence efforts in the Western Hemisphere. Chinese businesses operate ports near the Panama Canal, which the United States owned and operated until moving control to Panama in 1999."

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"President Trump on Thursday said he plans to follow through on Saturday on his threat to impose 25 percent tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada.

"'We'll be announcing the tariffs on Canada and Mexico for a number of reasons,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. He cited the influx of migrants at the southern border, the flow of fentanyl into the United States and the trade deficit the U.S. has with its neighbors.

"'I'll be putting the tariff of 25 percent on Canada and Mexico, and we will really have to do that because we have very big deficits with those countries,' he said. 'Those tariffs may or may not rise with time.'"

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"The midair collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and an Army Blackhawk helicopter over the nation's capital was preceded by months of harrowing near misses at airports across America, as well as increasingly shrill warnings that the nation's air traffic control and safety system is stretched to the limit.

"Just 14 months before Wednesday night's fatal mishap near Ronald Reagan National Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration received a safety expert report that warned America's air traffic control system is suffering from quality control issues and staffing shortages that put safety at risk.

"That report warned that 'challenges, in the areas of process integrity, staffing, and facilities, equipment, and technology, all have ties to inadequate, inconsistent funding. Together, these challenges contribute to increased safety risk and should be regarded as incident precursor.'"

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"In his first hours in office, President Donald J. Trump issued an executive order curtailing the practice of unlimited birthright citizenship. Many think the Fourteenth Amendment calls for citizenship for everyone born in America. Left-wing attorneys general in 18 states have filed suit to stop the order. But the case isn't as clear cut as some would contend.

"At the heart of the debate is this phrase: 'All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.'

"This central clause raises questions about its application for some children of non-citizens and illegal immigrants. By revisiting the original debates surrounding the amendment's language and reviewing its implications, Trump's call for limiting the scope of birthright citizenship appears reasonable."

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"President Trump is exposing a fundamental flaw in the basic Biden-Harris theory of illegal immigration.

"Specifically that America is somehow at fault because people jump our borders and that we need to bribe the origin nations of the illegal flood with goodies like trade deals and spending on spurious 'root causes,' all because an evil and guilty United States has to pay and pay and pay before even thinking of maybe asking nicely for repatriations.

"For proof, witness Sunday's almost-instant cave-in by Colombian President Gustavo Petro after he tried to go head to head with Trump on the issue."

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"The federal government reported $161.8 billion in improper payments during the most recent fiscal year, according to a new watchdog report.

"Improper payments have been a significant issue for the federal government, with executive branches reporting an estimated $2.8 trillion worth since 2003, according to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

"The report found a total of $161.8 billion in improper payments in 2024 alone. That figure is likely an undercount because not all federal agencies follow reporting guidelines."

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"Apocalyptic global warming predictions of doom have long been fashionable, quasi-religious beliefs of 21st-century liberalism. But after the recent wildfires that have devastated the state, some California Democrats will be clinging to climate change as a matter of political survival.

"The epic incompetence demonstrated both by Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass during the crisis isn't just a matter of bad optics and some excruciatingly embarrassing moments for two career politicians. It has also created the possibility that even in a one-party state completely dominated by the Democrats, they might be held accountable for their egregious lack of leadership and terrible decisions that turned a natural disaster into an unprecedented catastrophe that has cost dozens of lives and destroyed more than 12,000 homes and buildings.

"While the notion that this might be a turning point to reverse the overwhelming advantage possessed by Democrats in California might be fanciful, the two are highly vulnerable to recall elections that, especially in the case of Bass, might actually force her from office."

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