The agency tasked with advancing America’s energy security, developing its nuclear arsenal, and handling environmental challenges is now shaping the landscape of interscholastic sports in the United States. The Energy Department recently released two direct final rules to modify existing Title IX protections. One of the rules would strike regulations requiring schools that receive federal […]
Good morning and welcome to another edition of Free Agent! Remember with everything else in the news this week, there’s always a sports angle. We’ve got a full soccer takeover of the newsletter today (except for a few of the bullet points below). We’ve got the Club World Cup, some MLS labor issues with it, […]
President Donald Trump warned Iranians to “immediately evacuate Tehran” in a Monday afternoon post on Truth Social, raising the prospect of a major escalation in the ongoing war between Israel and Iran—or suggesting that America might join the conflict in a more direct way. Or was that statement just Trumpian bluster that everyone should ignore? […]
Brendan Carr used to talk a big game on free speech. In 2021, when members of Congress urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to block the sale of a Miami radio station over its perceived political slant, Carr—one of the agency’s commissioners—called that move “a deeply troubling transgression of free speech and the FCC’s status as […]
Last Thursday, a federal judge in San Francisco issued a temporary restraining order against President Donald Trump’s unilateral deployment of the California National Guard to facilitate immigration raids in the Los Angeles area, saying that takeover was illegal and unconstitutional. Although U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer’s order was stayed the same day by the U.S. […]
President Donald Trump has been celebrating in recent weeks as his administration strikes bilateral trade deals following “Liberation Day.” Some products, however, will soon be subject to increased duties, not lower ones. Starting June 30, imports derived from aluminum and steel will be subject to a 50 percent ad valorem tariff. These duties will hit […]
On any other Saturday, Santee Alley in downtown Los Angeles’s Fashion District would be packed shoulder-to-shoulder with people buying cut-rate electronics and quinceañera dresses and $100 three-piece suits and fake Labubu dolls. The goods are cheap, pushcart vendors sell bottled water to keep shoppers cool, and the open-air corridor stays open 365 days a year. […]
Workplace immigration raids on hold. In the face of public protests and an apparent lobbying effort by businesses and members of his administration, President Donald Trump ordered a pause on some workplace immigration raids. That decision was made after Trump met last week with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who reportedly impressed upon the president the […]
Reporters and advocacy groups found it hard to catalogue the Trump administration’s chaotic and secretive mass deportation program when it launched this winter, beginning with what word best describes the unprecedented tactics. Deportation is the most commonly understood term, but it refers to a codified judicial process for expelling an alien back to their home country […]
The cover-up of President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline is a scandal “maybe worse than Watergate,” CNN’s Jake Tapper opined recently. In this case, the key question is: “What didn’t the president know and when didn’t he know it?” Last week the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee ramped up its efforts to answer these questions. […]