President Trump on Thursday named Jon Voight, Mel Gibson, and Sylvester Stallone to serve as “Special Envoys” to Hollywood. “It is my honor to announce Jon Voight, Mel Gibson, and Sylvester Stallone, to be Special Ambassadors to a great but very troubled place, Hollywood, California. They will serve as Special Envoys to me for the purpose of bringing Hollywood, which has lost much business over the last four years to Foreign Countries, BACK—BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!” Trump said. “These three very talented people will be my eyes and ears, and I will get done what they suggest. It will again be, like The United States of America itself, The Golden Age of Hollywood!” he added. Per Variety: Trump’s announcement comes four days before his inauguration in Washington, D.C., and as wildfires have destroyed thousands of homes and buildings in Southern Los Angeles. Many businesses are struggling to recover, and the cost is estimated to be around $250 billion. The domestic box office in 2024 was also down from the year prior, as the Hollywood release calendar took a hit from the 2023 actors and writers strikes. Last year’s revenues were $8.7 billion, down 3.3% from 2023 and 23.5% from 2019, the last pre-pandemic year which reached $11.3 billion. Stallone, Gibson and Voight have been vocal Trump supporters in recent years. Stallone introduced the President-elect at a Mar-a-Lago gala in November, calling him the “second George Washington”; Gibson voiced his support for Trump and slammed Kamala Harris’ intelligence ahead of the 2024 election; and Voight spoke in depth about his admiration of Trump in a Variety cover story last year. BREAKING: President Trump just appointed legendary icons: JON VOIGHTMEL GIBSONSYLVESTER STALLONE to be Special Ambassadors of Hollywood, California to bring it back to the "Golden Age of Hollywood!" pic.twitter.com/7u1cWJeoFY — Bo Loudon (@BoLoudon) January 16, 2025 Interesting… Donald Trump has announced Jon Voight, Mel Gibson, and Sylvester Stallone, to be Special Ambassadors Hollywood, California & will serve as Special Envoys to him for the purpose of bringing Hollywood, “BACK—BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!” pic.twitter.com/5MJaPKsU6Y — Steven Steele (@MrStevenSteele) January 16, 2025 Deadline reports: It’s unclear what kind of activity the three actors will do in the incoming administration. Trump has long railed against the entertainment industry, which heavily supported Kamala Harris in the presidential election. Media companies and studios are gearing up for the next administration, and they have tried to distinguish between the industry’s business concerns and the political stances of individuals in the creative community. Patrick Kilcur, who has led lobbying for the Motion Picture Association, is departing to Ballard Partners, a firm with substantial ties to Trump and his administration. Kilcur will continue to represent the MPA and other industry clients.

California has abandoned a regulation to phase out diesel trucks and force a transition to zero-emission trucks as President Trump’s inauguration approaches. California’s Air Resources Board sent a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to withdraw its waiver request to enforce the regulation. “The California Air Resources Board (CARB) withdraws its request for a waiver and authorization, pursuant to Clean Air Act (CAA) section 209(b) and (e), respectively, for its Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) regulation, submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on November 15, 2023,” the letter read. “We have placed a copy of your letter, as well as this response, into the Air Docket at regulations.gov regarding CARB’s request. As a result, the EPA is taking no further action on the HD ACF waiver request (89 FR 57151 (July 12, 2024)) and considers this matter closed,” the EPA responded. "Great News… Good For Everyone" – California Abandons Regulations Phasing Out Diesel Trucks https://t.co/S95Ks8SaSx — zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 16, 2025 From The Epoch Times: Federal authorities agreed to some of the requests, but such related to the diesel truck rules were not yet decided. “California has withdrawn its pending waiver and authorization requests that U.S. EPA has not yet acted on,” Liane Randolph, chair of the air resources board, said in a statement emailed to The Epoch Times. “While we are disappointed that U.S. EPA was unable to act on all the requests in time, the withdrawal is an important step given the uncertainty presented by the incoming administration that previously attacked California’s programs to protect public health and the climate and has said will continue to oppose those programs.” She suggested that President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration could challenge the clean air regulations implemented by President Joe Biden. With federal government approval of more stringent regulations uncertain, the board could pursue other methods of achieving clean air goals by partnering with private industry, as was done in the first Trump administration. “As CalMatters’ Alejandro Lazo explains, in 2023 the California Air Resources Board voted to ban the sale of new diesel big rigs by 2036 and require large fleets to convert all their trucks to zero-emission models by 2042. About 1.8 million trucks operate in the state,” CalMatters noted. Breaking: CA has decided to abandon its groundbreaking regulations phasing out diesel trucks and requiring cleaner locomotives because the incoming Trump administration is unlikely to allow the state to implement them. https://t.co/EEkrhMhjRD Alejandro Lazo Carlin Stiehl pic.twitter.com/SriyjablI4 — CalMatters (@CalMatters) January 14, 2025 “The California Trucking Association has consistently stated the Advanced Clean Fleets Rule was unachievable,” Eric Sauer, CEO of the California Trucking Association, told The Epoch Times. “We look forward to engaging all stakeholders, including CARB and EPA, to continue the trucking industry’s efforts to further reduce emissions in a technologically feasible and cost-effective manner that preserves our state and the nation’s critical supply chain,” Sauer added. California’s Air Resources Board sent a letter on Jan. 14 to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, withdrawing its prior waiver request that would have forced a transition from diesel to zero-emission trucks in the state. The federal environmental agency responded to the… — The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) January 16, 2025 Per CalMatters: Trump has repeatedly denounced the state’s electric car mandates, and during his first term tried to revoke California’s authority to limit car emissions. In October he also said no state would be allowed to ban gas-powered cars under his presidency. Environmentalists criticized the withdrawal, including Paul Cort, the director of Earthjustice’s Right To Zero campaign, who argued that “diesel is one of the most dangerous kinds of air pollution for human health.” The withdrawal follows the air board’s decision in December to pull the plug on what would have been a first-in-the-nation initiative to increase electric motorcycle sales. WATCH:

Georgia Capitol Police arrested state Sen. Colton Moore while trying to attend the State of the State address on Thursday morning. “Last year, state Sen. Colton Moore, R-Trenton, was banished from setting foot on the Georgia House floor,” FOX 5 Atlanta reports. Video footage shows the moment the state senator attempted to enter the chamber. Moore was shoved away and eventually arrested. WATCH: BREAKING: Senator @realColtonMoore, who serves as the Vice-Chair of the @FreedomCaucusGA was just unconstitutionality arrested by Speaker @JonBurnsGA for simply trying to attend the State of the State joint session. This is what tyranny looks like, folks. pic.twitter.com/Zhf2J7HU53 — Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) January 16, 2025 “Senator Colton Moore, who exposed and defeated corrupt District Attorney Fani Willis last year, has been arrested by the Anti-Trump Speaker of the Georgia House. Colton is being held in the same Atlanta jail as President Trump. We are working to ensure his expedient release,” a message from Moore’s X account read. “Please pray for all those standing up for freedom and peace for all Georgians,” it added. WATCH: Senator Colton Moore, who exposed and defeated corrupt District Attorney Fani Willis last year, has been arrested by the Anti-Trump Speaker of the Georgia House. Colton is being held in the same Atlanta jail as President Trump. We are working to ensure his expedient release.… pic.twitter.com/hRA2gM54FD — Sen. Colton Moore (@realColtonMoore) January 16, 2025 FOX 5 Atlanta reports: After struggling to get in, Moore was pushed to the ground. He was then surrounded by members of the Georgia State Patrol. Moore’s attorney confirmed that the senator was arrested and taken to the Fulton County Jail. It is not known what charges Moore may be facing. In March 2024, Moore was forbidden from entering the House chambers after making disparaging comments about late House Speaker David Ralston. While the Georgia Senate considered a resolution to name a building at the University of North Georgia in Ralston’s memory. Moore urged senators not to approve the name change and blasted Ralston’s work as a lawyer and politician. “This body is about to memorialize, in my opinion, one of the most corrupt Georgia leaders that we are ever going to see in my lifetime,” exclaimed Moore, as some of Ralston’s relatives watched from the Senate balcony. BREAKING: Chaos at Georgia State Capitol Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns reportedly had State Senator Colton Moore arrested after he showed up to attend a session. Video shows Sen Moore being violently shoved to the ground by someone who appears to be a staffer for the Speaker. pic.twitter.com/tkaCGnijfz — Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 16, 2025 “Georgia’s Republican Senate Caucus is suspending a GOP state senator who attacked them for opposing his plan to impeach Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis for indicting former President Donald Trump,” the Associated Press wrote in 2023. BACKGROUND: Senator Moore was kicked out of the Senate GOP Caucus last year after he demanded that the Senate investigate Fani Willis. Sen. Moore was obviously vindicated, but the Atlanta Swamp still hates him for speaking out on this issue. Story:https://t.co/MrRWYM6350 — Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) January 16, 2025 From the Associated Press in 2023: The caucus announced Thursday that it was indefinitely suspending state Sen. Colton Moore of Trenton, who represents a district in Georgia’s northwest corner. “Sen. Moore has a right to his opinion,” the caucus said in a statement. “However, during his advocacy for his ill-conceived proposal, Sen. Moore has knowingly misled people across Georgia and our nation, causing unnecessary tension and hostility, while putting his caucus colleagues and their families at risk of personal harm,” said the group, which has 32 of the Georgia Senate’s 56 members. Moore attacked his colleagues as “Republicans in name only,” or RINOs. “The Georgia RINOs responded to my call to fight back against the Trump witch hunts by acting like children and throwing me out of the caucus,” Moore wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “But I’m not going anywhere.” WATCH:

A judge ruled this week that former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio must pay a $475,000 fine for misusing public funds on a police security detail during his failed 2020 White House bid. A state Supreme Court judge dismissed the former mayor’s legal challenge, calling it “entirely baseless.” A judge ruled former Mayor Bill de Blasio will have to $500,000 in restitution and fines for sticking taxpayers with the bill for his NYPD detail during his failed 2020 presidential run. https://t.co/cVYo1tnRVz — THE CITY (@THECITYNY) January 15, 2025 From the Associated Press: The decision blocks de Blasio’s latest effort to erase the hefty fine issued against him by the city’s ethics board in 2023. In his motion for dismissal, de Blasio argued the board provided him with murky guidance around the use of public funds for security purposes, then overstepped its authority in imposing the fine. Judge Shahabuddeen Ally roundly rejected those arguments in an 80-page ruling issued Monday, finding the mayor was “expressly and specifically” informed that the city would not bear security travel costs for the cross-country campaign, but elected to bring his police detail anyway. “(His) position essentially eliminates his own agency in the choices he made,” the judge wrote, adding that there was no merit to “the remarkable contention that he is somehow not subject to the City’s conflicts-of-interest laws.” The ruling leaves de Blasio on the hook for a $320,000 in airfare and other travel costs incurred by his security detail during the four-month campaign, which he launched in 2019 while serving his second term as mayor. He will also have to pay a fine of $5,000 for each of the security detail’s 31 out-of-state trips, amounting to $155,000. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio must pay a $475,000 fine levied against him for misusing public funds on a police security detail during his failed White House bid, a judge ruled this week. https://t.co/L9sGQ8mrV2 — Spectrum News NY1 (@NY1) January 15, 2025 It’s the largest fine ever handed down by New York’s Conflicts of Interest Board (COIB), the Associated Press noted. Ex-NYC Mayor de Blasio Must Pay $475K Fine for NYPD’s Presidential Campaign Security. The bill comes due! Better late than never https://t.co/NhdCgjhDax — Sal Albanese (@SalAlbaneseNYC) January 15, 2025 THE CITY reports: De Blasio consulted with COIB to see if taxpayers could foot the bill for his security detail, and the board ruled in a confidential memo that while the city could pay the salaries and overtime of the officers, it couldn’t pay for their out-of-city travel costs. He traveled to Iowa, Illinois and South Carolina with them anyway. After the fine was announced, de Blasio filed a lawsuit against the board, arguing that he was exempt from the city’s conflicts of interest rules and that it was the police department’s decision, and not his, to travel with his protective detail. In his 81-page ruling, Ally repeatedly disagreed with de Blasio’s defense that the board’s ruling and reasoning was “irrational.” The judge agreed with the board’s findings that having taxpayers pay for police protection on the campaign trail violated rules that prohibit the use of city resources for non-city purposes and that de Blasio was abusing his official position for his own personal advantage and financial gain.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will not attend President Trump’s inauguration ceremony, her spokesperson said. The reasoning for her absence wasn’t disclosed. ABC NEWS: Nancy Pelosi to skip Trump’s inauguration pic.twitter.com/cDMXLsi039 — johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) January 16, 2025 Per ABC News: While she broke her hip on an international trip to Luxembourg late last year, Pelosi returned to the Capitol for both the first day of the new Congress as well as the count of the electoral votes on Jan. 6. Attending 11 inaugurations so far, Pelosi has rubbed elbows with presidents at their inauguration dating back to her high school days when John F. Kennedy was sworn into office in 1961. Pelosi has mostly maintained cordial relationships with Republican presidents, particularly George W. Bush despite their differences over the Iraq War and Afghanistan. But the friction and public battles with Trump, including shouting matches in the Oval Office — have created headlines — such as when she pointed a finger at him in a White House photo opportunity or when she stood over his shoulder and ripped up a copy of his State of the Union remarks in 2020. BREAKING: Nancy Pelosi will not attend President Trump’s Inauguration. pic.twitter.com/kpLlcQjE8m — Ian Jaeger (@IanJaeger29) January 16, 2025 Nancy Pelosi will not attend President Trump’s Inauguration and Pelosi’s spokesperson did not share a reason for her absence. pic.twitter.com/3VcGRMYoCm — Brigitte Gabriel (@ACTBrigitte) January 16, 2025 Fox News reports: Pelosi infamously tore apart a copy of Trump’s State of the Union address while standing just behind him on the floor of Congress in 2020. Former first lady Michelle Obama also plans to skip Trump’s inauguration, though her husband, the former president, plans to attend. Michelle was also absent from the funeral for President Jimmy Carter last week, where Trump was also present. Former presidents Trump, Bush and Clinton and their spouses all attended Carter’s funeral on Jan. 9 at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., as did former President Barack Obama. Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband also attended, along with former Vice President Mike Pence and his wife. Former President Bill Clinton will attend next week’s swearing-in ceremony, a person familiar with the former president’s schedule confirmed to the AP. Former first lady Hillary Clinton will also attend, a spokesperson said. The Office of George W. Bush said he and former first lady Laura Bush are attending.