The federal government, through the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), filed a lawsuit against Minnesota to block a newly enacted statewide ban on prediction markets, arguing that the state law is preempted by federal authority.

American travelers are now allowed to fly with medical marijuana following the TSA’s updated rules on carrying the drug. Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche signed the final order on April 23rd, four days prior to the TSA’s website update.

President Donald Trump delivered the keynote address at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy’s 145th commencement exercises on Wednesday morning, rallying the graduating class of 2026 on a blistering hot day at Cadet Memorial Field.

A pair of prominent child safety organizations formally requested a federal inquiry into Roblox on Wednesday, arguing the gaming giant aggressively monetizes its platform at the expense of its youngest users, some of whom are only 5-years-old.

In a lengthier Truth Social post on Wednesday, President Donald Trump publicly called on Senate Republicans to remove and replace Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, accusing her of maintaining a distinct bias against the GOP.

President Donald Trump has publicly demanded that Senate Republicans fire Elizabeth MacDonough, the ‘nonpartisan’ Senate Parliamentarian, who was selected during the Obama era. She is a Democrat and ruled against including $1 billion in security funding for the White House ballroom project in a Republican budget reconciliation package. She is an Obama operative, chosen by Obama and Harry Reid, and still John Thune won’t do a thing. More importantly, she hasn’t approved the ICE and CBP funding. She really has to go. MacDonough, appointed in 2012 and the first woman to hold the role, interprets Senate rules, especially the Byrd Rule, which limits what can be included in budget reconciliation bills. She determined that the Secret Service and security provisions tied to the ballroom did not meet the requirement of having a direct, non-incidental impact on the federal budget and that they fell outside the Judiciary Committee’s jurisdiction, Independent Journal Review. As a result, the provision was stripped from the $72 billion immigration enforcement bill Republicans were trying to pass. Is the Byrd Rule and this parliamentarian even constitutional? President Trump wrote the following on Truth Social this morning: Shockingly, Republicans have kept the very important position of “Parliamentarian” in the hands of a woman, Elizabeth MacDonough, who was appointed, long ago, by Barack Hussein Obama and a vicious Lunatic known as Senator Harry Reid, who ran the Senate for the Dumocrats with an “iron fist.” Over the years, she has been brutal to Republicans, but not so to the Dumocrats — So why has she not been replaced? There are many fair people who would be qualified for that vital job. The Republicans play a very soft game compared to the Dumocrats. It is their single biggest disadvantage in politics. The Dumocrats cheat, lie, and steal, especially when it comes to Votes in Elections, but stick together, whereas the Republicans allow the Elizabeth MacDonoughs of the World to stay in power, and brutalize us. We need THE SAVE AMERICA ACT passed, and NOW — And, likewise, kill the Filibuster, which would give us everything! If we don’t pass at least one of these two provisions quickly, you will never see another Republican President again. The Dumocrats will end up with 2 additional States, D.C. and Puerto Rico, and all that entails, including 4 Senators, many Congressmen, and many additional Electoral Votes, and they will also get their dream of a packed United States Supreme Court with their most favorite number — 21 Justices. The Dumocrats will eliminate the Filibuster on the First Day that they get an opportunity to do so. The Republicans aren’t doing it because they say the Dumocrats will never do it, but the Republicans are WRONG. Get smart and tough Republicans, or you’ll all be looking for a job much sooner than you thought possible! President DONALD J. TRUMP They aren’t that dumb if they are beating Republicans with their parliamentarian. Is an unelected bureaucrat – the Senate Parliamentarian – trying to get POTUS and others k*lled??? The Parliamentarian just blocked $1B in Secret Service funding for Trump’s White House East Wing ballroom security upgrades. Let that one sink in and let’s help EXPOSE it!… pic.twitter.com/m9QeQQlszt — Blue Lives Matter (@bluelivesmtr) May 18, 2026 The post President Trump Demands the Senate Fire the Unelected Parliamentarian appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

WASHINGTON, May 20 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on AI and cybersecurity as soon as Thursday, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, as pressure grows from parts of his political base to increase oversight of new AI models, such as Anthropic’s Mythos. The order would create a voluntary framework for AI developers to engage with the U.S. government about the public release of covered models, the sources said. Under the framework, the developers would be asked to provide their models to the government 90 days before public release, and also give pre-public access to critical infrastructure providers such as banks, one of the people said. Such an approach may represent a middle ground among Trump supporters. MAGA activists, including former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and political organizer Amy Kremer, have been pressing the White House to require AI developers to submit their most capable models for government security tests. On the other side of the debate are tech industry supporters such as venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and former Trump adviser David Sacks, who are resistant to mandatory requirements. Sacks in March stepped down from his role as Trump’s lead AI official and is now co-chairing the president’s tech advisory committee. Trump’s AI policies in his second term have largely reflected the tech industry’s perspective. NEW MODELS DRIVING DEBATE A White House spokesperson called any discussion about AI policy details “speculation.” A National Security Agency spokesperson directed Reuters to contact the White House when asked about details of the president’s plan. National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross, who serves as Trump’s principal adviser on cybersecurity policy and strategy, did not respond to requests for comment. The balance of power between the two groups of Trump’s supporters has shifted, driven by the release of powerful new AI systems, including Mythos and OpenAI’s GPT-5.5-Cyber. The companies warn that the new models could supercharge complex cyberattacks, though some cybersecurity executives have said those fears are overblown. Mythos’ arrival prompted a battle among the president’s supporters to influence how he responds. The outcome of that debate could have a significant impact on the AI industry if the president’s decision slows the rollout of large language models or prompts the companies to change how a model performs to address safety concerns. Either option could hurt profits. Republicans have traditionally favored limited government and opposed regulations, but support is growing among their more vocal populist supporters to impose AI guardrails. The populist faction is asking Trump to require government approval of “potentially dangerous” AI systems before they’re deployed, according to a letter they sent to the White House last Friday. Kremer said it is “antithetical” to her political views to advocate for new regulations, but AI requires a different approach. “You can’t count on these people that are leading these AI companies to put our interests at heart and do what’s right to protect the American people,” she said. Kremer helped organize a January 6, 2021, rally that preceded the Capitol riot. She said in an interview that she was not among the thousands of Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol that day. BIG TECH SUPPORT Tech executives are among the president’s largest political donors and most visible supporters. Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Google’s Sundar Pichai and OpenAI’s Sam Altman sat front and center as he was sworn into office in January 2025. Advocates for the tech industry told Reuters they want to see the Department of Commerce’s Center for AI Standards and Innovation play a leading role in the Trump administration’s response to advanced AI models, adding that companies are willing to work with the scientists and cybersecurity specialists in that organization voluntarily. The National Security Agency has been involved in administration-wide discussions about how to respond to Mythos, according to two other people familiar with the matter, along with Cairncross. Lawmakers asked Cairncross to work with federal agencies to set up a process that would monitor “sudden frontier AI capability jumps.” “The past couple months have served as a massive wake-up call for the kinds of vulnerabilities that AI can create,” said former Rep. Brad Carson (D-OK), who now helps run a super PAC network whose funders include Anthropic. Holding back new AI models while the federal government vets them may allow the United States to gain a short-term advantage over adversaries but will not keep the technology out of enemy hands in the long term, said Neil Chilson, head of AI Policy at the Abundance Institute, a nonprofit often aligned with the tech industry. “We need to make sure we’re deploying it and getting the most out of it, including by hardening our defenses,” Chilson said. Voluntary federal testing of new AI models has been in place for a few years, with companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic submitting their products for scrutiny by the Center for AI Standards and Innovation, known by a different name under former President Joe Biden. The Commerce Department announced in May that Google, xAI, and Microsoft had agreed to submit their AI models for security testing, though the details later disappeared from its website. The White House and Commerce Department did not respond to requests for comment about why the details disappeared. (Reporting by Karen Freifeld in New York and Courtney Rozen in Washington; Additional reporting by Raphael Satter and Alexandra Alper in Washington and A.J. Vincens in Detroit; Editing by Rod Nickel)

Two police officers who defended the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, are suing the Trump administration in an attempt to block a new $1.8 billion Justice Department compensation fund designed to provide relief to Americans the administration says were targeted by politically motivated Biden-era prosecutions. Former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and Metropolitan Police officer Daniel Hodges filed suit this week against President Donald Trump, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, claiming the administration lacks the authority to establish what critics have labeled an “anti-weaponization” fund without congressional approval. The lawsuit argues the fund could ultimately compensate some January 6 defendants and members of “paramilitary groups,” with the officers warning it could embolden political violence. “In the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century, President Donald J Trump has created a $1.776bn taxpayer-funded slush fund to finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name,” the complaint states. The Trump administration, however, has framed the program very differently — not as a reward system for rioters, but as a mechanism to compensate Americans who faced politically selective prosecutions and excessive legal punishment under the Biden administration. Vice President JD Vance defended the program during a White House press briefing on Tuesday, accusing the media of distorting the fund’s purpose. “This is about compensating Americans for the lawfare that we saw under the last administration,” Vance said. “Anybody can apply for it. Republicans can apply for it, Democrats can apply for it.” Vance also rejected claims that the fund would personally benefit Trump or his family. “Is $1 of this money going to the Trump administration? No. Is $1 of this money going to Donald Trump personally? No,” he said. When pressed on whether individuals convicted in connection with January 6 could potentially receive compensation, Vance said the administration would review claims individually rather than issue blanket exclusions. “We’re not trying to give money to anybody who attacked a police officer,” Vance said. “We’re trying to compensate people where the book was thrown at them, they were mistreated by the legal system.” The vice president argued the fund is part of a broader effort to “turn the page” on what the administration views as politically motivated prosecutions during the Biden years. “Let’s not prosecute people because they said the wrong thing, or because they had the wrong political candidate, or because they had the wrong viewpoint,” Vance said. Critics of the program point to the more than 1,500 pardons and commutations Trump issued for January 6 defendants earlier this year, arguing the compensation fund could become another avenue for rewarding political allies. Supporters of the initiative, however, argue that many defendants faced disproportionate charges, financial ruin, and years-long legal battles tied to what they view as prosecutions they believe were politically driven. The lawsuit comes as the administration continues to make anti-weaponization and transparency efforts a central political theme heading into the 2026 midterms.

We’ve all heard of the one-hit wonder, right? They have a song that goes totally crazy and becomes a piece of musical history. We never forget those tunes, but the artists fade into obscurity. Even the most popular artists’ music doesn’t always chart. A No. 1. hit seems like like a dream, but one they might ot ever attain. And then you have Kenny Chesney. No matter what your favorite genre of music is, everybody knows a little Kenny. He recently hit a milestone that only the very best achieve. Kenny Chesney just had his 100th song chart on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. Among those songs, 55 have cracked the top 10 and 23 became No. 1 hits. Kenny Chesney is on fire. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kenny Chesney (@kennychesney) Kenny Chesney’s 100th Charting Song Premiered at No. 31 According to Billboard, Kenny Chesney’s Carry On is his 100th song to hit the list. George Jones has the most songs at 153, followed by Morgan Wallen with 119, Taylor Swift at 109, and Kenny tied with George Strait with 100. On May 20, 2026, Kenny Chesney announced on Instagram that the video for “Carry On” would drop on May 21. “Can’t wait to see all of our favorite KW places in this video!!!” A fan shared. “Hang on down there for a while, wait for me. I’ll be there at the end of the month,” another person begged. Fans shared lots of love with Kenny. Like this person who wrote, “We love you carry on freind of my heart love the song Kenny.” After all, Kenny Chesney didn’t write this music for himself, he wrote it for his fans. “I want to be grateful for what’s happened,” he once told Today “And just reflect on all the years that it took to get to this spot. But also it’s a way for me to emotionally and mentally measure how far it is to down here ‘cause I know what it looks like from the stage to up there, but if I’m goin’ to get close to connecting with these people I got to have their perspective.” This story’s featured image is by Jason Kempin/Getty Images