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Morning Brief: Trump’s Peace Push, Portland Riots, & Maryland’s Foster Care Fumble
President Donald Trump meets with congressional leaders in hopes of avoiding a government shutdown, anti-ICE protests in Portland take a riotous turn, and an audit in Maryland turns up some disturbing findings.
It’s Tuesday, September 30, 2025, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
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Trump Seeks Deals For Washington And Jerusalem
Topline: The White House buzzed Monday as President Trump sought deals at home and abroad. The president hosted Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and congressional leaders as he pushed to simultaneously end the war in Gaza and avert a government shutdown.
What Washington is watching: At midnight, fiscal year 2025 for the federal government will come to a close. As of now, the 2026 budget has not been passed by Congress. If leaders can’t reach an agreement in the next 24 hours, a shutdown will commence, with large swaths of the federal government closing their doors, and only essential services will remain open.
Republicans have proposed a continuing resolution, a temporary stopgap measure to keep the lights on while lawmakers finalize the budget. The House passed that measure 217-212 earlier this month, but it has stalled in the Senate. While Republicans have a slim majority there, the Senate filibuster requires them to win over at least seven Democrats, and Democrats are not budging.
What Republicans want: Republicans want to pass a clean resolution to keep funding levels the same across the board and worry about policy debates later. Their measure would maintain federal spending levels set under President Joe Biden, while offering some additional funding for personal security for lawmakers, judges, and other federal officials.
What Democrats want: Democrats say they will only pass the stopgap if it includes billions of dollars in new funding for Obamacare subsidies and Medicaid, some of which were cut under Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” They also want the deal to include measures that would prevent the White House from blocking congressionally appropriated funds. Democrats know that Republicans are unlikely to give in to those demands and are daring them to allow a shutdown.
Step back: Government shutdowns can feel like a ‘boy who cried wolf’ scenario, as the two sides often reach a last-minute deal. But there’s a real chance a shutdown happens this time. Remember, when Democrats ultimately failed to stop Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” during the summer, the party’s far-Left base was furious and hasn’t let them live it down. So they’re facing pressure to push back this time.
What Jerusalem is watching: Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday — the two met privately before a joint press conference in which Trump formally released a 20-point ceasefire plan to end the war in Gaza.
That plan offered some concessions — for example, it offered Palestinians the right to remain in Gaza after the war, amnesty for Hamas members who turn in their weapons, and a vague acknowledgment of the potential for the creation of a Palestinian state in the future, assuming certain conditions.
It includes many things that Israelis will also appreciate. For example, it requires Hamas to “not have any role in the governance of Gaza … in any form.” It calls for all military and terror infrastructure to be destroyed and never rebuilt, and it demands all remaining hostages be released within 72 hours.
Netanyahu offered support for the proposal, saying it “achieves our war aims.” He added that if Hamas accepted, Israel would withdraw its troops from Gaza and place them “in the security perimeter for the foreseeable future.” However, “if Hamas rejects your plan, Mr. President,” Netanyahu said, “or if they supposedly accept it and then basically do everything to counter it, then Israel will finish the job by itself.”
Worth consideration: Hamas has already rejected a number of the points included, but Trump said that because so many of the terror group’s leaders have been killed, they’re dealing with “new people.” He also said that if they rejected this final offer, the United States would support Israel in eliminating the group.
Portland Rioters Escalate
Topline: The Trump administration has deployed troops to Portland as part of a nationwide crackdown on violent protests surrounding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities.
In response to riots in Portland around an ICE facility, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem requested that Trump deploy troops to the area to stop the clashes. Across the country, these protests have turned violent at ICE facilities.
Trump wants to stop these violent protests, and the president is doing this in Portland and in Broadview, Illinois. Though the situation is lesser known, in Broadview, ICE has made arrests, including of armed rioters. One reportedly carried what looked like an explosive device that law enforcement is still investigating.
The president said the effort is part of a nationwide effort to crack down on crime and “Antifa,” which the president described as a “domestic terrorist organization.”
Paging Des Moines: The superintendent of Des Moines public schools was arrested by ICE last week on multiple charges, including immigration infractions. Dr. Ian Roberts has a standing deportation order from an immigration judge from last year, in addition to a 2020 arrest on a firearms charge.
When ICE attempted to pull Roberts over, he drove away. ICE said he tried to escape; agents later found his car abandoned in nearby woods, and they found Roberts a distance away. Roberts had $3000 in cash on him at the time. He had a switchblade for hunting and a loaded firearm.
Illegal immigrants are barred from having firearms. The ATF has launched an investigation into how he was able to obtain firearms, given his legal status. That, in addition to the pressing questions as to how he became the superintendent in Des Moines, given his illegal status in the United States.
According to the school district, he underwent background checks conducted by a third party. A third party also recruited him for the position.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Roberts previously held school leadership positions in several other municipalities, including D.C. and Maryland. He has had a track record in the United States since arriving in 1999 under a student visa, which he has long since overstayed.
Maryland Placed Foster Children With Sex Offenders And A Convicted Murderer
Topline: Maryland auditors have excoriated the state’s Social Services Administration for placing foster children with known sex offenders and failing to act on reports of abuse. One state lawmaker is calling the findings “abhorrent” and demanding someone be fired immediately.
According to a government report, in as many as half of the cases, Maryland’s Social Services faked the verifications that background checks had been done on foster parents, either through incompetence or malfeasance. The shoddy work last year resulted in 10 children living with seven different registered sex offender adults in foster homes.
In 2023, a branch of Maryland’s Department of Human Services reviewed a group foster home but failed to note that it was employing a man convicted of sexually assaulting a minor. Three months later, the man transported three children in his care to abuse them, prosecutors said.
In another case, the government was paying a convicted murderer to offer “one-on-one care” to foster children in hotel rooms. At a rate of $1,300 per night per child, the department funded this placement instead of utilizing foster homes that offered safer and more cost-effective care.
Repeat offender: This wasn’t the first time that many of these issues had been raised, and still, the agency made almost no effort to change. After the registered sex offender allegedly abused kids in his care, the Social Services Administration “could not document any corrective action as a result of this incident to ensure the criminal background checks were in fact obtained,” the audit found.
What were they thinking? It seems that, basically, they didn’t want to do the work and just wanted the data to look good, even if the kids were suffering. One of the Social Services Administration’s responsibilities was to ensure that foster children attended school. It publicly claimed that virtually all of them were. However, when auditors examined their database, they found no evidence that 38% of them were.
Auditors stated that the agency made numerous excuses that appeared to be false. There were 17,000 allegations of abuse or neglect of foster kids, and county agencies are required to investigate them immediately. If they don’t, the state agency is required by law to report it to the legislature. Neither one happened. The state made excuses for some investigations being delayed by months, citing a “natural disaster,” even though no one could say what natural disaster occurred in that part of Maryland in 2024.
Social Services responds: The agency acknowledged that “our regulations for privately-certified foster parents lacked a ‘crimes of violence’ prohibition required by … the Social Security Act, and we are updating this regulation.”
It said after the cases of children living with sex offenders were identified, “we took action.”
“In one case, we contacted law enforcement who conducted a safety check and confirmed the children were safe. In another case, we contacted the Office of Parole and Probation and found that while an identified individual was on the registry, there were no restrictions prohibiting their presence around children,” the agency said. “For the remaining cases, law enforcement and probation officers determined there was insufficient information to warrant a welfare check.”
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