The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Saturday announced that it has initiated a “compliance review” of the University of Maine, and the state could be in jeopardy of losing $100 million in federal USDA funding over noncompliance with President Donald Trump’s executive order to keep males out of female sports. Trump took aim at Maine’s Democrat Gov. Janet Mills on Thursday, following the news of a transgender-identifying boy taking first place in girls’ pole vaulting at Maine’s Class B state championship — a win that helped the high school take first place overall. The president told Mills he’d see her “in court” after the two sparred in person at the White House, with Mills effectively telling Trump she will not comply with his orders on gender. “The [United States Department of Agriculture] has initiated a compliance review of the University of Maine following the state’s disregard for [President Donald Trump’s]’ EO, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,'” USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins announced on Saturday. “Let me be clear: Any institution that chooses to disregard it can count on losing future funding,” she added.  .@USDA has initiated a compliance review of the University of Maine following the state’s disregard for @POTUS’ EO, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.” Let me be clear: Any institution that chooses to disregard it can count on losing future funding. https://t.co/osiJI53yiB pic.twitter.com/lMJICdGXiA — Secretary Brooke Rollins (@SecRollins) February 22, 2025 “As a federally funded land-grant institution, the University of Maine receives over $100 million in USDA funding,” a press release from the USDA reads. “Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs and activities that receive federal funding. Compliance with federal law is mandatory for institutions to continue receiving taxpayer funded support, including USDA grants.” “USDA is committed to upholding the President’s executive order, meaning any institution that chooses to disregard it can count on losing future funding,” Rollins’ statement said. Related: EXCLUSIVE: White House Says Top Staffer For Maine’s Gov Had Meltdown, Cursed At Official Over Men In Women’s Sports USDA’s compliance review into the University of Maine follows a U.S. Department of Education announcement from Friday about launching Title IX investigations into Maine’s DOE over its gender policies. “Today the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) sent a letter to the Maine Department of Education Commissioner Pender Makin announcing that OCR is initiating a directed investigation of the Maine Department of Education (MDOE) amid allegations that it continues to allow male athletes to compete in girls’ interscholastic athletics and that it has denied female athletes female-only intimate facilities, thereby violating federal antidiscrimination law,” the USDOE press release said. Trump said on Thursday that he’ll be withholding all federal funding from Maine if the state continues to allow males to compete in girls and women’s sports, The Daily Wire reported. “I heard men are still playing in Maine,” Trump said. “We’re not gonna give any federal money. They are still saying, ‘We want men to play in women’s sports.’ And I cannot believe they’re doing that.” “We’re not gonna give them any federal funding — none whatsoever, until they clean that up,” the president emphasized. ? President Trump announces Maine will not receive federal funding until they comply with the executive order keeping men out of women’s sports pic.twitter.com/OZqBHyW1QB — Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 21, 2025

Is there a song that Kelly Clarkson can’t cover and make sound amazing? We really don’t think so. Since adding the Kellyoke segment to the Kelly Clarkson Show, she’s covered everything from Broadway to country to 1980s pop, and she nails it every single time. Her most recent cover of The Outfield’s 1986 hit Your Love took us back to a simpler time when music just hit differently. Kelly Clarkson’s passion for music is evident every single time she sings. Her fans love her no matter what she does, but this particular performance caught a lot of attention. @kellyclarksonshow Our very own singing Valentine #kellyoke #valentinesday #lovesong #cover #kellyclarkson ♬ original sound – Kelly Clarkson Show Kelly Clarkson Sang Her “Your Love” Cover On A Valentine’s Kellyoke Segment Like many others, the show shared the video on social media and positively exploded on TikTok. With 18.9 million views on that platform alone, it’s one of Kelly Clarkson’s most popular Kellyoke cover performances to date. When fans heard her rendition, they flocked to the comments begging for more. Fellow artist Meghan Trainor immediately chimed in, writing, “Neeed an album of these thank u.” And this fan came up with one heck of an idea that we bet plenty of people could get behind: “Can we have a Kelly Clarkson Super Bowl halftime show???” We love this person’s theory. “I think Kelly Clarkson created the talk show as an excuse to use it for Karaoke… and I love it!” If this isn’t the truth, “America: Let’s make a show dedicated to finding the best vocalist in the country…. Season 1: Found her!” This person absolutely agrees, “Everyday I thank god that we got at least one American idol right . And on the first try.” “Why did they even bother continuing American idol after you won? Absolutely the best performer to ever come out of reality tv,” another fan asked. Kelly Clarkson, never stop being you, and keep the covers coming. We all need more Kellyoke in our lives. You can find this story’s featured image here. The post Kelly Clarkson Covers 1980s Classic & It’s Perfection appeared first on InspireMore.

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A quirky tourist attraction has popped up in another seaside town that lets visitors tour a building where all the furniture is flipped 180-degrees. ‘The Upside Down House’ in Bristol, England, is the 12th one to be erected—or should we say inverted—around the UK since the success of the first one opened in Bournemouth in […] The post New Upside Down House Opens – Take Fabulous Photos And Walk on the Ceiling (LOOK) appeared first on Good News Network.

OXEN HILL, Md.—President Donald Trump slammed left-wing politicians for sending the American military abroad instead of protecting the southern border. “After years of politicians using our military to defend foreign borders while leaving our country defenseless, helpless, we deployed a group of people, active duty troops, to defend our border and repel the invasion of our country,” Trump said on Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference just outside of Washington, D.C. He called illegal immigration an “invasion,” adding that his first term had “great” deportation numbers, but his second term has topped them. “We’ve never had numbers like this,” he said. “We’ve done it all in four weeks.” Trump said that on Day One, he ended “catch and release” at the border, reinstated the Remain in Mexico policy, and ended birthright citizenship. Catch and release is a process the Biden administration used where it would catch people illegally crossing the border and release them into the United States rather than deporting them immediately. Remain in Mexico is a policy from the first Trump administration where immigrants seeking asylum in the United States apply for asylum and wait for a determination on their claim while staying in Mexico rather than coming to the United States and waiting here—a wait that can last for years. “Over the past few weeks, we’ve begun the largest deportation operation in American history—larger even than President Dwight D. Eisenhower,” Trump said. “Very moderate man, but he was very strong that he didn’t like people running into our country and taking over our country.” Trump said he, too, could not stand seeing “people come in from jails, mental institutions, and the worst criminals on the street, gang members being dropped off in buses and bussed into our country.” Deporting illegal immigrants is “liberating” to communities like Aurora, Colorado, and Springfield, Ohio, “that have been occupied by illegal alien criminals from all over the world,” the president said. “We’re rescuing the Americans whose jobs have been stolen, whose wages have been robbed, and whose way of life has been absolutely destroyed,” he said. “And under the Trump administration, our country will not be turned into a dumping ground. We’re not going to do it.” Foreign countries are taking their illegal immigrants back, Trump said, including countries like Venezuela and Columbia, which originally refused. Trump celebrated designating as a terrorist organization the violent Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua, which has been infiltrating the United States. “The only thing good about them is they make our criminals look like nice people,” he said. The post Trump Touts Largest Deportation Effort in History in Speech to Conservatives appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The President of the United States looked his chief budget cutter in the eye, saying: You’re a victim of sabotage by the press. They’re trying to bring you down because of what you’ve helped us accomplish. As if to erase any doubt that his budget guy was unwanted by the President because of all the negative media attention that had been directed his way, spilling over on to the President himself, the President reassured that “I want you to stay on. I need your help.” No. This was not a recent back and forth between President Donald Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency chief Elon Musk. This was back in the early 1980’s, as President Ronald Reagan was making a point of standing up for his Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), young and brilliant former Michigan Congressman David Stockman. And the tale of the media, Reagan and Dave Stockman has much to pass on to today’s spiritual heir of Stockman -- Elon Musk. Stockman was a precursor of Musk. a man who became a media target for daring to carry out Reagan's agenda. Reagan had made a campaign promise to reduce the size of government and cut government spending. Now, in the beginning of what would be his first term, Reagan was determined to carry out that promise, and he had chosen Stockman to do the job. (As a young aide to a Pennsylvania Congressman who served on the House Budget Committee at the time, I recall the story for sure.)  Leaving Congress to take the job, Dave Stockman as OMB Director was a force of nature. He was in the headlines daily. Sometimes, it seemed, almost hourly.  And then. So pursued by the media was Stockman that he made a serious media mistake - trusting a left-wing media outlet. Specifically that would be The Atlantic magazine, where he had given an extensive interview on his trials and tribulations as the President’s chief Budget guy.  On the day of his 35th birthday the wonder boy/ruthless budget cutter, as he had been repeatedly depicted in the media, received a call from a White House colleague. “Have you heard about tonight’s news?” He was asked.  No, was the answer. Stockman had incautiously made the mistake of giving a background (so he thought) and extensive interview about his time as OMB Director. Now it was being published. Stockman recalled the moment this way in his memoirs: Lesley Stahl of CBS would inform the nation that in the upcoming issue of The Atlantic Monthly, William Greider, national news editor of The Washington Post, had quoted me as saying that the (Reagan) tax cut had been a trojan horse to disguise a giveaway to the rich.  ….Within hours the White House press corps had managed to transform Greider’s article from a thoughtful (only slightly erroneous) analysis of the honest failure of a radical attempt to transform U.S. economic and fiscal policy into a tale about a budget director who had never believed in his own revolution from the beginning. It was wrong -- and it was devastating. Stockman went on that “level-headed journalists” such as conservatives “George Will and William Buckley” would soon write up their own analysis of the article, going on to say…. …the White House press room is not a place of calm and orderly reflection. Soon I was the Judas of the Cabinet Room, the man who willfully deceived the President and who had now shed his disguise so as to complete the betrayal. Eventually Stockman became such a repeated target of the liberal media that there was not much choice left other than to resign. Stockman turned on Reagan and on "Reaganomics." (In 2024, he wrote a book called Trump's War on Capitalism, with a foreword by...Robert F. Kennedy Jr.) This bit of Reagan history with Stockman is worth recalling in the wake of the Trump-Musk recent interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity. The New York Post wrote up the story of the Hannity interview, headlining: Trump, Musk accuse media, pundits of ‘trying to drive us apart’ in preview of Sean Hannity interview The Post story reports:   President Trump and billionaire DOGE chief Elon Musk accused the media and pundits on Friday of trying to create tension between them in an effort to drive them apart. “'hey want a divorce. They want you two to start hating each other,' Fox News host Sean Hannity told Trump and Musk in a clip from a lengthier interview that will air next week. Trump, 78, agreed with the Fox News host and revealed that Musk had already warned him about the media’s effort to sow discord. ….'Actually, Elon called me and said, ‘You know, they’re trying to drive us apart.’ I said, ‘absolutely,’” Trump told the Fox News host. In short? As the ancient wisdom goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. It has been 44 years since young David Stockman left his congressional seat to become President Ronald Reagan’s wunderkind Budget cutter in chief. And here the nation finds itself again, as if nothing at all has changed. Sitting in the Oval Office is, like Reagan, a President elected resoundingly on a platform of reforming the federal government and cutting the massive waste of government spending. At his side is a younger man who, like Stockman, has a reputation as a wunderkind budget cutter. A seriously smart genius who can help the President fulfill his campaign promise to both cut spending and reform the Goliath/behemoth that is the federal government of the United States. And as President Trump and Elon Musk go about their task, there is the liberal media of today zeroing in on them, doing their best to, as Trump and Musk say, “drive us apart.” Shades of the 1980’s Reagan and Stockman era. Imagine that. In fact, Trump and Musk are more than well aware of what the media is trying to do with them, as evidenced by their remarks on the subject to Sean Hannity. Good for them. And the best advice for the two? America has been here before. The media will try to ruin everything you want to do. Stick together and buckle in.

Back in 2006, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, CNN reporter Susan Roesgen reveled in a leftist protester wearing a George W. Bush mask, complete with a colored-in Hitler-esque mustache and red horns attached to the forehead. Roesgen deemed him a Bush "look-alike."  Some mudslinging never changes. On Friday morning, CNN host Sara Sidner rewarded an anti-Trump protester who was arrested in California by giving him a forum to compare President Trump to Adolf Hitler. Sidner set up the segment by recalling: "All right, a California city council meeting has sparked a national conversation after a former NFL player was arrested during an attempted protest over the implementation of a plaque at the Huntington Beach Central Library -- a plaque that spelled out 'MAGA.'" Then came a clip of Chris Kluwe, formerly of the Minnesota Vikings, at a podium speaking to the Huntington Beach city council and equating MAGA with racism: "MAGA stands for re-segregation and racism. MAGA stands for censorship and book bans. (editing jump) MAGA is profoundly corrupt, unmistakably anti-democracy... (editing jump) I will now engage in the time-honored American tradition of peaceful civil disobedience." After a clip of Kluwe approaching the council members and then being held down and arrested by police, Sidner brought him aboard as a guest. She began by suggesting that his complaints are a "small thing," leading him to complain about alleged book bans, and the CNN host sympathetically followed up: SIDNER: I am very familiar with Huntington Beach. It is known for being a politically deep red spot in a mostly blue southern California, and they have had some policies that really raised some eyebrows, including the banning of books. You talked about the direct parallels that you see from the darkest times -- or at least one of the darkest times -- in world history, and you believe that we're on that path again. What is that path do you believe? The liberal activist then made hyperbolic Nazi comparisons as he responded: I believe we're on the path that Nazi Germany went down under Hitler. And I say that as a political science and history major -- as someone who has studied history -- and the parallels are there very clear. This administration is trying to erase trans people -- this administration is trying to put obedience over duty to the country. This administration is trying to thrust our country into turmoil in order to reap power for themselves. And I think, regardless of political affiliation, all of us, as Americans, should be able to agree, "No kings, no tyrants -- not now, not ever." I cannot express how disgusting it was to see an official White House account put out a picture of an American President with a crown on his head. That goes against everything this country was founded upon. After Sidner followed up by asking him to respond to the fact that Trump did, in fact, win the popular vote in the past election, she did not correct her liberal guest when he incorrectly claimed that Hitler was elected: KLUWE: I say to them that Hitler was elected, too, and there were a lot of very good Germans who believed that Hitler was going to have their best interests in mind. And I think there are a lot of good Americans that think that Trump has their best interests in mind, but I am very confident that what this administration already shown that Trump does not have their best interests in mind. And I would like for those Americans to not live after all the bodies have dropped and be filled with regret because they failed to do the right thing when it was time to do the right thing. In fact, Hitler was never elected to the German government. He lost the presidential election to Paul von Hindenburg 53 to 37 percent in 1932, and, after the Nazi party later won 37 percent of the vote in parliamentary elections, Hitler was appointed chancellor by the president who later resigned and left Hitler as the government's leader. The segment concluded with Sidner and Kluwe discussing whether he will continue to protest at city council meetings. Transcript follows: CNN News Central February 21, 2025 9:50 a.m. Eastern SARA SIDNER: All right, a California city council meeting has sparked a national conversation after a former NFL player was arrested during an attempted protest over the implementation of a plaque at the Huntington Beach Central Library -- a plaque that spelled out "MAGA." CHRIS KLUWE, PROTESTER SPEAKING AT CITY COUNCIL MEETING: MAGA stands for re-segregation and racism. MAGA stands for censorship and book bans. (editing jump) MAGA is profoundly corrupt, unmistakably anti-democracy... (editing jump) I will now engage in the time-honored American tradition of peaceful civil disobedience. UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Get the heck -- get out. SIDNER: With me now is the man you see in the video, former punter for the Minnesota Vikings, Chris Kluwe. Thank you so much for being here this morning, Chris. Um, look, the city council voting to put a plaque that they said was to honor the library's 50-year history that says, "magical, alluring, galvanizing, adventurous," which, of course, each capital letter of each word spelled out "MAGA." Seems to some like a small thing in the scheme of things. Why did you find it so important to protest this so fervently? KLUWE: Because what's happening in Huntington Beach with our city council is a microcosm of what's happening with the country as a whole. This city council -- they do not care about their community. They've consistently shown that they don't care about community feedback. They're only in it to get more power for themselves and to push themselves higher into Trump's orbit. They welcome this national attention because for them it's a way to increase their own personal power. And, as a resident of this city -- as someone who loves books and loves reading, it is just beyond the pale what they're trying to do to this library because the plaque is only the latest in a series of events. They've tried to ban books at the library, they've tried to privatize the library, and it's become very, very clear they do not care what the community wants -- they only care about themselves. SIDNER: I am very familiar with Huntington Beach. It is known for being a politically deep red spot in a mostly blue southern California, and they have had some policies that really raised some eyebrows, including the banning of books. You talked about the direct parallels that you see from the darkest times -- or at least one of the darkest times -- in world history, and you believe that we're on that path again. What is that path do you believe? KLUWE: I believe we're on the path that Nazi Germany went down under Hitler. And I say that as a political science and history major -- as someone who has studied history -- and the parallels are there very clear. This administration is trying to erase trans people -- this administration is trying to put obedience over duty to the country. This administration is trying to thrust our country into turmoil in order to reap power for themselves. And I think, regardless of political affiliation, all of us, as Americans, should be able to agree, "No kings, no tyrants -- not now, not ever." I cannot express how disgusting it was to see an official White House account put out a picture of an American President with a crown on his head. That goes against everything this country was founded upon. SIDNER: That's also after Donald Trump posted, "Long live the king," after stopping a policy here in New York. Look, there is this issue: The American public did vote for Donald Trump after all the things he said about being their retribution and about taking revenge -- about clearing out the federal government's so called "deep state," as he puts it, and the mass deportations. What do you say to Americans who say, "Yup, we voted for him -- we did it in large numbers -- he won the popular vote for the first time as well, knowing all these things"? KLUWE: I say to them that Hitler was elected, too, and there were a lot of very good Germans who believed that Hitler was going to have their best interests in mind. And I think there are a lot of good Americans that think that Trump has their best interests in mind, but I am very confident that what this administration already shown that Trump does not have their best interests in mind. And I would like for those Americans to not live after all the bodies have dropped and be filled with regret because they failed to do the right thing when it was time to do the right thing. SIDNER: Are you planning to continue doing these kinds of protests there at Huntington Beach and perhaps beyond? KLUWE: I plan to keep showing up to the city council meetings unless they ban me. I don't know if that will be the case or not because our next city council meeting is about a week and a half from now. So we'll see what happens there. I definitely plan on speaking out on the issue because, as an American citizen, I care about my country. I want my country to be a place where everyone can have the same advantages that I had, and I have to use my privilege to make that the case. SIDNER: Chris Kluwe, thank you so much for coming on this morning. I really appreciate you waking up bright and early because I know it's early there in California. Appreciate it.

Madonna Gets Into the Groove of Criticizing Trump Again, Says His 'King' Joke Didn't Make Her Laugh