Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced late Thursday that the Trump administration will pause the diversity visa lottery program. It was used eight years ago by the now-deceased accused killer. He allegedly murdered two Brown University students, teenagers, wounded nine others, and, two days later, an MIT professor. The alleged killer, Claudio Neves-Valente, was […] The post DHS Halts Diversity Lottery Used by Accused Brown/MIT Killer appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

The suspect in the Brown University shooting who also allegedly killed an MIT professor two days later is found dead, the Trump administration rolls out new rules to defund hospitals that perform transgender procedures on minors, and a positive economic report shows cooling inflation. It’s Friday, December 19, 2025, and this is the news you need to know to start yourday. Today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below, and the video version can be seen on The Daily Wire:   Brown And MIT Shooter Found Dead, Authorities Say On Thursday, police found the body of the man who they said was responsible for the deaths of two students at Brown University and a professor at MIT. Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48, died by suicide in a storage locker he had rented in New Hampshire. His last known address was in Miami, Florida, but he originally came from Portugal. Authorities said he attended Brown in the early 2000s as a PhD student, but he never completed the program. New Hampshire authorities said Neves Valente also attended the same academic program in Portugal as MIT professor Nuno Loureiro, who was found dead in his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, earlier this week. According to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Neves Valente “entered the United States through the diversity lottery immigrant visa program (DV1) in 2017 and was granted a green card.” Noem said Thursday night she had paused the DV1 program at President Donald Trump’s direction. Christmas Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships Trump Cuts Funds To Hospitals Performing Trans Treatments The Trump administration has moved to cut off federal funding for hospitals performing transgender procedures and surgeries on minors, a fulfillment of a major Trump campaign promise. A number of new rules are being applied to cut off federal funding to any facility that performs trans procedures on children, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or surgical operations. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will bar hospitals from performing any of these procedures on children under 18 as a condition of participation in Medicare and Medicaid programs. New rules will also block funding of Medicaid’s Children’s Health Insurance Program for trans procedures on anyone under 19. That program, known as CHIP, covers millions of kids nationwide. Inflation Cools November’s Consumer Price Index report shows that inflation cooled last month, defying expert predictions and providing political relief for President Trump. The report was especially important, as it was the first since September. The October report was lost to the federal shutdown. Economists had originally predicted a month-over-month rise of 3.1%, but inflation actually came in at 2.7%. That is down from a peak 9% in 2022 under President Joe Biden. Looking at core inflation, which strips out prices on volatile goods such as food and gas, the numbers appear even better. In November, CPI was 2.6%, the lowest since March 2021. The Trump administration took a victory lap on Thursday, and investors were also thrilled by the news, as the DOW, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 all climbed significantly.

President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered a pause on the United States green card diversity lottery immigrant visa program, which authorities say allowed the man who killed two Brown University students and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor to enter the country. Police identified the shooter as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national and former Brown University student who immigrated to the United States in 2017. Authorities found Valente dead in a New Hampshire storage unit on Thursday night, from what investigators believe was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. “The Brown University shooter, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente entered the United States through the diversity lottery immigrant visa program (DV1) in 2017 and was granted a green card. This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on X. “In 2017, President Trump fought to end this program, following the devastating NYC truck ramming by an ISIS terrorist, who entered under the DV1 program, and murdered eight people.” Trump called on Congress to eliminate the visa lottery after that attack, but the effort failed. “At President Trump’s direction, I am immediately directing USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program,” Noem added.  The “diversity visa” program allows up to 55,000 immigrants from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States into the country every year, according to the State Department.  Christmas Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships Valente, a lawful permanent resident, attended Brown University as a physics student in 2001 and re-entered the United States 16 years later under the diversity visa program as a green card holder. Authorities believe he acted alone and have not revealed a motive. Investigators say Valente remained at large for six days after the Brown shootings, during which he allegedly entered an engineering building and opened fire, leaving two people dead and injuring nine more. While on the run, authorities believe he fatally shot MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro at his home. Police traced Valente to the New Hampshire storage facility after receiving a tip based on a Reddit post from someone who said they had seen the vehicle used by the gunman. “I’m being dead serious. The police need to look into a grey Nissan with Florida plates, possibly a rental,” the post said, according to a police affidavit.  That person later came forward to the police and provided a description of Valente. He said that he asked Valente why he was circling the block near the university, to which he replied, “I don’t know you from nobody,” and “Why are you harassing me?”  Brown University officials and police have faced scrutiny over their handling of the investigation, including questions about why more surveillance footage was not available from the campus building where the shooting occurred. “I know this has been hard on all of us over the past five days,” Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said at a Thursday night press conference. “Minutes have felt like hours, but the people of Providence have done what we’re best at – we’ve leaned on one another, come together and supported one another, and showed the nation what a tight-knit community looks like.”

'Hannah Dugan betrayed her oath'

Author of How to Prep When You’re Broke and Bloom Where You’re Planted online course Hey! You, there! I see you at the grocery store shopping for Christmas dinner! Put the vegetable and dip tray back on the shelf! Christmas dinner doesn’t have to cost an absolute fortune if you plan your menu carefully. You can still include a couple of pricier treats while keeping the costs in check. Here are some ideas, some with links, to choose from. Remember that the right presentation makes everything feel more festive! 30 Thrifty Things for Christmas Dinner Below, find delicious-on-a-dime ideas for Christmas Dinner to fill your table with scrumptious food. Pick a few from each category and focus on things that you can get the ingredients for inexpensively. (Budget bonus points if you already have the ingredients!) Appetizers Some of these things rely on store-bought premade items, but if you have time you can make them from scratch Veggies and Dip: To save the most money, peel and cut up whole carrots and other veggies. For a quick and inexpensive dip, mix some existing ranch dressing with sour cream. Alternatively, go with the old 80s fallback of sour cream mixed with onion soup mix. It’s a classic for a reason. Piggies in Blankets: Instead of getting cocktail sausages, cut hot dogs to the appropriate length. Use generic refrigerated croissant dough. Chips and Salsa: You can buy jarred or check out my salsa recipe in this article. Grape Jelly Meatballs: Easy and highly recommended by my family. Either use frozen premade meatballs or make your own. Pop ’em in the crockpot with a cup of grape jelly (apricot and plum work well too), a cup of barbecue sauce, some garlic powder, and a few tablespoons of soy sauce. Puppy Chow: Another fam favorite – here’s a recipe. Throw in some red and green M&Ms for festive flair. Mini Pizzas: Use cookie cutters to make festive shapes from flour tortillas. Top with marinara and a thrifty pizza topping and a teeny bit of shredded cheese. Bake and serve. Deviled Eggs: My secret ingredient is honey mustard instead of regular mustard. The Main Meal Meat: This is nearly always the biggest expense of the entire meal. Watch your flyers for sales on turkey or ham. Beef will be outrageous as it rarely goes on sale at this time of year. Another option for small families is roasting a chicken. Potatoes: Cheap but essential. Go with classic mashed potatoes  (add a wee bit of onion powder or garlic powder) or roasted potatoes to save the most money. Gravy: This is made from drippings so it doesn’t cost much at all. Stuffing: If you’ve been saving your bread scraps this is thrifty. If not, you can buy a cheap loaf and let it become stale enough for stuffing. I always make a batch of homemade cornbread for mine. Sweet Potatoes: Mashed (cheap and easy to make from canned sweet potatoes), candied, or roasted Green Beans: My fam goes crazy for “Christmas Beans” (not the real name of it) made from canned green beans. You can also make a classic green bean casserole if your people are into it. Frozen Veggies with Almonds: Cheap and easy – right before serving time, steam your favorite veggies, like broccoli and cauliflower, then top with some butter and slivered almonds. Baked Pasta: Baked ziti with marinara is always a hit – and it’s filling and frugal as long as you keep it vegetarian and don’t add 5 pounds of cheese. Macaroni and Cheese: Use your favorite homemade mac and cheese recipe. Alternatively, make boxed, add some extra cheese, and bake it with a crunchy topping. I won’t judge. Squash Soup: The boxed squash soup is not very expensive and is downright tasty. I always top it with some sour cream and chopped walnuts. Dumplings: I grew up in the South where chicken and dumplings were always a holiday side. My mom and Granny always made rolled dumplings basically like this. Scalloped potatoes: These are so festive I forgot to put them with the plain taters. Because they have no cheese, they’re far less expensive to make than an au gratin. Festive Salad: Make a basic salad with ingredients you can find inexpensively. Get whatever lettuce or salad green that is reasonably priced. (Green) Top it with dried cranberries (Red) and feta cheese (White.) Boom. It’s instantly festive. Use a homemade honey balsamic dressing and toss it yourself right before serving. Homemade Cranberry Sauce: Ten billion and twelve times better than canned. Here’s a recipe. Roasted Brussels Sprouts: Adding some brown sugar and balsamic vinegar at the end and cooking for 5 more minutes elevates this to whole new levels. Dinner Rolls: Bake em, buy em. If you top them with some butter and serve them hot from the oven, everyone will love it. Carrots: Roast them with honey, steam them, or make coins with butter sauce. Corn: My fam loves hot buttered corn, creamed corn from a can, or if you want to be fancy, you can try this tasty-as-heck corn casserole. Dessert Christmas Cookies: Here are some recipes straight from the pantry. Pie: This is one thing that is cheaper to buy than to make yourself. I’m sorry, but it’s true. Cake: Whether you make it from a mix or from scratch, it can be a lovely and reasonably priced end to the meal. Oreo Truffles: I thought I died and went to heaven the first time I tried these. Holy guacamole. Please guard them if you bring them to my house because I will eat them all. Peppermint cocoa: Literally hot cocoa with a candy cane stir stick. This year… Please don’t blow your entire grocery budget on one meal. Focus on togetherness. Focus on presentation. Don’t go buy things you cannot afford. Your loved ones will be just as happy with a meal that doesn’t mean you’re starving for the next month. What are your favorite frugal and festive holiday foods? Do you have some that we didn’t include here? Let’s discuss it in the comments. About Daisy Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging author and blogger who’s traded her air miles for a screen porch, having embraced a more homebody lifestyle after a serious injury. She’s the heart and mind behind The Organic Prepper, a top-tier website where she shares what she’s learned about preparedness, self-reliance, and the pursuit of liberty. With 17 books under her belt, Daisy’s insights on living frugally, surviving tough times, finding some happiness in the most difficult situations, and embracing independence have touched many lives. Her work doesn’t just stay on her site; it’s shared far and wide across alternative media, making her a familiar voice in the community. Known for her adventurous spirit, she’s lived in five different countries and raised two wonderful daughters as a single mom.  Daisy is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books, 12 self-published books, and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides, printables, and courses at SelfRelianceand Survival.com You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, and X. The post 30 Thrifty Ideas for Christmas Dinner appeared first on The Organic Prepper.

One of the most persistent mistakes in modern politics is the insistence on flattening all ideologies—pretending that all human beings think the same way, want the same things, and are motivated by the same forces. Every time policymakers fall into this trap, the result is not compassion or clarity but some of the worst public policy imaginable. The assumption usually begins with a comforting but false premise: that all people harbor the same yearning for freedom in precisely the same way. That belief animated much of the George W. Bush administration’s foreign policy, when the president famously declared that America’s mission was to end tyranny on planet Earth. Noble as the sentiment sounded, it was never sustainable. It presumed that every society shares America’s priorities, values, and political instincts. History has shown otherwise. The same flattening impulse appears whenever violence is discussed. Instead of examining the specific causes behind specific acts—who committed them, why they were committed, and which ideas justified them—many commentators abstract everything into a vague moral generality. Violence is bad, they say. All people should know that violence is bad. And with that, the inquiry ends. But ending the inquiry there ensures that real solutions never begin. If policymakers and cultural leaders refuse to acknowledge that some ideas are worse than others, that some ideological frameworks are more prone to producing violence, they miss the central motivating factor in human behavior. The result is a blunderbuss approach to policy—one that treats unlike things as if they were identical, striking indiscriminately and often unjustly. A recent example came from “The View.” Commenting on a mass shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, that targeted Jews and was carried out by Islamists, co-host Sunny Hostin lamented what she described as a global spread of “sickness and hatred.” She grouped that attack together with an unrelated shooting at Brown University, asking why such violence seems to be happening everywhere. At the level of moral outrage, that reaction is understandable. At the level of analysis, it is childlike. Different ideological groups commit different types of crimes. Some promote peace. Some commit virtually no crimes at all. Others explicitly endorse terror and mass violence. Radical Islamism falls squarely into that last category. To reduce an ideologically driven antisemitic attack to just another instance of generic “violence,” or to focus exclusively on the instrument used, is to erase the very facts that might help prevent the next attack. The motive matters. The ideology matters. In Sydney, the ideological motive was clear. That clarity points directly toward possible policy responses: limiting the importation of radicalized individuals, monitoring extremist mosques, strengthening security, and refusing to grant legitimacy to radical Islamist arguments. These measures target a specific problem rooted in a specific belief system. None of that is possible if every incident is flattened into the same category and labeled simply “gun violence.” Abstraction becomes an excuse for inaction. This divide—between those who see ideas as central drivers of human behavior and those who do not—often marks the core disagreement between the traditional Right and the Left. Classical conservative thought holds that human beings are shaped by the ideas they embrace and that human nature itself is deeply flawed. People are capable of greatness but also of cruelty and sin. That understanding is woven into the American founding. In Federalist No. 51, James Madison famously observed that if men were angels, no government would be necessary. The entire constitutional system rests on the opposite assumption: that human beings are imperfect and must be governed accordingly. Once that reality is accepted, policy can be shaped around it. Specific ideologies can be confronted. Dangerous ideas can be named and opposed. Refusing to do so does not make society more humane—it only guarantees bad, and often very stupid, public policy. COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post The Dumbest Assumption in All of Politics appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Stop Doing Idiotic Things, Please

Policymakers are doing nothing to constrain the structural budget deficits that fuel inflation.