Kennedy Center hauls away Joel Shapiro’s “Blue” sculpture by crane, closing Rock Creek Parkway for 7 rush-hour hours, days after Trump floated demolishing the building.
Childcare waitlists grow from 8 states to 23 plus DC, stranding hundreds of thousands of eligible children, after Congress let $28 billion in pandemic aid lapse, AP finds.
San Diego County seeds a $300,000 revolving loan fund for East County small businesses that can’t get bank loans, unlocking $400,000 in federal matching funds.
Trump says US hit Iran “very hard” and can strike again “anytime,” as Pentagon confirms troops were told to stop saying “Operation Epic Fury,” declared over May 5.
House votes 370-48 to fund the government through Dec. 11, blocking political review of grants and fund transfers to Border Patrol, averting a preelection shutdown.
ICE frees a Washington state roofer in Louisiana without his passport, 2,000 miles from home, after a judge ruled his pending trafficking visa barred his detention.
Fort Worth’s Tarrant County commissioners cut 92 Election Day polling sites from 2022 levels on a 3-2 party line vote after 8 hours of mostly opposed testimony.
Florida’s transportation department orders license plate cameras off state roads within 30 days citing “surveillance schemes,” as 7 cities and counties halt Flock networks.
Defense Secretary Hegseth removes at least 6 Army officers from a major general promotion list one day after the Army secretary quit, The Hill reports.
Homeland Security Secretary Mullin touts about 2,100 ICE arrests in New York and threatens more agents unless leaders cooperate, despite the city’s record low murders.
Kennedy Center removes Joel Shapiro’s “Blue” sculpture from its grounds with no explanation, 11 weeks after a court forced Trump’s name off the building.
Carrier USS Abraham Lincoln docks in Thailand after 286 days at sea, as Democrats seek a probe of food shortages, broken plumbing and attempted suicides.
Justice Department sues Kansas City, Kansas, schools over transgender guidance it says hides students’ transitions from parents, calling it the first lawsuit of its kind.
House votes 412-2 to censure North Carolina Republican Chuck Edwards, who denies sexual harassment, for giving 2 young staffers handguns, jewelry, poems and vacation invitations.
Trump nominates acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao permanently, 4 months after Defense Secretary Hegseth fired his predecessor and one day after the Army secretary resigned.
Postal Service whistleblower tells House Democrats the agency is secretly building a voter screening system, tested for 4 days, despite last week’s court block.
New York’s Monroe County opens an accessible playground at Greece Canal Park with rubberized flooring and a communication board, after upgrades at 2 other parks.
Iran says a US airstrike hit a wedding in a home, killing or wounding over 50, as Trump urges Iranians to “rise up and fight.”
Speaker Johnson endorses Ohio Rep. Max Miller’s reelection as a “great member” while the Ethics Committee investigates allegations he abused his ex-wife and 2-year-old daughter.
White House orders agencies to make Login.gov the default sign-in for federal websites within 2 years, weeks after congressional auditors said it still hasn’t fixed fraud threats.
Agriculture Department defunds 2 of 3 programs studying the foodborne parasite Cyclospora and moves the third to Iowa, where no scientist will follow, during a record outbreak, POLITICO reports.
General Services Administration awards $1.1 million to one contractor for White House bowling alley lighting and an unexplained basement “studio,” 12 years after Republicans killed an Obama-era renovation.
Small Business Administration stages $1 million Shark Tank-style pitch contest September 18 judged by Nicki Minaj and other Trump supporters, hosted by actor Dean Cain.
Pentagon gives 3 million personnel ChatGPT and Musk’s Grok for unclassified work, days after a judge ruled it unlawfully retaliated against Anthropic for refusing surveillance and weapons uses.
Trump administration shuts 270 trucking schools it says helped undocumented immigrants get commercial licenses, 110 of them tied to over 5,000 drivers who failed English tests.
Federal judge pauses Florida and Texas’s bid to revoke the abortion pill mifepristone nationwide until after the midterms, at the FDA’s request during its safety review.
FTC and over 20 states sue Amazon, alleging it secretly bid in its own ad auctions since 2018 to overcharge sellers more than $20 billion.
Treasury Secretary Bessent mocks Canada’s military as “two submarines from the Edmonton mall” and blames Prime Minister Carney for the trade war after Trump’s 50% tariffs took effect.
38 Minnesota church protesters including ex-CNN anchor Don Lemon seek dismissal, saying Homeland Security used over 90 customs summonses to gather phone and travel records without judicial approval.
Smithsonian puts the National Museum of the American Latino in a building it already owns, bypassing congressional approval after Trump’s budget stripped the museum’s funding.
Trump personally asks Apple to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America” on its maps, Interior Secretary Burgum says, days after Google complied and MapQuest refused.
Army Secretary Driscoll resigns after tension with Defense Secretary Hegseth over readiness and the ousting of top generals, leaving the Army without a Senate-confirmed leader.
Supreme Court lets White House ballroom construction continue 5-4, Chief Justice Roberts dissenting, as the 65% complete project could finish before courts decide its legality.
Los Angeles County opens a free financial clinic offering small businesses individual debt counseling and capital coaching as part of a 2024 economic mobility program.
Trump calls the Iran war “relatively little” and weighs new strikes, after the Washington Post reported military leaders warned Hegseth prolonged operations weaken US defenses elsewhere.
Pentagon quietly installs 3 retired colonels turned conservative influencers, 1 million X followers combined, in undisclosed civilian roles as they defend Defense Secretary Hegseth online, the Post reports.
Treasury Department denies credentials to New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg reporters for the G20 finance meeting it hosts in North Carolina, offering no explanation.
Trump vows to report NBC’s Kristen Welker to the FCC “for rebuke or punishment” over calling his endorsement record “mixed,” after 6 of his picks lost Republican primaries this month.
Google Maps switches to “Lake America” 2 days after Trump’s order, splitting from Apple and MapQuest, as the name starts showing on Canadian government websites using Google.
Washington’s Snohomish County opens 73 rooms of transitional housing for homeless residents in a former Everett Days Inn, converted on budget for under $22 million.
US strikes 2 Iranian launchers on Larak Island, the first attack in a month, as Revolutionary Guard forces readied sea mines for the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump administration appeals the June order barring it from freezing NY-NJ rail tunnel funds it withheld to punish Democrats, after 4 court losses.
Maryland awards $28.5 million to electrify school and transit buses and add EV chargers, including 35 ports at 5 apartment complexes, as gas prices climb.
Homeland Security uses a customs-import law to obtain a Minneapolis journalist’s phone records without court approval, weeks after a judge twice rejected its warrant request.
Justice Department settles its 2020 lawsuit against Walmart for $50 million over pharmacies that filled pill-mill opioid prescriptions their own pharmacists had flagged.
ICE deports far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos to Britain 2 days after his airport arrest, as conservative activist Laura Loomer claims she exposed the Trump critic’s overstay.
Trump’s accounts keep trading oil and gas stocks 6 months into the Iran war, with energy holdings up as much as $15 million this year, congressional Democrats find.
Trump’s Truth Social post labels Micronesia and the Marshall Islands “U.S. Territories,” 2 sovereign nations the US administered until 1979 and 1990, with no White House explanation.
Harris County’s district attorney will take ICE’s killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo to a grand jury, saying Homeland Security has shared nothing 7 weeks after the shooting.
Trump sets a 2027 pay freeze for most federal workers while giving law enforcement a second straight 3.8% raise, blaming Biden-era inflation that has since risen from 2.8% to 3.3%.
