ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge in Georgia on Friday dismissed a U.S. Justice Department lawsuit seeking voter information from the state, ruling the federal government had sued in the wrong city.
U.S. District Judge Ashley Royal found the government should have sued Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in Atlanta, and not in a separate federal judicial district in Macon, where the secretary of state also has an office.
Royal dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice, meaning the Justice Department can refile it. The department declined to comment Friday.
The Justice Department has now filed lawsuits against 24 states and the District of Columbia seeking voter information as part of its effort to collect detailed voting data, including dates of birth and driver’s license and Social Security numbers. A federal judge in California rejected the lawsuit against that state on privacy grounds, while a judge in Oregon has suggested he may dismiss the case there.
The Trump administration characterizes the lawsuits as an effort to ensure election security, and the Justice Department says the states are violating federal law by refusing to provide voter lists and information.
Raffensperger has been the rare Republican to decline the demand, saying Georgia law prohibits the release of voters’ confidential personal unless certain qualifications are met. Raffensperger argues the federal government hasn’t met those conditions. He says he shared the public part of the voter roll and information about how Georgia removes ineligible or outdated registrations in December.
“I will always follow the law and follow the Constitution,” Raffensperger said in a statement Friday. “I won’t violate the oath I took to stand up for the people of this state, regardless of who or what compels me to do otherwise.”
The refusal to hand over the records has become an issue in Raffensperger’s 2026 run for governor. Raffensperger in January 2021 famously refused a demand from President Donald Trump in a phone call to “find” enough votes to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s win in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election. Many Trump-loving Republicans still hold a grudge against Raffensperger.
The issue flared just Thursday in a hearing by a state Senate committee where multiple Republican state senators slammed Raffensperger for failing to comply, saying he legally could do so. The committee voted along party lines to advance a resolution calling on Raffensperger to hand over the data and calling it the “latest example of a pattern of behavior by the secretary and his office to refuse oversight of his administration of Georgia’s elections.”
State Sen. Randy Robertson, a Republican from Cataula who filed the resolution, said the dismissal is “frustrating” because even if the Justice Department refiles the lawsuit, the problem will take longer to resolve.
“As public officials we all should participate in any investigation done by a law enforcement agency,” Robertson told The Associated Press Friday.
Robertson is one of many Republican lawmakers backing Lt. Gov. Burt Jones over Raffensperger for the GOP governor nomination. Jones, who already has Trump’s endorsement for governor, was one of 16 state Republicans who signed a certificate that Trump had won Georgia and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors.
FILE – Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger participates in an election forum, Sept. 19, 2024, in Ann Arbor, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California sued the federal government Friday for approving a Texas-based company’s plans to restart two oil pipelines along the state’s coast, escalating a fight over the Trump administration’s removal of regulatory barriers to offshore oil drilling for the first time in decades.
The state oversees the pipelines that run through Santa Barbara and Kern counties, said Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta.
“The federal administration has no right to usurp California’s regulatory authority,” he said at a news conference. “We’re taking them to court to draw a line in the sand and to protect our coast, beaches and communities from potentially hazardous pipelines.”
But the U.S. Transportation Department agency that approved Sable’s plan pushed back on the lawsuit.
“Restarting the Las Flores Pipeline will bring much needed American energy to a state with the highest gas prices in the country,” said a spokesperson with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
Sable did not respond for comment on the lawsuit.
Trump signed an executive order on the first day of his second term to reverse former President Joe Biden’s ban on future offshore oil drilling on the East and West coasts. A federal court later struck down Biden’s order to withdraw 625 million acres of federal waters from oil development.
The federal administration in November announced plans for new offshore oil drilling off the California and Florida coasts, which the oil industry has backed for years.
But critics say the plans could harm coastal communities and ecosystems.
Bonta said one of the pipelines Sable wants to restart burst in 2015, spilling oil along the Southern California coast. The event was the state’s worst oil spill in decades. More than 140,000 gallons (3,300 barrels) of oil gushed out, blackening beaches for 150 miles from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles. It polluted a biologically rich habitat for endangered whales and sea turtles, killing scores of pelicans, seals and dolphins, and decimating the fishing industry.
FILE – A worker removes oil from sand at Refugio State Beach, north of Goleta, Calif., May 21, 2015. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
The drilling platforms were subsequently shuttered.
Sable has faced a slew of legal challenges but has said it is determined to restart production, even if that means confining it to federal waters, where state regulators have virtually no say. California controls the 3 miles nearest to shore. The platforms are 5 to 9 miles offshore.
“It’s crazy that we are even talking about restarting this pipeline,” said Alex Katz, executive director of the Environmental Defense Center, a Santa Barbara group formed in response to a catastrophic 1969 California oil spill.
The federal government’s approval to restart the pipelines ignores painful lessons the community learned from the 2015 oil spill, said California Assemblymember Gregg Hart, a Democrat representing Santa Barbara.
“California will not allow Trump and his Big Oil friends to bypass our essential environmental laws and threaten our coastline,” he said in a statement.
California has been reducing the state’s production of fossil fuels in favor of clean energy for years. The movement has been spearheaded partly by Santa Barbara County, where elected officials voted in May to begin taking steps to phase out onshore oil and gas operations.
FILE – Workers prepare an oil containment boom at Refugio State Beach, north of Goleta, Calif., on May 21, 2015, two days after an oil pipeline ruptured, polluting beaches and killing hundreds of birds and marine mammals. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
Vice President JD Vance on Friday encouraged anti-abortion activists to “take heart in how far we’ve come” on the quest to limit the practice, listing the Trump administration’s accomplishments including an expansion of a ban on U.S. foreign aid for groups supporting abortion services.
“There is still much road ahead to travel together,” Vance told attendees at the annual March for Life demonstration, which draws tens of thousands of people annually to Washington. Attendees rallied on the National Mall before heading to the Supreme Court.
Vance, a Republican, has spent years passionately advocating for Americans to have more children. He repeatedly expressed alarm about declining birth rates as he launched his political career in 2021 with a successful bid for the U.S. Senate in Ohio, and as vice president he has continued on that mission.
“I want more babies in the United States of America,” Vance said in addressing last year’s March for Life.
Earlier this week, Vance and his wife, second lady Usha Vance, announced in a social media post they are expecting a son, their fourth child, in late July.
“Let the record show, you have a vice president who practices what he preaches,” Vance said Friday.
Vance cited the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade, calling it “the most important Supreme Court decision of my lifetime.” He said President Donald Trump’s leadership and appointment of conservative jurists “put a definitive end to the tyranny of judicial rule on the question of human life.”
He also lauded the “historic expansion of the Mexico City policy,” the broadening of a ban on U.S. foreign aid for groups supporting abortion services, to include assistance going to international and domestic organizations and agencies that promote gender identity as well as diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
“We believe that every country in the world has the duty to protect life,” Vance said, to a sea of supporters waving signs reading “Choose Life,” “Make More Babies” and “I am the Pro-Life Generation.”
“It’s not our job as the United States of America to promote radical gender ideology,” he said. “It’s our job to promote families and human flourishing.”
From the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV — the first U.S.-born pope — sent a message of support to participants in the march.
“I would encourage you, especially the young people, to continue striving to ensure that life is respected in all of its stages,” Leo wrote in a letter shown on a video at the march. “May Jesus, who promised to be with us always, accompany you today as you courageously and peacefully march on behalf of unborn children.”
On Thursday, an official said the Trump administration was implementing new rules, halting foreign assistance from going not only to groups that provide abortion as a method of family planning but also to those that advocate “gender ideology” and DEI. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity ahead of the rules’ publication in the Federal Register on Friday.
First established under President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, the policy was rescinded by subsequent Democratic administrations and was reinstated in Trump’s first term.
With its origins in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that nationally enshrined federal protection for abortion rights, the March for Life developed an entrenched presence among conservatives arguing against abortion. In 2017, Trump addressed the march by video, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to make live remarks. Three years later, he attended the event in person, further cementing its role in conservative politics.
In a video address to this year’s crowd, Trump recounted his administration’s “unprecedented strides to protect innocent life and support the institution of the family like never before,” enumerating his appointment of “judges and justices who believed in interpreting the Constitution as written” and “reflecting on the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.
Although Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and President Donald Trump have found some areas of common ground this year, Whitmer recently outlined key disagreements at the Detroit Auto Show, including opposition to Trump’s tariff strategy and the presence of ICE in Minneapolis. This week on MichMash, WDET’s Cheyna Roth and Gongwer News Service’s Alethia Kasben discuss what Whitmer’s comments could signal about future relations with the Trump administration.
Whitmer called some Trump administration actions “an abuse of power,” adding, “I think it is a very serious and scary moment in this country. I appreciate those who are raising their voices. I worry about the people out there just trying to do the right thing.”
Roth said Whitmer’s remarks could hint at political ambitions after her term as governor ends. She also noted that much of Whitmer’s outreach to the Trump administration has focused on maintaining cooperation in Michigan’s best interest.
Later in the episode, Oakland Schools Superintendent Kenneth Gutman discusses proposed legislation that would ban cell phones in classrooms. Gutman supports the measure, saying it benefits students. “There are exceptions, and safety is one of them, but in general, do we need cell phones in classrooms? We do not. They are a distraction.”
If the legislation passes, Michigan would join states including Indiana, Louisiana, New York, and Ohio in banning cell phones in classrooms.
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Who wrote the Federalist Papers? What power does the president have? Name one right only U.S. citizens possess.
Those are real questions from the U.S. citizenship civics test. The test now draws from 128 possible questions. It asks up to 20 on the spot. Individuals must answer at least 12 correctly to pass.
Many native-born Americans would struggle with questions like these.
As immigration enforcement intensifies in the United States and federal authorities expand arrests and deportation efforts, the question of what it means to be an American is being thrust into public view.
That is because citizenship isn’t just something written on a test. It is a lived experience, felt in neighborhoods, courtrooms, and in the center of our political conversation.
To unpack what it means to be an American, and how that’s changed over time, The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent spoke with Marc Kruman. He’s a retired professor of history at Wayne State University and the founding director of its Center for the Study of Citizenship.
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.
WDET strives to cover what’s happening in your community. As a public media institution, we maintain our ability to explore the music and culture of our region through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
Every fall, college campuses come alive with small rituals: new students finding their way, roommates negotiating shared space, classrooms filling with questions and ideas.
But this year, something is missing.
International students—once a steady presence—are arriving in far smaller numbers. At the University of Michigan-Dearborn, the change is felt in classrooms, group projects, and everyday conversations that no longer happen.
Behind the absence are visa delays, shifting federal rules, and a broader signal. The Trump administration is advancing a more nationalist, transactional approach to foreign policy, and the U.S. is increasingly seen abroad as unpredictable. For students deciding where to study, that uncertainty matters.
Gabriella Scarlatta, interim chancellor of the University of Michigan-Dearborn, and a former international student herself, says what’s happening on campus reflects something larger about how welcome America feels right now. She joined Robyn Vincent on The Metro to explain what Michigan risks losing.
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.
WDET strives to cover what’s happening in your community. As a public media institution, we maintain our ability to explore the music and culture of our region through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
In the Republican-controlled House, lawmakers overwhelmingly passed a bill banning cell phones in charter and public schools with strong bipartisan support. Now it’s headed to the Michigan Senate, where Democrats hold the majority.
Many school districts in the state already have phone bans and restrictions. But this recent vote in the state House was significant. A similar bill didn’t pass the same chamber last summer. Inaction was a theme last legislative session as lawmakers in Lansing passed the fewest number of bills on record.
What changed? And, what other bills might the legislature be able to pass along bipartisan lines this session?
State Rep. Mark Tisdel.
Mark Tisdel is a Republican representing Rochester Hills and the sponsor of the cell phone ban bill. He spoke with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent.
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.
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Women have been at the forefront of civil rights and human rights movements throughout history. Yet, their stories are left untold and forgotten.
Dr. Keisha N. Blain is a historian, speaker, advocate, and social justice activist who is a best-selling author. She is a professor of Africana studies at Brown University. Her most recent book “Without Fear: Black Women and the Making of Human Rights” takes a historical look back at various civil rights movements and the Black women behind the scenes who created global change.
Dr. Blain spoke at Wayne State University as part of the university’s annual Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration. She joined The Metro to talk about the women who helped progress human rights, often leading to systemic change.
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.
WDET strives to make our journalism accessible to everyone. As a public media institution, we maintain our journalistic integrity through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
As part of its deportation efforts, the Trump administration has ordered states to hand over personal data from voter rolls, driver’s license records and programs such as Medicaid and food stamps.
At the same time, the administration is trying to consolidate the bits of personal data held across federal agencies, creating a single trove of information on people who live in the United States.
Many left-leaning states and cities are trying to protect their residents’ personal information amid the immigration crackdown. But a growing number of conservative lawmakers also want to curb the use of surveillance technologies, such as automated license plate readers, that can be used to identify and track people.
Conservative-led states such as Arkansas, Idaho and Montana enacted laws last year designed to protect the personal data collected through license plate readers and other means. They joined at least five left-leaning states — Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York and Washington — that specifically blocked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from accessing their driver’s license records.
The Trump administration’s goal is to create a “surveillance dragnet across the country,” said William Owen, communications director at the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, a nonprofit that advocates for stronger privacy laws.
“We’re entering an increasingly dystopian era of high-tech surveillance,” Owen said. Intelligence sharing between various levels of government, he said, has “allowed ICE to sidestep sanctuary laws and co-opt local police databases and surveillance tools, including license plate readers, facial recognition and other technologies.”
A new Montana law bars government entities from accessing electronic communications and related material without a warrant. Republican state Sen. Daniel Emrich, the law’s author, said “the most important thing that our entire justice system is based on is the principle against unlawful search and seizure” — the right enshrined in the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“It’s tough to find individuals who are constitutionally grounded and understand the necessity of keeping the Fourth Amendment rights intact at all times for all reasons — with minimal or zero exceptions,” Emrich said in an interview.
ICE did not respond to Stateline’s requests for comment.
Automated license plate readers
Recently, cities and states have grown particularly concerned over the use of automated license plate readers (ALPRs), which are high-speed camera and computer systems that capture license plate information on vehicles that drive by. These readers sit on top of police cars and streetlights or can be hidden within construction barrels and utility poles.
Some cameras collect data that gets stored in databases for years, raising concerns among privacy advocates. One report from the Brennan Center for Justice, a progressive think tank at New York University, found the data can be susceptible to hacking. Different agencies have varying policies on how long they keep the data, according to the International Association of Chiefs of Police, a law enforcement advocacy group.
Supporters of the technology, including many in law enforcement, say the technology is a powerful tool for tracking down criminal suspects.
Flock Safety says it has cameras in more than 5,000 communities and is connected to more than 4,800 law enforcement agencies across 49 states. The company claims its cameras conduct more than 20 billion license plate reads a month. It collects the data and gives it to police departments, which use the information to locate people.
Holly Beilin, a spokesperson for Flock Safety, told Stateline that while there are local police agencies that may be working with ICE, the company does not have a contractual relationship with the agency. Beilin also said that many liberal and even sanctuary cities continue to sign contracts with Flock Safety. She noted that the cameras have been used to solve some high-profile crimes, including identifying and leading police to the man who committed the Brown University shooting and killed an MIT professor at the end of last year.
“Agencies and cities are very much able to use this technology in a way that complies with their values. So they do not have to share data out of state,” Beilin said.
Pushback over data’s use
But critics, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, say that Flock Safety’s cameras are not only “giving even the smallest-town police chief access to an enormously powerful driver-surveillance tool,” but also that the data is being used by ICE. One news outlet, 404 Media, obtained records of these searches and found many were being carried out by local officers on behalf of ICE.
Last spring, the Denver City Council unanimously voted to terminate its contract with Flock Safety, but Democratic Mayor Mike Johnston unilaterally extended the contract in October, arguing that the technology was a useful crime-fighting tool.
The ACLU of Colorado has vehemently opposed the cameras, saying last August that audit logs from the Denver Police Department show more than 1,400 searches had been conducted for ICE since June 2024.
“The conversation has really gotten bigger because of the federal landscape and the focus, not only on immigrants and the functionality of ICE right now, but also on the side of really trying to reduce and or eliminate protections in regards to access to reproductive care and gender affirming care,” Anaya Robinson, public policy director at the ACLU of Colorado.
“When we erode rights and access for a particular community, it’s just a matter of time before that erosion starts to touch other communities.”
Jimmy Monto, a Democratic city councilor in Syracuse, New York, led the charge to eliminate Flock Safety’s contract in his city.
“Syracuse has a very large immigrant population, a very large new American population, refugees that have resettled and been resettled here. So it’s a very sensitive issue,” Monto said, adding that license plate readers allow anyone reviewing the data to determine someone’s immigration status without a warrant.
“When we sign a contract with someone who is collecting data on the citizens who live in a city, we have to be hyper-focused on exactly what they are doing while we’re also giving police departments the tools that they need to also solve homicides, right?” Monto said.
“Certainly, if license plate readers are helpful in that way, I think the scope is right. But we have to make sure that that’s what we’re using it for, and that the companies that we are contracting with are acting in good faith.”
Emrich, the Montana lawmaker, said everyone should be concerned about protecting constitutional privacy rights, regardless of their political views.
“If the government is obtaining data in violation of constitutional rights, they could be violating a whole slew of individuals’ constitutional rights in pursuit of the individuals who may or may not be protected under those same constitutional rights,” he said.
House Republican have moved to unilaterally cut up to $645 million from the state budget. But is that legal? This week on MichMash, Cheyna Roth and Zach Gorchow talk with Bob Schneider of the Citizens Research Council of Michigan to make sense of it all. Plus a look at changes in the race for governor and Secretary of State.
In this episode:
Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist drops out of the race for governor and into the Secretary of State’s race
The state of the governor’s race
The battle over unilateral budget cuts
Overview
Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist has ended his campaign for governor and has launched an effort to become Michigan’s next Secretary of State instead. Gongwer’s Zach Gorchow says Gilchrist’s decision shouldn’t come as a surprise.
“He had low name recognition and wasn’t raising anywhere near enough money. Jocelyn Benson, the secretary of state, has been the clear frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for months, and Gilchrist’s exit doesn’t change anything on the Democratic side.”
The news does have implications for the race for Secretary of State as Gilchrist joins an already crowded Democratic field.
Meanwhile, lawmakers are dealing with a provision in state law that allows a single legislative committee to cancel certain types of spending. House Republicans used this mechanism like never before – to cancel up to $645 million in spending.
Attorney General Dana Nessel has filed suit saying the legislation allowing the move is unconstitutional.
Bob Schneider of the Citizens Research Council of Michigan tells us the central issue is around the appropriation process for “work projects.”
“A work project is an authorization to carry forward appropriations into a future fiscal year.”
He says the legislature should be thinking ahead on the issue, because the process could be in jeopardy, depending on how courts rule. Schneieder says lawmaker should be saying to themselves, “How do we get together and fix this so we have a process that works in the future.”
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Is it time to rewrite Michigan’s constitution? Voters will answer that question in 2026.
A ballot proposal asks whether state residents want to call a constitutional convention. The last one happened in 1961. Voters approved a new constitution in 1962.
By law, the issue must appear on the ballot every 16 years. Voters rejected convention calls in 1978, 1994, and 2010.
Justin Long is an associate professor at Wayne State University’s School of Law. He’s an expert on state constitutions, including Michigan’s. He says the 16-year cycle gives voters time to think about how state government works and whether to change it.
“The thought was if there’s something seriously wrong with the structure of state government, it’ll take us a few years to figure it out,” he says. We’ll give it a try for a few years, and by 16 years, it’s time to decide whether it’s working or not.”
What does it say?
Proposal 1 will appear on the November 2026 ballot as follows:
A PROPOSAL TO CONVENE A CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION FOR THE PURPOSE OF DRAFTING A GENERAL REVISION OF THE STATE CONSTITUTION
Shall a convention of elected delegates be convened in 2027 to draft a general revision of the State Constitution for presentation to the state’s voters for their approval or rejection?
Voters can either say “yes” or “no.”
It’s not a popular question
So why haven’t voters felt the need to call for a new convention in over 60 years? Long says caution may be one reason.
“I think neither political party [Democratic or Republican] feels assured that they’ll be able to control the convention, because delegates are elected directly by the people,” he says. “And the delegates would presumably know that if they did anything too wild, the voters wouldn’t pass it.”
Justin Long is an associate law professor at Wayne State University.
That said, delegates could either tweak parts of the constitution or rewrite the entire document. For example, Long says they could decide which offices get elected and which ones don’t.
“They could decide whether we want to have two houses of the Legislature or just one,” he says. “They’re basically unfettered at that point.”
If voters do call for a constitutional convention, another election would take place within six months. Long says that’s when voters would choose delegates.
“There’d be one delegate elected from every House district and one from every Senate district,” he says. “They would then hire staff, and then they would meet and debate.”
Long says once the delegates have drafted a new constitution, they submit it to the voters.
“And that vote would be by a simple majority,” he says.
If voters say no to a constitutional convention this year, it wouldn’t come up again until 2042.
Trusted, accurate, up-to-date.
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By STEVE PEOPLES, MIKE CATALINI, JESSE BEDAYN and AMELIA THOMSON-DEVEAUX, Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Nearly a year into his second term, President Donald Trump’s work on the economy hasn’t lived up to the expectations of many people in his own party, according to a new AP-NORC survey.
Just 16% of Republicans say Trump has helped “a lot” in addressing the cost of living, down from 49% in April 2024, when an AP-NORC poll asked Americans the same question about his first term.
At the same time, Republicans are overwhelmingly supportive of the president’s leadership on immigration — even if some don’t like his tactics.
John Candela, 64, who lives in New Rochelle, New York, said the cost of living hasn’t improved for his family — his salary and bills remain the same as before.
“Still paying $5 for Oreos,” he said. But he’s willing to be patient: “I would expect it to be different by the time his four years are up.”
The poll reveals signs of weakness among consumers on the economy, especially Trump’s core campaign promise to reduce costs. Inflation has cooled somewhat, but prices on many goods are higher than they were when the Republican president took office last January.
There is little sign overall, though, that the Republican base is abandoning Trump. The vast majority of Republicans, about 8 in 10, approve of his job performance, compared with 4 in 10 for adults overall.
“I don’t like the man as a human being. I don’t like his brashness. I don’t like his roughness. I don’t like how he types out his texts all capital as if he’s yelling at everybody. But what I approve of is what he is doing to try and get the country on track,” Candela said.
Trump not improving costs, most Republicans say
On various economic factors, Trump has yet to convince many of his supporters that he’s changing things for the better.
Only about 4 in 10 Republicans overall say Trump has helped address the cost of living at least “a little” in his second term, while 79% said he helped address the issue that much in his first term, based on the 2024 poll. Just over half of Republicans in the new poll say Trump has helped create jobs in his second term; 85% said the same about his first term, including 62% who said he helped “a lot.”
Only 26% of Republicans in the January survey say he’s helped “a lot” on job creation in his second term.
And on health care, about one-third of Republicans say Trump has helped address costs at least “a little,” while 53% in the April 2024 poll said he helped reduce health care costs that much during his first term. Federal health care subsidies for more than 20 million Americans expired on Jan. 1, resulting in health care costs doubling or even tripling for many families.
In the town of Waxahachie, Texas, south of Dallas, 28-year-old three-time Trump voter Ryan James Hughes, a children’s pastor, doesn’t see an improvement in his family’s financial situation. He said the medical bills haven’t declined.
But, he said, “I’m not looking to the government to secure my financial future.”
Immigration is a strength among the Trump base despite controversy
The new poll underscores that Republicans are largely getting what they want on immigration, even as some report concerns about the federal immigration agents who have flooded U.S. cities at Trump’s direction.
About 8 in 10 Republicans say Trump has helped at least “a little” on immigration and border security in his second term. That’s similar to the share in the April 2024 poll that saw a positive effect from Trump’s leadership on immigration and border security during his first term.
Most Republicans say Trump has struck the right balance when it comes to deporting immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally, and about one-third think he hasn’t gone far enough.
But Trump’s approval on immigration has also slipped among Republicans over the past year, falling from 88% in March to 76% in the new poll.
Kevin Kellenbarger, 69, a three-time Trump voter who retired from a printing company, said his Christian faith led him to the Republican Party. The Lancaster, Ohio, resident thinks the president’s immigration crackdown is necessary, though he expressed dissatisfaction at the recent killing of Renee Good by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis.
“I don’t like anybody getting killed, but it wasn’t Trump’s fault,” Kellenbarger said, adding that President Joe Biden, a Democrat, “let millions of people in. They have to be taken out.”
Several Republicans said in interviews they thought the aggressive tactics seen recently in Minneapolis went too far, suggesting that Trump should focus more on immigrants with criminal backgrounds as he promised during the campaign.
Overall, just 38% of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s leadership on immigration, while 61% disapprove.
“These families that are being separated and they’re just here to try to live the American dream,” said Republican Liz Gonzalez, 40, the daughter of Mexican immigrants and a self-employed rancher and farmer from Palestine, Texas.
At the same time, Gonzalez said, she doesn’t think people opposed to the crackdown should be interfering at all. “I think if they just let (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), you know, like the patrol people, do their jobs, then they would see it’s not — it doesn’t have to be chaos,” she said.
More Republicans see the country improving than their personal lives
About two-thirds of Republicans say the country as a whole is “much” or “somewhat” better off than before Trump took office, but only about half say this about themselves and their family.
The broad sense that the country is moving in the right direction may be counteracting Republican dissatisfaction with the state of the economy.
Phyllis Gilpin, a 62-year-old Republican from Booneville, Missouri, praised Trump’s ability to “really listen to people.” But she doesn’t love his personality.
“He is very arrogant,” she said, expressing frustration about his name-calling. But she said the divisive politics go both ways: “I really, honestly, just wish that we could all just not be Democrat or Republican — just come together.”
The AP-NORC poll of 1,203 adults was conducted Jan. 8-11 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points. The poll included interviews with 404 Republicans, and the margin of sampling error for Republicans overall is plus or minus 6 percentage points.
FILE – President Donald Trump gestures to a chart as he speaks at Mount Airy Casino Resort, Dec. 9, 2025, in Mount Pocono, Pa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
Other people have also been killed by ICE agents, including Silverio Villegos González near Chicago and Keith Porter Jr. in California. Those deaths, though, did not trigger the same national response.
In Detroit, City Council Member Gabriela Santiago-Romero is pushing the city to act. She represents Southwest Detroit and chairs the City Council’s Public Health and Safety Committee. She’s asking whether Detroit can legally restrict ICE activity on city property and in sensitive areas, such as schools and hospitals.
Santiago-Romero joined Robyn Vincent on The Metro to discuss how cities can respond when federal immigration enforcement becomes more aggressive, and how local governments weigh responsibility, risk, and trust.
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.
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But at the local level, despite weak participation, officials say democracy is strong, that the trash is getting picked up on time, and that services are being properly distributed, especially in more urban areas.
That’s what Stephanie Leiser found in a recent survey of Michigan municipal leaders. She’s the Director of the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy, and a lecturer at University of Michigan. The Metro’s Sam Corey spoke with Leiser to learn more.
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Recent numbers suggest that homicides fell well below 200 last year. That was the first time that happened in six decades.
There are a number of things that are given credit for the decline. Community violence interventionists who are preventing harm, and police officers that focus on de-escalation and complete their homicide investigations. It can also be attributed to increased surveillance with things like Project Green Light.
Now, Mayor Mary Sheffield is creating an Office of Neighborhood & Community Safety, which will focus on mental health issues, after-school programs and resident access to jobs to further increase safety.
What exactly will the office do? And why is a holistic approach needed to increase resident safety?
Shantay Jackson is the Director of the National Offices of Violence Prevention Network at the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, which will help establish Detroit’s office. She spoke with The Metro‘s Sam Corey.
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In the past few weeks, the country has experienced an onslaught of news and information that can often be hard to process.
Dr. Julia Felton is an associate professor of psychology at Wayne State University
From the capture and detainment of the president of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro—which included multiple civilian deaths—to the murder of U.S. citizens by ICE agents, it’s not hard to understand why some people simply check out or take matters into their own hands.
But how much of this is learned behavior? How can it be contributed to learned helplessness? The idea that no matter what you do as an individual or group, the outcome will NOT change.
Dr. Julia Felton, associate professor of psychology at Wayne State University. Dr. Felton joined The Metro’s Tia Graham to unpack learned helplessness in our society right now.
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.
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When the police make a mistake, who is around to hold them accountable? Sometimes it’s courts and attorneys.
But in many American cities, including those here in Michigan, there are civilian oversight boards. These boards do various things, including investigating civilian complaints, making disciplinary recommendations, and auditing police departments.
The Detroit Board of Police of Commissioners was established in the 1970s after widespread claims of police abuse. Today, after the murder of George Floyd and increased scrutiny of police, more pressure is on police commissioners to hold officers accountable and to make policing work for everyone.
Just before the new year, Detroit welcomed four new people to its Board of Police Commissioners, including Victoria Camille. She is the District 7 commissioner.
Why did she run for the position? How can policing improve in Detroit? And, what does she make of the role of policing in society?
Commissioner Camille joined Cary Junior II on The Metro to discuss.
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powellsaid Sunday the Department of Justice has served the central bank with subpoenas and threatened it with a criminal indictment over his testimony this summer about the Fed’s building renovations.
The move represents an unprecedented escalation in President Donald Trump’s battle with the Fed, an independent agency he has repeatedly attacked for not cutting its key interest rate as sharply as he prefers. The renewed fight will likely rattle financial markets Monday and could over time escalate borrowing costs for mortgages and other loans.
The subpoenas relate to Powell’s testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in June, the Fed chair said, regarding the Fed’s $2.5 billion renovation of two office buildings, a project that Trump has criticized as excessive.
Powell on Sunday cast off what has up to this point been a restrained approach to Trump’s criticisms and personal insults, which he has mostly ignored. Instead, Powell issued a video statement in which he bluntly characterized the threat of criminal charges as simple “pretexts” to undermine the Fed’s independence when it comes to setting interest rates.
“The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President,” Powell said. “This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions — or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation.”
It’s a sharp departure from the Fed’s understated response to Trump this year. The central bank has attempted to placate the administration by dialing back some policies, such as efforts to consider the impact of climate change on the banking system, that the administration clearly opposed.
The renewed attacks on the Fed’s independence, and Powell’s full-throated defense, reignite what had appeared to be a dormant battle between Trump and the chair he appointed in 2017. The subpoenas will renew fears that the Fed’s independence from day-to-day politics will be compromised, which could undermine global investors’ confidence in U.S. Treasury securities.
“We expect the dollar, bonds and stocks to all fall in Monday trading in a sell-America trade similar to that in April last year at the peak of the tariff shock and earlier threat to Powell’s position as Fed chair,” Krishna Guha, an analyst at Evercore ISI, an investment bank, wrote in a note to clients.
“We are stunned by this deeply disturbing development which came out of the blue after a period in which tensions between Trump and the Fed seemed to be contained,” Guha added.
In a brief interview with NBC News Sunday, Trump insisted he didn’t know about the investigation into Powell. When asked if the investigation is intended to pressure Powell on rates, Trump said, “No. I wouldn’t even think of doing it that way.”
Powell’s term as chair ends in May, and Trump administration officials have signaled that he could name a potential replacement this month. Trump has also sought to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook, an unprecedented step, though she has sued to keep her job and courts have ruled she can remain in her seat while the case plays out. The Supreme Court will hear arguments in that case Jan. 21.
At the Senate Banking Committee hearing in June, Chairman Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina, said the Fed’s building renovation included “rooftop terraces, custom elevators that open into VIP dining rooms, white marble finishes, and even a private art collection.”
Powell disputed those details in his testimony, saying “there’s no new marble. … there are no special elevators” and added that some items are “not in the current plan.” In July, Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said in a letter to Powell that his testimony “raises serious questions about the project’s compliance” with previous plans approved by a planning commission.
Still, later that month, Trump visited the building site and, while standing next to Powell, overstated the cost of the renovation. Later that day, Trump, speaking to reporters, downplayed any concerns with the renovation. He said, “they have to get it done” and added, “Look, there’s always Monday morning quarterbacks. I don’t want to be that. I want to help them get it finished.”
When asked if it was a firing offense, Trump said, “I don’t want to put that in this category.”
The Justice Department in a statement Sunday said it can’t comment on any particular case, but added that Attorney General Pam Bondi “has instructed her US Attorneys to prioritize investigating any abuse of tax payer dollars.”
Timothy Lauer, a spokesperson for U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office, said they don’t comment on ongoing investigations.
With the subpoenas, Powell becomes the latest perceived adversary of the president to face a criminal investigation by the Trump administration’s Justice Department. Trump himself has urged prosecutions of his political opponents, obliterating institutional guardrails for a Justice Department that for generations has taken care to make investigative and prosecutorial decisions independent of the White House.
The potential indictment has already drawn concern from one Republican senator, who said he’ll oppose any future nominee to the central bank, including any replacement for Powell, until “this legal matter is fully resolved.”
“If there were any remaining doubt whether advisers within the Trump Administration are actively pushing to end the independence of the Federal Reserve, there should now be none,” said North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, who sits on the Banking Committee, which oversees Fed nominations. “It is now the independence and credibility of the Department of Justice that are in question.”
Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim, Eric Tucker, Michael Kunzelman, and Alanna Durkin Richer contributed to this report.
FILE – Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, right, and President Donald Trump look over a document of cost figures during a visit to the Federal Reserve, Thursday, July 24, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
Some celebrities donned anti-ICE pins at the Golden Globes on Sunday in tribute to Renee Good, who was shot and killed in her car by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer this week in Minneapolis.
The black-and-white pins displayed slogans like “BE GOOD” and “ICE OUT,” introducing a political angle into the awards show after last year’s relatively apolitical ceremony.
Mark Ruffalo, Wanda Sykes, Jean Smart and Natasha Lyonne wore the pins on the red carpet, and other celebrities were expected to have them on display as well.
Jean Smart poses in the press room with the award for best performance by a female actor in a television series – musical or comedy for “Hacks” during the 83rd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Since the shooting Wednesday, protests have broken out across the country, calling for accountability for Good’s death as well as a separate shooting in Portland where Border Patrol agents wounded two people. Some protests have resulted in clashes with law enforcement, especially in Minneapolis, where ICE is carrying out its largest immigration enforcement operation to date.
“We need every part of civil society, society to speak up,” said Nelini Stamp of Working Families Power, one of the organizers for the anti-ICE pins. “We need our artists. We need our entertainers. We need the folks who reflect society.”
Wanda Sykes arrives at the 83rd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Congressmembers have vowed an assertive response, and an FBI investigation into Good’s killing is ongoing. The Trump administration has doubled down in defending the ICE officer’s actions, maintaining that he was acting in self-defense and thought Good would hit him with her car.
Just a week before Good was killed, an off-duty ICE officer fatally shot and killed 43-year-old Keith Porter in Los Angeles. His death sparked protests in the Los Angeles area, calling for the officer responsible to be arrested.
Organizers bring grassroots push to Golden Globes parties
The idea for the “ICE OUT” pins began with a late-night text exchange earlier this week between Stamp and Jess Morales Rocketto, the executive director of a Latino advocacy group called Maremoto.
They know that high-profile cultural moments can introduce millions of viewers to social issues. This is the third year of Golden Globes activism for Morales Rocketto, who has previously rallied Hollywood to protest the Trump administration’s family separation policies. Stamp said she always thinks of the 1973 Oscars, when Sacheen Littlefeather took Marlon Brando’s place and declined his award to protest American entertainment’s portrayal of Native Americans.
Mark Ruffalo, left, and Sunrise Coigney arrive at the 83rd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
So, the two organizers began calling up the celebrities and influencers they knew, who in turn brought their campaign to the more prominent figures in their circles. That initial outreach included labor activist Ai-jen Poo, who walked the Golden Globes’ red carpet in 2018 with Meryl Streep to highlight the Time’s Up movement.
“There is a longstanding tradition of people who create art taking a stand for justice in moments,” Stamp said. “We’re going to continue that tradition.”
Allies of their movement have been attending the “fancy events” that take place in the days leading up to the Golden Globes, according to Stamp. They’re passing out the pins at parties and distributing them to neighbors who will be attending tonight’s ceremony.
“They put it in their purse and they’re like, ‘Hey would you wear this?’ It’s so grassroots,” Morales Rocketto said.
The organizers pledged to continue the campaign throughout awards season to ensure the public knows the names of Good and others killed by ICE agents in shootings.
Mark Ruffalo, wearing a “Be Good” pin, arrives at the 83rd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
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