🔵 NPR & PBS Defunded

Author

Citizen Frank
May 02, 2025

Good morning. It’s Friday, May 2.

 

President Trump signed an executive order late Thursday terminating federal funding for National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).

NPR and PBS, which have long been targeted for cuts by conservatives, both receive partial funding through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which the president argued is unnecessary in the current media environment.

“Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence,” Trump wrote in the order.

President Trump on Friday said he is stripping Harvard University of its tax exempt status.

“We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status. It’s what they deserve!” he said in a Truth Social post.

The move comes just weeks after the Trump administration froze $2.2 billion in multiyear federal grants over the elite Ivy League school’s refusal to help stamp out alleged antisemitism and hate on campus.

As President Donald Trump marked his 100th day in office on Tuesday, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) said it has cut at least $160 billion in waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government.

While the department has made several high-profile cuts during the Trump administration’s first 100 days, DOGE head Elon Musk shared that Trump’s cost-cutting is just getting started.

“It’s a long-term enterprise,” Musk said during an exclusive interview Thursday on “Jesse Watters Primetime.” “Because if we take our eye off the ball, the waste and fraud will come roaring back.”

Job growth was stronger than expected in April despite worries over the impact of President Donald Trump’s blanket tariffs against U.S. trading partners.

Nonfarm payrolls increased a seasonally adjusted 177,000 for the month, slightly below the downwardly revised 185,000 in March but above the Dow Jones estimate for 133,000, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.

The unemployment rate, however, remained at 4.2%, as expected, indicating that the labor market is holding relatively stable. The survey of households, which is used to calculate the jobless rate, showed an even stronger gain, with an increase of 436,000 in those who reported holding jobs on the month.

China said it is evaluating U.S. overtures to initiate trade negotiations, potentially paving the way for the world’s two largest economies to start talks to resolve a trade war that has rumbled financial markets and cast a pall on global economic activity.

Senior U.S. officials have reached out recently “through relevant parties multiple times,” hoping to start negotiations with China on tariffs, a spokesperson for the commerce ministry said in a statement Friday.

While assessing the possibility of starting any negotiations, Chinese authorities reiterated Beijing’s request for the U.S. to remove all unilateral tariffs. Failure to do so would indicate “an outright lack of sincerity” from Washington and “further compromise mutual trust,” according to a CNBC translation.

A Milwaukee, Wisconsin judge could face years in prison for allegedly helping an illegal immigrant evade Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a former federal prosecutor said.

Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan, 65, was arrested by the FBI and charged with obstruction of proceedings before a department or agency of the United States on Friday.

She allegedly whisked away a previously-deported illegal immigrant and his attorney from her courthouse in order to stop ICE from arresting him. She was also charged with concealing an individual to prevent discovery and arrest.

A 24-year-old brutally killed a young woman as she enjoyed a morning hike because he believed he was a transgender woman and was jealous of her beauty, according to police.

Zion Teasley is accused of stabbing 29-year-old Lauren Heike 15 times after stalking her on an Arizona hiking trail in April, 2023. Police narrowed in on him thanks to DNA found in her show at the murder scene.

Police now say Teasley had been writing in his journal about his gender identity in the months leading up to the esthetician’s murder, as reported by ABC 15.

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