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FAA Targets Video Gamers to Alleviate Air Traffic Controller Shortage

In an effort to solve the decades-long shortage of air traffic controllers across U.S. airspace, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced a new hiring campaign targeted at video gamers interested in new career opportunities.

“To reach the next generation of air traffic controllers, we need to adapt. This campaign’s innovative communication style and focus on gaming taps into a growing demographic of young adults who have many of the hard skills it takes to be a successful controller,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement on April 10.

Announced last Friday, the FAA’s new air traffic controller hiring window opens at 12 a.m. ET on April 17, allowing interested candidates to apply for what the agency calls “one of the most dynamic jobs in the world.”

The FAA has faced a significant shortage of air traffic controllers since the 1980s, with thousands of retirements during the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbating the deficit. Congress has provided the agency with supplemental funding over the past two years to increase staffing, and the Trump administration said it has thousands of trainees in the pipeline.

The FAA is also not the first federal agency to target video gamers with keen hand-eye coordination and quick decision-making skills for high-stakes positions. Both the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security have deployed similar strategies for tech-related roles in complex environments that require hours of focus.

The FAA is rolling out a new YouTube ad with bright and fluid graphics asking gamers, “Are you up for the challenge? You’ve been training for this.”

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Hormuz Blockade: Europe Mobilizing Against the U.S., Not the Iran Regime

When President Trump announced on Truth Social that the U.S. Navy would blockade “any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz,” he also instructed the Navy to interdict vessels that had paid tolls to Iran and to destroy mines Iran had placed in the waterway.

CENTCOM subsequently clarified the actual scope: the blockade applies to vessels entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas and does not affect ships transiting the strait to and from non-Iranian ports. The blockade is therefore a naval embargo on Iranian trade, not a closure of the strait to international shipping generally.

Trump took the action in response to Iran’s “world extortion.” The IRGC had imposed a de facto toll regime in the strait. The Tehran regime said that vessels would be required to submit documentation, obtain clearance codes, and accept IRGC-escorted passage through a single controlled corridor. Trump’s goal was to stop Iran from policing the strait and profiting from its closure while the rest of the world absorbed the economic damage.

Neither the U.S. nor Israel is dependent on oil transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Around the globe, the U.S. is the primary enforcer of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), maintaining freedom of navigation for all countries. Trump’s request for Europe and other allies to support U.S. freedom-of-navigation patrols in the Strait of Hormuz was rejected.

Europe’s argument was that the U.S. took action against Iran unilaterally and therefore could not expect European support. President Trump’s position is that the U.S. has spent trillions defending Europe and keeping sea lanes open around the globe for 70 years, and it was reasonable to ask for reciprocity.

Instead, Europe blames Trump for the Hormuz closure, completely ignoring the fact that it is the IRGC, not the U.S., that has closed the strait.

Their refusal to help reopen it is a classic example of cutting off your nose to spite your face, since Europe’s energy supplies are at stake, not America’s. However, anger at Trump is mobilizing Europe to form a coalition to protect the Strait from America rather than from Iran.

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Appeals Court Torches Boasberg For Targeting Trump Immigration Officials: ‘Clear Abuse of Discretion’

D.C. District Chief Judge James Boasberg suffered a humiliating legal defeat on Tuesday in his efforts to stymie President Trump’s deportation of illegal aliens from the United States.

In a 2-1 ruling, a three-judge panel for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals shot down the Obama appointee’s attempted criminal contempt proceedings against Trump administration officials involved in last year’s deportation of suspected Tren de Aragua gang members to El Salvador. More specifically, the panel granted the government’s request for a writ of mandamus, “a rare and extraordinary order from a higher court directing a lower court or government official to stop exceeding their authority,” as described by the Washington Examiner.

The D.C. Circuit panel had temporarily halted Boasberg’s criminal contempt proceedings against the administration back in December. As noted by Judge Neomi Rao in her Tuesday opinion, however, Boasberg nonetheless plowed ahead by “expand[ing]” his inquiry “to extract more information from government counsel about exactly what happened” throughout the aforementioned deportations.

Those actions, Rao summarized, amount to a “clear abuse of discretion” by Boasberg.

“The district court proposes to probe high-level Executive Branch deliberations about matters of national security and diplomacy. These proceedings are a clear abuse of discretion, as the district court’s order said nothing about transferring custody of the plaintiffs and therefore lacks the clarity to support criminal contempt based on the transfer of custody,” Rao wrote for the majority. “Moreover, the government has already provided the name of the responsible official [then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem], so further judicial investigation is unnecessary and therefore improper. In these circumstances, mandamus is appropriate to prevent the district court from assuming an antagonistic jurisdiction that encroaches on the autonomy of the Executive Branch.”

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DOJ Sues Connecticut, City of New Haven Over Sanctuary Policies

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) sued Connecticut and the City of New Haven on April 13 over policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

The DOJ challenged Connecticut’s Trust Act and an executive order issued by New Haven’s mayor, arguing that they conflicted with federal immigration law and the Constitution. Specifically, the DOJ alleged violations of the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, which says federal law takes precedence over state and local laws.

“For years, Connecticut communities have paid the price of these misguided sanctuary policies,” Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate of the DOJ’s Civil Division said in an emailed statement. “This lawsuit seeks to end such open defiance of federal law.”

The department named Connecticut, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, Connecticut Attorney General Tong, the City of New Haven, and New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker as defendants.

The Trust Act, which was amended in 2025, limits when law enforcement officers can detain individuals based on civil immigration detainers. It directs officers not to hold someone solely on such a detainer unless certain conditions are met, such as the existence of a judicial warrant or a prior conviction for specific serious offenses, including certain crimes including murder, manslaughter, burglary, or sexual assault. The law also applies in cases where an individual has been flagged in federal security databases.

That has hindered cooperation between state and local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities in enforcing immigration laws, the DOJ argued.The DOJ also stated that the law prohibits law enforcement officers from using resources to communicate with federal immigration authorities regarding the custody or release of an individual targeted by a civil immigration detainer.

The law also forbids law enforcement officers from arresting or detaining an individual based on an administrative warrant, according to the lawsuit.

Another issue that the DOJ raised was a 2020 executive order issued by New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker. That order limited the disclosure of personal information—including immigration status—without an individual’s consent and restricts local officials from inquiring about a person’s immigration status in most situations. The DOJ claimed those provisions obstruct federal enforcement efforts.Connecticut and New Haven’s sanctuary policies “threaten and harm the United States’ sovereign interest in the supremacy and enforcement of federal law,” especially the Immigration and Nationality Act, according to the Justice Department.

The lawsuit stated that the sanctuary policies are “an active and deliberate effort to obstruct federal immigration enforcement by, among other things, impeding the communication between federal, state, and local law enforcement officials, and the safe apprehension and detention of [those] unlawfully present.”

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French Police Tries to Raid Elysée Palace in Corruption Probe, but Are Denied Entrance by Presidency Staff Invoking Macron’s Immunity

A Panthéon corruption scandal is brewing.

A new French corruption scandal erupted today (14) as financial and anti-corruption police raided services linked to the Élysée Palace as part of an investigation opened in October 2025.

The probe is looking into allegations of favoritism, conflict of interest, corruption, and influence peddling when awarding public contracts for organizing prestigious Panthéon ceremonies by the Centre des Monuments Nationaux (Center of National Monuments).

French cops are focusing on Shortcut Events, which monopolized the organization of all such €2 million ceremonies from 2002 to 2024.

Investigators want to know if the contracts awarded to the same firm involved improper support from the Élysée, Ministry of Culture, or related bodies, bypassing normal procurement rules.

But the French police found the doors of the Presidential Palace closed to them.

Politico reported:

“The French presidency refused to let investigators enter the Elysée Palace on Tuesday as part of a probe into contracts linked to memorial ceremonies, invoking the immunity enjoyed by French President Emmanuel Macron.

The investigators that presented themselves at the Elysée Palace weren’t granted entry, according to a French presidency official who was granted anonymity for protocol reasons.

‘Investigators were told that the documents pertaining to Élysée Palace staff, which are unrelated to the President’s official duties and can therefore be disclosed, would be provided to them upon request’, an Elysée official said.”

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DEI Practices Reduce Productivity, Cost $94 Billion Annually: White House Economic Report

Diversity, equity, and inclusion practices negatively impacted the U.S. economy, according to the 2026 White House Economic Report released April 13. 

Researchers calculated that DEI policies reduced output and lowered the country’s gross domestic product by about $94 billion each year, amounting to approximately $1,160 per year for families with two working adults. 

“These estimates imply that DEI promotion has led to inefficient management, raising the cost of doing business,” the report reads.

“These costs lead the companies practicing DEI to hire fewer people and pay their workers less.” 

President Donald Trump commissioned the report, released by the White House Council of Economic Advisers. 

DEI policies “actively encouraged” employment discrimination, according to the report, which cited fourfold growth in the percentage of minorities holding management positions between 2016 and 2023. 

During the same period, industries that adopted DEI protocols were 2.7 percent less productive than industries that avoided the cultural shift. 

The president announced soon after taking office for a second time that his administration was targeting what he said are discriminatory hiring practices. 

“We’ve ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and indeed the private sector and our military, and our country will be woke no longer,” Trump said when he addressed a joint session of Congress in March 2025. 

“We believe that whether you are a doctor, an accountant, a lawyer, or an air traffic controller, you should be hired and promoted based on skill and competence, not race or gender.” 

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law in 1964, thus outlawing employment discrimination based on race, color, gender, religion, or national origin. 

Human resources departments across the country generally abided by the laws to avoid legal action, but things began to change approximately 10 years ago when corporate offices began adopting new diversity-related hiring agendas. 

President Joe Biden accelerated DEI practices with executive orders implementing the programs in the military and across the federal government’s various agencies and departments. 

Biden directed government agencies to “seek opportunities to establish a position of chief diversity officer or diversity and inclusion officer, … [and] ensure that all Federal employees have their respective gender identities accurately reflected and identified in the workplace,” among other changes. 

Agencies were required to submit “Equity Action Plans” outlining steps to further diversify staff. 

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen oversaw the establishment of an Equity Hub and Advisory Committee on Racial Equality, spending millions of dollars on DEI consulting services in the process and redirecting billions of dollars in federal funding to “benefit specific racial groups,” according to the report. 

Studies show references to DEI programs exploded during the 2020s, with many corporations mentioning the policies during earnings calls, which cited analyses showing the number of DEI-related jobs quadrupled between 2017 and 2022. 

Trump rescinded the orders with a series of executive actions in January 2025. 

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Illegal-alien Crime Is Higher Than Many Think — and Is HIDDEN by Authorities

In 1994, famed-radio-host-to-be Michael Savage, an epidemiologist by training, wrote a manuscript titled Immigrants and Epidemics. In it, he pointed out that illegal aliens were bringing dangerous diseases into the United States. Yet despite Savage having long been a successful, published author, the work was rejected. The powers-that-be wanted such truths suppressed. And it appears, too, that the same cover-up is occurring with illegal-alien crime.

As with Savage’s deep-sixed sagacity, this is not a new story. But it is getting renewed attention. As American Thinker (AT) wrote last Thursday:

Every day, all over America, illegal aliens, legal immigrants, and naturalized Americans from a rogue’s list of countries to our South and from the Middle East kill, rape, rob, and defraud us, almost with impunity. Yet, if you try to prove it by citing reliable government statistics, you can’t. The left works hard — it may be its most important job — to ensure you can’t find out exactly how bad things really are across America.

The bottom line: almost no states or the federal government track crimes using reliable indicators of someone’s country of origin, immigration status, or citizenship status.

In fact, AT points out, many Democrat-run states have actually enacted laws prohibiting such data’s collection. They don’t want the public to know the reality of illegal-alien crime.

Their rationale is no mystery. Upon being naturalized, today’s immigrants vote Democratic by healthy margins. As for illegal aliens, they’d break Democratic by an even greater percentage upon achieving legal status. (It has been established, too, that such people sometimes cast votes even while illegal.) Moreover, illegals also count as U.S. population during censuses. They thus serve to give the states in which they’re squatting more representation in Congress — and hence more power. And they’re concentrated in Democratic-run states, with leftists purposely attracting them via the carrot of taxpayer-funded largesse.

In a nutshell, statists use illegal migration to import an electoral army that will grow their power. And they don’t want their army put in any kind of bad light.

There is, however, at least one state that does keep comprehensive records on illegal-alien crime: Texas. And by extrapolating its data, we can glean insight into the problem’s nationwide magnitude. More on that momentarily.

Signs of the Crimes

On the micro level, that magnitude’s indicators are everywhere. For example, it was just reported that in Fairfax County, Virginia, 75 percent of this year’s murders have been committed by illegals. The problem predates 2026, too. As Red Right Daily reports:

Fairfax County has seen a series of violent crimes over several years involving individuals identified by federal authorities as being in the country illegally. The cases are serious — murders, gang-related killings, domestic violence, repeat offenders.

Then, in April 2025, Fox News informed that in New York City,

206 illegal immigrants, the majority of whom have “egregious criminal histories to include manslaughter, rape, assault, drug trafficking and sex assault against minors,” were apprehended as part of [a federal operation].

Next, in 2024, City Journal told us that

after years of a migrant border “surge” — with countless asylum-seekers inadequately vetted and then allowed to enter the U.S. — state law-enforcement agencies now warn that immigrant gangs have seized control of many drug- and human-trafficking networks and have unleashed robbery sprees across the nation.

And last year, The New American reported that during Donald Trump’s second administration’s first 100 days, 66,000 illegals were removed. Seventy-fivepercent were dangerous criminals, too. Even now, with deportation numbers at approximately 600,000, about 40-60 percent of the expelled had criminal convictions or pending charges.

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House Democrats Seek to Launch ‘25th Amendment Commission’ to Remove Trump From Office

House Democrats have introduced new legislation to create a commission to evaluate whether President Trump should be removed from office under the 25th Amendment.

The proposal, led by New York Congressman Jamie Raskin, would establish a 17-member panel to assess whether the president is fit to carry out his duties.

The effort comes despite Republicans controlling Congress and the president retaining veto power, making the measure almost certain to fail.

More than 85 Democrats in Congress recently called for Trump to be impeached or removed through the 25th Amendment following comments he made about bombing Iran.

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Appeals court upholds West Virginia vaccine mandate, denies religious exemption

A federal appeals court ruled that West Virginia can enforce its school vaccine mandate without offering religious exemptions, overturning a lower court decision that had allowed an unvaccinated student to remain enrolled in an online public school.

In a 2-1 decision, the US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit found the state’s vaccination requirement does not violate the First Amendment’s protection of religious freedom.

The case was brought by Anthony and Krystle Perry on behalf of their daughter, who was enrolled in West Virginia Virtual Academy but was later disenrolled after officials determined she was not fully vaccinated. The parents argued vaccination conflicted with their Christian beliefs and sought a religious exemption, which state law does not provide.

West Virginia is one of a small number of states that do not allow religious exemptions for school vaccine requirements.

A lower court had previously sided with the family and issued an injunction allowing the child to continue attending school while the case proceeded. The appeals court reversed that decision, ruling the parents are unlikely to succeed on their constitutional claim.

Legal experts cited in the case said the ruling does not reflect what they describe as a shifting legal landscape around religious exemptions. They pointed to recent Supreme Court decisions that they say require courts to apply a higher standard, known as “strict scrutiny,” when evaluating such claims.

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Trump Pushes Skeptical House Republicans to Pass FISA Extension: ‘It Is Extremely Important to Our Military’

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and President Donald Trump do not have a happy history, but Trump is urging congressional Republicans to extend one part of the law Trump says was not the one misused during the Russiagate hoax.

Trump made a public plea on Truth Social to extend Section 702 of FISA.

As noted by Politico, Trump followed that up by calling Republicans opposed to extending the law that allows warrantless wiretaps of non-U.S. citizens for the next 18 months to the White House.

“I am asking Republicans to UNIFY, and vote together on the test vote to bring a clean Bill to the floor. We need to stick together when this Bill comes before the House Rules Committee today to keep it CLEAN!” Trump wrote earlier in his Truth Social post.

“I was a victim of the worst and most illegal abuse of FISA in our Nation’s History, by Radical Left Lunatics, who lied to the FISA Court to spy on my 2016 Presidential Campaign in their attempt to RIG the Election in favor of Crooked Hillary Clinton. Their use of this instrument in the 2020 Presidential Election was even worse! When the Dirty Cop, James Comey, the failed Head of the FBI, went after me, he was using FISA Title I, the Domestic Collection, not FISA 702, the Foreign Collection, which needs to be extended today,” Trump continued.

“While parts of FISA were illegally and unfortunately used against me in the Democrats’ disgraceful Witch Hunt and Attack in the RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA Hoax, and perhaps would be used against me in the future, I am willing to risk that as a Citizen in order to do what is right for our Country,” he wrote.

Trump said that Section 702 is a tool the military needs.

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