34 views

Dolly Parton: 'I ain't dead yet!'

- Latest News - October 8, 2025

Country music icon Dolly Parton has released a new Instagram video message to fans addressing concerns over her health. The message comes one day after Parton’s sister posted a social media message.

TAGS:
27 views

Oct. 8, 2025, 3:42 PM EDT / Updated Oct. 8, 2025, 3:50 PM EDTBy Steve KopackThe Internal Revenue Service said it is placing more than 34,000 employees, or about 46% of its workforce, on furlough starting Wednesday as the government shutdown stretches into its second week.The agency will also temporarily pause many taxpayer services, such as answering phone calls. The independent Taxpayer Advocate Service will also cease operations due to the lapse in funding.The agency added that most administrative functions will also come to a halt, as will many planning activities.”Today, due to the government shutdown the American people lost access to many vital services provided by the IRS when the agency furloughed thousands of employees,” national Treasury employees union president Doreen Greenwald said.Americans can now expect longer wait times, delays in changes to the tax code and backlogs, she said. “Taxpayers around the country will now have a much harder time getting the assistance they need, just as they get ready to file their extension returns due next week.”Filing deadlines still apply for taxpayers during a government shutdown. Oct. 15 is the deadline for those who secured an extension on their 2024 taxes.Greenwald said that many employees faced a “lack of planning” about their job status until supervisors and managers informed employees of the furloughs Wednesday.Furloughs are a temporary unpaid leave. Workers are expected to return to their roles once government funding is replenished by Congress. Historically, workers who remain on the job can be unpaid but receive back pay once the shutdown is resolved.President Donald Trump and his administration have threatened permanent job cuts and back pay denials in addition to furloughs. On Tuesday, a draft White House memo came to light in which the administration argued that federal workers may not be entitled to back pay. “This is not the way our government should treat its dedicated nonpartisan public servants,” she added.Few operations will continue, although nearly 40,000 employees will remain paid and on the job preparing for the coming tax season, according to a shutdown plan released Wednesday.IRS functions that are required to keep the Social Security Administration running will also continue.The IRS declined to comment beyond the shutdown plan.Steve KopackSteve Kopack is a senior reporter at NBC News covering business and the economy.

- Latest News - October 8, 2025

The Internal Revenue Service is placing more than 34,000 employees, or about 46% of its workforce, on furlough starting Wednesday.

Source link

TAGS:
31 views

Oct. 7, 2025, 5:17 PM EDTBy Gary Grumbach and Dareh GregorianPresident Donald Trump suggested numerous times this week that he could invoke the sweeping presidential powers granted by the Insurrection Act “if necessary.””It’s been invoked before,” Trump told reporters Tuesday, adding, “We want safe cities.”Using the Insurrection Act was something Trump repeatedly suggested he might do in his first term, although he never actually did.A spokeswoman for the White House, Abigail Jackson, said in a statement Tuesday that the president has “exercised his lawful authority to protect federal officers and assets. President Trump will not turn a blind eye to the lawlessness plaguing American cities.”Here’s a look at what the Insurrection Act is, and what it would enable the president to do.What is the Insurrection Act?While the military is generally barred from being deployed for domestic law enforcement without congressional authorization, the Insurrection Act gives the president power to deploy the U.S. military domestically and to federalize National Guard troops during specific circumstances.It was signed into law by President Thomas Jefferson in March 1807.Has it ever been used before?Many times, but not in decades.George Washington used an earlier version of the law to stamp out the Whiskey Rebellion in 1792.President George H.W. Bush was the last to use it during the deadly 1992 Los Angeles riots, following a request from the city’s Democratic mayor and the state’s Republican governor.What can trigger the use of the Insurrection Act?While one justification for invoking the act is clear — that the president can take action if asked to do so by a governor or a Legislature — the other standards mentioned in the statute are broad and vague, giving the president wide latitude.“Whenever the President considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, he may call into Federal service such of the militia of any State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to enforce those laws or to suppress the rebellion,” the statute reads.Another section says the president, “by using the militia or the armed forces, or both,” shall “take such measures as he considers necessary to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy” if it “hinders the execution of the laws of that State, and of the United States within the State,” or if it “opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws.”The statutes don’t define the terms, essentially leaving it up to the president to determine what constitutes an insurrection or rebellion, and when it’s been quelled.A 2022 review from the Brennan Center, a progressive policy group, called that provision “so bafflingly broad that it cannot possibly mean what it says, or else it authorizes the president to use the military against any two people conspiring to break federal law.”How does Trump define insurrection?The president — who was impeached on a charge of inciting insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021 — has indicated he has a low bar for what he considers insurrection, but has also said he doesn’t believe the criteria to use the act have been met.Trump mentioned the word insurrection — which the Encyclopaedia Britannica defines as “an organized and usually violent act of revolt or rebellion against an established government or governing authority” — five times on Monday.”Portland is on fire. Portland’s been on fire for years. And not so much saving it — we have to save something else, because I think that‘s all insurrection, really criminal insurrection,” Trump said at one point in the Oval Office on Monday. He told Newsmax later in the day that the situation in Portland was “pure insurrection.”Earlier in the day, he said he’d invoke the act “if it was necessary. So far it hasn’t been necessary but we have an Insurrection Act for a reason. If I had to enact it, I’d do that. If people were being killed and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up, sure I’d do that. I want to make sure that people aren’t killed.”Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, he broadened his definition, saying “these Democrats are like insurrectionists” because they opposed his “big beautiful bill.”How would using the Insurrection Act be different from what Trump is already doing?The Insurrection Act gives the military more freedom to perform law enforcement duties, such as conducting searches and making arrests.When Trump deployed the National Guard and the Marines in Los Angeles amid protests over his immigration policies, they were publicly assigned a more limited role, focused on protecting federal buildings and activities.A federal judge in California last month found they actually did more than that, and violated the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which prohibits the president from using the military as a domestic police force without approval from Congress or under special circumstances — such as an invocation of the Insurrection Act.“The evidence at trial established that Defendants systematically used armed soldiers (whose identity was often obscured by protective armor) and military vehicles to set up protective perimeters and traffic blockades, engage in crowd control, and otherwise demonstrate a military presence in and around Los Angeles,” U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer wrote in his ruling.“In short, Defendants violated the Posse Comitatus Act,” he said.The administration is appealing the ruling and an appeals court has put the ruling on hold while the case proceeds.Gary GrumbachGary Grumbach is an NBC News legal affairs reporter, based in Washington, D.C.Dareh GregorianDareh Gregorian is a politics reporter for NBC News.Tara Prindiville contributed.

- Latest News - October 8, 2025

President Donald Trump suggested numerous times this week that he could invoke the sweeping presidential powers granted by the Insurrection Act “if necessary.””It’s been invoked before,” Trump told reporters Tuesday,.

TAGS:
24 views

Oct. 8, 2025, 9:14 AM EDT / Updated Oct. 8, 2025, 2:06 PM EDTBy Megan LebowitzPresident Donald Trump said in a post to Truth Social on Wednesday that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker “should be in jail” in an escalation of his conflict with the two Democratic officials.”Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers!” he said in the post. “Governor Pritzker also!”The president’s post comes a day after Texas National Guard troops arrived in Illinois, despite the Democrats’ fierce opposition. Trump has threatened for weeks to send troops to Chicago as part of a crime-fighting and immigration effort, and Democrats have slammed his push as overreach and a political stunt.Reached for comment, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said that “JB Pritzker and Brandon Johnson have blood on their hands” and accused them of having “stood idly by while innocent Americans fall victim to violent crime time and time again.”She argued that “instead of taking action to stop the crime, these Trump-Deranged buffoons would rather allow the violence to continue and attack the President for wanting to help make their city safe again.”The statement did not address NBC News’ questions about what crimes the president believes Johnson and Pritzker and whether the White House planned to try to have federal agents arrest them.Texas National Guard troops arrive outside Chicago02:11Pritzker responded to the president in a post to X, saying, “I will not back down.”“Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power,” he said in the post. “What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?”Later, Pritzker told reporters that Trump is “a coward.””He likes to pretend to be a tough guy,” Pritzker said of the president. “Come and get me.”Reached for comment, Johnson said that “this is not the first time Trump has tried to have a Black man unjustly arrested.”“I’m not going anywhere,” he added.On Monday, Illinois sued in an attempt to prevent the White House from deploying federalized troops to Chicago. A judge scheduled a hearing on the case for Thursday and declined to sign a temporary restraining order, which would have blocked the administration as the case proceeds in court. The president’s comments come as protests across Immigration and Customs Enforcement have rippled across the country as the administration ramped up efforts to detain and deport migrants. The White House has previously argued that deploying the National Guard is necessary to “protect federal assets and personnel” and prevent “attacks on law enforcement.”Trump first deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles, over Gov. Gavin Newsom’s objections, after protests broke out in response to immigration raids. The president then ordered the National Guard to the streets of D.C., painting it as an effort to fight crime. The administration is also trying to send federalized National Guard troops from California to Portland, Oregon, but a judge granted a temporary restraining order this week to block the move as the case is considered in court. A Pentagon spokesperson had said that the troops would have worked to “support U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal personnel performing official duties, including the enforcement of federal law, and to protect federal property.” In Chicago, a frequent target of the president, Johnson signed an executive order on Monday in an effort to block immigration agents from using city property during their operations in Chicago. “We will not tolerate ICE agents violating our residents’ constitutional rights nor will we allow the federal government to disregard our local authority,” Johnson said in a press release marking the so-called “ICE Free Zone” executive order. Pritzker has emerged as a leading critic of the Trump administration as his state faces the president’s ire. Trump has compared Chicago to a “war zone,” and Pritzker said Sunday in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” that “they’re just making this up.””Then what do they do? They fire tear gas and smoke grenades, and they make it look like it’s a war zone,” Pritzker said on Sunday, appearing to refer to federal agents. “And they, you know, get people on the ground are, frankly, incited to want to do something about it, appropriately.”In recent days, Pritzker also said that he believed that Trump should be removed from office. “There is something genuinely wrong with this man, and the 25th Amendment ought to be invoked,” he said, referring to a process for removing the president from office.On Tuesday, Pritzker was asked during an event whether he believed he could be arrested. “I’m asking any of you to come visit me in the gulag in El Salvador,” Pritzker joked, referring to the prison where the Trump administration has deported some immigrants.House Speaker Mike Johnson did not say whether he believed Mayor Johnson and Pritzker should be jailed when asked by NBC News about Trump’s post. “Should they be in prison? Should the mayor of Chicago and the governor of Illinois be in prison?” Johnson responded. “I’m not the attorney general. I’m the Speaker of the House, and I’m trying to manage the chaos here. I’m not following the day-to-day on that.”Trump has repeatedly threatened legal action against some of his political opponents, including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Last month, he urged Attorney General Pam Bondi in a post to Truth Social to not “delay any longer,” slamming his political opponents and writing, “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”Comey was indicted days later and is set to be arraigned on Wednesday. Megan LebowitzMegan Lebowitz is a politics reporter for NBC News.Natasha Korecki and Julie Tsirkin contributed.

- Latest News - October 8, 2025

President Donald Trump said in a post to Truth Social on Wednesday that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov.

Source link

TAGS: