Feds Defy Supreme Court Ban On Labeling Every Puddle A ‘Protected Wetland’
SCOTUS put clear limits on federal authority to regulate wetlands, but the Army Corps of Engineers persists in throwing its weight around as if nothing had changed.SCOTUS put clear limits on federal authority to regulate wetlands, but the Army Corps of Engineers persists in throwing its weight around as if nothing had changed.California regulates everything — except the trial lawyers exploiting it
California has perfected the art of regulating productive industries into oblivion while giving bad actors with the right political connections a free pass.
With more than 395,000 regulatory restrictions, the nation’s eighth-highest corporate tax rate, and an overzealous bureaucracy, Sacramento has driven hundreds of major employers — including Tesla, Oracle, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise — to business-friendly states like Texas.
California was once the crown jewel of American opportunity, but Sacramento’s progressive priorities have turned it into a cautionary tale.
Yet, while Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) micromanages everything from Hollywood film permits to brush-clearing fees, Sacramento looks the other way as an unchecked plaintiffs’ bar undermines local communities and distorts the justice system.
The latest investigative reporting out of Los Angeles County shows how far this racket has gone. Predatory personal-injury law firms have turned an environmental remediation challenge at the Chiquita Canyon Landfill into an unregulated gold rush, illustrating why the Trump administration and federal authorities must step in before those in Sacramento make the situation worse.
For years, the foothill community of Val Verde has dealt with noxious odors caused by an inactive portion of the Chiquita Canyon Landfill. The landfill operator tried to act as a responsible partner: complying with environmental guidelines, coordinating with multi-agency response teams, and providing nearly $25 million directly to affected local residents through a community relief fund.
Rather than encouraging a constructive resolution, a chaotic web of overlapping state regulators — including South Coast Air Quality Management District, L.A. County Public Works, and the Regional Water Quality Control Board — paralyzed the site with conflicting mandates, ultimately forcing the critical facility to halt waste intake.
Rather than protecting residents, progressive governance turned Val Verde into what locals described as the "Val Verde Hunger Games.” Text messages uncovered in court filings revealed Downtown L.A. Group boasting "PackemRackemStackem" and demanding recruiters "Get em for me ... all of them," leading to thousands of dubious claims that the landfill’s attorneys have flagged as infected with misconduct.
This dynamic is emblematic of California’s broader livability and business environment crisis. Sacramento imposes the nation’s highest income tax and an annual $800 LLC fee on entrepreneurs, yet allows predatory litigation mills to exploit vulnerable, non-English-speaking residents for 40% to 45% contingency fees.
Overregulation does not stop trash from being generated; it merely shifts waste to distant facilities, spikes consumer hauling costs, and enriches opportunistic trial lawyers.
RELATED: ‘Expert witness’ humiliated in $61 million lawsuit after lawyers discover one insane detail
When state and local bureaucracy paralyzed debris removal following Southern California’s wildfires, the Trump administration took decisive action. Under Executive Order 14181, federal authorities expedited cleanup operations and completed in just 28 days what state bureaucrats estimated would take over a year.
The Trump administration and the Environmental Protection Agency under Administrator Lee Zeldin must apply that same standard of execution to Chiquita Canyon. The EPA must supersede Sacramento’s overlapping alphabet-soup agencies, streamline the process under unified federal oversight, and ensure actual technical remediation takes precedence over regulatory extortion and predatory lawsuits.
California was once the crown jewel of American opportunity, but Sacramento’s progressive priorities have turned it into a cautionary tale where critical infrastructure is strangled and legal grift thrives.
If Sacramento refuses to rein in its rogue plaintiffs’ bar and fix its broken regulatory state, the federal government must remind Californians to restore that which Newsom destroyed: common sense.
Exclusive: 17 state officials ask Trump to slash Biden-era climate rules
Climate change policy might be due for a change itself.
Seventeen state financial officers have signed on to a letter urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to scrap Biden-era climate-related disclosure rules. The rules would require publicly traded companies to undertake costly environmental reviews to report their greenhouse gas emissions and other climate change metrics.
‘Americans want the SEC focused on protecting markets and investors, not turning our capital markets into a vehicle for climate activism.’
Responsible for managing billions of public dollars, the signatories argue that climate disclosure standards are an “unlawful expansion of the administrative state” poised to hamper private sector economic growth. Those standards are also referred to as the “Final Rules.”
“As stewards of public pension and treasury assets, we are acutely sensitive to costs borne by the companies in which public funds invest — costs ultimately passed to shareholders, including the beneficiaries we serve,” the signatories wrote. “The Commission’s own economic analysis estimates that rescinding the Final Rules could generate annualized savings of approximately $4.9 billion, and a total cost savings on the order of $7.9 billion.”
The SEC adopted the climate disclosure rules in March 2024. Opponents launched numerous legal challenges which were consolidated in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. The agency itself stayed the rules in April 2024 awaiting legal resolution, but President Donald Trump’s election resulted in the stay becoming permanent. The SEC under Acting Chairman Mark Uyeda declined to defend the rule in March 2025.
Though never enforced, the rules remain on the books.
RELATED: Texas slams breaks on data center projects as Abbott orders sweeping industry audit
The rules wouldn’t just be expensive to implement. They might also be illegal to enforce.
“The Trump SEC is right to rescind the climate disclosure rule and refocus the agency on its fundamental responsibility of protecting investors and maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets,” Utah Treasurer Marlo Oaks told Blaze News. “For years, the ESG movement sought to use the SEC to advance a climate agenda through disclosure mandates that went beyond material financial information and imposed unnecessary costs on businesses and investors. Rescinding this rule returns the SEC to its proper role as a neutral financial regulator focused on protecting investors and facilitating markets.”
Environmental, social, and governance standards are investment criteria used to assess a private company’s adherence to climate mandates and emissions regulations.
The SEC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
If successful, the rescission would be the latest in a long string of regulatory rollbacks during Trump’s second term. The Environmental Protection Agency under Lee Zeldin nixed the Obama-era endangerment finding in February.
As the law of the land since 2009, the ruling categorized carbon emissions as pollutants under the Clean Air Act and subjected them to federal regulation.
“The financial officers are right to support the Trump Administration’s efforts to rescind the Biden-era climate disclosure rules,” American Energy Institute CEO Jason Isaac told Blaze News. “Washington bureaucrats shouldn’t be weaponizing financial regulations to pressure companies into advancing far-left ESG policies that Congress never approved.”
“Americans want the SEC focused on protecting markets and investors, not turning our capital markets into a vehicle for climate activism,” Isaac added.
The letter was submitted ahead of the August 3 comment deadline regarding the rule’s potential rescission.
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'Common sense': Trump's new memo promises 'freedom to fix' your own car
President Trump has initiated the end of a high-profile, bureaucratic nightmare related to your own car.
During the Monday signing of a memorandum on "the freedom to fix," President Trump himself expressed his disbelief at the ridiculousness of the problems the government creates.
'If you own it, you should have the freedom to fix it!'
"It came to my attention because I noticed they were arresting people for fixing their car. ... That's not even believable," Trump said before he signed the memorandum.
After signing the memo, Trump added, "We rule by common sense, to a large extent."
RELATED: Exclusive: Trump’s EPA takes major step to end animal testing after Fauci’s cruel beagle experiments
The memo will begin the process of giving car owners greater flexibility to fix their own car. One of the primary limitations at the moment is the harsh restrictions on tampering with emissions controls: "To further ensure vehicle affordability, it is the policy of my Administration that consumers should be able to fix their vehicles with affordable parts without being deemed to have circumvented emissions controls."
The presidential action will attempt to bring greater peace of mind to consumers and after-market parts manufacturers, which are in regulatory limbo as things stand.
It also takes back federal control from the de facto regulatory control taken by California by loosening restrictions and making the costs of repair more affordable. California's system is apparently bloated and time-consuming for owners to receive the necessary certifications for their vehicles.
If it is any indication of the current regulatory environment around this issue, the California Air Resources Board "has the only certification process for after-market parts currently recognized as sufficient under the [Clean Air Act]," the memorandum states.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, who is tasked with loosening the restrictions, touted this memorandum as a win for consumers.
"If you own it, you should have the freedom to fix it!" Zeldin wrote on X. "President Trump just signed a new Presidential Memo protecting Americans’ freedom to fix their own vehicle if they so desire. The President's action also combats cheap foreign aftermarket vehicle parts while also breaking up the monopoly the California Air Resources Board has had over certifying aftermarket parts."
"This is an idea from the top when President Trump called me one recent Saturday night saying he wants this Memo drafted, signed and implemented at Trump Speed instantly," he added.
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‘Government shouldn’t subsidize poor journalism’: Politico axes key news brand after losing millions in federal subscriptions
Just over a year after President Donald Trump’s administration instructed the federal government to cancel several media outlet subscriptions, Politico announced that it is sunsetting one of its news brands.
The federal government spent over $8 million in 2024 on Politico-related subscriptions.
‘The government shouldn’t subsidize poor journalism.’
In Feb. 2025, the White House directed the General Services Administration to “pull all contracts” for Politico and its stand-alone energy and environment brand, E&E News. Other government agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Veterans Affairs, also canceled their subscriptions to Politico’s services.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced last year that he had terminated over $1 million in annual media subscriptions, including nearly $460,000 for the EPA’s membership to Politico and E&E News.
“Best $458,919 we ever saved on behalf of taxpayers,” an EPA spokesperson told Blaze News. “The government shouldn’t subsidize poor journalism, and it’s a stinging indictment of the previous administration that they wasted so many hard-earned American tax dollars keeping this outlet afloat.”
Politico pushed back against criticism that the federal government was subsidizing the media through subscriptions. The outlet released a statement in 2025 insisting that it has “never received any government funding” in the form of subsidies, grants, or “handouts.” It noted that “most” of Politico Pro and E&E News subscribers are in the private sector.
Despite insisting that Politico has “no financial dependence on the government,” the outlet laid off 3% of its staff, including E&E News journalists, in Jan. 2026, according to Semafor.
Politico acquired E&E News in Dec. 2020, aiming to “reach a large new audience of subscribers.” Yet, approximately 16 months after the Trump administration began canceling media subscriptions, Politico announced it is closing the stand-alone brand.
RELATED: Trump orders another federal agency to axe media contracts amid Politico controversy: Report
Politico framed the sunsetting of E&E News as a strategic restructuring move that consolidated its U.S. Politico Energy and E&E teams “into a single powerhouse.” The announcement did not mention any revenue pressure, but framed the changes as a “new chapter.”
“Beginning in September, we are modernizing how we deliver our energy and environmental policy journalism and launching a more focused, high-impact portfolio of daily news and intelligence products,” Politico wrote.
“As part of this shift, E&E News will no longer operate as a separate brand. Its journalism and expertise will be fully integrated into POLITICO’s energy and environment portfolio of stories, briefs, analysis, and newsletters,” it continued.
Politico did not respond to a request for comment.
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Exclusive: Trump’s EPA takes major step to end animal testing after Fauci’s cruel beagle experiments
The government watchdog White Coat Waste Project pulled back the curtain in 2021 on federally funded gruesome beagle experiments under the leadership of then-National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci. The scandal sparked a national outcry to end animal experimentation.
President Donald Trump’s administration set a goal to stop all mammalian animal testing by 2035, and on Tuesday, the Environmental Protection Agency announced significant steps to reach that objective, according to a press release obtained exclusively by Blaze News.
'The solution is simple: Stop the money. Stop the madness!'
The EPA declared that it is expanding its approved list of “cutting-edge” alternatives to animal studies by adding 13 more new approach methods. The agency describes NAMs as “high-quality alternatives” intended to reduce animal testing, particularly on vertebrate mammals such as rabbits, mice, rats, and dogs.
The Toxic Substances Control Act “directs EPA to use NAMs whenever scientifically appropriate when evaluating chemicals, and to reduce, refine, or replace vertebrate mammal testing,” the EPA’s press release read. “Modern NAMs, including human cell models and advanced computer-based methods, help EPA identify hazards and exposures faster and often with results that are more relevant to people, not laboratory animals.”
The EPA contended that these alternative methods can reduce time and costs, as well as provide more applicable insight into how chemicals interact with the human body. The move “opens the door for innovators to bring the next generation of tools to the table,” according to the EPA.
The agency highlighted a few of those new replacement methods, including a way to evaluate eye hazards using reconstructed human cells; a process to evaluate phototoxicity using a 3D human cell-based tissue model, and combining in-chemico and in-vitro test data to “identify potential dermal sensitization hazard, dermal sensitization potency, and a quantitative point-of-departure.”
RELATED: Trump's NIH closes Fauci's apparent puppy-torture lab after 40 years of sadistic experiments
Tuesday’s announcement marks the first time the EPA has expanded its NAMs list since 2021.
The EPA also announced a streamlined process for industry stakeholders to nominate additional NAMs for consideration in pesticide and chemical assessments.
While the goal to end animal testing was initially announced during the first Trump administration, under former President Joe Biden, the phase-out deadlines were canceled, the EPA stated.
“Today’s actions get that progress back on track,” the agency declared.
The EPA stated that the Trump administration has already made measurable progress toward meeting its goal to phase out mammalian animal testing, including implementing the agency's first lab animal adoption program in April 2025 and using alternative methods in cancer evaluations for dibutyl phthalate and di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, which prevented an estimated 1,600 mice and rats from undergoing experiments.
“When the Trump administration makes a commitment, we deliver. With today’s announcement, we’re accelerating the shift to modern, gold-standard science — without the use of animal testing — by using new, innovative methods to review chemicals,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin stated. “By broadening high-quality alternatives and inviting strong new candidates, we can deliver faster, more protective decisions while reducing animal testing.”
RELATED: Republicans should take the easy win and stop medical testing on animals
Anthony Bellotti, founder and president of White Coat Waste, commended Zeldin and the EPA for honoring their commitment to reduce animal testing.
“Earlier this year, White Coat Waste proudly joined EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to restore the historic Trump-era plan to phase out animal testing by 2035 after we exposed how the Biden administration quietly scrapped it behind closed doors,” Bellotti said in a statement provided to Blaze News.
He stated that WCW is leading the charge alongside Rep. Michael Cloud (R-Texas) to “eliminate outdated EPA red tape that forces companies to poison puppies in expensive, ineffective, government-mandated pesticide and chemical tests.” Bellotti was referring to the Fiscal Year 27 Interior-EPA Appropriations bill, which includes WCW-backed language to defund dog testing mandates for pesticides and chemicals. The House is scheduled to vote on the bill on Wednesday.
“Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to bankroll big-government bureaucrats who mandate beagle torture, butcher bunnies, force animals to inhale firearm emissions in bizarre gun-control experiments, or make animals eat lard and breathe smog,” Bellotti continued. “The solution is simple: Stop the money. Stop the madness!”
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Sara Gonzales celebrates Trump firing Pam Bondi but warns acting AG Todd Blanche is ‘neck-deep in the deep state'
Yesterday, President Trump announced on Truth Social that the administration was parting ways with Attorney General Pam Bondi. He thanked the former Florida AG for her service and said that she would be transitioning to an unspecified new job in the private sector, while Deputy AG Todd Blanche steps in as acting attorney general.
BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales welcomed part of the news with enthusiasm.
“Finally happened. President Trump actually decided to fire some of the deadweight in his administration,” she says.
However, Sara strongly pushes back on Trump’s description of Blanche as a “very talented and respected legal mind.”
“Todd Blanche is, like, neck-deep in deep state, OK? Todd Blanche is like a Harvard elitist. Todd Blanche is not to be trusted. All of my sources within the DOJ are saying Todd Blanche is a problem,” she says.
Some of her sources have even suggested that Blanche, not Bondi, bears much of the blame for the DOJ’s perceived failures.
“Some of my sources have said that Pam Bondi is so incompetent that she just farmed everything out to Todd Blanche. Like she just handed everything over to Todd Blanche. Todd Blanche has actually already been running things, and this is how it's going,” Sara says.
Even though Blanche is only a temporary acting AG while Trump searches for a permanent replacement, Sara warns that the damage he could do in the interim is significant.
“You could have an interim attorney general, an acting attorney general, for literal years. … If he's here longer than five minutes, it's going to be a problem,” she quips.
An attorney general, she argues, should be “should be competent … willing to fight … willing to go to the trenches.”
But neither Bondi nor Blanche, according to Sara, fits that bill.
Several names are now floating as potential replacements, with EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin emerging as the leading contender. To hear Sara’s full take on the possible candidates, watch the video above.
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'I think it's time': The 4 words that reportedly fired Bondi, and Trump's possible picks to replace her
President Donald Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi on a short ride to the Supreme Court on Wednesday with just four words, a report says, and now rumors about her potential replacement are swirling around Washington.
Trump reportedly told Bondi, "I think it's time," to notify her of her firing the day before formally announcing her removal in a Truth Social post. Trump later announced her departure on Thursday, calling her a "Great American Patriot and a loyal friend" but reportedly privately expressing frustration with the lack of prosecutions against Democrats and her botched handling of the Epstein files.
'I'm not going anywhere.'
Needless to say, Bondi had become a sore spot for the administration, prompting her to become the second departure from Trump's Cabinet following former Department of Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem.
Trump has since announced that Todd Blanche, Bondi's former deputy, would temporarily step in as attorney general while the president continues weighing his options to fill the slot long-term.
Trump's top pick continues to be EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, who met with the president on Tuesday, according to one administration official. The meeting was about an unrelated topic, but the official told Blaze News that Trump floated the idea of Zeldin replacing Bondi. The next day, Trump informed Bondi of her firing.
RELATED: Bondi is OUT — and Trump already has a replacement in mind
While Zeldin is widely regarded to be the top choice, Trump has not yet made a formal announcement.
Other names have been circulating, although most of them would be considered long shots. Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Ted Cruz of Texas had been floated by onlookers, both of whom would likely sail through Senate confirmation. Critics quickly called out anonymously cited senators endorsing Lee for the role, saying they just want to get rid of one of the most conservative lawmakers.
"Senators who prefer working two and a half days a week are probably Lee’s biggest cheerleaders in taking another job," a senior Republican source told Blaze News.
Lee later set the record straight in a post on X, saying, "I'm not going anywhere."
RELATED: Bondi speaks out after ouster, still may have to testify before Congress
Another rumored candidate to be top cop has been Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is currently running a fierce campaign to oust Republican Sen. John Cornyn. The two have been facing off in a high-stakes primary that Trump was expected to weigh in on but so far has not done so.
Although Paxton is popular with the base, he would have to first be approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on which his opponent sits. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina would also be a challenging committee vote to secure, not to mention Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, who have known to defect on key floor votes.
Other possible candidates are some of Bondi's top DOJ officials, including Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon and even Blanche. While Blanche has assumed the role in the interim, he has shut the door on any future Epstein investigation, telling Fox News that "it should not be a part of anything going forward."
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Trump Needs A ‘Vicious Operator’ To Bring Justice Back To The Justice Department
Government investigator Mike Howell says Pam Bondi, out as attorney general, wasn't the right fit to take on the weaponizers.Today's top stories
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