America's Talking

(The Center Square) – Business leaders and corporations across the country that employ foreign workers through the H-1B visa program have scrambled to respond to President Donald Trump’s recent reform efforts. Last week, Trump announced the United States would charge companies $100,000 for each H-1B visa issued to a temporary foreign worker. The administration imposed a Sept. 21 deadline for charges to start on H-1B visa holders.

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(The Center Square) – Discretionary spending by Illinois state leaders has increased more than $16 billion since J.B. Pritzker became governor nearly seven years ago. That is a total increase of about 43%. Before Pritzker, the state's general fund spending was roughly flat or had modest increases, according to state data. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner was in office for part of that time. 

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(The Center Square) – The U.S. Senate failed to pass either Democrats’ or Republicans’ government funding proposals Friday to prevent a government shutdown. Senators have now left town for a week-long recess, leaving only two days when they return to pass some kind of funding stopgap before the government shuts down on Oct. 1. Republicans’ Continuing Resolution would have extended current government funding levels until Nov. 21, buying lawmakers time to pass all 12 annual appropriations bills for fiscal year 2026. It also included $30 million for additional lawmaker security and $58 million for U.S. Supreme Court judges and members of the executive branch. 

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(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump is designating Antifa a “major terrorist organization,” he announced in a social media post Wednesday evening. The Center Square asked the president Monday afternoon if he would be designating the left-wing group a domestic terror group following a spate of political violence against conservatives and Republicans, including the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. “I am pleased to inform our many U.S.A. Patriots that I am designating ANTIFA, A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION. I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices,” the president posted.

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(The Center Square) – Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray said Tuesday he will seek the death penalty for Tyler James Robinson, the man charged with the assassination of conservative leader Charlie Kirk. Gray told reporters he was filing a total of seven counts against Robinson, 22, including aggravated murder, discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury and counts of obstruction of justice and witness tampering. "The murder of Charlie Kirk is an American tragedy," Gray said. Kirk, a devoted ally of Trump, was shot and killed during an event Wednesday that 3,000 people attended at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. 

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(The Center Square) – The Make America Healthy Again Commission released a sweeping strategy Tuesday to nationally improve children’s health, which includes more than 120 initiatives – including advancing research on autism, pesticides, vaccine injury and water quality – aimed at that end. The strategy fulfills a directive from an executive order the president signed in February requiring an assessment of American children’s health and a subsequent strategy for improving it. The assessment identified “four potential drivers behind the rise in childhood chronic disease” that it said simultaneously “present the clearest opportunities for progress”: poor diet, exposure to synthetic chemicals, lack of physical activity and chronic stress and over-medicalization. 

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(The Center Square) – Chilling video of the Aug. 22 stabbing death of Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light rail has drawn increased awareness of the incident. Included are social media audiences wondering about the lack of national mainstream media coverage, and second-term Republican President Donald Trump. He’s not only vowed to crack down on crime but sought to take action including through use of National Guard troops in certain cities.

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(The Center Square) – Authorities on Friday confirmed the suspect in the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk is in custody. The suspect was identified as Tyler Robinson, 22, of Utah. "We got him," Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said at a Friday news conference. Cox said that on Thursday night, a family member of Robinson's "reached out to a family friend," saying Robinson had implicated himself in the shooting. The friend then contacted authorities, who took Robinson into custody.

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(The Center Square) - Taxpayers are covering rents of up to $6,020 per month in Arizona, leading taxpayer advocates to question the growing duration of federal Section 8 housing choice voucher (HCV) usage. "Section 8 needs to focus on lifting people out of the trap of poverty, not putting them into the lap of luxury," said National Taxpayers Union president Pete Sepp in an interview with The Center Square. "It's unfair to ask taxpayers who can't afford mortgages or rents of six thousand dollars per month to foot the bill for subsidies amounting to that much." 

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(The Center Square) – Ryan Routh will have court-appointed lawyers nearby as he represents himself in a Florida court against charges related to attempting to assassinate Donald Trump. Jury selection starts Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Routh, 59, is a construction worker from North Carolina more recently working in Hawaii. He pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer and several firearm violations.

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