Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s plan to create a "registry" of autistic people in the United States has already triggered an uproar from scared and suspicious parents worried about how this information will be used by the federal government, Rolling Stone reported on Thursday.

This follows a controversial speech made by Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist who has baselessly linked autism to immunizations, calling the disorder an "epidemic," flatly rejecting the widely-held consensus view that a large part of the increase in autism diagnosis is due to better screening, and vowing to find the environmental "cause" of autism by September, a promise HHS officials are trying to walk back. Above all, he described autistic people as unable to date, pay taxes or hold a job.

Yet another shoe has dropped in the "Signalgate" scandal engulfing the Pentagon, as a new report from ABC News reveals Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth used an unsecured commercial internet connection on a personal computer — a so-called "dirty line" — to communicate via Signal in his Pentagon office.

"A 'dirty line' is the nickname given to a commercial internet line that is used to connect to websites that would not be available on the Pentagon's unclassified (NIPR) or classified (SIPR) lines," said the report. This line, set up at Hegseth's personal request to allow for the use of Signal, "does not have any of the firewall protections that the Defense Department's unclassified system has, so that makes it potentially susceptible to being monitored particularly if sensitive information is being communicated."

President Donald Trump's poll numbers might be sinking — but various assets and schemes tied to his name are on the way up in value, CNN data analyst Harry Enten told anchor Erin Burnett on Thursday evening.

Among the most prominent examples is the Trump crypto "meme coin," which was at rock bottom shortly after being introduced at the start of the year, but surged this week after Trump announced that a select group of holders of the coin will get invites to the White House.

Questions are swirling around Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis after a new report found that $10 million from a Medicaid settlement was diverted through a charity linked to his wife to political committees to kill a ballot initiative.

That's according to a new report in The New York Times on Thursday evening, which peeled back the curtain on what it called a "mystery" surrounding the missing $10 million.

Democrats in Congress are putting the law firms that cut deals with President Donald Trump to give the administration free legal services on notice, reported The New Republic on Thursday: if Trump committed extortion to get those deals, you could end up with legal liability too.

Trump cut a number of these deals with "big law" firms like Paul Weiss and Skadden Arps that represented clients in anti-Trump cases before the president took office, right around the same time he either rescinded or decided not to issue executive orders barring these law firms from contracting with the federal government or accessing federal buildings. These deals generally involve committing tens to hundreds of millions in pro bono work for causes the administration approves of, eliminating diversity policies in the office, and committing to offer counsel to Trump-supporting clients.

Labor Department Official Warns That Staff Who Speak With Journalists Face “Serious Legal Consequences”

by Mark Olalde

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.

"Lady Trump" — a failed gubernatorial candidate convicted of fraud — received a pardon courtesy of the MAGA leader.

Michele Fiore, a former Las Vegas City Councilwoman and state lawmaker in Nevada, was convicted of multiple federal crimes for misusing charitable donations. She was found guilty of six counts of wire fraud and a count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

President Donald Trump's speech on Thursday, bragging about how groceries are getting cheaper and gas is down to $1.98 a gallon, was riddled with falsehoods and exaggerations, CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale told CNN's Jake Tapper on Thursday.

Trump has been stung by the criticism of how he has not delivered on his campaign trail promises to bring down the cost of living, a major issue in the 2024 election, and in particular, the crisis surrounding egg shortages ever since the bird flu outbreak required a mass culling of chickens.

A reporter clapped back Thursday at firebrand Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who scolded the reporter for wearing a mask during an interview in a video the congresswoman shared to social media.

Shira Stein, Washington correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle, joined CNN anchor Jake Tapper on his show "The Lead" on Thursday afternoon to discuss the dust-up earlier this month.

< South Florida’s U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson said she saw a “tent city” that could hold hundreds of people at the Miami immigration detention center on Thursday.

Following her visit to the Krome North Service Processing Center, Wilson told reporters she saw a structure that officials at the center told her had been built in 14 days to house hundreds of detained immigrants.

Pizzo says Democratic Party in Florida is ‘dead’ — will become an independent

by Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix
April 24, 2025

A "rattled" Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shouted at a now-former aide in a profane attack inside the Pentagon as he hunted for leakers, according to a new report.

The Wall Street Journal reported, citing two sources familiar with the exchange, that Hegseth shouted at Adm. Christopher Grady, then-acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Voting rights advocates on Thursday welcomed a federal judge's move to block some of U.S. President Donald Trump's "Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections" executive order, which critics called an "authoritarian power grab."

The temporary decision stems from a trio of legal challenges to Trump's March order: one from groups including the League of United Latin American Citizens; another from the Democratic National Committee and other party entities; and a third from organizations including the League of Women Voters (LWV) Education Fund.