National News

Trump administration halts scheduling of new student visa appointments

By Humeyra Pamuk President Donald Trump‘s administration has ordered its missions abroad to stop scheduling new appointments for student and exchange visitor visa applicants as the State Department prepares to expand social media vetting of foreign students. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in the cable that the department plans to issue updated guidance on social media vetting of student and exchange visitor applicants after a review is completed and advised consular sections to halt the scheduling of such visa appointments. The move comes as the Trump administration has sought to ramp up deportations and revoke student visas as

How Mississippi’s HBCUs are navigating Trump’s federal funding cuts

By Candace Wilder Wendy White, director of the Jackson Heart Study Undergraduate Training and Education Center at Tougaloo College, has experienced what financial markets and world leaders have all felt this year: whiplash. In April, the Trump administration paused funding to the center, which is the nation’s largest and longest-running training program for early-career scientists and hub for research on heart disease in African Americans. In total, 36 college students lost their scholarships. Five staff members, including White, lost their jobs. As a result of the cuts, the center planned to end its undergraduate training program later this summer. Then

Lawsuit challenges USDA demand for food stamp data as some states prepare to comply

By Jude Joffe-Block, Stephen Fowler A new lawsuit filed Thursday says the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s demand for sensitive data about millions of food assistance recipients violates federal privacy laws. Meanwhile some states are preparing to comply with the unprecedented request which could be used to achieve Trump administration priorities, such as immigration enforcement. In new guidance issued earlier this month, the USDA told states they must turn over data to the agency, through their third-party payment processors, “including but not limited to” names, birth dates, Social Security numbers and addresses of all applicants and recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,

HBCU Federal Funding: Tuskegee President Testifies

Tuskegee University president Mark Brown stresses HBCU federal funding urging protection of Pell Grants and Grad loans.  Tuskegee University President Mark Brown highlighted the importance of federal investments, such as Pell Grants, to students’ success in higher education during a hearing Wednesday. Importance of HBCU Federal Funding in Higher Education Brown appeared before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee alongside other higher education leaders. He discussed his perspective from a Historically Black College and University on the current state of higher education. Brown is the first alumnus of Tuskegee University to lead the school. He noted how the

Land-Grant HBCU Funding Parity Act Introduced by Adams

Congresswoman Alma S. Adams, Ph.D. (NC-12), founder and co-chair of the Bipartisan, Bicameral Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Caucus, and Congressman Shomari C. Figures (AL-02) introduced the Land-Grant Institution Parity Act. The Land-Grant Institution Parity Act protects federal funding for our land-grant colleges and universities, including the country’s 19 land-grant HBCUs, commonly referred to as 1890 Institutions. This bill comes following the USDA’s suspension and reinstatement of the 1890 National Scholars Program, a scholarship program for 1890 Institution students studying agriculture, food, or natural resources sciences, earlier this year. “The Land-Grant Institution Parity Act is an important step to protect funding for our land-grant HBCUs

Justice Department Ends Police Reform Consent Decrees

The Trump administration is moving to dismiss federal oversight agreements in Louisville and Minneapolis reached following the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor and police killing of George Floyd, and dropping investigations into several major US police departments. The move, announced by the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, reflects the administration’s opposition to agreements that require reforms of police departments where the DOJ found a pattern of misconduct. The agreements, called consent decrees, are approved by a federal judge and are used as a monitoring system for police department reform when an investigation finds that it is needed.

Examining Impact of DEI Rollback on Target Revenue

//

Examining Impact of DEI Rollback on Target Revenue Trends Q1, this article shows how DEI pullbacks and boycotts drove a $680M drop in Q1 sales. Target sales have dropped drastically, more than analysts predicted in their first quarter. The company expects sales to continue to decline throughout the remainder of the year. Shoppers have been pulling back due to concerns about tariffs and the broader economy. However, that can’t be the only reason for the company’s sales to be down $680 million in the first quarter. DEI pullbacks and boycotts are responsible for the major decline.  Identifying the Key Factors

Verizon Ends DEI Programs to Secure $20B Frontier Deal

Learn how Verizon DEI policy changes enabled FCC approval of its $20B Frontier deal and reshaped corporate DEI trends. Verizon has become the latest big company to end policies around diversity, equity and inclusion, or “DEI,” in order to keep the U.S. government happy. Verizon DEI Policy Reversal: Strategic Motivations It seems to have worked: on Friday, the Federal Communications Commission approved Verizon’s $20 billion deal to buy broadband provider Frontier Communications. The FCC said that the deal will allow Verizon to upgrade the technology providing internet access to 25 states, including rural communities, and to deploy fiber-optic access to at least 1 million

DOJ Charges NJ Congresswoman Over Immigration Facility Clash

By Raquel Coronell Uribe and Ryan J. Reilly The Justice Department has filed charges against a Democratic member of Congress, alleging that she assaulted law enforcement officers during a protest outside an immigration detention facility in New Jersey earlier this month. Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., faces two counts of assaulting, resisting, and impeding law enforcement officials in connection with an incident at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark, according to court documents made public on Tuesday. Interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba, who served as Trump’s personal attorney and previously worked as counselor to the president,

Student Loan Defaults Spike Under Trump Repayment Policy

Student loan delinquencies have surged, according to the New York Federal Reserve’s latest household debt report released May 13, following the Trump administration’s decision to end the Biden-era pause on reporting missed payments. According to the Fed, a serious federal student loan delinquency occurs when a borrower misses payments for 90 days or more. That rate jumped from 1% in the first quarter of 2024 to nearly 8% in the same period of 2025, coinciding with the resumption of delinquency reporting. Daniel Mangrum, a research economist at the New York Fed, noted the increase in his comments on the report in

1 2 3 162