The historic Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) organization denied a motion by local members to restrict biological males who identify as transgender from joining its ranks over the weekend. 

The DAR, which currently allows natal males to join its chapters across the country, has pointed to the policy as a necessity for DAR to maintain its tax-exempt status. A local chapter in Texas challenged that premise with the help of the Center for American Liberty (CAL), but the DAR National Board of Management (NBOM) rejected the proposal to national bylaws in a vote on Saturday.  

Laura McDonald, member of the Martha Laird DAR Chapter which proposed the change, told Fox News Digital that she is disappointed, but not discouraged.

"The rejection by the National Board of Management of our proposal to define a woman in our bylaws sadly confirms what we knew all along – that leadership is taking a political stance which is not based on fears of the loss of 501(c)(3) nonprofit status," she said. "We are indebted to The Center for American Liberty for their help in exposing this truth. We will continue fighting for the Truth."

In January, CAL drafted a letter to DAR leadership, arguing that the policy to exclude natal men, including natal men who identify as women, from membership eligibility is both lawful and would not jeopardize the DAR’s status as a tax-exempt nonprofit, according to a memorandum reviewed by Fox News Digital. In September 2024, the Martha Laird Chapter, along with the endorsement of 11 other chapters, submitted a proposed bylaw amendment to prohibit all men, including trans-identifying men, from DAR membership eligibility. 

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"A woman is defined as a biological female at conception, having naturally occurring X chromosomes, exclusive of Y chromosomes, and certified as female or girl on the original birth certificate," the proposed bylaw read. "NSDAR and its chapters may not discriminate against an eligible applicant."

McDonald said her chapter has another proposal ready that they will vote on at their next meeting in March. 

"The language of the new proposal will accommodate the concerns the NBOM addressed in their rejection letter," she said. "We are looking forward to this process again in the coming year – our goal is to Restore our Iconic, Historic and once prestigious American Institution founded by women, for women and we intend to see it through."

According to a copy of the rejection letter shared with Fox News Digital, the NBOM found the proposed amendments "not to be suitable for inclusion in the bylaws and not to be in the best interests of the Society," adding that it "rejected the proposed amendments in their entirety" and that they will not be forwarded to the 134th Continental Congress.

The letter also said the DAR will continue to rely on its "long-standing policy" to accept state-certified birth certificates and will not introduce requirements for chromosomal DNA tests to establish an applicant's sex.

"We will continue doing this every year until we at least get a vote at the Continental Congress," McDonald previously told Fox News Digital. "That's the only fair and transparent way to handle this."

CAL argued, on behalf of the Martha Laird DAR Chapter in Texas, that members of the organization have a First Amendment right to exclude trans-identifying men from eligibility. 

"To the extent state and local public accommodation statutes may be interpreted to require the DAR to admit trans-identifying men, such a requirement would likely violate the DAR’s First Amendment rights if the DAR determined that such a requirement would interfere with its ability to advance its intended message," the memorandum reads. 

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Additionally, they argue that while nonprofits run the risk of losing their nonprofit status if they act in a way that is illegal or contrary to "national public policy," it is unlikely that the DAR, a genealogical association that limits membership to natal females, violates national public policy.

"To the best of our knowledge, the IRS has never revoked a sex-based organization’s nonprofit status based on the fact that the organization excluded trans-identifying men from membership eligibility," the memorandum reads. "Moreover, the DAR currently excludes men who do not identify as transgender from eligibility." 

The DAR was founded in 1890 as a place for women who share a commitment to honoring Revolutionary War patriots and promoting historical preservation, as they couldn't join their male counterparts in the Sons of the American Revolution. Members famously must trace their lineage to those who helped fight in the war for American independence. 

"The fact that we've excluded men since our founding… we should have lost our nonprofit status a long time ago or never even obtained it to begin with," McDonald said. 

In June 2024, former DAR member Brenda Becker spoke with Fox News Digital about her resignation from the organization in protest following the bylaw amendment that said chapters cannot "discriminate against an eligible applicant based on race, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law," leading to criticism that biological men identifying as transgender women could be part of the group. But the DAR has claimed that was already the case. 

"This literally is the epitome of gaslighting because, first of all, they tell members that nothing has changed in their admissions process from the beginning when we were founded in 1890, that only women are eligible for membership," McDonald said. "But, then they go on to say that a man who claims he's a woman is a woman, and therefore he's eligible for membership. But if you are a man that doesn't claim to be a woman, you're not eligible for membership." 

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The updated language was criticized for its vagueness, with some members expressing confusion last year over whether this would mean transgender women could join. In a document titled "Answers to Frequently Asked Member Questions Regarding Transgender Women in DAR," which was shared with Fox News Digital, the organization's leadership affirmed that transgender members were permitted to join.

Since the organization announced the amendment during DAR’s 2023 Continental Congress, over 500 members and former members of the DAR have sent nearly 3,000 messages to DAR leadership expressing discontent with the bylaw change, according to the New Tolerance Campaign (NTC). Members against the change argue that unless the bylaws are reversed, they will be forced to share changing rooms, restrooms and hotel rooms with biological males.

Becker told Fox News Digital she and other women feel like they are being deceived, and added it was ironic that one can join the DAR using an altered birth certificate when membership is contingent on accurate biographical records. McDonald added that this was especially important because the organization hasn't typically allowed any altered birth certificates to act as verification for admission. 

"If I were to adopt a little girl right now, she could not use her altered birth certificate to get into the DAR, using my line, my biological line," McDonald explained. "She would have to go dig up her original birth certificate and jump through all these other hoops that other applicants don't, to prove her biological line."

Fox News Digital reached out to DAR for comment. 

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Indigenous Canadian star Buffy Sainte-Marie lost one of the most prestigious honors for a civilian after an investigation found she might not have been Indigenous after all.

In 2023, Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) News conducted an investigation into Sainte-Marie based on public records and interviews, including with estranged family members of the singer-songwriter. The 82-year-old icon has said she was born in the Piapot First Nation in Saskatchewan and adopted as an infant by a White family in Massachusetts, but her birth certificate says she was born as Beverly Jean Santamaria to parents of Italian and English ancestry in the U.S.

The news organization obtained several documents that seemed to confirm the allegation, including Sainte-Marie’s birth certificate which says she was born as a White female in Stoneham, Massachusetts to Albert and Winifred Santamaria in 1941.

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Though Sainte-Marie repeatedly criticized the investigation as an attack against her, the Canadian government’s official publication, the Canada Gazette, announced that her appointment to the Order of Canada had been rescinded.

"Notice is hereby given that the appointment of Buffy Sainte-Marie to the Order of Canada was terminated by Ordinance signed by the Governor General on January 3, 2025," the Gazette published on Saturday.

Fox News Digital reached out to Sainte-Marie for a comment but has yet to receive a response.

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Sainte-Marie was appointed to the Order of Canada in 1997. She was also considered the first Indigenous Oscar winner after winning an Academy Award for Best Original Song for co-writing the song "Up Where We Belong" from the 1982 film "An Officer and a Gentleman."

Shortly after the investigation in 2023, Sainte-Marie released a lengthy statement calling the investigation "full of mistakes and omissions" based on a story "fabricated by [her] abuser and repeated by two members of [her] estranged family."

She also argued that it was "common" for birth certificates to be "created" by western governments for Indigenous children after they were adopted.

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"If you are a pure-blood documented something, I’m glad for you. It’s awesome and beautiful to hear you speak your lineage, history and genealogy. But even if your documentation says you’re racially pure, you might miss the point. Being an 'Indian' has little to do with sperm tracking and colonial record keeping: It has to do with community, culture, knowledge, teachings, who claims you, who you love, who loves you, and who’s your family," Sainte-Marie wrote.

Podcaster Joe Rogan blasted the Democratic Party for failing to learn from its historic defeat in November. 

While some Democrats have responded to the election loss as a time for reflection as a political movement, others appear committed to their ideology. Rogan and writer Bridget Phetasy spoke about how the Democratic Party is continually shedding more and more people who feel its ideology has gone off the rails.

The podcast host argued that predictions about a red wave during the Biden administration may not have become true during the midterms, but in the general presidential election, "That red wave happened."

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Phetasy noted that there have been multiple waves of people leaving the Democratic Party, saying that she even saw people doing so the previous day. She marveled, "How are you guys still shedding people?"

"They’re gonna keep shedding people," Rogan said. "They’re not going to correct course." He went on to argue that Democrats are still operating as if they had unchecked domination of both media and social media. 

"They're not course-correcting at all. You know, they're saying stupid s---. It's all nonsense," he said. "Their understanding of social media and the dynamics and that you set up by having completely state-controlled mainstream media, where they only said the narratives that you guys wanted. They all said it in step. So you could watch different programs repeat the exact same words, exact same phrases."

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Now, he said, "We know you’ve got talking points, we don’t trust you anymore. We don’t trust The New York Times. We don’t trust The Washington Post. We don’t trust CNN or MSNBC. They’re all full with propaganda." 

He derided the left-wing narrative that their defeat was driven by mysterious donors stirring uprisings online, but rather because, "You guys suck, you guys f---ing suck, and you’re not real people," adding, "Nobody wants to hang out with Brian Stelter."

A Christian man was freed from an Egyptian prison last month after three years of detention over Facebook posts he shared among an online group of converts from Christianity to Islam. 

Abdulbaqi Saeed Abdo, who is originally from Yemen, was part of a Christian Facebook group that discussed Islamic theology and apologetics, according to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International. In 2021, Abdo was arrested for his Facebook post while he was living as a UNHCR registered asylum seeker in Egypt. He faced death threats in Yemen after converting to Christianity. 

ADF International, which is supporting his legal defense and helped secure his release by submitting his case to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, said the case remains open before State Security authorities as the charges against him haven't been dismissed. 

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Egyptian authorities reportedly arrested Abdo, along with another Christian man named Nour Girgis, after their affiliation with the Facebook page was discovered. Now, authorities are "spuriously claiming they were involved with terrorism activities," according to ADF International. 

The father of five withstood severe conditions before he was released from prison last month. He was moved between several detention centers throughout his three years of imprisonment, even undergoing a hunger strike within his final six months in an act of desperation. He suffered from poor health in relation to his heart, liver and kidneys. 

"I endured many hardships in prison. It isn’t right that a government should tear me away from my family, keep me in these awful conditions, only because of the faith in which I peacefully choose to believe," Abdo said of his release. 

"I thank everyone who prayed for me while I was in prison, cared about and followed up on my case, and shared the joy of my release from prison," he added. 

Abdo’s son, Husam Baqi, criticized the fact that individuals are "not allowed to believe and express their beliefs freely and are imprisoned or killed for their faith." 

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Kelsey Zorzi, the director of advocacy for religious freedom at ADF International, said Abdo's arbitrary detention without a criminal trial, as well as the lack of an opportunity for him to defend himself against the alleged offenses, constitutes a severe violation of his human rights. 

"The peaceful expression of one’s religious convictions cannot constitute a crime – not in Egypt, nor anywhere else in the world," she said. "This case shows the extremity of unchecked government censorship in the online age. The world must take note." 

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and founder of the AHA Foundation, previously told Fox News Digital the idea that ordinary people can be locked away for years for simply expressing beliefs in a private Facebook forum is "grotesque." 

"The imprisonment of Yemeni refugee Abdulbaqi Saeed Abdo at the hands of Egyptian authorities is a surreal example of censorial blasphemy policies in action," she said. "It’s also illegal. Egyptian officials have violated this father and husband’s human rights."

Ali is a refugee from Somalia, where she was the victim of female genital mutilation in a Muslim community. Previously a prominent atheist, Ali announced in November that she was converting to Christianity. Because of her outspoken rhetoric against the Muslim Brotherhood, she faces constant death threats. 

"This is the logical conclusion to a trend that empowers authorities to brutalize innocent people for free expression on social media," she added. "From China to Pakistan, from Russia to Syria, from the UK to Egypt—free speech must urgently be defended from our age’s resurgent Stalinism."

Teachers in Massachusetts warned that President Donald Trump's recent executive actions targeting "woke" education in America's schools would hurt students and threaten the academic freedom of teachers in the classroom, according to a new report.

On January 29, Trump signed an executive order stripping federal funding from K-12 schools that teach critical race theory (CRT) and that promote "radical indoctrination" in gender ideology.

The teaching of CRT, and other controversial content in schools, has sparked backlash from parents at school board meetings across the nation over the past several years. During his presidential campaign, Trump pledged to cut federal funding for schools that promote CRT, transgender ideology and "any other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content on our children." 

Some New England teachers are worried the new restrictions on teaching CRT could cause teachers to self-censor out of fear that any discussion on race would make them a target of the new administration, The Boston Globe reported.

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"It’s sending a chilling effect," retired history teacher Tom Jordan said. "Every teacher I’ve talked to is completely freaked out by it."

According to the Globe report, the largest teachers' unions in the state have come out to denounce Trump's attack on CRT.

Jessica Tang, president of the American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts, told the Globe, "If we’re not taught that history and we don’t know what happened, then we don’t understand why things are the way they are today. And then I think it undermines democracy in the longer run."

Marcus Walker, a humanities teacher at Fenway High School in Boston, worried that Trump's actions would harm the academic freedom of teachers and set up students to learn a "dishonest" view of America's history.

"As citizens, we are obligated to be responsible. We’re obligated to understand our government, to learn how the government works, and we’re obligated to get accurate information," Walker said in the report. "All of that gets short-circuited if we’re teaching history that is dishonest."

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In 2021, the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents released a statement denying that CRT was taught in K-12 schools in the state.

Trump's order on CRT was met with criticism from national teachers' unions and praise from school choice advocates.

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten accused Trump of unfairly tarnishing teachers and making their jobs more difficult with the executive order on CRT.

"Today is a sad day because the Trump administration is doing exactly what it accuses others of: creating division and fear in classrooms across America," Weingarten wrote in a press release. 

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Nicole Neily, president of Parents Defending Education, told Fox News Digital that she believes American parents want the reform Trump is bringing to the education space. 

"President Trump’s Executive Orders on DEI, CRT, gender ideology, and school choice are extremely welcome news to parental rights advocates across the country," Neily said. "We have been waiting for an administration that treats parents as allies rather than enemies and works to curb the proliferation of leftist political ideology in the classroom, while helping to reorient schools towards their original purpose of teaching students the fundamentals necessary to succeed and thrive." 

Trump signed a flurry of executive orders targeting federal funding for schools as testing scores continue to drop, according to the Nation's Report Card.

Trump administration officials are reportedly weighing a plan to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, according to a Wall Street Journal report published Tuesday.

Fox News' Rachel del Guidice contributed to this article.

The attorneys general of three states filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration Friday for trying to bar children from accessing gender-altering procedures.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in late January titled "Protecting Children From Chemical And Surgical Mutilation." Its goal is to restrict "chemical and surgical" sex-change procedures for minors.

"Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions," the executive order stated. "This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation’s history, and it must end."

Since then, local Democratic officials around the country have resisted, arguing that Trump is trying to deprive vulnerable American citizens of a fundamental right. Attorneys general Nick Brown of Washington state, Keith Ellison of Minnesota, and Dan Rayfield of Oregon filed a lawsuit attempting to argue that Trump’s order is not only "cruel," but unconstitutional.

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"The Order is a cruel and baseless broadside against transgender youth, their families, and the doctors and medical institutions that provide them this critical care. It is an official statement of bigotry from the President that directs agencies to openly discriminate against vulnerable youth on the basis of their transgender status and sex," the lawsuit read. "It is also a blatant abuse of power. The Order usurps spending and legislative powers belonging exclusively to Congress, and seizes the States’ historic police powers to regulate the practice of medicine in violation of the Tenth Amendment."

The lawsuit also objected to the very name of the executive order, arguing that the ter, "Surgical Mutilation" is "false and repugnant."

The lawsuit also claims that the executive order is "blatantly unconstitutional" because it "violates the right to Equal Protection guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution because it singles out one vulnerable group for mistreatment. It singles out for restriction and criminalization medical treatments that affirm a patient’s gender if inconsistent with that patient’s sex."

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The lawsuit also argues the executive order "violates constitutional Separation of Powers by usurping Congress’s legislative powers" to claiming it violates the Tenth Amendment by arguing that "The President cannot unilaterally, and without any Congressional authorization whatsoever, interfere with the States’ prerogatives by criminalizing the provision of safe, effective, and necessary medical care."

Attorney General Nick Brown at a press conference Friday called Trump's executive order "disgusting" and "hateful."

"This president's order is gross, it is disgusting, it is hateful, so we will always take action against illegal conduct. But this one has special resonance because of the hate behind it," he said. "It promotes harassment and discrimination against people that are already marginalized. It risks their literal health and safety and their-that of their providers. We are requesting a temporary restraining order to immediately halt the harm that is being done because this is an emergency."

Federal workers in Washington, D.C., are experiencing job instability for the first time ever, and the whole city is in a "panic," according to one report.

President Donald Trump and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are cutting spending and terminating government programs left and right, leading to layoffs, buyouts and a shell-shocked Capitol not even 3 weeks into his second term.

"Washington already feels like a transformed place," Politico senior editor Michael Schaeffer wrote in a Friday column. "And it won’t just snap back even if the crusade ends tomorrow. … something essential in the culture has shifted." 

In his piece, titled, "‘Are We Detroit Now?’: Trump’s Cuts Panic Washington," Schaeffer took stock of the sudden anguish and anxiety experienced by government workers living in one of the richest and most expensive areas of the country.

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"It is a very difficult time in D.C.," Yesim Sayin, the executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, said. "The uncertainties are so big. There’s a whole industry contingent on the federal government spending money."

"It’s hard to express just how unfamiliar base-level uncertainty is in Washington," Schaeffer said. "The city has always felt like a company town where the company will never go out of business. While most of us don’t actually work for the government, its permanence shapes our expectations, and not just in four-year increments. Assumptions about Washington’s essence inform decisions about buying a house or building a life."

"It’s essentially like a nuclear bomb falls and destroys all your future plans," Sayin added.

While Trump’s moves have affected contractors, Schaeffer says that workers in the nation’s Capitol are experiencing a "novel element to a city built on government stability: economic paranoia" and "a Beltway category that didn’t really exist until recently: waiting around to be fired." 

"For generations, the staid predictability of federal paychecks and government contracts has defined Washington life even for the many folks who don’t work for Uncle Sam," Schaeffer wrote. "Now there’s a sudden awareness that those payments may not be so predictable. It’s a bewildering, vertiginous feeling: an industry town when the industry starts to wobble."

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With Trump’s mandate that federal workers accept a buyout or return to work in-person, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and two other unions filed a complaint, saying the buyout offer is "arbitrary and capricious" and that it violates federal law.

Over 40,000 workers have agreed to the buyout, and on Thursday a federal judge pushed the administration’s deadline to accept the buyout or resign from Thursday to Monday. 

As white collar federal bureaucrats worried the city is turning into Detroit during the collapse of the auto industry, Schaeffer spoke to Ron Fournier, a former DC journalist who moved back to Motor City, who confirmed the comparisons.

Fournier predicted that the D.C. workforce "is not going to recover." 

"It’s hard to come back from being in what you thought was a stable industry, and then you wake up one day and you realize it’s not," Fournier said. "It’s always going to change the way people in your town look at their history and how secure they feel, and how comfortable they feel, and how optimistic they feel. It’s a blow for the psyche that is not going to recover."

A House Oversight Committee hearing devolved into a fight over words on Wednesday after Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., repeatedly used a "slur" to describe transgender people in a hearing on USAID funding.

"USAID awarded $2 million to strengthen trans-led organizations to deliver gender-affirming health care in Guatemala," Mace said. "So to each of you this morning, does this advance the interests of American citizens paying for trannies in Guatemala to the tune of $2 million, yes or no?"

When Mace's five minutes were up, ranking member Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., made a point of parliamentary inquiry to the committee chairman to chide Mace for using the word "trannies," a term "that is considered a slur in the LGBTQ community, and the transgender community."

"Let me please finish without interruption," Connolly said, before Mace cut him off and repeated the term several more times. 

"Tranny, tranny, tranny, I don't really care, you want penises in women's bathrooms, and I'm not going to have it OK, no, thank you – it's disgusting," Mace barked back.

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Committee chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., interrupted and permitted Connolly to finish his thoughts. 

"To me, a slur is a slur, and here on the committee, a level of decorum requires us to try consciously to avoid slurs. You just heard the gentle lady actually actively, robustly repeated it," Connolly said. "And I would just ask the chairman that she be counseled that we ought not to be engaged. We can have debate and policy discussion without offending human beings who are our fellow citizens. And so I would ask as a parliamentary inquiry whether the use of that phrase is not, in fact, a violation of the decorum rules."

Mace snapped back that she wasn't going to be "counseled by a man over men in women's spaces or men who have mental health issues dressing as women." 

The South Carolina Republican also made headlines last November with her bill to ban biological males from women's bathrooms in the U.S. Capitol, inspired by the election of Sarah McBride, D-Del., as the first openly transgender woman elected to the House.

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With a slight smirk, Comer said, "I'll be honest with the ranking member – I’m not up-to-date on my politically correct LGBTQ terminology."

"We'll look into that and get back with you on that. I don't know what's offensive and what's not. I don't know much about pronouns," he said. 

The hearing, which was about government efficiency and called "Rightsizing Government," began Wednesday morning and included witnesses Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and Citizens Against Government Waste president Thomas A. Schatz. 

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The hearing also fell into some confusion when Connolly demanded the committee subpoena the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), tech billionaire Elon Musk.

A review of USAID’s recent history shows that it was repeatedly accused of financial mismanagement and corruption long before Trump's second administration, Fox News Digital previously reported. 

Musk has led the charge against USAID – an independent U.S. agency established during the Kennedy administration to administer economic aid to foreign nations – as he leads DOGE’s mission of cutting government fat and overspending at the federal level. 

Fox News Digital's Emma Colton contributed to this report. 

Middlebury College’s student commencement speaker encouraged her fellow graduates and alumni to pull their donations and instead support the people of Gaza during her speech.

Film, media, culture and environmental studies major Faith Wood was chosen among a committee of students to represent the graduating class on Saturday with a final address. She spoke to the class wearing a rainbow scarf and keffiyeh and largely mourned the state of Gazan cities.

She suggested holding the school accountable for what she claims is the school's culpability in the suffering of Gaza through their pocketbooks. 

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"Being an alum of Middlebury College gives you power in this world. Leveraging that collective power in this room can be that difference. First step, Middlebury. Then, in the world," Wood said. "Here's one thing you can do. Open up the pamphlets people have been handing out and pledge to donate any money you would have to Middlebury to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency." 

She concluded, "Until Middlebury demonstrates its commitment to prioritizing education here and everywhere over profit through divestment from war profiteering, there is nothing as whole as a broken heart. Loving Middlebury means holding it and ourselves accountable to our promises. To love means to grow together. That is what it's going to take."

Earlier in her speech, Wood called out the school for standing "tall and pretty" while schools in Gaza are destroyed.

"There is simply nothing we as students at one of the eleven NESCACs (New England Small College Athletic Conference) deserve that students of the eleven institutions of higher education in Gaza do not also deserve," Wood said.

She also lamented the "heartbreaking" situation she and her fellow students find themselves in after President Donald Trump returned to office.

"We are literally graduating the same month a fascist has taken office. Within 11 days, he has pulled out of Paris Climate Agreement for the second time, denied the existence of trans people and unleashed a slew of ICE agents to arrest an average thousand people every single day since they began," Wood said.

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Fox News Digital reached out to Middlebury College for a comment.

Last year, Fox News Digital reported that the StandWithUs (SWU) organization filed a lawsuit against Middlebury College alleging that the school "failed egregiously to provide adequate protection for Jewish students seeking to remedy persistent antisemitic bigotry on campus." Students at Middlebury also requested to remain anonymous on their comments out of fear of retaliation.

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A pro-life protester who was sentenced to over three years in prison told Fox News Digital she is still processing President Donald Trump’s pardon. 

"To be pardoned by the President of the United States is something that I'm still trying to register," Bevelyn Beatty Williams told Fox News Digital. "I don't think I can fathom in my mind how big this is because I don't see myself as… the celebrity that people like to call me. I'm just like regular, old Bevelyn."

On Friday, Trump pardoned 23 pro-life prisoners who were convicted by President Joe Biden’s administration of violating the FACE Act, a federal law which bans the use of force on those accessing abortion clinics and other reproductive healthcare facilities. 

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Trump told the media Friday that "We released 23 people that were unjustly put in and having to do with pro-life. And, they will be released, and they'll be out very shortly. It was disgraceful what happened."

In June 2020, Williams organized a protest outside a Planned Parenthood in Manhattan, and allegedly pushed the door closed on the hand of a worker opening the door for a volunteer, injuring the worker’s hand. 

A press release from the United States Attorney’s office of the Southern District of New York reads that, "On June 19, 2020, and June 20, 2020, WILLIAMS threatened and used force against patients and staff members at a reproductive health center located in Lower Manhattan (the "Health Center") and blocked patients and staff members from accessing the Health Center."

The press release describes one occasion where she "pressed her body against the door of the Health Center’s patient entrance and refused to move, preventing a Health Center volunteer from entering the Health Center. As a Health Center staff member ("Victim-1") attempted to open the door for the volunteer, WILLIAMS purposefully leaned against the door, crushing Victim-1’s hand."

On July 24, 2024, Williams was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Rochon to 41 months in prison, who said that Williams "repeatedly intimidated and interfered with individuals seeking and providing critical reproductive health services. She did so by physically blocking access to clinics, threatening staff, and by force."

"I was indicted and sentenced to three and a half years in prison for ministering in front of an abortion clinic and practicing my First Amendment right," Williams told Fox News Digital. "And they accused me of being loud and threatening and obstructing and violent, all things that were not true. And they sent it to me in federal prison for three and a half years."

Williams, 33, president and co-founder of At the Well Ministries, said her views on abortion changed when former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill into law in 2019 that legalized abortion up to birth in most cases.

NEW YORK ‘CELEBRATES’ LEGALIZING ABORTION UNTIL BIRTH AS CATHOLIC BISHOPS QUESTION CUOMO’S FAITH 

"I've had three abortions in my past, and so I did not start off pro-life," Williams said. "I think what ignited my fight for life was when Gov. Cuomo legalized abortion up to nine months… Once I became a Christian, I realized that abortion was wrong, and I always knew it was wrong. I never in my mind thought, okay, abortion is healthcare… But at the same time, when Gov. Cuomo legalized abortion up 'til nine months, it hit me that this is really murder and these poor, innocent babies are being tortured for convenience."

She said that her sentencing was especially hard on her husband. 

"My husband was devastated," Williams said. "My husband cried and cried that night after the sentencing. And it was just every day was like a clock counting down until the day I had to turn myself in. My daughter, who's two, was not aware of what was going on. But she did feel my absence. And my husband, he says now he can tell the difference in her joy and happiness, seeing that mommy's home." 

She said that she does not know what is next, but wants to foster communication and dialogue. 

"For me, this is not the time to settle. I feel like the fight is still on now," Williams said. 

"Am I going to continue to protest," she added. "I feel like… my demeanor was met for the proper season. And I understand when to shift. You know, when I was protesting and preaching against certain things, there was Covid going on, rights were being taken away. You had BLM militias and Antifa running amok in the streets and destroying cities. You know, there was a reason for me to raise my voice the way that I did at that time. I feel like in this season, people are a lot more reasonable. And I think this is a time to start having conversations that may have been tough as they have in the past."

Newsweek’s profile of a former death row inmate and convicted murderer, who is transitioning into a woman, shocked readers who called it "puff piece." 

Steven Joseph Hayes was previously sentenced to death in 2010 for the killing of a Connecticut mother and her two daughters after an attempted burglary. Hayes’ death sentence was later commuted to life without parole in 2015.

Since being convicted, Hayes has transitioned to Linda Mai Lee and gave exclusive comments to Newsweek, claiming to finally feel "comfortable living as a woman."

"For the first time in my life I am happy to be alive and do not want to die," Lee told Newsweek.

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The article was criticized as a "puff piece" about a convicted murderer because the inmate was transgender.

"This man held a family of four hostage in their home for hours, beating them, raping the 11 year old daughter and the mother, then strangling the mother, and finally setting the house on fire, killing both children from smoke inhalation. Newsweek now publishes a puff piece on how he is now happy and at peace since he came to terms with his gender confusion. They claim his ‘former anger’ had been fueled by this distress. Now he is seeking treatments to feminize his appearance. (Undoubtedly funded by taxpayers.) You don’t hate the media enough," civil liberties attorney Laura Powell wrote.

Live Action founder Lila Rose wrote, "A man convicted for the murder and rape of a mother and her two young daughters has a puff piece in Newsweek today about how happy he is now that he has ‘transitioned’ and gets to live in a WOMEN’S prison and wear lipstick and ‘panties.’ Unbelievable evil."

Author Helen Joyce asked, "He raped an 11 year old and her mother, and murdered both, as well as the 11 year old's sister. And we're supposed to pity him because his crimes were supposedly because of his confusion about his gender identity? And to give a toss that he's ‘happy to be alive’?"

"He murdered a mother and her two daughters and raped two of them before doing so. But now he's kind of sorry for what he did, but he’s also at peace with it. The feel-good story of the year," National Review columnist Becket Adams wrote.

"’I raped and murdered a little girl and her mother, and murdered the teenage daughter, because of my feminine gender identity’ Siri show me the definition of ‘misogynistic garbage.’ Shame on Newsweek for publishing this repulsive crap," British columnist Hadley Freeman wrote.

"Newsweek is total trash. Used to be a respected and respectable. No more," former professional tennis player Martina Navratilova wrote.

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In the Newsweek piece, Lee (formerly Hayes) described the murders as "wrong on every level" and "the behavior of someone deeply mired in addiction and gender identity issues." Newsweek similarly reported on how Lee was diagnosed with gender dysphoria at the age of 16 and how "intolerance" likely contributed to the crimes.

"Had Lee accepted herself earlier, Hawke-Petit and her daughters may still be alive, she said," the article read.

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A Latino pastor said churches are fearful of mass deportations at services as President Donald Trump's administration rapidly cracks down on illegal immigration.

"We're called as pastors to serve all communities," Reverend Dr. Gabriel Salguero told Fox News Digital. "So we don't ask, as pastors, whether people are immigrants and what their status is. We don't have the bandwidth, and we're not Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. We're not police. But we're deeply concerned about how these policies are going to affect children in our Sunday schools and for families that are in our worship service."

Salguero is pastor of The Gathering Place in Orlando, Florida, and president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, (NaLEC), which represents thousands of Latino evangelical churches and faith leaders across the nation. 

Since returning to office, President Trump has rapidly begun to fulfill his campaign promise to curb the illegal immigration crisis and deport violent criminal migrants, issuing several executive orders aimed at overhauling U.S. immigration law and policy.

FLASHBACK: TOP DEMOCRATS TOUT DEPORTATIONS, TOUGH IMMIGRATION POLICIES

Thousands of violent criminals have been detained by ICE, according to the White House, with 962 criminal illegal immigrant arrests recorded on Wednesday alone.

Trump has authorized the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to roll back guidelines that restricted ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) enforcement at "sensitive" locations, like schools, churches and hospitals.

"Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest," the DHS said in a statement on January 21 announcing the changes. "The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense."

Salguero's group, NaLEC, has come out against these policy changes, calling them "harmful" and an attack on religious liberty.

The church coalition is supportive of Trump's actions to deport violent criminals, but also has concerns about other immigrants being targeted.

"We want to make sure that in this kind of enforcement, there's not a chill sent up the spine of Latino evangelical churches and communities for those people who are not violent criminals, but are people who are starting small businesses, who are going to school," Salguero told Fox News Digital. 

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"We're looking for a sober approach that deals to violent criminals, secures the border, but finds a way to integrate the majority of immigrants who are trying to do good to this country," he continued.

Fears over Trump's immigration policies had caused attendance and church participation to decline, according to Salguero.

"They said, 'We can't go to church. We don't feel safe. We're not sure how this is going to work out,'" he told Fox News Digital of comments he'd heard.

The faith leader acknowledged that ICE and other immigration officials have a right to enter their worship spaces to enforce the law and should be treated respectfully. His group is training spokespersons for each church who can respond in a calm way if immigration officers visit their church. They are also giving parishioners information about their rights.

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He believes that Latino pastors have a responsibility to both follow the nation's laws and keep their biblical commitment to serving all people.

"For us, this is not a partisan issue. This is a pastoral issue. Christ has called us to walk alongside these families, to love them," he said.

Salguero is a registered independent, but emphasized that Latino evangelicals are not a "monolith" and share a variety of opinions on Trump's immigration plans.

He said NaLEC has spent the past two decades calling on Congress for "common sense, bipartisan immigration reform."

In a press release, NaLEC asked the Trump administration to "reconsider these harmful policies while continuing to work with Congress toward comprehensive immigration reform that is grounded in justice, compassion, and respect for the dignity of all people, regardless of their immigration status." 

At Friday's press briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the administration's crackdown on illegal immigration, referencing a New York Times poll showing "83%" of Americans supported deportations of violent criminal illegal immigrants, and "97%" of the deportations carried out by the Trump administration so far had deportation orders from the previous administration, according to ICE. 

The Department of Homeland Security and White House did not return a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

Fox News' Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.

PETA is proposing a "weather reveal" cake in place of groundhog Punxsutawney Phil on Groundhog Day this year. 

The organization, known for its animal advocacy, believes that Phil is being exploited on the annual winter holiday. In response, they sent a letter to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, asking them to let Phil retire ahead of this year's celebration on February 2. 

Instead of Phil, PETA has offered to send a vegan "weather reveal" cake, similar to a gender reveal cake, each Groundhog Day. The proposed cake when cut would show one of two colors: blue, signifying six more weeks of winter, or pink, indicating an early spring.

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PETA President Ingrid Newkirk explained her offer in the letter: "Retire Phil to a reputable sanctuary with his family, and every year we’ll provide a giant vegan ‘Weather Reveal’ cake (it would be the first in the world this year) to share with revelers at Gobbler’s Knob."

"If the inside of the cake is blue, there will be six more weeks of winter. If it’s pink, there will be an early spring," she added. "This would allow you to still make tourism dough while showing Phil a slice of decency. It would be as least as accurate as asking a groundhog what to expect in a way that doesn’t even reflect his nature."

She reiterated that they "batter believe" that Groundhog Day is no piece of cake for Phil. 

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"Groundhogs are shy prey animals who, when allowed, actively avoid humans," she said. "Yet, year after year, Phil is transported to Gobbler’s Knob, whisked on stage, and subjected to a noisy announcer, screaming crowds, and flashing lights against all his natural instincts."

"If approached in his natural habitat, he would run away in fear, not volunteer to live year-round in captivity, unable to do anything that’s natural and important to him like hibernate or burrow—just to be a town’s once-a-year fake meteorologist," she added. 

This isn't the first time PETA has tried to remove Phil from the festivities. In 2023, the group offered to replace him with an enormous, golden, weather-predicting coin.

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"We’d be happy to send you a large thermometer for Gobbler’s Knob instead that reads, ‘If it’s still cold, it’s still winter,’ which would aptly represent the absurdity of the current form of this tired old spectacle. We look forward to hearing from you, as always," Newkirk concluded in this year's letter. 

Karla Sofía Gascón, the first openly trans actor to be nominated for an Oscar, apologized and ditched X after multiple controversial tweets were resurfaced.

Gascón, who is currently a contender for the Academy Award for "Best Actress" after starring in the movie "Emilia Pérez," faced backlash for old social media posts about Islam and George Floyd. 

In one 2020 post that was reportedly viewed and translated from Spanish by Variety magazine, Gascón shared a photo of a Muslim family in a restaurant, and wrote, "Islam is marvelous, without any machismo. Women are respected, and when they are so respected they are left with a little squared hole on their faces for their eyes to be visible and their mouths, but only if she behaves. Although they dress this way for their own enjoyment. How DEEPLY DISGUSTING OF HUMANITY."

This was not the only post from the performer criticizing Islam, however, as Gascón also proposed in 2020, "Until we ban religions that go against European values and violate human rights, such as Islam, under the protection of freedom of worship, we will not end part of the huge problem we face."

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The performer slammed other religions by name, writing in a 2021 post, "I am so sick of so much of this sh--, of islam, of christianity, of catholicism and of all the f---ing beliefs of morons that violate human rights."

In a post from 2020, shortly after the death of George Floyd, the performer wrote, "I really think that very few people ever cared about George Floyd, a drug addict swindler, but his death has served to once again demonstrate that there are people who still consider black people to be monkeys Without rights and consider policemen to be assassins. They’re all wrong."

The Academy Awards nominee had also criticized the Oscars in 2021, "More and more the #Oscars are looking like a ceremony for independent and protest films, I didn’t know if I was watching an Afro-Korean festival, a Black Lives Matter demonstration or the 8M. Apart from that, an ugly, ugly gala."

Since then, Gascón appears to have ditched the X platform and apologized for the controversial statements, telling The Hollywood Reporter in Spanish, "I’m sorry, but I can no longer allow this campaign of hate and misinformation to affect neither my family nor me anymore, so at their request I am closing my account on X." 

The performer also claimed to have been "threatened with death, insulted, abused and harassed to the point of exhaustion."

"I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt," Gascón said in a statement provided by Netflix. "As someone in a marginalized community, I know this suffering all too well and I am deeply sorry to those I have caused pain. All my life I have fought for a better world. I believe light will always triumph over darkness."

Fox News Digital reached out to Gascón's management and did not receive an immediate reply.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro hit back at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) on Friday, after the activist group sent a letter to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club promising to send them a vegan "weather reveal cake" if they agreed to stop pulling Punxsutawney Phil out of his burrow for his Feb. 2 prognostication.

"Come and take it," Shapiro tweeted in response to a New York Post story on PETA's demand.

Manuel Bonder, a spokesman for Shapiro, told Fox News Digital the governor stands by his comments and said he will again make the trip to Gobbler's Knob in Jefferson County on Sunday to witness Phil's 138th meteorological prediction.

Shapiro has been on-hand for every Groundhog Day ceremony in Punxsutawney since taking office in 2023.

PETA CALLS TO END GROUNDHOG DAY TRADITION, REPLACE PUNXSUTAWNEY PHIL WITH CAKE

PETA President Ingrid Newkirk told the Post that Phil is denied the traditional lifestyle of a groundhog "for a tired old gimmick."

Visitors to Punxsutawney year-round can visit Phil and his "wife," Phyllis, at the borough library. On this reporter's last visit to the area, the rodents had recently become proud parents to a new baby groundhog, as well.

While Groundhog Day is considered a national holiday and has even been popularized in the classic 1993 Bill Murray film of the same name, the day — and Phil himself — hold a special place in many Pennsylvanians' hearts.

In addition to the large ceremony in western PA, throughout the rest of the Commonwealth, many historically Pennsylvania German communities are home to a "Grundsau Lodsch" or Groundhog Lodge. 

GROUNDHOG DAY QUIZ! HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW THE FACTS ABOUT THIS UNIQUE DAY?

Each lodge holds an annual banquet or "Versommling" in honor of their totem – Phil – with "Lodsch Nummer Ains an de Lechau" (Lodge #1 on the Lehigh River) in Allentown hosting theirs annually on the February 2 holiday itself since 1934.

Nineteen other lodges based around the state have held "Versommlinge" for decades, as well. 

However, three — "#2, Schibbach" in Montgomery County, "#3, Temple U." in Philadelphia County and "#5, Bind Bush" in Schuylkill County — have gone defunct in recent years as the Pennsylvania German language and culture see a decline in younger generations.

A March 2024 Versommling for "Lodge #18 an de Forelle Grick" (on Trout Creek) in Slatington featured local beer on tap, a traditional Pennsylvania German supper, stories and riddles from lodge elders told in the Pennsylvania German language, and, of course, representations of Phil himself.

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Until recently, it was the custom of groundhog lodges to forbid English-speaking in favor of "Pennsilfaanisch," lest the violator toss a nickel in a donation jar on their table.

Other states' groundhogs have been less lucky than Phil, as then-New York Mayor Bill de Blasio infamously dropped Staten Island Chuck during a 2014 ceremony in West New Brighton. Chuck later died from internal injuries after appearing to land on his head.

With the importance Groundhog Day and Phil himself hold to Pennsylvania past-and-present, Bonder said Shapiro will continue to defend the groundhog and his tradition, and will be on hand for future wintertime prognostications in Punxsutawney.

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin torched the Trump administration for allowing television personality Dr. Phil McGraw to tag along as border czar Tom Homan and a team of agents carried out deportation operations in Chicago last weekend. 

From the Senate floor on Tuesday, Durbin scrutinized President Donald Trump's campaign messaging that mass deportations would initially target illegal immigrants who pose national security risks – sex offenders, murderers and drug dealers, to name a few. 

"If this mass deportation is truly focused on dangerous individuals — murderers, rapists, drug dealers and [the] mentally ill — Dr. Phil has as much business being on these raids as he does performing surgery," Durbin said, according to The Chicago Sun-Times. 

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"Why is he there? In fact, he could complicate the situation. We are talking about a legal process and the possibility of criminal prosecution following. And to have this television character come along for the ride is dangerous and makes no sense."

McGraw filmed a number of ICE arrests during the operations as part of his show on Merit TV, even interviewing a convicted sex offender and internet predator from Thailand living in the U.S. illegally until he was nabbed.

The subject frequently evaded his questions, recognizing him after seeing him on television.

Durbin said he was "disappointed" to see ICE agents arresting immigrants and asking them questions even after they had requested to speak with an attorney.

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He also expressed disdain for Trump's "sweeping executive actions" that could allegedly "leave those arrested by ICE, including those with lawful status and U.S. citizenship, with little opportunity to even state their case and show that they belong in this country."

He continued, "Let’s be clear, 90% of undocumented immigrants have no criminal convictions — 90% who make up more than 40% of home health care aides and children’s assistance day care — an outsized percentage of these and the agricultural workforce are undocumented. Immigrants are a key part of America’s success story."

He added that, while he doesn't want to see "a single dangerous person" remain in the U.S. or be allowed to "seek permanent residence," others have abided by laws and should remain a part of America's future.

ICE officials, under the Trump administration's watch, have nabbed swathes of illegal immigrants in major cities across the nation, including Chicago. Deportation efforts also began in New York City earlier this week, with agents reportedly nabbing alleged Tren de Aragua ringleader Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco in the Bronx.

Fox News' Nikolas Lanum contributed to this report.

Venture capitalist and conservative activist Paul Martino credited President Donald Trump’s election win for a documentary featuring Martino's family being screened at the Sundance Film Festival.

"Bucks County, USA" focuses on two 14-year-old girls, Evi and Vanessa, maintaining a friendship despite opposing political beliefs in a bellwether county of one of the seven swing states in 2022. The five-part docu-series asks if "we can learn that it’s possible to coexist and love one another despite our differing political views" and "discover the humanity in ‘the other side.’"

"Bucks County, USA" was also one of two docu-series to feature at Sundance, where it debuted the first two episodes on Tuesday.

Martino, Vanessa’s father, took part in the documentary as a conservative perspective based on his work founding the Back to School PA PAC to elect candidates in favor of keeping schools open during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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At the premiere in Utah, Martino expressed his surprise at the series being featured in general, suggesting Trump’s win had encouraged more political dialogue even in film.

"One of the things that is fascinating about ‘Bucks County, USA’ being chosen as an official selection is it really looks like, in the era of Trump being re-elected, Sundance has pivoted to the middle," Martino said on X. 

"All of the sudden, the discussions are about ‘wow, I need to listen to the other side.’ So it is satisfying to be here at Sundance, which is known to be so left-leaning, knowing that there is a new openness to dialogue."

He continued, "I think the reason there’s an openness to dialogue is Trump won, and he won pretty big. And I think people are starting to realize, ‘this wasn’t a one-time little fluke when it came down to Hillary Clinton and the weirdness in 2016.’ This guy won the popular vote in 2024, and now I think people are like ‘Okay, maybe I shouldn’t just be in the resistance for four years. Maybe I should find out what the other person down the street from me is thinking.’"

In a clip sent to Fox News Digital, Martino addressed a theater audience at Sundance who criticized his beliefs after watching the series.

"Why can’t you be like your kids?" one audience member exclaimed.

Martino responded to the backlash by giving his perspective on what led him to activism.

"We were successful in the school policies around Covid, but you know what happened? The public sector’s unions decided to run ads about what an awful person I was, literally turning it into a personal battle," Martino said. "I was literally ready to take my ball and go home, but they decided they were going to make me a villain and my family. So what should I have done? Should I have just gone home? Or should I have actually gone into the fight?"

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Members of the audience cheered at his response.

"You’ve clearly watched the movie then, seeing the humanity in the film is what this is about, given your response," Martino added. "But what’s crazy to me is that you attacked me. That is the start of this."

In another video posted on Martino’s X account on January 22, Martino discussed his involvement in the process after being told by the filmmakers that "nobody on the right has agreed to be in the documentary."

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"[Robert May] did exactly what he promised me, that he would portray it as it happened. I didn’t want to be portrayed as good or bad. I just wanted the facts to be told. And when the facts are told, guess what? Us on the right look pretty damn rational. Our policies were the right ones. Our point of view was the right one, in particular around Covid policy," Martino said.

A group of moms in one Massachusetts public school district were condemned for questioning Diversity, Equity and Inclusion's (DEI) influence on local education, but now the district itself is changing course.

Carey Goldberg, a contributing writer for Globe Ideas, wrote an extensive opinion piece about how a trio of mothers in the tony Boston suburb braved public backlash to warn against far-left school policy changes. The three moms, all of whom were Democratic Party voters, began to question Newton public school district policies in 2022.

"At first we were just trying to understand the drastic changes that took place while no one was in school during COVID," Vanessa Calagna, one of the trio, told The Globe writer. "It was like we were trying to put a puzzle together. And then we were trying to ring the alarm."

Those changes, Goldberg wrote, "involved a heightened emphasis on racial equity and antiracism, including a district commitment to ‘dismantle structures rooted in racism’ and seek ‘more equitable outcomes for all students.’"

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One of the most controversial initiatives was combining students into "multilevel" classes, where, "Rather than students being divided into separate classes by level, students at varying levels would learn together — even in math, science, and languages." 

The purported goal was to "break the persistent pattern that white and Asian students predominated in ‘honors’ classes while Black and Hispanic students tended to be clustered in less-challenging ‘college-prep’ classes."

"[The mothers] wanted to know whether the multilevel classes and other new policies — such as denying advanced math students the chance to skip ahead a year — hurt students academically," the author summarized. "They also worried that the schools’ newer approaches to race and other identities emphasized differences rather than commonalities. And that equity was being defined as 'equal outcomes' rather than fairness."

School Committee member Paul Levy estimated that when he campaigned in 2021, 80% of more than 1,000 parents voiced concerns to him about these issues, but many would not dare speak about them in public for fear of being called "racist."

In 2022, the trio of mothers and their allies faced severe backlash after launching a petition to create an advisory panel that would give parents a voice on such academic issues. 

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"The mothers and their allies found themselves portrayed online and in public as dog-whistling bigots doing the bidding of right-wing national groups," Goldberg wrote. She added further that "PTO newsletters opposed them, as did the teachers’ union and the robust local group Families Organizing for Racial Justice, which claimed in an email that some petitioners ‘challenge the need for any activities related to microaggressions, inclusion, respect, or belonging.’"

When the three mothers and other parents questioned these new policies, defenders would cite the district’s "statement of values and commitment to racial equity," which sought "more equitable outcomes" and "an antiracist future."

"And that was untouchable," Calagna told The Globe contributor. "That was the third rail until, all of a sudden, now."

Now many Newton teachers are reportedly "openly rebelling" against multilevel classes.

"Those teachers report that the classes do not tend to work well for anyone — not for teachers, not for students who need more support, not for those who need more challenges," Goldberg reported. "Many parents concur."

"I’ve heard about multilevel classes from many, many parents over the last three years, and the feedback has been consistently negative," School Committee member Rajeev Parlikar reportedly argued during a meeting in November. "I actually have not heard from a single parent who thought their child benefited from being in a multilevel class."

However, even with both teachers and parents openly calling to remove multilevel classes by next fall, Newton’s new superintendent, Anna Nolin, told Goldberg such reforms are a long process.

"When [Nolin} took office in mid-2023, she found that the prestigious district lacked basic infrastructure that is standard elsewhere, including systems for curriculum development and student assessments," Goldberg summarized. "Also absent: an agreed-upon system for the district to track the effects of the multilevel classes on student achievement."

Work is reportedly underway to create distinct levels, but Nolin warned, "you can’t fix the curriculum overnight."

The superintendent has also begun efforts to restore parents’ trust in the schools, such as by establishing a new Office of Family Engagement so parents "know exactly what we’re doing."

Nolin observed that after the COVID-19 pandemic, "parent attitudes toward the schools changed, and there was a skepticism about how effective our methods were. For whatever reason, they did not feel heard by the school system, and that is the cocktail that brought us this schism between ‘equity’ and ‘excellence’ groups."

The superintendent noted that the school’s motto "Equity & Excellence," is now seen as "divisive." 

It will soon be replaced by the phrase, "Where All Children Thrive."

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Fox News Digital reached out to the school district and did not receive an immediate reply. 

EXCLUSIVE – A law firm requested public records from five major universities in order to investigate whether they were participating in a "censorship regime" they claim was conducted under the Biden administration.

"Free speech is essential to a free society," said Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Phil Sechler, director of the ADF Center for Free Speech, in a press release obtained by Fox News Digital.

"The American people have a right to know if their tax dollars were used to suppress certain voices and how involved state actors were—and are—in social media censorship," Sechler said in the statement.

Now with a new administration in power, ADF is going after the University of Michigan (UM), the University of Wisconsin (UW), Indiana University (IU), the University of North Carolina (UNC), and the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA).

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ADF cited President Donald Trump signing an executive order that seeks to restore freedom of speech. Trump on Jan. 20 announced that the executive order ends the previous administration’s practices of trampling "free speech rights."

The White House said the federal government will not censor speech on social media or any online platform in general, which they said was executed "under the guise of combating ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ and ‘malinformation.’"

ADF claims that these universities created "misinformation" centers that are "designed to censor speech."

For example, ADF called out UM’s Center for Social Media Responsibility (CSMR), which, according to their website, "addresses the negative effects of broad access to the means of public communication, while amplifying positive effects."

CSMR’s website explains further that while social media product managers, designers, and engineers "are the day-to-day policymakers of today's social media landscape," the institution aims to help them articulate "principles" as well as create "metrics and tools" that help them "set responsible policy."

LOCAL VIRGINIA TEACHERS NO LONGER FORCED TO USE STUDENTS' PREFERRED PRONOUNS AFTER SETTLEMENT

The law firm wants records related to the CSMR containing any communication between the CSMR administrators, including the director, and federal government officials or employees. Furthermore, ADF requests documents related to communication between CSMR directors and employees of social media companies Google, Facebook, Instagram, "Twitter," YouTube, Snapchat, and Reddit.

Acquiring such communication would help ADF identify any "certain censorship red flags," in its view, like "cancel," "throttle," "First Amendment," and "free speech." 

ADF also cited a report released in February by investigators from the U.S. House Judiciary Committee which found that UM officials pitched an idea of an artificial intelligence tool to the National Science Foundation (NSF) for "externalizing the difficult responsibility of censorship."

The House Judiciary Commitee's Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government stated in February last year that NSF issued "multi-million-dollar grants to university and non-profit research teams" to combat "alleged misinformation" regarding COVID-19 and the 2020 election.

Considering that NSF "is responsible for funding censorship grants," ADF wants records containing any of the terms National Science Foundation and NSF. 

ADF suspects that CSMR and similar institutions at IU, UW, UNC, and UCLA had worked with the Biden administration.

Sechler claimed that the Biden administration "established a censorship regime that aimed to suppress so-called ‘misinformation’ and other speech deemed unfavorable to the government," which "included funding censorship tools created by these public universities."

"The U.S. government should defend our First Amendment right to free speech, not be its greatest threat," he said.

UM, IU, UW, UNC, and UCLA, as well as a spokesperson for former President Joe Biden, did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Fox News Digital.

Immigrant advocacy groups condemned Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan Wednesday for calling illegal immigrants "illegal," or what they called "the i–word." 

Liberal activist groups and public figures have called for illegal immigrants to not be described as such, instead wanting them to be referred to as "undocumented" or "unauthorized" immigrants.

As some localities plan to resist the Trump administration’s efforts to remove criminal illegal immigrants, Duggan has said that Detroit is not a sanctuary city and would not shield those who are here illegally.

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"ICE has a list of who they're looking for who are illegal immigrants, who have committed crimes," Duggan, a former Democrat turned Independent, said last week. "And when one of the people we've arrested comes up, they will contact us. And if we have them in custody at the Detroit detention center, we will turn them over to ICE."

According to The Detroit News, nine Michigan organizations that work with immigrants denounced the mayor for "describing undocumented immigrants as ‘illegal.’"

"The Mayor’s use of the I-word is inappropriate, dehumanizing, and an insult to Detroit’s longstanding immigrant communities," the organizations wrote in a press release viewed by the local news outlet.

Duggan reportedly shrugged off the criticism as mere "political correctness" in an email, according to the Detroit News.

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"[W]hen Detroit police make a criminal arrest and DPD gets federal notification that the person in custody is in the country illegally, we should not and do not shield you from federal enforcement," he said. 

"Groups who oppose this position are criticizing me today over the political correctness of my statements, but I do not apologize for providing a clear explanation of Detroit’s position. It is a position we have followed consistently through the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations," Duggan added.