The Trump administration is appealing a federal judge's order to unfreeze federal funding in the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. 

The motion comes hours after a federal judge from Rhode Island ordered President Donald Trump's administration to unfreeze federal funds once again, claiming the administration did not adhere to his previous order to do so. 

U.S. District Judge John McConnell filed a new motion Monday ordering the Trump administration to comply with a restraining order issued Jan. 31, temporarily blocking the administration’s efforts to pause federal grants and loans. 

McConnell’s original restraining order came after 22 states and the District of Columbia challenged the Trump administration’s actions to hold up funds for grants such as the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant and other Environmental Protection Agency programs. But the states said Friday that the administration isn’t following through and funds are still tied up.  

"Each executive order will hold up in court because every action of the Trump-Vance administration is completely lawful," Harrison Fields, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement to Fox News. "Any legal challenge against it is nothing more than an attempt to undermine the will of the American people.

The Office of Management and Budget released a memo Jan. 27 announcing plans to issue a temporary pause on federal grants and loans. While the White House later rescinded the memo on Jan. 29, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the move didn’t equate a "recission of the federal funding freeze." 

Specifically, McConnell’s motion calls for the Trump administration to restore withheld funds appropriated in the Infrastructure Improvement and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act that passed during the Biden administration in 2021 and 2022, respectively. The motion also calls on the Trump administration to restore funding for institutes like the National Institutes of Health. 

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The motion filed Monday asserts that states have provided evidence that there are still instances where the federal government has "improperly" frozen funds and failed to distribute appropriated federal funds. 

While the motion says the Trump administration claims these actions were done to "root out" fraud, McConnell said that the "freezes in effect now were a result of the broad categorical order, not a specific finding of possible fraud."

"The broad categorical and sweeping freeze of federal funds is, as the Court found, likely unconstitutional and has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of this country," the judge wrote on Monday. 

LEAVITT PUSHES BACK ON MEDIA'S ‘UNCERTAINTY’ ABOUT FEDERAL FUNDING FREEZE

McConnell said in his original order that evidence suggested the White House's rescission of the OMB memo may have been done in "name-only" in order to "defeat the jurisdiction of the court." 

As a result, McConnell said Monday that the Trump administration must "immediately restore frozen funding" until the court hears and decides the preliminary injunction request. 

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha praised McConnell’s ruling and said the order "confirmed what we have been saying from the beginning."

"It is now time for the Administration to come into full compliance," Neronha said in a statement Monday. "This is a country of laws. We expect the Administration to follow the law. Our Office and attorneys general across the country stand ready to keep careful watch on the actions of this Administration that follow, and we will not hesitate to go back to Court if they don’t comply."

Fox News' Jacqui Heinrich contributed to this report. 

The new federal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced Friday that taxpayers will see just over a $1 billion savings through the elimination of 104 diversity, equity and inclusion-related (DEI) contracts.

As of Wednesday, DOGE had recorded the cancellation of 85 "DEIA" contracts from 25 federal agencies. By Friday afternoon, that number had grown to 104 contracts totaling $1,000,060,792, according to a DOGE news release.

Of note, 21 Department of the Treasury contracts were canceled, saving a total of $25,247,783. In second place was the Department of Health & Human Services, which canceled 15 contracts worth $28,187,448.

While the Office of Personnel Management only had three contracts canceled, the dollar figure was pinned at a whopping $494,956,233, an average of about $165 million per DEI contract.

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The other agencies with the most contracts canceled by the Trump administration include Agriculture with 11 and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Homeland Security with seven each.

According to a release Monday from the Department of Veterans Affairs, 60 employees whose roles were solely focused on DEI were placed on administrative leave, and spokesperson Morgan Ackley said the administration is "laser focused on providing the best possible care and benefits to Veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors."

"We are proud to have abandoned the divisive DEI policies of the past and pivot back to VA’s core mission," Ackley said.

The rapid-fire DEI contract eliminations come one week after President Donald Trump signed an executive order targeting the endeavors, officially described as "ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity."

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However, a consortium of liberal state attorneys general lambasted Trump with a warning that the moves "have nothing to do with combating discrimination."

A  joint statement led by Rhode Island AG Peter Neronha Friday called the executive orders that led to the dismantling of DEI policies and programs "unnecessary and disingenuous."

Neronha and his co-signers — attorneys general from California, Illinois, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Vermont and Washington state — said they would agree to be "willing partners" in cracking down on discrimination if Trump chose instead to utilize "longstanding civil rights laws" rather than the path he has chosen.

"Contrary to President Trump’s assertions, the policies he seeks to end do not diminish the importance of individual merit, nor do they mean that employers are lowering their standards, hiring unqualified candidates, or engaging in race-and-sex-based preferences," the statement said.

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"DEIA initiatives simply ensure that there are fair opportunities for everyone, helping to maximize contributions from all employees and enabling businesses and organizations to succeed in their missions."

In Congress, Rep. Aaron Bean and Sen. Joni Ernst have been leading DOGE efforts to further curtail government waste and abuse.

Bean, a Republican from Jacksonville, Florida, founded the Congressional DOGE Caucus in November, and Ernst, Iowa, has led the charge to lobby for return-to-work requirements for federal employees and sales of unused or underused federal office space.

FBI agents raided the law offices of immigration lawyer and Central Falls Municipal Court Judge Joseph Molina Flynn in Providence, Rhode Island, Thursday, though the reason for the raid has not yet been disclosed.

An FBI spokesperson confirmed that a court authorized the raid, though the spokesperson declined to comment further.

Molina Flynn’s office remained silent about the raid, declining to answer calls and emails from Fox News.

WPRI 12 reported that a warrant was executed at the office on Dorrance Street, and video of the warrant execution showed a line of black SUVs outside the building with agents walking into the building and walking out with boxes.

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The station also reported that two sources familiar with the matter claimed the investigation into Molina Flynn started before President Donald Trump returned to the White House this week.

The law firm states on its site that the practice was founded in 2015 and focuses on immigration, family and criminal matters.

The site also notes that the judge was born in Medellin, Columbia, and arrived in the U.S. when he was just 9 years old on a tourist visa. He remained in the country and lived undocumented for 15 years before obtaining lawful permanent resident status, the site added.

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Molina Flynn attended Johnson and Wales University, then went on to University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor.

When reached for comment, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Rhode Island told Fox, "Thank you for reaching out. Our office does not comment on media reporting."

On Thursday, Molina Flynn resigned from his position as the municipal court judge for the City of Central Falls, a job he was appointed to in 2021.

The Providence Journal reported that Molina Flynn’s resignation was announced by Central Falls Mayor Maria Rivera shortly after news of the raid broke.

"I was deeply concerned to see the reports of an FBI search at the law office of Joseph Molina Flynn," Rivera told the publication. "As the Central Falls community knows, transparency and accountability are priorities of mine. In an effort to uphold the integrity and focus of the municipal court, Judge Molina Flynn has officially resigned his position."

Wild video shows the moment thieves robbed a FedEx driver as he was making a delivery in Harvard, Massachusetts, on Friday, snatching the package from his arms and fleeing the scene.

In a press release, the Harvard Police Department said its officers responded to a report of an armed robbery at about 12:43 p.m.

When the officers arrived, they spoke with the victim, a FedEx driver who was delivering a package at a residence.

The driver told investigators that a white, late-model Acura TLX with very dark tinted windows and a partial Connecticut license plate bearing the letters "BN" pulled up alongside his van when he got out to make the delivery. Two masked men got out of the car and approached the driver from behind. One of them then snatched the package out of the driver's hands.

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Video captured from nearby surveillance cameras shows the moment the package was taken by force, and while no firearm is seen in the footage, the suspects allegedly made verbal threats toward the driver, implying they were armed.

Police said a preliminary investigation led them to believe the suspects were targeting the specific delivery after a neighbor reported seeing the suspects’ vehicle parked nearby for several hours before the robbery.

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WPRI in Providence, Rhode Island, reported that the four suspects were arrested in connection to the robbery after a multi-state police chase ended near the city. 

Traffic cameras on Interstate 95 captured a vehicle crash near Elmwood Avenue, which brought the chase to an end.

One person was reportedly injured in the crash and remained with the vehicle while the other three people inside the vehicle fled the scene, Providence Police Col. Oscar Perez told the station. He added that the three people who fled were captured a short time later.

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The person who remained in the car was taken to an area hospital.

The station reported that Cranston Police Col. Michael Winquist said the suspects who were arrested were driving a white Acura with Connecticut plates and that it crashed on the Providence-Cranston line.

Police also used search dogs to search for any firearms that may have been discarded during the pursuit.

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Providence police did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for information.

A Massachusetts mother of two was seriously injured after a man pulled her out of her car and body-slammed her head-first during a road-rage attack caught on video after a minor fender-bender. 

Hailea Soares, 31, was driving in Attleboro, Massachusetts, around 9 a.m. Friday when she rear-ended the driver in front of her, who had stopped suddenly, according to WHDH-TV News. 

"He kept slamming on his brakes and then when we got to the intersection, he hit a light and he was in front of me," Soares told the outlet. "As soon as we went through, we didn’t even make it across and he slammed on the brakes, so I hit him."

ILLEGAL CHARGED WITH LIGHTING SLEEPING WOMAN ON FIRE PLEADS NOT GUILTY

Gladior Kwesiah, a 26-year-old Rhode Island resident, then pulled Soares out of her vehicle, according to the Attleboro Police Department. 

When Soares tried to take photos of the damage to her vehicle, the attacker yanked away her phone, she said. 

"I tried to defend myself, and then he picked me up, and that was when the woman got the video of me being thrown to the ground," she told WHDH. "I remember thinking, ‘I’m in the air right now. I’m in the air.'"

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Soares was taken to Sturdy Memorial Hospital suffering from a broken knee, a broken foot, an injured eye socket and a serious head wound, according to WHDH.

Kwesiah was arrested on scene and charged with assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon resulting in serious injury, malicious destruction of property and driving without a license, according to the Attleboro Police Department. He is being held on $25,000 bail. 

Attleboro police Sgt. Kevin Sellers told WHDH the incident was "inappropriate and unacceptable conduct stemming from what was essentially a minor motor vehicle crash."

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Soares said she was just happy to survive the attack.

"He was just being a jerk--- on the road," she said in an interview with ABC-TV News. "I don’t know if he was having a bad day. I don’t know what that was, but if that’s the type of person he is, I don’t think he belongs in society with the rest of us."

A GoFundMe initiative for Soares' medical expenses had raised nearly $29,000 as of Tuesday afternoon.

In the 1942 film "Holiday Inn," legendary crooner Bing Crosby describes the stroke of midnight on New Year’s as "one minute to say goodbye before we say hello." In 2025, Americans in several states around the country are "saying hello" to many new laws and changes in tax codes.

In West Virginia, for example, residents saw an automatic 2% personal income tax cut taking effect on New Year's Day.

"If anybody says there’s something [else] that could drive more growth to West Virginia than that, you’re out of your mind," outgoing Republican governor and Sen.-elect Jim Justice quipped of that particular policy change.

However, other states’ residents may face more proverbially "draconian" policies and regulations. Here's a look at some of them.

"Congestion pricing"

The Empire State’s heavily-debated congestion pricing law will take effect on Sunday, Jan. 5. 

While Gov. Kathy Hochul and MTA Chair Janno Lieber have been supportive of the change, which charges the average driver crossing or entering Manhattan below Central Park a photo-enforced $9 toll, many New Yorkers remain outraged.

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"Congestion pricing, the latest in a long string of tyrannical taxes, has been pressed forward through consistent opposition about the burden on New York families and workers," several New York Republican federal lawmakers wrote in a December letter.

Meanwhile, Democrats like State Sen. Andrew Gounardes of Bay Ridge had urged the congestion-pricing plan to begin "immediately, before [Donald] Trump can block it."

Lather up

Visitors to one of the most popular tourism states in the country will no longer be welcomed by travel-sized shampoo and lotion bottles, as they will be prohibited come the New Year. 

The Empire State's ban took effect on Jan. 1, while a similar ban in Illinois goes into practice on July 1 for larger hotels and Jan. 1, 2026, for smaller ones.

While many hotels across the country have transitioned to affixing bulk shampoo dispensers into shower walls, many tourists still prefer the tiny bottles.

Tax hikes

California’s SB-951 of 2022 stipulated that workers will have slightly more money withheld from their paychecks in 2025. The state’s disability insurance program rate is to increase from 1.1% to 1.2%.

The average California worker will see $8 less per month in their net pay.

Gas prices

California Republicans estimated that new regulations taking effect in the New Year will cause "major sticker shock" for drivers in the Golden State.

"I’m concerned Californians will … be unprepared for the rapid gas spike in 2025, which could be an additional 90 cents per gallon," said state Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones.

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Jones estimated Californians will pay $900 more over the course of the year for gasoline.

Parental rights

AB-1955, or the SAFETY Act, took effect Jan. 1.

The law prohibits schools from enacting policies that require parental notification if their child changes their gender identity.

In December remarks to FOX-11, bill sponsor Assemblyman Chris Ward said "politically motivated attacks on the rights, safety, and dignity of transgender, nonbinary and other LGBTQ+ youth are on the rise nationwide, including in California."

Ward, D-San Diego, said school districts had wrongly adopted policies to "forcibly out" students and that parents should love their children unconditionally in all cases.

Immigrant health insurance coverage requirements

A 2022 bill relating to health insurance coverage for Coloradans regardless of immigration status will take effect next month, according to the Denver Post.

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HB-1289 requires the state to provide "full health insurance coverage for Colorado pregnant people who would be eligible for Medicaid and the children's basic health plan (CHIP) if not for their immigration status and continues that coverage for 12 months postpartum at the CHIP federal matching rate," according to the bill text.

Abortion

As of July 2025, Delaware colleges will be required to provide emergency abortion access and contraception or direct the patient to an external facility, according to the Wilmington News-Journal.

A law is also primed to take effect in the First State that mandates insurance coverage and eliminates deductibles for abortion procedures, according to multiple reports.

State Sen. Bryant Richardson, R-Blades, ripped the new law after it passed the legislature earlier in 2024.

"This is a procedure you want my tax dollars to pay for. I’m sorry, I think this is evil," he said.

Stop light

Washington, D.C., will institute a ban on right-turns-on-red within District boundaries. The law is a rare regulation in a blanket context, with New York City being one of the few other major cities with a similar law.

Signage denoting the otherwise tacit law is typically posted when entering New York City from highways like Major Deegan or one of the city's many river crossings, but it is often lacking on the hundreds of small streets on the grid that traverse into Westchester or Nassau Counties.

In the same vein, the District of Columbia reportedly lacks funding for signage on most of the streets entering the nation’s capital from Maryland or Virginia, which may or may not affect enforcement, according to reports.

The $385,000 in district funds allocated to notifying residents and drivers of the law was never identified, a DDOT official told WTTG.

Bird watch

D.C.’s Migratory Local Wildlife Protection Act of 2023 imposes a new building restriction as of Jan. 1.

Permit applications or glazing alterations will require bird-friendly materials on exterior walls and fenestration within 100 feet of grade level, according to WTTG.

The district is also one of a handful of places where the sales tax will see an increase. In the capital’s case, it will rise to 6.5%.

Firearms

Minnesota will institute a ban on "binary triggers" on personally owned weapons, according to reports. That is, the function that allows a gun to fire multiple rounds with one press of the trigger.

Vaping ban

The Ocean State is set to enact a ban on sales of and possession-with-intent-to-sell flavored vape products in 2025. The law is currently facing litigation but will be able to preliminarily go into effect, according to the Providence Journal.

Global warming

Vermont’s Global Warming Solutions Act, which initiates limits on greenhouse gas emissions, will take effect in the New Year.

It requires a 26% reduction in 2025 emissions reduction versus 2005 levels, according to the Vermont Public.

The law, however, also opens the state up to legal action from green groups and more if it fails to reach the required reduction level. 

That aspect led Republicans to question the new law. Gov. Phil Scott vetoed the bill in 2020, saying it does not propose or create a good framework for "long-term mitigation and adaptation solutions to address climate change."

Meanwhile, Vermont Republican Party Chair Paul Dame recently said it opens up the state and taxpayers’ money to undue risk from such lawsuits.

"These goals were unattainable given the currently available technology, but now the state is getting dragged in to court for completely avoidable reasons," Dame told Fox News Digital.

No coal in your stocking

Oregon’s HB-4083 will direct the state onto a path toward divesting in coal firms and market instruments that include coal interests.

The laws that weren't

With many states, like those above, enacting tax hikes, new regulations and the like, Republicans in states with divided government are expressing cautious optimism that their trend of bucking liberal legislative interests can continue.

While Vermont’s Scott has seen key vetoes like the Global Warming Solutions Act overridden by the Democrat-dominated legislature, some states have the opposite dynamic where a Republican-majority chamber stymies the goals of Democrats.

With the state Senate in Republican hands, the State House one vote short of a 50-50 split and the governorship held by Democrats, Republicans expressed relief that legislation such as a 100% carbon-neutral 2050 Clean Energy Standard did not make it to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s desk.

In the gun control realm, both an assault weapons ban and proposed repeal of the state Stand Your Ground Law drafted by state Sen. Steve Santarsiero, D-Bristol, died in the legislature.

"It is time we take an evidence-based approach to our gun policy. ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws encourage gun violence. As such, it is time that we repeal ‘Stand Your Ground’ here in Pennsylvania," Santarsiero said in a memo.

Another bill enacting a firearms "Red Flag Law" languished through the legislative term.

A policy that would fund cost-free telephone calls from state prisoners also did not make it through, as did a bid for an "abortion protection package."

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Those and several other top-line "draconian" bill failures are a product of GOP persistence, said state Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Gettysburg.

"With a Democrat governor and Democrat House, the state Senate is the last line of reason to prevent Pennsylvania from becoming like California," the 2022 Republican gubernatorial nominee told Fox News Digital on Monday.

"There has been a litany of extreme legislation coming from Democrats."

As chair of the Emergency Preparedness committee, Mastriano added that the "most egregious" no-pass in 2024 was legislation to address Pennsylvanian effects from the biohazardous East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment.

Mastriano, along with state Sens. Elder Vogel Jr., R-Beaver, and Michele Brooks, R-Pymatuning, drafted legislation in July to exempt disaster relief payments from state taxes in one case.

That bill did not make it out of the legislature.

Republicans in the state also lamented the failure of the latest effort to withdraw Pennsylvania from a national "RGGI" Greenhouse Gas pact entered into by former Gov. Tom Wolf.

"Leaving our environmental and economic destiny to the whims of RGGI’s New England states is just bad policy for Pennsylvania," State Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Williamsport, said after the Senate approved the eventually-failed bill.

"It is time to repeal this regulation and focus on putting forth commonsense, environmentally responsible energy policy that recognizes and champions Pennsylvania as an energy producer."

"Pennsylvania’s greatest asset is our ability to produce energy," State Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward, R-Latrobe, added in a statement.

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Minimum wage hikes are also primed to take effect in several states.

Washington, Connecticut and California are set to see $16 per hour or higher as the minimum wage for most workers. Rhode Island's will rise to $15, Maine's to $14.65, Illinois to $15 and Vermont will go to $14.

More than a dozen states, including Wyoming, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Utah, Tennessee and Mississippi, retain the federal minimum wage of $7.25.