Midwest
Leaked University of Illinois lecture material blames Trump for ‘White supremacy,’ embraces far-left activism
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Leaked PowerPoint lessons from a first-year education course at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign show extreme left-wing bias on the topic of illegal immigration, as well as race and gender.
Fox News Digital obtained slides of EDUC 201, an education course for first semester students titled “Identity and Difference in Education,” from a student whistleblower.
The lesson from week 15 was called “Living in Uncertainty: Understanding Immigrant, Migrant, & Refugee Student Populations,” containing 25 slides promoting leftist talking points on immigration. The course is taught by professor Gabriel Rodriguez in the school’s college of education.
The first slide features a photo of a person holding a sign at a demonstration that reads, “No human being is illegal.”
A slide from a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign lecture from December 2025 features a poster of an activist holding a sign that reads, “No human being is illegal.” (Obtained by Fox News Digital)
The fifth slide is called “Language Matters,” and polices students’ language about immigration and immigrants.
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“Embrace using humanizing language when talking about immigrant communities that don’t have documentation – consider using the language of ‘undocumented,’” the slide says.
“Using terms like ‘illegal immigrants,’ ‘illegal aliens,’ or ‘illegals’” is harmful, the slide says, explaining that using those terms is “dehumanizing and degrading,” that they reinforce existing negative stereotypes about immigrant communities and connect immigration with criminality, that they fuel perspectives that immigrants have no rights and that they facilitate “scapegoating communities for larger systemic issues.”
Explaining the difference between immigrants and refugees, the presentation insists, without making the distinction between illegal and legal immigrants, that, “Immigrants migrate to pursue better opportunities (e.g., work, education).” Refugees flee other countries to avoid “persecution, conflict, or violence.”
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A slide from a December 2025 lecture at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign defines “key terms” related to immigration. (Obtained by Fox News Digital)
Citing PBS News, the presentation makes the dubious claim that there are only 13.7 million illegal aliens present in the United States.
“Between 2007-2019, number of undocumented immigrants held steady at around 11 million, but since then the numbers have increased by almost 3 million,” one slide says.
A 2018 Yale study concluded that, using an “extremely conservative model,” there are between 16 million and 29 million illegal aliens in the United States, with the mean resting at 22.1 million. Those numbers were calculated before the four-year Biden administration, which was known for its open borders policy.
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The presentation includes a slide titled, “Shifting Support for Immigrant/Refugee Student Populations in Schools,” and compiles headlines about the negative academic impacts of stricter immigration policies. The slide reinforces that the anti-immigrant/refugee climate increases discriminatory practices, makes students feel unsafe and increases absenteeism, among other negative ramifications.
A slide from a December 2025 lecture at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign shows headlines that suggest support for illegal immigration. (Obtained by Fox News Digital)
Slide 17 of the presentation features a study co-authored by Rodriguez, called, “‘This is What I go Through:’ Latinx Youth Facultades in Suburban Schools in the Era of Trump.” Rodriguez’s study examined reactions from 11 “Latinx youth” in predominantly White suburbs.
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A screenshot of his study references “White supremacy and xenophobia brought on by … Trump.”
On the same slide, Rodriguez quotes one of his own study subjects, Jose, an illegal alien who is worried about being deported.
“I can’t think of any other time when my grades have mattered the most than after this election,” says Jose’s quote. “If anything happens to me at least I have good grades, [to] build on my case. Maybe if I’m excellent they won’t kick me out. The fear is so real. Right now, we don’t know what’s going to happen. My parents tell me, ‘Do well in school.’ So really, I’m worth a grade right now. I want to excel in academics. Hopefully, I’m one of the good ones.”
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A slide from a December 2025 lecture at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign features the professor’s paper slamming Trump for “White supremacy” and “xenophobia.” (Obtained by Fox News Digital)
Further slides instruct students on how to deal with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in a school setting.
A student in the class, who spoke with Fox News Digital on the condition of anonymity, said that these lessons aren’t just suggestions for how to teach future students.
“So in the lectures, my professor would constantly say, ‘you as educators, you as future educators, you need to do this, you need to know this,’” the student said. “That’s one thing that he says, just over and over, like ‘we as future educators,’ kind of reminding us like, oh, we need to use this when we go to teach later on.”
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Fox News Digital also obtained slides from week 8 of the education course, which focused on the implicit meanings of silence in the classroom, and how sometimes silence is the result of racial or sex-based discrimination.
One such example is “Internalized Oppression,” defined as “assumed racial inferiority on the part of people of color.”
“Let’s think about how students with minoritized identities (e.g., race, gender, sexuality) are silenced by peers and educators,” one slide says.
Silence can be a survival and resistance method, according to the presentation.
A University of Illinois entry sign in Champaign, Illinois. The University of Illinois is a state university in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. It offers teaching and research programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels to over 56,000 students. (Don and Melinda Crawford/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
“Let’s think about how students, particularly those with minoritized identities use their agency by turning to silence to resist contexts they perceive to be harmful to their identities and sense of community,” one slide said.
The following slides featured anecdotes from people described as high school students. The source of the anecdotes is unclear, and Rodriguez did not respond to a comment request seeking clarification.
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One relays the story of someone named Joaquín, billed as a senior in high school, who reported that people ignored him when he gave his opinion, and suggested that his race played a factor in the ignoral.
“Joaquín’s decision is calculated, as he preferred to be quiet, rather than continue to subject himself to being ignored and dismissed,” was the takeaway from Joaquín’s story.
A slide from an October 2025 education course at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign attributes a student’s silence to racial animus. (Obtained by Fox News Digital)
More slides featured anecdotes about racism.
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“During Lissette’s AP English class, she sat at her desk and took notes as she listened to the teacher review the agenda for the day. Students were reading The Great Gatsby and got in small groups to tackle discussion questions. Lissette was in a group with three female students and started the conversation by beginning to suggest how they should go about answering the discussion questions listed on their handout,” one anecdote from a slide called “Group Work Gone Awry” said.
“Lissette did not finish making her suggestion as she was quickly cut off by one of her white peers who suggested to the group that they should read portions of the text out loud first before proceeding to answer the discussion questions. The two white students in the group delegated tasks to Lissette and Marie, a female Asian student in the group. Throughout their group work, Lissette’s white classmates took time to socialize and not include her and Marie.”
“This conversation highlights that even when Latine youth did want to verbally participate and take the lead, as in this small group conversation, white youth often did not let them,” the next slide explains. (“Latine” is a gender-neutral term used in place of “Latino” or “Latina”).
In response to this, the student whistleblower from whom Fox News Digital obtained the lecture slides quipped that they were quiet in school growing up, not because of racism or sexism, but simply because of their personality.
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Silence can also be caused by factors like gender.
One anecdote, attributed to a high school senior named Clarissa, claims that a male classmate named Michael receives all the credit for the ideas that were conceived together.
“But it is definitely why there are less women in leadership because – I could only handle it for a few months, and then I was like, ‘I don’t wanna do this anymore,’” Clarissa concludes.
The presentation also covered “microagressions,” defined as “everyday, verbal, nonverbal slights, snubs, or insults regardless of intent that sends a hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their minoritized group membership” — and “stereotype threat,” defined as, “socially premised psychological threat that arises when one is in a situation or doing something for which a negative stereotype about one’s group applies.”
An October 2025 lecture from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign defines “microaggressions.” (Obtained by Fox News Digital)
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“So it’s very much like, ‘these are the ideas you need to have,’ and it’s kind of interesting to me too, because this class was required and this is like one of the first education classes I’m taking,” the education student told Fox News Digital.
“And so far, I haven’t actually learned anything for education about, like, how to set up a classroom, what methods work best with kids for learning — just like basic curriculum that kids are going to be taught, like math and science. There’s nothing of that that I’ve been taught, like this is the first thing.”
The University of Illinois did not return a request for comment.
Click here to view the week 15 slides:
Click here to view the week eight slides:
Read the full article from Here
Midwest
Ilhan Omar defends MEALS Act despite ties to massive Minnesota fraud scheme
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Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., said she has no regrets about supporting the MEALS Act during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the program becoming linked to Minnesota’s alleged $250 million “Feeding Our Future” fraud scheme.
“Do you regret pushing for that bill, the MEALS Act? Do you think it led to the fraud?” Nicholas Ballasy for Fox News Digital asked Omar on Capitol Hill.
“Absolutely not, it did help feed kids,” Omar said.
Omar introduced the MEALS Act on March 11, 2020, to modify the Department of Agriculture’s food and nutrition programs to allow certain waivers on requirements for school meal programs, including those that raised federal costs during school closures related to the pandemic.
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Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., said she has “absolutely” no regrets about the 2020 MEALS Act, because “it did help feed kids.” (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Minnesota has faced scrutiny for alleged mismanagement of federal funds accessed through these waivers, including in distributing money for the “Feeding Our Future” program, which authorities believe to be the largest fraud scheme in the history of the pandemic.
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The scheme allegedly exploited the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s decision to waive many of its standard requirements for the Federal Child Nutrition Program during the pandemic, including relaxing its requirement for non-school-based distributors to participate in the program.
Fox News Digital first reported on the status of the fraud in July. FBI Director Kash Patel described it at the time as “one of the worst” in Minnesota history — and as of November 2025, more than 75 individuals have been charged in connection with the scheme, according to federal prosecutors.
President Donald Trump has recently announced a flurry of new actions to crack down and investigate fraud schemes in Minnesota, which he has assailed as a “hub of money laundering activity,” and cited as the basis of his decision to terminate deportation protections for hundreds of Somali migrants.
Minnesota’s Speaker of the House, Republican Lisa Demuth, speaks during a press conference in the governor’s reception room at the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul, Minn., Thursday, May 15, 2025. (Jerry Holt/The Minnesota Star Tribune via Getty Images)
Senior Trump administration officials announced fresh investigations this month, including a new Treasury Department probe into how taxpayer dollars were allegedly diverted to the terrorist organization al-Shabaab, according to Secretary Scott Bessent.
Trump and other officials have zeroed in on these alleged fraud schemes, arguing that the criminal activity is a result of mismanagement and “incompetence” from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat and former vice presidential candidate.
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“It’s not surprising that the president has chosen to broadly target an entire community,” Walz said of Trump’s efforts, adding, “This is what he does to change the subject.”
Conspirators falsely claimed to have served millions of meals during the pandemic, but instead used the money for personal gain. They also are accused of fabricating invoices, submitting fake attendance records and falsely distributing thousands of meals from hundreds of so-called food distribution “sites” across the state.
Some of the individuals are part of Minnesota’s Somali diaspora, which is the largest in the U.S., though the ringleader of the scheme is not.
“Stealing from the federal government equates to stealing from the American people — there is no simpler truth,” FBI’s special agent in charge, Alvin Winston, told Fox News Digital in a statement.
The sun shines on the Minnesota State Capitol on Monday, Feb. 12, 2024, in St. Paul, Minnesota. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski)
Charging documents show that roughly 300 “food sites” in the state served little or no food, with the so-called “food vendors” and organizations fabricated to launder money intended to reimburse the cost of feeding children.
FBI officials told Fox News that the investigation and resulting trials and indictments continue to impact the state, and have already touched off legislative reform in Minnesota.
They added that the investigation into the fraud remains ongoing, and that additional charges are expected, though they did not immediately share more details.
“The egregious fraud unveiled in the Feeding our Future case epitomizes a profound betrayal of public trust,” Patel told Fox News Digital earlier this year.
“These individuals misappropriated hundreds of millions in federal funds intended to nourish vulnerable children during a time of crisis, redirecting those resources into luxury homes, high-end vehicles and extravagant lifestyles while families faced hardship,” he added.
President Donald Trump speaks during a roundtable in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. ( Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump suggested earlier this month that Omar, who fled Somalia as a child, “shouldn’t be allowed to be a congresswoman,” prompting fierce backlash from some Democrats and from Minnesota’s congressional delegation.
Omar, for her part, said Trump’s remarks were “vile.”
“His obsession with me is creepy,” she said on social media. “I hope he gets the help he desperately needs.”
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Ballasy later pressed Omar about another incident dominating headlines.
“Congresswoman, the ICE director is saying now that your son was not pulled over by ICE. He’s saying there’s no evidence,” Ballasy said to Omar on Capitol Hill.
The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rejected a viral claim from Omar that her son was pressed for proof of U.S. citizenship by agency personnel after stopping at a Minnesota Target over the weekend.
Omar had told CBS’ Twin Cities affiliate that her son was subjected to a traffic stop-type encounter by ICE agents but was ultimately let go without further issue after he was able to produce a U.S. passport or passport card.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons speaking at a press conference at the John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse in Boston on June 2. (Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons pushed back on the assertion on Tuesday, telling Fox News Digital the incident never happened.
“How do they know that?” Omar countered. “How do they know that? Is he saying he has documentations of all the people they pulled over? Because we’ve been asking for that information. We haven’t gotten it from them, so if ICE is confirming now that they collect data and refusing to provide it to members of Congress, then that’s an interesting admission.”
“ICE has absolutely zero record of its officers or agents pulling over Congresswoman Omar’s son,” Lyons said.
“It speaks volumes that Congresswoman Omar is leveling this accusation with absolutely zero proof.”
Lyons called Omar’s comments to the local outlet a “ridiculous effort” to demonize federal law enforcement. He also said her rhetoric contributes to a spike in threats against ICE personnel, citing a 1,150% increase in assaults and an 8,000% increase in death threats.
When asked to respond to Lyons’ comment, Omar told Ballasy, “Well, their crackdown has terrorized my community, so they need to stop.”
Read the full article from Here
Detroit, MI
Car Radio, Season 6, Podcast 267: 2025 Detroit News Vehicle of the Year
Car Radio 910AM-Detroit: Podcast, December 23, 2025
Host: Henry Payne, Auto columnist, The Detroit News
Car shoppers had plenty of choices in 2025 as auto grocery shelves were teeming with goods. At The Detroit News, we’re biased towards value, style, innovation, and performance – and we choose our Vehicle of the Year accordingly. As Detroit News auto critic, I tested 59 new cars this year from the compact, $24,000 Nissan Sentra gas-sipper to the posh, $82,000 Lucid Gravity EV. For Vehicle of the Year, I reduced that list to three finalists: Mazda CX-30, Chevy Corvette ZR1, Dodge Charger SIXpack. 2 min. Originally aired December 23, 2025 on the Auto Report, 910AM-Detroit WFDF
Milwaukee, WI
Milwaukee shooting Thursday, 1 wounded near 51st and Center
Milwaukee Police Department (MPD)
MILWAUKEE – One person was shot and wounded on Milwaukee’s north side Thursday, Dec. 25.
51st and Center
What we know:
A 39-year-old victim was shot around noon. Police said the victim went to a hospital for treatment and is expected to survive.
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What we don’t know:
What led to the shooting remains under investigation. Police are looking for whoever is responsible.
MPD tips
What you can do:
Anyone with information is asked to call MPD at 414-935-7360; to remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 414-224-TIPS or use the P3 tips app.
The Source: The Milwaukee Police Department released information.
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