A top Team Trump official disclosed the moment that “really set the campaign on a trajectory to victory” – the day President-elect Donald Trump arrived in Columbiana County, Ohio, to survey the East Palestine train derailment.
“The ripples from that day do not get enough attention,” White House communications director-designate Steven Cheung said on X, formerly Twitter, in retweeting an op-ed making that assertion.
In February 2023, a Norfolk-Southern train hauling caustic industrial chemicals – including vinyl chloride – derailed in a small community near the Pennsylvania border, causing immediate chaos and long-lasting, widespread damage to the region.
A controlled burn held shortly after the derailment released toxic phosgene into the air.
WHISTLEBLOWER ALLEGES MISTAKES IN INITIAL EAST PALESTINE DISASTER RESPONSE
Steven Cheung (inset) and Donald Trump. (Getty)
On February 23 – Ash Wednesday – Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, hosted Trump at the site, where the former and future president highlighted Americans “forgotten” by President Joe Biden – who had not yet shown up and would not visit for several more months.
The Republican mogul handed out “Trump”-branded water and met with local officials. Meanwhile, officials in both Ohio and Pennsylvania were also visibly working to hold the railroad accountable.
In his tweet, Cheung was responding to an op-ed by Pittsburgh-based Washington Examiner writer Selina Zito, who covered the crisis at the time.
Zito wrote that Trump’s arrival had happened at a political nadir for the Republican, following the 2022 midterm losses and amid a then-close presidential primary race with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
She noted in a tweet that it was Vance – his future running mate – who brought him to the site.
Trump’s mantra of “you are not forgotten” to Rust Belt residents too often forgotten by Washington helped change minds in the area, Zito wrote, quoting a local resident who said she had “switched parties because of the way he spoke directly to the concerns.”
“I have voted for him both times since then,” the woman, who owns an East Palestine farm, said.
TRUMP VISITS EAST PALESTINE, HANDS OUT TRUMP-WATER: ‘WE STAND WITH YOU’
Former President Donald Trump, with Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, departs after greeting supporters and touring water pumps at Little Beaver Creek during a visit to East Palestine, Ohio. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty)
Trump told residents that day that “in too many cases, your goodness and perseverance were met with indifference and betrayal.”
The disparity between Trump’s eagerness to “show up” and Biden’s apparent putting-off of a visit to East Palestine helped turn the tide in the Republican’s favor, the column continued.
“100%,” Cheung wrote in his tweet.
Trump’s former running mate, Mike Pence, also called out Biden at the time, saying he was “AWOL” and remarking to Fox News that the Delaware Democrat’s policies had “derailed the economy of East Palestine long before that train came through.”
On the Pennsylvania side of the line, both Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro and his then-former gubernatorial opponent, state Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Gettysburg, also responded quickly to the derailment.
Shapiro lodged a criminal referral at the time, and Mastriano led hearings that hosted affected residents along the Ohio border wherein Norfolk-Southern CEO Alan Shaw notably no-showed.
“It is very disheartening to hear that these alleged delays and botched response approaches took place – especially since those in East Palestine, Ohio, and areas in my district here in Pennsylvania have been dealing with the aftermath of this derailment for over a year now,” state Sen. Elder Vogel Jr. told Fox News Digital at the time, after a whistleblower had spoken out about alleged mistakes from Biden’s EPA response – which the agency disputed.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday said it would take up a new religious rights case over whether a Catholic charitable organization must pay Wisconsin’s employment tax.
The justices will review a divided state Supreme Court ruling that refused to grant an exemption to the Catholic Charities Bureau, based in Superior, Wisconsin. The state court ruled that the work of Catholic Charities and four related organizations is primarily not religious, although it found that the motivation to help older, disabled and low-income people stems from Catholic teachings.
The case probably will be argued in the spring.
The Supreme Court in recent years has issued an unbroken string of decisions siding with churches and religious plaintiffs in disputes with states.
Lawyers for the Wisconsin groups argued to the court that the decision violates religious freedoms protected by the First Amendment. They also said the court should step in to resolve conflicting rulings by several top state courts on the same issue.
“Wisconsin is trying to make sure no good deed goes unpunished. Penalizing Catholic Charities for serving Catholics and non-Catholics alike is ridiculous and wrong,” Eric Rassbach, the lead lawyer for Catholic Charities at the Supreme Court, said in a statement.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Wisconsin Attorney General Joshua Kaul had urged the high court to stay out of the case, arguing that much of the groups’ funding comes from state and local governments, and the joint federal and state Medicaid program.
Employees don’t have to be Catholic and “people receiving services from these organizations receive no religious training or orientation,” Kaul wrote.
Catholic Charities has paid the unemployment tax since 1972, he wrote.
Wisconsin exempts church-controlled organizations from the tax if they are “operated primarily for religious purposes.” The state high court ruled that both the motivations and the activities have to be religious for organizations to avoid paying the tax.
A group of religious scholars, backing Catholic Charities, told the court that “the case involves governmental interference with religious liberty” that warrants the justices’ intervention.
Catholic, Islamic, Lutheran, Jewish and Mormon organizations also filed briefs in support of Catholic Charities.
At the state Supreme Court, the Freedom from Religion Foundation argued that a ruling for Catholic Charities would extend to religiously affiliated hospitals and some colleges across Wisconsin, potentially taking their employees out of the state unemployment insurance system.
Catholic Charities in Superior manages nonprofit organizations that run more than 60 programs designed to help older or disabled people, children with special needs, low-income families, and people suffering from disasters, regardless of their religion, according to court documents.
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A Milwaukee firefighter and his brother are accused of severely beating a man who entered their home last week. Court records show the victim is now charged with burglary – and has a history of breaking into homes.
MILWAUKEE – Prosecutors said a Milwaukee firefighter and his brother severely beat a man who entered their home last week. On Friday, the district attorney’s office charged the man who was beaten with burglary – and he has a history of breaking into homes.
Jalon Nutt, 27, is charged with one count of felony burglary, and court records show a warrant was issued for his arrest. Online records also show he’s currently in Department of Corrections custody.
Nutt was released on extended supervision last month. In 2022, he was convicted in two separate cases of breaking into homes – including one where he was found in a woman’s bedroom. He also has several convictions in Dane County.
Ty Dright-Jackson; Tramel Dright
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Nutt’s mother wasn’t available to speak to FOX6 on camera, but said: “You’re here to protect the community, and save lives, but you almost took a life.”
FOX6 asked the mother about her son’s criminal past and burglary convictions. She said it crossed her mind, but “you still don’t almost take a person’s life.”
Prosecutors charged 33-year-old Tramel Dright and 37-year-old Ty Dright-Jackson with first-degree reckless injury in the case. Dright-Jackson is a Milwaukee firefighter.
It happened near 31st and Juneau early on Dec. 4. Police call records said the caller reported a man came into their home and was standing over them while they were sleeping.
The two brothers were able to chase the 27-year-old man down and detain him, but prosecutors said video tells a different story.
According to court filings, the brothers violently beat the man in the alley – some of it caught on nearby surveillance cameras – and then dragged the man back toward their house, hitting him with a baseball bat and forcing the man to crawl on his hands and knees back into the home.
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Court filings said the victim has a broken nose, cracked teeth and multiple cuts to the face that required stitches – and was at one point intubated at the hospital.
Statement from Attorney Craig Mastantuono:
Ty Dright-Jackson is a 37-year-old firefighter, husband and parent who has no criminal record. He and his brother Tramel responded to a forced entry to their family home as any homeowner and citizen would – to defend themselves and their children. The man who came into their home was not an “uninvited person” as described by the DA – he was a stranger and an intruder who broke in. Their response to that threat is now being labeled a crime by the DA. Mr. Dright-Jackson disputes that description of the events that occurred that night and will respond in court.
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