Midwest
Trump admin approves waivers for 3 states to ban soda, other junk food from public food programs
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Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins signed waivers with three states on Tuesday, allowing them to prohibit participants of the government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) from buying junk food, like soda and candy, through the social welfare program.
Arkansas, Idaho and Utah became the latest states to obtain waivers from the federal government to begin banning junk food within the federally administered, but state-operated, public assistance program that provides food stamps to low-income individuals.
The three states have become the latest to obtain waivers from the Trump administration that allow states to restrict what type of food SNAP funds are eligible to be used on.
Other mostly GOP-led states, like Nebraska, Indiana and Iowa, have also obtained waivers to reform their SNAP programs. Last month, during a Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) event at the White House, Rollins indicated that several states were lining up to get the waivers.
NEBRASKA BECOMES FIRST STATE APPROVED TO BAN SODA PURCHASES WITH FOOD STAMPS
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, left, Idaho Gov. Brad Little and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (Getty Images)
“Since my confirmation, [the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)] has encouraged states to think differently and creatively about how to solve the many health issues facing Americans,” Rollins said at a press conference announcing the new waivers Tuesday afternoon. “One way is disallowing taxpayer-funded benefits to purchase unhealthy items, like soda, candy and other junk food.”
Tuesday’s waivers bring the total number of states that have moved to ban junk food from their SNAP programs to six. Rollins indicated several other states, including Colorado, Kansas, West Virginia, Texas, Ohio, Florida and Louisiana, are also working through procedural steps in hopes of getting waivers approved.
On average, 42 million low-income Americans receive food-stamp assistance each month, according to a Make America Healthy Again report released last month. (Getty Images)
WEST VIRGINIA PASSES FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND LAW BANNING FOOD DYES AND PRESERVATIVES; GOV CITES MAHA MOVEMENT
Texas, however, may not even need the waiver after its legislature passed Senate Bill 379 during the last week of its legislative session that ended on June 2. The new bill, which prohibits SNAP participants in the state from using the public assistance program to buy junk food, is expected to be signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, especially after he wrote a letter to Rollins in May seeking a USDA waiver.
“The Trump Administration is unified in improving the health of our nation. America’s governors have proudly answered the call to innovate by improving nutrition programs, ensuring better choices while respecting the generosity of the American taxpayer,” Rollins added Tuesday. “Each waiver submitted by the states and signed is yet another step closer to fulfilling President [Donald] Trump’s promise to Make America Healthy Again.”
Brooke Rollins (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
On average, 42 million low-income Americans receive food-stamp assistance each month, according to the MAHA report released last month. It added that one-in-five American children under 17 receive SNAP benefits.
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Midwest
Trump turns up the heat on red-state Republicans blocking new congressional maps
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President Donald Trump and allied groups are turning up the heat on Indiana Republican state senators who are resisting the president’s push for the red state to pass congressional redistricting.
The Indiana Senate reconvened on Monday, three days after the state House approved a new map championed by Trump that would create two more right-leaning congressional districts in the solidly red Midwestern state, where the GOP currently controls seven of Indiana’s nine U.S. House seats.
The action in Indiana comes after the Supreme Court last week cleared the way for GOP-dominated Texas to use its newly redrawn map, which creates five more right-leaning House seats.
And it marks the latest front in Trump’s aggressive national campaign to reshape congressional districts ahead of the 2026 midterms, when Republicans will likely face traditional political headwinds as they defend their razor-thin House majority.
BIG WIN FOR TRUMP AS SUPREME COURT GREENLIGHTS TEXAS’ NEW CONGRESSIONAL MAP
The GOP-controlled Indiana House, meeting in the Statehouse — seen in a file photo from 2017 — on Friday passed along party lines a congressional redistricting plan pushed by President Donald Trump. (Michael Conroy/AP Photo)
While the super majority in the Indiana House passed redistricting 57-41, with a dozen GOP lawmakers voting against the measure, the stakes are much higher this week, as the Republican-dominated state Senate, which has resisted Trump’s efforts to draw new congressional maps, meets to vote later in the week on the redistricting bill passed by the state House.
Indiana Senate Republican leader Rodric Bray has repeatedly said there wasn’t enough support in the chamber to move forward with redistricting. The state Senate split 19-19 last month in a proxy vote.
RED STATE MOVES FORWARD ON TRUMP CHAMPIONED CONGRESSIONAL MAPS
“A RINO State Senator, Rodric Bray, who doesn’t care about keeping the Majority in the House in D.C., is the primary problem. Soon, he will have a Primary Problem, as will any other politician who supports him in this stupidity,” Trump warned in a recent social media post.
Bray, in announcing that the state Senate would reconvene to take action on redistricting, said “the issue of redrawing Indiana’s congressional maps mid-cycle has received a lot of attention and is causing strife here in our state.”
A final vote by the state Senate is likely on Thursday.
President Donald Trump, seen pointing at the White House on Oct. 10, 2025, is targeting Indiana Republican lawmakers who are not supportive of his congressional redistricting push. (Kent Nishimura/Reuters)
Trump has been twisting elbows in his attempt to make Indiana the latest Republican-controlled state to change their congressional maps. The president has called state lawmakers and Vice President JD Vance visited the state twice earlier this autumn to discuss redistricting.
Trump this weekend took to social media twice to keep up the pressure.
TRUMP TARGETS RED STATE REPUBLICAN LAWMAKERS IN PUSH FOR CONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING
“Why would a REAL Republican vote against this when the Dems have been doing it for years??? If they stupidly say no, vote them out of office — They are not worthy — And I will be there to help! Thank you Indiana!” he warned.
And in a separate post, Trump highlighted nine state Senate Republicans who have yet to announce their position on the new map, saying they “need encouragement to make the right decision.” The president added, “The Indiana Senate must now pass this Map, AS IS, and get it to Governor Mike Braun’s desk, ASAP, to deliver a gigantic Victory for Republicans in the “Hoosier State,” and across the Country.”
Trump has also taken some jabs at Braun, arguing that the governor “perhaps, is not working the way he should to get the necessary Votes.”
HOUSE GOP CAMPAIGN CHAIR WANTS TRUMP ‘OUT THERE ON THE TRAIL’ IN MIDTERM BATTLE FOR MAJORITY
While Trump recently called Braun “a good man,” he has warned he “must produce on this, or he will be the only Governor, Republican or Democrat, who didn’t.”
But Braun, pointing to the president, has touted that he is “committed to standing with him on the critical issue of passing fair maps in Indiana to ensure the MAGA agenda is successful in Congress.”
Indiana Gov. Mike Braun, seen speaking during a press conference on Oct. 30, 2025, supports President Donald Trump’s push for congressional redistricting. (Michael Gard/Post-Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, the Trump-aligned conservative outside political group the Club for Growth Action and other groups have dished out big bucks to run ads in Indiana supporting redistricting, and along with Turning Point Action, will target Republican state lawmakers opposed to the new map.
Club for Growth President David McIntosh sent out a “FINAL WARNING” to Bray, warning that “failure to get this done means you and any other opposition will be defeated and removed from office in your next election.”
And Turning Point Action on Friday held a rally at the state Capitol, where Braun spoke, to put pressure on Indiana Senate Republicans to support redistricting.
“This is a super high priority, and we’re going to be working with the local, grassroots to make sure their voices heard, and their priorities are not steamrolled by an out-of-touch elected class,” Turning Point spokesman Andrew Kolvet told Fox News Digital.
The push by the president in Indiana is part of a broad effort by Trump’s political team and the GOP to pad the party’s razor-thin House majority ahead of the midterms, when the party in power traditionally loses seats.
TRUMP-BACKED NORTH CAROLINA HOUSE MAP APPROVED BY LAWMAKERS AS REPUBLICANS AIM TO PICK UP SEAT
“We must keep the Majority at all costs,” the president wrote recently.
Trump, by championing rare but not unheard of mid-decade redistricting, is aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterm elections.
Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio have drawn new maps as part of the president’s push. State lawmakers in GOP-dominated Florida this week took the first steps towards passing a redistricting measure, and right-leaning Kansas is also mulling redrawing its map.
Two federal judges in Texas last month delivered a blow to Trump and Republicans, by ruling that the state couldn’t use the newly drawn map in next year’s elections. But the Supreme Court on Thursday gave a big thumbs up to the Lone Star State’s new congressional map.
Democrats are fighting back.
California voters a month ago overwhelmingly passed Proposition 50, a ballot initiative which will temporarily sidetrack the left-leaning state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission and return the power to draw the congressional maps to the Democrat-dominated legislature.
That is expected to result in five more Democratic-leaning congressional districts in California, which would counter the passage earlier this year in Texas of a new map that aims to create up to five right-leaning House seats.
Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during an election night press conference at a California Democratic Party office Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Sacramento. (Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP Photo)
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is considered a likely 2028 Democratic presidential contender, steered his state’s push for redistricting.
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Illinois and Maryland, two blue states, and Virginia, where Democrats control the legislature, are also taking steps or seriously considering redistricting.
And in a blow to Republicans, a Utah district judge last month rejected a congressional district map drawn up by the state’s GOP-dominated legislature and instead approved an alternate that will create a Democratic-leaning district ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
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Detroit, MI
Detroit family’s home damaged, Christmas gifts lost after fire spreads from vacant house
DETROIT – Detroit fire officials are investigating multiple house fires that broke out Tuesday morning, including a blaze that destroyed two vacant homes and damaged one family’s home on Dwyer Street.
The fire started around 1 a.m. in a vacant house, leveling it before spreading to a neighboring vacant property and then damaging the home of Joel Whitner and his family.
Whitner described how his family woke up to the sound of neighbors pounding on their door.
“When we walked out the door, the wind gusts and the fire just kind of like blew us back,” Whitner said, describing the intensity of the blaze.
The family’s home has significant damage, including water damage throughout the interior and damage to the roof.
The family lost Christmas gifts, furniture, and clothing in the fire.
A GoFundMe has been started to help support the family.
In a separate incident around 3 a.m., firefighters responded to another residential fire on Ashland Street, where a family of 15 evacuated safely after a space heater caught fire in an upstairs bedroom and spread to the attic.
“I grabbed my fire extinguisher, and I started spraying it right there, and that made it go up more, so I ran to the attic and started spraying in the attic,” said Jerome Hill. “Keep a fire extinguisher by your bed because if I didn’t have that by my bed, there’s no telling what would’ve happened.”
It comes after a house fire that killed a 6-year-old girl on Sunday (Dec. 14) and another fire that killed three on Monday.
Fire officials say space heaters are responsible for four out of five home heating-related fire deaths.
The Detroit Fire Department is reminding families of home heating safety tips.
Captain Edward Davis emphasized the importance of having a safety plan in place in case of an emergency.
“You want to create a fire safety plan for your home in the event of an emergency,” Davis said. “What are two ways to get out of the room, out of the home – where are our families meeting up? How do we alert other members in the home?”
The department’s safety guidelines for space heaters include:
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Place heaters on flat, stable surfaces
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Keep heaters at least three feet away from combustible items
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Plug heaters directly into wall outlets
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Turn off heaters when leaving rooms or going to sleep
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Keep heaters clear of walkways and exits
The department is also reminding families of important carbon monoxide safety tips:
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Install carbon monoxide alarms low to the ground, near gas furnaces, dryers, or heaters.
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Test CO detectors monthly and replace them every five to seven years.
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Avoid using a stove, oven, or grill as a heat source.
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Keep gas and charcoal grills outdoors only—never in garages or enclosed spaces.
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Hire only qualified professionals to inspect or repair heating systems, fireplaces, and chimneys.
Copyright 2025 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit – All rights reserved.
Milwaukee, WI
Milwaukee woman claims predatory towing left her with hundreds in fees after apartment complex confusion
MILWAUKEE — A Milwaukee woman says she has been without her car for almost a week after what she claims was an unfair towing incident from an apartment complex, leaving her with a $400 bill.
“It’s been pretty terrible,” Pappalardo said.
Brendyn Jones/TMJ4
Ashley Pappalardo’s car was towed from the Parkview Apartment lot near Silver Spring and Highway 100 on Thursday morning. Her sister was driving the vehicle at the time and says there was confusion about where to park due to different property ownership.
According to Department of Revenue records, the building had just been sold to new ownership that same day. A sign posted near the entrance warns that non-residents will be towed.
Watch: Milwaukee woman claims predatory towing left her with hundreds in fees
Milwaukee woman claims predatory towing left her with hundreds in fees after apartment complex confusion
Pappalardo said that during conversations with the new management, they told her the towing shouldn’t have happened.
“She says we called and put any operations from them on hold until we can review a contract,” Pappalardo said. “I asked, ‘So they didn’t have any right to be on the property?’ She said no.”
Pappalardo says Brew City Towing and Recovery, which towed the vehicle, also confirmed to her that operations had been put on hold.
TMJ4 reporter Brendyn Jones attempted to speak to the property manager to clear up the confusion, but received no answer.
A sign indicated the office was closed because of new ownership. When Jones called the posted number and spoke with an Appleton Rental Homes representative, she declined to answer whether there was an active contract with Brew City and denied an interview request, saying Pappalardo should pay the fine.
At Brew City Towing, a worker instructed TMJ4 to call the office, but the voicemail box was full. Jones reached out to Brew City over the phone and by text, but received no answer from the people who have the car.
Pappalardo went to the police, who she said told her a small claims report might be her next step.
“Anyone who’s been in that civil lawsuit process understands it’s an incredibly long and grueling process for very little outcome,” Pappalardo said.
For now, she’s out of luck, hoping Brew City compromises.
This story was reported on-air by Brendyn Jones and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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