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Georgia DA Fani Willis promised not to date coworkers in 2020

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Georgia DA Fani Willis promised not to date coworkers in 2020

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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis promised voters in 2020 not to date any of her subordinates, according to newly unearthed footage.

The footage, first reported by the Washington Free Beacon, shows Willis saying it would be “inappropriate” for her to have a relationship with one of her staffers. Willis is now being accused of an improper relationship with one of her prosecutors, whom she is also accused of overpaying.

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“I will certainly not be choosing to date people that work under me,” Willis said on the “The Patricia Crayton Show” in April 2020.

“We are at a place in society where things happen in people’s relationships – husbands and wives sometimes, there are outside relationships. I don’t think that that’s what the community is concerned about. Although there might be a moral breaking in that,” she continued.

GEORGIA DA FANI WILLIS SHOULD RESIGN FROM TRUMP CASE OVER ‘IMPROPER’ RELATIONSHIP ACCUSATION: EX-U.S. ATTORNEY

Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis, who brought charges against former President Donald Trump on election interference, is taking heat from all sides. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)

“I think that what citizens are really, really concerned about is if you chose to have inappropriate contact with employees,” she continued. “There’s nothing I can say on it other than that it is distracting, it is certainly inappropriate for the No. 1 law officer in this state, and it really, really saddens me.”

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Willis is now being accused of having an improper romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she appointed to prosecute the election interference case against former President Donald Trump.

GEORGIA DA FANI WILLIS CLAIMS ‘IMPROPER’ RELATIONSHIP ACCUSATIONS ARE BASED ON RACE

She is accused of overpaying the prosecutor and benefiting from the relationship in the form of lavish vacations she went on with Wade, paid for by his salary.

Willis is now being accused of having an improper romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she appointed to prosecute the election interference case against former President Trump. (Elijah Nouvelage/The Washington Post via AP, Pool)

Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee scheduled a hearing on the accusations for Feb. 15.

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TOP TRUMP PROSECUTOR, GEORGIA DA ALLEGED TO BE IN ‘IMPROPER’ ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP: COURT FILING

Willis has not confirmed or denied the claim, but she suggested she and Wade are being scrutinized because they are Black.

District Attorney Fani Willis has suggested that people are only scrutinizing her relationship with Nathan Wade because they are Black. (Getty Images)

Willis spoke about the matter for the first time on Sunday at the Big Bethel AME Church in Atlanta.

“They only attacked one,” she said. “First thing they say, ‘Oh, she’s gonna play the race card now.’

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“But no God, isn’t it them that’s playing the race card when they only question one,” Willis asked.

Wade remains the lead prosecutor on Trump’s election interference case in Georgia.

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Video: President Trump Reclassifies Marijuana With Executive Order

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Video: President Trump Reclassifies Marijuana With Executive Order

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President Trump Reclassifies Marijuana With Executive Order

Marijuana was downgraded from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III drug on Thursday. The reclassification does not legalize cannabis, but it does ease restrictions on the substance and allows for more research.

Today, I’m pleased to announce that I will be signing an executive order to reschedule marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule III controlled substance with legitimate medical uses. We have people begging for me to do this. I want to emphasize that the order I am about to sign is not the legalization or it doesn’t legalize marijuana in any way, shape, or form, and in no way sanctions its use as a recreational drug — has nothing to do with that.

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Marijuana was downgraded from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III drug on Thursday. The reclassification does not legalize cannabis, but it does ease restrictions on the substance and allows for more research.

December 18, 2025

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Trump quietly signs sweeping $901B defense bill after bipartisan Senate passage

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Trump quietly signs sweeping 1B defense bill after bipartisan Senate passage

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President Trump signed into law a nearly $1 trillion defense policy bill Thursday and approved what looks to be the largest military spending package in U.S. history.

The fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act authorizes $901 billion in military spending, roughly $8 billion more than the administration requested, according to Reuters.

It also delivers a nearly 4 percent pay raise for troops, provides new funding for Ukraine and the Baltic States, and includes measures designed to scale back security commitments abroad.

In a release shared online, Rep. Rick Allen said: “With President Trump’s signature, the FY2026 NDAA officially delivers on our peace-through-strength agenda with a generational investment in our national defense.”

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TRUMP ADMIN ANNOUNCES $11B TAIWAN ARMS SALES DEAL

U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S. December 11, 2025. (Al Drago/Reuters)

“Not only does this bipartisan bill ensure America’s warfighters are the most lethal and capable fighting force in the world, but it also improves the quality of life for our service members in the 12th District and nationwide,” he added.

As previously reported by Fox News Digital, the Senate passed the NDAA on Wednesday, sending the compromise bill approved with bipartisan support to the president’s desk. 

Trump signed it quietly Thursday evening, according to Reuters.

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The NDAA includes $800 million for Ukraine over the next two years as part of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which pays US firms for weapons for Ukraine’s military.

It also includes $175 million for the Baltic Security Initiative, which supports Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

TRUMP TOUTS BRINGING COUNTRY BACK FROM ‘BRINK OF RUIN’

President Donald Trump announced his proposal for a ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense system in the United States on May 20, 2025. (Reuters/Leah Millis/File Photo; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The bill prohibits reducing U.S. troop levels in Europe below 76,000 for more than 45 days without formal certification by Congress.

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The legislation also restricts the administration from reducing U.S. forces in South Korea below 28,500 troops.

Trump ultimately backed the bill in part because it codifies some of his executive orders, including funding the Golden Dome missile defense system and getting rid of diversity, equity and inclusion programs, per Reuters.

TRUMP TO HAND OUT $2.6B IN ‘WARRIOR DIVIDENDS’ — AND THE SURPRISING POT HE’S PULLING THE MONEY FROM

The seal of the Department of War is displayed inside the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. (elal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Under President Trump, the U.S. is rebuilding strength, restoring deterrence, and proving America will not back down. President Trump and Republicans promised peace through strength. The FY26 NDAA delivers it,” House Speaker Mike Johnson had said in a statement Dec. 7 on the new measures.

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Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.

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State regulators vote to keep utility profits high, angering customers across California

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State regulators vote to keep utility profits high, angering customers across California

Despite complaints from customers about rising electric bills, the California Public Utilities Commission voted 4 to 1 on Thursday to keep profits at Southern California Edison and the state’s other big investor-owned utilities at a level that consumer groups say has long been inflated.

The commission vote will slightly decrease the profit margins of Edison and three other big utilities beginning next year. Edison’s rate will fall to 10.03% from 10.3%.

Customers will see little impact in their bills from the decision. Because the utilities are continuing to spend more on wires and other infrastructure — capital costs that they earn profit on — that portion of customer bills is expected to continue to rise.

The vote angered consumer groups that had detailed in filings and hearings at the commission how the utilities’ return on equity — which sets the profit rate that the companies’ shareholders receive — had long been too high.

Among those testifying on behalf of consumers was Mark Ellis, the former chief economist for Sempra, the parent company of San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Gas. Ellis estimated that the companies’ profit margin should be closer to 6%.

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He argued in a filing that the California commission had for years authorized the utilities to earn an excessive return on equity, resulting in an “unnecessary and unearned wealth transfer” from customers to the companies.

Cutting the return on equity to a little more than 6% would give Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric, SDG&E and SoCalGas a fair return, Ellis said, while saving their customers $6.1 billion a year.

The four commissioners who voted to keep the return on equity at about 10% — the percentage varies slightly for each company — said they believed they had found a balance between the 11% or higher rate that the four utilities had requested and the affordability concerns of utility customers.

Alice Reynolds, the commission’s president, said before the vote that she believed the decision “accurately reflects the evidence.”

Commissioner Darcie Houck disagreed and voted against the proposal. In her remarks, she detailed how California ratepayers were struggling to pay their bills.

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“We have a duty to consider the consumer interest in determining what is a just and reasonable rate,” she said.

Consumer groups criticized the commission’s vote.

“For too long, utility companies have been extracting unreasonable profits from Californians just trying to heat or cool their homes or keep the lights on,” said Jenn Engstrom at CALPIRG. “As long as CPUC allows such lofty rates of return, it incentivizes power companies to overspend, increasing energy bills for everyone.”

California now has the nation’s second-highest electric rates after Hawaii.

Edison’s electric rates have risen by more than 40% in the last three years, according to a November analysis by the commission’s Public Advocates Office. More than 830,000 Edison customers are behind in paying their electric bills, the office said, each owing a balance of $835 on average.

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The commission’s vote Thursday was in response to a March request from Edison and the three other big for-profit utilities. The companies pointed to the January wildfires in Los Angeles County, saying they needed to provide their shareholders with more profit to get them to continue to invest in their stock because of the threat of utility-caused fires in California.

In its filing, Edison asked for a return on equity of 11.75%, saying that it faced “elevated business risks,” including “the risk of extreme wildfires.”

The company told the commission that its stock had declined after the Jan. 7 Eaton fire and it needed the higher return on equity to attract investors to provide it with money for “wildfire mitigation and supporting California’s clean energy transition.”

Edison is facing hundreds of lawsuits filed by victims of the fire, which killed 19 people and destroyed thousands of homes in Altadena. The company has said the fire may have been sparked by its 100-year-old transmission line in Eaton Canyon, which it kept in place even though it hadn’t served customers since 1971.

Return on equity is crucial for utilities because it determines how much they and their shareholders earn each year on the electric lines, substations, pipelines and the rest of the system they build to serve customers.

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Under the state’s system for setting electric rates, investors provide part of the money needed to build the infrastructure and then earn an annual return on that investment over the assets’ life, which can be 30 or 40 years.

In a January report, state legislative analyst Gabriel Petek detailed how electric rates at Edison and the state’s two other biggest investor-owned electric utilities were more than 60% higher than those charged by public utilities such as the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The public utilities don’t have investors or charge customers extra for profit.

Before the vote, dozens of utility customers from across the state wrote to the commission’s five members, who were appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, asking them to lower the utilities’ return on equity.

“A profit margin of 10% on infrastructure improvements is far too high and will only continue to increase the cost of living in California,” wrote James Ward, a Rancho Santa Margarita resident. “I just wish I could get a guaranteed profit margin of 10% on my investments.”

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