Southwest
'Homeland would've been stolen': AK Natives sound off on Biden energy bans as Trump officials tour tundra
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FIRST ON FOX: Alaska Natives and residents of the vast North Slope Borough communities along the Arctic Ocean got a rare chance this week to directly discuss their concerns with White House officials, typically 3,500 miles away in Washington.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin joined Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy and local residents in Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow) as part of a multi-day visit to the oil and gas fields, workers and neighbors in the frigid but crucial region.
Charles Lampe, a Native resident of Kaktovik – the main remote community within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) a few hundred miles eastward – said until President Donald Trump and the officials assembled in Utqiagvik took office, North Slope residents and their energy development hopes felt besieged by that same far-flung federal government.
Lampe voiced similar concerns to those Fox News Digital had been told in the past by Alaska officials, in that environmental activists in the Lower 48 and federal officials who ideologically align with them have tried speaking for them in opposition to developing ANWR and other sites where none of those same activists live.
ALASKA SENATOR LITERALLY TEARS UP BIDEN’S ENERGY ORDERS, BOOSTS WH EFFORTS TO LEVERAGE ARCTIC LNG IN ASIA TRADE
State and federal officials visit the North Slope Borough. (US Dept of Energy & US Dept of Interior)
“There’s one thing that I want to bring up – we were under attack in Kaktovik by environmental groups,” Lampe said.
“On Day 1, President Trump told the Fish and Wildlife Department to deny their requests. And that was such an amazing thing for us to be able to see. And we were so proud of our president then because he made sure that our ancestral homelands weren’t going to be stolen – and [instead] protected,” Lampe said, as many in the North Slope actually support the development of their Native homelands versus cordoning them off through regulation – as they bring jobs and resources.
AK CAN BE ‘CURE TO THE NATION’S ILLS’ WITH HELP FROM TRUMP ADMIN: GOV DUNLEAVY
“So I really need to bring back this immense gratitude to President Trump for that action and being able to write something that, if the other guy (Joe Biden and Kamala Harris) would have won, there’s no doubt in my mind that our homeland would have been stolen and there’s nothing we could have done about it,” he said.
“Trump had the heart and the wherewithal to be able to right this wrong.”
He told Burgum to invite Trump to Kaktovik to see ANWR and its “Section 1002” – the oil and gas development sector – for himself.
Burgum said he believes Trump would be open to the opportunity – and that the president has already pleasantly surprised regional corporate stakeholders with his openness to questions that the oil companies felt loath to even consider asking a president.
AK LAWMAKERS CLAIM VICTOR AS FEDS BEGIN REVERSAL OF ‘ILLEGAL’ BIDEN RULE RESTRICTING ANWR OIL, GAS
“President Trump does care super deeply about this and at a deep level,” Burgum said, adding the president shocked ConocoPhillips representatives in a recent meeting when he asked what they needed to improve their North Slope operations.
When the company noted improved roads would be helpful, Trump asked rhetorically why a road couldn’t be built, according to Burgum.
“[They] were kind of like, ‘Wow, I didn’t know we could ask that.’”
Wright also addressed the Utqiagvik meeting, and added in separate comments that he visited the Prudhoe Bay Discovery Well – a 1960s operation that first opened Alaska to energy development and at one point represented one-quarter of U.S. oil output.
“Unfortunately, the last few decades have seen a long, slow decline of North Slope oil production – not because they’re running out of oil. In fact, there’s an amazing amount of untapped, unproduced oil up here. It’s because of federal regulation, bureaucracy. It’s made it so expensive and difficult to operate,” Wright said.
He added that with the “Big, Beautiful, Twin Natural Gas Pipeline” ultimately constructed, Alaska could be the key to global energy security by drawing buyers in Korea and Japan away from China.
“It’s great to be part of history again here in the great North Slope oil fields of Alaska,” Wright said.
Dunleavy last week headlined a global sustainable energy conference in Anchorage, which also drew the attention of those same potential stakeholders from Asia.
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Southwest
Republican senators hit border, touting tougher security and tax cuts, in 2026 kickoff
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Aiming to not only hold but expand their 53-47 majority in November’s midterm elections, top Senate Republicans are showcasing the plummeting rates of border crossings during a stop Friday at the nation’s southern border with Mexico.
And the group, led by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, is also highlighting how President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers are “putting more money in Americans’ pockets.”
The stop at the border, hosted by One Nation, a nonprofit outside group closely aligned with Thune, is seen as an unofficial kickoff by Senate Republicans ahead of the midterms to tout the sweeping “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act,” Trump’s signature domestic achievement last year that was passed nearly entirely along party lines in the GOP controlled Congress.
At the event at the border, which was a regular stop for Republicans amid the surge in border crossings during then-President Joe Biden’s administration, the GOP senators are teaming up with members of the National Border Patrol Council. And they are highlighting how the passage of the domestic policy measure “secured transformational border security funding,” according to One Nation.
THUNE PREVIEWS SENATE REPUBLICANS’ MIDTERM MESSAGE
Senate Majority Leader John Thune and fellow Senate Republicans speak to reporters at an event at the nation’s southern border with Mexico, on Jan. 9, 2026. (One Nation)
“This is a remarkable, remarkable difference in just a year,” Thune said at the event. “It’s been an incredible year of progress when it comes to the southern border and the American people are experiencing the benefit of that in the form of having safer streets and safer communities and safer neighborhoods.”
But with Democrats enjoying decisive victories and overperformances in the 2025 elections and in a slew of special elections and other ballot box showdowns last year, which were fueled by their laser focus on affordability amid persistent inflation, the Republican senators are also using Friday’s trip to spotlight the tax cut and energy policy provisions in the bill, which they rebranded as the “Working Families Tax Cut.”
“The Working Families Tax Cut will make buying groceries more affordable for working Americans this year,” the Senate Republicans touted on social media on the eve of the border stop. “Every Democrat voted against it.”
DOUBLING DOWN: TOP HOUSE DEMOCRAT SAYS FOCUS ON HIGH PRICES ‘ABSOLUTELY GOING TO CONTINUE’
And they also highlighted that “Senate Republicans have worked closely with President Trump to lower energy prices and make life more affordable — and the results speak for themselves.”
Thune, at the border, pointed to the tax cut provisions in the GOP measure, including no tax on tips and overtime and reduced rates for seniors on Social Security, along with “the jobs that are going to be created by the pro-growth policies that we put in place….are going to lead us to a place where the American people are seeing their incomes go up.”
But Democrats see the cost of living as their winning issue heading into the midterms.
“If the Republican agenda actually made life more affordable for working Americans, then they wouldn’t be desperately flailing as families struggle to afford groceries, health care, and housing,” Lauren French, communications director at Senate Majority PAC, the top Senate Democrat-aligned outside group, told Fox News Digital. “Instead of focusing on working people, Trump and Senate Republicans are focused on bringing chaos and instability into our communities.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., holds a political and policy event Friday at the nation’s southern border with Mexico. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Joining Thune, the longtime senator from South Dakota, at the border is Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, number two in Senate Republican leadership.
There are also Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who faces a bruising GOP primary showdown in March against challengers Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt; and Republican Sens. Jon Husted of Ohio and Ashley Moody of Florida, who were appointed last year and will face voters this November.
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GOP Sens. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska and Mike Rounds of South Dakota, who are up for re-election this year, are also on the trip, as are former Rep. Mike Rogers and former Republican National Committee chair Mike Whatley, the GOP Senate candidates in battlegrounds Michigan and North Carolina who are backed by Thune and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
“We’re seeing signs already that the economy is starting to tick up and is starting to take hold as the President’s policies are getting in place,” Whatley argued last month in a Fox News Digital interview. “We need to make sure that we have the trade policies, the tax policies, the regulatory policies from this administration that are going to help our small businesses, our manufacturers and our farmers across North Carolina.”
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But Democrats are energized as the midterm year begins, as they continue to keep their focus on the issue of affordability.
“Donald Trump has lost the economy, is losing his mind, and is going to lose the midterms,” Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin claimed in a recent statement.
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Southwest
Body found during search for missing Texas teen Camila Mendoza Olmos as another teen girl disappears
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A body was found Tuesday evening as authorities in Bexar County, Texas, grapple with a series of disappearances involving teen girls who all went missing within a week.
The body was found during the search for 19-year-old Camila Olmos, though police said it is too early to determine whether the remains belong to her.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said during a news conference that investigators had “just recently found a body in a field” around 4:40 to 4:45 p.m., adding that the medical examiner will determine both the identity of the body and the cause and manner of death.
The body was found by a joint team of sheriff’s deputies and FBI agents in an area of tall grass near a landscaping business, a few hundred yards from Olmos’ home, according to Salazar.
MISSING CAMILA MENDOZ OLMOS: DASHCAM CAPTURES LAST SIGHTING OF TEXAS TEEN WHO VANISHED CHRISTMAS EVE
Camila Olmos was reported missing on Christmas Eve. (Bexar County Sheriff)
A firearm was recovered near the body, which authorities said had been an item of interest during the search.
Salazar said investigators do not currently suspect murder and noted there were indicators consistent with possible self-harm, though he stressed it is too early to draw conclusions while the scene is still being processed.
Olmos was last seen leaving her home in far northwest Bexar County around 7 a.m. on Dec. 24, authorities said. Her case came as two other girls were reported missing in the area. Fourteen-year-old Sofia Gabriela Peters-Cobos has since been found safe, while 17-year-old Angelique Johnson remains missing, according to police.
Law enforcement has said there is no confirmed connection between the cases.
MISSING CAMILA MENDOZ OLMOS: DASHCAM CAPTURES LAST SIGHTING OF TEXAS TEEN WHO VANISHED CHRISTMAS EVE
Angelique Johnson, from San Antonio, Texas, was reported missing. (Bexar County Sheriff’s Office)
Texas Department of Public Safety said the Clear Alert for Olmos has been discontinued, though authorities urged anyone with information related to the cases or the whereabouts of Angelique Johnson to contact the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office.
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The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office and the San Antonio Police Department did not respond immediately to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman and Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.
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Southwest
Former GOP Sen Jon Kyl announces dementia diagnosis, steps away from public life
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Former Republican Sen. Jon Kyl announced on Tuesday he is withdrawing from public life after being diagnosed with dementia.
Kyl, 83, became one of Arizona’s most prominent Republicans during a career that spanned nearly three decades across both chambers of Congress, including a stint as Senate minority whip.
“I was blessed to represent the people of Arizona in Congress and to have numerous other opportunities to contribute to the political and civic life of our nation and state,” Kyl said in a statement. “However, the time has come for me to withdraw from public life. I have been diagnosed with a neurological disease manifesting as dementia.”
Kyl represented Arizona’s 4th Congressional District in the House from 1987 to 1995 before serving in the U.S. Senate from 1995 to 2013.
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Former Arizona Republican Senator Jon Kyl announced on Tuesday he is withdrawing from public life after being diagnosed with dementia. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
After leaving the Senate, Kyl joined the lobbying firm Covington and Burling, before being appointed in 2018 by then-Gov. Doug Ducey to fill the vacancy caused by the death of former Sen. John McCain.
Kyl held the seat for several months in the Senate before rejoining the firm in 2019, where he helped guide the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
The longtime Arizona lawmaker described himself as “a very fortunate man” despite the diagnosis.
FORMER COLORADO SEN. BEN NIGHTHORSE CAMPBELL DEAD AT 92
Former Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl, left, and Bruce Babbitt, right, former Arizona Republican governor and secretary of the Interior, wave to the crowd as they are recognized during Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey’s state of the state address Monday, Jan. 14, 2019, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
“My family and I now head down a path filled with moments of joy and increasing difficulties,” he stated. “I am grateful beyond expression for their love and support, in these coming days as in all the days of my life.”
Kyl moved to Arizona as an 18-year-old freshman to attend the University of Arizona, where he met his wife.
The university said Kyl devoted more than two decades to public service, leaving a lasting impact on water policy, national defense and intelligence.
“His leadership, integrity, and commitment to service reflect the highest ideals of public life,” the university said in a statement.
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Former Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., announced he is withdrawing from public life after being diagnosed with dementia. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said Kyl gave “decades of his life” serving Arizona, adding that he’s grateful for the former GOP senator’s “commitment to our state and country.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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