Trump backs air taxi program connecting
Texas metro areas
Posted By: sunset, 3/11/2026 1:18:06 AM
The future of travel may soon include flying taxis—and Texas is now one of the federal government's testing grounds. The Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation announced eight proposals selected for a new Advanced Air Mobility initiative, the Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) Integration Pilot Program (eIPP). Under the program, Texas will work with federal regulators and private aviation companies to test air taxi operations connecting major cities across the state. The aircraft being tested are known as electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles, or eVTOLs
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The future of travel may soon include flying taxis—and Texas is now one of the federal government's testing grounds. The Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation announced eight proposals selected for a new Advanced Air Mobility initiative, the Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) Integration Pilot Program (eIPP). Under the program, Texas will work with federal regulators and private aviation companies to test air taxi operations connecting major cities across the state. The aircraft being tested are known as electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles, or eVTOLs
The United States Navy has destroyed 16 Iranian boats suspected of preparing to lay naval mines near the Strait of Hormuz, marking one of the most direct maritime confrontations in the ongoing Gulf War. According to the United States military, the vessels were targeted after intelligence suggested they were equipped for mine-laying operations in the strategic waterway through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passes. Officials from the US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed the strike on Tuesday and released unclassified footage showing several Iranian vessels being destroyed during the operation.
The French Navy will send eight frigates and two amphibious assault ships to the Eastern Mediterranean and Red Sea, joining aircraft carrier FS Charles De Gaulle (R91), following an Iranian drone attack on a Cyprus-based joint operating installation. “While the crisis in Iran – the war in Iran – is affecting the entire region, it is important for me to come here alongside you, along with the Prime Minister of Greece, to tell you that when Cyprus is attacked, it is Europe that is attacked, and that the defense of Cyprus is obviously a crucial issue for your country, (snip) but also for France and, with it, the European Union,”
Oil plunges 10% as Trump warns to hit
Iran ‘twenty times harder’ if it blockades
Strait of Hormuz 7 replies
Iran ‘twenty times harder’ if it blockades
Strait of Hormuz 7 replies
Oil prices plunged 10% Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump warned that Tehran would be hit “twenty times harder” if it attempted to halt oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, while also signaling that the conflict with Iran could end soon. International Brent crude was down nearly 11% at $88.36 per barrel at 9.25 p.m. ET Monday. U.S. crude oil
fell over more than 10% to $85.17 per barrel. The declines come after oil surged past $100 Monday. Located between Oman and Iran, the Strait is a vital transit route. Roughly 13 million barrels passed through the waterway in 2025, accounting for about 31% of global seaborne oil flows,
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced a new policy that would ban foreign nationals and non-citizens from accessing its loan services — a continuation of efforts to refocus federal resources to ventures that align with American prioritization.
"The Trump SBA is committed to driving economic growth and job creation for American citizens," SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler said in a statement on Friday.
The requirement will apply to its Surety Bond and Microloan programs and is an expansion of changes made in February to the SBA’s 504 and 7(a) programs — loans for small businesses looking to finance working capital, equipment or acquisitions.
The Pentagon on Sunday announced that U.S. forces have carried out a lethal strike on a vessel allegedly carrying suspected narco-traffickers in the Eastern Pacific, killing six people on board.
The U.S. Southern Command said it conducted "a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations" at the direction of the new leader of the Southern Command, Gen. Francis L. Donovan of the Marine Corps, who took over in January.
"Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations," the Southern Command said in a press release.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., will retire at the end of his current term and is backing San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond to succeed him, he confirmed to Fox News Friday.
Issa’s seat is in California’s newly redrawn 48th District, which has been reshaped to favor Democrats under the state’s Prop 50.
"Today I’m announcing my enthusiastic endorsement of Supervisor Jim Desmond for Congress to represent California’s new 48th district," "Jim is not only a personal friend, he’s a true patriot, a Navy veteran, a successful businessman and has a 20-year record of public service. He understands this community, was born and raised here and will make a terrific Congressman."
Just one year after Iran unveiled its first drone carrier, the Shahid Bagheri — designed to carry multiple squadrons of drones and operate helicopters — the U.S. military said it struck the vessel, which is now burning. In a statement issued overnight between Wednesday and Thursday, the commander of U.S. Central Command, Adm. Brad Cooper, said American forces had sunk or destroyed more than 30 vessels during the campaign. He added that in the past several hours, U.S. forces had also struck an Iranian drone carrier roughly comparable in size to a World War II–era aircraft carrier. The Shahid Bagheri features a runway allowing drones to take off and land.
In the aftermath of the Israeli-U.S. strikes on Iran, American allies in the Persian Gulf are hearing a sound that Ukrainian soldiers have long come to dread: the foreboding hum of the Shahed-136 ‘kamikaze’ drone.
First designed in Iran, the Shahed has already become a fixture of modern warfare, with Tehran’s strategic partner, Russia, utilizing the technology in its years-long invasion of Ukraine.
Now, the drones — the most advanced of which is the long-ranged Shahed-136 — have become central to Iran’s retaliation strategy against the U.S. and its regional allies, with thousands unleashed so far.
The US has delivered “overwhelming and unprecedented” strikes into Iran in the first 100 hours of "Operation Epic Fury", the US commander in charge of combat operations in the region said. To put things in perspective, Admiral Brad Cooper said the initial 24 hours of the February 28 Iran strikes were double the scale of “Shock-and-Awe” strikes on 2003 in Iraq. “We continue with 24/7 strikes into Iran from seabed to space and cyberspace,” Cooper said. "In simple terms, we're focused on shooting all the things that can shoot at us... We're also sinking the Iranian Navy, the entire navy."
Spain has denied the US permission to use their shared bases to launch attacks against Iran. The country's socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez condemned Israel and the US for striking Iran and killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said Spain wanted 'democracy, freedom and fundamental rights for the Iranian people', but it would not allow its bases to be used in the ongoing military action. The decision puts Spain at odds with its European partners including the UK, France and Germany, who on Sunday said they would defend their interests in the region through defensive action to destroy Iran's capability to fire missiles and drones.
The UK has agreed to a US request to use British military bases for "defensive" strikes on Iranian missile sites, Sir Keir Starmer has said.
But the prime minister said the UK had learned lessons from the "mistakes of Iraq", and was not involved in the initial strikes on Iran and "will not join offensive action now".
Sir Keir said the basis of the decision to accept the US request was the "collective self-defence" of allies and protecting British lives, accusing Iran of pursuing a "scorched-earth strategy".
The BBC understands the US is likely to use RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean for strikes on Iranian missile sites.
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In yet another blatant betrayal of President Donald Trump and the America First agenda, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has once again shown his true RINO colors by flatly refusing to make any changes to Senate rules that would allow the critical SAVE America Act to pass.
This comes as Trump ramps up pressure on the GOP establishment to secure our elections before the midterms, but Thune is more interested in protecting the swamp than fighting for the American people.
“Yeah, that’s not going to happen,” Thune said on Monday when pressed by ABC News about altering the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to advance legislation.
President Donald Trump's declaration that he won't sign any new bills until the Senate passes voter ID threatens to derail his own legislative priorities and sideline confirmation of the newest addition to his cabinet. Trump wants Senate Republicans to ram the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act through the upper chamber with the talking filibuster, even at the cost of the Senate's most valuable commodity: floor time.
The French Navy will send eight frigates and two amphibious assault ships to the Eastern Mediterranean and Red Sea, joining aircraft carrier FS Charles De Gaulle (R91), following an Iranian drone attack on a Cyprus-based joint operating installation. “While the crisis in Iran – the war in Iran – is affecting the entire region, it is important for me to come here alongside you, along with the Prime Minister of Greece, to tell you that when Cyprus is attacked, it is Europe that is attacked, and that the defense of Cyprus is obviously a crucial issue for your country, (snip) but also for France and, with it, the European Union,”
A left-wing activist network is training liberals how to slip onto juries in federal cases and then vote “not guilty” to derail prosecutions brought by the Trump Justice Department.
Recordings and training materials tied to the group Freedom Trainers show activists being coached on how to conceal their left-wing views during jury selection and then use jury nullification once they are seated on a jury. The webinars, slide decks, and pamphlets behind the effort all push the same approach: Blend in during selection, say the right things to get seated, and use the jury room to block convictions.
The City of Seattle may have to "delay or defer" transportation projects or programs because of the expense of installing hundreds of signs warning that city property cannot be used by federal authorities for immigration enforcement actions. A fiscal note provided for Tuesday's (March 10) Public Safety Committee hearing states, "To the extent that appropriations made in the 2026 Adopted Budget support other activities, and for which SDOT cannot find efficiencies / savings (snip) SDOT may have to delay or defer projects or programs to free up funding for the signage costs (snip.) Cost for signage is indeterminate at this point (snip.)"
A left-wing activist group is teaching liberals in Washington, D.C., and "across the United States" how to increase their chances of serving as jurors on cases brought by the Trump Department of Justice so they can undermine its chances of securing convictions, training materials reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show. Freedom Trainers, whose fiscal sponsor is the George Soros-funded group Community Change, is working to make "jury nullification"—the practice of voting against a conviction even if the defendant broke the law—a go-to legal weapon for the Left.
Reviving America’s Dying Sense of Humor
11 replies
Ah, St. Patrick's Day is upon us — a fine time to restore our sense of humor.
More than 20 years ago, British sociologist Christie Davies wrote in “The Mirth of Nations” that Americans were becoming as nervous about swapping jokes as people once were in communist Eastern Europe — a warning he issued well before cancel culture. Which makes me long for the jokes my dad and Uncle Mike — a child of Irish immigrants — shared on Sundays, such as this one:
“Mike,” says Pat, “If you were stranded on a desert island, who would you like most to be with?”
“Me uncle Malachy,” says Mike.
On Monday night, Scott Jennings asked a simple question to a CNN panel, and it got me thinking. And what I thought about was quite disturbing.
The Department of Homeland Security has been shut down since Presidents' Day weekend. Democrats triggered it, and they've kept it going as a pressure campaign against the Trump administration's deportation agenda, specifically to hamstring Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and use that as a cudgel to force policy changes in enforcement, most of which are absurd.
The Senate voted three separate times on DHS funding bills, and each time, Democrats blocked them — every single one, with the lone exception of Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.).
Predictions are hazardous, especially about the future and especially about politics, but the best prediction right now is that the 2028 Republican nominee for President will be either JD Vance or Marco Rubio, and the Democrat nominee will be either Gavin Newsom or Kamala Harris. The ones not nominated for President will likely be nominated for Vice President.
Before we employ these people for these important jobs, let’s do what employers do: Let’s look at their resumes.
Oil-rich Texas to build power lines for
renewables, and landowners face possible
eminent domain 10 replies
renewables, and landowners face possible
eminent domain 10 replies
Texas produces so much oil that if it were an independent country, it would rank in fourth or fifth place in the world’s top oil producers. Yet the state is still looking to build massive high-voltage transmission lines primarily to satisfy the needs of wind, solar and battery facilities.
The lines will cross over tens of thousands of acres of private land. The Texas legislature shrunk the timeline to construct them at breakneck speed, which has made the landowners very conerned, considering they have little time to provide input and are potentially facing eminent domain to make room for the projects.
Country Joe, RIP
10 replies
It had been a long time since I had thought about Country Joe and the Fish, until I saw Joe McDonald’s obituary in the New York Times. McDonald died recently at age 84, having pursued an obscure career as a solo artist after the breakup of the Fish.
Country Joe and the Fish were associated with the anti-Vietnam War movement, with their best-known song being “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’to Die Rag”:
And it’s one, two, three,
What are we fighting for?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam;
And it’s five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
The latest chapter in the long saga of government surveillance surrounding President Donald Trump may also be the most brazen.
According to recent reporting, in 2022 and 2023 the FBI under the Biden administration obtained the phone records of Kash Patel, who is now director of the FBI, and Susie Wiles, who serves as White House chief of staff. At the time, Patel was acting as Trump’s representative in dealings with the National Archives and Records Administration, while Wiles was managing Trump’s presidential campaign. In one instance, the FBI secretly recorded a conversation between Wiles and her attorney. That category of communication sits at the very core of legal protection
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Several companies want to provide pilotless passenger aircraft. Looking for interested passengers.