A local therapy dog is in the running for a national award after providing much-needed support to first responders during the Los Angeles wildfires.

Throw him a ball and 6-year-old Rudy will chase it. The poodle loves backrubs and playing with his buddies at their Chatsworth home, but when his vest comes on, he knows it’s time for business.

“We’re trained by first responders, for first responders,” said his owner, Steven Zonis.

Zonis has been training Rudy to be a certified therapy dog since he was a puppy. It’s become his passion after a long career as an engineer, where he logged a lot of travel.

“I was tired of airplanes. I was tired of hotel beds, and I wanted to stay home and spend time with my dog,” Zonis said.

Zonis kept busy in retirement, first volunteering for the Los Angeles Police Department, then spending hours training Rudy and, later, his other dog, Ella. When the LAPD launched its therapy dog program a few years ago, Zonis was able to combine his two newfound passions to be a therapy dog handler specifically for first responders.

“We’re involved when there’s a homicide, suicide, when there is a catastrophic event and we make it easier for them to relieve their stresses,” Zonis said.

When the Palisades and Eaton fires ignited in January, Zonis and Rudy went straight to work. Zonis said they spent over nine days in the field.

From the Rosebowl to the Palisades Command Center, lifeguard stations, break rooms, call centers and relief stations, Rudy was a sight for sore eyes.

Zonis said Rudy was just what first responders needed at that very and for that, he’s now a semifinalist for the American Humane Society’s 2025 Hero Therapy Dog title.

The deadline to vote on the American Humane Society’s website is Sept.15.

With or without the title, Zonis said he’s so proud of Rudy for being a hero, helping heroes.

“They see a lot of death and they see a lot of injury; it’s part of their job, but it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t stress them out,” Zonis said.

local therapy dog is in the running for a national award after providing much-needed support to first responders during the Los Angeles wildfires.

Throw him a ball and 6-year-old Rudy will chase it. The poodle loves backrubs and playing with his buddies at their Chatsworth home, but when his vest comes on, he knows it’s time for business.

“We’re trained by first responders, for first responders,” said his owner, Steven Zonis.

Zonis has been training Rudy to be a certified therapy dog since he was a puppy. It’s become his passion after a long career as an engineer, where he logged a lot of travel.

“I was tired of airplanes. I was tired of hotel beds, and I wanted to stay home and spend time with my dog,” Zonis said.

Zonis kept busy in retirement, first volunteering for the Los Angeles Police Department, then spending hours training Rudy and, later, his other dog, Ella. When the LAPD launched its therapy dog program a few years ago, Zonis was able to combine his two newfound passions to be a therapy dog handler specifically for first responders.

“We’re involved when there’s a homicide, suicide, when there is a catastrophic event and we make it easier for them to relieve their stresses,” Zonis said.

When the Palisades and Eaton fires ignited in January, Zonis and Rudy went straight to work. Zonis said they spent over nine days in the field.

From the Rosebowl to the Palisades Command Center, lifeguard stations, break rooms, call centers and relief stations, Rudy was a sight for sore eyes.

Zonis said Rudy was just what first responders needed at that very and for that, he’s now a semifinalist for the American Humane Society’s 2025 Hero Therapy Dog title.

The deadline to vote on the American Humane Society’s website is Sept.15.

With or without the title, Zonis said he’s so proud of Rudy for being a hero, helping heroes.

“They see a lot of death and they see a lot of injury; it’s part of their job, but it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t stress them out,” Zonis said.

Rina Nakano, CBS News

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Ala., documents and memorializes the more than 4400 victims of racial lynching’s that occurred in the United States from 1877 to 1950. The Memorial is a project of the Equal Justice Initiative. Photo: Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

New voices and previously hidden stories have been reinterpreting U.S. history and reshaping museums for the last 20 years, drawing conservative criticism that President Trump is now wielding against the Smithsonian.Why it matters: The U.S. is more diverse than ever, and since the Cold War ended, pressure to promote a mythic, triumphalist national story has given way to a history of multiple views and complexities.

The big picture: The bubbling change was mainly fought in local school boards as some white parents revolted against demands by parents of color and teachers to include Black and Latino history and books in K-12 curricula.It is now being waged against some of the nation’s most prestigious museums and historians over discussions of patriotism and national pride.Scholars say the battle risks gutting the field of history, pushing museums and historians to ignore research and revert to a 1950s version of U.S. history.

Catch up quick: A White House official told Axios last week that Trump intends to expand his review of American museums for “woke” ideology beyond the Smithsonian Institution.Trump said that the “Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL” on Truth Social, then directed his attorneys to conduct a comprehensive review of the museum system, similar to the process officials have conducted at colleges and universities.Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Education is threatening to pull federal funding from public schools that maintain their DEI programs and keep books on Black history, per a Trump executive order.That order alleged that “Americans (had) witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.

“Zoom in: Trump’s criticisms have drawn strong reactions from scholars like Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Annette Gordon-Reed and David Blight, who say it’s all part of a larger assault on historical scholarship.”In the authoritarian playbook, rewriting collective memory is just this critical strategy for controlling the masses,” Hajar Yazdiha, author of “The Struggle for the People’s King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement,” told Axios.Yazdiha said if any administration can dictate how we remember the past, it will define the present and the future, including dismissing documented cases of discrimination like enslavement.”With truth comes reckoning, and they don’t want to reckon,” Yazdiha said.

State of play: In recent years, the field of history has witnessed a surge in new books that challenge some of the long-held myths surrounding pivotal figures and events.

• For example, Erica Armstrong Dunbar’s 2017 book, “Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge,” tells a story about George Washington trying to keep a woman in bondage while he spoke about freedom.
• Some museums, under pressure from tribal nations, have returned remains of tribal members and artifacts linked to tribes, while retelling the story of Indigenous people based on new research.

There are times when reading a list of projects funded by the United States federal government sounds more like parody than reality.

The Department of Government Efficiency — unlike Congress, it seems — is still working hard every day to identify and eliminate waste and fraud from the federal government funded by our taxpayer dollars. And this week’s update included some profoundly idiotic programs and grants that were, until now, recipients of our hard-earned cash.

AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana

There are times when reading a list of projects funded by the United States federal government sounds more like parody than reality.

The Department of Government Efficiency — unlike Congress, it seems — is still working hard every day to identify and eliminate waste and fraud from the federal government funded by our taxpayer dollars. And this week’s update included some profoundly idiotic programs and grants that were, until now, recipients of our hard-earned cash.

DOGE normally releases a contracts update on X on Fridays highlighting some of the stupidest agency contracts that it has discovered in the last week, and this past week‘s was a doozy: “Over the last 5 days, agencies terminated 50 wasteful contracts with a ceiling value of $2.9B and savings of $762M, including a $2.4M DoD contract for ‘transgender health medical evaluation unit services’, a $128.5k DoD contract for ‘LGBTQ magazine advertising campaign’, and a $48.7M USAID contract for ‘the Belarus Regional Initiative to provide transition activities in Belarus and other countries in Europe’.” 

One wonders what exactly that is supposed to mean. Whenever a description is that vague and meaningless, you can guess it covers up something shady.

    For Our VIPs: Dems Hate Guns and Prayer. The Founders Loved Them.

In conclusion, the X post stated, “DOGE wishes the hardworking American taxpayers a great Labor Day weekend!”

DOGE also had an interesting contracts update last week, on August 24: “Over the last 5 days, agencies terminated 163 wasteful contracts with a ceiling value of $1.9B and savings of $647M, including, a $35M USAID contract to ‘acquire contractor support to establish and manage a flexible, quick response mechanism supporting activities that will support democracy and stability in El Salvador’, a $280k DOI contract for ‘horse mounted patrol groom services’.” You can bust your brains trying to figure out why the heck we would be funding horse mounted patrol groom services. I don’t know about you, but I can’t think of any good reason.

DOGE continued by saying it also eliminated “a $102k DOT contract for an ‘assessment specialist academics provost office’, a $179k State Dept. contract for ‘customized English language training to the US embassy in Yerevan, Armenia’, and a $25k DOI contract to ‘provide facilitation, collaborative problem solving services’.”

Furthermore, DOGE shared a message from the White House Office of Budget and Management showing an order signed by Donald Trump and celebrating that the president canceled “$4.9 billion in America Last foreign aid” via a pocket rescission.

With our national debt at around $37.3 trillion and climbing every day and even every hour, it is obvious we need to take drastic action to reduce our out-of-control spending and try to return the United States to fiscal responsibility. While it would be better if Congress would join in more enthusiastically, at least DOGE is making headway on the mountain of unjustifiable and unnecessary federal government contracts and programs. 

DOGE continued by saying it also eliminated “a $102k DOT contract for an ‘assessment specialist academics provost office’, a $179k State Dept. contract for ‘customized English language training to the US embassy in Yerevan, Armenia’, and a $25k DOI contract to ‘provide facilitation, collaborative problem solving services’.”

Furthermore, DOGE shared a message from the White House Office of Budget and Management showing an order signed by Donald Trump and celebrating that the president canceled “$4.9 billion in America Last foreign aid” via a pocket rescission.

Catherine Salgado is a contributor for PJ Media. She also writes for The Rogue Review, Media Research Center, and her Substack Pro Deo et Libertate. She received the Andrew Breitbart MVP award for August 2021 from The Rogue Review for her journalism.

Via Illinois Department of Human Services (emphasis added):

Governor JB Pritzker announced yesterday the launch of IL Pride Connect, a new statewide resource hub and first of its kind legal hotline that expands access to legal information and support for LGBTQIA+ individuals across Illinois. The Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS), in collaboration with community partners, will lead the initiative. Governor Pritzker made the announcement at an event Thursday evening hosted by the Legal Council for Health Justice.

“In Illinois, we are fighting ignorance with information and cruelty with compassion, said Governor JB Pritzker. “Thanks to our state, philanthropic, and community partners, IL Pride Connect will inform individuals of their rights and connect them to health and social services support – making us the only state in the nation to provide free legal advice and advocacy tools to protect the LGBTQ community.”

The press release — I counted — is 1,056 words long. I read through all of it, looking for mention of any specific right that the transgenders are allegedly being denied.

There is nothing; the whole document is a word salad of subcultural jargon and lofty-sounding rhetoric about “the unique challenges LGBTQIA+ people face in today’s environment.”

Because Illinois apparently doesn’t have any more pressing matters of governance to attend to, such as rampant gun crime in the city of Chicago, Governor JB Pritzker recently announced a historic, “first of its kind” “legal hotline that expands access to legal information and support for LGBTQIA+ individuals across Illinois.”

Via Illinois Department of Human Services (emphasis added):

Governor JB Pritzker announced yesterday the launch of IL Pride Connect, a new statewide resource hub and first of its kind legal hotline that expands access to legal information and support for LGBTQIA+ individuals across Illinois. The Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS), in collaboration with community partners, will lead the initiative. Governor Pritzker made the announcement at an event Thursday evening hosted by the Legal Council for Health Justice.

“In Illinois, we are fighting ignorance with information and cruelty with compassion, said Governor JB Pritzker. “Thanks to our state, philanthropic, and community partners, IL Pride Connect will inform individuals of their rights and connect them to health and social services support – making us the only state in the nation to provide free legal advice and advocacy tools to protect the LGBTQ community.”

The press release — I counted — is 1,056 words long. I read through all of it, looking for mention of any specific right that the transgenders are allegedly being denied.

There is nothing; the whole document is a word salad of subcultural jargon and lofty-sounding rhetoric about “the unique challenges LGBTQIA+ people face in today’s environment.”

Benjamin Bartee

The Supreme Court has already expanded President Donald Trump’s authority in a string of emergency rulings, but he’s signaling in his firing of Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook and other issues likely headed to the court that he continues to seek broader powers for the executive branch.

The cases could serve as major tests of how much further the nation’s high court is willing to go to bless the president’s assertion of executive authority. They differ from previous showdowns because of the sheer magnitude of the authority Trump is seeking to wield and because he wants greater control over powers the Constitution ascribes to another branch of government……

The high court has already signaled openness to broad presidential authority to replace some heads of independent agencies.

The justices handed Trump a major victory in May when they allowed him to remove the leaders of the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board while legal challenges play out over their firings. Trump gave no reasons for the dismissals.

The court’s conservative majority ruled the Constitution vests all executive power in the president, so Trump could fire the agency heads “without cause” even though Congress set up the agencies to be insulated from political interference……

The legal battle over Cook’s firing is likely to turn on how the courts interpret “for cause” — something not defined in the law creating the Fed and has never been litigated before……

Lauren Bateman, an attorney for plaintiffs in the foreign aid case, contends it was always the administration’s intent “to run out the clock and allow those funds to expire” against the wishes of Congress.

“The administration’s affronts to the rule of law are staggering — and all to withhold aid from the most vulnerable people in the world,”

Justin Jouvenal,

By Reuters

US President Donald Trump says he will issue an executive order to require voter identification from every voter.

“Voter I.D. Must Be Part of Every Single Vote. NO EXCEPTIONS! I Will Be Doing An Executive Order To That End!!!” Trump says on Truth Social.

“Also, No Mail-In Voting, Except For Those That Are Very Ill, And The Far Away Military,” he adds.

Trump has long questioned the US electoral system and continues to falsely claim that his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden was the result of widespread fraud. The president and his Republican allies also have made baseless claims about widespread voting by non-citizens, which is illegal and rarely occurs.

For years, he has also called for the end of electronic voting machines, pushing instead for the use of paper ballots and hand counts — a process that election officials say is time-consuming, costly and far less accurate than machine counting.

Earlier in August, Trump pledged to issue an executive order to end the use of mail-in ballots and voting machines ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. However, federal elections are administered at the state level and it is unclear whether the president has the constitutional power to enact such a measure.

The November 3, 2026, elections will be the first nationwide referendum on Trump’s domestic and foreign policies since he returned to power in January. Democrats will be seeking to break the Republicans’ grip on both the House of Representatives and the Senate to block Trump’s domestic agenda.

The Trump administration is putting illegal aliens on notice: taxpayer-funded housing is for AMERICANS, not for those who broke the law to come here.

On Friday, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner announced that all Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) nationwide have 30 days to conduct audits verifying the legal status of every single tenant in Section 8 housing and other HUD-funded programs.

The first housing authority to face scrutiny is Washington, D.C., where Turner confirmed that the DC Housing Authority has already been put on notice, according to Fox News.

More than 3,000 PHAs across the nation are receiving the same marching orders. If they fail to comply, Turner warned, they risk losing federal funding.

Turner revealed that only 1 out of 4 eligible American families currently receives HUD assistance due to past administrations turning a blind eye to illegal alien abuse.

In a blistering letter to every Public Housing Authority (PHA) in America, Turner laid down the law: within 30 days, all housing agencies must provide a full and complete accounting of every tenant living in HUD-funded housing.

That means names, mailing addresses, number of bedrooms, the cost of each unit, and most importantly, proof of American citizenship or legal immigration status.

The letter reads:

“Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is taking another direct and forceful action to steward taxpayer dollars wisely and end the subsidization of open border policies in HUD-funded programs and policies.

Within 30 days of receipt of this notice, HUD is requesting that every Public Housing Authority (PHA) provide a full and comprehensive accounting of all tenants who are receiving a Section 8 voucher and/or residing in HUD-funded housing.

HUD is requiring the name, mailing address, number of bedrooms, the cost of the unit, and proof of American citizenship or eligible immigration status as defined by the law. This information is required by law and this administration is upholding the law to its fullest extent.

No longer will illegal aliens be able to leave citizenship boxes blank or take advantage of HUD-funded housing, riding the coattails of hardworking American citizens.

Currently, HUD only serves one out of four eligible families due, in part, to the lack of enforcement of prohibition against federally funded assistance to illegal aliens.

HUD will leverage all available enforcement actions against entities who do not comply with the request for citizenship information, including, but not limited to, examination of HUD funding and/or evaluation of PHA program eligibility.”

Jim Hᴏft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016.

Europeans are turning to an unlikely figure for salvation — US President Donald Trump.

Across social media, users have urged Trump to ‘make England a US state’ as frustration mounts over what critics call the chaos brought by far-left governments.

For many, the plea is not satire but desperation. Once-secure nations are now grappling with migrant crime, collapsing public order and political leaders accused of turning a blind eye.

Rape offences ‘soar by 438%’

Official figures show reported rape offences in Britain have surged by 438% since 2013, according to Home Office data.

Critics argue the rise coincides with mass migration policies, particularly those linked to Angela Merkel’s ‘Refugees Welcome’ stance. ‘What began as compassion has become suicidal empathy,’ one campaigner told MailOnline.

Germans cry ‘Send them home’

Germany is also feeling the strain. Demonstrators have taken to the streets chanting ‘Send them home’, furious at governments they claim care more about migrants than locals.

Meanwhile, British taxpayers working 40-hour weeks complain they are losing almost half their wages to fund hotel housing for new arrivals.

‘We are paying for people who refuse to integrate and who mock our traditions,’ said one resident in Birmingham, according to The Telegraph.

Pubs closed and families afraid

The impact is being felt in everyday life. Locals say beloved pubs, parks and community hubs are shutting down after repeated unrest. Families claim daughters are at risk of sexual assault, while parents who try to intervene can find themselves facing charges.

‘You are punished for protecting your own,’ one father from Leeds said, as reported by The Guardian.

Governments insist hate-speech laws are necessary to protect minorities, but critics brand them a gagging order on ordinary people.

Identity crisis across Europe

The backlash has sparked an unusual alliance. Welsh, Scots, Irish, French and even American commentators have united online to express solidarity with Britain.

Even Elon Musk has joined in the criticism, reposting on his X account a message from user @alicesmith that read: ‘You see them as mass illegal immigrants who strain and drain the system. The Labour Party sees them as mass potential voters to game and tame the system.’

‘Do the English get to have an England? Do the Scots get to keep their lochs? Does the emerald isle belong to the Irish?’ read another widely shared post. Commentators say the questions are no longer rhetorical but existential.

‘What happened to Europe?’

Europe now faces a defining question: do its nations still belong to their people, or to a political project that ignores them?

That Britons are calling on Donald Trump, an American outsider, to ‘rescue them’ says it all, observers note. Whether or not he ever steps foot in Downing Street, the very fact his name is being invoked is, according to one analyst, ‘the loudest answer yet to the question: what happened to Europe?’

Germany is also feeling the strain. Demonstrators have taken to the streets chanting ‘Send them home,’ furious at governments they claim care more about migrants than locals.

Meanwhile, British taxpayers working 40-hour weeks complain they are losing almost half their wages to fund hotel housing for new arrivals.

‘We are paying for people who refuse to integrate and who mock our traditions,’ said one resident in Birmingham, as reported by The Telegraph.

The impact is evident in everyday life. Locals claim beloved pubs, parks and community hubs—often described as ‘third spaces’—are closing after repeated unrest.

Families claim daughters are at risk of sexual assault, while parents who try to intervene risk facing charges. ‘You are punished for protecting your own,’ one father from Leeds declared to The Guardian.

Governments insist hate speech laws protect minorities, but critics brand them a gagging order on ordinary people. Political coalitions work to keep nationalist parties locked out of power.

Criticism of these trends has created an unusual alliance: Welsh, Scots, Irish, French, and even American commentators have voiced solidarity with Britain’s plight.

‘Do the English get to have an England? Do the Scots get to keep their lochs? Does the emerald isle belong to the Irish?’ read a widely shared post on social media. Commentators say these questions have shifted from rhetorical to existential.

Europe now faces a defining question: do its nations still belong to their people or to a political project that ignores them?

Observers note that Britons calling on Donald Trump, an American outsider, to ‘rescue them’ highlights this crisis. Whether or not he ever sets foot in Downing Street, the very fact his name is invoked is ‘the loudest answer yet to the question: what happened to Europe?

© Copyright IBTimes 2025. All rights reserved.

Crisnel Longino

One international student after another told the University of Central Missouri this summer that they couldn’t get a visa, and many struggled to even land an interview for one.

Even though demand was just as high as ever, half as many new international graduate students showed up for fall classes compared to last year.

The decline represents a hit to the bottom line for Central Missouri, a small public university that operates close to its margins with an endowment of only $65 million. International students typically account for nearly a quarter of its tuition revenue.

“We aren’t able to subsidize domestic students as much when we have fewer international students who are bringing revenue to us,” said Roger Best, the university’s president.

Signs of a decline in international students have unsettled colleges around the U.S. Colleges with large numbers of foreign students and small endowments have little financial cushion to protect them from steep losses in tuition money.

International students represent at least 20% of enrollment at more than 100 colleges with endowments of less than $250,000 per student, according to an Associated Press analysis. Many are small Christian colleges, but the group also includes large universities such as Northeastern and Carnegie Mellon.

The extent of the change in enrollment will not be clear until the fall, Some groups have forecast a decline of as much as 40%, with a huge impact on college budgets and the wider U.S. economy.

International students face new scrutiny on several fronts

As part of a broader effort to reshape higher education, President Donald Trump has pressed colleges to limit their numbers of international students and heightened scrutiny of student visas. His administration has moved to deport foreign students involved in pro-Palestinian activism, and new student visa appointments were put on hold for weeks.

Colleges are taking steps to blunt the impact

In recent years, international students have made up about 30% of enrollment at Central Missouri, which has a total of around 12,800 students. In anticipation of the hit to international enrollment, Central Missouri cut a cost-of-living raise for employees. It has pushed off infrastructure improvements planned for its campus and has been looking for other ways to cut costs.

Small schools — typically classified as those with no more than 5,000 students — tend to have less financial flexibility and will be especially vulnerable, said Dick Startz, an economics professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Lee University, a Christian institution with 3,500 students in Tennessee, is expecting 50 to 60 international students enrolled this fall, down from 82 the previous school year, representing a significant drop in revenue for the school, said Roy Y. Chan, the university’s director of graduate studies.

The school already has increased tuition by 20% over the past five years to account for a decrease in overall enrollment, he said.

“Since we’re a smaller liberal arts campus, tuition cost is our main, primary revenue,” Chan said, as opposed to government funding or donations.

The strains on international enrollment only add to distress for schools already on the financial brink.

Colleges around the country have been closing as they cope with declines in domestic enrollment, a consequence of changing demographics and the effects of the pandemic. Nationwide, private colleges have been closing at a rate of about two per month, according to the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association.

The number of high school graduates in the U.S. is expected to decline through 2041, when there will be 13% fewer compared to 2024, according to projections from the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.

“That means that if you lost participation from international students, it’s even worse,” Startz said.

The Associated Press

The art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of citizens to give to the other.—Voltaire

It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.—Voltaire

Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value — zero.—Voltaire

God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.—Voltaire