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  • A red state reckons with Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’

    A red state reckons with Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’


    WALKER, La. — Few states stand to lose as much from the megabill that President Donald Trump signed into law as Louisiana.

    With more poverty and disease than most of the country, Louisiana relies heavily on Medicaid benefits going to people who lack the means to cover a doctor’s visit on their own.

    That fragile lifeline is now in jeopardy.

    The “Big Beautiful Bill” that Trump muscled through Congress chops Medicaid spending by nearly $1 trillion over the next decade.

    Out of sheer self-interest, Louisiana might seem a state that would fight to preserve Medicaid. About 35% of Louisianans under the age of 65 were covered by Medicaid in 2023, the most recent year data was available. That figure is the second highest among the 50 states, according to KFF, a nonpartisan health policy organization.

    Yet the state also voted heavily for Trump in the 2024 election and, polling shows, appreciates the job he’s doing as president.

    Louisiana loves Trump but needs Medicaid. How does a deep-red state reconcile the two?

    Interviews with a dozen Louisianans, most of whom supported Trump, suggest that many in the state have absorbed the arguments that Trump and his congressional allies used to sell the bill. A few warning signs for Trump emerged. Some of his voters aren’t thrilled with what they describe as his bombast or are skeptical the measure will live up to its grandiose title.

    “He’s a jacka– — he’s the best jacka– we’ve got,” said Jason Kahl, 56, wearing a shirt decorated like the American flag during a July 4 celebration in Mandeville, on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain.

    “A lot of times he says things that we’re thinking, but don’t want to say out loud,” Lydia DeRouen, 66, a customer at Cat’s Coffee and Creamery in DeRidder, Louisiana, said on a recent morning.

    The state’s embrace of the new law points to a dynamic prevalent in the Trump era: If he says he wants something, that’s good enough for many of his voters.

    “I just support President Trump. Most everything he’s doing, I’m in on it,” said Sue Armand, a 65-year-old retiree who attended a recent festival at a park in Walker, a city outside the state capital of Baton Rouge.

    Nationwide, the act will reduce the number of people receiving Medicaid by nearly 12 million over the next 10 years, the largest cutback since President Lyndon Johnson created the program 60 years ago as part of his “Great Society” agenda.

    Among the bill’s provisions are requirements that those between 19 and 64 years old work a minimum of 20 hours a week unless they are caring for a child or are disabled. The bill also limits states’ ability to raise certain taxes to help pay for their share of Medicaid programs, which could cause cuts across the board.

    Real-world consequences could prove dramatic.

    “A lot of people who will be impacted the most negatively are Trump voters,” said Silas Lee, a New Orleans-based pollster.

    “We see that in different parts of the nation, where many other communities that supported Trump will experience severe cuts in services that are critical to their survival,” Lee added.

    Alyssa Custard of New Orleans worries what the wider cuts to Medicaid funding will mean for her family. Her 88-year-old mother suffers from dementia and goes to an adult day care center in New Orleans.

    Custard’s mother, who worked as a preschool teacher most of her life, has little retirement savings and not enough to pay for long-term, private in-home care.

    Custard and her siblings have been providing care themselves and have been able to keep working because of the adult day care program. But that funding could now be in jeopardy with the cuts to Medicaid.

    “My mom worked taking care of other people’s kids in the educational system for 50 years,” Custard said. “She paid into all these things, and now, when it’s time for her to reap the benefits of what she paid into for a long time, you have this bill that is taking this away from her and all the other people.”

    A talking point that proponents used to pass the bill was that Medicaid is rife with abuse and that the changes would expel undeserving recipients from the rolls.

    House Lawmakers Work On Final Passage Of Signature Budget Bill
    House Speaker Mike Johnson, center, holds up the vote total for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images

    House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Trump loyalist who helped steer the bill through Congress, represents a swath of western Louisiana where nearly 25% of adults under 65 rely on Medicaid.

    Johnson has suggested that beneficiaries include able-bodied people who won’t work and are thus “defrauding the system.”

    “There’s a moral component to what we’re doing. And when you make young men work, it’s good for them, it’s good for their dignity, it’s good for their self-worth, and it’s good for the community that they live in,” he said in May.

    That justification rings true to many in his home state, who believe that federal benefits more broadly are going to the wrong people.

    Jason Wallace, 37, an accountant working a “Nibbles and Noshes” stand at the Walker festival, said that when it comes to Medicaid, “Some of the stuff I’ve heard about [the new law is that it is] trying to keep illegals from taking advantage of our benefits that they don’t pay into at all.”

    A common belief is that taxpaying citizens are getting shortchanged, giving rise to feelings of umbrage that Trump has managed to harness.

    The new law also makes cuts to a food assistance program known as SNAP. Along with Medicaid, Congress pared back SNAP benefits to create savings that would help offset the cost of extending the tax cuts Trump signed in his first term.

    “You go stand in line and the lady in front of me has her nails done, her hair done and she’s got food stamps. I work too hard for what I get,” said Charles Gennaro, 78, who was among those on the Lake Pontchartrain shoreline in Mandeville on July 4 as a bluegrass band played on an outdoor stage.

    “People come into this country for no reason and get things that they shouldn’t get,” he added.

    Nancy Adams, 50, who also turned out for the celebration in Mandeville, said: “I’m a single mom. I raised my daughter, struggling every day. And yet these illegals come in and they can get everything. I’m paying for them. But I’m struggling to raise my daughter and I don’t qualify for food stamps or anything.”

    Independent analyses of the Medicaid program show that most recipients are already employed. KFF released a report in May showing that in 2023, nearly two-thirds of those under 65 receiving Medicaid and not other forms of federal aid were working full or part time. Those who lacked jobs cited reasons that included school attendance, care-giving duties, illness, disability or other causes.

    A separate KFF report that month showed that 95% of Medicaid payments last year were made properly, while the vast majority of improper payments sprang from paperwork errors or administrative actions.

    Robin Rudowitz, director of KFF’s program on Medicaid and the uninsured, cited government estimates that 10 million people could lose health insurance coverage under the new law.

    “These are not people who were fraudulently on the program,” she said.

    Heading toward DeRidder in the western part of the state, a driver sees billboards advertising legal services for those who’ve endured car wrecks or injury or are in bankruptcy. A city of about 10,000, DeRidder is part of Johnson’s congressional district.

    A Walmart in the city was doing brisk business last Sunday, with people stocking up on groceries and supplies. Some customers of varying ages weren’t ambulatory and used motorized carts. Outside the store, Don Heston, 41, who works in the oil and gas industry, described Medicaid as a “great idea,” but one that “needs serious rework.”

    “Lots of people who are on it shouldn’t be. You have people that have paid into it their entire life. They’re physically messed up. They can’t work any more and they can’t get it. But you have people who have never worked a job with any meaning and they’re getting it that quick” he said, snapping his fingers, “because they know the ins and outs of the system.”

    Weeding out those who are abusing the program might be a worthy goal, but Medicaid advocates worry that cuts won’t be made with such precision. Those who truly need the help may get caught up in the purge, according to Keith Liederman, CEO of Clover, the organization that serves Alyssa Custard’s mother.

    “In the state of Louisiana, it’s many of the same staunch supporters of our president who are going to suffer as a result of this bill, and especially in rural areas of our state, of which there are many, many struggling individuals and families, many of whom are supporters of the president,” Liederman said.

    Clover is bracing for severe cuts that could cause it to shutter its adult day care service entirely, Liederman added.

    “It’s confounding to me how so many people throughout our country, when they think about people who are economically poor and struggling, think that there’s something wrong with them, that they’re not trying hard enough, that they’re not working hard enough, that they’re shirkers trying to abuse the system,” he said.

    “That couldn’t be further from the truth based on my direct experience in working with thousands of people who are in these positions. I’ve never seen people who work harder and who are trying harder to get out of poverty than the people that we serve and so many others in our community.”

    If health centers that rely on Medicaid patients are forced to close, it will affect patients with other forms of health insurance as well, who also rely on those providers in their community.

    At the David Raines Community Health Centers in northwest Louisiana, which includes several clinics in Johnson’s district, officials are preparing to make cuts to their services as they anticipate a significant drop-off in the number of their patients with health insurance as a result of changes in the bill, David Raines CEO Willie White said.

    “It really is going to be devastating, to say the least, for the patients that we serve and for other community health centers as a whole, as to how we’re going to be able to continue to provide the level of access that we currently provide,” White said. “I’m just not sure how it’s going to work.”

    Clocking in at nearly 900 pages, the act brims with policy changes that will take time for voters across the country to digest. Trump directed Republican lawmakers to pass it by July 4, and they complied. So far, the bulk of this pro-Trump state seems pleased that they did. But some who voted for Trump are waiting and watching. They know the new law is big; they’re just not sure yet whether it’s beautiful.

    Jennifer Bonano, 52, is a retail clerk who came to the festival in Walker. Sitting in her folding chair, she said she voted for Trump but isn’t persuaded yet that the new law is all that was advertised.

    “You don’t want the people that need the Medicaid and that need the food assistance to be suffering,” she said.

    As for the vote she cast back in November, she said: “I’m still wondering.”

    “You don’t know just yet what the outcome is going to be, because with Trump he doesn’t know when to hush,” Bonano said. “You don’t know if it’s going to be good outcome or a bad outcome, anything he does.”



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  • All the celebrities spotted at Wimbledon 2025, from Tom Holland to Olivia Rodrigo

    All the celebrities spotted at Wimbledon 2025, from Tom Holland to Olivia Rodrigo



    The most prestigious tennis tournament in the world is nearing its end as rising American star Amanda Anisimova aims to upset Iga Świątek in Saturday’s Wimbledon women’s final while a battle of the top two men’s stars — Jannik Sinner and Caros Alcarz — conclude the event Sunday.

    And while the on-court play has garnered headlines, so too has the action off of it. Countless celebrities and athletes like Tom Holland, Olivia Rodrigo and Leonardo DiCaprio have been in attendance for matches in recent weeks. Here are the scenes from Wimbledon.



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  • Some Walmart garment orders from Bangladesh on hold due to U.S. tariff threat

    Some Walmart garment orders from Bangladesh on hold due to U.S. tariff threat



    LONDON/NEW YORK, July 11 (Reuters) – Suppliers to Walmart WMT.N have delayed or put on hold some orders from garment manufacturers in Bangladesh, according to three factory owners and correspondence from a supplier seen by Reuters, as U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat of a 35% tariff on the textile hub disrupts business.

    Bangladesh is the third-largest exporter of apparel to the United States, and it relies on the garment sector for 80% of its export earnings and 10% of its GDP. The factory owners all said they expected orders to fall if the August 1 tariffs go into effect, as they are unable to absorb that 35% rate.

    Iqbal Hossain, managing director of garment manufacturer Patriot Eco Apparel Ltd, told Reuters an order for nearly 1 million swim shorts for Walmart was put on hold on Thursday due to the tariff threat.

    “As we discussed please hold all below Spring season orders we are discussing here due to heavy Tariff % imposed for USA imports,” Faruk Saikat, assistant merchandising manager at Classic Fashion, wrote in an email to Hossain and others seen by Reuters. Classic Fashion is a supplier and buying agent that places orders for retailers.

    “As per our management instruction we are holding Bangladesh production for time being and IN case Tariff issues settled then we will continue as we planned here.”

    The hold was not decided by Walmart, Saikat told Reuters, but by Classic Fashion itself.

    Walmart did not respond to a request for comment.

    Bangladesh is currently in talks with the United States in Washington to try to negotiate a lower tariff. Trump in recent days has revived threats of higher levies on numerous nations.

    “If the 35% tariff remains for Bangladesh, that will be very tough to sustain, honestly speaking, and there will not be as many orders as we have now,” said Mohiuddin Rubel, managing director at jeans manufacturer Denim Expert Ltd in Dhaka.

    Rubel, whose company produces jeans for H&M HMb.ST and other retailers, said he expects clients will ask him to absorb part of the tariff, but added this would not be possible financially. Manufacturers have already absorbed part of the blanket 10% tariff imposed by the U.S. on April 2.

    “Only probably the big, big companies can a little bit sustain (tariffs) but not the small and medium companies,” he said.

    Retailers have front-loaded orders since Trump returned to the White House, anticipating higher tariffs. Jeans maker Levi’s LEVI.N, which imports from Bangladesh, said on Thursday it has 60% of the inventory it needs for the rest of 2025.

    U.S. clothing imports from Bangladesh totaled $3.38 billion in the first five months of 2025, up 21% from the year-earlier period, according to U.S. International Trade Commission data.

    Another Dhaka-based garment factory owner said an importer with whom he was negotiating a spring 2026 order of trousers for Walmart asked him on Thursday to wait a week before the order would be confirmed due to the tariff risk.

    Hossain said he may look for more orders from European clients to make up for lost orders if the U.S. 35% tariff gets implemented, even if he has to cut prices to stimulate demand.

    (Reuters reporting by Helen Reid in London and Siddharth Cavale in New York; Editing by David Gaffen and Matthew Lewis)



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  • How latest block of Trump’s birthright citizenship order tests legal landscape after Supreme Court ruling on injunctions

    How latest block of Trump’s birthright citizenship order tests legal landscape after Supreme Court ruling on injunctions



    A federal judge’s decision to temporarily prevent the Trump administration from stripping birthright citizenship for some babies born in the U.S. is an early test of the legal landscape, after the Supreme Court greatly restricted the ability of judges to issue nationwide blocks of presidential policies.

    On Thursday morning, in New Hampshire, U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante granted class action status to a lawsuit that seeks to protect babies who would be denied birthright citizenship, and granted a temporary block of President Donald Trump’s order from going into effect throughout the country.

    The decision brought hope to pregnant women and groups who were dealt a blow two weeks ago when the Supreme Court largely restricted the ability of federal judges to use one of the strongest tools at their disposal — the use of nationwide injunctions to prevent federal policies from going into effect.

    The Supreme Court decision would have allowed Trump’s executive order to go into effect on July 27 in parts of the U.S.

    In the aftermath, immigrants and their attorneys pivoted to seeking class action status for immigrant babies and parents in hopes of finding another way to stop the president.

    “It was clear that the Supreme Court decision had closed one very important door for challenging policies, but it also in the process opened other doors,” Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow with the Migration Policy Institute, told NBC News.

    The Supreme Court has not yet ruled on whether Trump’s executive order is unconstitutional and multiple lawsuits challenging it remain ongoing.

    But its decision on June 27 left open an important avenue for plaintiffs to try to stop federal government policies nationwide through the use of class action lawsuits.

    “This case is an early test for how litigants will adapt to the legal landscape after the Supreme Court’s death blow to national injunctions,” Chishti said. “It normally takes months, if not years, for an altered landscape to be observed. But since this is such an important constitutional issue, we are getting a chance to revisit the landscape within two weeks.”

    Under Trump’s plan, birthright citizenship would be limited to those who have at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. The order also denies citizenship to children whose mothers are temporarily in the United States, including those visiting under the Visa Waiver Program or as tourists, or who are students and whose fathers are not citizens or lawful permanent residents.

    In the written order issued Thursday, Laplante wrote that the court certified class action status to the following group in issuing the nationwide block of Trump’s order: “All current and future persons who are born on or after February 20, 2025, where (1) that person’s mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the person’s father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth, or (2) that person’s mother’s presence in the United States was lawful but temporary, and the person’s father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth.”

    Laplante, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, had previously denied issuing a nationwide injunction in a similar case earlier this year. Instead, he had issued a narrower order where he only blocked the policy from being enforced on members of groups that would be affected by Trump’s order.

    A ‘viable’ legal challenge

    But his order on Thursday effectively blocked Trump’s executive order from being enforced nationwide, at least temporarily.

    “This was a ruling that certified a preliminary class of folks across the nation from a judge who was skeptical of nationwide injunctions, and so I think it shows that the class action mechanism is a viable one, that courts are willing to entertain,” said Haiyun Damon-Feng, an immigration and constitutional law professor at Cardozo School of Law.

    Cody Wofsy, the American Civil Liberties Union’s lead attorney in the case, said after Thursday’s court hearing that Laplante’s order was “going to protect every single child around the country from this lawless, unconstitutional and cruel executive order.”

    White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement to NBC News that the decision was “an obvious and unlawful attempt to circumvent the Supreme Court’s clear order against universal relief.”

    “This judge’s decision disregards the rule of law by abusing class action certification procedures. The Trump Administration will be fighting vigorously against the attempts of these rogue district court judges to impede the policies President Trump was elected to implement,” Fields said in the statement.

    The Trump administration has seven days to appeal Laplante’s temporary block to a higher court, and the issue could find itself back at the Supreme Court to determine if the judge’s order complies with last month’s ruling.

    “It’s not the end right of the birthright question. We are probably going to see more fights take place over procedure, over the question of class certification, as well as the question of birthright citizenship on the merits,” Damon-Feng said.



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  • Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly silent as questions mount on Texas floods

    Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly silent as questions mount on Texas floods


    KERRVILLE, Texas — Before the flash flooding in Texas’ Hill Country materialized in the early hours of July 4, Kerr County’s most senior elected official said he had no inkling of the pending disaster that would sweep away structures and set off harrowing rescues across the region.

    “We didn’t know this flood was coming,” County Judge Rob Kelly said at a news conference later that morning, in response to why summer camps along the rain-swollen Guadalupe River weren’t evacuated earlier, before many were missing or feared dead.

    “We do not have a warning system,” he added, referring to the sirens along the river in other counties, used to notify of imminent flooding.

    The following day, at a news conference with Gov. Greg Abbott and other state officials, Kelly said of the preparedness effort: “It’s just Hill Country, and we didn’t know.”

    In Texas, the county judge serves many functions in addition to judicial duties, including serving as the head of emergency management and handling many administrative functions in the county.

    But with a death toll surpassing 100 people — 67 adults and 36 children in Kerr County alone — and at least 166 still unaccounted for as of Friday, county officials are facing questions about what actions were taken ahead of the flooding and who was in command and communicating with the National Weather Service, particularly once the agency issued its first flash flood warning at 1:14 a.m.

    Efforts to reach Kelly this week, including by phone and at the emergency operations center, his office and his home, were unsuccessful. He hasn’t spoken publicly since his appearances at news conferences in the immediate aftermath of the flood.

    Rob Kelly
    Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly after a news conference on July 5.Rodolfo Gonzalez / AP

    In addition, William “Dub” Thomas, Kerr County’s emergency management coordinator, has not spoken publicly and did not return repeated requests for comment. He also could not be reached at the emergency operations center or his home.

    Thomas, who has been the county’s top emergency coordinator since 2015, is responsible for its emergency management plan, the emergency notification system known as CodeRed, its search and rescue team and other disaster-related duties, according to the Rotary Club of Kerrville website. Previously, while working for the Texas Department of Public Safety, Thomas helped direct the state’s response to several catastrophic events, including the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

    Kelly, a Republican who first took office in 2018 and was re-elected in 2022, has worked as a commercial litigation attorney and, in his role as county judge, he oversees Kerr County’s four-person commission and its budget. Kelly was a certified member of the Kerr County Community Emergency Response Team, according to a bio on the Rotary Club of Kerville website.

    “I truly believe God has been preparing me for this position all my life,” Kelly said in The Kerrville Daily Times in 2017 about running for the county judge before the election. “I didn’t go looking for this job, it came looking for me.”

    Tom Pollard, the former county judge Kelly replaced, said that in any major event, such as a disaster that requires an evacuation, the emergency management coordinator is in charge but takes direction from the county judge.

    “The buck stops with the county judge’s office, but the management director handles it and just gets going,” Pollard said. “And he’ll talk to a county judge every now and then, and if there’s a decision that needs to be made, he’ll consult with the judge who makes a decision.”

    Pollard said neither he nor his wife received emergency notifications on their phone in the early morning of the flooding.

    Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring said Tuesday on MSNBC that he saw no emergency alerts and was awakened only by a call from City Manager Dalton Rice at 5:30 a.m. By daybreak, the Guadalupe River had risen 26 feet in 45 minutes, according to sensor data.

    Just after 4 a.m., the National Weather Service had upgraded its flash flood warning to an emergency for Kerr County, advising that it was a “PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION. SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW!”

    Facebook posts from Kerrville police were posted after 5 a.m. regarding “life threatening” flooding, but it’s unclear whether officials were communicating with residents in other ways before then.

    Whether emergency alerts around that time would have been received on all phones is unclear. Spotty cell service or none at all is not uncommon in parts of the county, northwest of San Antonio. Others may not have had their phones with them, like the young girls who were staying at Camp Mystic in the unincorporated community of Hunt, where officials say at least 27 campers and staff members died.

    Federal Emergency Management Agency records obtained by NBC Dallas-Fort Worth show that Kerr County officials didn’t use its Integrated Public Alert & Warning System, or IPAWS, to send warnings with safety instructions to all cellphones in the affected area the day of the flooding.

    As the water began rising in Kerr County, the National Weather Service delivered an IPAWS flood warning to phones as early as 1:14 a.m., NBC Dallas-Fort Worth reported.

    However, it’s up to county or city officials in general to send more urgent instructions, including whether to evacuate.

    Some families said they received a CodeRed alert from Kerr County, which is similar to an IPAWS message and can be sent via the sheriff’s office. But the program allows people to opt out, meaning not everyone receives it.

    Dispatch audio obtained by NBC affiliate KXAN in Austin includes an Ingram volunteer firefighter asking a county sheriff dispatcher at 4:22 a.m. if they can “send a CodeRed out to our Hunt residents, asking them to find higher ground or stay home?”

    The dispatcher responds: “We have to get that approved with our supervisor.”

    It’s unclear at what times CodeRed alerts were supposed to be sent. KXAN reported that one person near the flooded area said they received a voicemail at 1:14 a.m. from a number traced back to CodeRed, while another area resident received a CodeRed alert at 5:34 a.m. about the National Weather Service’s “flash flood warning,” suggesting inconsistencies among recipients countywide.

    The National Weather Service’s San Antonio office did not immediately return a request for comment Friday about any communications it may have had with Kerr County.

    Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said at a news conference Wednesday that his priority remains search and rescue efforts, but noted there would be an “after-action” review of what happened on July 4.

    “We’ll get them,” Leitha said. “I can’t tell you when — in a week or two, OK? We’re going to get them.”

    Raymond Howard, a council member in Ingram, another city in Kerr County, said he has a host of questions for county officials to investigate once the rescue efforts are exhausted, from preventative measures they plan to take going forward to the timing of emergency alerts.

    “I did not get a CodeRed,” Howard said, “and I’m signed up for CodeRed.”

    What’s needed for the future, he said, is better planning and communication.

    “It’s too late for the victims and everything that’s happened already, but for future floods, we can do something,” Howard said. “It will happen again.”

    Minyvonne Burke reported from Kerrville and Erik Ortiz from New York.



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  • Time runs out for nearly century-old Michigan clock company due to tariffs, other factors

    Time runs out for nearly century-old Michigan clock company due to tariffs, other factors



    ZEELAND, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan clock company that has helped people keep time for 99 years says it’s going out of business due to tariffs and other economic conditions.

    Howard Miller Co., which makes grandfather clocks, wall clocks and furniture, said production will be phased out this year. The company will stick around in 2026 to sell its inventory.

    “We are incredibly disappointed to have reached this point in our journey,” CEO Howard J. “Buzz” Miller, grandson of founder Howard C. Miller, said Thursday.

    The Zeeland-based manufacturer, 175 miles (281.6 kilometers) west of Detroit, has sought a buyer but so far hasn’t found one.

    “Furniture sales are closely linked to the health of the housing market, which is struggling,” Miller said. “Our hopes for a market recovery early in the year were quickly dashed as tariffs rattled the supply chain, sparked recession fears and pushed mortgage rates higher. The furniture industry continues to shed jobs and announce plant closings.”

    Miller said tariffs imposed by the Trump administration have increased the cost of essential components that aren’t available in the U.S. The company employs roughly 200 people in Michigan and North Carolina.

    The closing of Howard Miller also includes Hekman Furniture Co., which it acquired in 1983. The clock business was founded in 1926.

    “Clockmaking has a massive impact on Zeeland’s economic development, on its culture, on its industry,” Zeeland Historical Society Director Katelyn VerMerris told WOOD-TV. “Clocks were one of the major exports from Zeeland for most of the 20th century.”



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  • Immigration officials can’t stop people based on race, their spoken language in Los Angeles, judge rules

    Immigration officials can’t stop people based on race, their spoken language in Los Angeles, judge rules



    A federal judge on Friday ruled that immigration officers in southern California can’t rely solely on someone’s race or speaking Spanish to stop and detain people.

    District Judge Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong issued a temporary restraining order after a lawsuit was filed by three men who were arrested as they waited to be picked up at a Pasadena bus stop for a job on June 18, and after two others were stopped and questioned despite saying they are U.S. citizens.

    Frimpong’s order bars the detention of people unless the officer or agent “has reasonable suspicion that the person to be stopped is within the United States in violation of U.S. immigration law.”

    It says they may not base that suspicion solely on apparent race or ethnicity; speaking Spanish or speaking English with an accent; presence at a particular location like a bus stop or day laborer pick-up site; or the type of work one does.

    Frimpong wrote in the ruling that most of the questions before her were “simple and non-controversial.”

    “Do all individuals — regardless of immigration status — share in the rights guaranteed by the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution? Yes, they do,” she wrote.

    “Is it illegal to conduct roving periods which identify people based upon race alone, aggressively question them, and then detain them without a warrant, without their consent, and without reasonable suspicion that they are without status? Yes, it is,” she wrote.

    The lawsuit, filed against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the head of Immigration and Customs and Enforcement and others, was filed as the federal government under President Donald Trump has aggressively made immigration arrests in Los Angeles and other parts of Southern California.

    The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California called the restraining order a victory for rights guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution.

    “No matter the color of their skin, what language they speak, or where they work, everyone is guaranteed constitutional rights to protect them from unlawful stops,” Mohammad Tajsar, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, said in a statement.

    “While it does not take a federal judge to recognize that marauding bands of masked, rifle-toting goons have been violating ordinary people’s rights throughout Southern California, we are hopeful that today’s ruling will be a step toward accountability for the federal government’s flagrant lawlessness that we have all been witnessing,” Tajsar said.

    Two of the people who sued said they were stopped and questioned by immigration officers despite explaining that they are U.S. citizens. One works at a car wash in Orange County that has been visited three times by immigration agents, most recently on June 18, according to the suit. That worker was questioned that day even after he told them he was a U.S. citizen, the suit says.

    The three men arrested in Pasadena

    Frimpong wrote in Friday’s ruling that one of the only issues before her were whether the people suing were “likely to succeed in proving that the federal government is indeed conducting roving patrols without reasonable suspicion and denying access to lawyers?”

    “This Court decides — based on all the evidence presented— that they are,” she wrote.

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, both Democrats, have objected to the federal immigration actions in Southern California. Bass has said they are they are motivated by a political agenda “of provoking fear and terror.”

    Bass said in a statement after Friday’s decision that the court “ruled in favor of the United States Constitution, of American values and decency.”

    “Los Angeles has been under assault by the Trump Administration as masked men grab people off the street, chase working people through parking lots and march through children’s summer camps,” she said.

    The Trump administration has defended the crackdown on people in the country without authorization. President Donald Trump ran on a campaign that promised deportations.



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  • FBI Deputy Director considers resigning

    FBI Deputy Director considers resigning


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    • Dozens of workers freed after tunnel collapse

      02:16

    • Nearly a week after Texas flooding, some families still waiting for answers

      02:15

    • Woman sentenced after sneaking onto flight to Paris

      01:23

    • ‘The Bear’ shines new light on iconic Chicago sandwich

      01:44

    • Nine million people under flood alerts

      01:19

    • Flight makes emergency landing on remote island in the Atlantic Ocean

      01:26

    • Mattel introduces first Barbie with Type 1 diabetes

      01:37

    • Stunning new video of paddleboarder’s shark encounter

      01:27

    • At least 119 now confirmed dead in Texas flooding

      03:00

    Nightly News

    Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino is considering resigning after a heated confrontation with Attorney General Pam Bondi, according to a person who has spoken with Bongino and a source familiar with his interactions with Bondi. NBC News’ Gabe Gutierrez reports.

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  • Rep. Jasmine Crockett calls out Trump admin’s handling of Texas flood crisis

    Rep. Jasmine Crockett calls out Trump admin’s handling of Texas flood crisis


    • Breaking: Bongino and Bondi spar over Epstein files

      03:41

    • ICE’s charge is to ‘make America white again’: Analyst

      03:25

    • ‘Donald trump is a failure & a fraud’: Rep. Crockett vows to shed light on president’s actions

      02:52

    • Now Playing

      ‘Common sense ain’t so common!’: Rep. Jasmine Crockett calls out Trump admin’s handling of Texas flood crisis

      09:58

    • UP NEXT

      ‘Craven cowardice of the Republican party’ on display: GOP strategist

      03:45

    • Taking out ‘two disenfranchised groups with one stone’: Alicia slams Agriculture Secy

      05:43

    • ‘Kristi Noem has no idea what she’s doing’: Dem Rep on FEMA response

      08:55

    • ‘Handshakes but no pieces of paper’: Symone rips Trump on so-called deals

      06:14

    • ‘Racist, xenophobic’: Alicia slams JD Vance’s narrow definition of ‘American’

      05:08

    • ‘I think it’s bulls—‘: Dem Rep. slams GOP spin on tax bill

      08:39

    • ‘Get your act together!’: Michael Steele urges Congress to act as AI deepfake of Rubio reaches foreign officials

      04:07

    • Trump has ‘unleashed a war on our communities’: CA Congresswoman on ICE swarming in L.A. park

      06:10

    • ‘Putin let the mask slip’: Fmr. Senator describes tenuous relationship between Trump and Russia

      08:02

    • ‘You can’t do that!’: Fmr. Social Security Chief slams Trump for playing partisan politics at SSA

      09:45

    • ‘It’s a lie!’: Symone Sanders Townsend slams Trump’s tariff promises

      06:38

    • Trump ‘far too quick to declare mission accomplished’ in Iran: Dem Senator

      07:02

    • ‘We can no longer rely on the government’: Local journalist describes chaotic fallout amid tragic flooding in Texas

      07:46

    • ‘We can’t wait’: The Weeknight panel stresses the urgent road ahead for Democrats

      06:07

    • ‘Total Loser’: Dem Congressman blasts Trump tax bill

      13:02

    • ‘Robin Hood in reverse’: Top House Dem says GOP bill will gut hospitals

      07:25

    The Weeknight

    As President Trump surveys flood damage in Texas, several congressional Democrats have signed a letter demanding an oversight hearing into his administration’s response. One of them, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), joins The Weeknight to discuss.



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  • Fuel switches were cut off before Air India plane crashed, preliminary report says

    Fuel switches were cut off before Air India plane crashed, preliminary report says



    Fuel switches were cut off on the Air India plane that crashed and killed 270 people last month shortly after the plane took off, a preliminary investigation report released Friday said.

    The report by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau comes as the airline has been under intense pressure to answer for the crash, which killed all but one passenger on the plane and 29 others on the ground.

    Fuel cutoff switches were changed from “run” to “cutoff” to engines 1 and 2 on the two-engine Boeing 787-8, a type of aircraft known as the Dreamliner, the report said.

    “In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cutoff. The other pilot responded that he did not do so,” the report reads.

    The report is preliminary and a final report could take weeks. The report released Friday does not reach conclusions or recommend actions to operators or manufacturers, and the investigation is continuing.

    Only one person survived the crash, British national Ramesh Viswashkumar. His brother, also on the plane, was killed.

    In addition to the 241 people on the plane who died, 29 people on the ground were also killed when the plane crashed.

    The London-bound Air India Flight 171 was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members when it crashed seconds after takeoff from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad. It careened into a building where medical students were sitting down for lunch.

    After the switches were changed to cutoff, there were attempts to recover and relight, the report says.

    “Engine 1’s core deceleration stopped, reversed and started to progress to recovery. Engine 2 was able to relight but could not arrest core speed deceleration and re-introduced fuel repeatedly to increase core speed acceleration and recovery,” the report reads.

    One pilot then issued a distress call — “mayday mayday mayday” — and the plane lost altitude and crashed, the report says. The aircraft exploding upon impact.

    It was the first crash for Boeing’s Dreamliner series of aircraft, which went into commercial service in 2011.

    The investigation by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau included members of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board because the crash involved an U.S.-made plane. Last month investigators began analyzing the black boxes after their recovery from the crash site.

    After the crash, India’s aviation watchdog, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, ordered Air India to carry out additional maintenance on its Boeing 787-8/9 aircrafts.

    But no major concerns were found, the watchdog said on June 17 in a statement.

    A week later, the regulator said in a statement it had found multiple cases of “repeated defects on aircraft indicating ineffective monitoring and inadequate rectification action,” while probing several airports, including at New Delhi and Mumbai, and that it had ordered for changes to be made within seven days.

    Reuters reported that Air India’s subsidiary airline, Air India Express, was also reprimanded by Indian authorities in March, and is under investigation by the European Union’s aviation safety agency for not timely changing engine parts of one of its Airbus aircraft.

    Boeing said in a statement Friday that it continues to support the investigation.

    “Our thoughts remain with the loved ones of the passengers and crew on board Air India Flight 171, as well as everyone affected on the ground in Ahmedabad,” the company said.



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