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Trump Promised Redemption for Troops Who Refused Covid Shots. A Year Later, Many Are Still Waiting
When the COVID-19 vaccine was released in 2020, Daniel Pendergast was intrigued.
“I honestly thought it sounded kind of ingenious at first,” he said. But then he learned there was a very small chance of heart inflammation that could occur after vaccination in healthy men like himself: around eight cases per million, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
For Pendergast, 44, whose family has a history of heart disease, even that low risk felt too high. He decided against taking the shot. That was a problem for Pendergast. As a master sergeant in the Air National Guard, he was required to follow Pentagon orders mandating vaccination. Ultimately, he decided to forgo vaccination and leave the military once his contract was up in June 2022. It was a hard decision. He had been in the military for 16 years, served in the Honor Guard, and sang the national anthem at sporting events.
“Lots of tears were shed over it,” he said. “It’s not something that I ever wanted to do.”
Now after four years as a civilian, Pendergast hopes to rejoin the military under a January 2025 executive order signed by President Donald Trump in his first month back in office. It promised to reinstate all service members who were discharged, or voluntarily left, for refusing the COVID vaccine. Not only does Pendergast want to continue to serve until his active duty retirement or beyond, but, he said, “I feel that we’re needed back in the force because we are the ones who held our integrity.”
Cassidy Will Support CDC Nominee, but Attendance Issues Force Vote Postponement
Dr. Erica Schwartz, President Trump’s pick to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), picked up a key endorsement from Senate Health Committee Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.) Thursday morning, but a scheduled vote on her nomination was postponed. “I’m confident that she knows what she is doing and will stand against those who do not,” Cassidy said when the committee convened.
During her confirmation hearing last week, Cassidy questioned Schwartz about whether she could protect the agency from political meddling and stand up to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. if he asked her to take action that was not supported by scientific evidence. Her predecessor, Susan Monarez, pushed back against Kennedy’s vaccine agenda and was fired after being on the job less than a month.
Cassidy noted that “as a sign of good faith,” the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had modified the CDC’s website on vaccines and autism, which Kennedy ordered to be changed last year to include a disclaimer that vaccines do not cause autism “is not an evidence-based claim.”
Slack Messages Released by Rand Paul Appear to Show Authors of Key Covid-19 Origin Paper Held Private Doubts
Newly released messages among the authors of a widely cited paper regarding the origins of COVID-19 privately raised doubts that the virus originated from bats, as their paper stated. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on Tuesday released the internal Slack messages exchanged among the authors of “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2” — Kristian Andersen, Robert Garry, Eddie Holmes and Andrew Rambaut.
“The idea that it came from a lab is implausible, and, yet, privately they’re saying the opposite. … This level of dishonesty, I think, needs to be exposed,” Paul told Fox News. “These are people who get large, multimillion-dollar grants from our country, and we shouldn’t be giving money to people who lied to us.” The paper was published in Nature Medicine in March 2020 and was widely cited by public health officials and the media as the scientific authority for ruling out a laboratory origin of SARS-CoV-2.
However, the released messages appear to show that its authors were less certain than their public conclusions suggested. Some raised concerns that the virus originated in a lab. Andersen assigned a 30% probability to a lab origin, while Holmes gave an estimate of 20%, though he later revised that to 10%. Either way, both figures contrast with the paper’s public assertion that the virus had not been manipulated.
Proposed USDA Rules Could Expand Reporting Requirements for Data Center Projects: What Developers Need to Know
The National Law Review reported:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has proposed a sweeping overhaul of the regulations implementing the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA). Enacted in 1978, AFIDA requires certain foreign persons and entities to report the purchase, sale or holding of U.S. agricultural land to the USDA within 90 days of the acquisition or lease.
The June 2026 proposal, available here, would significantly expand the law’s reporting requirements, increase penalties for noncompliance and shift its administration to the USDA’s Office of Homeland Security. This may significantly impact data center development, in addition to renewable energy development, other agribusinesses and independent power producers. Frequently, data center developers lease or buy rural land intended for commercial rezoning.
Pursuant to the proposed rules, if a parcel was used for farming, ranching, crops or forestry at any time within the last five years, it qualifies as “agricultural land” subject to AFIDA reporting obligations. AFIDA disclosure obligations remain in effect regardless of the underlying zoning classification. The June 2026 overhaul of AFIDA shifts the rules from mere data collection into a national security enforcement tool, which may introduce major regulatory hurdles for data center projects with international investors or owners.
The proposed rules lower reporting thresholds to 10% foreign “significant interest or substantial” control and drastically expand the definition of beneficial ownership in an effort to deter noncompliance by entities that have foreign investors or partners. If a U.S.-based developer has upstream foreign investors, the identities of those foreign investors must be disclosed.
USDA Secretary Pushes Back on Gillibrand, Says Solar Farms Are Taking Over NY Farmland
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins pushed back on Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., saying that China-produced solar panels are taking over New York farmland. Rollins testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, during which she said to Gillibrand, “And let me tell you what New York is stressed out about: it’s the fact that your state is taking prime farmland and turning it into solar farms. That is absolutely inexcusable,” according to a video clip the secretary posted on X.
Gillibrand responded, saying, “…New York farmers, you will see that smart farmers do both — do both.” “I have visited the New York farmers two times — two times in Upstate New York,” Rollins said, before Gillibrand’s time ended. Rollins followed up on her response in the post, saying, “Since time ran out, let me be clear, @gillibrandny: Why are you ignoring the issues directly hurting farmers and driving up the price of farmland in your own state?
Rollins’ remarks come after she, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, and country singer John Rich — who is the Trump administration’s Special Envoy for American Landowners — sent a letter to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) last month demanding answers about the state taking over farmland for solar farms.
Americans Spending Less Time Socializing, CDC Links Loneliness to Serious Health Risks
Americans are spending less time socializing than they did a decade ago, and the decline is happening across every age group, according to new data. The Centers for Disease Control says loneliness is linked to a range of serious health conditions. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ newest American Time Use Survey found Americans averaged just 35 minutes of socializing per day in 2025, down from 41 minutes a decade ago.
A separate Gallup survey found teens are spending an average of nearly five hours a day on social media apps including TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat. According to a CDC study, loneliness can increase a person’s risk for heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes, depression and anxiety. Marisa Franco, a professor, psychologist and New York Times best-selling author, said the mental health of younger Americans has shifted significantly over the past 15 years. “You know, 15 years ago, the younger people, 15 to 24, they had some of the best mental health, and now they have some of the worst,” Franco said.
Franco said social media is functioning as a substitute for real connection rather than a supplement to it. “So, we’re finding ourselves, especially these younger generations, are finding themselves looking to fulfill that need for connection and turning towards social media, which is giving them enough of a false sense of a connection or even distraction from the underlying feelings of loneliness, that they don’t ultimately hit rock bottom enough to reach out and find connection,” Franco said.
