Appeals court rules Trump’s White House ballroom construction can temporarily move forward

Source: NBC News

“A federal appeals court on Saturday temporarily allowed the construction of President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom to move forward while the administration challenges a lower court order that said the project exceeds the president’s authority. The 2-1 decision by a three-judge panel for the U.S. circuit court in Washington, D.C., means construction can continue through April 17 while the court considers the issue in more detail. A lower court judge had previously ordered the construction to cease on April 14. Trump’s lawyers have argued that the ballroom and other temporary measures are needed for ‘the safety and security’ of the president, his family and others, according to the decision.” (04/11/26)

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/federal-appeals-court-allows-construction-white-house-ballroom-rcna266914

Jury Trials Are Vital to the Constitutional Order

Source: Brownstone Institute
by David Thunder

“The campaign against jury trials, one of the most free-spirited and universally lauded institutions bequeathed to us by the common law tradition, would be baffling in a healthy constitutional regime. But sadly, it is predictable enough in a regime whose political leaders have developed the habit of tinkering with civil liberties as though they were trimming their lawn.” (04/11/26)

https://brownstone.org/articles/jury-trials-are-vital-to-the-constitutional-order/

The future arrived this week.

Source: Nonzero Newsletter
by Robert Wright

“This week Anthropic announced that it has a new large language model that’s way more powerful than past models — so powerful that it poses a threat to the world’s information infrastructure. This model can find otherwise unfindable vulnerabilities in software — and in fact, said Anthropic, has found previously unknown holes in every major operating system and browser. … if this model fell into the wrong hands, that could be big trouble — which is why, says Anthropic, there are no plans to release the model for the time being. Some people have wondered whether Anthropic’s claims about the terrifying power of this new model are mainly marketing hype — a suspicion that isn’t exactly discouraged by the model’s name: Mythos. But Anthropic is making Mythos available to big companies that maintain important parts of the digital infrastructure, like Microsoft, Apple, and Cisco. So if these claims were hugely exaggerated, word of that would get out …” (04/11/26)

https://www.nonzero.org/p/the-future-arrived-this-week

Why black male students are hurt the most by lowered academic expectations

Source: New York Post
by Dennis Richmond, Jr.

“I’m a middle school teacher in New York, and what’s happening inside many classrooms today should concern every parent in this country, especially parents of Black boys. Education is supposed to be about reading, writing, history, discipline and accountability. Instead, in too many schools, academics are being pushed aside while politics, ideology and lowered expectations take their place. The students who can least afford to fall behind (particularly young Black boys) are the ones being hurt the most. The data shows this is not just opinion, it’s reality. According to the New York State Education Department’s 2024-2025 assessment results, proficiency rates in English and math remain far below where they should be, with major gaps between racial groups. Black students in New York City were only about 47% proficient in English and 43% proficient in math, compared with much higher rates for white and Asian students.” (04/11/26)

https://nypost.com/2026/04/11/opinion/black-male-students-lose-the-most-when-schools-forget-about-academics/

US House: Swalwell, Gonzales to face expulsion votes

Source: Axios

“Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) plans to force a vote to expel Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) next week over sexual assault and misconduct allegations, Axios has learned. Swalwell denies the allegations. Democrats are set to respond by moving in turn to expel Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), who’s being investigated by House Ethics over sexual misconduct allegations, two Democratic leadership aides told Axios. Swalwell has faced calls from Democratic Party leaders and House colleagues to drop his bid for California governor, though few have called for his outright resignation or expulsion from Congress. … Gonzales, who has dropped his bid for reelection, admitted to an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide, calling it a ‘lapse in judgment.'” (04/11/26)

https://www.axios.com/2026/04/11/eric-swalwell-expel-tony-gonzales-sexual-misconduct

Conservative women are as likely as liberal men to say words are violence

Source: Expression
by Chapin Lenthall-Cleary

“I’ve previously discussed surprising results around tolerance for hypothetical controversial speakers, including the fact that male college students are substantially more tolerant — so much so, in fact, that male students are often more tolerant of their political enemies than female students are of their own allies. One might wonder whether this is true of the general population as well. Our data on the general population is less comprehensive than our student data. We don’t ask the same speaker-tolerance questions. But we do ask people whether they agree with the claim, ‘Words can be violence.'” (04/11/26)

https://expression.fire.org/p/conservative-women-are-as-likely

Americans Need to Engage in Paradigm Shifting

Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger

“Out of one crisis and into another. It never stops. It’s a never-ending cycle of chaos, death, and destruction. Moreover, this paradigm of interventionism necessarily involves an ever-increasing loss of liberty for the American people as well as the destruction of their economic well-being, especially with the out-of-control spending and debt that comes with this system. … Is this any way to live? Is this what America should be all about? Is this what Americans want for the rest of their lives and for the lives of their children and grandchildren? Is it really necessary? Is it beneficial to anyone other than the ‘defense’ industry?” (04/10/26)

https://www.fff.org/2026/04/10/americans-need-to-engage-in-paradigm-shifting/