Author: Braxton Taylor

Acting Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Kevin Lunday has been nominated to become the service’s 28th commandant, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Wednesday.Lunday, a member of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy’s Class of 1987, is an attorney who has led some of the service’s largest operational commands. He was appointed vice commandant in 2024 and has served as acting commandant since Jan. 21 when his predecessor, Adm. Linda Fagan, was fired from the job.During his four months as acting commandant, Lunday has steered the service through increased migrant and drug interdiction operations and the development of a force restructuring known…

Update: Due to overwhelming opposition from hunters, anglers, and other public land users, House leadership opted tonight to pull the portion of the budget reconciliation bill that authorized these public land sales. Read more here.Editor’s Note: This article originally reported on analysis from onX that found the proposed land sales in the Republican budget reconciliation bill totaled nearly 1.5 million acres. onX has since published an update lowering that estimate to over 500,000 acres. A representative from the company said onX analysts misread the legislation and did not discover the error until after the report had been published. The article…

The Department of Veterans Affairs is starting to move money from canceled contracts to other accounts even as it has yet to fully disclose what contracts it has ended.Late last month, the department sent Congress a notice informing lawmakers it would transfer more than $300 million from canceled contracts to accounts for the program that allows veterans to see non-VA doctors using VA funding, lawmakers and VA Secretary Doug Collins said at a hearing last week.Separately, this past Friday, the department sent Congress a list of 447 contracts it says it has canceled, according to a copy of the list…

This week on the show we’re discussing the surprisingly fascinating science of roadkill, wildlife crossings, and the impact of roads on deer and other wildlife, with author Ben Goldfarb. Connect with Mark Kenyon and MeatEater Mark Kenyon on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips Subscribe to The MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube Shop Wired to Hunt Merch and MeatEater Merch Read the full article here

Thousands of soldiers flying or busing into Washington, D.C., next month from more than a dozen Army divisions across the force will be sleeping on cots, eating mostly MREs (and hot chow for dinner), and showering in contracted trailers during the Army’s multimillion-dollar 250th birthday festivities, service officials said Wednesday.The soldiers — totaling about 6,700 — will stay in two government buildings close to the events, which will include a military parade that coincides with President Donald Trump’s birthday as well as musical performances, flyovers from 50 modern and legacy aircraft, and a fitness competition, officials said. Soldiers will receive…

This week’s guest, Jimmy Gruenwald, aka Jimmy Kits, talks about getting the right items in your backpack’s first aid kit. We talk tourniquets, quick clot, and more. Don’t skip this episode – your life may depend on it! Lean more at https://www.instagram.com/orionmedconsulting Connect with Jason, Dirk, and Phelps Game Calls MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips Subscribe to The MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube Shop Phelps Merch Read the full article here

In a move that pushes the boundaries of Constitutional prohibition against a state religion, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth hosted an evangelical prayer service in the middle of the day at the Pentagon in which a pastor praised President Donald Trump as “sovereignly appointed.”A program for the event called it the “Secretary of Defense Christian Prayer and Worship Service.” It was held at the Pentagon’s auditorium and was broadcast throughout the building on its internal cable network.While Hegseth made an opening prayer, the majority of the service was run by the defense secretary’s personal pastor from a Tennessee church whose leaders…

The Pentagon’s IT agency will lose nearly 10 percent of its total staff as part of the Trump administration’s push to slash the federal workforce, the agency’s director told senators Wednesday. But the workforce reduction may have its upsides.“It’s giving us an opportunity to ruthlessly realign and optimize how we are addressing what is an evolving mission,” Lt. Gen. Paul Stanton, director of the Defense Information Systems Agency, said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Wednesday. The agency has about 20,000 employees—just over half are contractors, approximately 6,800 are civilians, and 1,200 are active-duty military.The cuts could help better match…

The Defense Department has officially accepted a luxury jet from Qatar and has begun planning how to convert the plane into an Air Force One, despite bipartisan concern that accepting a foreign government’s plane is both dangerous and unethical.“The Secretary of Defense has accepted a Boeing 747 from Qatar in accordance with all federal rules and regulations. The Department of Defense will work to ensure proper security measures and functional-mission requirements are considered for an aircraft used to transport the President of the United States,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement Wednesday.Last week, President Donald Trump confirmed…

He was driving through town late in the evening when two cars tried to block him in at an intersection. As the occupants jumped out and headed his way, he strongly suspected that he was about to be the victim of a carjacking. Instead of trying to fight it out with multiple attackers, he quickly devised a plan. Driving over the curb, he quickly drove down the empty sidewalk, got back on the street and left the carjackers behind him. In another case, a farmer’s wife was fixing breakfast while her husband was down at the barn feeding livestock. While…