The Breakfast Club - The Tax Deal, The Trial, and The Outbreak

Episode Date: May 20, 2026

Mimi Brown breaks down the day. The IRS just agreed to never audit Trump or his family for their past tax returns. A Virginia school official is on trial three years after a six-year-old shot his teacher. And the WHO just declared a new Ebola outbreak a global emergency. Plus The Underplayed.  From the Black Effect Podcast Network.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FMSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey guys, it's us The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it.

We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.

Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform?

We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Joey Dardano, and on my new podcast, Hope from a Hippocrite, I'll be changing lives, helping people in need with thoughtful solutions. Sike, I'm a comedian. I'm not qualified to give good advice. Join me and my comedian friends as we riff, rant, recommend some of the most legally dubious advice known to me.

This is Help from a Hypocrite, the worst advice from the dumbest people you know. Listen to Help from a Hypocrite Wednesdays on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. The story I've told myself can then shape my behavior and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection. This Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast deeply well with Debbie Brown. If you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole, this podcast is for you to hear more. Listen to deeply well with Debbie Brown from the Black Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you Get Your Podcast.

The IRS has now agreed it will no longer pursue audits of President Trump's past tax returns or those tied to his family and businesses. I know very little about it. I wasn't involved. And a former Virginia assistant principal is now on trial three years after a six-year-old shot his teacher. I knew it was a gunshot. And the World Health Organization declares a new Ebola outbreak, a global health emergency.

Should Americans be worried? There is an American that is symptomatic and has tested. positive. It's Wednesday, May 20th. From the Black Effect podcast network, I'm Mimi Brown. This is Front Page, and here are the day's biggest stories. Plus today on the underplayed, the $94 billion $hbCU story almost nobody is covering. Stay with me. So lots of breaking news today, front pagers, the Trump administration officially creating what it's calling the anti-weaponization fund, a nearly $2 billion dollar fund, the federal government says, will compensate people it believes were unfairly investigated or prosecuted during the Biden administration. We talked about this a little bit yesterday.

But let's talk about it some more because this is taxpayer money, your money, my money, federal dollars, nearly $1.8 billion that the government could now send to people this administration decides we're politically targeted. Here's Vice President J.D. Vance. defending the idea. We're going to evaluate these things on a case-by-case basis. And if we think that somebody, whatever they were accused of, if we think that somebody was unfairly prosecuted and deserves just compensation, then that's what this fund is going to exist to provide. It's just going to correct a wrong. And I think that's a good thing. And I'd encourage everybody, Democrat, Republican, Independent, let's turn the page on this thing that we did under the last administration

where we tried to throw people in prison because they had the wrong politics. And now, this story goes one step further because overnight another document surfaced and this is the part that should make every working taxpayer in this country stop in their tracks. According to a separate one-page document quietly posted by the Justice Department Tuesday morning, the IRS is now barred from auditing Donald Trump, his family or his businesses over tax returns filed before this past Monday. So that means the president, his sons, his companies, his trust, none of them can be audited by the IRS for any return they filed before this week. The document was signed by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. There is no signature from the IRS itself. But let me put this in perspective.

The IRS audits regular working people every single day over a missing W2, over a math error, over a few hundred dollars in unreported tips. And two former IRS commissioners, people who actually used to run the agency, said this week they have never seen in the agency, sees history, anything like this. One of them called it a terrible precedent. The other said they can't find a single example of the IRS ever agreeing in advance to permanently stop auditing one specific person. So let's land this plane.

In one week, the administration set up a nearly $2 billion taxpayer-funded payout system to compensate people they decided were wrong and quietly signed a separate document, making sure the president and his family never have to answer to the IRS about a previously filed tax return ever again. Meanwhile, millions of Americans will still be audited, and millions are deciding right now between paying rent and putting food on the table, and if this is allowed to continue, what's next? Perhaps Senator Chris Murphy said it best. And if he gets away with it, with this slush fund from the IRS, he's going to do it everywhere. He'll sue every federal agency with some bogus bull-de-claim. He'll settle out of court for billions of dollars.

and that money will be used by him to try to curry favor and gain political influence. We've never, ever seen anything like this before. I get it that people, you know, don't know what a big number is anymore, but $1.7 billion, that's a lot of money. That's your taxpayer money. You worked hard for that money. And that money is now going into a political slush fund for the president to give to January 6th rioters to hand out to his political.

allies around the country, that's outrageous. There's a trial happening right now in Newport News, Virginia, and it's probably the type of trial that ends up being studied in law schools years from now. So the defendant is Dr. Ebony Parker. She's a former assistant principal at Rich Neck Elementary School, and she's facing eight separate counts of felony child neglect, one for every bullet in the gun, a six-year-old brought to school that day. So you may remember this story back in January of 2023, a six-year-old child known in court documents only as J.T. brought a loaded gun to school to his first grade classroom. He pulled it out. He pointed it at his teacher and he pulled the trigger. The bullet

went through her hand and into her chest and she survived. She came back to teaching and on Tuesday she took the witness stand. So if he was on, that presented a danger to your students. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. So you took no action to separate J.T. from his other class. Is that correct? Yes. All right. All right. And so you allowed him to go out to recess with the understanding that he may have had a gun.

Is that correct? Yes. You could have refused to let him to go to recess. You could have removed him from the presence of his other classmates. Is that correct? And my side, yes, I could have. But the person on trial is Dr. Ebony Parker. She's a school official who was warned that a child had a gun.

in the building multiple times over the course of more than an hour. And prosecutors say she did nothing. Now Parker's defense team, they are not denying the shooting happen. They're not even denying that the staff came to her. But they are arguing that the teachers, the ones who reported the concern, should have done something themselves. A civil jury has already weighed in. And last November, Abby's Werner won a $10 million civil judgment against Parker.

Now, Parker is appealing that. But again, this is a criminal trial in each of those eight counts. carries up to five years in prison. If Parker is convicted on all of them, she could face 40 years in prison. But I think part of the reason why this story is gaining so much national attention because Parker is the first school administrator in American history to face criminal charges in a case like this. So what this jury decides, every superintendent, every school board member, every educator in

this country will be watching. Every Wednesday on front page, we spotlight a story that deserves. way more attention than it got. Today's pick, the Department of Energy, just announced $94 million in clean energy grants going directly to HBCUs. The money will help fund sustainable technology on campuses, student-led energy startups, a new farming technology using solar panels above crops across the rural south. And here's the key part. The government says the funding is being fast-tracked to reach schools in months and not years. So if you've got family at an HBCU, especially studying in engineering, science, or tech, tell them to pay attention because this is one of those opportunities

that can quietly change lives. That's the underplay. Health officials are closely monitoring a new Ebola outbreak in Central Africa. That's where an American missionary doctor tested positive for the virus is now being transferred to Germany for treatment. The doctor had been working in the Democratic Republic of Congo when the outbreak began. Several family members and other doctors are also being monitored. Health officials gave an update on the situation. There is an American that is symptomatic and has tested positive for a, it's the Bundy-Busja virus, a strain of Ebola. That American, as well as six other high-risk contacts are going to be taken out of that region and taken to Germany. We want to thank our German counterparts. For all other Americans, we have issued

travel warnings. We have instituted just today entry restrictions for non-U.S. citizens that have been in the region in the past 21 days. So in Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo and South Sudan. Right now, there are no cases of Ebola in America. We want to keep it that way. And health officials, they say Ebola does not spread casually. It requires direct contact with bodily fluids from someone showing symptoms, but concerns are growing because this particular strain has no approved vaccine. As of today, more than 100 people have died in the outbreak. That's your front page. I'm Mimi Brown. This podcast is brought to you by the Black Effect Podcast Network. Hey, guys, it's us.

The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. Nice. We invented a podcast?

Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.

Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. The story I've told myself can then shape my behavior and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection. This Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast Deeply Well with Debbie Brown if you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole. This podcast is for you to hear more. Listen to Deeply Well with Debbie Brown from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart

Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Joey Dardano, and on my new podcast, Hope From a Hypocrite, I'll be changing lives, helping people in need with thoughtful solutions. Sike, I'm a comedian. I'm not qualified to give good advice. Join me and my comedian friends as we riff, rant, recommend some of the most legally dubious advice known to me. This is Help from a Hypocrite, the worst advice from the dumbest people you know. Listen to help from Hippocrite Wednesdays on the Iheart radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.