UNBIASED - Oregon School Shooting: What We Know | Ukraine Starshield, Russia Sanctions Waiver, Women's Health Order, and More.

Episode Date: October 19, 2026

We start in Bend, Oregon, with the deadly shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School. We walk through the full police timeline, the teacher who tackled the shooter, the father who ultimately shot and killed him, and the legal questions surrounding how the 16-year-old got the shotgun. Then, we break down the growing tension between the U.S. and Ukraine over intelligence sharing and Starshield, plus President Trump’s decision to temporarily waive nearly all of the major new Russia sanctions and tariffs Congress passed last month. Also in today's episode: Trump’s East Potomac golf-course fight, his new women’s-health executive order and NIH division, plus Quick Hitters on Katie Zacharia, new airline rules, Elon Musk’s SpaceX-share plan, the Supreme Court, and Amelia Earhart. 1. What We Know About the Oregon School Shooting (1:45) 2. Trump Waives Russia Sanctions, Possibly Limits Starshield for Ukraine (11:45) 3. Trump Announces New Plans for Golf Course in D.C. Despite Court Battle (~26:30) 4. Trump Signs Women's Health Executive Order. Here's What It Does. (~35:34) 5. Quick Hitters (~42:13) 6. Critical Thinking Segment (~48:34) ⁠Watch⁠ this episode on YouTube. Follow Jordan on ⁠Instagram⁠ and ⁠TikTok⁠. All sources for this episode can be found ⁠here.⁠  PilePad: Get 10% off and FREE Shipping at ⁠PilePad.com⁠. Use promo code UNBIASED. Incogni: Scammers are everywhere! But they can't harm you, if they can't find you! Use code JORDAN at ⁠https://incogni.com/jordan⁠ and get 60% off an annual plan! Bombas: Get 20% off your first purchase by going to Bombas.com/UNBIASED and using code UNBIASED at checkout. Quince: Quince.com/UNBIASED for FREE Shipping and 365-day returns. Monarch: Use code UNBIASED at Monarch.com com to get your first year of Monarch Core half off at just $50. Rocket Money: Join at RocketMoney.com/UNBIASED.  Cozy Earth: Please let them know you heard it here on UNBIASED POLITICS. Nutrafol: $10 off your first month’s subscription and free shipping with promo code UNBIASED at nutrafol.com.  Article: $50 OFF your first purchase of $100 of more by visiting article.com/unbiased.  Wildgrain: $40 OFF your first box at wildgrain.com/unbiased40 OR use code UNBIASED40 at checkout.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So your decaf oat milk extra but not piping hot, four pumps of caramel, no sugar, small latte, and a large cup. That will be 10 minutes. No worries. I'm having fun on Playojo. And I keep it fun with all the latest slot and live casino games. Plus I get instant payouts with no minimum withdrawals. Here's your decaf oat milk extra but not piping hot. Ah, thanks. Playtime's over.

Mmm, lovely. Feel the fun. Play Ojo. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concern about your gambling or that is someone close to you. Call 1866-531-2600 to visit connectsontario.ca. Welcome back to unbiased politics. It's Monday, October 19th. And today we're covering what we know about

the shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon. Trump waiving sanctions on Russia while also possibly limiting Star Shield for Ukraine, Trump's new women's health executive order and more. Now, quite a few of you have requested that I cover the protests in France. And I know I have a lot of new listeners and viewers here. So just as a quick reminder, this is my thing. with foreign affairs. The only way I'll really get into foreign affairs is if the United States is significantly involved in some way. So if the United States is negotiating a peace deal, if the United States gets involved militarily, things like that. For example, you'll hear later in this episode about Trump waiving Russian sanctions and possibly limiting Star Shield

for Ukraine. That's direct U.S. involvement. But because the protests in France have no significant U.S. involvement at this point. I won't be getting into it. If that changes and the U.S. does get involved in some significant way, that's where I'll jump in. In the meantime, as always, I highly recommend getting your information on the issue from both sides here in America. Obviously, hearing from people in France who are, you know, witnessing the protests is always good too. And really, I suppose that should be your first avenue of sourcing information. But if there's a language barrier or something like that, just make sure you're getting your information from the left and right here at home. Of course, if one day I expand and I'm more than just a one woman show, I will hopefully start

to incorporate foreign matters more often because I know they can be very important. But for now, it's just me and I know domestic issues and that is what I'm sticking to. So let's start today's episode with this recent shooting in Bend, Oregon, where four people were tragically killed during a shooting at an elementary. to re-school on Thursday. Three of the people killed were students, five, eight, and 11 years old, and the fourth was a 25-year-old teacher named Megan Lambert. A seven-year-old girl and another teacher, 54-year-old Becky Drury, were also seriously injured that seven-year-old has since been publicly identified as Sailor Graham, and as of this weekend, both Sailor and Drury were still in

the hospital. Police said Sailor was in serious but stable condition and Drury's injuries were serious but not considered life-threatening. So this is what we know about the timeline. Police say 16-year-old Griffin J. John II approached the back of Silver Rail Elementary at around 12.58 p.m. Thursday afternoon. He was carrying a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun. Police say he came toward the school from an undeveloped area, crossed the street, through the shotgun over a fence that surrounded the school, and then proceeded to climb over that fence. At least two people driving nearby saw him jump the fence. And one of those drivers, which was a man in a red pickup truck, confronted John first, but John fired at the man's truck, hit the man's truck at least three times.

So the man was able to drive away and he proceeded to call 911 at 1259. Thankfully, another driver also saw what happened and that person turned out to be the father of two students who attended the school. He has since been identified as 36-year-old Caleb Giamonko. Police say Giamonko saw John shoot at the other driver and then watched him continue toward the school. So Giamonko drove into the school's parking lot, grabbed his concealed 40-caliber handgun that he had with him in his car and headed toward the school. At the same time, John was continuing toward the school too, but from a different direction. And it made his way eventually into the school. Now, the exterior doors of the school were locked, but John, what he did is he fired multiple rounds through the glass of a set of double doors and thereafter forced his way inside and then went directly into the classroom immediately to the left of those doors, which was the special needs classroom.

Every person who was shot during this attack was inside that classroom. Investigators believe John fired as money as 15 rounds in total, although they are still trying to determine how much. of those rounds were fired inside the classroom as opposed to the shots that were fired at the door. In addition to his pump action shotgun, police say he had three different types of 12-gauge ammunition, and when they ultimately searched his backpack, they found another 44 rounds of ammunition. Now, one of the teachers inside of the special needs classroom heroically tried to stop him. She threw her cell phone at him, tackled him, and fought for control of the shotgun. Luckily, that teacher wasn't injured.

And the police chief has since said that her actions almost certainly helped prevent more bloodshed. At some point, while that was happening, while the teacher was fighting for this shotgun, that is when Giamonko, the father, gained entry to the school through the same doors that John had shot open, made his way to the classroom, and shot John several times. Again, that was while John was fighting with the teacher over possession of the shotgun, that is when this father shot John several times and ultimately killed him. Just to give you a sense of how quickly all of this happened, that first 911 call from the guy in the pickup truck came in at 1259.

Police sent out an emergency alert at 1 o'clock. The school was told to lock down at 101, and the first bend police officers arrived at 102. Shortly after that, an officer reported over the radio that the shooter had already been shot by a member of the community. So from that first 911 call, which was made by the man in the pickup truck, to police arriving at the school and John having already been killed, that's roughly three minutes. So this all happened very, very quickly. Now, as for the victims, one of the three children who died has been identified at his family's request as five-year-old Rome Summer. The families of the eight and 11-year-old boys, though, have asked that their names not be released.

The teacher who died, Megan Lampert, was 25 years old. As I said, she grew up in Bend. She graduated from Boise State in 2023 and had actually previously worked at Sail River Elementary as a substitute teacher, but then eventually got her first full-time job teaching there. Her family said working at the school was her dream job and that she always stood up for students with special needs. Now, as for the shooter, there is still a lot we don't know. The one thing we do know is that he was a special needs student at this elementary school when he was younger. However, investigators have not identified a motive at this point. The investigation is still ongoing,

so we may find out more later. Investigators have now searched his house. They're holding interviews. They're asking anyone who might have security camera footage or cell phone video showing John's movements in the hour before the shooting to turn that over. The Bend-Lapine school district canceled classes across the district on Friday. Students will also be home today and tomorrow, but most students are expected to go back Wednesday on an early, early release schedule, and then they'll fully return to their normal schedule Thursday and Friday. Silver rail students, though, they will not be going back to school at least this week. That school will remain closed until further notice. The district says that it has a separate plan for those students and staff.

Now, a couple of legal pieces here. Okay. So first, I've seen some questions about whether Giamonko can be charged for killing the shooter. Under Oregon law, you are allowed to use force not only to defend yourself, but also to defend someone else. So in a situation involving deadly force, the question would be whether Giamonko reasonably believed that another person was facing unlawful, deadly force and whether his use of deadly force was justified under those circumstances. And in this case, based on everything that the police have said, everything that we know, the answer to that question appears to be yes. So he almost certainly will not face charges. The other legal question you guys had is about John's mom supposedly buying the gun for her son.

Now, official reporting at this point is that his mom bought the shotgun around John's birthday and August, but so far there's no confirmation that she bought it for him. And even if we do eventually find out that she did buy it with the intention of giving it to him, that alone would not necessarily have been illegal under Oregon law. Oregon law allows a parent or guardian to give a minor a firearm so long as it's not a handgun. So because this was a shotgun, the fact that he was under the age of 18 doesn't make it illegal for his mom to buy him that gun or otherwise knowingly give it to him. And also the fact that he may have had special needs wouldn't really change that either. State law doesn't prohibit someone from possessing a firearm just because they have an

intellectual or developmental disability. Where there could potentially be a legal issue is if, one, the shotgun actually belonged to his mom and John accessed it without her permission, or two, his mom knowingly, gave him access to the gun despite knowing that he had been threatening to hurt himself or somebody else. So on that first potential issue, Oregon has a safe storage law that requires gun owners to secure a firearm in a certain way when it isn't under their control. And if a minor gets access to an unsecured gun and the owner knew or should have known that a minor could get to it, the owner could potentially face what Oregon calls a violation. Now, that's not a criminal charge.

It's more like a ticket or citation that can result in a fine, but not jail time. And then if that unsecured gun is ultimately used to injure someone within a two-year period, that could also lead to separate civil liability. The second possibility is a little different. So let's say investigators find that John's mom did buy the shotgun for him or otherwise intentionally gave it to him, but also find that before she did that, she knew that he was making credible threats to hurt himself, or somebody else. Well, Oregon has a crime called reckless endangerment. Reckless endangerment applies when someone recklessly does something that creates a substantial risk of serious physical injury

to another person. So depending on what his mom knew, whether he had previously made any threats, and if so, how specific or serious those threats were, prosecutors could potentially look at whether knowingly giving him access to a gun created that kind of risk. But there would have to be evidence about what she knew and what she did with that information before prosecutors could make that determination. So there are really a few different possibilities here. If his mom bought him the gun or otherwise knowingly gave it to him, that would not automatically be illegal just because he was a minor. Now, if the, if the gun belonged to her and he accessed it without her permission, then investigators could look at whether it had been properly secured. And if she knowingly gave

him the gun, despite being aware that he was threatening to hurt other people or, you know, himself, there could potentially be other legal issues there as well. But right now, we don't know with 100% certainty which of those scenarios, if any, happened. Once we do no more, we can do more of a legal analysis if that's something that you'd be interested in. Okay, next, we need to talk about what's going on between the U.S., Ukraine, and Russia, because there have been quite a few developments over the last week. And some of them, at least on the surface, seem maybe a little contradictory. So the latest is that President Trump waived almost all of the new sanctions and tariffs against Russia that Congress passed last month. But before we get into exactly what he

waived and why, I do want to back up just a little bit because this is really just the latest development in this back and forth we've been watching between President Trump and President Zelensky. So last week in quick hitters, we briefly talked about Trump being asked whether the United States had stopped sharing some intelligence with you. And the reason Trump was asked this is because Zelensky had said that a recent attack from Russian missiles came without the advance warning that Ukraine normally gets from its partners. He also said at the time that while U.S. intelligence sharing hadn't stopped, his generals had been warned that it could be at risk.

So that's why reporters asked Trump last week whether the U.S. had stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine. And Trump said no. He said the U.S. was still helping Ukraine, was still sharing intelligence. and was still working to get some sort of peace deal done between Ukraine and Russia. Well, then this weekend, Zelensky said that U.S. intelligence sharing had been temporarily interrupted, but has since been de-blocked. He didn't explain exactly what intelligence was interrupted.

He didn't explain how long the interruption lasted or why it even happened. So we still don't have a lot of answers as to what exactly happened there. We just know that that's what Zelensky said. Rubio said today that there was no pause in intelligence. sharing and that he doesn't know where Zelensky's getting that information from. So it's a bit of a he said he said. But, you know, when we talk about this intelligent sharing, this is something that can be critical when it comes to Ukraine's ability to defend itself against Russian attacks. And that's because Ukraine relies pretty heavily on U.S. intelligence to help detect Russian ballistic missiles and give

its military warning that they are coming. And interestingly, this question about intelligent sharing is relevant this morning because Ukraine was hit by another big Russian attack overnight. Russia launched more than 200 drones across Ukraine and fired 16 ballistic missiles toward Kiev in the surrounding area. And Zelensky said that Ukraine once again didn't get advanced warning from its partners before that first ballistic missile attack. However, a Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson said they did receive information before a second attack later on.

So we still don't know exactly what's happening behind the scenes with U.S. intelligence sharing. But that's, you know, Zelensky says there's been this interruption. Rubio says there's been no pause at all. Now, there's this issue involving Starlink and Star Shield. So Starlink is, you've probably seen commercials for it. If you don't use it, you've probably seen commercials for it on TV. It's, it's SpaceX's satellite internet system. It's what regular people like you and I, as well as businesses and governments can use to get internet service through satellites instead of cables or cell towers. Star Shield uses a lot of that same technology, but it was created specifically for the U.S. government and military.

And the U.S. government has much more control over how Star Shield is used than it does over the regular Starlink service. Well, last week, Ukrainian officials said some of the military-grade Star Shield equipment that they were using stopped working when it was mounted on fast-moving drones. Then on Thursday, a Ukrainian official said the equipment was working again while in the military-grade. motion, but only at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour. And that created problems for Ukraine because these satellite connections are used on drones not only for strike missions, but also on the interceptor drones that Ukraine uses to shoot down incoming drones. Meanwhile, Reuters reported, citing two U.S. officials and a Western official briefed on the matter, that the order to limit this Star Shield service came from inside the White House. According to those officials,

leaders at the Defense Department received a message that the Star Shield service being used by the Ukrainian military needed to be slowed. The officials, though, didn't say who inside the White House made that decision or who was ultimately responsible for carrying it out. And a senior Ukrainian officials separately told Reuters that when Ukraine started calling U.S. officials trying to get answers, they were also told that it was a White House decision. However, Secretary of State Rubio is disputing that. Rubio said this weekend that nobody at the White House ordered anyone to slow down the internet or reduce the speed. And he called the allegation categorically false. So again, we have these conflicting accounts where Reuters has multiple

officials saying the order came inside the White House. Rubio saying that didn't happen. But that's just one part of this whole thing. So let's take a quick break here. When we come back, we'll talk about the pressure that Trump's been putting on Ukraine to stop attacking Russian oil refineries and how this new tariff waiver fits into that. Hold music. Not what you want to hear when a pipe dispersed in your basement is flooding. That's why Intact Insurance answers 2 million claim calls per year within 20 seconds. So instead of hearing this lovely track, you'll hear this in seconds. Hello, Intact Insurance.

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Get your first year of PC Express Pass for just $2.50 a month. Learn more at no frills.ca. Welcome back. Before the break, we talked about the intelligence sharing between the United States and Ukraine and the possible limitations being put on Star Shield. Well, all of that is happening while Trump is also putting pressure on Ukraine to stop attacking Russian oil refineries. As we talked about last week, Trump recently reached this agreement with Russia that he says

will put more than 300,000 metric tons of Russian diesel immediately back on the market, plus 500,000 more metric tons in November, another one million after that, and potentially another three million after that, depending on Russian refinery capacity. And we talked about why that deal was reached and the arguments for and against it in last Thursday's episode. But the latest piece is that Trump has now temporarily waived almost all of these sanctions and tariffs against Russia that Congress just passed last month. So on September 18th, Trump said, signed the Lindsay O. Graham sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026. It was a pretty bipartisan bill. It passed the Senate 86 to 11. It passed the House 262 to 159.

Despite the fact that Russia and Iran are both in the name of this law, most of the new stuff in this law is really about Russia. The Iran portion basically keeps the existing Iran Sanctions Act in place through 2031. The Russia portion adds a whole bunch of new sanctions and economic restrictions that are meant to put more pressure on Russia to end the war in Ukraine. But probably the biggest part of the law is the tariffs. So the law allows the president to put tariffs of up to 500 percent on goods coming into the United States from Russia. And it allows tariffs of up to 100 percent on goods coming from other countries if those countries keep buying Russian oil or natural gas. The law really applies to the five biggest

importers of Russian crude oil and natural gas. If, if, if, those countries knowingly make new purchases of Russian oil starting October 18th. On Friday, though, Trump signed an executive order officially implementing the law. And the order does two things really at the same time. So first, it sets the tariff rates that Congress authorized. So Russian goods would face a 500 percent tariff. Goods from the five biggest buyers of Russian oil could face 100 percent tariff if they continue making these new purchases. And then goods from the five countries doing the most, essentially, to help Russia evade oil sanctions, could also face a 100% tariff. But then just a few paragraphs later in that same order,

Trump waives all of these tariffs. And it's not really just the tariffs. He waves. He also waives basically all of the major new sanctions and restrictions created by the Russia portion of this law. So Trump is essentially setting up the framework for all of these new penalties. You know, here's who could be targeted. Here's how high the tariffs could be. Here's what the administration is going to do to monitor. But he's also saying at the same time, we're just not implementing them right now. So instead, the order tells the U.S. Trade Representative and other administration officials to keep an eye on which countries are buying Russian oil and gas and which countries are helping Russia get around existing sanctions and then report that information back to Trump. So if Trump later

decides he wants to use these penalties, the structure is already there. But for now, the waivers mean almost all of these new sanctions and tariffs Congress just created are not being enforced. And I know a lot of you are wondering what happens if the administration doesn't enforce a law passed by Congress, but that's not entirely what's happening here. When Congress wrote this law, it put a waiver provision into the law. So Section 115 specifically says that the president can waive these sanctions, restrictions, and tariffs so long as before he does that, he sends Congress a written certification saying that this waiver is in the national interest of the United States and gives Congress a report explaining why. The executive order says Trump did that. And so far we haven't

heard otherwise from Congress. So legally speaking, Trump's power to do what he did was written into the law that was just recently passed. And therefore, he's within his authority to do it. Now, if he didn't send that written report to Congress saying that this is in the best interest of the country, and also sending a report explaining his decision, that's when you could run into a legal issue. Now, Rubio has said that Trump is doing this because he wants to use the next couple of months to figure out what these sanctions and tariffs would do, not just to Russia, but to the global economy and the U.S. economy. And part of his point is that these tariffs could hit countries that rely heavily on Russian energy.

And if you're one of those countries, you might not be able to just wake up tomorrow and replace all of that oil or natural gas you buy from Russia. So Rubio's argument is, before we implement these huge tariffs on these countries, let's first understand what these tariffs will do to energy prices and trade and the U.S. economy. But Trump's decision has also gotten a bit of a bit of pushback from members of both parties in Congress. Republican Senator Tom Tillis called this decision beyond irresponsible and questioned why the administration wasn't enforcing a law that just passed the Senate 86 to 11. Republican Senator John Cornyn and said Lindsey Graham would be appalled at this decision. Democrats have similarly accused Trump of undermining Congress's effort to put more pressure on

Putin. And Zelensky, of course, criticized this decision too and says Putin needs more economic pressure if you want to give him a reason to end the war and come to some sort of peace deal, not less pressure. So you have one side that's saying let's make this war more economically hurtful for Russia and therefore Putin may eventually have an incentive to stop. But the other side saying, well, if Russia starts getting some economic benefit by cooperating with the United States, then Putin may have more incentive to continue cooperating with the United States and reach some sort of peace deal rather than continuing the war if it's something that Trump says he doesn't want. Now, one last clarification here. I just want to be clear that Trump did not get rid of every U.S.

sanction against Russia. There were already a lot of sanctions on Russia before Congress passed this law last month. And Trump's executive order specifically says those sanctions are still in place. What he waived are all of the new sanctions and restrictions and tariffs that Congress created under this particular Lindsey Graham law. So hopefully that answers all of your questions regarding the tariff and sanctions waiver as well as the intelligence sharing with Ukraine. Let's move on. President Trump says his administration is moving forward with plans to redo a historic public golf course in D.C. Though there is ongoing litigation over this.

So Trump announced yesterday that the East Potomac golf links will close on November 15th. It'll be closed for about 15 months. And it'll be turned into what Trump says will be one of the best and most spectacular golf courses anywhere in the world. He says the new course will still be open to the public once the work is done. But it'll be designed to possibly host major tournaments like the US Open, PGA Championship, Ryder Cup, Presidents' Cup, tournaments like that. Now, the issue is that there's already a lawsuit challenging this development project.

And a federal judge has already temporarily stopped some of the work while that case plays out. So first of all, East Potomac Golf Links is this more than a hundred year old public golf course on federal land along the Potomac River. It's pretty close to the National Mall, but it's part of East Potomac Park, which is managed by the National Park Service. And Trump has been talking about redoing it for months. Now, back in February, the D.C. Preservation League and two golfers sued the Interior Department and the National Park Service. They argued that because this is federally managed parkland, the government can't just make these big changes to it without first going through certain environmental and historic preservation reviews that are required by federal law. Now, when that lawsuit was originally filed, it wasn't really too widely talked about. But then earlier this month, the National Park Service cut down more than 400 trees at the court.

in really one day. And the way that happened is part of why this became such a big issue. So according to the judge overseeing the case, the interior department went from ordering the tree removal plan to reviewing it to approving it all within about five days. The plaintiffs were notified late on Friday, October 9th that the park service planned to start removing the trees the next morning. And by the end of Saturday, Cruz had already taken down about 430 trees. And these were healthy, non-invasive trees. They weren't dead or, you know, like infested or anything like that. But the government has since said that those trees were not removed as part of Trump's Gulf Course Redevelopment Plan. The tree removal instead came from this older 2019 plan to restore

more of the property's original open links style design. But the plaintiffs are arguing that this 2019 plan had been sitting there since 2019 and nothing like this had happened for years. and then all of the sudden, after Trump starts pushing to completely redo the golf course, the government moves from considering this tree removal plan to cutting down more than 400 trees within a matter of days. So they argue that the tree removal is connected to the broader redevelopment and that the administration is making irreversible changes to the property before going through the environmental review that they say is required under law. However, the government still maintains. These are two separate projects. And really,

regardless of whether the tree removal was technically part of the golf course free development or not, the judge overseeing the case took issue with how all of this went down because earlier in the case, she had told the government that she wanted advance notice before there was any substantive construction or anything else that could cause irreversible changes to the course. Well, like I said, the government notified the court about the tree removal plan on October 9th late in the day. Cruz started cutting down trees the next morning. So once the judge had an opportunity to weigh in on this, she said, was inexcusable. She temporarily blocked any additional tree removal through October 26th, and

she ordered the government to provide three business days notice before making other irreversible changes to the course. So that brings us to Trump's announcement yesterday, because in a court filing on Friday, the Trump administration argued that the plaintiff's lawsuit is premature and should therefore be dismissed. The administration said there's been no final agency action involving the redevelopment, that the proposed project is still at an early and conceptual stage and that at most Trump had given preliminary thought to rebuilding the course. Well, then on Sunday, Trump announced that the interior department had developed a plan. Trump posted a rendering of the new course. He said the course will close November 15th and will reopen about 15 months later. Well, that announcement is what

prompted the judge to then order the government to tell her whether it is still standing by its position that there's been no final agency action and that Trump has only given this preliminary thought. The government responded yesterday answering yes. The government said that it still maintains there has not been a final agency action because the National Park Service has not completed its review and the plan itself is not final. And then this morning, Trump seemed to double down on that he wrote untrue social quote, the United States Department of Interior wants to take a terrible and very unsafe golf course and make it into a great safe and prestigious golf course. They have an absolute right to do so. The judge on the case is a crazed lunatic whose courthouse tapes will reveal may be insane.

The random golfer bringing the ridiculous lawsuit has zero standing. The experts at Interior are allowed to do this first class renovation as of right. They do not need an approval. Work is scheduled to begin immediately. And quote. So obviously that statement seems to change things. He now seems to say that work will begin immediately, whereas before he said November 15th. So as far as a start date at this point is just kind of unclear.

We'll have to see how the judge responds to that. But legally speaking, final agency action is kind of an important phrase because it has to do with the Administrative Procedure Act. The Administrative Procedure Act is the law people use to challenge decisions made by the federal government. And under the Administrative Procedure Act or when the Administrative Procedure Act is part of the lawsuit, courts review agency decisions once they are final. The court, the court usually doesn't review something when it's in the idea or proposal phase. So the government's argument is that there isn't a final National Park Service decision for the court to review yet. But the plaintiffs are saying, well, hundreds of trees have already been cut down and Trump has now announced a construction date and posted renderings. So this has gone beyond just an idea or a proposal.

So that'll be something else that the judge has to consider here. Keep in mind, timeline and requirements. The judge's order currently blocks additional tree removal through October. 26th. It's limited to tree removal and it requires the government to provide three business days notice before any other irreversible changes. So Trump announcing that construction will start November 15th or even immediately doesn't by itself violate the judge's order. The administration just has to give three business days notice and have it approved seemingly. But at the same time, the judge could always come in and just stop construction from starting altogether.

that are given these new developments. So this is just something that we will have our eye on to see what develops. Let's take our second and final break here. When we come back, we'll talk about Trump's executive order on women's health. And then we'll finish with critical thinking and quick hitters. Hold music. Not what you want to hear when a pipe dispersed in your basement is flooding. That's why intact insurance answers two million claim calls per year within 20 seconds.

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Learn more at no frills.ca. Welcome back. President Trump signed an executive order today, creating a new women's health division inside the National Institutes of Health and a new White House Task Force focused specifically on women's health. Now, this is something the first lady has been pushing pretty high. heavily behind the scenes. So let's talk about what this order does. There are there are really two main pieces here. First, it creates this new women's health division inside the NIH. The NIH is of course

the federal agency that oversees and funds a huge amount of medical research in the United States. And this new division is supposed to focus specifically on improving women's health. Things like maternal health, mental health, endometriosis, Alzheimer's disease, osteoporosis, heart disease, and stroke are all priorities under this order. Importantly, the order doesn't come with a specific new funding amount. So we don't know how much is going to ultimately be allocated to this. But for context, NIH has recently been spending around $5 billion a year on research categorized as women's health.

That's roughly 10% of its overall congressional budget. So the question now becomes whether this new division and task force ultimately lead to more funding, whether existing funding gets redirected. or whether there's just no additional funding at all and the research is simply reorganized under this new structure. So here's the thing. The NIH already has something called

the Office of Research on Women's Health. It's an office that has existed since 1990. Congress formally wrote it into law in 1993. Its job is essentially to make sure women's health is being considered across NIH research. So identifying areas where more research is needed, making sure women are represented in NIH-funded studies, looking at whether diseases or treatments affect women differently,

studying why certain conditions affect women at higher rates or show up differently in women, things like that. Trump's new women's health division isn't replacing that office. In fact, the order specifically says this new division will work with that existing office. HHS and NIH now have 90 days to create this new division somewhere within an existing NIH Institute or center. The order also gives this new division a pretty wide range of responsibilities that go beyond just coordinating research. It's supposed to focus on women's health from the research stage all the way through prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and getting new medical discoveries into actual practice. The new division is supposed to focus more research on women's health conditions that are still understudied, support things like replication studies, improve the inclusion of women and girls

in clinical trials, make sure NIH-funded research is accounting for sex as a biological variable, use newer research technologies to help speed up diagnosis and treatment, and then help take whatever researchers learn and get it into doctors' offices and public health programs. And then the order also says the division can look at policy and regulatory. changes. It can recommend pilot programs. It can update clinical education and work with states, local governments, hospitals, community organizations, private companies, and other groups on women's health. So those are some of the new division's responsibilities and powers. But exactly how the new division and the existing Office of Research on Women's Health will work alongside each other

is something that we'll just have to see as the administration starts to implement this. The second piece of the order is this new White House Women's Health Task Force. The task force will be co-led by White House Chief of Staff, Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles and HHS Secretary RFK Jr. But it does include officials from HHS, NIH, FDA, CDC, Medicare and Medicaid, Veterans Affairs, education, labor, agriculture, EPA, and several other parts of the government, just because the goal here with this task force is to get different parts of the federal government working together instead of having women's health programs scattered across different agencies. So this task force is supposed to look at things like research, access to care,

affordability, new treatments in ways that technology, including AI, could potentially speed up these medical discoveries. But the task force is expected to hold its first meeting today in the Roosevelt room. So this is something the administration is going to start working on immediately. Notably, Trump's order revokes two Biden-era actions on women's health. Biden's 24 executive order on women's health research and innovation, and the 2023 presidential memorandum that created Biden's White House initiative on women's health research. Now, legally, Trump did not have to revoke those actions in order to create this new division and task force.

He could have just adopted, you know, this new initiative on top of Biden's because Biden's initiative also focused similarly on things like getting more women into clinical trials, increasing women's health research, using AI, turning that research into better treatments in health care. But, you know, also there are also quite a few differences. Probably the biggest difference is that Biden didn't create a separate women's health division inside the NIH like Trump is now doing. Also, Trump's new task force puts more of an emphasis on what happens after the research has done, things like prevention, early diagnosis, treatment, getting new medical discoveries into doctor's offices, like I've said a couple of times,

updating clinical education, all of those things that. I mentioned earlier, whereas Biden's order focused more on the research itself. At the same time, Biden's order was a bit more specific in some of the requirements that it put on federal agencies. So, for example, it required the government to identify gaps in federal women's health research funding. It had agencies report how much more money they believed was needed for the initiative. It ordered a specific federal assessment of menopause research. It set a number of deadlines for agencies to report back on what they were doing. So Trump's order addresses some of those same topics like clinical trials and menopause,

but it doesn't include that same kind of detailed funding assessment or regular reporting schedule that Biden's did. All this to say, there are enough substantive differences between the two to where it would make sense why Trump would want one framework instead of having two initials. giving the different federal agencies different instructions, but none of those differences required Trump to revoke Biden's actions. He could have kept Biden's directives in place and added his own requirements on top of them. But yeah, the big takeaway here is this new order creates these two pieces, the women's health division inside the NIH and the White House Women's Health Task Force. All right, let's do some quick hitters. The White House removed Katie Zachariah from the role of press secretary on Friday. President Trump first suggested she

reconsider the job because of the scrutiny she was facing. And Zachariah later posted that it had been an honor to work for him. The White House has not yet announced who will replace her. And let me just add here, I did see a lot of comments after that episode kind of debating with me over whether an attorney and a lawyer are the same thing. They are in fact the same thing. I think there's this common misconception because of outdated definitions and outdated information that a lawyer is someone who just goes to law school and gets their degree, whereas an attorney is someone who can actually practice. Modern definition, modern standard, they're both the same thing. You cannot call yourself a lawyer or an attorney unless you are licensed to practice.

So just wanted to add that clarification here. A new Transportation Department rule takes effect today that changes how airlines classify certain flight delays and cancellations. 10 types of disruptions, including some unscheduled maintenance issues, unruly passengers, medical emergencies, cybersecurity attacks, and certain airport closures will no longer be counted as delays or cancellations caused by the airline. Now, airlines only promise things like a meal or hotel vouchers when a disruption is considered within their control. So this will change that. The Transportation Department says the change is meant to make delay data more accurately reflect what airlines can and can't control.

Notably, this rule does not eliminate passengers separate right to a refund. a flight is canceled or significantly changed and they choose not to travel. A 34-year-old woman has been released without charges after police say she drove a pickup truck onto a youth soccer field in Wichita, Kansas, killing two people and injuring 10 others. The people killed were a six-year-old boy and 35-year-old man. Police say the truck had been parked near the soccer fields before it drove onto the field, but investigators haven't yet said what caused the crash or whether it was intentional. The driver had two of her own children inside the truck at the time, while another one of her

children was playing soccer on a different field. Police say they are waiting on toxicology results and a mechanical exam of the truck before deciding whether charges should be filed. A National Guard member was shot in the leg last night in Washington, D.C. after Guard members intervened in a fight near Capitol Hill. D.C. police say one of the people involved in the fight pulled out a gun and began firing. Police say when the man pointed the gun towards the guard members, three of them returned fire and hit him in the abdomen. Both the guard member and the suspect were taken to the hospitals, with injuries that are not considered life-threatening. The suspect has been arrested, and DC police are investigating the shooting.

An Air Force service member has died after falling during a repelling demonstration at the Alamo Dome in San Antonio ahead of Saturday's football game. Witnesses say the airman was one of three service members repelling from the stadium ceiling, which was a drop of about 170 feet. He began descending really fast, ultimately fell crashing on the ground. he there was no movement once he hit the ground. He was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries and he did later die. The U.S. Air Force has since identified the service member as tech sergeant Ian Patterson.

Patterson was a tactical air control party instructor assigned to the sixth combat training squadron, Detachment 2 at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas. He served for 15 years and in 2022 was named the Air Force Special Warfare enlisted instructor of the year at the headquarters Air Force level. Elon Musk says he plans to give one SpaceX share to every child in the United States next year. Musk did not give many details. He didn't say who would qualify or how the shares would be distributed. But there are currently more than 72 million children under the age of 18 here in the United States. So at SpaceX's current share price, which likely would not be the share price next year or will not be the share price next year, the pledge would be worth roughly $10.5 billion.

However, I will note that SpaceX President Gwynne Schottwell and her husband have already pledged, more than $320 million in SpaceX stock to fund Trump accounts for more than 2 million children. So perhaps Musk's idea would use a similar path? Who knows? Musk said the giveaway would not, would be the first of many, but did not provide additional details about what he meant there either. The Supreme Court declined to revive a plea deal for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man accused of leading the plan for the September 11th attacks. Under the 2024 agreement, Muhammad would have pleaded guilty and avoided the death penalty. But then defense secretary Lloyd Austin canceled the deal shortly after it was announced. Mohamed's attorneys argued that Austin did not have the

authority to undo the agreement after it had already been approved, but a federal appeals court disagreed and upheld Austin's decision. By declining to hear the case, the Supreme Court leaves that appeals court ruling in place, so the plea deal remains off the table. Muhammad is currently scheduled to go to trial before a military commission in June 28. And speaking of the Supreme Court, the justices have agreed to decide whether the federal government can continue banning people from making distilled spirits like whiskey at home for personal use. This band dates all the way back to 1868 when Congress prohibited home distilling as part of an effort to collect federal taxes on liquor and crack down on widespread tax evasion. Federal law now allows people to make beer and wine at home, but generally still prohibits distilling liquor in a home or on a property connected to a home. A group of home distillers is challenging that restriction, arguing Congress doesn't have the constitutional authority to ban purely personal non-commercial distilling.

The federal government, though, argues the ban is still a valid way to enforce federal alcohol taxes. The Supreme Court is expected to hear the case later this term. The search for Amelia Earhart's missing plane did not end up finding the record wreckage researchers were hoping for. Instead, researchers concluded it was most likely a collection of trees that had washed ashore. Researchers have previously found other items on the island and artifacts dating back to the 1930s, like a woman's compact and pieces of cosmetic containers, which researchers say could fit the theory that Earhart and Navigator Fred Noonan survived for some time on the island, but none of those artifacts have been conclusively linked to Earhart or Noonan. For today's critical thinking segment, let's go back to the women's health executive order. So my first question is, is there a benefit to having a separate division focused specifically on women's health? Or is there a risk that separating women's health from the rest of medicine actually reinforces the idea that it's somehow a separate category?

At what point does creating a separate division help fix an inequality? and at what point does it risk creating a silo? And then finally, what would success look like five years from now? So assuming that this new division is created at the NIH and this White House task force is launched, what would success look like to you? That's what I have for you. Thank you so much for being here. As always, if you love today's show and you found it valuable, please share the show with a friend.

Please leave me a review. And if you're listening or watching on YouTube, please go ahead and hit that like button and please subscribe to the channel. Have a, what is it, Monday. It's Monday, so have a next couple of days. And I will talk to you on Thursday. Hold music. Not what you want to hear when a pipe just burst in your basement is flooding.

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