Orange County Water District’s $10,000 party proposal tabled, may be scaled back

• February 20, 2025

One might be forgiven for confusing the board meeting room for an elementary school playground: “I support first responders.” “Well, I support first responders more!”

On Wednesday evening, the Orange County Water District’s governing board spent more than a half-hour debating whether to spend up to $10,000 on a “First Responder Appreciation Luncheon to express our gratitude and strengthen relationships.”

But, as manager of the groundwater basin, OCWD doesn’t directly supply or work with first responders.

And over the past 10 or 15 years, there have been just nine or 10 incidents requiring first responder intervention. None resulted in arrests, and there’s a security wall around OCWD’s campus with its own 24-hour security at the gate.

“I’ll be the first to say I support first responders 100%,” said Stephen Sheldon, representing Irvine, Newport Beach and Tustin. But in the current political environment — where arguably critical government functions are labeled wasteful — “I feel this expense is not appropriate,” he said. “We can find other ways to do this.”

Board member Fred Jung, the mayor of Fullerton, agreed, noting that OCWD could buy folks steak and a bottle of wine for what they’d be spending. “I don’t find the expense consistent with what we’re trying to do here,” said Jung, adding that he supported first responders but felt OCWD should be respectful of ratepayers and taxpayers as well.

“Do you really support first responders? Do you really?” asked Valerie Amezcua, Santa Ana’s mayor. “We are all running out. They are running in.”

Sheldon shot back with, essentially, don’t judge my heart and one can’t buy one’s way into heaven. Just because you spend money doesn’t mean you support first responders, he said.

Cathy Green, representing Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley, who modeled the luncheon idea after a similar event at Moulton Niguel Water District, said there was nothing nefarious about it and that many first responders are simply unfamiliar with OCWD’s campus. There are many chemicals there and staffers might have to guide police and/or firefighters to the site of an emergency. The luncheon would serve the dual purpose of showing appreciation to staffers and familiarizing emergency workers with the campus.

It might be worth noting here that the district was founded 92 years ago, in 1933. Anyway, in the end — after noting that they spent more time discussing a $10,000 allocation than the many millions of dollars worth of projects on the consent calendar — the board decided to table the luncheon proposal while staffers consider scaling back the expense and (perhaps) breadth of the event. They might focus on Fountain Valley first responders, who’d be most likely to be first on the scene of an emergency.

OCWD supplies water to 19 cities and special districts in north and central O.C., including Anaheim, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Orange, Santa Ana, Tustin and Westminster. A particularly snarky reader wondered if first responders should actually be feting OCWD — after all, we live in a semi-desert and they all drink water, don’t they?

​ Orange County Register 

LAFC acquires Turkish midfielder Cengiz Ünder

• February 20, 2025

Los Angeles Football Club supporters could see something this year that they have not since Steve Cherundolo took over as head coach prior to the 2022 season.

Two days before kicking off the 2025 Major League Soccer schedule at home against Minnesota United, LAFC announced the acquisition of Turkish forward Cengiz Ünder on loan from Süper Lig club Fenerbahçe.

Ünder joins Denis Bouanga and Olivier Giroud as the club’s Designated Players — each of whom have salaries higher than the league’s maximum salary budget charge. Not since 2021, when Carlos Vela, Diego Rossi and Brian Rodriguez were under contract, has LAFC featured a trio of DP attackers.

“I look forward to playing in front of the Los Angeles fans and representing the inclusive culture of the club,” Ünder said in a statement on Thursday. “I know that L.A. is home to many ethnicities and that LAFC has a multicultural fan base, including many Armenians. I am a professional who enjoys the game of football and believes in its unifying power; I have played in England, Italy and France and have shared my joys and sorrows with teammates, fans, and other community members of many different ethnicities, which I will continue to do in L.A. I know that our fans are aware of the unifying power of sports, and I hope we can embrace each other.”

Ünder was named the Turkish Footballer of the Year in 2018. The 27-year-old right winger has 66 goals and 46 assists as a professional. For the Turkish national team, Ünder scored 16 times and added 10 assists in 51 caps.

Beginning his career with Turkey’s Altinordu in 2014, Ünder went on to play for AS Roma, Leicester City and Olympique de Marseille before moving to Fenerbahçe in the summer of 2023 for a reported fee of 15 million euros. He made 42 appearances for Fenerbahçe including 20 starts, recording nine goals and three assists with the Turkish side.

“Cengiz is a top-quality player with experience at the highest levels of international competition,” LAFC co-president and general manager John Thorrington said in a statement announcing the loan. “He has proven himself in some of the best leagues in the world and his attacking abilities will contribute to our success in 2025.”

Expiring on June 30, the loan includes a purchase option that gives LAFC room to maneuver as it seeks to sign French star Antoine Griezmann during the secondary transfer window (July 24-Aug. 21).

​ Orange County Register 

Trump team plans deep cuts at office that funds recovery from major disasters, including wildfires

• February 20, 2025

The Trump administration plans to all but eliminate the office that oversees America’s recovery from the largest disasters, raising questions about how the United States will rebuild from hurricanes, wildfires and other calamities made worse by climate change.

The Office of Community Planning and Development, part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, pays to rebuild homes and other recovery efforts after the country’s worst disasters, such as Hurricane Helene in North Carolina and Hurricane Milton in Florida.

The administration plans to cut the staff in that office by 84%, according to a document obtained by The New York Times. The number of workers would be cut to 150, from 936 when President Donald Trump took office last month.

Those cuts could slow the distribution of recovery money to North Carolina and other recent disasters, depending how quickly they happen.

“HUD is carrying out President Trump’s broader efforts to restructure and streamline the federal government to serve the American people at the highest standard,” a spokesperson for the department, Kasey Lovett, said in an initial statement.

In an additional statement, Lovett wrote: “Disaster recovery efforts are a top priority and will not be impacted. HUD’s mission to serve all communities — especially following tragedies — remains unchanged.”

The primary responsibility for rebuilding communities after major disasters falls to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which helps state and local governments pay to repair or rebuild damaged roads, bridges, schools, water treatment plants and other public infrastructure. The agency also provides money to help repair damaged homes.

But some disasters are so big that they exceed FEMA’s funding, or the damage doesn’t fit neatly within FEMA’s programs. When that happens, Congress can choose to provide additional help, through a program at HUD called the Community Development Block Grant — Disaster Recovery.

That extra help from Congress can involve far greater sums than what FEMA can provide. In 2006, for example, Congress provided almost $17 billion to rebuild the Gulf Coast after hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma. After Hurricane Sandy, Congress gave HUD more than $15 billion to help rebuild the Northeast.

As disasters have grown more frequent and severe, HUD’s disaster recovery program has become central to the country’s strategy for coping with climate change. During the 1990s, Congress typically gave the program a few hundred million dollars a year. Over the past decade, by contrast, Congress has often provided billions or even tens of billions annually.

HUD’s disaster recovery money also comes with fewer strings attached. The money is largely used to rebuild homes that were either uninsured or underinsured, which FEMA does not pay for. It also goes toward rebuilding infrastructure that’s not covered by FEMA, like the private roads and bridges that were significantly damaged by Helene in North Carolina.

The money can also be used for job training, to help workers whose employers went out of business after a disaster.

Because state and local officials are often overwhelmed by a disaster, and because the influx of federal funds is large and quick, one of HUD’s main jobs is ensuring the money isn’t lost to waste, fraud or abuse. That includes tasks like helping state and local governments set up systems to avoid paying contractors twice, according to a former official who worked on the program. It can also mean more complicated tasks like coordinating HUD’s grants with other federal disaster programs.

HUD’s community planning and development office was already stretched thin, especially as large-scale disasters have become more frequent. On average, the HUD employees who manage disaster grants are each responsible for overseeing about $1 billion in grants, according to an official who worked in the office.

Deep cuts to staffing levels would make it harder for HUD to prevent fraud, waste and abuse, according to two former officials familiar with the program who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. The cuts are being dictated by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, whose stated goal is to reduce fraud, waste and abuse.

The community planning and development office is responsible for managing other spending programs beyond disaster recovery. Those include paying for infrastructure upgrades like sewers and sidewalks, affordable housing projects and programs like Meals on Wheels.

​ Orange County Register 

In the Trump administration, nearly every major department is an immigration agency

• February 20, 2025

By REBECCA SANTANA, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Drug Enforcement Administration agents touting immigration arrests, IRS agents poring over documents, the military escorting deportation flights. As the Trump administration works on the president’s pledge to crack down on illegal immigration and carry out mass deportations, the flurry of activity has stretched across the federal government — well beyond the Department of Homeland Security, the traditional home to most immigration and border security functions.

President Donald Trump’s sweeping promises have translated into a whole-of-government approach for immigration enforcement. In other words, nearly every major Cabinet agency is an immigration agency in Trump’s government.

The departments of State, Defense and Justice have made immigration a clear priority in their work and public messaging. Parts of the departments of Treasury and Health and Human Services have been involved. And the reach and focus on immigration are only expected to grow, with the Republican president late Wednesday signing an executive order aimed at ending federal benefits for people in the U.S. illegally.

“The breadth of what is happening in these first couple of weeks is much wider than we saw during the first Trump administration,” said Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh, associate policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute.

Here’s a look at how immigration enforcement is playing out across the federal government.

Immigration as a State Department priority

Trump has promised “mass deportations,” which means not only arresting as many people in the U.S. illegally as possible but also figuring out how to remove them from the country.

That’s where the State Department comes in.

Marco Rubio’s first international trip as secretary of state was to Central America, and he came away with deals for Guatemala, Panama and El Salvador to accept deportees from other nations. That helps officials address a key barrier: Many countries don’t take back their citizens when deported.

Other issues were part of Rubio’s trip — Chinese influence on the Panama Canal, for example — but migration was at the top of his agenda.

Tom Warrick, a former top DHS counterterrorism official who’s now at the Atlantic Council, a nonpartisan think tank, said that wasn’t always the case.

“For DHS, for ICE in particular, it’s, ‘What do you need foreign countries to do? OK. State Department, it’s now your requirement to go out and make that your top priority,’” he said.

Trump’s pick for Rubio’s deputy, Christopher Landau, was ambassador to Mexico from 2019 to 2021 and played a key role in implementing the Remain in Mexico policy, and, like Rubio, speaks fluent Spanish.

That’s another sign of immigration’s importance, said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for less immigration.

“Just the fact that the two of them are the No. 1 and 2 people in the State Department suggests the administration’s refocus on our own backyard,” Krikorian said. “And immigration control is a big part of that.”

And from the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, 600 agents were deputized Tuesday by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to assist in “arresting and deporting” people in the country illegally.

A ramped-up military role

The Defense Department has played a border security role since the administration of George W. Bush, with active-duty and National Guard troops sent to the U.S.-Mexico border to back up Border Patrol agents.

But this administration has taken early high-profile steps that go further.

The Pentagon has beefed up the number of troops at the border and promised more. Instead of relying solely on Immigration and Customs Enforcement charter flights, Air Force planes have been used to carry out 26 deportation flights — a rare step.

In his first trip as secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth visited troops on the border and said all department assets were on the table to assist. That includes Guantanamo Bay, where officials have sent 13 deportation flights of migrants they call “the worst of the worst” — though they’ve given little information about their identities or any crimes.

The administration’s Jan. 20 executive orders outline other possible changes for the Defense Department.

Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the southern border indicates he may redirect money for border wall construction, something he did during his first term. And he gave Hegseth and Noem 90 days for recommendations on what’s needed to take complete control of the southern border, including whether to invoke the Insurrection Act. That would allow officials to circumvent rules limiting military involvement in civilian law-enforcement duties.

Warrick said the general public has largely been OK with the Pentagon taking part “behind the scenes,” but that might change if the role becomes more visible.

“There’s a very clear line that exists in the mind of the American people who do not want to see uniformed military people arresting migrants, especially in their homes and and schools and houses of worship,” Warrick said.

Justice Department and ‘sanctuary cities’

A few days after being sworn into office, Attorney General Pam Bondi took aim at what the administration considers a key impediment: cities and states that don’t work with immigration enforcement to identify and deport people in the country illegally. These are often called sanctuary cities.

Bondi announced a lawsuit targeting New York’s attorney general and governor over a state law allowing people who might not be in the U.S. legally to get driver’s licenses. Days earlier, another Justice Department lawsuit targeted Chicago and Illinois, alleging that their “sanctuary” laws ” thwart federal efforts.

“This is a new DOJ,” said Bondi, appearing with Tammy Nobles, whose 20-year-old daughter Kayla was killed in 2022 by a man who entered the U.S. illegally from El Salvador.

Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and Drug Enforcement Administration have taken part in high-profile ICE operations to find and arrest migrants in the country illegally.

Putzel-Kavanaugh said those agencies used to play roles in line with their priorities, such as pursuing a drug charge. Now, it’s a “much more highly publicized and much more singularly focused agenda for the DOJ,” she said.

The administration also has tapped the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Prisons to hold detained migrants, beefing up Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detention capacity.

Other departments are involved, too

Even the Internal Revenue Service has been brought in as part of immigration enforcement — Noem asked the arm of the Treasury Department to help target employers engaged in unlawful hiring practices and to monitor immigrants in the country illegally.

And the administration this week suspended a program run out of the Department of Health and Human Services that provides legal services to migrant children traveling alone.

What might be next?

Krikorian said he’s looking for the Department of Labor to take on a greater role, especially as worksite enforcement becomes a bigger administration strategy.

And for the Education Department, with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency accessing federal student loan data that includes their parents’ citizenship status, student advocates worry the administration will use that information to identify people in the country illegally.

In the executive order signed Wednesday, Trump seeks to end “all taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal aliens,” but it wasn’t clear which benefits would be targeted. People in the country illegally generally do not qualify except for emergency medical care. Children are entitled to a free K-12 public education regardless of immigration status under a 1982 Supreme Court ruling.

The order directs all departments and agencies to identify federal benefit spending that is inconsistent with a 1996 welfare law that denies most public benefits to people in the country illegally.

Associated Press writers Fatima Hussein, Collin Binkley and Michael Sisak contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

How a haunting scream in the night helped inspire ‘The Department’

• February 20, 2025

Jacqueline Faber was a young girl when she had an experience that she would revisit while writing her debut novel, “The Department.”

The author was 7 years old when she went with her family to visit her mother’s childhood home in Salinas, California. She was sharing a bedroom with other family members when she heard something frightening.

“I remember waking up — I am a really bad sleeper — and I was awake, lying there,” Faber says. “I remember hearing a woman scream, and I looked around the room and no one stirred, no one moved. I remember thinking, ‘If she screams again, I’m going to wake somebody up.’ But she didn’t scream again, and I didn’t wake anyone up.”

SEE ALSO: Like books? Get our free Book Pages newsletter about bestsellers, authors and more

The experience stayed with her. Later, she would become interested in the 1964 Kitty Genovese case, in which a woman was murdered outside of her New York apartment. At the time, the New York Times reported that 37 people witnessed the attack, but none of them called for help — reporting that has since been debunked.

Kitty Genovese was on Faber’s mind when she wrote “The Department.” The novel follows Neil Weber, a philosophy professor at a Southern university who becomes obsessed with the disappearance of a student, Lucia Vanotti. The book switches perspectives between Neil and Lucia, both of whom are haunted by their own traumatic pasts. 

The academic setting was a natural for Faber, who earned a PhD in comparative literature from Emory University, and who taught in the Expository Writing Program at New York University, before becoming a full-time writer.

Faber talked about “The Department” via Zoom from her home in Los Angeles. This conversation has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.

Q. You left the world of academia to write full time. How did you make that decision?

Before you get on the PhD track, there’s this narrative in academia where they’re trying to dissuade you. They’re like, “If you can do anything else, don’t do this.” It’s like you have to choose this life of struggle. I remember when I chose to get my PhD, even at that point I was like, “I don’t know if academia is where I belong ultimately, but I am going to get paid to read and write and learn how to think better than I already think.” 

I got a grant to finish my dissertation in Berlin. I was so immersed in the work, but some part of me was putting feelers out into the world: What else might there be for me? At the same time, I’m watching all of these absolutely brilliant colleagues of mine go on the job market and not get jobs. Then I met this woman there who was a writer who worked for an innovation consultancy group, and she brought me on to some of their projects. I honestly believe if I had met anybody else out the gate, I might’ve just tried to stay in academia. But because she told me, “You can do this,” it made me feel like my instinct for storytelling and my love of language could have different homes. I wasn’t even thinking about becoming a novelist. I just thought, “I like words, I like stories. Where will this take me?”

Q. How did the initial inspiration for this story, which is set in the academic world, come to you?

I had this very strong visual image of Lucia’s face on a missing person poster. I felt almost haunted by it. I didn’t know anything about her or the story. I just was like, “Who is this girl, and why does she keep surfacing in my mind?” Initially, I thought I would just write about it from Neil’s perspective. He’s this guy who’s down on his luck; his whole life is sort of imploding, and how does this girl give him a reason for being? As I was writing him, and he was trying to investigate her life, her own voice was intruding in my mind, and then it became really clear that I needed to write her perspective as well. 

The first thing that interested me about academia [as a setting] is that college is this space with such a unique dynamic, where you have these young people coming, and they’re away from their parents usually for the first time. So they have no parental figures, and their professors become both stand-ins for that sort of authority, but also they’re exposing them to these new ideas. It feels like this radical place where boundaries are really complicated. 

Q. And Neil’s such a messy character; his life is basically in shambles. 

I love Neil. He is challenging; he is messy in so many ways. He is messy in his inability to leave the woman who has left him. He is messy in the way he’s constantly fudging these boundaries. He’ll lie to people even as he’s like, “I want to do the right thing, and therefore I can justify this lie that I’ve been called upon by the provost to conduct my own investigation here.”

But his swings and his obsessions were fun. Lucia was hard. They were both hard in certain ways; they both feel so real to me, and I feel such deep empathy towards both of them, and I wanted to be respectful of both of them. I have a deep belief about human beings, that we are very complex, contradictory things that move through the world, and we don’t hold one belief. We can hold conflicting beliefs all the time, and we can behave in ways that run counter to the way that we’d imagined we’d behave. That feels really interesting to me. That’s what I’m chasing.

​ Orange County Register 

Unions sue over federal worker firings, citing misuse of probationary periods

• February 20, 2025

By Brian Witte | The Associated Press

Unions for federal workers have filed a lawsuit to block the mass firings of probationary federal employees by President Donald Trump’s administration, alleging that officials are exploiting and misusing the probationary period to eliminate staff across government agencies.

The unions allege in the complaint filed late Wednesday in U.S. District Court in California that the firings “represent one of the most massive employment frauds in the history of this country.”

The lawsuit says the administration’s Office of Personnel Management acted unlawfully by directing federal agencies to use a standardized termination notice falsely claiming performance issues. The unions seek an injunction to stop more firings and to rescind those that have already happened.

“This administration has abused the probationary period to conduct a chaotic, ill-informed, and politically-driven firing spree,” American Federation of Government Employees President Everett Kelley said in a news release. “The result has been the indiscriminate firing of thousands of patriotic public servants across the country who help veterans in crisis, ensure the safety of our nuclear weapons, keep power flowing to American homes, combat the bird flu, and provide other essential services.”

OPM did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

The complaint contends that the firings were made on false pretenses and violate federal law, including the Administrative Procedure Act.

“Overnight, tens of thousands of federal employees received the same termination letter citing ‘performance issues’ without any explanation or reasoning,” said a statement from Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees President. “These mass firings are yet another unlawful attempt by this billionaire-run administration to gut public services.”

Congress, not OPM, controls and authorizes federal employment and related spending by the federal administrative agencies, the complaint said, and Congress has determined that each agency is responsible for managing its own employees.

​ Orange County Register 

A news conference between Zelenskyy and Trump’s Ukraine envoy is canceled amid growing tensions

• February 20, 2025

By JUSTIN SPIKE

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A news conference that was planned to follow talks between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy was canceled Thursday as political tensions deepened between the two countries over how to end the almost three-year war with Russia.

The event was originally supposed to include comments to the media by Zelenskyy and retired U.S. Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, but it was changed at the last minute to a simple photo opportunity where the two posed for journalists. They did not deliver statements or field questions as expected. The change was requested by the U.S. side, Ukrainian presidential spokesman Serhii Nikiforov said.

Kellogg’s trip to Kyiv coincided with recent feuding between Trump and Zelenskyy that has bruised their personal relations and cast further doubt on the future of U.S. support for Ukraine’s war effort.

Dozens of journalists gathered at Ukraine’s presidential office in Kyiv after being invited to take photos and observe a news conference with Zelenskyy and Kellogg. As the meeting began, photographers and video journalists were allowed into a room where the two men shook hands before sitting across from each other at a table.

Journalists were then informed that there would be no news conference with remarks by the leaders or questions from reporters. Nikiforov gave no reason for the sudden change except to say that it was in accordance with U.S. wishes.

The U.S. delegation made no immediate comment. The White House did not immediately respond to questions about why the news conference was called off.

The two men were due to speak about Trump’s efforts to end the war. Zelenskyy had previously said he looked forward to explaining what was happening in Ukraine and showing it to Kellogg.

Kellogg, one of the architects of a staunchly conservative policy book laying out an “America First” national security agenda, has long been Trump’s top adviser on defense issues.

Zelenskyy and Trump have traded rebukes in recent days.

The spat erupted after Russia and the U.S. agreed Tuesday to start working toward ending the war in Ukraine and improving their diplomatic and economic ties. With that, Trump abruptly reversed the three-year U.S. policy of isolating Russia.

Zelenskyy was unhappy that a U.S. team opened the talks without inviting him or European governments that have backed Kyiv.

When Trump claimed Zelenskyy was deeply unpopular in Ukraine, the president said Trump was living in a Russian-made “disinformation space,” suggesting he had been duped by Putin.

But Zelenskyy “retains a fairly high level of public trust” — about 57 percent — according to a report released Wednesday by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.

Trump accused Zelenskyy of being “A Dictator without Elections!!” Due to the war, Ukraine did delay elections that were scheduled for April 2024.

Trump also suggested that Ukraine was to blame for the war.

Russia’s army crossed the border on Feb. 24, 2022, in an all-out invasion that Putin sought to justify by falsely saying it was needed to protect Russian-speaking civilians in eastern Ukraine and prevent the country from joining NATO.

On Wednesday, Trump warned Zelenskyy that he “better move fast” to negotiate an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or risk not having a nation to lead.

European leaders quickly threw their support behind Zelenskyy.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz whose country has been Kyiv’s second-biggest weapons supplier after the U.S., said it was “wrong and dangerous” to deny Zelenskyy’s democratic legitimacy.

Ukraine has been defending itself for nearly three years against a merciless war of aggression — day after day,” Scholz told news outlet Der Spiegel.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke to Zelenskyy on Wednesday and expressed support for him “as Ukraine’s democratically elected leader,” Starmer’s office said, adding that it was “perfectly reasonable” to postpone elections during wartime.

Russian officials, meanwhile, are basking in Washington’s attention and offering words of support for Trump’s stance.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “the rhetoric of Zelenskyy and many representatives of the Kyiv regime in general leaves much to be desired” — a veiled reference to Ukrainian criticism of Putin.

“Representatives of the Ukrainian regime, especially in recent months, often allow themselves to make statements about the heads of other states that are completely unacceptable,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.

Amid the diplomatic clamor, Ukrainian civilians continue to endure Russian strikes. Russia fired 161 Shahed and decoy drones and up to 14 missiles of various types at Ukraine overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, according to military authorities.

A Russian glide bomb struck an apartment block in the southern city of Kherson on Wednesday night, killing one person and wounding six, including 14-year-old twins, authorities said.

The southern port city of Odesa also came under a Russian drone attack for the second consecutive night, leaving almost 50,000 homes without electricity in freezing winter temperatures, officials said.

​ Orange County Register 

Sen. Mitch McConnell won’t seek reelection in 2026, ending long tenure as Republican power broker

• February 20, 2025

By BRUCE SCHREINER and KEVIN FREKING Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell announced on Thursday that he won’t seek reelection next year, ending a decadeslong tenure as a power broker who championed conservative causes but ultimately ceded ground to the fierce GOP populism of President Donald Trump.

McConnell, the longest-serving Senate party leader in U.S. history, chose his 83rd birthday to share his decision not to run for another term in Kentucky and to retire when his current term ends. He informed The Associated Press of his decision before he addressed colleagues in a speech on the Senate floor.

“Seven times, my fellow Kentuckians have sent me to the Senate,” McConnell said, as aides lined the back chamber and several senators listened from seats. “Every day in between I’ve been humbled by the trust they’ve placed in me to do their business here. Representing our commonwealth has been the honor of a lifetime. I will not seek this honor an eighth time. My current term in the Senate will be my last.”

His announcement begins the epilogue of a storied career as a master strategist, one in which he helped forge a conservative Supreme Court and steered the Senate through tax cuts, presidential impeachment trials and fierce political fights.

McConnell, first elected in 1984, intends to serve the remainder of his term ending in January 2027. The Kentuckian has dealt with a series of medical episodes in recent years, including injuries sustained from falls and times when his face briefly froze while he was speaking.

The senator delivered his speech in a chamber the famously taciturn McConnell revered as a young intern long before joining its back benches as a freshman lawmaker in the mid-1980s. His dramatic announcement comes almost a year after his decision to relinquish his leadership post after the November 2024 election. South Dakota Sen. John Thune, a top McConnell deputy, replaced him as majority leader.

McConnell’s looming departure reflects the changing dynamics of the Trump-led GOP. He’s seen his power diminish on a parallel track with both his health and his relationship with Trump, who once praised him as an ally but has taken to criticizing him in caustic terms.

In Kentucky, McConnell’s departure will mark the loss of a powerful advocate and will set off a competitive GOP primary next year for what will now be an open Senate seat. Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, seen as a rising star in his party for winning statewide office in Republican territory, has said he has no interest in the Senate, though he is widely viewed as a contender for higher office.

McConnell, a diehard adherent to Ronald Reagan’s brand of traditional conservatism and muscular foreign policy, increasingly found himself out of step with a GOP shifting toward the fiery, often isolationist populism espoused by Trump.

McConnell still champions providing Ukraine with weapons and other aid to fend off Russia’s invasion, even as Trump ratchets up criticism of the country and its leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The senator plans to make it clear Thursday that national defense remains at the forefront of his agenda.

“Thanks to Ronald Reagan’s determination, the work of strengthening American hard power was well underway when I arrived in the Senate,” McConnell said in his prepared remarks. “But since then, we’ve allowed that power to atrophy. And today, a dangerous world threatens to outpace the work of rebuilding it. So, lest any of our colleagues still doubt my intentions for the remainder of my term: I have some unfinished business to attend to.”

McConnell and Trump were partners during Trump’s first term, but the relationship was severed after McConnell blamed Trump for “disgraceful” acts in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack by his supporters. A momentary thaw in 2024 when McConnell endorsed Trump didn’t last.

Last week, Trump referred to McConnell as a “very bitter guy” after McConnell, who battled polio as a child, opposed vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation as the nation’s top health official. McConnell referred to Trump as a “despicable human being” and a “narcissist” in a biography of the senator by The Associated Press’ deputy Washington bureau chief, Michael Tackett.

Before their falling out, Trump and McConnell pushed through a tax overhaul largely focused on reductions for businesses and higher-earning taxpayers. They joined forces to reshape the Supreme Court when Trump nominated three justices and McConnell guided them to Senate confirmation, tilting the high court to the right.

McConnell set a new precedent for hardball partisan tactics in 2016 by refusing to even give a hearing to Democratic President Barack Obama’s pick of Merrick Garland to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Putting the brakes on the Senate’s “advise and consent” role for judicial nominees, McConnell said the vacancy should be filled by the next president so voters could have their say. Trump filled the vacancy once he took office, and McConnell later called the stonewalling of Garland’s nomination his “most consequential” achievement.

Later, when liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died weeks before the 2020 presidential election won by Democrat Joe Biden, McConnell rushed Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation through the Senate, waving off allegations of hypocrisy.

McConnell also guided the Senate — and Trump — through two impeachment trials that ended in acquittals.

In the second impeachment, weeks after the deadly Capitol attack by a mob hoping to overturn Trump’s 2020 reelection defeat, McConnell joined all but seven Republicans in voting to acquit. McConnell said he believed Trump couldn’t be convicted because he’d already left office, but the senator also condemned Trump as “practically and morally responsible” for the insurrection.

McConnell over the years swung back and forth from majority to minority leader, depending on which party held power. He defended President George W. Bush’s handling of the Iraq war and failed to block Obama’s health care overhaul.

McConnell, the longest-serving senator ever from Kentucky, ensured that the Bluegrass State received plenty of federal funding. Back home he was a key architect in his party’s rise to power in a state long dominated by Democrats.

He is married to Elaine Chao, and they have long been a power couple in Washington. In his prepared remarks Thursday, the senator referred to her as his “ultimate teammate and confidante.” Chao was labor secretary for Bush and transportation secretary during Trump’s first term, though she resigned after the Capitol insurrection, saying it had “deeply troubled” her.

McConnell’s parting words reflected his devotion to the Senate and his disdain for his detractors.

“The Senate is still equipped for work of great consequence,” he said. “And, to the disappointment of my critics, I’m still here on the job.”

Schreiner reported from Louisville, Ky.

​ Orange County Register