The swanky, celebrity-studded city of West Hollywood officially has the highest minimum wage of any U.S. city after pay zoomed to $19.08 an hour Saturday.

Workers in West Hollywood welcomed the increase amid rising rent, gas and food prices, although employers grumbled about growing labor costs that they say could drive them out of business.

Lucian Tudor, chief executive of upscale restaurant La Boheme, told the Los Angeles Times he has cut staff from 120 to 80 to trim costs. The city’s minimum wage climbed $1 in January to $17.50 an hour for businesses with at least 50 employees.

‘These pay increases are about superficiality and about opportunistic politicians who are just trying to make a name for themselves,’ Tudor, who would prefer a minimum wage that accounts for tips like what New York City has, told the news outlet.

West Hollywood, tucked between the cities of Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, has about 35,000 people.

The minimum wage also went up in other cities on Saturday.

San Francisco’s minimum wage increased more than a $1 to $18.07 an hour. Los Angeles is now $16.78 an hour, and the minimum wage in Washington, D.C. is $17, up from $16.10 an hour.

For workers in Los Angeles hotels with 60 rooms or more, the minimum pay increased to $19.73 an hour on Saturday, up from $18.86. Hotel workers in Santa Monica also saw their pay climb to $19.73.

Seattle had the highest minimum wage of any U.S. city in January when its hourly rate increased to $18.69.

Norberto Ruiz, who works in a liquor store in West Hollywood, told the Los Angeles Times that a wage increase last summer allowed his family to purchase a $150 air conditioner.

‘I don’t think people understand how much an extra dollar or two can change people’s lives,’ Ruiz told the news outlet.

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The University System of Georgia spent millions on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts prior to cuts from the state budget approved earlier this year, according to a Monday report by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC).

The report detailed a nearly 200-page response from system Chancellor Sonny Perdue to Georgia Republican Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who questioned how much had been spent on DEI efforts following complaints from the former over the approved $66 million decrease in funding for the system.

The report said that although it was difficult to calculate one total sum spent on DEI from all 26 of the system’s institutions based on Perdue’s response, it did list ‘millions of dollars worth of salaries for diversity staffers,’ as well as millions for ‘need-based aid for students and programs Perdue said fulfill federal requirements.’

Perdue’s response detailed amounts some schools spend on chief diversity officers, DEI staffers, and other programs, including Georgia Southern University’s $189,000-a-year vice president for inclusive excellence, and Georgia Tech’s $281,000-a-year vice president of institute diversity, equity and inclusion, who leads a staff of 66 full-time DEI personnel, seven part-time staffers, and six federally mandated positions to run its $8 million-a-year DEI programs.

His response also described work that supports ‘rural and migrant students, veterans and women in science fields, those who are the first in their family to go to college and students with disabilities.’

Georgia state lawmakers approved the budget cuts in March, which led to sharp criticism from Perdue, a former Republican Georgia governor and Trump administration Agriculture secretary, who called the cuts ‘incredibly disappointing.’

In response to the criticism, Jones questioned how much the system was spending on DEI, something he’s questioned is a wise use of taxpayer money.

He has been joined by a number of other Republican lawmakers in various states across the country, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who signed a bill earlier this year banning public colleges and universities in the state from using public money on DEI programs, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who signed a bill last month to ban DEI offices and initiatives in the state’s institutions altogether.

According to the report, Jones’ staff said it was still going through Perdue’s response, ‘and likely will be for a while.’

Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders on Monday appointed party chairman and former federal prosecutor Cody Hiland to the state Supreme Court.Hiland will fill the seat of the late Justice Robin Wynne, who died last month, and will hold the seat until 2025, when Wynne’s successor is formally elected.‘This is the first time the Arkansas Supreme Court will have a conservative majority, and I know it will have the same effect on our state as it has had on our country,’ Sanders said of Hiland’s appointment.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Monday named state Republican Party chairman and former federal prosecutor Cody Hiland to the Arkansas Supreme Court, giving it a conservative majority as justices prepare to take up a challenge to her education overhaul.

Hiland was appointed to fill the vacancy created by the death of Justice Robin Wynne last month and will hold the seat until 2025 when a newly elected justice takes office. Hiland can’t run in next year’s election for the seat since he was appointed.

The appointment pushes further to the right a court that’s been the focus of expensive and heated races in recent years. Arkansas’ Supreme Court seats are nonpartisan, but conservative groups have spent heavily over the years trying to flip control of the seven-member court.

‘This is the first time the Arkansas Supreme Court will have a conservative majority, and I know it will have the same effect on our state as it has had on our country,’ Sanders said, announcing the appointment at the old Supreme Court chamber in the state Capitol.

Hiland had been nominated as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas by President Donald Trump in 2017 and served in that position through 2020. He is a former state prosecutor and has served as state GOP chairman since December. He also worked on Sanders’ campaign for governor as a senior adviser.

‘He will be there to call balls and strikes, interpreting state law as it is written and leaving the legislating to the Legislature,’ Sanders said.

Hiland said he was humbled by the opportunity.

‘My prayer is at the end of this term people will say that I brought honor to the title of associate Supreme Court justice,’ Hiland said.

Hiland joined the court as the state is appealing a judge’s decision to block enforcement of Sanders’ education overhaul until Aug. 1. The Pulaski County circuit judge ruled that lawmakers didn’t follow correct procedures for the law to take effect immediately after Sanders signed it.

The Supreme Court last month lifted a similar temporary order from the same judge. Wynne was one of two justices to dissent from that decision.

Democrats criticized Sanders over the court appointment, saying it goes against the nonpartisan spirit of the court.

‘Americans are concerned that our courts are becoming too partisan, and the governor justifies those fears when she appoints a former campaign employee, the current Republican Party chair, to Arkansas’s highest court,’ State Party Chairman Grant Tennille said in a statement.

Hiland resigned from his party chairmanship on Monday before the appointment, and Sanders endorsed Joseph Wood to be his successor. Wood is secretary of the state Department of Transformation and Shared Services and had previously served two terms as a Washington County judge.

Hiland is joining the court as a race is shaping up among its members to replace Chief Justice Dan Kemp, who is not seeking reelection next year. Justices Rhonda Wood and Karen Baker are running for chief justice in next year’s election, and Justice Barbara Webb is considering running as well.

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The White House grounds were evacuated Sunday after the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) discovered an ‘unknown item.’ 

‘U.S. Secret Service Uniform Division Officers located an unknown item on the White House complex,’ a USSS spokesperson told Fox News Digital. 

‘As a precaution, the White House grounds were evacuated, and the DC Fire Departments Hazmat team responded,’ the spokesperson said. 

DC Fire and EMS was contacted to evaluate, USSS said. 

A hazmat team was called out to the area of 18th St and Pennsylvania Ave. Secret Service units blocked off roads around the White House.

USSS did not provide more details about the ‘unknown item.’ 

All road closures were later lifted, the spokesperson said. 

The Biden administration is actively seeking to use artificial intelligence to promote a woke, progressive ideology with left-wing activists leading the effort, according to research from a conservative watchdog group.

The American Accountability Foundation conducted research into the administration’s plans for AI and is now warning in a memo that top U.S. officials under President Biden are seeking to inject ‘dangerous ideologies’ into AI systems.

‘Under the guise of fighting ‘algorithmic discrimination’ and ‘harmful bias,’ the Biden administration is trying to rig AI to follow the woke left’s rules,’ AAF president Tom Jones told Fox News Digital. 

‘Biden is being advised on technology policy, not by scientists, but by racially obsessed social academics and activists. We’re already seen the biggest tech firms in the world, like Google under Eric Schmidt, use their power to push the left’s agenda. This would take the tech/woke alliance to a whole new, truly terrifying level.’

In its memo, AAF cited several examples of what it described as the administration’s campaign to make AI woke.

One example is the ‘Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights’ released by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy last October. The document warns of ‘algorithmic discrimination’ in which AI systems treat people differently based on their race, sex or other characteristics and calls for data ‘used as part of system development or assessment’ to be ‘reviewed for bias based on the historical and societal context of the data.’

To address such concerns, the blueprint recommends ‘proactive equity assessments as part of the system design,’ among other steps.

Arati Prabhakar, director of Biden’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, while speaking at the Summit for Democracy in March, touted Biden’s signing of an executive order the prior month that, in her words, ‘promotes data equity,’ directs agencies to fight ‘algorithmic discrimination’ and ensures these agencies use AI to advance ‘equity.’

That executive order, which Biden signed in February, states one of its goals is to ‘root out bias in the design and use of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence.’

AAF also highlights in its memo how months later, in May, the White House’s Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence, which falls under Prabhakar’s purview, released the National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan, which calls for additional resources to fight ‘harmful biases’ and warns ‘AI systems are prone to ‘hallucinate’ and recapitulate biases derived from the unfiltered data from the internet used to train them.’

The report goes on to say that ‘understanding how AI can reduce inequities stemming from systemic, structural and individual bias is an important area of research.’

The AI committee that produced the report is part of the National Science and Technology Council, whose highest-ranking member is Vice President Kamala Harris, who Biden named ‘AI czar’ to lead the administration’s new initiative ‘to promote responsible AI innovation that protects Americans’ rights and safety.’ Harris previously expressed similar concerns about racial bias in AI and the need to combat it.

‘When we look at … issues like AI and machine learning, there is a real need to be very concerned about how being built into it is racial bias,’ Harris said in 2019 while a senator from California. ‘It’s a real issue, and it’s happening in real time. And the thing about racial bias in technology is that, unlike the racial bias that you can pretty easily [detect] when you get stopped in a department store or while you’re driving, the bias that is built into technology will not be very easy to detect.’

In its memo, AAF also flagged the appointment of Miriam Vogel to chair the National AI Advisory Committee, which advises the president on AI matters. Vogel is the president and CEO of EqualAI, a nonprofit that seeks to ‘reduce unconscious bias in our AI and promote responsible AI governance.’

On its website, EqualAI says AI programs and ‘particularly customer-facing systems should be checked for bias on a routine basis,’ adding that AI ‘learns new patterns as it is fed new data and can adopt new biases.’

In 2021, EqualAI partnered with the World Economic Forum to launch the ‘EqualAI Badge Program,’ which trains and certifies senior executives at companies developing or using AI ‘to ensure their brand is known for its responsible and inclusive practices.’

In May, the National AI Advisory Committee released a report stating that Biden has ‘clearly articulated his interest in ending discrimination and bias (including algorithmic discrimination and bias).’ The report defined ‘trustworthy AI’ in part as ‘valid and reliable … and fair with harmful bias managed.’

AAF’s memo came days after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., unveiled his SAFE Innovation Framework, which warns that AI has the potential for ‘supercharged disinformation’ and the ‘amplification of bias.’

AI has become one of the most discussed issues since the AI tool ChatGPT was released in November. Twitter owner Elon Musk, for example, warned late last year that the new technology could be weaponized to push political agendas through false information.

‘The danger of training AI to be woke — in other words, lie — is deadly,’ Musk tweeted in December.

According to AAF, its research about the Biden administration is part one of what it described as an investigation into ‘woke’ AI. 

‘Stay tuned for more,’ the group tweeted. ‘What we have found will shock you.’

The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story.

Former President Donald Trump packed the house at his South Carolina rally on Saturday, drawing a massive crowd that was significantly larger than the population of the town which hosted it.

The leading Republican presidential candidate barnstormed in Pickens, a town of about 3,400 residents, on Saturday, speaking to more than 50,000 people who gathered at the downtown venue and lined the surrounding streets, according to Pickens police chief Randal Beach.

Beach told the Associated Press on Sunday that authorities were unable to calculate the exact number, but he estimated the rally was attended by ‘somewhere between 50-55,000’ people.

South Carolina’s first-in-the-South presidential primary makes it popular among GOP hopefuls, many of whom have already held events in the state. None of the other candidates in the race, however, drew an audience like Trump, who continues to dominate in 2024 polls.

The Make America Great Again Inc. PAC said in a statement that no other candidate can match the enthusiasm seen in Pickens because no one else has ‘delivered for the American people’ in the ways that Trump has.

‘The Supreme Court decisions ending racist college admissions, protecting religious liberty, and stopping an illegal student loan forgiveness scheme were a reminder of how President Trump kept the promises he made to voters,’ CEO Taylor Budowich said in a statement. ‘Mind you, the tens of thousands of patriots that turned out in Pickens, South Carolina did it on a day with temperatures over 90 degrees. The Trump train has left the station and is not stopping until President Trump is seated behind the Resolute Desk.’

Saturday’s event marked a return to the large-scale rallies of his previous presidential campaigns, and his appearance effectively shuttered Pickens’ quintessential Southern downtown area.

‘There’s nowhere else I’d rather be to kick off the Fourth of July weekend than right here on Main Street, with thousands of hardworking South Carolina patriots who believe in God, family and country,’ Trump said Saturday.

The tens of thousands who attended Saturday’s rally, which attendees began lining up for the night before, seemed to agree with the president’s sentiments.

Greg Pressley and his wife, Robin, said they drove more than three hours from their home in Tennessee to see Trump, a candidate they’ve supported since his first White House bid in 2016.

‘Donald Trump’s the best president in history,’ Greg said. ‘I love his policies. I love the man. I’m here to support him getting back to where he needs to be, to begin with.’

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy have all held events in the state. The two South Carolinians in the race, former Gov. Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott, have campaigned there as well.

Shelley Fox, of Spartanburg, who also said she has supported Trump since 2016, said she didn’t feel it necessary to even think about any other candidates for next year’s election.

‘I’d write him in,’ she said when asked if she would consider another hopeful. ‘No question – I’d write him in.’

Sen. Lindsey Graham and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., also spoke at the event.

In 2016, Trump handily won the state during a crowded Republican primary, garnering 32.5% of the vote and earning the state’s 50 delegates. Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz were second and third, respectively, both receiving about 22%.

The huge event shows Trump continues to sit firmly in the driver’s seat of the Republican Party and that his supporters stand unwaveringly beside him during his third bid for the White House.

Contrasted with his 2016 and 2020 campaigns, which drew thousands to rallies in states across the country, Trump’s 2024 effort has been noticeably different. 

This was only Trump’s second large rally of the 2024 campaign – the first took place in Waco, Texas, in March. Another scheduled outdoor rally in Iowa in May was canceled due to tornado warnings.

The former president has mostly focused his efforts on smaller events this go around, including a series of speeches before state party organizations, frequent media interviews and town halls, working relationships with delegates and local officials, and unannounced stops at restaurants in cities he is visiting.

Trump has also appeared at many of the multi-candidate events of the primary season so far, including this past week’s Moms for Liberty gathering in Philadelphia.

Saturday’s massive showing comes as Trump faces an indictment on hush-money charges in New York, federal charges related to his retention of classified documents after leaving the White House and several other investigations.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, accepted a proposal on Twitter that would fundamentally change the way laws are passed in the country.

Pitched by a Twitter user who specifically named Cruz and fellow Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the proposal stated ‘if both senators from any individual state’ votes against a bill then ‘that state shouldn’t receive any benefit when said bill passes.’

Cruz responded: ‘I accept.’

The Republican then added: ‘Same for taxes & job-killing regs, right? If both GOP senators vote against them, they only apply to blue states?’

Such a proposal would drastically change the way legislators approach the lawmaking process and is not likely to ever materialize, but it did not stop people from discussing its implications.

Some users touted Texas’ budget surplus, contrasting it with California’s interminable spending, while others called for more accountability and suggested lawmakers should only take credit for the benefits of a bill if they voted for it.

The initial tweet was prompted after a Twitter user pointed out that Cruz and Cornyn both voted against a $1 trillion infrastructure package that passed the U.S. Senate and was signed into law in 2021 – a law that provided billions to Texas.

All Democrats in the Senate supported the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which a White House fact sheet described as ‘the largest long-term investment in our infrastructure and competitiveness in nearly a century.’

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and 18 other Republicans also supported it, which passed 69-30. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., did not vote.

According to the fact sheet, Texas will receive at least $26.9 billion for federal-aid highway roads, $537 million for bridge replacement and repairs, $3.3 billion to improve public transportation, $408 million to expand an electric vehicle charging network and $100 million to help provide broadband coverage across the state.

While Cruz praised the bill’s merits, he criticized its price tag and called the spending ‘reckless’ and ‘unprecedented.’

‘This is reckless. And it’s unprecedented. … This is a trap,’ he said in the Senate on Aug. 5, 2021, the Texas Tribune reported at the time. ‘Listen, for Democrats it’s what they campaigned on. If you’re a Democrat, you want to raise taxes and raise spending. You want more debt from China. That’s what Democrats do.’

Cornyn agreed with Cruz’s remarks.

‘There’s no doubt the nation’s transportation and digital infrastructure need improvements, and Texas stands to benefit once this bill becomes law… [but] it isn’t paid for, will add too much to the debt, and was rushed through the Senate in a week’s time without adequate debate or input,’ Cornyn said that same month.

President Biden signed the infrastructure package into law on November 15, 2021.

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The National Archives and Records Administration concluded its review of the classified documents in the 1963 assassination of former President John F. Kennedy and made 99% of the material publicly available, the White House announced.

In a memo released Friday, President Biden revealed that the archivist finished the review in May and that the remaining documents authorized to be declassified had been released to the public.

The announcement comes on the day of a previously established deadline to declassify the documents.

The Warren Commission’s report on Kennedy’s assassination was initially sealed until 2039 until Congress passed the JFK Records Act of 1992, directing the National Archives and Records Administration to create a collection of documents on the former president’s assassination.

The law required all assassination records to be released by 2017, but former President Donald Trump and Biden postponed the disclosures on several occasions, citing advice from the FBI, CIA and other intelligence agencies.

Trump released tens of thousands of documents during his administration, although most of them included redactions.

The Biden administration released more than 14,000 documents related to Kennedy’s assassination by December, which is when the president ordered a six-month review of the remaining records. More than 2,600 documents have been released since, including 1,103 that were posted publicly on Tuesday.

‘NARA worked in concert with agencies to jointly review the remaining redactions in 3,648 documents in compliance with the president’s directive,’ the National Archives wrote when releasing the documents. ‘Between April and June 2023, NARA posted 2,672 documents containing newly released information.’

Nearly 13,000 documents on the attack were ordered to be made public by the administration in December and 1,500 more documents were released 12 months prior.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday that the president’s memo on the newest batch of documents was released as part of the administration’s ‘continued commitment to government transparency.’

‘Under President Biden’s leadership, agencies have fully declassified over 16,000 records since 2021,’ she said in a press briefing. ‘This action reflects his instruction that all information related to President Kennedy’s assassination should be released, except when the strongest possible reasons council otherwise.’

She continued: ‘As a result, over 99% of the records in the collection are now publicly available at the National Archives. In keeping with the President’s direction, the National Archives will be digitizing the entire collection to make it more accessible to the public.’

Kennedy’s assassination on Nov. 22, 1963, sparked theories from the public about the attack and the events leading up to it, including accusations that the federal government had intended to keep its findings secret.

Biden said in his memo that the archivist recommended in May the continued use of agencies’ transparency plans to release information covered by the JFK Records Act.

‘The Transparency Plans will ensure that the public will have access to the maximum amount of information while continuing to protect against identifiable harms to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, and the conduct of foreign relations under the standards of the Act,’ the president stated.

Kennedy was assassinated by U.S. Marine Corps veteran Lee Harvey Oswald as he was riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas. 

Oswald was shot and killed two days after the assassination on Nov. 24, 1963, by a nightclub operator as he was being escorted from Dallas Police Headquarters toward an armored car, where he then would have been transported from the city jail to the county jail.

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