A U.S. Secret Service agent responsible for protecting President Joe Biden’s granddaughter, Naomi Biden, reportedly fired a gun at unidentified individuals who were attempting to break into a government vehicle in Washington, D.C., Sunday night.
In a statement obtained by Fox News, the Secret Service explained that the incident occurred at roughly 11:58 p.m. on Sunday in the Georgetown neighborhood. According to the information obtained by Fox News, Secret Service agents encountered three individuals attempting to break the window of a government vehicle that was parked in the area and was unoccupied. The New York Post reported that the parked vehicle belonged to the Secret Service.
“During this encounter, a federal agent discharged a service weapon and it is believed no one was struck,” a Secret Service spokesperson stated. “The offenders immediately fled the scene in a red vehicle and a regional lookout was issued to supporting units. There was no threat to any protectees and the incident is being investigated by the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and the Secret Service.”
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According to ABC News, it is not clear whether Naomi Biden heard the gunshots during the encounter between Secret Service agents and the suspects; however, sources told ABC News that she was made aware of the situation after the encounter took place.
Naomi Biden, age 29, is Hunter Biden’s daughter from his previous marriage to Kathleen Buhle, according to ABC News. Naomi Biden is currently an attorney at the Arnold & Porter law firm. Last November, Naomi Biden married Peter Neal at the White House.
Sunday’s incident involving the Secret Service marks the latest example of rising crime in the nation’s capital. According to The Associated Press, Washington, D.C., has experienced a major increase in carjacking incidents and vehicle theft in 2023. Police have reported over 750 carjackings and over 6,000 stolen vehicle reports in D.C. over the past year.
The U.S. still faces a risk of a government shutdown at the end of this week despite a new compromise plan by Speaker Mike Johnson that leaves out hardline conservative priorities like cutting spending and curtailing migration.
A shutdown would threaten a downward U.S. credit rating adjustment by Moody’s Investors Service, which has cited political dysfunction as a growing risk to bond investors. A federal funding lapse would also have political repercussions for both parties.
Congress has just days to pass a new stopgap bill before funding runs out after Nov. 17. Johnson on Sunday suggested his plan would buy lawmakers time to negotiate individual spending bills, which fiscal conservatives have demanded.
“Washington’s spending addiction cannot be broken overnight,” he said on the social media site X. “But I will not allow end of year megabus spending packages to continue under my leadership.”
Johnson’s plan could still run aground in the face of combined resistance from GOP conservatives and the White House, which is irked by the lack of Ukraine aid in the plan and the fact it extends funding for some agencies to Jan. 19 and others to Feb. 2.
The House plans to vote on the plan on Tuesday. Johnson will need some Democratic votes given his narrow majority and opposition by fiscal conservatives.
Even before that stopgap vote, conservatives could block the plan before it comes to the floor or on a procedural vote setting up debate.
“Disappointing is as polite as I can muster. I will be voting NO,” conservative Warren Davidson of Ohio said on X Saturday.
Democrats have been muted in their reaction to Johnson’s plan but there were some early signs it could receive bipartisan backing.
“I don’t like what the House is talking about but I’m willing to listen,” Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy said on NBC’s Meet the Press.
The White House, however, said Johnson’s plan would only lead to future shutdowns. President Joe Biden could issue a formal veto threat later Monday.
But the bill lacks the strings that many Democrats had feared, and a veto threat could allow Republicans to blame the shutdown on the president.
Political Dysfunction
This year has brought the U.S. near a debt default, provoked Fitch Ratings to downgrade the nation’s sovereign debt and cost Johnson’s predecessor his job. Republican hardliners ousted then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy after he offered a similar strings-free stopgap.
Moody’s, the only major credit grader still to give the U.S. its top rating, on Friday changed its ratings outlook for the U.S. from stable to negative, citing risks to the nation’s fiscal strength and political polarization in Congress.
The chaotic three-week process to elect a new speaker damaged Republicans’ standing in swing states, according to a Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll from Oct. 30 through Nov. 7.
By a 9 percentage-point margin, swing-state voters said the speaker chaos made them more likely to vote Democratic in 2024 over those who said the process made it more likely they would vote Republican. Among independents, the margin was 7 points in favor of Democrats.
A shutdown beginning Saturday would furlough hundreds of thousands of federal workers just before the Thanksgiving holiday and delay government contracts and vendor payments. Military personnel, law enforcement officers and other essential employees would continue to work but go without pay until the impasse is resolved.
Financial markets so far have shrugged off the growing risk of a shutdown as investors focus on high interest rates, volatility in bond markets, slowing consumer spending and war in the Middle East.
A government shutdown would initially have a mild economic impact but build incrementally as millions of workers go without salary, private contractors aren’t paid and consumer uncertainty grows. The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment index slid to a six-month low in its preliminary November reading.
Johnson’s plan would extend current funding until Jan. 19 for the departments of Veterans Affairs, Energy, Agriculture, Transportation as well as Housing and Urban Development, with the rest extended to Feb. 2.
In the Senate, Republicans could move as soon as Monday night to block Democrats from starting work on their rival plan.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York has teed up a procedural vote Monday afternoon to advance placeholder legislation for temporary funding, likely into January.
Senators in both parties have also been discussing a path forward for $106 billion in security funding Biden sought for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and the U.S. border. The package has been held up by Republican demands for asylum and other immigration policy changes.
Chances for reaching a deal this week that also includes the emergency security assistance are dropping given the complexity of the immigration issue.
Members of the Schofield Barracks-based 25th Infantry Division are training across the Hawaiian Islands and in the island nation of Palau this month as the Army continues to adjust its operations for the Pacific.
On Wednesday soldiers from the division kicked off the 2023 rotation for the Hawaii portion of the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center, a series of training ranges in Hawaii, Alaska and around the Pacific.
It’s the third iteration of the training, which certifies Army brigades for deployment.
Historically, this training took place on the mainland at ranges in Louisiana and California.
But as tensions with China shift attention to the Pacific, Army leaders set up JPRMC to keep Pacific-based units in the region, both to save costs on shipping troops in Hawaii and Alaska to the mainland while keeping them in environments that more closely resemble those they’ll be expected to operate in.
It also keeps U.S. service members closer to allied countries and makes it easier for them to send their own troops to participate. This year allied troops from Thailand, Indonesia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom are also participating, while military observers from several other countries are on hand to watch and take notes.
Col. R.J. Garcia, the 25th’s deputy commander in charge of logistics, said that “what it really does is it allows us to build relationships with our partners, we’re training next to them in these environments, we’re training in the right environments.”
Many of the soldiers leading the exercise are combat-tested troops with years of experience. But most of that experience was in places like Iraq and Afghanistan fighting in drawn-out counterinsurgency campaigns. The Pacific, where the U.S. and China are competing for influence and building up their forces, poses completely new challenges for many of them.
Maj. Jon Azbill, a communications officer with four deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan under his belt, recently arrived in Hawaii and has never trained in the jungle before. He admits the learning curve is steep.
“In the desert there is no interruption, there is no interference from the terrain, ” he explained. “Often it’s very flat, the desert is wide open and communication signals travel a long way. So it’s very simple for us to operate. Now, as we kind of shift and pivot to the Pacific, it’s a lot different terrain.”
Thick jungle, high mountains and deep valleys frequently block or disrupt signals and pose problems for troubleshooting. When operating across island chains, the challenges multiply.
Tensions have mounted in the Pacific as China and its neighbors find themselves locked in disputes over territorial and navigation rights in the South China Sea, a critical waterway that a third of all international trade travels through. Beijing considers the entire sea its exclusive territory and has built bases on disputed islands and reefs to assert its claims.
Just south of Taiwan, the Philippines and China have sparred over disputed islands. In 2016 an international court ruled in the Philippines’ favor and declared that Beijing’s territorial claims had “no legal basis.” But the Chinese military has continued to build bases and regularly intimidates Filipino fishermen in the area. This spring, troops from the 25th joined Hawaii-based Marines and members of the Philippine Marine Corps in a series of island landings in the Luzon strait, just south of Taiwan.
“We have not seen a conflict like this since the World War II era, ” said Capt. Sam Solliday, an intelligence officer with the 25th Aviation Regiment. “There is an added layer of complexity to the problem set that involves moving assets from different islands crossing wet gaps.”
Maj. Ryan Yamauchi, executive officer for the 25th Infantry Division Artillery, said the exercise is taking into account observations from active conflicts raging around the world, such as the bloody war between Russia and Ukraine. Both artillery and drones have played a central role in that conflict.
Yamauchi said that in Iraq and Afghanistan, American units became accustomed to operating in “static ” positions for weeks, months or even years—usually from large and well-resourced bases. But in Ukraine, where opposing forces have used drones to spot and destroy fighting positions, it’s becoming clear that building up in one place makes forces vulnerable.
Troops now need to be able to reposition quickly. Yamauchi said that in itself is a huge adjustment, but it becomes even harder when dealing with realities of jungle operations.
“The jungle is such a dense environment, that is hindering sort of our mobility on ground, ” said Yama uchi. He said that has prompted his troops to rely more on aircraft to help them move where they need to go. But that too introduces new challenges.
“The enemy has air defense capabilities that will easily take out these helicopters as they move, ” said Yamauchi. “So, obviously, that’s a huge deal with that dense jungle environment.”
The Army has put increased emphasis on logistics in the Pacific and testing its limits. As part of this year’s Hawaii JPRMC rotation, the 25th also sent a rocket artillery unit to Palau aboard an Air Force C-17, where it will practice firing operations as well as use drones to help scan the battlefield.
Garcia said that in sending troops to Palau for the exercise, the 25th is attempting to “simulate really the time distance and decision-making across the Pacific. … What we’re trying to do is simulate what does it take to put combat credible forces forward, and then what do they need to do their mission there?”
Minutes into a hearing on whether Donald Trump is constitutionally barred from being president again, Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Natalie Hudson jumped in with her biggest concern: There could be “chaos” if some states keep Trump off 2024 ballots while others allow him on.
“Should we do it,” she asked, “even if we could do it?”
It’s a question looming over the growing number of lawsuits seeking to disqualify Trump from another term in the White House because of his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. What began as a largely academic exercise a few years ago over a constitutional ban on “insurrectionists” holding office collided with reality last week as judges in Minnesota and Colorado for the first time heard evidence and arguments.
Lawyers and judges involved in these cases have signaled they believe it’s ultimately a fight for the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve. With state election officials set to finalize ballots in early 2024 ahead of primary contests, the justices soon could be thrust into the election fray.
The cases center on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which dates back to the post-Civil War era and prohibits someone from holding public office if they took an oath to support the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection.” The legal fights over Trump’s eligibility post a range of largely untested questions: Can courts enforce the disqualification? Does the measure apply to the conduct of a president? Was the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol an “insurrection” and did Trump “engage” in it?
Minnesota Voters
Ron Fein, who argued the case on behalf of a group of Minnesota voters, told Hudson that the state court didn’t have discretion to sidestep making a decision. “For better or worse,” he said, the Constitution left it to each state to manage elections. But he tried to allay Hudson’s concerns by assuring her Trump was expected to petition the U.S. Supreme Court if he lost.
The Minnesota Supreme Court didn’t say when it would rule, but a lawyer representing the state’s top election official told the justices during the Nov. 2 hearing that they need the fight resolved by early January to avoid disrupting preparations for the March 5 primary.
The justices “could provide a final answer to the question,” Fein said.
The week’s events highlighted the complications of these cases unfolding in states with varying election laws and court procedures. Minnesota’s case, brought by advocacy group Free Speech for People, began in the state’s highest court. The state justices are poised to rule on core constitutional and state law questions without hearing evidence. Whoever loses can petition the U.S. Supreme Court.
But a full trial is underway in Colorado, where a Denver district court judge spent the week hearing testimony from witnesses as well as arguments on the overarching constitutional issues. Whoever loses would have to first appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court before reaching the nation’s highest court.
In the meantime, more cases are being filed across the country. Judges have tossed out some lawsuits early on for procedural defects, but Trump and his campaign have had to lawyer up months before voters hit the polls. A hearing is set for Nov. 9 before a Michigan Court of Claims judge on Trump’s effort to get ballot contests tossed out in that state, including one brought by the same advocacy group litigating in Minnesota, Free Speech for People.
Untested Questions
The insurrection disqualification language was ratified in 1868. It was part of a post-Civil War effort by Congress to address the political futures of people who supported secession and the Confederacy.
Interest in Section 3 surged after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Constitutional scholars debated whether the language was still operative and whether it could apply not only to elected officials who participated in the assault, but also politicians who played a role in the events leading up to it, including Trump.
An early round of court cases yielded mixed outcomes. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, succeeded in ousting Cowboys for Trump founder Couy Griffin from his post as a county commissioner in New Mexico. Griffin had been found guilty of a misdemeanor federal offense for illegally being in a restricted area.
But other courts rejected efforts to invoke Section 3 to block several Republican members of Congress who backed Trump after the 2020 election from running again in the 2022 midterms. Those cases never reached the Supreme Court and didn’t set precedent that would rule out the possibility of future legal fights.
CREW is involved in the Colorado case along with other attorneys. Their trial presentation before Denver District Court Judge Sarah Wallace included testimony from police officers who responded to the Capitol violence, a sociologist who has studied Trump’s influence on far-right extremists and a 14th Amendment expert who said the historical record supported a broad reading of what it meant to engage in insurrection, including words of incitement.
Trump’s lawyers argued that the case is an effort to interfere with the democratic process. They disputed that the events of Jan. 6 were, in fact, an insurrection. And, regardless, they said, Trump couldn’t have “engaged” through the political speech at the heart of the case – his claims of election fraud, his exhortations to his supporters to come to Washington on Jan. 6 and his speech at a rally that morning.
Another lawyer for Trump pressed similar arguments before the Minnesota Supreme Court on Thursday and urged the justices to stay out of the business of deciding “who can or can’t be president.”
A former employee at T-Mobile in Wilkes-Barre Township Marketplace is accused of using the identifications of people, including military identifications, to open accounts in a scheme to steal cellular phones that were sold at another store.
An arrest warrant was issued for Nadaysha Tatiana Terry, 26, address listed as 407 S. Franklin St., Wilkes-Barre, charging her with a felony count of theft by deception.
Terry was employed at the T-Mobile store as a clerk until Sept. 30, when she stopped showing up for work.
Police in court records say 17 Apple iPhones were stolen for a value of $10,309.83.
According to the criminal complaint:
The store manager in Wilkes-Barre Township contacted the company’s asset protection team due to suspicious behavior by Terry while she was employed at the store.
Accounts opened by Terry involved identifications, including military identifications, of her family, friends and unknown people with partial deposits beginning in May until the last opened account on Aug. 12, the complaint says.
Several of the accounts list the purchaser as being in the U.S. Armed Services when they were not, according to the complaint.
Other accounts had no identifications scanned as required by T-Moble.
T-Mobile policy requires service contracts to be completed with a valid identification card that is scanned.
Police in the complaint learned Terry and possibly her family and friends sold several of the Apple iPhones at another store.
Anyone with information about the whereabouts of Terry is asked to call Wilkes-Barre Township police at 570-606-4791, or by text message 570-760-0215, or by email [email protected].
Police advised not to approach Terry and all information will be kept in confidence.
This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.
Ten Burmese women rescued in October from a textile factory in Bangkok, Thailand, say they were held against their will for months and forced to pay “fees” that would have kept them perpetually indebted to their employers.
The women, who included both legal and undocumented workers, are just a few of what labor watchdogs say are “millions” of Myanmar nationals who migrated to Thailand seeking jobs in the aftermath of the military’s Feb. 1, 2021, coup d’etat.
Rights groups say they are among the most vulnerable populations living in Thailand because they lack adequate protection from authorities both there and back home.
On Oct. 10, Thai police working with labor activist group Myanmar Humanitarian Action Center, or MHAC, freed the 10 women from Myanmar’s Sagaing and Bago regions from a room where the textile factory’s Thai owner had kept them confined when they weren’t working.
The women contacted MHAC via Facebook Messenger for help, sending photos of their room and living conditions, said Ye Min, head of the center.
“They sent photos of the room where they were confined. We used these photos as evidence,” he/she said. “We contacted an official Thai NGO – the Labor Protection Network – and authorities to rescue them.”
Police rescued the women and charges were filed against the factory owner under Thai law for failing to pay the minimum wage and confining the 10 against their will.
Barred from leaving
One of the victims, named Kyi Kyi Sein, spoke with RFA Burmese about her captivity from a women’s care facility in the Thai capital, where the 10 are staying while their case is investigated by authorities.
She said she migrated to Bangkok’s Pachanosin district on July 17 after hearing she had been hired by the textile factory, whose owner she allowed to deduct 3,500 baht (US$100) from her monthly salary to cover “fees” for transportation and the use of an “employment agency.”
“Only when we arrived here, the owner and management of the factory forced us to sign an employment contract and said they would only allow us to go outside after working for two years,” she said. “We were prohibited to leave after that point. We couldn’t even go out for meals.”
Sein told RFA that she and her fellow migrant workers worked long hours each day, despite never knowing whether their salaries would be paid.
“We were asked to start working at 7:30 a.m. and allowed to take a lunch break at 12:10 p.m.,” she said. “We’d work until 5:00 p.m., but were called back 30 minutes later to start the night shift, which ended around 10:00 p.m. The employer never mentioned the exact amount of salary [he would pay us], but insisted we would be able to earn as much as we wanted.”
Sein said the workers lived in a room on the top floor of the same factory where they worked.
“Each floor had a CCTV camera, so we couldn’t escape,” she said. “We could cook in the room but had to ask others to buy groceries for us.”
The factory owner later tried to get Sein and other migrant workers to hand over their Myanmar national ID cards, but they refused.
“At that point, he threatened to fire us, and demanded that we pay back 15,000 baht (US$425) for transportation fees [from Myanmar to Thailand],” she said. “When we told him we had no money to repay it, he asked us for 500 baht (US$14) [per month] to stay at the factory while we looked for other jobs. We couldn’t afford it.”
Sein said that she and her fellow migrant workers were “afraid of getting arrested” for not paying the owner, so they contacted MHAC for help.
Modern slavery
Ye Min of MHAC said that seven of the 10 women have permits to live and work in Thailand, while the other three were undocumented workers.
He said that, since the military coup, an increasing number of Myanmar nationals had turned to overseas jobs – whether legal or not – due to economic hardship and high unemployment rates.
“In other, more tragic cases, some … were sold as slaves on fishing boats, and young women were sold to human trafficking rings at the Malaysian border [with Thailand],” he said. “The military coup has ruined our country, forcing people to migrate to Thailand, where they face tragedy.”
RFA was unable to contact the Labor Attaché Office at the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok for more information about the enslaved women by the time of publishing.
According to a recent report by Thailand’s Bangkok Post, around 400,000 documented workers from Myanmar migrated to Thailand in the wake of the military coup.
But labor activists say that there are likely “millions” of documented and undocumented workers from Myanmar who are now living in Thailand.
In December last year, the International Organization for Migration said in a report that nearly 40,000 people from Myanmar had migrated to other countries for various reasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the political and economic impact of the coup.
Amid the ongoing debate on gun control in the United States, a recent Gallup Poll found that 49% of Democrats support a ban on handguns, representing a notable divergence from the national consensus based on the poll, which largely opposes a handgun ban.
Gallup’s recent survey showed that 56% of all Americans advocate for stricter laws on firearm sales, which is a notable decline from previous decades. The poll results represent a downward trend from the 80% agreement in the early 1990s and a 10-point decrease from the 66% of Americans in favor of stricter gun laws recorded in June 2022, according to Bearing Arms.
Contrary to the hopes of gun control advocates, the poll showed only 27% of Americans surveyed support a ban on handguns. The poll also showed that a similar minority, about one-third of those surveyed, view a gun in the household as an increased risk.
READ MORE: Supreme Court sides with Biden on gun control on ‘ghost guns,’ overruling lower court
However, the poll showed that Democrats are much more supportive of additional gun control measures. According to the Gallup poll, 88% of Democrats support stricter gun restrictions, while 49% support banning handguns in the United States.
While almost half of all Democrats support banning handguns, the Gallup poll found that 37% of Democrats, 67% of independents, and 86% of Republicans believe the presence of firearms in a home makes a home safer. Gallup explained that the number of Republicans who believe the presence of firearms makes homes safer has almost doubled since 2000, while the number of independents and Democrats who believe the presence of firearms makes homes safer has increased by roughly 30% and 9% respectively.
This news article was partially created with the assistance of artificial intelligence and edited and fact-checked by a human editor.
Dino McTaggart, a native of Cleveland, moved to Denver in 1997 for the love of a woman.
Eleven years later, the 55-year-old channeled his adolescence working at his father’s bar to create a space for Midwesterners to rub elbows — and, more importantly, drink beer — downtown: Cap City Tavern at 1247 Bannock St.
The successful business model of serving the state’s population of Midwestern migrants has resulted in other spots like Badgers Pub and Wally’s Wisconsin Tavern popping up throughout the city to please newcomers, with almost 44,000 moving to Colorado from the region’s 12 states from 2021 to 2022.
Left to right, Kevin McNeil, Rachel DeGray, wearing No. 8 jersey, and Cheryl Drexler, right, cheer as they watch the Minnesota Vikings game in Denver. (Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post/TNS)
Although Californians and Texans have historically led the charge in leaving their respective states for the Rocky Mountains, the pipeline from the Midwest to Colorado proves to be a reliable source of tens of thousands of new residents year after year. Their reasons vary, whether it’s to enroll at a Colorado university, escape to better climates or connect with nature.
But with Midwesterners historically shaping the state into what it is today, it raises the question: Is Denver destined to eventually become the next Chicago, metropolis of Middle America?
McTaggart doesn’t think so. He also doesn’t foresee Midwesterners staying put in their home states anytime soon.
“I love Denver for its weather and its people,” he said.
When McTaggart and a partner bought Cap City Tavern during the Great Recession, it served as the territory of Nebraska Cornhuskers football fans on Saturdays, which “allowed us to pay our rent and keep going,” he said.
Aaron Sidrow, left, and fiancée Jordyn Reiland, right, in their Denver home. (Eric Lutzens/The Denver Post/TNS)
Eventually, to churn up business on Sundays, they decided to adopt an NFL football team, and an allegiance to the Minnesota Vikings was born. One game between the Vikings and the Green Bay Packers, they found themselves standing room only.
“We sold our souls to Minnesota,” McTaggart said.
Fans of all ages now cram into the bar to cheer on their favorite team, with regulars settling into their usual seats.
He recalls “a customer of ours who became part of our family,” hitting a snare drum during games to rile up customers into the Viking chant of “Skol!” The man recently passed way, and his daughter now carries on the tradition.
“Even if they’re losing — and the Minnesota Vikings are a classically awful team, they always lose — Minnesotans just want to be with other Minnesotans,” McTaggart said.
Which states are Midwestern?
One controversial topic for Midwesterners is determining which states actually make up the region.
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin are solidly Midwestern states. In addition to them, the U.S. Census Bureau also classifies North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri as Midwestern states. Those areas have a lot in common with the other Midwestern states — particularly the friendliness of the people — but the residents who live on the High Plains often find more kinship with the states to their west, and Missouri can be considered a Middle America, southern hybrid.
The agency considers Colorado a state in the Mountain West.
From 2021 to 2022, California had the most residents move to Colorado over a one-year span with more than 33,000 people, followed by more than 25,000 from Texas. The No. 3 state was Florida at over 11,000, followed by Illinois at over 9,000 and New York at about 8,500.
It’s worth noting that four out of five of those states also have the largest populations in the country: California at close to 39 million, Texas at almost 30 million, Florida at 22 million and New York at over 19 million.
As a region, the Midwest contributed almost 44,000 new Coloradans across its 12 states, with Illinois at the top, then Missouri with 6,100 and Ohio with almost 5,000.
But a decade earlier, from 2010-11, these patterns saw more divergence. California barely held in the top spot with 23,000 people moving to Colorado, followed by Texas at 22,000, Arizona at 12,000, New Mexico at almost 9,000 and Florida at 8,000. Still, the Midwest remained a consistent contributor with almost 44,000.
Over 40,000 Midwesterners resettled in the Centennial State from 2005-06, making it a steadfast source of future Coloradans for the past 17 years.
While Arizona and Florida entice older adults and Texas draws mid-career workers, Colorado attracts young people “based on job growth,” state demographer Elizabeth Garner said. “We have a tighter labor force than other states.”
For example, a contributing factor for Illinois residents moving to Colorado has historically been the state outperforming Illinois economically, Garner said.
But she wouldn’t call it an influx of Midwesterners — “more like a steady flow.”
She’s anticipating similar migration patterns in the future, “but it will really depend on job growth and relative competitiveness,” Garner said.
Jordyn Reiland, 30, is a newcomer to Denver. The Illinois native moved to Colorado in March from Chicago with her fiance Aaron Sidrow.
They met in late 2019 on dating app Bumble, and their relationship blossomed through the COVID-19 pandemic. Sidrow, a 31-year-old originally from Littleton, lived in Chicago because of his job at the time as a pilot at SkyWest Airlines.
He “really started to notice what Chicago kind of lacked during the pandemic,” Reiland said, as museums and restaurants remained shuttered, with nowhere to go on chilly, windy days.
In 2021, they started weighing their options for a potential move, considering both Salt Lake City and Denver. Reiland described herself as hesitant to leave, given her family roots in Illinois and fondness for Chicago.
But once she visited Denver, she changed her mind, falling in love with the access to the outdoors and the weather. Throughout the process, Reiland leaned on a friend who had moved to Fort Collins from Chicago a year earlier.
She’s still needed time to adjust. For instance, in Chicago, “I never drove my car, and, unfortunately, that’s just not really possible in Denver still, regardless of the light rail and the buses,” she said.
Still, “it’s nice to see the sun” in Colorado, Reiland said. She considers Denver “something that’s different enough from the Midwest, but it still has that little bit of familiarity.”
University recruitment of Midwesterners
Some Midwesterners move to Colorado in their youth as they pursue college degrees in the Rocky Mountain West — and, then, build their lives here.
Heather Daniels, executive director of Colorado State University’s Office of Admissions, understands that draw as a resident of 10 years who’s originally from the Chicago area.
“The opportunity to take advantage of everything that Colorado has to offer is appealing to students coming from the Midwest,” she said.
Daniels describes the state as “close enough that even the long drive is manageable,” with many affordable flight options. “I think that our students love the opportunity to explore a new environment, community and way of living,” she added.
At CSU, the 12 states of the Midwest region contributed almost 2,200 undergraduate students for this year’s fall semester, with the highest numbers from Illinois at about 800 and Minnesota at over 300, according to its Office of Institutional Research, Planning and Effectiveness.
That’s more combined than the 2,100 undergraduate students from California and 1,100 from Texas, with a total of more than 24,000 undergrads at CSU. Midwesterners made up 10% of first-year students to apply, and 9% of enrolled students.
One of the university’s regional recruiters is in the Chicago area, covering Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin, while another counselor travels throughout Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas and Kentucky to connect with prospective students.
The University of Colorado Boulder typically recruits prospective students from Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana and Ohio, expanding this year to include Missouri and Wisconsin, spokesperson Nicole Mueksch said.
“Illinois tends to be one of our top represented states among our first-year classes,” Mueksch said. It ranked as the No. 3 state for the fall 2023 and fall 2022 first-year classes — and the No. 2 state for the entire fall 2022 out of the state undergraduate population.
This year, about 8% of the university’s undergraduate first-year student population hailed from the Midwest, with 579 students representing all of the region’s states except for South Dakota. The top three states ranked as Illinois, Minnesota and Ohio.
That’s a slightly higher percentage than a decade earlier when Midwestern students made up about 7% of the first-year undergraduate class of 2013, with 395 students. Still, the top states remained the same.
“In addition to the strong academic programs our campus provides, prospective students from the Midwest have expressed interest in attending CU Boulder to be in close proximity to the Rocky Mountains for outdoor recreation activities like skiing and snowboarding,” Mueksch said.
The college also “provides them the opportunity to attend a state school that is smaller in student population than some of their in-state options,” she added.
“We’re still here”
Sam Gettleman, 30, first considered a move to Denver after looking at CU Boulder and the University of Denver as potential college options. Ultimately, the native of Deerfield, Ill. — a “quaint suburbia” outside of Chicago, he said — opted for Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
Gettleman “basically spent the first 22 years of my life in that gray weather that I just kind of accepted,” he said.
But Colorado never strayed far from his mind. He’d stay at a family friend’s home in Vail during his spring breaks to ski and snowboard.
Then, in late 2015, he received a text from his best friend who quit his job in Cincinnati and planned to resettle in Denver.
At the time, Gettleman only knew a few Midwestern friends in the area — all of whom decided to go to college in Colorado and stay after graduating. He considered it a nontraditional choice for Midwesterners, outlining the typical path as attending one of the Big Ten Conference universities, joining Greek life and securing a job in Chicago.
But he signed a six-month lease in Denver anyway, with a back-up plan to move home to Deerfield if it didn’t work out.
“We’re still here, coming up on eight years later,” Gettleman said. A resident of the Capitol Hill neighborhood, he’s fond of its walkability, with easy access to both green space and downtown.
So, is Denver destined to turn into the next Chicago? Gettleman disagrees.
Real estate developers would “need to build up and out so much to catch up to Chicago, but I think that’s a good thing,” he said.
“The stereotypical thing of Colorado is, it’s just a lot more laid-back,” Gettleman said. Denver is “a lot quieter, but you still have that city feel, which is what I love.”
A judge has approved the settlement agreement between Priscilla Presley and her granddaughter, actor Riley Keough, over Lisa Marie Presley’s estate and, by extension, the estate of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Elvis Presley.
The order, signed Monday by L.A. Superior Court Judge Lynn H. Scaduto and filed Wednesday, officially named Keough, Elvis’ granddaughter and star of “Daisy Jones & the Six,” as the sole trustee of her mother’s irrevocable trust. As part of the May settlement agreement, Priscilla resigned as a co-trustee in exchange for other benefits that were revealed in a recent court filing.
As proposed in June, when Priscilla dies, she will be buried in the Meditation Garden at Graceland in an available grave site closest to her ex-husband, Elvis, to whom she was married from 1967 to 1973. She’ll also receive a memorial service on the iconic Memphis, Tennessee, property, which Keough now owns.
Additionally, the 78-year-old matriarch will receive a $1 million lump-sum payment that will be funded by her daughter’s $25 million life insurance policy, according to the ex parte petition to approve the settlement reviewed by the L.A. Times.
The family reached the settlement agreement in May, and while more details were made available in June, Priscilla’s specific payout details were made public only last week when Keough’s attorney filed a lengthy, unredacted copy of the agreement in L.A. Superior Court.
The document also said Priscilla will be paid $100,000 annually for her nonfiduciary special adviser role on a trust relating to Elvis Presley Enterprises. The monthly payments are guaranteed for 10 years or until Priscilla’s death, regardless of whether Keough ever terminates her grandmother’s role as special adviser.
Under the agreement, Priscilla’s son, Navarone Garibaldi, has been named among the beneficiaries of his half-sister’s trust, along with Keough and Lisa Marie’s minor twins, Harper and Finley Lockwood. Attorney Martin Singer has been named the trustee of the sub-trust benefiting Garibaldi, the documents said, and Lisa Marie’s ex-husband, Michael Lockwood, will serve as guardian ad litem for the former couple’s twin daughters. (Keough is in charge of the 15-year-olds’ sub-trusts.)
And, to avoid any future issues with third parties, the court confirmed the June proposal that Keough would be the sole trustee of Lisa Marie’s trust — a request made because of the convoluted history of the trust, which included multiple co-trustees and resignations over the years.
“In sum, Riley simply wants to have a Court Order she can deliver to third parties, such as the life insurance company, as appropriate, to clarify that she is the sole trustee and avoid unnecessary delays associated with third parties needing to determine who the trustee is,” the agreement said.
The tense legal dispute over Lisa Marie’s estate and Elvis’ legacy erupted after her death in January at age 54. Priscilla challenged her daughter’s will weeks later, contesting “the authenticity and validity” of Lisa Marie’s 2016 appointment of Keough and her late brother, Benjamin Keough as co-trustees. The trust includes Elvis’ iconic Graceland property in Memphis and Lisa Marie’s remaining 15% ownership of his estate.
Lisa Marie Presley was back in the news earlier this week for a diatribe reportedly directed at “Priscilla” director Sofia Coppola. Variety said the singer rejected the filmmaker’s take on her parents’ courtship and relationship, which began in 1959 when Priscilla was 14 and Elvis was 24. (The film, which is being hailed as one of Coppola’s best in years, is based on Priscilla’s 1985 memoir, “Elvis and Me.”)
In the letters, written by Lisa Marie about four months before her death, she told the “Virgin Suicides” director that the writing in the film was “shockingly vengeful and contemptuous.” She also claimed to fear that the movie would bring unwanted attention to Elvis and Priscilla’s grandchildren, who had already been grieving the loss of Lisa Marie’s son, Benjamin.
“I am worried that my mother isn’t seeing the nuance here or realizing the way in which Elvis will be perceived when this movie comes out,” Lisa Marie wrote, per Variety. “I feel protective over my mother who has spent her whole life elevating my father’s legacy. I am worried she doesn’t understand the intentions behind this film or the outcome it will have.”
In July, the L.A. County medical examiner’s autopsy report found that Lisa Marie Presley died from complications of a small-bowel obstruction, which was linked to previous bariatric surgery.
It almost seems like an anachronism. Taking a trip by train is like something out of the past.
Now, Amtrak is looking to double in size.
By using funds from the 2021 infrastructure bill, Amtrak is making improvements at some of its biggest and most popular hubs. Those include train stations in New York, Washington, Baltimore, Chicago and Philadelphia.
“Amtrak is making significant investments to modernize our stations,” said EVP Laura Mason, who is overseeing the company’s internal infrastructure overhaul.
Amtrak’s budget is expected to zoom. Annual capital investments alone are slated to rise to $2.5 billion by 2025. They were $785 million as recently as 2019.
Improvements and renovations are scheduled for Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station, New York’s Penn Station and Chicago’s Union Station.
Penn Station in Baltimore, which is over 100 years old, is also expected to undergo improvements and renovations. The station has not seen a refresh in almost 40 years.
The renovations could bring a whole new life to the national railroad company.
In August, Amtrak ordered 10 more Airo trainsets as part of its modernization efforts, bringing the total to 83 trainsets, which are expected to first debut in 2026.
The Amtrak Airo trainsets, which consist of both locomotive and passenger carriages, will modernize Amtrak’s fleet across the country, with greater comfort for passengers, more space for luggage and a greater focus on sustainability, producing 90% less particulate emissions than on traditional diesel trains.
