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Trump signs executive order expanding workers’ access to retirement plans

Kraig Pakulski 0 18 Article rating: No rating

By Jeanne Sahadi, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday that put some meat on the bones of a retirement savings proposal he introduced in his State of the Union address in February.

The proposal is intended to help close the so-called retirement coverage gap, which has left behind more than 50 million mostly low- and moderate-income earners in the private sector. They are the workers who have neither a defined-benefit employer pension nor an easy, subsidized way to save for retirement at work.

He said starting next year, those who don’t have workplace retirement plans will be able to access a Web site – TrumpIRA.gov – where they can open a “new, low-cost IRA account. You’ll then be able to access the same type of retirement accounts that federal employees enjoy through the Thrift Savings Plans,” Trump said.

“For millions of Americans who lack employer-sponsored plans, this will be really revolutionary, because they’ll be covered,” he added.

Trump mentioned that some earners who open an account will qualify for the federal Saver’s Match, which goes into effect next year. That match will be available to low- and moderate-income workers who make less than $35,500 (or $71,000 as a married couple) if they save up to $2,000 a year ($4,000 for couples) in a qualified retirement plan – like a 401(k), IRA or auto IRA. The federal match is worth up to $1,000 ($2,000 for couples).

He also suggested the administration will work with Congress to expand eligibility for that match to those whose income is above those limits and who don’t otherwise have access to a retirement plan.

The text of the executive order was not immediately available for review.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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Elon Musk’s courtroom showdown with Sam Altman started this week. The biggest takeaways so far

Kraig Pakulski 0 22 Article rating: No rating

By Samantha Delouya, Hadas Gold, Ramishah Maruf, CNN

Oakland, Calif. (CNN) — Elon Musk spent the better part of three days on the stand, accusing OpenAI and its executives of deceiving him into donating money to help found what is now one of the world’s biggest AI companies.

The lawsuit pits Musk against his former collaborators-turned-competitors, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman, whom Musk alleges unjustly enriched themselves when they strayed from OpenAI’s founding mission as a nonprofit organization to become a for-profit company. Musk also named Microsoft as a co-defendant in the case, accusing the company of aiding and abetting OpenAI’s breach of charitable trust.

The big personalities and high stakes of the trial were on full display in court, as Musk regularly clashed with OpenAI’s attorney, accusing him of trying to “trick me.” The judge occasionally scolded the parties involved, at one point going so far as to tell Musk to actually answer the questions he’s being asked and warning them to stop talking about whether AI will cause human extinction.

OpenAI and Microsoft have argued that Musk was supportive of creating a for-profit arm of the company. They say he is only bringing the suit because he wasn’t able to take complete control of OpenAI and now wants to bring down a competitor.

Musk registered a for-profit corporation

The question at the heart of the case is whether OpenAI and its executives unjustly turned the company into a profit-seeking company, breaching its original mission and misleading Musk.

Musk was one of the company’s co-founders and provided $38 million to OpenAI. However, he left in 2018 and stopped all payments by 2020.

“I gave them free funding to create a startup,” Musk testified, saying that he thought he was donating to a nonprofit that was aiming to make AI “for the good of humanity.”

But as early as 2015, before OpenAI was officially announced, Musk had proposed that OpenAI include a for-profit entity, according to emails shown to the jury. In 2017, he directed his senior advisors to register a for-profit corporation in OpenAI’s name, OpenAI’s attorney said, pointing to meeting notes and the registration documents.

Musk testified this week that he was fine with OpenAI having a for-profit subsidiary as long as it didn’t “overtake” the nonprofit, which he argued is what ultimately happened.

Musk’s AI plans under scrutiny

William Savitt, OpenAI’s lawyer, suggested that Musk quit OpenAI’s board in February 2018 because he was blocked from taking unilateral control of the company. Musk, however, said he quit the board to focus on his other companies, including SpaceX and Tesla.

Savitt suggested that in the years after Musk left the board, he took actions to hobble OpenAI, especially after forming a competing company, xAI.

In questioning, Savitt asked whether Musk disclosed that he started his own AI company when he signed a public letter in 2023 advocating to pause development of AI systems that are more powerful than OpenAI’s GPT-4. Savitt also brought up the attempt Musk led last year to buy OpenAI with a group of for-profit investors, to which Musk responded: “There’s nothing wrong with having a for-profit organization, you just can’t steal a charity.”

Savitt also pressed Musk on why he hasn’t created an AI nonprofit since leaving OpenAI’s board. Musk said that he didn’t create a new one because he had started OpenAI.

“Why would I start another nonprofit when I already started a nonprofit? That doesn’t make any sense,” Musk said.

Musk ‘didn’t read the fine print’

On Wednesday, Savitt showed Musk emails and text messages from 2018 in which Altman tried to tell Musk

El Congreso vota para reabrir partes del DHS tras semanas de disputa por fondos de ICE

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Por Sarah Ferris, Manu Raju, Annie Grayer y Lauren Fox, CNN

El Congreso votó este jueves para reabrir partes clave del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional (DHS, por sus siglas en inglés), incluida la Administración de Seguridad en el Transporte (TSA, por sus siglas en inglés), después de semanas de disputas internas republicanas que prolongaron un cierre récord de la agencia.

El proyecto de ley para financiar el departamento, que llevaba 75 días sin fondos, pasa ahora al presidente Donald Trump para su firma.

Los líderes republicanos de la Cámara cedieron en una disputa de semanas sobre la financiación del DHS, en un importante retroceso para el presidente de la Cámara de Representantes, Mike Johnson, mientras enfrentaba una creciente rebelión de centristas de su partido, dijeron múltiples fuentes a CNN. La Cámara aprobó abruptamente el paquete —que no incluye dinero para la aplicación federal de leyes migratorias, en una importante victoria para los demócratas— mediante votación por voz este jueves por la tarde.

La medida pone fin a un cierre histórico que provocó largas filas en aeropuertos de todo el país y llega justo antes de que los salarios de los empleados del DHS volvieran a quedar en riesgo. El Gobierno de Trump había advertido que el departamento estaba por quedarse sin fondos de emergencia utilizados para pagar al personal afectado por el cierre.

La decisión culmina semanas de drama en el Capitolio, con republicanos optando por no realizar una votación registrada sobre la medida que ha dividido fuertemente al partido. Algunos republicanos de la Cámara insistían en que sus líderes no debían ceder, aunque el liderazgo argumentó que sus miembros dieron un paso clave un día antes para desbloquear fondos para la aplicación de leyes migratorias, lo que allana el camino para poner fin al estancamiento sobre el resto del DHS.

“Creo que es absurdo que estemos financiando al Gobierno de esta manera”, dijo el representante de Texas Chip Roy poco antes de la votación.

Y no es el fin del drama para el Congreso esta semana. Los líderes republicanos también necesitan convencer a esos mismos miembros descontentos de respaldar otro proyecto de ley impopular: una extensión temporal de los poderes de vigilancia extranjera sin orden judicial del Gobierno. Los debates simultáneos sobre gasto y poderes de espionaje han subrayado que Johnson y los republicanos han perdido efectivamente su capacidad de gobernar en una Cámara plagada de divisiones y disputas internas.

Durante casi un mes, Johnson se negó a aprobar la misma medida parcial de financiación ya aprobada por el Senado debido a miembros como Roy. Los republicanos de la Cámara detestan ampliamente el proyecto parcial de financiación del DHS del Senado, porque temen que siente un precedente que los demócratas puedan explotar en futuras disputas presupuestarias.

Incluso el representante de Florida Mario Diaz-Balart, un importante líder en temas de gasto que rara vez confronta a su propio partido, insistió en que la Cámara no debía permitir que los demócratas del Senado decidieran simplemente no financiar una parte de un departamento fuera del proceso anual de asignaciones presupuestarias.

“El Senado está más preocupado por preservar el filibusterismo que por preservar la Constitución. El filibusterismo no está en la Constitución. Los proyectos de ley de asignaciones presupuestarias sí”, dijo, señalando además que es “realmente muy peligroso” que el DHS siga cerrado.

Muchos republicanos de la Cámara tienen objeciones específicas sobre un aspecto del proyecto: incluye lenguaje que elimina específicamente fondos para ICE, algo que muchos republicanos temen que los exponga a desafíos en elecciones primarias en sus estados bajo acusaciones de haber dejado sin fondos a ICE. (Johnson ha intentado en privado modificar el lenguaje, pero encontró resistencia de líderes republicanos del Senado

Congress votes to reopen key parts of DHS without ICE funding

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Speaker of the House Mike Johnson walks to the House chamber on Wednesday


CNN

By Sarah Ferris, Manu Raju, Annie Grayer, Lauren Fox, CNN

(CNN) — Congress voted to reopen key parts of the Department of Homeland Security — including the Transportation Security Administration — Thursday after weeks of GOP infighting that prolonged a record shutdown of the critical agency.

The bill to fund the department, which has gone unfunded for 75 days, now goes to President Donald Trump for his signature.

House GOP leaders conceded in a weeks-long DHS funding fight in a major retreat by Speaker Mike Johnson as he faced a growing revolt from centrists in his party, multiple sources told CNN. The House abruptly passed the package — which includes no money for federal immigration enforcement, in a major win for Democrats — by a voice vote Thursday afternoon.

The move brings an end to a historic shutdown that led to long lines at airports across the country and comes just before paychecks were about to stall out once again for DHS employees.

Johnson, in the end, decided to move forward after a private leadership meeting earlier Thursday where the team agreed they had little choice but to move the bill — with their own members warning the situation was untenable.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, a former House member, had also repeatedly warned that he was almost out of money. And GOP leaders knew that the deteriorating DHS situation would only further underscore their party’s diminishing ability to govern in a House rife with divisions and infighting.

Conservative hardliners — who had contributed to holding up the bill for weeks — eventually admitted they had no leverage left in the fight.

GOP Rep. Andy Harris, who leads the House’s ultraconservative bloc, told reporters that “you really can’t stop anything from passing” if dozens of Democrats are also going to help.

The department’s funding woes, however, aren’t fully over. Now, Republicans will seek to fund immigration enforcement without Democratic votes, using a complex budgetary maneuver. (Republicans separately funded ICE through the same process last year, which eliminates any immediate need for the money.)

The move to mostly reopen DHS comes after weeks of drama on Capitol Hill, with Republicans ultimately choosing not to take a recorded vote on the measure that has sharply divided their party.

Some House Republicans had been adamant that House GOP leaders should not cave, though leadership argued that their members took a key step a day earlier toward unlocking immigration enforcement money — which paves the way to end the funding impasse over the rest of DHS. They had also criticized the Senate GOP for passing it by voice vote — a move that the House eventually followed.

“I think it’s asinine that we’re funding the government this way,” Rep. Chip Roy of Texas said just before the vote about the funding strategy.

But afterward, Roy and other ultraconservatives said they didn’t placet the blame e

FEMA reinstates whistleblowers as Trump administration reverses Noem’s policies

Kraig Pakulski 0 14 Article rating: No rating

By Gabe Cohen, CNN

(CNN) — FEMA has reinstated a group of whistleblowers who signed an open letter to Congress last August warning that the Trump administration’s dismantling of the federal agency was setting the stage for a disaster-response breakdown on the scale of Hurricane Katrina, according to five FEMA officials with knowledge of the matter.

Officials at the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which it oversees, also brought back multiple senior officials who were polygraphed and placed on paid administrative leave more than a year ago, three of the officials told CNN.

The reversals are part of a broader reset unfolding just weeks into Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s tenure at DHS, partly in an effort to stabilize the agency ahead of hurricane season. He has been rolling back some of the most contentious changes made under former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was fired by President Donald Trump last month.

Trump floated eliminating FEMA early in his term, and Noem embraced the idea — vowing to dismantle the agency and shift more responsibility for disaster response to the states.

Noem’s heavy-handed overhaul – which gutted the senior leadership, drove out more than 20% of the workforce, and sent morale into a sleep slide – left many inside FEMA warning the agency was increasingly unprepared for a major, multi-state disaster. Her rhetoric softened in the months before her ouster when it became clear many Republicans — including GOP lawmakers — did not support abolishing FEMA.

But in a striking pivot, Mullin, as Trump’s new pick to run the department, has begun unwinding staffing cuts and easing strict spending approval processes that slowed disaster operations. During a trip to North Carolina this month, Mullin praised FEMA and said he would get aid out more quickly and cut red tape that can bog down recovery.

In another remarkable twist, Trump is expected to nominate Cameron Hamilton to serve as FEMA administrator less than a year after he was abruptly fired from that role — which he held in an acting capacity — after breaking from the administration’s script and telling Congress he did not support eliminating the agency.

“As we approach the 2026 hurricane season and the FIFA World Cup, FEMA is taking targeted steps to stabilize our workforce and strengthen readiness,” a FEMA spokesperson told CNN in a statement. “Under new leadership, FEMA is addressing outstanding personnel actions to ensure workforce stability and a strong, deployable surge force for upcoming national events and potential disasters.”

Whistleblower staffers reinstated

More than 180 current and former FEMA staffers signed the open letter to Congress last August, warning of the growing turmoil inside the agency, though most did so anonymously. Fourteen current FEMA staffers put their names on the document, and Noem’s team promptly placed them on administrative leave and opened an investigation into their conduct.

In December, CNN learned FEMA had cleared the workers to return — but after CNN asked about it, DHS reversed course and put them back on leave.

“Once alerted, the unauthorized reinstatement was swiftly corrected by senior leadership,” a DHS spokes

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