NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! A growing consortium of University of California professors is urging the state university system to bring back standardized testing, warning that the elimination of admissions tests has degraded academic readiness and forced instructors to teach “middle school math” to college undergraduates.More than 1,400 UC faculty members have signed an open letter calling on leadership to reinstate the SAT and ACT mathematics requirements for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) majors. The massive pushback follows a dramatic multi-year decline in student proficiency after the university went completely “test-blind” in 2021.Karajean Hyde, Co-Director of the UC Irvine Math Project and a Lecturer of Education, told Fox News Digital that objective benchmarks are desperately needed to restore academic baselines.”I’d say we need some objective measures to go along with the whole picture,” Hyde said. “A student’s not just a single number or a single letter, but standardized testing can play an important role in ensuring one level of measuring where that bar is so that the bar doesn’t move.”EDUCATION SECRETARY LINDA MCMAHON RIPS CALIFORNIA TRANS ATHLETE ‘COMPROMISE,’ TELLS NEWSOM TO ‘PICK A SIDE’ While Hyde is not directly involved in the university’s internal admissions decisions,…

A federal court filed charges Thursday against a U.S. sailor and two other individuals for attempting to finance an ISIS attack against American troops overseas.The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Friday arrested U.S. Navy Seaman Bareen Dzayee, 25, along with Bisaam Ghafoor, 21, and Elias Shamsaldeen, 21, for allegedly providing over $2,000 to an individual they believed to be an ISIS member. The trio reportedly believed their money would sanction the purchase of rocket-propelled grenades and drones that would be used to murder U.S. service members.“Over years, the individuals communicated about several plans to support ISIS, including through the provision of personnel, services and money,” a criminal complaint read. “Through chats, voice calls and multiple messaging platforms, these conspirators pledged allegiance or ‘Bayat’ to ISIS and its leader.”Dzayee enlisted in the Navy in 2021 and served aboard the USS John McCain from March 25, 2022, to July 19, 2024.Between March 2025 and January 2026, the FBI identified all three suspects as ISIS sympathizers after alarming social media posts.The posts pledged allegiance to the terrorist organization, promoted violence and discussed weapons and explosives in support of ISIS operations.A confidential FBI source the suspects believed to be an active ISIS member reached…

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Democratic challenger Nithya Raman advanced to a runoff election on Monday evening in a heated primary that has garnered national attention.The outcome sets up a general election that pits Bass, an incumbent fending off criticism about her record, against Raman’s progressive message of government-led affordability measures.Voters will decide the matchup in a runoff election on Nov. 3.Raman, a member of the Los Angeles City Council and Democratic Socialists of America, has served as chair of the Housing and Homelessness Committee since 2023. She has also been dubbed a Mamdani-style socialist, referring to far-left New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.LA CITY COUNCILWOMAN PREVIOUSLY BACKED BY DSA RUNNING FOR MAYOR IN PRIMARY CHALLENGE TO BASS In her view, there is more the city could be doing to address not just its homelessness problem, but also increasing housing supply, maintaining public safety, furthering climate goals and pushing back against federal immigration enforcement efforts.”We can bring LA back to what it really is: one of the most creative, beautiful and most hopeful places in the world. But only if we come together to fight for it,” Raman said in a…

The Marine Corps is searching for airpower methods that can be used to blast a path for amphibious groups to steam through chokepoints at sea.A new Request for Information submitted by Naval Air Systems Command on behalf of the Corps asks for analytical tools that can help the Future Attack/Strike, or FASt, initiative fulfill the chokepoint-busting mission.The effort comes as the service is beginning to retire aging platforms, such as the AV-8B, AH-1Z and the F/A-18. FASt aims to replace them with next-generation systems like long-range missiles, MQ-58 Valkyrie combat drones, electronic warfare and other non-kinetic effects, according to the 2026 Marine Aviation Plan. The Marine Corps is looking for an answer on how it could integrate these new capabilities into the its amphibious assault mission, which inevitably will involve operating in dangerous littoral waters and chokepoints. The U.S. is already grappling with that problem in the Strait of Hormuz, where Iranian missiles, drones and swarms of fast-attack boats would jeopardize operations, such as seizing Kharg Island. The Marine Corps wants tools that are good at “modeling complex operational scenarios, identifying vulnerabilities and capability gaps, and assessing the potential impact of new technologies, tactics, techniques, and procedures,” according to the…

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! An 18-year-old Wisconsin man was sentenced Friday to life in prison for his role in the brutal killing of a 5-year-old Milwaukee boy whose disappearance later led to changes in state law.Erik Mendoza, who was 15 at the time of the crime, will not be eligible to petition for release for 50 years. He pleaded guilty in February to first-degree intentional homicide, hiding a corpse and three counts of second-degree recklessly endangering safety in the death of Prince McCree, according to local outlets FOX 6 and WISN.”When considering the serious nature of this defendant’s offenses, it does not get more serious, more egregious than this,” Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Matthew Torbenson said during Friday’s sentencing hearing.McCree was reported missing on Oct. 25, 2023, after his mother allowed him to go play video games in the basement of he home where his family lived, where David Pietura — who was later sentenced to life in prison in the case — also lived. When she could not find him later that day, she contacted police, according to FOX 6.WISCONSIN TEEN CHARGED IN SHOOTING DEATH OF MOTHER, STEPFATHER FOUND DECOMPOSED IN THEIR HOME The…

This article was originally published by Michael Snyder at The Economic Collapse Blog under the title: The Ogallala Aquifer Is Dying – As The Largest Supply Of Groundwater In The United States Vanishes, Farmers Are Deeply Concerned About What Is Next Gigantic underground aquifers are being rapidly depleted all over the world, and once that water is gone, it will take a very long time for it to come back. In fact, in some areas of the United States, the recharge rate is less than an inch per year. That is a major problem, because more than half of the water that U.S. farmers use for irrigation comes from underground aquifers. What in the world are our farmers going to do once that water is gone? The largest underground aquifer in the United States is known as the Ogallala Aquifer. It covers a vast area under portions of eight different states, and it accounts for approximately 30 percent of all groundwater that is used for irrigation in our nation… The Ogallala Aquifer (oh-gə-LAH-lə) is a shallow water table aquifer surrounded by sand, silt, clay, and gravel located beneath the Great Plains in the United States. As one of the world’s largest aquifers, it underlies an area of approximately 174,000 sq mi…

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NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner claimed that he has been able to “make a living on the sea” since leaving the armed forces during a Friday rally, an assertion his financial disclosures don’t appear to support.Platner, who is running for Senate in Maine to unseat incumbent GOP Sen. Susan Collins, has long identified himself as an oyster farmer and harbor master, giving a blue-collar tinge to his left-wing campaign. Financial disclosures, however, show that he brings in relatively little money from oyster farming, with reports suggesting that Platner receives the majority of his income through veteran’s disability payments. “My healthcare gave me freedom,” Platner said at a June 5 rally. “It gave me the freedom to take risks, to start a business and to sink my intellect and my physicality into mastering the skills necessary to make a living on the sea.” PLATNER’S ANTI-CORPORATE CRUSADE HITS AWKWARD SNAG AS RECEIPTS TELL ANOTHER STORY Platner’s comments drew ire on social media, with many questioning the Senate hopeful’s claim to working-class identity.Platner’s 2025 financial disclosures show that he listed “other $5,001” as his annual income from farming oysters. The candidate’s entire business is only worth between…

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! The House Oversight Committee’s Republican majority accused Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison of repeatedly contradicting public accounts of Minnesota’s massive Feeding Our Future fraud scandal in a 205-page report released Monday.The scandal, which thrust the Land of 10,000 Lakes into the national spotlight, set off a chain of journalistic and congressional investigations that exposed a wider web of waste, fraud and abuse, including allegations that members of Minnesota’s Somali community exploited the social services framework to funnel millions of dollars to unqualified recipients, including Mogadishu-area terror groups.The report describes several instances that investigators said show Ellison and Gov. Tim Walz were aware of fraud concerns earlier than they publicly acknowledged.”The governor and the attorney general knew about fraud in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) as early as April 2020, despite contrary claims made to the media,” the committee said.WALZ ADMINISTRATION IGNORED FRAUD WARNINGS AS BILLIONS VANISHED, HOUSE OVERSIGHT REPORT ALLEGES”The governor and the attorney general knew about fraud in the Child Care Assistance Program as well as Non-Emergency Medical Transportation program as early as spring 2019. The Governor and the Attorney General…

U.S. House lawmakers want the Air Force to keep the A-10 Warthog flying and combat-ready through its planned 2030 retirement while testing autonomous aircraft that could eventually take over the aging jet’s close air support mission. The House Armed Services Committee approved the provisions as part of its fiscal year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, which the panel passed 44-12 late Thursday after a marathon markup that stretched past midnight. The measures, offered by Rep. Abe Hamadeh, R-Ariz., were adopted in a tactical air and land forces en bloc package. One measure directs the Air Force to maintain enough training, depot maintenance, spare parts and contractor support to keep the A-10 fleet mission-ready through 2030, including combat search and rescue. The service ended its A-10 depot maintenance at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, in February, though the amendment’s “as necessary” language means the Air Force may simply deem reopening the depot line unnecessary. The bill also blocks the Air Force from moving the A-10’s formal training unit without first submitting a cost-benefit analysis to Congress and waiting 90 days. The 357th Fighter Squadron at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, the service’s only A-10 pilot training unit, graduated its last class…