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Dog treat founder eats her own products, even packs them in her kids' lunches
It's National Dog Day, and one dog treat creator thinks dogs should be included in the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative, which emphasizes whole, nutrient-dense foods.
"We have never used anything artificial," Sarah Goldberger, New York-based founder and CEO of organic dog treat company Lord Jameson, told Fox News Digital.
"We've never used fake food coloring. We've never used fake flavoring. All of our bright, beautiful colors come from real fruits and vegetables."
CHEAP, HEALTHY FOOD IS REJECTED BY MOST AMERICANS EVEN AS MAHA MOVEMENT PUSHES IT
Since becoming an official federal initiative in February 2025, the MAHA Commission has promoted a greater focus on whole, nutrient-dense foods while calling for reductions in refined carbohydrates, added sugars and certain artificial additives.
Goldberger believes those nutritional priorities will "translate into the pet space."
"My hope is that as a brand, we can inspire other pet brands to make better choices to really impact the lives and the health and wellness of dogs," she said.
Goldberger started Lord Jameson in 2019, inspired by her late dog, Jameson, after noticing what she described as a void in the market for healthier dog treats.
HERE'S WHY DOGS DON'T NEED 'HUMAN FOOD,' SAYS VIRGINIA VETERINARIAN: 'NO REASON FOR IT'
"Jameson had gone through a pretty serious medical issue, and the medication he was being given actually created toxicity in his body," Goldberger said.
"So we started working with a homeopathic vet, and we were reminded of the power of plant-based medicine. A lot of the formulas, especially in our wellness products, are meant to serve dogs during a time of needed healing with plant-based products, more herbs and botanicals."
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When she set out to create the brand, Goldberger said she surveyed more than 1,000 pet parents and found that many reported their dogs had allergies or sensitivities to various animal proteins, preservatives and food colorings.
Goldberger said she wanted to offer treats made with "completely clean ingredients, organic, gluten-free, no preservatives, no toxins, no artificial colors or flavors."
Despite not using preservatives, the treats have an 18-month shelf life, which Goldberger said is "very difficult to achieve in production" and is "another key selling point for us."
Lord Jameson, Goldberger said, has "truly reimagined what dog treats can be and should be."
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She said she eats the treats herself and even puts them in her children's lunchboxes.
They've been a hit with pet owners for a variety of reasons, including what Goldberger described as their effect on dogs' digestive systems.
"As a dog mom myself, I know the frustration when you go to the store, you buy food or a treat, you bring it home and all of a sudden they have diarrhea," she said.
"Because we're using whole-food ingredients and no preservatives, you're going to get a nice firm poop after they eat. It sounds funny to say, but this is something you'll see in a lot of our reviews."
Goldberger also said the treats can be suitable for some dogs with colitis, diabetes or other specialized dietary needs.
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Lord Jameson has since launched a line of "protein-inspired" flavors as part of its Love Puffs line, made with organic sorghum, a whole grain that contains protein and fiber.
Another feature that sets Lord Jameson apart, Goldberger said, is that the brand is "completely vertically integrated," with its manufacturing operations, including its kitchen, warehouse and fulfillment center, based in Boulder, Colorado.
"We've had no price increase for three or four years, no issues with any tariffs because everything is sourced primarily in North America," Goldberger said.
Lord Jameson treats are sold at 5,500 independent pet retailers in the United States, as well as at some grocery stores, and are available internationally in four countries.
Kelly McGreal of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.
Trump’s Economic D-Day can hammer Iran, but will Tehran ever surrender?
I lived in Europe for years, studying World War II not only in books but on the ground, walking battlefields and cemeteries and listening to veterans who had fought their way across the continent.
For America and our European allies, D-Day was an all-in fight. Survival was at stake. There was no ambiguity about the enemy or the objective.
So, when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called his new maximum-pressure campaign against Iran an "Economic D-Day," a term he used this week, one question immediately came to mind:
Where is V-E Day?
The real D-Day came on June 6, 1944. Nazi Germany did not surrender until May 8, 1945. That was eleven months later.
D-Day was not victory. It began the final campaign toward victory.
Bessent deserves credit for launching something much more ambitious than another sanctions package. The administration calls it Operation Economic Outcast: an effort to sever Iran’s remaining economic lifelines in shipping, aviation, technology, gold and digital assets, with secondary sanctions threatened against foreign enablers. About 60 individuals, entities and vessels were targeted in the opening round.
TRUMP THREATENS 'UNPRECEDENTED' ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES FOR ANY NATION AIDING IRAN
And there is an important difference from President Donald Trump’s first-term "maximum pressure" campaign: the U.S. Navy.
Previous sanctions made Iranian oil hard to finance, insure and sell. Today, unlike the first-term campaign, the administration is pairing financial pressure with what AP reports is a Navy-enforced blockade of Iranian ports.
The administration hopes to deepen a decline already evident in Iranian oil shipments to China. Iranian oil shipments to China fell to about 534,000 barrels a day in August, down from 823,000 in July and from a 2026 peak of roughly 1.58 million. Chinese refiners are scrambling for alternative supplies.
Iran is hurting badly.
TRUMP BETS ECONOMIC PRESSURE CAN SQUEEZE IRAN AS REGIME’S OWN FAILURES DEEPEN THE PAIN
Its currency has been battered and its infrastructure has been damaged. Iran’s own Statistical Centre reports annual inflation reached 88% in July, with food prices up 128% from a year earlier. The regime worries that additional hardship could trigger renewed domestic unrest.
All of this proves Bessent can make Iran poorer. It does not prove he can make Iran surrender.
History demonstrates the difference.
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew testified that the sanctions preceding the 2015 nuclear agreement cost Iran more than $160 billion in oil revenue after 2012, with exports down 60% and the rial down by half.
COULD IRAN’S REGIME COLLAPSE? EXPERTS ASSESS BESSENT’S BID TO SEVER FINANCIAL LIFELINES
But sanctions did not produce Iranian capitulation. They brought Tehran to the negotiating table. Iran retained uranium enrichment while accepting restrictions and inspections in exchange for sanctions relief.
Trump tried differently after withdrawing from the nuclear agreement in 2018. His first maximum-pressure campaign again inflicted enormous damage, yet Iran never accepted Washington’s broader demands on nuclear activities, missiles and regional behavior before he left office.
FOX NEWS POLL: VOTERS OPPOSE THE IRAN WAR, SEE PROLONGED COMMITMENT
Outcomes are what matters. Government studies of sanctions have repeatedly found it easier to measure economic punishment than to demonstrate that the punishment produced the desired foreign-policy outcome. GAO also found sanctions work better when they are multilateral and when the target depends on the countries imposing them.
Treasury can count barrels Iran cannot sell, dollars Tehran cannot collect, and banks it can no longer use.
Those numbers tell us how much Iran is hurting.
They do not tell us whether Iran is surrendering.
There is also something unusual about the regime Bessent is trying to coerce.
Ordinary Iranians certainly do not welcome economic misery. They have repeatedly protested inflation, unemployment and declining living standards.
But the Islamic Republic’s revolutionary leadership has spent nearly five decades building political legitimacy around resistance to foreign pressure, sacrifice and self-reliance. The regime’s so-called "resistance economy" was built to help Iran endure sanctions, not capitulate to end them.
Economic coercion assumes the target eventually concludes that continued suffering is worse than concession. Iran’s revolutionary rulers have spent nearly half a century teaching themselves that concession to America can be worse than suffering.
Then there is China.
Beijing purchases more than 80% of Iran’s shipped oil and has already rejected Washington’s new sanctions strategy.
Iranian crude has survived previous sanctions through Chinese independent refiners, shadow tankers, disguised cargo origins and transactions conducted in Chinese currency.
Yet the administration initially spared major Chinese banks, reportedly to avoid disrupting the global financial system, as Trump and Xi Jinping prepare to meet.
Washington sanctioned a smaller Chinese bank once before, cutting off Bank of Kunlun in 2012 for handling Iranian banks’ money. Threatening a systemically important state bank is a different order of confrontation.
How can maximum pressure on Iran be maximum if Washington is unwilling to impose maximum pressure on Iran’s largest economic lifeline?
China does not have to restore normal Iranian commerce. It only has to permit enough oil purchases, financial transactions and sanctions evasion to keep Tehran breathing.
Its strategy can be brutally simple: absorb the contraction, repress unrest, keep commerce flowing through China, and keep Hormuz dangerous enough that Americans share the pain.
Iran doesn’t need to outfight Trump. It needs to outlast him. That turns Bessent’s Economic D-Day into an endurance contest, and endurance depends on the costs borne by both sides.
And America is paying.
The Iran war has already depleted scarce Patriot and THAAD missile interceptors, with a CSIS analysis estimating reductions of 65% and 38%, respectively. Those are munitions we may need in a conflict with China, the same conflict that already forced the Japan-homeported USS George Washington to divert to the Middle East, relieving the USS Abraham Lincoln after a deployment beyond 250 days.
The political cost is rising too. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds only 31% of Americans support the Iran war, while 83% believe it will last a long time. Washington also has less room to cushion another energy shock: the Strategic Petroleum Reserve has fallen to roughly 290 million barrels, its lowest level since November 1982, after repeated emergency releases. If Hormuz deteriorates further, that safety net is much thinner.
Iran’s leaders can read an election calendar.
The contest, therefore, is not simply whether Bessent can bankrupt Iran. It is whether Iran’s economy breaks before America’s political patience does.
Secretary Bessent may indeed have launched an impressive Economic D-Day.
But D-Day was never the objective.
Victory was.
The Allies knew what victory meant on June 6, 1944: allies committed to the campaign, a strategy for reaching Germany, and an unmistakable end state.
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Before committing to this costly war’s next phase against an adversary that has spent 47 years learning to endure American pressure, the administration owes Americans basic answers.
What does victory over Iran mean? How long will it take? What price are we prepared to pay? And what happens if Tehran simply refuses to surrender?
If Economic D-Day cannot answer those questions, America may not have found a way out of another forever war.
It may simply have found another way to fight one.
AOC says ‘Woke 1 was crazy,’ but Democrats still owe voters an explanation
"Woke 1 was crazy."
New York Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently borrowed the phrase from New York City Councilman Chi Ossé to describe the politics of 2020. "Woke 1" gives Democrats a convenient way to put ideas such as defunding the police and abolishing prisons in the past. That was then. This is now. There’s a psychological term for this kind of separation: compartmentalization.
Consider how compartmentalization works in ordinary life. A married man can have a wife and children at home and a girlfriend on the side, keeping the two lives separate enough that he rarely confronts the contradiction. Compartmentalization allows us to separate conflicting parts of our lives rather than reconcile them.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ SHRUGS OFF PAST 'DEFUND THE POLICE' COMMENTS, JOKING 'WOKE 1 WAS CRAZY'
That appears to be what Democrats are trying to do with 2020. There is the Democratic Party of 2020, when progressive ideas that once sat outside the mainstream suddenly gained influence. Then there is the Democratic Party of 2026, talking about affordability, economic populism and winning back voters who recoiled from the cultural politics of the past several years. "Woke 1" puts a neat dividing line between them. Changing your mind requires confronting what you once believed. Compartmentalization doesn’t.
Many political beliefs in 2020 became tests of character. They didn’t just say what you believed. They said what kind of person you were. If people you dismissed six years ago turned out to have a point, you have more to reconsider than a policy. Maybe you were too certain. Maybe you mistook disagreement for prejudice.
Or you can call the whole thing Woke 1.
Except 2020 didn’t simply happen to the Democratic Party. Politicians embraced ideas, activists pushed them, and institutions decided which arguments deserved a hearing and which could be dismissed. People who challenged the prevailing views sometimes paid a price for it. Calling all of this "Woke 1" makes those choices sound like the product of a strange moment everyone has since outgrown.
AOC'S ATTEMPT TO DISMISS 'WOKE 1' AS 'CRAZY' DRAWS CRITICISM FROM LEFT-LEANING OUTLETS
If Democrats now reject positions they embraced or tolerated in 2020, voters can reasonably expect an explanation. The key question is whether Democrats changed their minds or discovered that voters had.
There is nothing shameful about changing your mind. Real change requires connecting what you believed then with what you believe now and acknowledging where you got it wrong. Without that reckoning, voters are left to wonder whether the beliefs changed or the incentives did.
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Democrats can compartmentalize 2020. Voters don’t have to.
A candidate may regard a six-year-old position as ancient history, but an opponent can revive it with an old interview, campaign questionnaire or social media post. "That was then" invites an obvious response: Yes, but that was you.
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Democrats aren’t unique in doing this. Every political party finds ways to distance itself from positions that become inconvenient. But 2020 poses a particular problem because so many political beliefs became tied to moral identity. Giving up a position can feel like admitting something about yourself, not just admitting that a policy was wrong.
There is a way out. Democrats could acknowledge that 2020 drew attention to genuine problems while also producing bad ideas. They could concede that some rhetoric went too far and that some people were treated unfairly for challenging the prevailing consensus. That doesn’t require abandoning concern about racism, police misconduct or inequality. It requires admitting that you can feel morally certain and still be wrong.
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The familiar Democratic argument is about whether the party should move left or toward the center. "Woke 1" raises a more interesting question: Before Democrats decide where they are going, can they explain what they now think about where they have been?
"Woke 1 was crazy" sounds like a confession. But it isn’t quite one. A confession names what you got wrong. Compartmentalization puts it somewhere you no longer have to look.
JONATHAN TURLEY: Abdul El-Sayed’s wealth-tax fantasy could wreck the Michigan economy
Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is tackling a new national crisis: the excess of money held by some tragically wealthy citizens.
In his interview this week with Fox News’ Jesse Watters, the Michigan Democratic Senate candidate not only reaffirmed his call for a wealth tax but suggested that wealthy people really do not have much use for money that would be better left to the public.
El-Sayed needs money. A lot of money. He has called for massive new programs to fund Medicare-for-All, reparations, roads and other programs promised to Michigan voters. He is only the latest Democratic leader to support a wealth tax, which would, in my opinion, be unconstitutional at the federal level and disastrous at the state level.
ABDUL EL-SAYED GRILLED ON PAST STATEMENTS ON SHARIA LAW AND WHITE SUPREMACY, TAXING THE RICH
Earlier in the week, El-Sayed expressed full support for a wealth tax, including on non-billionaires. He declared on a podcast: "I also think we got to start taxing wealth for people who now have over $100 million. I mean at that point like what are gonna even do with more money?"
Figures such as Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., have also called for a wealth tax on millionaires, not just billionaires. As some of us predicted, the use of billionaires was simply a strategic and political framing. Once politicians succeed in opening up this untapped wealth to taxation, they will gradually work down the tax rolls as they acquire a windfall in new revenue.
PROGRESSIVES WANT TO TAX BILLIONAIRES FIRST, AND YOU'RE NEXT ON THE LIST
I discuss the tax in my book, "Rage and the Republic," as an example of the "eat-the-rich" politics used by demagogues from ancient Athens to the French Revolution. Politicians seek to divide a population into "haves" and "have-nots" with the promise that citizens can have it all. Much of what El-Sayed said is ripped from the pages of figures such as Huey Long and his "Share Our Wealth" campaigns of the 1930s.
In his Fox News interview, El-Sayed reaffirmed his call for a wealth tax, adding:
"The question ultimately is, ‘Do you want to drive on good roads, or would you rather have a billionaire make a second billion?’ That’s what Mike Rogers wants. That’s why Donald Trump wants. Apparently, that’s what you want. I think the people in Michigan want something different."
While El-Sayed and his wife reported $686,069 in income in 2025, they would not be subject to the wealth tax. It would apply to those with $100 million or more in property and other forms of wealth.
EL-SAYED IN THE HOT SEAT FOR ANOTHER FOREIGN RENTAL PROPERTY, NEARLY $300K IN ADDITIONAL INCOME
El-Sayed appears to conflate or confuse wealth taxes and income taxes in the interview. He told Watters, "If we tax you at 7%, you’re still going to make what? A cool $30 million off your billion dollars? I think that’s OK, they’re going to be OK, Jesse."
El-Sayed did not explain his assumptions. He may have been assuming that a $1 billion fortune generates a 10% annual return: $100 million in gains, less a hypothetical 7% wealth tax of $70 million, leaving $30 million. Whether such a return, tax rate and tax base are realistic is a separate question.
There is a great difference between a wealth tax and an income tax. The wealthy have already paid taxes on much of their wealth. Indeed, they pay income taxes when the money is earned and pay taxes on any profits from that money when it is invested in stock or property. A wealth tax is an additional tax on all that you own, from homes to boats to art.
At a 7% tax on wealth for those worth $100,000,000, the wealthy would pay an additional $7,000,000 every year in Michigan beyond their income taxes.
SIX DIFFERENT WAYS THAT PROVE THE WEALTHY PAY A LOT MORE THAN THEIR ‘FAIR SHARE’
If a government imposed a 7% annual tax on $100 million in net wealth, the annual liability would be $7 million—though El-Sayed has not released a detailed proposal establishing that rate or threshold. In Michigan, they would also face the state income tax of 4.25% and a 6% corporate tax on their businesses. If the wealth tax is added to an income tax, that would be in addition to the 37% top federal income tax rate.
Again, the wealth tax would continue to apply each year to what an individual owns in the form of cars, homes and other property, regardless of whether income declines.
AOC TRIPLES DOWN, CLAIMS AMERICAN REVOLUTION WAS AGAINST 'THE BILLIONAIRES OF THEIR TIME'
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., drove this point home when she ran for president in 2020, taunting the wealthy that she was coming for "your Rembrandts, your stock portfolio, your diamonds and your yachts."
While some states are actively considering a wealth tax, many of us view it as unconstitutional under the federal system. The federal government secured the right to tax individuals in 1913, but the 16th Amendment only approved income taxes.
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This is why many of these same politicians are promising a hostile takeover of the Supreme Court by either eliminating the Court or packing it with an instant liberal majority. Once packed, the Court could greenlight a variety of unconstitutional measures.
Years ago, Harvard professor Michael Klarman laid out a radical agenda to change the system to guarantee Republicans will never win another election. However, he warned that "the Supreme Court could strike down everything I just described." Therefore, the Court must be packed in advance to allow these changes to occur.
DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS HAVE LOTS OF IDEAS, BUT HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO PAY FOR THEM?
Even if states like Michigan are allowed to do this, it will result in the same exodus that is currently unfolding in California, where possibly trillions of dollars in jobs and revenue have already been lost due to the mere threat of wealth taxes. That is why figures like Khanna and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., are calling for a national wealth tax, leaving the wealthy nowhere to go but out of the country.
This is precisely what socialist governments like France under François Mitterrand attempted in the last century, with disastrous results that tanked the economy and forced a rapid retreat from such policies.
THE ONLY MAP YOU NEED TO SEE AS CALIFORNIA'S BILLIONAIRE TAX FIGHT HEATS UP
As Michigan struggles to secure new businesses and jobs, El-Sayed is embracing the same policies that would decapitate the top of its tax base. While repeating the mantra that the wealthy are "not paying their fair share," the top 10% pays more in federal income taxes than the bottom 90% combined. In 2023, the top 1% paid an estimated 38.4% of all federal individual income taxes.
El-Sayed has proven himself a gifted politician. He juxtaposes concrete benefits like new roads with the image of unused wealth among top earners. The fact is that Michigan will have fewer roads if it chases away top earners with their businesses and jobs.
Like Long, who referred to "our wealth" being held by the rich, El-Sayed portrays the property of the wealthy as rightfully belonging to the people, promising that if we "put a tax on wealth it would return a lot of that money back into public use."
El-Sayed has perfected the "eat-the-rich" pitch by portraying the wealthy as virtual Scrooge McDucks who accumulate unused wealth as a type of vanity project. He has struck out at "people who have accumulated so much wealth that your money makes money." That is also called investments that power the economy—and when your "money makes money," it is taxed as income.
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Nevertheless, El-Sayed is waging the same class war as other rising figures in the Democratic Party, denouncing "extreme wealth" as "an existential threat to our economy and our democracy and it demands a crisis-level response."
The real crisis is unfolding as candidates like El-Sayed are promising trillions in new programs while promising to make the rich pay for them. As with Warren, their property is being portrayed as rightfully belonging to the public.
The problem is that both wealth and the wealthy are mobile, and few are likely to stick around for El-Sayed’s people’s paradise in Michigan.
Grocers issue warning over Mamdani’s taxpayer-backed stores: 'We're going to go after' them
Private operators looking to run New York City’s planned government-owned grocery stores are being put on notice: Join Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s program, and grocers fighting the plan say they could face you in court.
"We’re going to go after any operator that’s in there," Frank Garcia, who is leading a coalition of immigrant-owned grocers challenging the city’s plan, told Fox News Digital in an interview Monday.
"We’re hoping that no one puts the RFP."
Garcia, chairman of the Multicultural Business Coalition, was referring to New York City’s request for proposals seeking private operators to run the five taxpayer-backed grocery stores Mamdani has proposed. Under the program, selected operators would receive city-backed space while agreeing to sell a core basket of groceries at prices 30% below typical New York City retail prices.
The Multicultural Business Coalition filed two lawsuits against the city Monday, arguing the taxpayer-backed stores would unfairly compete with minority- and immigrant-owned businesses already operating on thin margins. Garcia said the coalition now intends to extend that legal fight to private companies that sign on to operate the stores.
GROCERY BOSS WARNS MAMDANI'S CITY-RUN STORES PIT GOVERNMENT AGAINST 'ITS OWN CITIZENS'
The threat comes as the city moves from pitching the concept to trying to find companies willing to run it.
The New York City Economic Development Corporation formally opened the operator RFP in July and is seeking up to five companies to operate the stores. Proposals are due Oct. 16.
Mamdani has said the five stores, one in each borough, are expected to open by 2029. The administration says shoppers would receive a fixed 30% discount on a basket that includes fresh produce, meat and seafood, along with staples such as milk, bread, cheese, pasta, rice and beans.
Existing grocers, however, argue they would be forced to compete against stores insulated from costs they have to shoulder themselves, particularly rent.
Mamdani has pushed back on claims that the municipal stores would put neighborhood bodegas out of business, pointing out that the city-backed locations would not sell products such as cigarettes, alcohol, lottery tickets or hot foods — revenue streams that can help sustain smaller neighborhood stores. The mayor has also pointed to public-market models such as Essex Market as evidence that subsidized markets and private businesses can coexist.
"I’m confident in both the legality of this – that it will stand up in court – and the importance of delivering it," Mamdani said in a news conference on Monday.
Asked what he was doing for bodega owners who worry about losing business, Mamdani said: "What we can do is continue with our approach citywide of looking for ways to cut costs and cut the regulations that so many bodegueros, as well as grocery store owners, have to jump through in order to do their work. What we have already found through our OPEN Task Force is already the identification of more than 50 potential changes that target things from the current necessity of having two different licenses to sell hot food and cold, dairy frozen dessert. As well as the kinds of things that make it harder for bodegas to both sell items outside of the store and inside of the store."
The mayor’s office declined to comment on Garcia’s claim that his coalition sought a meeting with Mamdani and did not respond to his threat of litigation against participating operators.
Garcia said his coalition sought a meeting with Mamdani before going to court but was rebuffed, alleging the mayor instead met with a group of Dominican business owners while leaving out other immigrant and minority-owned businesses that could be affected by the plan.
"He’s putting our minority businesses against minority businesses," Garcia said.
Garcia repeatedly invoked the immigrant history of New York’s bodegas, describing businesses that have passed through generations of Puerto Rican, Dominican, Mexican and other immigrant entrepreneurs.
His coalition, he said, represents a broader cross-section of those businesses, including Latino, Korean and Arab store owners.
City officials have also wrestled with how to support existing grocers that fear they could lose business to the taxpayer-backed stores.
Waverly Neer, a senior vice president at the New York City Economic Development Corporation who leads the NYC Groceries initiative, recently said the agency was considering grants and other incentives that could accompany the municipal stores and support independent businesses in surrounding neighborhoods.
NYCEDC later said grants were not currently under consideration but that the agency was exploring other forms of assistance, including potential tax abatements, incentives and zoning benefits through existing city programs.
MAMDANI’S CITY GROCERY PLAN COULD LEAVE TAXPAYERS PAYING FOR EVERY BANANA
Garcia argues the city should put more of its resources behind businesses that already exist.
He said some immigrant-owned bodegas in his coalition have struggled to access affordable capital and turned instead to private lenders charging steep rates.
"A lot of these bodegas are paying 35% loans right now to predator lenders," Garcia said.
His criticism was not reserved for Mamdani or Democrats.
Garcia said Republicans have also "hurt us," pointing to federal restrictions affecting access to Small Business Administration-backed loans for green-card holders, while arguing elected officials across the political spectrum have failed immigrant entrepreneurs seeking affordable capital.
But Garcia saved his sharpest political criticism for Mamdani’s democratic socialist allies, saying the coalition intends to mobilize against the movement as its fight over the grocery stores expands.
"We are creating a path to go after the DSA," Garcia said.
Garcia insisted the coalition is not simply asking the city to abandon its effort to bring down grocery prices.
Instead of creating new city-backed competitors, he said grocers have proposed forming a buying group that would allow independent stores to purchase goods directly from manufacturers, cutting out middlemen and lowering participating stores’ costs.
"We have other solutions," Garcia said. "Work with us to create that."
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Garcia said the coalition believes the city could use existing minority-business programs and its purchasing power to expand the model, allowing private neighborhood stores to lower prices without forcing them to compete against rent-free municipal stores.
"Why not work with us to create that?" Garcia said. "Work with the supermarket association."
Michigan GOP lawmaker casts doubt on El-Sayed’s socialist denial as policies tell another story: ‘Sharp odds’
Despite Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed denying ties to socialism, a Republican Michigan lawmaker warned his policy agenda tells a different story and predicted voters will reject it in November.
"Abdul El-Sayed can't define what a woman is, so I'm not surprised he can't define what socialist is," Michigan state Rep. Bill G. Schuette told Fox News Digital.
"The facts are all the policies he supports are emblematic of the DSA movement and of this really far-left socialist idea."
El-Sayed, a former public health official, narrowly defeated establishment-backed Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., securing an upset victory for the party’s progressive wing in Michigan's Democratic Senate primary earlier this month. His nomination follows multiple primary victories by candidates aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), including in New York, Florida and Colorado.
DEMS' LEFTWARD LURCH GETS LEGS AS EL-SAYED'S MICHIGAN SENATE VICTORY SPARKS PARTY DEBATE
While El-Sayed has pushed back on the socialist label, he has drawn support from political heavyweights and DSA members like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.
El-Sayed previously told CBS News he wants to build a "broad coalition" of supporters of President Donald Trump and DSA members, saying he doesn’t "do ideology" but favors "solutions that solve problems." He separately told CNN, "I believe in capitalism, I just believe that capitalism has to be regulated."
According to Schuette, El-Sayed’s victory is evidence that the Democratic Party has "jumped the shark" by embracing more progressive candidates.
"They've gone down a policy rabbit hole of far-left socialism that is at odds with our way of life in Michigan and our way of life in the United States of America writ large," he said.
Schuette said his biggest concern is that El-Sayed wants to put Michigan on "a completely different track."
"I'm more concerned about the policies that he's advocating for that, again, I think are at really sharp odds with the way you can start a business, start a family and live your life in Michigan," he said.
DSA’S GROWING GRIP ON DEM PARTY HITS NEW TERRITORY AS ESTABLISHMENT FALLS IN LINE
Some of El-Sayed’s campaign priorities are abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Medicare for All, taxing billionaire wealth and ending U.S. military aid to Israel.
Schuette said affordability will be key in the midterms, saying that El-Sayed’s policies run counter to the "spirit of America."
"The spirit of America is about entrepreneurship and American ingenuity, hard work," he said. "Those are the types of policies that Abdul El-Sayed would work directly against."
Schuette also took aim at El-Sayed’s association with far-left streamer Hasan Piker, who has roughly 10 million social media followers and has said "America deserved 9/11." Piker endorsed El-Sayed and has attended several of his campaign events.
"The fact that he associates with people like Hasan Piker, who say that America deserves 9/11, I mean, that's disgusting," he said.
El-Sayed distanced himself from Piker after the streamer’s comments about Jewish Michigan state Sen. Jeremy Moss, the Democratic nominee in the state’s 11th Congressional District. A recent viral audio clip, which Moss has said is fake, appeared to suggest that his entire reason for running for Congress is to make sure that America continues to support Israel.
Reacting to the clip, Piker said, "If Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone is going to come around and take action, not against the state of Israel, mind you, but against American Jews."
"I want to be crystal clear, nobody speaks for this campaign besides me and my campaign spokespeople," El-Sayed said in a statement Monday responding to Piker’s comments.
Highlighting the importance of representing Michiganders, Schuette argued El-Sayed doesn’t align with the state, pointing to his resurfaced remarks that he "hates" Mackinac Island and linking football to "toxic masculinity."
"It doesn't seem that he likes Michigan very much or our way in America very much either," he said.
With the midterm elections approaching in November, Schuette said he believes voters will reject socialism and choose "an idea that looks for ways to give the American people more freedom and opportunity and more of their own money back in their own wallets."
"I’m confident the people in Michigan will choose that," he said.
El-Sayed will face Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers for retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters’ seat in a race that could determine control of the Senate.
Fox News Digital reached out to El-Sayed's campaign for comment.
Trump admin pauses visa appointments worldwide amid heightened screening for applicants
The Trump administration has directed U.S. embassies and consulates around the world to postpone immigrant visa interviews while consular officers complete training on new public-charge guidance, temporarily stalling applications that have reached the interview stage.
The State Department told diplomatic posts to reschedule immigrant visa interviews until consular officers complete the training on how to evaluate whether an applicant is likely to become a public charge.
A public-charge determination can make an immigrant visa applicant inadmissible under federal immigration law if officials determine the person is likely to become dependent on certain forms of public assistance after arriving in the U.S.
"In early August, we launched a global training initiative at all of our embassies and consulates worldwide. To accommodate this in-depth training, appointments for visa services will be adjusted," a State Department official said in a statement.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PROPOSES SIX-FIGURE PRICE TAG FOR NEW H-1B VISAS
The official added that the training is intended to ensure evaluations of visa applicants are made "comprehensively and consistently."
For most diplomatic posts, the training sessions are expected to take place this week.
The State Department did not say when affected applicants would be notified of their rescheduled interview dates.
The scheduling changes have sparked uncertainty among immigrant visa applicants who received emails informing them that their interviews had been canceled without instructions for immediately rescheduling them.
STATE DEPARTMENT BLASTS BACK AT 'ROGUE JUDGE' WHO OVERTURNED AGGRESSIVE VISA CRACKDOWN
Applicants were told they would receive future notice of a new interview date but were not given a timeline for when that communication could be expected.
The move comes as President Donald Trump pursues a broader immigration crackdown that has extended beyond illegal immigration to legal immigration pathways. While Trump campaigned in 2024 on curbing illegal immigration, his administration has also imposed additional restrictions on legal immigration, including higher fees for certain work visas and new limits on how long some foreign students and journalists can remain in the US.
The administration has also pursued visa revocations and removal proceedings in cases involving political activity and speech, including some anti-Israel activists. Those efforts have prompted court challenges alleging violations of free-speech and due-process protections.
The administration said Monday that it was preparing to revoke the business and tourism visas of up to 200,000 foreigners who have applied for or are seeking asylum in the U.S., a move that would represent the largest mass visa revocation in U.S. history.
The immigration agenda has also faced legal setbacks. On Friday, a federal judge struck down a State Department policy suspending the issuance of immigrant visas to applicants from 75 countries, ruling that the policy exceeded Secretary of State Marco Rubio's statutory authority.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Prosecutor in infamous killer mom case says women on Lindsay Clancy jury may bring ‘strange twist’ to verdict
A South Carolina lawmaker who prosecuted Susan Smith in her infamous double-murder case says the women on Lindsay Clancy's jury could prove to be a "strange twist," and may be less sympathetic to her than many assume.
Clancy, 36, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of her children — Cora, Dawson and Callan, all younger than 6 — who were discovered strangled at the family's home in January 2023.
Her defense attorney says she was experiencing postpartum psychosis at the time she killed her children.
LINDSAY CLANCY'S THREE CHILD VICTIMS FORGOTTEN AMID CROWDS OF SUPPORT: MOTHER OF SIX
Testimony is expected to finish on Wednesday, with closing arguments anticipated for Thursday, after which the case will go to the jury. The panel seated for the trial is made up of 12 women and six men, but only 12 of them will deliberate, the rest serve as alternates and will be dismissed before deliberations begin.
Smith is the South Carolina mother who was convicted of killing her two young sons, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander, by strapping them into her car and letting it roll into a lake. Prosecutors argued she killed them in part because the man she was romantically involved with didn't want a relationship with women who had kids. She was sentenced to life in prison.
Rep. Tommy Pope, who is currently the speaker pro tempore for the South Carolina House of Representatives, prosecuted Smith and told Fox News Digital that women on the jury might be less sympathetic to Clancy than people think.
"For the most part, the women were the ones that said, you know, when I had my kids, I went through hell, or I went through depression, or I battled this, or I was overwhelmed. But they're the most important thing in my life," Pope said. "And so, strange twist, while a woman may have even faced postpartum depression, she may have overcome it and then be less sympathetic to Clancy."
On the flip side, Pope said Clancy's current physical condition might complicate things for the prosecution in an unexpected way.
"A weird mix, too, is having her in the courtroom, whether she intentionally injured herself or, as the prosecution said, tried to slide down and just got injured. You have somebody that's now paralyzed, which obviously doesn't equate to killing three children," Pope said. "But some jurors, and I would think maybe even more so men, would think, well, she's already punished. She's in a wheelchair. So in a strange twist, it could almost be the opposite."
LINDSAY CLANCY DEFENSE SCORES ‘EXTREMELY HELPFUL’ PSYCHOSIS CONCESSION AS EXPERT FLAGS NEXT HURDLE
Prosecutors on Tuesday continued to challenge the psychosis argument that Clancy's defense attorney says frees her from criminal responsibility for her children's deaths.
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Gregory Saathoff, a forensic psychiatrist at the University of Virginia who consults for the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, told jurors that Clancy's self-described auditory hallucinations were "very unusual."
PROSECUTOR CORNERS LINDSAY CLANCY'S CATHOLIC MOTHER-IN-LAW WITH 'MORTAL SIN' QUESTION
"What was significant to me is that she had not spoken about hearing voices before to any of the mental health professionals, psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, physicians and staff in the emergency department, or at McLean," Saathoff said.
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"This was the first time she reported that, and that she experienced an auditory hallucination, according to what she told me. So that was unusual. And then what was very unusual was the fact that the voice stopped with the strangling of her youngest son," he added.
In another blow to Clancy's defense, prosecutors asked psychologist Kirk Heilbrun whether someone hearing a command hallucination could still conform their conduct to the law.
WATCH: Prosecution expert says psychosis doesn't always erase knowing right from wrong
"In some cases they can," he responded.
Earlier in the week, Clancy's defense called its own experts and argued she's not criminally responsible. Dr. Phillip Resnick, a forensic psychiatrist, testified that Clancy killed her children while she was experiencing a "command hallucination," stating she felt like "a puppet."
"Not only did she hear a command, but she felt that her body was taken over by an external force where she was in a dream state and did not have control of her own body. It was almost like she was a puppet and someone else was pulling the strings," Resnick said.
Outside the courtroom on Tuesday, one person told Fox News Digital she was there in support of Lindsay Clancy because "I've always been aware that mental health is something that's woefully in need of funding, education, all that."
WATCH: Lindsay Clancy supporter outside court says trial exposes gaps in mental health support
"This trial has really made a lot of us realize just how bad things are. Obviously, a really sad story and hard to listen to at times. But if this moves the needle just a teeny tiny bit, and women start to experience more support, then I'm here for that. I was just telling my friend that when I had my children and left the hospital, nobody really said anything about postpartum, you know, be on the lookout for things. And...you know, we just had to figure it out ourselves. It shouldn't be that way. And I hope things change," the woman said.
NYC manhunt underway for suspect accused of deadly shootings across 2 boroughs days apart
A man accused of gunning down a customer during a Bronx deli robbery is also wanted in connection with a deadly Brooklyn shooting two days earlier, police said.
The suspect, identified by the NYPD as 31-year-old Jesus Acosta, is being hunted in connection with two deadly shootings that unfolded days apart across New York City, police told Fox News Digital.
The latest attack happened around 12:16 a.m. Tuesday at 149 Grill & Deli at 143 East 149th Street in the Bronx, where a gunman approached a 33-year-old man and opened fire, striking him multiple times in the chest, according to police and FOX 5 New York.
NEW YORK BODEGA WORKER KILLED LESS THAN A YEAR AFTER EXPRESSING FEAR TO REPORTER OVER VIOLENCE
After the shooting, the gunman forcibly removed an unknown amount of cash from behind the register and fled, police said.
The victim was rushed to Lincoln Hospital and was initially listed in stable condition, but later died from his injuries Tuesday. Police subsequently deemed the case a homicide.
Acosta is also wanted in connection with a shooting inside 842 Rockaway Ave. in Brooklyn shortly after midnight Sunday that left a 44-year-old man dead and another man wounded, the NYPD said.
The New York Post identified the location as American Best Wings & Pizza.
MAN FACES MURDER CHARGE AFTER INNOCENT 12-YEAR-OLD IS KILLED IN BRONX STREET GUNFIRE
Officers responding to a 911 call about an assault in progress found the 44-year-old victim with a gunshot wound to the head and a 39-year-old man suffering from a gunshot wound to the leg.
Both men were taken to One Brooklyn Health-Brookdale Hospital Medical Center, where the 44-year-old was pronounced dead. The 39-year-old man was listed in stable condition, according to police.
"Have you seen Jesus Acosta? He is wanted for the fatal shooting of a 44-year-old man on 8/23 inside 842 Rockaway Ave in Brooklyn and a robbery from 8/25 at 143 East 149 St in the Bronx," the NYPD wrote on X before announcing that the Bronx victim had also died.
Acosta is described as 5 feet, 11 inches tall and weighing about 175 pounds, with short brown hair and brown eyes.
He has the word "Bronx" tattooed on his hand and the name "Bobby" tattooed on his left forearm, the NYPD told Fox News Digital.
Police released surveillance images of Acosta and are urging anyone who recognizes him to come forward.
Trump-endorsed candidate clears key hurdle in red state gubernatorial race
Mike Mazzei, a former Oklahoma state senator and financial planner, won a primary election runoff on Tuesday evening with the backing of President Donald Trump to secure the GOP nomination for governor in Oklahoma.
Having beaten out Gentner Drummond, the current Oklahoma attorney general, Mazzei is now the heavy favorite to become the Sooner State’s next governor. His win is also a political victory for outgoing Gov. Kevin Stitt, who has opposed Drummond for years.
Stitt and Drummond have sparred over lawsuits, pointed letters and public criticisms. At one point, Stitt even described Drummond as a "longtime political enemy" in a quote to local outlets.
TRUMP-BACKED CANDIDATE SPARKS RUNOFF AGAINST POPULAR PROSECUTOR IN KEY GUBERNATORIAL RACE
The feud between them centers on Drummond’s attacks on Oklahoma poultry companies for what he sees as decades of phosphorus pollution in water supplies. Stitt has rebuffed those characterizations, calling them an overreach of Drummond’s role as attorney general and warning that litigation against the companies could threaten jobs and the agricultural industry of the state.
Stitt endorsed Mazzei, stating that "we want a pro-business governor in there to take the lead for the next four years."
Stitt is prevented by term limits from running again. His exit prompted a crowded field of hopefuls to replace him, but after an initial primary on June 2, no candidate secured the 50% support needed to lock up the nomination outright.
Only Drummond and Mazzei advanced to a runoff.
Like Stitt, President Donald Trump also endorsed Mazzei, calling him a "MAGA warrior."
"As a successful Businessman, and former Chairman of the State Senate Finance Committee, and later, as Oklahoma’s Secretary of Budget, Mike knows the AMERICA FIRST Policies required to Grow our Economy, Create GREAT Jobs, Cut Taxes and Regulations, Promote MADE IN THE U.S.A., and Unleash American Energy DOMINANCE," Trump wrote in a May post to Truth Social.
TRUMP-BACKED FIREBRAND WINS ARIZONA GOP GOVERNOR PRIMARY, SETTING UP HIGH-STAKES SHOWDOWN
Mazzei based his campaign on promises to cut taxes, among other state-government reforms.
"I have a detailed plan to eliminate Oklahoma’s income tax in six years. I have a plan to eliminate property taxes for seniors and veterans," Mazzei said in a campaign video posted to Instagram.
In addition to tax reforms, Mazzei highlighted preventing foreign nationals from buying up state land, bolstering the Oklahoma education system and government spending accountability.
In turn, Mazzei tried to paint Drummond as a fake Republican with a penchant for expanding government.
"His solution to every problem is to raise taxes and grow government," Mazzei said.
"He doesn’t understand money and finance. Crunching numbers is a skill you pick up when you earn your wealth rather than inherit it."
In his own campaign, Drummond, a multigenerational rancher and former fighter pilot, highlighted his record as attorney general. On his website, he touted having confronted Chinese criminal operations growing illegal marijuana farms, shutting down thousands of their illegal grow operations and enforcing immigration law.
"As a tough-on-crime attorney general and decorated fighter pilot, I have proven I will always fight for our freedom and defend our values," Drummond said in a campaign video.
"I’ll keep standing strong with President Trump to secure the border, deport illegals and stop the flow of drugs and crime," Drummond said.
The Club for Growth, a pro-small-government group that advocates for lower taxes and free-market principles and contributed $9 million in support of Mazzei, praised his win.
"Mike Mazzei is a principled conservative who will advocate for lower taxes, fewer regulations, and for Oklahoma parents to have a voice in their children’s education," Club for Growth PAC President David McIntosh said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
"Meanwhile, Gentner Drummond has spent his career putting radical education bureaucrats ahead of families by opposing school freedom. The message is clear, if you oppose school freedom and call yourself a Republican, expect to lose your next primary."
Having cleared the primary, Mazzei will face off against Democratic nominee Cyndi Munson, House minority leader in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. The general election is set for Nov. 3.