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Costco's famous $1.50 hot dog combo gets simple swap that can slash your sugar intake
Months after Costco began allowing customers to swap the soda in its iconic $1.50 hot dog combo for bottled water, shoppers are still debating what constitutes the best value at the warehouse club's food court.
A recent Reddit discussion about Costco's food court pricing began with a shopper questioning the logic of buying a soda alone for 79 cents when another 71 cents would get customers a hot dog, too.
The conversation soon flipped the question around, with customers wanting the hot dog but not necessarily the soda.
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"I want the hot dog," one commenter wrote. "The soda is a byproduct."
Another commenter mentioned sometimes buying multiple hot dogs but only wanting one drink, adding, "Good thing now you can get the bottled water instead of the soda."
Costco earlier this year began offering shoppers at participating locations the option to substitute a 16.9-ounce bottle of Kirkland Signature water for the 20-ounce fountain drink that traditionally accompanies its $1.50 hot dog combo. The soda option, which includes free refills, remains available.
The choice raises a question for customers trying to balance nutrition with the value of Costco's famously inexpensive meal: How much healthier is the combo if shoppers choose water?
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Lauren Manaker, a registered dietitian based in Charleston, South Carolina, told Fox News Digital that switching to water can cut a meaningful amount of sugar from the meal, although the swap alone does not necessarily make the Costco staple healthy.
"I don't know if it makes a world of a difference because a hot dog is not what I would consider to be the healthiest choice out there," Manaker said.
"I will say that it can offer significant savings in terms of sugar intake. So, if that's a concern for people, that can be a positive change."
For the occasional Costco food court customer, however, Manaker said the choice between the two beverages is unlikely to be particularly consequential.
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"Whether you choose water or soda, I don't think it's going to have a profound impact on your overall health," she said.
There is also the question of value. A fountain soda with free refills may appear to offer more for the same $1.50 price, but Manaker noted that bottled water has its own appeal.
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"I don't love the taste of the tap water and bottled water can be pricey," she said.
Either way, Costco's price tag remains untouched: hot dog, drink and all, is still $1.50.
Texas Dem candidate to hold high-dollar Hollywood fundraiser while GOP gathers in Dallas: 'Fake cowboy'
Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico is set to travel to Los Angeles in September for a high-dollar fundraiser with Hollywood celebrities, according to a report.
Politico reported that "Lost" co-creator Damon Lindelof and his wife, Heidi, will host a fundraiser for Talarico in Brentwood on Sept. 10. Tickets for the event start at $500 and go as high as $13,500, according to the outlet. This will be Talarico’s second Hollywood fundraiser in a few months. The first was held in June and was described by Page Six Hollywood as a "glitzy Dem fundraiser" at the home of Hollywood producer Peter Chernin. Fox News Digital reached out to the Lindelofs and Chernin for comment.
Meanwhile, Talarico’s opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, will gather in Dallas for the Republican National Committee’s midterm convention, along with President Donald Trump and other Republicans. The same night Republicans rally in Dallas, former President Barack Obama will headline a Democratic House fundraiser in New York, according to the New York Times. The events put prominent Democrats on the coasts while Republicans gather in Texas.
Fox News Digital previously reported that donors from outside Texas accounted for roughly 50% of the funds raised by Talarico, according to first-quarter campaign finance records.
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Talarico is taking heat from Republicans for his out-of-state fundraising. RNC spokesperson Zach Kraft told Fox News Digital that "it is no surprise that James Talarico feels more comfortable in crazy liberal California than when his handlers force him to wear a fake cowboy hat and rent a pickup truck to pretend to be a 'real' Texan."
Fox News Digital reached out to Talarico’s campaign for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Talarico currently serves as a progressive Democratic lawmaker in the Texas House of Representatives. Since winning the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, Republicans have continually knocked him for his record of controversial statements, including calling God "nonbinary," saying that there are six sexes and saying that reducing meat consumption was "existential" to fight climate change.
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Despite the attacks, Talarico and Paxton are running a tight race, and many Democrats believe this could be the year Texas finally flips blue. A Fox News poll from July gave Talarico a 3-point edge over Paxton, 51% to 48%, which was within the survey’s margin of sampling error.
Paxton, meanwhile, has told Fox News Digital that Talarico’s lead is not surprising given his head start in the general election following his particularly messy primary runoff against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn.
Speaking with Fox News on Sunday, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said that "money is an issue" in the race.
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"Mr. Talarico has been raising bucketloads of money from California, Hollywood," he said.
He called on Trump to help Paxton with cash, saying, "We in the Senate don’t have the money budgeted for Texas; we need help from the president."
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For his part, Trump has promised: "I’m going to help Ken Paxton, and I’m going to spend a lot of time in Texas."
Touting his history of winning the state three times on the presidential level, he said, "I’ll be going to Texas, and we’re working really hard. We want to win that race." Trump called Paxton a "very good candidate," while taking a jab at Talarico, saying, "‘Talafreako,’ they call him, because he is a little freaky."
James Carville decries 'idiot' Hasan Piker, orders DSA to change its name
Democratic strategist James Carville expanded his critique of left-wing streamer Hasan Piker on Tuesday, branding him an "idiot" and saying he cannot answer for Piker’s band of "left-wing idiots."
Piker, a self-described socialist streamer who campaigned with Democratic Michigan U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, has emerged as a leading voice on the left as democratic socialists continue to gain influence.
"There's two things that I know about Hasan Piker. One, he's an idiot, and two, he's not a Democrat. So, I don't answer for idiots, and I don't answer for people who are not Democrats," Carville said on "The Story."
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Tuesday’s comments were not the first time the longtime Democratic strategist has targeted Piker. Carville recently pledged to leave the Democratic Party if Piker were to become a leading voice within the party and said an "overwhelming majority" of Democrats agree.
"I understand that I'm a Democrat. I'm part of a big coalition, a big tent, and we all have an admission policy," Carville told Fox News. "But thank God Hasan Piker doesn't want in our frat, because we don't want him."
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Piker, who drew criticism after saying "America deserved 9/11" during a stream in 2019, expressed a similar disdain for Carville.
"We got John Fetterman, James Carville, fantasizing about leaving the party — I'm like, you're sweetening the deal," Piker said during a recent stream.
Fox News Digital reached out to Piker for comment.
Carville criticized the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), arguing the platform benefits by associating itself with the Democratic Party and ordered the far-left organization to redact "Democratic" from its name.
CARVILLE TORCHES DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS AS 'PACK OF FOOLS,' PRAISES AOC'S POLITICAL EVOLUTION
"What I would tell a Democratic socialist — ‘If you hate the Democratic brand so much, why use our words? Go call yourself something else. Call yourself the Socialists of America,’" Carville said.
Carville argued that the DSA’s values and policy positions, including defunding the police, do not align with those of the Democratic Party.
"Don't put the first word in your title 'Democratic' because… that's our party. That's the party of civil rights. That's the party of women's rights. That's the party of balanced budget. That is the party of prosperity," he said.
"Don’t use our name. Make up your own name," he added.
Carville previously warned that Democratic socialists are dragging the party’s brand "through the mud."
Trump is closing an asylum loophole legal immigrants have watched others exploit
A tourist visa should not become a Trojan horse for permanent immigration. While Washington has spent years focused on the southern border, one of the most consequential loopholes may begin at a consulate, where someone promises to visit temporarily and later files for asylum to remain. That is why the Trump administration is preparing to revoke the visitor visas of up to 200,000 foreign nationals who later sought asylum. Critics will call this anti-immigrant, but enforcing the terms of a visa defends every immigrant who entered legally and honestly. It is also how the United States protects the integrity of legal immigration.
A visitor visa begins with a representation that an applicant is seeking permission to enter the United States temporarily. A B-1 visa permits limited business activities, such as attending meetings or conferences, while a B-2 visa covers tourism, vacations, visits with family or friends and certain medical treatment. Applicants must complete a visa application, establish a legitimate purpose for the trip and persuade the government that they intend to leave when their authorized stay ends. Permanent residence is not a permitted purpose of a visitor visa.
Asylum, by contrast, protects people who have suffered persecution or have a well-founded fear of persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. Filing for asylum does not grant permanent residence, although someone granted asylum may later become eligible for a green card. An asylum claim filed after entering on a visitor visa is not automatically fraudulent. An applicant may face changed circumstances after arriving or develop a legitimate fear of persecution. Allowing someone to seek asylum does not prevent the government from investigating whether the applicant fraudulently obtained a visitor visa by concealing an intention to remain permanently once their entry was granted.
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This distinction matters to me personally because I came to America legally as a child and later practiced immigration law. My family, like millions of legal immigrants, filed the appropriate paperwork, paid the fees, attended government interviews and waited for the privilege of becoming American citizens. We followed a process that demanded patience, honesty and respect for the rule of law, often requiring families to spend years separated from loved ones and make enormous financial and personal sacrifices. They should not be told that those sacrifices were optional while others used a visitor visa as a loophole to cut the line and remain permanently.
Further, false asylum claims hurt the people genuinely fleeing persecution. Manufactured claims divert limited resources from legitimate asylum seekers who may be facing imprisonment, torture or death. This is why the Trump administration should apply this policy carefully, rather than presume that every asylum applicant lied. Visa holders should receive notice and an individualized opportunity to explain how their circumstances changed, identify any new threats and present evidence supporting a legitimate claim. The government can enforce immigration law without abandoning due process.
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Revocation matters because many visitor visas allow multiple trips to the United States over several years. Once revoked, the visa can no longer be used to enter or reenter the country, preventing someone who has applied for asylum from continuing to travel under a temporary visitor classification. However, revoking a visitor visa does not deny a pending asylum claim or result in immediate deportation. It just closes the door to future entry while the government separately determines whether the asylum claim is legitimate.
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Washington presents a false choice between enforcing immigration law and treating immigrants with compassion rather than hostility. That argument ignores the millions of legal immigrants who respected the rule of law and want a system that refuses to tolerate abuse. The greatest threat to legal immigration is a two-tiered system that rewards those who manipulate the law while disregarding the sacrifices of millions who followed it.
President Trump is asking the question Washington should have asked from the beginning: Was the United States government told the truth, or did the applicant conceal an intention to remain permanently? America must continue protecting people who genuinely face persecution, but this protection must be preserved through careful vetting and honest enforcement. Compassion does not require accepting abuse or injustice. A strong nation can enforce its laws, protect due process and offer refuge to those who truly need it.
Democrat establishment flexes dominance as insurgents fall and GOP bench thins in deep blue stronghold
Massachusetts Democrats rewarded incumbency in marquee primaries Tuesday, but the clearest message came in the state’s generational showdown, with 80-year-old Sen. Ed Markey routing moderate Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton, 47, after Moulton argued it was time for the party to "pass the torch."
Tuesday night's results underscored Democratic dominance in the deep-blue state rather than a single ideological sweep. Voters backed established incumbents across the party’s factions and selected a Biden-Harris-backed former White House aide in the closely watched open-seat contest to take over Moulton's House seat after he abandoned it to run for Senate. Meanwhile, Republicans failed to nominate House candidates in four districts — the first, second, fifth and seventh — while only fielding write-ins for the blue stronghold's secretary of state race.
Markey’s victory over the more moderate Moulton, however, stood out as the night’s clearest win for the party’s progressive wing.
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"Its very clear that the dem voters care more about policies and having a progressive represent them in the senate, than age!," controversial Twitch streamer and far-left activist Hasan Piker said after the Associated Press projected Markey would win. "Another w for our movement!"
Moulton highlighted the difficult battle he faced trying to unseat a longtime incumbent like Markey following his concession, but said the effort was not for nothing, noting "we started conversations that needed to happen" and adding that he is "confident ... others will be inspired to buck the system when they’re told to wait their turn."
Markey faced attacks during the campaign over his far-left positions, including his support for transgender athletes' participation in women's sports, but the progressive bona fides of the Massachusetts lawmaker, who has represented the state in Congress for nearly five decades, were not a significant enough sticking point for voters to abandon him.
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"Ed Markey has spent decades fighting for LGBTQ+ equality, for working people, and for a more livable world," said Human Rights Campaign (HRC) President Kelley Robinson following Markey's win. "He knows why equality matters. He’s stood with us no matter what. We were proud to endorse him this year, and when a pro-equality majority takes back the Senate this fall, we will continue to count on him as a champion for our community."
The incumbent success Markey saw carried into the House during Tuesday night's Massachusetts primaries, where Reps. Richard Neal and Stephen Lynch fended off younger challengers, while Reps. Katherine Clark and Jake Auchincloss also advanced. The string of wins offered little evidence of broad anti-incumbent turbulence in the state’s Democratic delegation.
Massachusetts Democrats also picked former Biden White House aide Dan Koh to succeed Moulton in the open 6th Congressional District. Koh’s victory gives the delegation a new face, but it did not come at an incumbent’s expense as Moulton vacated the seat for his unsuccessful Senate bid, creating the district’s first open-seat contest without an incumbent on the ballot in decades.
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Massachusetts Republicans, meanwhile, failed to field nominees in several House districts, including the Boston-area 7th District, leaving Democrats such as Rep. Ayanna Pressley without GOP opposition in November. Pressley ran unopposed in Tuesday's primary.
Republicans will still have a statewide standard-bearer in November after businessman Michael Minogue defeated Brian Shortsleeve for the GOP gubernatorial nomination and advanced to face Democratic Gov. Maura Healey, who won her primary unopposed Tuesday night.
The GOP also nominated House candidates in five of the state’s nine districts: the third, fourth, sixth, eighth and ninth.
The most notable is the open 6th District, where Republican Micah Quinney Jones will face Koh, who was backed by former President Joe Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, alongside several other alumni of the Biden administration. The support gave Koh a powerful establishment coalition in the crowded contest to succeed Moulton.
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Following Koh's win, Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin congratulated the former Biden administration aide.
"From Boston City Hall and the U.S. Department of Labor to the White House, Dan Koh has dedicated his life to public service and ensuring government actually delivers for working families. He is a Massachusetts native who knows how to bring people together to solve problems and fight for our communities," Martin said in a statement. "In Congress, Dan will prioritize bringing down costs, protecting healthcare, making housing more affordable, strengthening workers’ rights, rooting out corruption, and holding Donald Trump accountable. The DNC is ready to work alongside him to make life more affordable for people throughout Massachusetts’ 6th Congressional District."
Inside the far-left's anti-data center push and what experts say is driving it: 'Playbook we've seen before'
As the development of data centers continues to grow into one of the top hot button political issues in the United States, some experts are sounding the alarm on the various left-wing groups and climate activists who are pouring money and resources into data center opposition campaigns.
"It's a playbook we've seen before," Larry Behrens, communications director at Power The Future, told Fox News Digital in an interview.
"I think Americans saw this with the Dakota Access Pipeline. They see this with oil or natural gas production within the United States. This seemingly grassroots organization pops up, but yet they're all wearing the same t-shirts. They're all singing the same playbook and they're only carrying the same signs and so when we see that, we see that that's not really a grassroots organization that money is coming from somewhere, and in this case, against data centers."
Several left-wing organizations backing data center opposition have benefited from major progressive funding networks, including Public Citizen, which has listed George Soros’ Open Society Foundations among foundations whose "generous support" makes its work possible, and the Sierra Club, which received $3.6 million from Arabella Advisors’ Sixteen Thirty Fund between 2014 and 2022.
CodePink, which has targeted data center projects, has received funding linked to socialist megadonor Neville Roy Singham, who has deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Fox News Digital previously reported that Singham funneled roughly $285 million into six activist nonprofits, as the U.S. and China battle for global AI dominance.
In Texas, viewed by many as the front line of the data center fight, opposition has been fueled by a network of left-wing groups, including Public Citizen, the Sierra Club and the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Public Citizen is a founding member of the Texas Data Center Rebellion, which brought activists from across the state together for a two-day convening in San Antonio, while the Sierra Club’s Austin chapter, PSL and Save Our Springs Alliance teamed up for a July "Defend Dog’s Head" forum opposing a massive Austin development that includes data centers.
Several of the groups actively involved in fueling anti-ICE protests and "No Kings" protests across the country are also involved in pushing back against data centers. Earlier this year, Fox News Digital reported that Power the Future, a pro-energy advocacy group, sent a letter asking Congress to take a closer look at opposition to data centers springing up across the country, pointing out the various left-wing groups that were backing those efforts.
"What they do is they send their money through a maze of organizations, deliberately trying to mask what it is being used for and seeing that the tentacles reach in from far and are made to look local," Behrens explained. "Now, to be clear, there is local opposition and there are legitimate questions to ask, but when the legislative language is the same, when the talking points are the same. And the lawyer's points are the same, then we start to see that this is not an organic local movement."
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The main driver of left-wing groups opposing data centers, in addition to ideological disdain toward President Donald Trump, who has been a staunch supporter of American AI dominance, is the opposition to fossil fuels, Behrens says.
"It's the same thing that they've always opposed, any real progress they're going to be against, anything that strengthens America, they're gonna be against, and when it comes to data centers, the reason they're against them is absolutely clear because it represents American jobs and it has to be supported by American energy," Behrens explained.
"And those are two things that the environmental left just absolutely cannot stand. And they're gonna use delay or distracting tactics. They're gonna use tactics like saying it's about the water, it about land use. But lo and behold, when it comes time to grow cannabis, they're more than happy with the water use. When it comes to time to plaster solar fields across farmland, they don't care about land use. When it comes time to put their solar fields across an endangered species area, they don't care about that endangered species. It's never what they say it's about, it's always against progress and production for American energy and American workers really."
Data centers have become one of the most talked about political issues of the midterm election season, particularly in states like Texas, Ohio, and Nevada, and Fox News polling this summer found voters overwhelmingly oppose building data centers in their own communities, with 70% opposed and 30% in favor.
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Nearly 8 in 10 voters said construction should move more slowly to address environmental and local concerns, while just 20% favored building as quickly as possible to preserve the U.S. competitive edge over China and other countries. Opposition crossed generational lines, though MAGA Republicans and Republican men were the most supportive groups, at 46% and 45%, respectively.
In a recent Fox News Digital op-ed, Consumers’ Research Executive Director Will Hild made the case that data center developers ignoring the concerns of the consumers’ has been a problem that could cost the United States victory in the AI race.
"Climate radicals who spent decades trying to kill fracking, pipelines, and American energy dominance have found their next target," Hild told Fox News Digital. "They are hijacking legitimate consumer concerns to fuel a massive disinformation campaign aimed at frightening Americans into shutting down the technology infrastructure. The same activist machine that fought American oil and gas is now mobilizing against modern data centers, because its answer to American innovation is always to stop building begins."
Data center backlash is increasingly reshaping midterm races nationwide, with candidates in both parties facing pressure to distance themselves from data center development or demand tougher restrictions as voters raise concerns about electricity costs, water use and the impact on local communities.
The issue has emerged in major Senate and gubernatorial contests from Ohio and Michigan to Pennsylvania and Texas, with campaigns using data centers in attack ads and candidates who once touted the projects increasingly calling for new regulations, tax changes or construction pauses.
In Texas, the fight has also become part of Democrats’ broader midterm organizing effort in the state. Texas Together, a $30 million coordinated campaign backed by the Texas Democratic Party, Texas Majority PAC, Beto O’Rourke’s Powered by People and other Democratic groups, has hosted data center-focused town halls and press events featuring Democratic candidates, while the El Paso Young Democrats and El Paso County Democratic Party organized a protest against what they called "destructive AI Data Centers."
Behrens agreed with Hild’s call for different messaging and spoke to Fox News Digital about what data center companies need to do to shift the narrative.
"I think they need to discuss very specifically with local stakeholders, not the ones that are being astroturfed in, they need to talk about the benefits of it, they need to talk about exactly what the data center does because there are legitimate questions about it and Americans have a right to say, what is this going up in our area?"
Behrens added, "But I would also caution to say if you're not throwing up opposition to any other type of manufacturing, if you're not throwing up opposition to a large Buc-ees gas station then why the anger over data centers? Because those operations can use a lot of water, they can use a lot of land just like the data centers. So asking the questions is absolutely legitimate, but throwing up needless roadblocks because this is something that the environmental left has told you to dislike, we really need to watch out for that. And I think the bottom line would be if AOC, Bernie Sanders, and Kathy Hochul are your intellectual guiding stars for opposing data centers, then you need to really think about where you stand because they've been wrong on every major energy issue ever since they entered public office."
Fox News Digital reached out to CodePink, the Sierra Club, Open Society Foundations, and Public Citizen for comment.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a Sixteen Thirty Fund spokesperson pushed back saying the group "proudly supported the Sierra Club."
The spokesperson added: "Across the country, people have legitimate questions about how these projects could affect their communities. Dismissing those concerns as anti-American or anti-progress is absurd. Corporate interests should focus on addressing the potential impacts of data center development rather than attacking those who speak out."
California’s insane plan to regulate what tires we buy is full of hot air
Just when you thought California had run out of things to regulate, Sacramento apparently looked down at your car and said, "What about the tires?"
Yes, the tires.
California has become the first state in America to approve energy-efficiency standards for replacement tires. Beginning in 2029, most replacement tires for passenger cars and light-duty trucks will have to meet new rolling-resistance requirements. Those requirements get even tougher in 2033.
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At some point, Californians have to ask themselves a simple question: How much government is too much government?
To be fair, California has some impressive numbers supporting its case.
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The California Energy Commission estimates Phase 1 will add only about $6 to the cost of a set of tires while saving drivers approximately $85. How well did that work out on EVs and the real cost of gas savings relative to the price of the car? Phase 2 is projected to add about $26 per set while producing $179 in gasoline savings over the tires' life. That’s a whopping $40 a year in savings. Don’t spend it all in one place if it is actually true.
The state estimates the first phase could pay for itself in just three to four months and the second in roughly seven months.
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California also projects the regulations will eventually save drivers nearly $1 billion annually in gasoline and electricity costs while reducing carbon emissions by approximately 2 million metric tons per year, which is the equivalent of taking roughly 400,000 gasoline-powered cars off the road.
Those sound like terrific numbers.
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So here's my question to California: If the economics is really that compelling, why does Sacramento have to mandate it? Show consumers the numbers. Put an efficiency rating on every tire.
Tell someone Tire A costs $26 more but could save $179 in gasoline. Then let the person reaching into their own wallet decide whether Tire A or Tire B is right for them.
That's called consumer choice.
California increasingly seems to call that a problem. And not everyone agrees with the state's rosy projections.
Goodyear has warned that roughly 70% of replacement tires currently sold could fail to meet the standards by 2033. The tire manufacturer has raised concerns about higher upfront costs and fewer choices for consumers. The final regulation does include exemptions for certain specialty tires, including some competition, off-road and winter-performance tires.
But that's exactly why this debate is bigger than four pieces of rubber. It's about the cumulative cost and cumulative reach of government regulation. One regulation might cost you $6. Another costs $50. Another adds $500.
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Every new rule arrives with a government study explaining why the cost is small and the benefit is large. But consumers don't pay for regulations one at a time. They pay for all of them at the same time.
California families already deal with extraordinarily expensive housing, electricity and gasoline. And here's the word politicians everywhere suddenly love which is affordability. Everybody wants to make life more affordable.
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Yet California's solution frequently seems to involve another mandate telling businesses what they must sell and consumers what they should buy.
There's an easier solution.
Give consumers information and let them decide. Since when did we become so inept that we can’t make a basic consumer decision? Government absolutely has a role in establishing safety standards, preventing fraud and making sure consumers know what they're buying.
But there's a difference between protecting consumers and making economic decisions for them. If a more efficient tire saves me $179, tell me. I'll probably buy it.
But if I prefer another tire because of price, performance, durability or another feature that's important to me, why shouldn't that decision belong to me? That's the real question California should answer.
Today it's your replacement tires. Tomorrow it'll be something else.
Because once government decides consumers can't be trusted to choose the four pieces of rubber underneath their car, where exactly does that philosophy end?
California says these regulations will save drivers money. Maybe they're right. But there's another cost that's much harder to put into a government spreadsheet.
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Choice.
And California seems increasingly willing to make yours for you.
Trump and Rubio’s bold Venezuela oil pact could finally crush communism’s grip
For more than a quarter century, Venezuela was not merely poorly governed. It was captured by Cuban communist intelligence services. Russian arms entrenched it. Chinese loans stripped the country of sovereignty while the Chávez–Maduro regime looted Venezuela, wrecked the currency, and filled the prisons. The result was a failed state: mass exile, political prisoners, electrical blackouts, and a platform for America’s enemies in the Western Hemisphere. That history is what critics of the new U.S.–Venezuela energy agreement prefer to forget.
Last week, President Trump announced a historic oil partnership with Venezuela’s interim government. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth negotiated it. Interim President Delcy Rodríguez confirmed the core terms: 17 strategic fields holding more than 65 billion barrels, a production target above 1.5 million barrels a day, more than $100 billion in private investment, and large fiscal flows to Venezuela. Whether the final term is a generation or a century-scale U.S. stake, the meaning is the same. The United States has taken a secured interest in the resource that once financed communism in Cuba and subversion all over Latin America.
Previously, Venezuela’s oil was "sovereign" on paper and enslaved in practice—used to pay Cuban handlers, Russian weapons, and Chinese debt while Venezuelans fled. Sovereignty without property rights, honest courts, and a state that cannot be flipped by the Cuban communist regime is an empty word.
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Critics on the left call the deal colonialism. Hard-line Chavistas call it betrayal. Parts of the opposition call it illegitimate because an interim government signed it. Democratic Socialists who treated Maduro as a diplomatic inconvenience suddenly discovered constitutional piety about hydrocarbons. They share a fantasy: that a weak, cash-starved, institutionally gutted Venezuela can stay free if Washington keeps its distance.
History says otherwise: A vacuum in Venezuela is not filled by angels. It is filled by Cuban, Russian, and Chinese intelligence, along with the criminal networks, like the Tren de Aragua, that grew up under the Venezuelan socialist regime and extended through the Western Hemisphere. That axis produced the torture chambers, the refugee crisis, and the political prisons.
A long-term U.S. commercial stake—backed by American security interests—is insurance. It raises the cost of a second communist capture. It makes it harder for a future corrupt regime to re-nationalize the industry overnight and resume shipping the crude to Cuba in exchange for rebuilding the repressive apparatus. American companies built much of that industry in the twentieth century before Chávez confiscated it. The decay that followed was communist plunder. Reopening the oil fields under American capital and strategic oversight is how you prevent the next plunder.
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The deal must not become a substitute for liberty. Oil that merely finances the same repressive regime is not reconstruction. It is a richer dictatorship. Secretary Rubio has been clear since January, after the capture of Nicolás Maduro, that the United States would not occupy Venezuela. It would use leverage.
The plan has three overlapping phases: stabilization, so the country does not collapse into war; recovery, so Western firms enter on fair terms and the wrecked industry can be rebuilt; and transition, so Venezuelans recover a government that is representative and no longer an outpost of the Castro regime. That is the Donroe Doctrine in practice: the Monroe Doctrine updated for an era in which the threat is not a European monarch but the communist powers that treated Venezuela as a forward operating base. Trump had the courage to remove the dictator. Rubio now has the leverage to keep the country from sliding back.
Let’s look at the results on the ground.
Maduro is gone. Oil once sold at discounted rates to bail out U.S. adversaries is being pulled toward market terms. Hundreds of political prisoners have left their cells, a feat that years of "engagement" failed to accomplish. An amnesty process exists to rebuild a nation fractured by a socialist dictatorship.
None of this is finished, but all of this was unthinkable under the policies the critics now miss. Those critics were content with failure dressed as prudence: mild sanctions, dialogue with a regime that denied an election it stole, and humanitarian gestures that let Cuban intelligence run Venezuela. They complain after a few months that the current progress is imperfect, but they would have waited another decade for a "perfect" transition that the Cuban regime would never have allowed.
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The oil agreement is a foundation, not a finish line. Every remaining political prisoner must be released, even as human-rights groups still count hundreds behind bars. Venezuela should also complete the dollarization that its citizens are vocally calling for. Venezuelans abandoned the Bolívar because socialism destroyed it. Formal dollarization would lock in stability, invite diaspora capital home, and make it harder for a future government to finance repression. Oil proceeds must be fenced off from the old patronage machine and audited. And stabilization cannot become a permanent excuse. Venezuelans need an electoral calendar and courts that are not controlled by the ruling, Diosdado Cabello-led socialist party..
Let’s be clear: The agreement is a major strategic and economic bet, but its precise duration, legal foundation and long-term enforceability remain unsettled.
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To those who shout "sovereignty": a nation whose oil financed Cuban tutelage was not sovereign. Partnership with the only superpower that has the capital, the technology, and the interest in enabling Venezuelans to be free is how sovereignty becomes real.
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To those who say the interim government lacks legitimacy for long contracts: they are right that legitimacy must be completed at the ballot box. They are wrong that the alternative is idle oil fields and an open door to Cuba, China, and Russia. Contracts can be ratified by a future democratic congress. Collapse cannot.
Attacks on Marco Rubio are attacks on the only U.S. Secretary of State who has delivered results in Venezuela. Now is the time to finish the job, empty the prisons, dollarize, audit the revenue, and push for free elections. Do that, and this agreement will be remembered not as a bargain with a remnant of Chavismo, but as the moment Venezuela shut the door on communism.
Ohio Supreme Court denies Mackenzie Shirilla's latest appeal bid in double murder case
Convicted double murderer Mackenzie Shirilla suffered another legal setback after the Ohio Supreme Court denied her attorneys' request to reconsider its decision not to hear her latest appeal.
Shirilla, now 21, is serving two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life for killing her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20, and their friend, Davion Flanagan, 19, after prosecutors said she intentionally drove her Toyota Camry into a brick building in Strongsville, Ohio, in 2022.
Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy denied Shirilla's motion for reconsideration after her attorneys asked the state's highest court to revisit its June 23 decision declining to review her case, according to court records.
"It is ordered by the court that the motion for reconsideration in this case is denied," Kennedy wrote.
Tuesday's decision leaves intact a lower-court ruling that Shirilla's postconviction challenge was filed one day too late.
Shirilla's attorneys have argued that the missed deadline resulted from confusion over the filing timeline, including a calendar mistake involving the 2024 leap year.
The postconviction challenge sought to raise claims that Shirilla received ineffective assistance of counsel, including an argument that her trial lawyers failed to adequately investigate evidence that she suffered from Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, or POTS.
Her attorneys have argued that the condition could have caused Shirilla to lose consciousness before the crash and potentially explain why she failed to brake before impact.
The defense previously said the condition was only "cursorily referenced" at trial despite Shirilla and her family allegedly putting her attorneys on notice about it.
The latest court decisions, however, have focused on whether Shirilla's postconviction petition was filed on time rather than the merits of those arguments.
Under Ohio law, a postconviction petition must generally be filed within 365 days after the trial transcript is filed in the court of appeals. The court determined that the relevant transcript was filed Oct. 24, 2023, making the deadline Oct. 23, 2024.
Shirilla filed her petition on Oct. 24, 2024, the 366th day.
Shirilla argued that the clock should have started later, when juvenile bindover transcripts were filed, and also pointed to the 2024 leap year. The appellate court rejected both arguments, finding that the statute refers to the "trial transcript," not supplemental juvenile-hearing transcripts, and that the law provides 365 days, not a calendar year.
Her attorneys later asked the Ohio Supreme Court to review the case. The state's highest court declined to accept jurisdiction June 23 before Shirilla's legal team asked the justices to reconsider that decision.
Shirilla's case has received renewed public attention following the release of Netflix's "The Crash."
Shirilla was convicted in 2023 after a bench trial of four counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault and two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide.
Prosecutors argued at trial that Shirilla intentionally drove into the building to end her toxic relationship with Russo and that Flanagan was an unintended victim who happened to be in the car.
Evidence presented in the case included surveillance video, vehicle "black box" data and evidence that Shirilla's car was traveling nearly 100 mph without braking before the crash, according to WOIO.
Shirilla has maintained that the crash was not intentional.
Her convictions were upheld on direct appeal in 2024.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Shirilla's attorney for comment.
Fox News Digital's Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.
Haitian college student in Ohio dies by apparent suicide after losing TPS status, family says
A Haitian-born college student in Ohio died in what his family believes to be a suicide after he lost his temporary protected status protections amid the Trump administration’s termination of Haiti’s TPS designation.
Pierre Damas Bel, 20, died on Monday as he walked into oncoming traffic after parking his vehicle on the right shoulder of Interstate 70, according to Ohio State Highway Patrol.
"Bel succumbed to fatal injuries at the scene," Ohio State Highway Patrol said in a statement, adding that the incident remains under investigation.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, said Tuesday that Bel's death is a "horrible, horrible tragedy."
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"He graduated from high school here," DeWine said. "He was well liked. He was in the junior ROTC. And, I’m told by those that knew him that he had great dreams about what he could do in this country and what he could contribute to this country."
"I think we have to ask ourselves: Is this really good? Is it what we want done to people like this being picked up and facing deportation? Do we want that being done in our name," he added.
Bel's father told The Haitian Times that his son was "distraught" after weeks of wearing an ankle monitor. He was among some Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio area who have been required by the Department of Homeland Security to wear ankle monitors, after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the administration to end Haiti’s TPS designation, potentially exposing roughly 350,000 Haitian nationals to removal.
"In his last days, I did not recognize him as he was such an energetic kid who loves life, friends and family, and education," Bel's father, Pierre Ronal Bel, said in a statement read by Pastor Carl Ruby.
Bel's father said he was "treated like an animal" after receiving his ankle monitor, according to WSYX.
His father told The Washington Post that Bel left home before 8 a.m. on Monday and called shortly after to tell his father he was not feeling okay mentally.
"I told him, 'Come home so that we can talk?' I had my youngest to take to school. I took him to school," his father said.
But later that morning, police showed up at his home to inform him his son had died.
A month before his death, Bel spoke out about his experience wearing an ankle monitor.
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"I came to this country to pursue my education. I didn't come here to commit a crime or hurt anyone," he wrote on social media.
"Yet now I’m walking through the streets of the United States with a GPS monitor on my leg, carrying a feeling of shame and humiliation that I never imagined I would experience," he added. "I came here to study, to build my future and to live a better [life,] not to be treated like a criminal. So now, how am I supposed to play college sports with a GPS monitor on my leg?"
Springfield pastor Carl Ruby said on Monday that the family believes Bel took his own life as a result of President Donald Trump's immigration agenda that targeted TPS.
"I'm sitting with a family right now whose son threw himself in front of semi truck today after being teased by fellow students at Wright State about his ankle monitor," Ruby wrote on Facebook.
"I wish President Trump could hear the mom's wails. The family wants people to know that this was a suicide and they want people to know that President Trump, [White House deputy chief of staff] Stephen Miller, and [Homeland Security Secretary] Markwayne Mullin’s inhumane immigration policies made this happen," the pastor continued.
Many of the roughly 15,000 Haitian immigrants in Springfield have lived in the U.S. for years, unable to return to their home country that has faced years of violence, turmoil and extreme poverty.
In a statement to WBTN, ICE said it "does not comment on the cause of death while that investigation is pending, and we will not speculate about unverified claims regarding other individuals."
Bel graduated from high school in May and was set to begin his first semester at Wright State University after being unable to play college soccer at Wittenberg University because of his ankle monitor, the Wittenberg men’s soccer team said in a Facebook post.
"He took 2 trips to Cincinnati and Westerville to plead to the officers to remove the bracelet since he’s a soccer player and he felt embarrassed and humiliated when he’s among his classmates at the University," Bel’s father wrote on X. "Last Friday, August 28, 2026, he told me, 'Dad I felt humiliated. Since they gave uniforms to all my classmates at JROTC their uniform, but except me because of the bracelet.'"
Wright State University President Sue Edwards said the school is "heartbroken by this devastating loss."
"Pierre was an active honors student who was passionate about soccer and was already actively engaged in his classes and the campus community. The University mourns the death of Pierre and extends our deepest condolences to his family, friends and loved ones during this unimaginably difficult time," Edwards said in a statement.