DC Water, the public utility responsible for the massive sewage spill in the Potomac River, focused much of its attention on environmentalism and diversity, equity, and inclusion goals in recent years.
The spill, considered one of the largest wastewater disasters in U.S. history, has placed DC Water&#8217;s DEI priorities in the spotlight. In 2021, DC Water became one of the first public utilities in the country to release a report on its Environmental, Social, and Governance priorities, a framework used by investors to measure a company’s commitments to leftist causes, including fighting &#8220;climate change.&#8221; Then, in February 2022, DC Water CEO David Gadis touted the utility’s emphasis on forming a leadership team made up mostly of minorities and women.
“When I arrived at DC Water, this was an organization that looked very similar to our industry, and it was predominantly, you know, white male at the top,” said Gadis, who was tapped as DC Water’s CEO in 2018. “But this was a utility that more than 70% people of color worked at this utility, and I really believe and I still believe — the outcomes have been fantastic — that the people at the top, the executives, the chiefs in that C-suite, they should look like the employees that they serve and they work with.”
Gadis made the comments on DEI during an appearance on a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhIodoQiLnk&amp;t=43s">show</a> hosted by the American Water Works Association, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring safe water.
“So my executive team looks exactly like the community, it looks like the employees, the staff, be it people of color, women, men,” Gadis added. “It is just a fantastic team that has come together to do a lot of great things here at DC Water and in the community for the customers.”
Asked by American Water Works CEO David LaFrance to describe what his executive team “looks like,” Gadis replied, “We have three women, three women of color, and we have five males total. And of those five males, three of them are of color. And then we have two males that are caucasian. So we are getting that total cross-sectional conversation that’s occurring.”
<div id="attachment_1045859" style="width: 929px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1045859" class="wp-image-1045859 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/DC-Water-919x576.png" alt="" width="919" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/DC-Water-919x576.png 919w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/DC-Water-300x188.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/DC-Water-768x481.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/DC-Water.png 1206w" sizes=" (max-width: 919px) 100vw, 919px" />DC Water CEO David Gadis and Board Chair Dr. Unique Morris-Hughes are joined by Mayor Muriel Bowser to celebrate the launch of the machine to help reduce wastewater flow into the Potomac River on November 4, 2025 / Screenshot: Instagram/D.C. Department of Employee Services</div>
DC Water&#8217;s sewage spill debacle comes just one month after a public utility in Nashville was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tennessee-senator-declares-war-on-woke-nashville-power-company-after-week-long-outage?author=Virginia+Kruta&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Tennessee+Senator+Declares+War+On+%E2%80%98Woke%E2%80%99+Nashville+Power+Company+After+Week-Long+Outage">slammed</a> for its focus on DEI after an ice storm knocked out power for residents for weeks. Between 2023 and the beginning of 2024, the Nashville Electric Service held 102 DEI sessions &#8220;to foster a culture of civility and belonging within our organization with the hopes of extending that dynamic beyond our walls.&#8221; Last month, the electric service faced increased scrutiny for its delayed response to widespread power outages in Nashville.
The sewage spill, which began last month, has unleashed hundreds of millions of gallons of wastewater into the Potomac River, forcing authorities to issue alerts to residents in the nation’s capital, Maryland, and Virginia to avoid contact with the river as E.coli levels skyrocketed. DC Water said the disaster was caused by the partial collapse of the Potomac Interceptor sewer line, which resulted in a massive overflow of wastewater that made its way into the Potomac.
In just the first five days after the sewer line’s collapse, around 194 million gallons overflowed, DC Water <a href="https://www.dcwater.com/about-dc-water/media/news/dc-water-releases-key-findings-extent-sewer-overflow-and-potomac-river" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> on February 6. In an update this week, the utility said that a total of 243.5 million gallons have spilled into the Potomac since January 19.
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116082091487085093" target="_blank" rel="noopener">expressed</a> frustration with state and local leaders over what he viewed as a slow response to the sewage spill. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he was directing federal authorities to take over the management of the sewage spill response, writing, “I cannot allow incompetent Local ‘Leadership’ to turn the River in the Heart of Washington into a Disaster Zone.”
Betsy Nicholas, president of the Potomac Riverkeeper Network, told <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5742741-potomac-river-sewage-spill-dc-virginia-maryland/">The Hill</a> that DC Water knew the collapsed sewer line needed to be repaired and &#8220;had money allocated for it.&#8221;
&#8220;It just seems … the whole pipeline collapsed before they were able to do any work on it,&#8221; Nicholas added.
Under Gadis, DC Water has also sought to award contracts to minority- and women-owned businesses, The Daily Caller <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2026/02/17/david-gadis-dc-water-sewage-spill-diversity-dei-flint-michigan-water-crisis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> on Tuesday. In fiscal year 2024 alone, DC Water awarded women-owned and “disadvantaged” businesses around $520 million of its $1.33 billion in total awards. Gadis also believes it’s important for the utility to have a “diverse workforce” to establish “trust” with homeowners who “like to see people that look like them and walk like them.”
The Daily Wire reached out to DC Water for comment.
The massive sewage spill also marks a rough spot for a utility that <a href="https://www.dcwater.com/sites/default/files/documents/2021-12/DC%20Water%20ESG%20Report%202021.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vowed</a> to provide “high quality water services in a safe, environmentally friendly, and efficient manner.”
In its 2021 <a href="https://www.dcwater.com/sites/default/files/documents/2021-12/DC%20Water%20ESG%20Report%202021.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ESG report</a>, DC Water said it was “committed to finding renewable energy solutions for our energy demand to mitigate our contribution to climate change.” The utility also said it was “committed to providing healthy water throughout our operations,” and “dramatically reduce the amount of solids, nitrogen, and phosphorous in the cleaned water we return to the Potomac to protect our local rivers and the Chesapeake Bay.”
The Environmental Protection Agency, led by Administrator Lee Zeldin, said that DC Water had not yet reached out for federal help despite the massive scale of the disaster.
“The Potomac Interceptor overflow is a sewage crisis of historic proportion. Never should any American family, community, or waterway ever have to experience this level of extensive environmental damage,” Zeldin <a href="https://x.com/epaleezeldin/status/2023870910365941812" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> in a post on X on Tuesday. “This mess must be completely addressed as fast as humanly possible, and the Trump EPA stands ready, motivated, and highly capable to assist in any way possible to fulfill President Trump’s strong desire to END this disaster.”
Water testing in the Potomac River earlier this week revealed E.coli levels hundreds of times higher than what the EPA considers safe, DC Water officials <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/potomac-river-e-coli-levels-skyrocket-240-million-gallons-sewage-pour-rcna259420">said</a>. Local authorities have assured residents, &#8220;There is no impact to the drinking water supply,&#8221; as the sewer and water systems &#8220;are completely separate.&#8221;

US-ENVIROMENT-SEWAGE-POTOMAC

Ahead Of ‘Sewage Crisis Of Historic Proportion,’ DC Water Officials Were Focused On DEI

D.C. Utility Responsible For Disastrous Potomac Sewage Spill Is Steeped In DEI And Environmentalism

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Environmentalism

Washington D.C.

Goldman Sachs plans to scrap its race, sex, and other DEI factors when considering potential additions to its board of directors.
The board’s governance committee made the decision to axe DEI metrics from its list of qualifications for new board members after striking an agreement with the National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative nonprofit, according to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/finance/goldman-sachs-board-dei-57fea527?mod=hp_lead_pos2">The Wall Street Journal</a>.
The committee has four broad factors it considers when looking for new board members, one of which is a demographic profile that includes viewpoints, military service, and other markers, as well as DEI variables such as a person’s race, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Going forward, the committee plans to strip away the DEI calculations from its rubric for board candidates.
The National Legal and Policy Center has a small ownership stake in Goldman Sachs and in September, proposed that the committee strip away the DEI component of its board member criteria. The center had requested that the bank share the proposal with shareholders ahead of its annual shareholder meeting scheduled for this spring, but Goldman Sachs struck an agreement with the center that involved pulling the proposal and the bank scrapping its DEI metrics anyway.
Goldman Sachs had last year dropped its DEI requirements for companies that wanted the bank’s help in listing for an IPO.
Goldman Sachs’ curbing of its own DEI policies comes as the Trump administration has pursued policies to push such metrics out of the federal government while wielding federal powers to push companies to distance themselves from DEI as well. President Donald Trump, on his first day of his second term, took a stand against DEI, ordering federal departments and agencies to begin cutting DEI positions in the government.
The president also directed federal agencies to look into companies with DEI policies for potential discriminatory practices. In February of last year, the president <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-targets-two-financial-firms-over-dei-and-esg-push">took</a> aim at two financial firms, Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis, that the president said were pushing racial quotas and climates activism on numerous other companies.
At the time, both firms had guidelines that had the potential to impact a wide swath of companies that encouraged them to adopt DEI criteria in promotions to their board. They also had similar guidelines directing companies to take steps to address climate change.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Goldman Sachs Will No Longer Judge Board Members By DEI Metrics

Business

Goldman Sachs

Social Issues

U.S.

A conservative legal firm is asking the federal government to reveal the truth about the creation of a race-focused organ transplant policy developed by the Biden administration. 
America First Legal <a href="https://media.aflegal.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/06111524/AFL-v-HHS-Complaint.pdf">sued</a> the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services earlier this month seeking information on the creation of the model that requires organizations that oversee the transplant process to prioritize &#8220;equity.&#8221; The suit says that the departments have not complied with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests seeking documents on the model’s creation. 
“Biden officials embedded race into organ transplant policy and rebranded discrimination as ‘equity.’ This FOIA lawsuit seeks to expose the outside influence behind the IOTA Model, including the communications and meetings that shaped this program,” said America First Legal lawyer Megan Redshaw.
The policy in question is the Increasing Organ Transplant Access (IOTA) model, which took effect in July 2025 after being implemented in the waning days of Joe Biden&#8217;s presidency. The model is set to be in place for six years.
The rule says that the federal government wanted to <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/12/04/2024-27841/medicare-program-alternative-payment-model-updates-and-the-increasing-organ-transplant-access-iota">increase</a> “equity in kidney transplantation by creating performance-based incentive payments for participating kidney transplant hospitals tied to” kidney transplant access.
Citing Biden’s <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/01/25/2021-01753/advancing-racial-equity-and-support-for-underserved-communities-through-the-federal-government">executive order</a> on embedding “racial equity” policies in the federal government, organ procurement organizations are required to submit health equity plans “to address health outcome disparities.” Organ procurement organizations are federally designated non-profits that oversee the organ transplant process. 
The goal of the model was to address “health equity problems” through “financial incentives that reward IOTA participants that improve their kidney organ offer acceptance rate ratios over time and hold them financially accountable for not doing so.”
In August 2025, America First Legal requested documentation from HHS and CMS on whether any organ procurement organizations were involved in the creation of the model. Two organizations mentioned in the lawsuit were the United Network for Organ Sharing and the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations.
The Association of Organ Procurement Organizations said it had no comment on the litigation and that it was not involved in the creation of the model. 
The association told The Daily Wire that it “was not involved in CMS’s development of the IOTA Model. Like many stakeholders, AOPO has participated in formal public comment opportunities on proposed federal policies affecting organ donation and transplantation.”
The request to HHS was submitted on August 18, 2025, and the request to CMS was submitted the same day. America First Legal’s suit says that it has received no records or any communication from HHS or CMS apart from an initial acknowledgment the day the request was submitted. 
“The American people have a right to know who helped design that agenda, who pushed it, and what role outside stakeholders played in shaping policy that governs life-and-death decisions,” said Redshaw. 
HHS told The Daily Wire that it does not comment on pending litigation.

MixCollage-13-Feb-2026-12-14-PM-2184

Could This Be The End Of Race-Based Organ Transplants?

Department of Health and Human Services

Equity

Joe Biden

Organ Donation

“Got Woke? Knoxville Symphony does.” 
That message will be emblazoned on a mobile billboard and greet attendees of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra as they arrive for a romantic date night featuring Valentine’s Day-themed music on Thursday and Friday. 
The mobile billboard seeks to spotlight a renowned clarinet player&#8217;s fight to remove DEI from the world of professional music and arrives courtesy of the Coolidge Reagan Foundation, a conservative nonprofit. James Zimmermann, the clarinetist, filed a lawsuit in December, accusing the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra of refusing to hire him based on his opposition to DEI. 
Zimmermann told The Daily Wire he won a blind audition for the principal clarinet position in September 2025 and was told by staff he would soon be on salary, only to have that opportunity fall away a few days later once the orchestra learned of his <a href="https://freebeacon.com/culture/how-racial-anxiety-conquered-an-orchestra-and-crushed-a-career/">previous DEI battle</a> with the orchestra in Nashville. 
“This whole scenario is much bigger than just me and this one little job in Knoxville. It&#8217;s the demoralization that every white guy feels that, ‘Hey, these orchestras don&#8217;t want me.’ They have openly stated, ‘We need our orchestras to be more diverse.’ All that means is they want fewer white guys in the orchestra. It&#8217;s very obvious,&#8221; Zimmermann told The Daily Wire. 
Images shared with The Daily Wire by the Coolidge Reagan Foundation show the multiple messages that will appear on mobile billboard vehicles outside the Tennessee Theater from 3-11 p.m. On both days, the orchestra is performing a concert called “Star-Crossed Lovers” at 7:30 p.m.
The images include statements such as “DEI ≠ Fairness,” “Go Woke, Lose Talent,” and “Your Tax Dollars Fuel Woke DEI Policies at the Orchestra.” The Coolidge Reagan Foundation also launched a <a href="https://www.wokesymphony.com">website</a> to highlight Zimmermann&#8217;s story. 
<div id="attachment_1042819" style="width: 2570px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1042819" class="size-full wp-image-1042819" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/MixCollage-11-Feb-2026-04-46-PM-4128-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="2560" height="2560" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/MixCollage-11-Feb-2026-04-46-PM-4128-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/MixCollage-11-Feb-2026-04-46-PM-4128-300x300.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/MixCollage-11-Feb-2026-04-46-PM-4128-576x576.jpg 576w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/MixCollage-11-Feb-2026-04-46-PM-4128-150x150.jpg 150w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/MixCollage-11-Feb-2026-04-46-PM-4128-768x768.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/MixCollage-11-Feb-2026-04-46-PM-4128-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/MixCollage-11-Feb-2026-04-46-PM-4128-2048x2048.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" />Coolidge Reagan Foundation.</div>
According to a lawsuit filed by Zimmermann in Tennessee’s Sixth Judicial Circuit, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra refused to hire him based on his politics. Zimmermann is suing for compensation he would have earned had he been given the job. 
“The Orchestra engaged in racial discrimination against Mr. Zimmermann, violating the results of its own screened audition, in violation of the Tennessee Human Rights Act,” a copy of the lawsuit shared with The Daily Wire said. “Had Zimmermann not been a white male, particularly a white male who had previously expressed opposition to DEI initiatives, the Orchestra would have proceeded with hiring him consistent with the result of its screened auditions.”
<div id="attachment_1042821" style="width: 2570px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1042821" class="size-full wp-image-1042821" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/MixCollage-11-Feb-2026-04-47-PM-8822-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="2560" height="2560" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/MixCollage-11-Feb-2026-04-47-PM-8822-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/MixCollage-11-Feb-2026-04-47-PM-8822-300x300.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/MixCollage-11-Feb-2026-04-47-PM-8822-576x576.jpg 576w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/MixCollage-11-Feb-2026-04-47-PM-8822-150x150.jpg 150w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/MixCollage-11-Feb-2026-04-47-PM-8822-768x768.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/MixCollage-11-Feb-2026-04-47-PM-8822-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/MixCollage-11-Feb-2026-04-47-PM-8822-2048x2048.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" />Coolidge Reagan Foundation.</div>
After advancing through the screened audition process for the clarinet position, Zimmermann said Knoxville Symphony Orchestra personnel manager Mark Tucker informed him he had won, would soon be “on the payroll,” and would call him to follow up on September 17, 2025.
Instead, on September 18, Zimmermann says he received a phone call from the symphony&#8217;s CEO, Rachel Ford, who mentioned his previous musical job working for the Nashville Symphony. 
An email from Ford to Zimmermann, obtained by The Daily Wire, confirmed Zimmermann’s account. 
Ford told him in the email that “based on a number of items which have come to the attention of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra regarding your employment with the Nashville Symphony, I regret to inform you that the [Knoxville Symphony Orchestra] has decided not to move forward with offering you a contract of employment.”
She added that there would be no further discussions on the matter. 
“We wish you the best in the future. Please know our decision is final and we will not participate in any ongoing communications related to this matter,” she wrote. 
Neither Ford nor Tucker responded to requests for comment. 
The controversy referred to by Ford erupted roughly six years ago when Zimmermann started speaking out against DEI measures at the Nashville Symphony. Eventually, he was fired after two minority musicians, oboe player Titus Underwood and Emilio Carlo, <a href="https://freebeacon.com/culture/how-racial-anxiety-conquered-an-orchestra-and-crushed-a-career/">accused</a> him of harassing them and making threatening and racially charged comments to them.
In the end, Zimmermann was fired after 12 years as the lead clarinet player. Six of his colleagues would later defend him in interviews with the Washington Free Beacon. Zimmermann acknowledges that he was not perfect throughout the situation, but said his firing was prompted, in large part, by politics. 
As that played out, both Underwood and Carlo got a Davidson County judge to issue temporary restraining orders against Zimmermann. Zimmermann has called those restraining orders “bogus” and noted that they were not later renewed.
Carlo and Underwood did not respond to requests for comment. In a <a href="https://www.wbir.com/article/news/local/knoxville/james-zimmermann-sues-knoxville-symphony-orchestra-for-alleged-discrimination/51-59429c8d-5d6b-4aa9-86a3-6815006f322b">statemen</a>t to local outlet WBIR, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra cited the restraining orders. 
&#8220;The KSO made the decision to reject the Audition Committee’s recommendation and not hire Mr. Zimmermann due to legitimate safety concerns as confirmed by the Nashville Symphony,&#8221; the statement said. 
Zimmermann said that Ford did not mention the restraining orders during her call with Zimmermann, but instead said there were &#8220;items of interest&#8221; that he knew about. Zimmermann said he was never given a chance to explain his side of the story. 
“I have nothing bad to say about the people running the [audition]. It&#8217;s just about the CEO, who made the decision to not hire me, not ask me anything about the past, not ask my side of the story,” Zimmermann told The Daily Wire. “This is supposed to be the land of opportunity, and a blind audition gives you a chance to prove your skills, independent of your political views and race and gender and sex and all that.”
Zimmermann says he has heard from musicians all across the country who agree with him and have told him they hope the orchestra world abandons DEI once and for all.
Dan Backer, the president of the Coolidge Reagan Foundation, is a counsel for Zimmermann during the suit. 
“I&#8217;m just glad Coolidge Reagan is able to be there and keep the pressure on and make sure that everybody knows that when you set foot in Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, you&#8217;re not listening to the best music you could get, you&#8217;re listening to the wokest music you can get.”
On its website, the Knoxville Symphony <a href="https://knoxvillesymphony.com/aboutkso/history-mission/#:~:text=In%20May%202016%2C%20Aram%20Demirjian,Center%20and%20Washington%20Performing%20Arts.">boasts</a> that its programming emphasizes “music by living composers” and “artists from underrepresented groups.”
The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra <a href="https://knoxvillesymphony.com/support-the-kso/corporate-partners/#:~:text=generations%20to%20come.-,Sponsorship%20Opportunities,of%20concertgoers%20across%20East%20Tennessee.&amp;text=Knoxville%20Symphony%20Orchestra%20concerts%20and,%2C%20and%20Arts%20&amp;%20Culture%20Alliance.">receives</a> local and state taxpayer funding through the city of Knoxville, Knox County, and the Tennessee Arts Commission. It is unclear exactly how much the orchestra gets in grants. 
Neither the Nashville nor the Knoxville symphony orchestras responded to requests for comment.

hands playing clarinets in orchestra

He Won The Blind Audition — Then Woke Culture Took The Baton

Woke Music? Tennessee Orchestra Accused Of Targeting Clarinet Player Over DEI Stance

Classical Music

Music

Tennessee

High school student filling out test answers with pen

San Francisco Banned ‘Racist’ Algebra A Decade Ago. The Results Are Now In.

San Francisco Banned 'Racist' Algebra A Decade Ago. The Results Are Now In.

Blacks

College

Education

High School

Mathematics

Matt Walsh

Opinion

Public Schools

Teenagers

Violence

Whites

The Department of War gave an ultimatum to Scouting America, formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America, to roll back its woke policies and DEI initiatives or lose its continued partnership with the military.
“From Day One at the War Department, we have made it very clear: No more DEI at DoW. Zero tolerance,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell shared in a statement posted to X. He went on to say that the department had been “reviewing its relationship” with the Boy Scouts after the organization had “lost its way.” 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
STATEMENT:
From Day One at the War Department, we have made it very clear: No more DEI at DoW. Zero tolerance.
As a result, over the past several months, the Department of War has been reviewing its relationship with Scouting America—formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America.…
— Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellASW) <a href="https://twitter.com/SeanParnellASW/status/2018495511360053609?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 3, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“[F]or more than a decade now, Scouting America&#8217;s leadership has made decisions that run counter to the values of this administration and this Department of War, including an embrace of DEI and other social justice, gender-fluid ideological stances. This is unacceptable,” the statement continued. 
He said their partnership with scouts, including support of the National Jamboree celebration, was in jeopardy, but now they are “near a final agreement&#8221; as Scouting America has “firmly committed to a return to core principles. Back to God and country—immediately!”
The statement concluded that Scouting America will continue to partner with the Department of War, provided it “rapidly implements” common sense reforms. “They are on the clock, and we are watching,” the post warned. 
Scouting America provided a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/02/03/hegseth-boy-scouts-scouting-america/">statement</a> to the Washington Post Tuesday evening, saying, “For nearly 116 years Scouting has stood as a cornerstone of American ideals, good citizenship, service, and adventure for American youth. We are encouraged by tonight’s social media post by the Pentagon, and we look forward to providing more details as we move ahead.”
In November, NPR <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/11/25/nx-s1-5615164/pentagon-scouting-hegseth-cut-ties">reported</a> that the Defense Department was planning to cut funding and support to Scouting America due to it becoming an organization designed to &#8220;attack boy-friendly spaces.” The documents allegedly criticized the organization for promoting DEI principles. One memo quoted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as saying, &#8220;The organization once endorsed by President Theodore Roosevelt no longer supports the future of American boys.&#8221;
The Boy Scouts have long served as a natural bridge to the military. The Pentagon formally backed the organization beginning in 1937, supplying trucks, doctors, medics, logistical support, and even aviation demonstrations at the National Jamboree. For the military, it doubled as a valuable recruiting channel: Eagle Scouts routinely entered at higher ranks, and about 20% of service-academy cadets came from scouting backgrounds.
But that reputation changed over the years. The group rebranded itself from Boy Scouts to Scouts BSA in 2018 and became “Scouting America” in 2025. This was all in an effort to allow girls to join and be more inclusive, but ultimately led to drastic <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/boy-scouts-want-to-include-everyone-but-now-no-one-wants-to-join?author=Amanda+Harding&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Boy+Scouts+Want+To+Include+Everyone%2C+But+Now+No+One+Wants+To+Join">membership drops</a>.

Boy Scouts

Hegseth’s War Department Says Boy Scouts Must Roll Back Woke Or Lose Military Support

Pentagon Says Boy Scouts Will Roll Back Woke Policies, DEI Initiatives

Pentagon

Pete Hegseth

Wokeness

Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is gunning for the Nashville Electric Service (NES) as thousands of Nashville residents remain without power — more than a week after Winter Storm Fern wreaked havoc on the area — and some may not see their power restored for another ten days.
Blackburn argued that NES had spent more time focusing on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives than on the kind of preparation that could have helped them manage a massive winter storm more efficiently.
&#8220;The Nashville Electric Service held 102 DEI-related training sessions by the end of 2024. They should’ve been using those resources to trim trees and bury utilities. This is what happens when companies put woke politics over the needs of the people they serve,&#8221; she <a href="https://x.com/MarshaBlackburn/status/2018009739926605839">posted</a> on Sunday.
Blackburn also sent a letter directly to NES demanding answers regarding the still unfolding situation in her home state — as well as a detailed plan explaining how the company planned to prevent anything similar from happening again.
&#8220;The failure to adequately prepare for Winter Storm Fern is precisely the reason line crews are working overtime and citizens are clearing limbs and debris at great risk to their own safety to help friends and neighbors,&#8221; Blackburn wrote in the letter. &#8220;This disruption (crew members in the field) are working to correct reflects a failure of leadership and planning, one that could have been mitigated with thoughtful preparation ahead of the storm. You owe your customers transparency, accountability, and a clear explanation of how this breakdown occurred and how you will prevent this from happening in the future.&#8221;
Blackburn gave NES a deadline of February 2 and laid out six key questions she wanted addressed. She posted the letter itself on X, adding, &#8220;By failing to properly prepare for Winter Storm Fern, @NESpower put Tennesseans in harm’s way. NES owes its customers transparency, accountability, and a clear explanation for why thousands of people remain without power. I’m demanding answers to ensure this can’t happen again.&#8221;
<ol>
<li>&#8220;According to reporting by The Tennessean, experienced linemen offered to aid with storm recovery, but Nashville Electric Service declined the offer, stating it already had sufficient resources. Why did NES turn down that offer for additional personnel during a widespread outage of this magnitude?&#8221;</li>
<li>&#8220;Given the lessons learned from past devastating storms, such as Nashville’s 1994 ice storm, why was NES not adequately prepared for Winter Storm Fern, despite ample warning and clear historical precedent?&#8221;</li>
<li>&#8220;Forecasts warned days in advance that this would be a generational severe weather event. Why were recovery operations and service restoration plans not fully prepared and mobilized ahead of time?&#8221;</li>
<li>&#8220;Why has there been such inconsistency in power restoration updates, with many customers being told their power has been restored when it has not, particularly given NES’s acknowledgment that it recently implemented a new outage notification and tracking system?&#8221;</li>
<li>&#8220;Residents in some areas have been told they may be without power for up to two weeks. How does NES consider that timeline acceptable, especially for residents who rely on electricity for life-sustaining medical equipment and other critical needs?&#8221;</li>
<li>&#8220;Due to extended outages, many residents had no choice but to seek temporary lodging. Will NES be reimbursing customers for expenses incurred during this period?&#8221;</li>
</ol>
NES responded to Blackburn&#8217;s letter on Saturday, and the Tennessee Senator posted that letter as well — and said that their answers were not good enough.
&#8220;@NESPower&#8217;s response to my letter is entirely insufficient. The company refused to take any accountability and is forcing Tennesseans to wait another week for full restoration of power. This is unacceptable. Whoever is responsible for this breakdown should be fired,&#8221; she said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/NESpower?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NESpower</a>’s response to my letter is entirely insufficient. The company refused to take any accountability and is forcing Tennesseans to wait another week for full restoration of power.
This is unacceptable. Whoever is responsible for this breakdown should be fired. <a href="https://t.co/ptaDtZC9mi">pic.twitter.com/ptaDtZC9mi</a>
— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarshaBlackburn/status/2017996925975609468?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 1, 2026</a></blockquote>
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In the letter, NES explained that half of the people in their entire service area (about 230,000) had lost power when the storm first hit, and that power had been restored to all but 44,000 of them. The remaining homes without power, NES assured Blackburn, would be back online within another week.
But some individual cases may prove to be more difficult, as one local investigative reporter described a situation currently affecting a viewer who had written him: &#8220;Wow! From viewer regarding Nashville Electric Service issue: &#8216;We can’t report an outage at a single residence after others around us have been restored. We report it, and the system immediately responds that it has been restored. Neighbors have power, but we have not due to a line down in the back yard. If it doesn’t stay on the NES list as needing repair, we may never get power restored. We have been in our house for 6+ days without power, like the rest of Nashville. It’s 38-40 degrees in the house. We run a generator intermittently, and we are doing better than most. But to not be able to reliably report an outage is absurd.'&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Wow! From viewer regarding Nashville Electric Service issue: “We can’t report an outage at a single residence after others around us have been restored. We report it, and the system immediately responds that it has been restored. Neighbors have power, but we have not due to a… <a href="https://t.co/bH9E6k7JLm">pic.twitter.com/bH9E6k7JLm</a>
— Phil Williams (@PhilNvestigates) <a href="https://twitter.com/PhilNvestigates/status/2017399479444365402?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2026</a></blockquote>
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Blackburn made it clear on Sunday that she was frustrated with the leadership at NES, not the rank and file employees.
&#8220;The linemen who are on the ground making repairs and working in the frigid temperatures to restore power are the unsung heroes of the response to this horrible winter storm. So grateful for these men and women,&#8221; she said.

Marsha Blackburn

Tennessee Senator Declares War On ‘Woke’ Nashville Power Company After Week-Long Outage

Electricity

Nashville

Politics

Power

The Trump administration accused UCLA’s medical school of discriminating against white and Asian students by defying a Supreme Court decision banning affirmative action in school admissions. 
In a Wednesday <a href="https://www.justice.gov/crt/media/1425726/dl">motion</a> to join a lawsuit against the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, the Justice Department said that the institution was violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. The original suit was filed by a woman who says she was denied admission into the school because she was white, alongside the groups Do No Harm and Students for Fair Admissions. 
“Even after the Supreme Court banned race-balancing, the Geffen School kept discriminating by using illegal DEI preferences in admissions,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “As the Supreme Court stated more than 80 years ago, a free people, founded on the doctrine of equality, regard distinctions between citizens solely because of their ancestry as inherently odious.”
The complaint filed by the Justice Department argued that the school gathers racial data from its applicants and creates workarounds to factor race into the admissions process. 
This includes a question the DOJ said was asked by UCLA as part of the 2024 admissions process on whether an applicant was a member of a “marginalized” group, and then asked the applicant to explain “how this inequity has impacted you or your community and how educational disparity, health disparity and/or marginalization has impacted you and your community.”
“On its face and by design, this question asks Black applicants to reveal their race so that UCLA Med can know and consider it,” the complaint said. 
Data obtained by the Justice Department shows that white and Asian students are held to higher academic standards than black and Hispanic students. For the 2024 incoming class of students at the medical school, the median MCAT scores were widely different for black students (508), Hispanic students (506), white students (513), and Asian students (515). The MCAT is the test aspiring doctors and medical professionals take before going to medical school. 
The Justice Department&#8217;s complaint identified three “disastrous consequences” of race-based admissions. These were the lowering of academic standards, the suspicion cast on minority doctors because of the lower standards, and the denial of equal treatment to people of all races.  
“There is but one legal avenue for a public or publicly funded medical school to pursue diversity in medicine: admit the most qualified candidates regardless of race, and expect that those most qualified candidates will come from every race, because they do,” the complaint said. 
The Justice Department asked a judge to declare the school’s admissions practices unconstitutional and to bar it from considering race in any fashion when considering prospective students. 
A school spokesman told The Daily Wire that the school doesn’t comment on pending litigation. 
“UCLA’s medical school is committed to fair processes in all of our programs and activities, including admissions, consistent with federal and state anti-discrimination laws,” the spokesman said. 
Do No Harm welcomed the Justice Department’s involvement in the case. 
“The United States was right in its move to join this case, which is of great public importance,” said Do No Harm Executive Director Kristina Rasmussen. “We look forward to the Justice Department’s additional efforts here to get to the bottom of what appears to be an effort by UCLA to continue a race-based medical school admissions process in contravention of the Constitution and the Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions.”
As The Daily Wire has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ben-shapiro-reveals-how-ucla-med-students-are-taught-anti-white-anti-american-hatred">previously reported</a>, UCLA’s school of medicine makes first-year students learn about “colonialism” and “liberation” as part of their coursework. Daily Wire host Ben Shapiro obtained emails in 2024 documenting how med students have to take a <a href="https://medschool.ucla.edu/sites/g/files/oketem456/files/media/images/UCLA-DGSOM-Heals-Curriculum-Schematic.png">class</a> called “Structural Racism and Health Equity,” which teaches them about “Indigenous resistance” and “white colonialism.”

Close Up Of Student Dentist Taking Notes Using Laptop

Justice Department Accuses Med School Of Discriminating Against White And Asian Students

Affirmative Action

Department of Justice

medical school

Supreme Court

Trump Administration

UCLA

In the last year of the Biden administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs inaugurated an effort to embed diversity, equity, and inclusion principles that would outlast their time in power.
In January 2024, the VA&#8217;s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access Council met to discuss the results of a survey, wherein employees were asked to identify &#8220;pain points&#8221; connected to their individual identities — based on race, gender identity, and a number of other factors — in order to further embed Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the agency.
The discussion centered on &#8220;identity insights&#8221; and was designed to &#8220;improve employee experience,&#8221; records obtained by the Center to Advance Security in America reveal.
Just under 300 participants identified some 5,710 &#8220;pain points&#8221; that ranged from complaints about a colleague making an &#8220;inappropriate comment&#8221; to concerns that office holiday decorations excluded certain religious preferences. Other &#8220;pain points&#8221; were centered on general workplace environment and feeling that other employees did not understand certain sensitivities connected to those identity characteristics.
The 2024 meeting, which was planned three years earlier, began as a partnership between the Veterans Experience Office&#8217;s Employee Experience Organizational Management Directorate and the Office of Resolution Management, Diversity and Inclusion to improve employee experience by addressing the &#8220;pain points&#8221; they experienced in the workplace based on their identities.
Those identities — in addition to race, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity — divided participants along religious lines and listed separate categories for Baby Boomers, Generation X-ers, Millennials, and Generation Z employees as well.
Of the 281 who were interviewed, only 3% answered based on only one identifier. Nearly one-fourth (24%) selected two identities, and 39% selected three. Of the remaining participants, 21% chose four identities, 11% chose five, and 2% chose six.
Following the late January meeting, the Council recommended a series of steps designed to make the VA a more receptive place for employees to express their &#8220;whole, authentic identity.&#8221;
&#8220;The three most pressing data fields that would benefit from a redesign as having emerged from the Identity Insights project include &#8216;gender,&#8217; &#8216;sexual orientation,&#8217; and &#8216;race,&#8217; as these categories either do not exist or do not exhaustively provide inclusive options for employees to holistically and accurately self-identify,&#8221; the study advised.
Another recommendation was for a &#8220;streamlined escalation pathway&#8221; for employees to resolve identity-based complaints — particularly &#8220;in the event of mistreatment, including reporting I*DEA issues, harassment, and general concerns with conduct in the workplace.&#8221;
Those complaints, the study indicated, could stem from interactions between employees, between employees and supervisors, and even between employees and the veterans they serve — with emphasis placed on the potential for veterans to create &#8220;pain points&#8221; that impact employees.
The study also suggested there should be an avenue for dealing with &#8220;the impacts of negative customer experiences on employees such as health practitioners providing additional coverage when LGBTQ+ Veterans are denied care by a colleague&#8221; — but did not provide evidence that such denial of care was happening within the VA system.
Almost one year to the day after that meeting — on January 27, 2025 — the VA under President Donald Trump had already begun to <a href="https://news.va.gov/press-room/va-ends-dei-stops-millions-in-spending-on-dei/">root out the DEI initiatives</a> within the department.
&#8220;Under President Trump, VA is laser-focused on providing the best possible care and benefits to Veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors,&#8221; VA Director of Media Affairs Morgan Ackley explained. &#8220;We are proud to have abandoned the divisive DEI policies of the past and pivot back to VA’s core mission.&#8221;
In the year since, under Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins, the agency has <a href="https://department.va.gov/2025accomplishments/">cut $14 million</a> in spending that went solely to DEI-focused initiatives and training. It is unclear whether the recommendations made during that meeting were ever implemented, and if so, what the new administration may have in place to put a stop to the process.

Department of Veterans Affairs

How The Biden Admin Tried To Keep The VA Woke After It Left Town

How The Biden Admin Tried To Embed DEI In Dept Of Veterans Affairs On The way Out The Door

Donald Trump

Doug Collins

Veterans

Star trek starfleet

Woke TV Is Back With A Vengeance In This New Paramount Show

Entertainment

Paramount

Star Trek

Television

Woke Culture

Florida will no longer recognize or defend dozens of affirmative action programs ingrained in state law, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said Monday in a legal opinion first obtained by The Daily Wire.
These programs violate both the Florida and United States constitutions, Uthmeier said, by setting aside opportunities for non-white people.
&#8220;Racial discrimination is wrong. It is also unconstitutional. Yet Florida maintains several laws on its books that promote and require discrimination on its face,” Uthmeier wrote. “Any laws requiring race-based state action are presumptively unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment&#8217;s Equal Protection Clause” and the Florida Constitution.”
Included in an appendix to the legal opinion were state programs that illegally gave preferences based on race, Uthmeier said. That includes programs that mandated doctor&#8217;s offices to hire and retain minority doctors and another that requires the state&#8217;s Commerce Department to promote minority businesses.
One major example cited in the opinion is a law that mandates state agencies to implement &#8220;programs of affirmative and positive action” and requires the heads of executive agencies to “develop and implement an affirmative action plan.”
Agencies were also required to post demographic information about how many non-white people they had hired to indicate compliance with affirmative action policies.
“These laws do not further a compelling governmental interest because none of these laws identifies any of the limited, recognized constitutional justifications for race-based classifications — namely, remedying specific instances of past discrimination or avoiding imminent and serious risks to human safety,” the Republican attorney general wrote. “These laws further fail strict scrutiny because none are limited in duration and because they preclude race-neutral alternatives.”
Another implicated program requires a specific number of construction, architectural, commodity, and contractual services be awarded to blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and women.
“Any Florida law that seeks to compel race-based discriminatory provisions through government contracting is unconstitutional,” Uthmeier said.
Uthmeier also pointed to racial quotas implemented for certain boards, councils, and similar entities.
“My office, therefore, will not defend or enforce any of these discriminatory provisions,” he wrote in the opinion.
Throughout the opinion, Uthmeier pointed to the recent Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard that struck down the ability of colleges to admit students based on race. That ruling has proved monumental for challenges nationwide to racial preferences embedded at the federal and state level.

US-NEWS-FLA-AG-TRUMP-ENDORSEMENT-OS

Florida Identifies Dozens Of Programs That Illegally Mandate Racial Preferences

Equality

Florida

Racial Discrimination

Racial preferences

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Wednesday that the Justice Department has sued the state of Minnesota over affirmative action-based hiring practices.
&#8220;Today, @TheJusticeDept sued Minnesota for using affirmative action to hire for its state agencies. This is discriminatory DEI codified into bad state policy, and the Trump Administration will not stand for it,&#8221; Bondi posted on X, sharing a link to the DOJ&#8217;s official <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-department-justice-files-lawsuit-against-minnesotas-affirmative-action-regime">press release</a> on the matter.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Today, <a href="https://twitter.com/TheJusticeDept?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TheJusticeDept</a> sued Minnesota for using affirmative action to hire for its state agencies.
This is discriminatory DEI codified into bad state policy, and the Trump Administration will not stand for it. <a href="https://t.co/NcNHMftLwa">https://t.co/NcNHMftLwa</a>
— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) <a href="https://twitter.com/AGPamBondi/status/2011504118699807030?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 14, 2026</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division filed a lawsuit today against the State of Minnesota challenging Minnesota’s requirement that all state agencies implement sex- and race-based affirmative action plans and consider &#8216;affirmative action goals on all staffing and personnel decisions,'&#8221; the release stated. &#8220;The State’s affirmative action program directs agencies to engage in employment practices that &#8216;balance&#8217; the sex and race composition of its workforce with the civilian labor force.&#8221;
The <a href="https://www.justice.gov/crt/media/1423361/dl">suit</a> was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota and asserts that Minnesota&#8217;s mandatory affirmative action-based hiring practices violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII).
&#8220;Because staffing is a zero-sum game, when Minnesota gives preferences to employees or prospective employees on the basis of their race, color, national origin, and sex, it inevitably and necessarily discriminates against other employees or prospective employees because of their race, color, national origin, and sex,&#8221; the filing stated, in part.
Bondi addressed the situation in Minnesota, saying that the lawsuit was just one way in which the DOJ was working from different angles to ensure that the state was not undermining federal policies — whether those policies pertained to enforcing immigration law, investigating fraud, or ensuring that federal efforts to dismantle Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives were not being undermined.
&#8220;From suing over sanctuary city policies to a wide-ranging fraud investigation, today&#8217;s lawsuit is the Department of Justice&#8217;s latest effort to bring Minnesota into compliance with federal law,&#8221; Bondi explained. &#8220;Making hiring decisions based on immutable characteristics like race and sex is simple discrimination, and the Trump Administration has no tolerance for such DEI policies.&#8221;
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon — at the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division — added, &#8220;For far too long, courts have allowed employers to discriminate based on race and sex when it is packaged as ‘affirmative action.’ The Supreme Court put an end to using race as a factor in college admissions through its Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard decision. This case is the next logical step. Title VII protects all people from race and sex discrimination in employment. There is no exception that allows discrimination against employees who aren’t considered ‘underrepresented.'&#8221;

Trump To Lay Out His Plan For Reducing Crime In Nation’s Capital

DOJ Sues Minnesota Over Affirmative Action Hiring Practices: ‘DEI Codified Into Bad State Policy’

Minnesota

Pam Bondi

Tim Walz

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