Transportation Department Learns It’s Funding $54 Million In Woke Grants — And Ends Them'

WASHINGTON—The Department of Transportation is terminating $54 million worth of recently-discovered “woke university grants,” The Daily Wire has learned, arguing that the grants advanced radical agendas that ran counter to the department’s mission.

Seven schools received grants which Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told The Daily Wire were advancing a “radical DEI and green agenda” that is wasteful and counter to the Trump administration’s priorities.

The University of California, Davis’s National Center for Sustainable Transportation was receiving $12 million for “accelerating equitable decarbonization” research, according to the department, while City College of New York’s Center for Social and Economic Mobility for People and Communities through Transportation was receiving about $9 million for research into “equitable transportation for the disadvantaged workforce.”

“The previous administration turned the Department of Transportation into the Department of Woke,” Duffy told The Daily Wire Friday afternoon. “I’ve focused the Department on what matters; safety, making travel great again, and building big, beautiful infrastructure projects.”

The department’s discovery is yet another instance of massive amounts of American taxpayer dollars going to the ideological pet projects of the past administration. In the Transportation Department’s case, officials looked under the hood and were horrified to find that many of the grants weren’t even aligned with transportation at all.

“The American people have zero interest in millions of their tax dollars funding research on the intersection of gender non-conforming people and infrastructure inequality or whether road improvement projects are racist,” Duffy added. “It’s time to inject a dose of reality back into our higher education system, and that starts with ending these wasteful and divisive grants.”

Other recipients of grants that have now been terminated included the University of Southern California Pacific Southwest Region, New York University, San Jose State University, University of New Orleans, and Johns Hopkins University, The Daily Wire can first report.

The University of Southern California’s Pacific Southwest Region University Transportation Center received about $9 million for research on how “the transportation system creates and perpetuates inequities,” the Transportation Department said, and New York University’s Connected Communities for Smart Mobility Toward Accessible and Resilient Transportation for Equitably Reducing Congestion was receiving $6 million for research into “e-bikes to low-income travelers in transit deserts.”

Under the former grants, San Jose State University’s Mineta Consortium for Emerging, Efficient, and Safe Transportation was also receiving about $6 million for research on “intermodal inequities, particularly how improvements to auto travel can benefit higher income, often white drivers, while depressing transit ridership potential and depriving it of revenues necessary to provide comprehensive services to lower income, often BIPOC people and research into using crowdsourcing and collaborative planning to address safety concerns of women and gender non-conforming people using public transportation,” the Transportation Department told The Daily Wire.

The University of New Orleans’ Center for Transit Oriented Communities was receiving $6 million for “equitable transit-oriented communities [and] how neighborhood stabilization efforts support environmental justice” research, and Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Smart Transportation was receiving $6 million for climate change focused research on “hyperlocal pollution exposure inequalities in New York City, promoting EV usage for low-income gig workers, long distance ride sharing, gentrification.”

The Trump administration has been vocal about ending these types of grants and wasteful spending, tasking the Department of Government Efficiency with ending wasteful spending. DOGE has cut almost $200 billion from government spending since Trump took office, Elon Musk shared in a recent interview.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-transportation-department-learns-its-funding-54-million-in-woke-grants-and-ends-them

Vatican installs chimney that will alert of new pope as conclave nears

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9wwTEiaaHw

Millionaire Rep. Shri Thanedar Under Fire: Black Dems Want Their Seat Back in Michigan’s 13th District

https://www.michigannewssource.com/2025/05/millionaire-rep-shri-thanedar-under-fire-black-dems-want-their-seat-back-in-michigans-13th-district/

Stephen Miller emerges as top contender for Trump's next national security adviser

President Trump's top policy adviser, Stephen Miller, is garnering buzz inside the White House as a top candidate to be the next national security adviser, five sources familiar with the situation tell Axios.

Why it matters: Miller — the deputy chief of staff and the brain behind Trump's controversial immigration crackdown — is one of the president's longest-serving and most-trusted aides.

Miller's name surfaced shortly after Trump removed Mike Waltz as national security adviser on Thursday and nominated Waltz to become the next United Nations ambassador.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is temporarily taking over Waltz's responsibilities, but sources familiar with his thinking say he's busy enough running the State Department.

Zoom in: Miller already is the administration's Homeland Security adviser, and is an aggressive defender of the administration's legal push for immediate deportations of unauthorized immigrants without court hearings.

One White House source told Axios via text that Miller has made the Homeland Security Council run "like clockwork," and that it's "infinitely more effective than the NSC [National Security Council] with a tiny fraction" of the staff.

Zoom out: Trump has a penchant for putting his faith in a small number of advisers and piling responsibilities on their plate, so insiders say it wouldn't be unusual for Miller hold multiple titles, just as Rubio does.

"Marco and Stephen have worked really closely on immigration and it might be a perfect match," said another White House source.

"Given how well he's worked with Marco, many see him as the perfect person to restore the role of the NSA to a staff-level policy role that reports to the chief of staff, instead of some inflated Cabinet position," said another insider.

A fourth source said Miller signaled interest in the job Thursday, but Miller couldn't be reached for comment to confirm.

A fifth source said Miller might not want the job "if it takes him away from his true love: immigration policy."

What's next: Those who understand the president's thinking say it's unclear how long he wants to keep Rubio as national security adviser.

But one of the administration sources said that "if Stephen wants the job, it's hard to see why Trump wouldn't say yes."

https://www.axios.com/2025/05/02/stephen-miller-national-security-adviser-candidate

Jason Cohen 🇺🇸

@JasonJournoDC

🚨NEW: 3 Black Trump Voters — who previously opposed Trump — tell CNN's Van Jones why they flipped🚨

"Part of it is he's an *sshole. I like authenticity."

"I read [Candace Owens'] book and it just opened my eyes to maybe he's not this person that I have been led to believe that he was."

"I saw how things were going during his first term, and I was pleasantly surprised."

@DailyCaller

https://x.com/JasonJournoDC/status/1918305340820525302

After 856 'Snake Bites', Man's Blood Could Unlock Universal Antivenom

Self-taught venom expert Tim Friede has voluntarily injected himself with snake venom 856 times across 18 years. Now, in spite of the odds, Friede's extremely dangerous hobby has led scientists to create the most widely effective snake antivenom on record.

Collecting pet snakes since his youth, Friede first began to deliberately envenom himself by milking his pets, diluting their venom, and injecting it repeatedly. When he received two separate cobra bites in the space of an hour, the venom almost killed him.

"I basically flat-lined and died," he told National Geographic's Dominic Bliss. "It wasn't fun. I had enough immunity for one bite, but not for two. I completely screwed up."

Many of us might take such a near-death experience as a sign to find a new pastime, but Friede saw it differently. His self-envenomation regime, he realized, was probably the main reason he survived the incident. He doubled down.

In the following years, Friede's immune system faced horrors unknown. Either by syringe or by fang, his B cells – white blood cells that create the pathogen-fighting antibodies that protect us from foreign substances like venom, viruses, bacteria and parasites – were introduced to the toxic bites of Egyptian cobras, water cobras, coastal taipans, Mojave rattlesnakes, even black mambas.

And, like any young man doing seemingly foolish things in the early 2010s, he recorded it all on his phone and uploaded it to YouTube. Don't watch this unless you want to see a man bitten by a Papua New Guinea taipan and a black mamba in quick succession.

This personal project could have easily earned Friede a Darwin award, or in the very least a guest appearance on Jackass. But luckily, his cells began to produce antibodies that protected him from the toxic regimen.

Friede is still alive, and his unique antibodies are actually being put to good use. His YouTube videos attracted the attention of Jacob Glanville, immunologist and CEO of biotech company Centivax.

Using Friede's hyperimmune antibodies, Glanville and a team of scientists have now created an antivenom that, in lab experiments, protected mice from the venom of 19 different snake species, all listed by the World Health Organization as category 1 and 2 of the world's deadliest snakes.

Usually, antivenom is created by collecting the antibodies produced by sheep or horses that have been repeatedly exposed to venom from just one snake species each. That's why antivenoms tend to be specific to a species and region, which, as any outdoor enthusiasts will know, makes it difficult to pack a comprehensive first aid kit. And because the antibodies aren't from humans, there's always a risk of adverse reactions.

An antivenom derived from Friede's blood, on the other hand, could protect against a range of species with fewer complications.

The antivenom tested by the team is composed of two different antibodies isolated from Friede. The first, LNX-D09, was effective against six of the snake species tested on mice. When paired with a drug called varespladib, the antivenom barrier shielded mice from the venom of three more species of snake.

The second type of Friede's antibodies, SNX-B03, extended at least partial protection to the entire panel of species' venoms.

"By the time we reached three components, we had a dramatically unparalleled breadth of full protection for 13 of the 19 species and then partial protection for the remaining that we looked at," says Glanville. "We were looking down at our list and thought, 'what's that fourth agent'? And if we could neutralize that, do we get further protection?"

Glanville has universal antivenom in mind: a single cocktail that could save anyone, anywhere, from any species of snake that might have bitten them. What his team has developed so far brings this closer to being realized.

This work focused on one major family of venomous snakes, known as the elapids, and it may work against other species in that family that weren't directly tested. In time the team hopes to develop a similarly wide-acting antivenom for the other main family, the viperids.

"We're turning the crank now, setting up reagents to go through this iterative process of saying what's the minimum sufficient cocktail to provide broad protection against venom from the viperids," says biologist Peter Kwong at Columbia University.

Rigorous clinical testing will be needed before the antivenom could become available to humans. In the meantime, the researchers plan to conduct field trials of the antivenom to treat snake-bitten dogs presented to veterinary clinics in Australia.

https://www.sciencealert.com/after-856-snake-bites-mans-blood-could-unlock-universal-antivenom

Controversy over MMR vaccine in Minnesota

The bill would require MMR vaccination for children attending childcare facilities, schools, and homeschools—removing the option for parents to opt out due to conscientiously held beliefs.

As measles cases climb nationwide and vaccination rates fall, Minnesota DFL lawmakers are drawing a hard line—proposing legislation to eliminate the state’s conscientious exemption for the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine.

New legislation would remove conscientious objection

A House bill introduced by Rep. Mike Freiberg, DFL–Golden Valley, and its Senate counterpart led by Sen. Liz Boldon, DFL–Rochester, would require MMR vaccination for children attending childcare facilities, schools, and homeschools—removing the option for parents to opt out due to conscientiously held beliefs. Medical exemptions would remain in place.

Currently, Minnesota allows exemptions from school immunization requirements for medical and conscientious reasons. If passed, the new requirements would take effect on Aug. 1, 2026.

The Minnesota Association of Christian Home Educators said in a recent email to families that it is closely tracking the bill, noting that it would apply to homeschool families.

“While the deadline to introduce new bills has already passed, the language in this bill could still be added as an amendment to a larger omnibus bill on either the House or Senate floor at any time,” the group said.

Sen. Eric Lucero, R-St. Michael, said he received dozens of emails and phone calls from concerned constituents within hours of the bill being introduced.

“I respect and support those who choose vaccinations just as I respect and support those who choose, for whatever reason, not to be vaccinated,” he said. “My message to our great community is I will vote against any vaccination-by-government-coercion legislation.”

Two measles cases confirmed in Minnesota so far in 2025

So far in 2025, there have been two confirmed measles cases, according to the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH).

According to the MDH website, “Most measles cases occurring in Minnesota result from someone traveling to or from countries where measles is common, and who are infectious with measles after arriving in Minnesota. Measles can spread easily to unvaccinated persons. Maintaining high immunization rates is essential to preventing measles.”

Minnesota experienced an outbreak in 2024, with 70 reported cases—the highest since 2017.

Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports 884 confirmed measles cases across 30 states in 2025, with 97% occurring in unvaccinated individuals or people with an “unknown” vaccine status.

Three deaths, including two children, have been attributed to the disease this year.

https://alphanews.org/state-democrats-look-to-eliminate-conscientious-exemption-for-mmr-vaccine/