00:00A U.S. submarine sinks an Iranian warship.
00:04Now the war with Tehran is suddenly in much deeper waters.
00:07Plus, a Texas congressman admits an affair with a former staffer
00:11as health ethics investigators open a probe.
00:15And the Justice Department drops its investigation into Joe Biden's use of an auto pen
00:20after prosecutors say they couldn't find a criminal case.
00:26The stories that matter, clear and credible.
00:29From across the country to around the world,
00:31these are your unbiased updates from Straight Arrow News.
00:37Hi everyone, I'm Simone del Rosario, filling in for Craig Negrelli this morning.
00:42And we begin this morning with the war in Iran,
00:44where Israel and Iran continue trading strikes as the conflict widens across the Middle East.
00:50Iran is also vowing retaliation after the U.S. sank one of its warships,
00:55warning America will bitterly regret the attack.
00:59Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the U.S. is accelerating its campaign against Iran,
01:04highlighted by a U.S. submarine torpedoing that warship in international waters in the Indian Ocean.
01:10Iran's foreign minister responded on X, writing,
01:13Mark my words, the U.S. will come to bitterly regret the precedent it has set.
01:18And the U.S. has now identified the final two service members killed in Kuwait during the initial strikes that
01:24triggered the war.
01:25They are 45-year-old Major Jeffrey O'Brien of Iowa and 54-year-old Chief Foreign Officer 3 Robert
01:32Marzahn of California.
01:34Meanwhile, Congress is trying to rein in President Donald Trump's authority to order military strikes without approval.
01:41The Senate failed Wednesday to pass a war powers resolution aimed at limiting his options.
01:47The House is expected to vote on its own measure later today.
01:51Even if it passes, it would still require Senate approval.
01:55And Trump has already said he wouldn't sign any measure restricting his authority.
01:59Overnight, Israel's military says it carried out a new wave of strikes inside Iran, targeting ballistic missile storage and launch
02:06sites.
02:07Israel says one strike prevented Iranian operatives from firing a missile at Israeli aircraft.
02:14Meanwhile, Iran's Revolutionary Guard says it attacked an American oil tanker in the northern Persian Gulf.
02:20And Azerbaijan's foreign ministry accuses Iran of launching a drone attack that injured two civilians, saying one drone crashed near
02:28an airport and another near a school.
02:31Qatar's defense ministry also reports an Iranian missile strike in the capital of Doha this morning.
02:36Anthropic, which makes the AI system clod.
02:39It wants to repair its relationship with the Pentagon after a clash over how the U.S. military can use
02:45artificial intelligence in war.
02:47CBS News reports the company's CEO, Dario Amadei, says Anthropic is still in talks with the Defense Department, telling investors
02:56the goal is, quote,
02:57to try to de-escalate the situation and come to some agreement that works for us and works for them.
03:03Now, this all started when Anthropic tried to draw red lines around how its technology could be used,
03:09including preventing the military from deploying it for mass surveillance of Americans or for fully autonomous weapons.
03:16President Trump responded by ordering federal agencies to stop using the company's technology, giving them six months to phase it
03:24out,
03:24while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth labeled Anthropic a supply chain risk.
03:29OK, but here's where things get a little complicated.
03:32Both CBS and The Washington Post report the U.S. military is still using clod right now in its operations
03:40in Iran.
03:40The AI is embedded inside the Pentagon's Maven smart system, which analyzes massive streams of intelligence from satellites,
03:49surveillance and other classified data to help identify and prioritize strike targets.
03:54Officials say the system helped generate hundreds of potential targets during the opening phase of the Iran campaign,
04:00turning what once took weeks of planning into real time battlefield decisions.
04:06Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz is pushing back against Republican accusations that his administration failed to stop a massive welfare fraud
04:14scheme in the state.
04:15Waltz and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison testified before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.
04:21Federal prosecutors say more than $9 billion taxpayer dollars were ripped off through the state-run programs in Minnesota.
04:29More than 90 people have been charged in the case, most of them of Somali descent.
04:33On Capitol Hill Wednesday, Republican lawmakers accused Waltz of failing to do enough to stop the fraud from happening.
04:40Waltz rejected that claim, telling lawmakers Minnesota isn't alone in dealing with fraud and accusing the Trump administration of unfairly
04:48targeting his state.
04:50Across the country, our nation's governors work hard every single day to combat fraud in their programs.
04:55But even as we confront issues similar to our sister states, the people of Minnesota have been singled out and
05:01targeted for political retribution at an unparalleled scale,
05:05including blocking Medicaid reimbursements to our state just last week.
05:09Under the guise of combating fraud, the federal government has flooded Minnesota with masked, untrained and unaccountable agents who are
05:16wreaking havoc in our communities.
05:17Democratic committee member Robert Garcia echoed that argument, accusing the Trump administration of using the investigation for political purposes.
05:26The Trump administration was never serious about addressing fraud in Minnesota.
05:30Instead, they've been interested in election conspiracy theories, in terrorizing kids.
05:38And they've accused the governor and attorney general of covering up fraud only to investigate them and turn up actually
05:44no evidence.
05:46What they're trying to do is convince Americans that there's a good reason for violence, for killings and for violations
05:52of the law.
05:53But Republican committee chair James Comer said investigators uncovered repeated warnings that state officials failed to act on.
06:00What we've uncovered in Minnesota is not a paperwork error or a few bad actors slipping through the cracks.
06:08It is sustained failure of leadership.
06:12Governor Walts and Attorney General Ellison were warned repeatedly.
06:16Auditors raised red flags.
06:18Employees sounded alarms.
06:20Invoices didn't make sense.
06:22And still, the money kept flowing.
06:25This fight now extends beyond the hearing room.
06:28Federal officials have frozen some child care funding for Minnesota.
06:31And the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has canceled hundreds of millions of dollars in payments tied to the
06:38state.
06:39Minnesota is now suing the Trump administration after federal officials moved to withhold $243 million in Medicaid funding.
06:46A Texas congressman is acknowledging a sexual relationship with a former staff member who later died by suicide.
06:52His admission comes as he heads into a Republican runoff while facing a new House Ethics Committee investigation.
06:59In a radio interview Wednesday, Representative Tony Gonzalez called the relationship a lapse in judgment.
07:05He insisted he had nothing to do with the former aide's death and that it came as a shock.
07:09Was there a relationship with this young lady who was working in your office?
07:15You know, very, very direct, Pags.
07:18I made a mistake and I had a lapse in judgment and there was a lack of faith.
07:24And I take full responsibility for those actions.
07:27The former aide, Regina Santos-Aviles, died in September 2025 after setting herself on fire.
07:34Her death was ruled a suicide.
07:36The House Ethics Committee has now opened an investigation into whether Gonzalez engaged in sexual misconduct with an employee or
07:44gave a staff member special treatment.
07:46House rules prohibit lawmakers from having sexual relationships with staff under their supervision.
07:51The controversy comes as Gonzalez prepares for a runoff against hard-right challenger Brandon Herrera after neither candidate cleared 50
08:00percent in the primary for Texas' 23rd district.
08:03Some Republicans have called on Gonzalez to resign.
08:07He says the situation has been politicized and that he plans to cooperate with investigators.
08:13I look forward to the ethics committee starting an investigation.
08:17I appreciate the opportunity to be able to provide all the facts and all the details that lead to exactly
08:24what occurred in the entire situation.
08:26The ethics committee has not said how long the investigation will take.
08:30A Justice Department probe into former President Joe Biden's use of an auto pen to sign presidential documents has been
08:37quietly dropped.
08:38The New York Times was first to report that prosecutors ultimately couldn't build a criminal case.
08:44After months spent examining whether Biden or his aides broke the law by using the mechanical signature device.
08:50The investigation was pushed by President Trump and his allies in Congress,
08:54who claimed Biden's pardons and other actions might be invalid if they were signed with an auto pen rather than
09:01by hand.
09:02But according to the Times, investigators never identified a crime, and prosecutors eventually shut the inquiry.
09:08The review was handled by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, now led by longtime Trump ally Janine Pirro.
09:15The probe began after Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi last year to examine whether Biden's aides had used the
09:22device improperly or without his knowledge.
09:25Trump had argued the auto pen raised serious doubts about Biden's decision making and the legitimacy of some of his
09:31presidential actions.
09:32Though Biden has repeatedly rejected those claims, saying it was used only to replicate his signatures on large batches of
09:40documents,
09:41something Trump himself has admitted to doing.
09:44The dispute even made its way into the decor at the White House,
09:47where a framed photo of an auto pen now hangs in the spot where Biden's portrait would normally go.
09:53We've reached out to the Justice Department for comment.
09:56Finally this morning, here's the story of a house that just became an official piece of history.
10:03The Los Angeles City Council voted to declare the famous Brady Bunch House a historic landmark.
10:08The modest mid-century home in the San Fernando Valley was used for exterior shots of the sitcom that ran
10:14from 1969 to 1974,
10:17even though the inside of the Brady home, we all remember, was actually filmed on a Hollywood soundstage.
10:22Still, the house became a pop culture pilgrimage site for fans of the show, which lived on for decades in
10:29reruns.
10:30HGTV even bought it back in 2018 for $3.5 million, spending nearly $2 million more to recreate the groovy
10:38interior,
10:39complete with a floating staircase and that iconic orange and green kitchen.
10:44The landmark designation now protects the house from demolition,
10:47so generations of fans can keep stopping by for photos for years to come.
10:52Just remember, don't play ball in the house.
10:55That's a good one.
10:57Marsha, Marsha, Marsha.
10:58That's the one that always sticks out to me.
11:00All right, before we head out, here's what we're tracking today.
11:03At 8.30, the Labor Department releases its latest weekly jobless claims.
11:07It's a fresh snapshot of layoffs and the health of the labor market.
11:10At 10, the National Capital Planning Commission meets to review feedback on federal construction projects,
11:16including President Trump's proposal to add a ballroom to the White House.
11:20At noon, Freddie Mac publishes its weekly national average mortgage rate,
11:25showing where borrowing costs stand right now.
11:27Remember, last week it fell below 6% for the first time in years.
11:30And this afternoon, President Trump hosts the 2025 Major League Soccer Champions Inter-Miami at the White House.
11:37No noise, no sides, just the story.
11:41NewsGuard gives us a perfect score for reliability.
11:44All sides gives us a center rating with balance certification.
11:48We give you the facts first, without the spin.
11:50Those are your unbiased updates for this Thursday.
11:53We'll see you back here tomorrow.
11:55For all of us here at Straight Hour News, I'm Simone Del Rosario.
11:57Have a great day.
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