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While I still love Java as a programming language, it seems to be more troublesome than it is worth to keep the Java applets on here. It's almost as if the browser folks have declared war on Java. Firefox disables the java plugin if it's too far out of date. A lot of times you have to go through a lot of confirmations just to run a java applet, and even after doing all that, the browser still might not let you run it. My graph of picked lottery numbers is a good example.
So, it's time to make a change and convert the couple Java applets I had on here to javascript. I'll start with the ticker that shows the current winning numbers for SuperLottoPlus and Mega Millions. Then I'll work on the graph applet.
Communities with high birth and marriage rates could soon gain an advantage in securing federal transit money — a long-sought goal of the Trump administration but one that a top Democratic appropriator calls "bizarre and dystopian."
The Federal Transit Administration wants to revamp a multibillion-dollar program that helps state and local authorities fund infrastructure projects such as rail improvements and new bus lanes. Public feedback on the administration's plan, which was rolled out Oct. 1, is being accepted through mid-November.
The idea would fulfill a priority of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to steer grant money to parts of the country with birth and marriage rates higher than the national average, a policy initiative he unveiled shortly after being sworn into office early last year.
Under the transit proposal, the FTA would cover up to 10 percentage points more of a project's costs if an area's average birth and marriage rates meet, exceed or are just below nationwide thresholds.
"Moving forward, the federal government is focusing on smart, affordable projects with high ridership. If you want federal funding, your project needs to align with where communities and families are actually growing," the Transportation Department said in a statement.
But the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee had harsh words for the proposal.
"Tying funding for transit projects to marriage rates and how many babies a woman has is the sort of bizarre and dystopian idea you'd expect in a TV show, not actual policy put forth by the U.S. government — yet here we are," Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state said in a statement.
She said President Donald Trump "wants to weaponize federal grants to wage his backward culture wars and punish Democrats."
Spokespeople for Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, didn't respond to a request for comment.
A former FTA administrator during the Obama administration also was critical.
"It's throwing a bone to these ideologues who want to incentivize child rearing and marriage," said Peter Rogoff, who previously led Sound Transit in the Seattle area and is now a transportation consultant. "But it's ludicrous on its face to try to achieve that goal through an infrastructure program.
"Does anyone really believe that there are couples out there saying, 'Hey, sweetheart, you and I should get married and raise a passel of kids because a dozen years from now, maybe they'll build light rail out to our neighborhood?'" he asked.
Duffy, who has nine children, has urged young people to tie the knot and "have lots of kids." He's one of several Cabinet members with big families, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, DHS head Markwayne Mullin and Health and Human Services chief Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The national fertility rate sank to a record low in 2025 — 53.1 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44. Trump has said he will be known as the "fertilization president."
The FTA grant program hinges on a lengthy approval process that can take years for applicants to navigate, with money becoming available after a binding grant agreement is executed.
Before reaching the final step, the FTA determines how much of a project's total cost it will cover. The share of federal funding is capped at 60 percent for new, large transit infrastructure and 80 percent for boosting the capacity of existing systems.
For those two types of projects, the administration now wants to calculate the amount it will fund using a formula that, in part, would be based on a transit corridor's average birth and marriage rates. When those rates are at or above national benchmarks, or just below them, the federal share would be increased — rising by up to 10 percentage points.
Under Duffy, DOT has launched a "Make Travel Family Friendly Again" campaign, encouraging airports to create play areas and add nursing rooms at terminals. He also has sought to inspire families to travel around the country via his "The Great American Road Trip" video series.
The birth and marriage rates proposal has yet to be finalized, and it's unknown when it will be. It also wasn't immediately clear which exact communities would benefit from the idea.
The plan is part of a wider effort by the FTA to rewrite its guidance for federal Capital Investment Grants, or CIG. The public can weigh in through Nov. 16.
CIG and a related pilot initiative got $1.7 billion from Congress for fiscal 2026 on top of $1.6 billion in additional funding from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law.
Projects that previously won money from the program include the ongoing construction of the Gateway rail tunnel between New York and New Jersey and a pending extension of Chicago's Red Line train.
Paul Skoutelas, CEO and president of the American Public Transportation Association, said in a statement the organization is reviewing the FTA plan.
Rogoff, the former FTA administrator, said the framework would "clearly disadvantage" projects in areas with lower birth and marriage rates, adding that federal law doesn't require that this data be relied on when carrying out CIG.
"Obviously, the program is about moving people — not about moving married people or moving parents," he said.
This article originally appeared on Politico at https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/bucks-babies-trump-administration-unveils-130000979.htmlNidal Malik Hasan, a former Army major who killed 13 people in a 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, will be executed by firing squad, the Pentagon announced Monday.
"Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has recommended — and President Donald J. Trump has approved — death by U.S. Army firing squad for convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan, the jihadist who opened fire on unarmed American soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009," chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell wrote on X.
He added, "The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution. Judgement day for Hasan has finally come."
The U.S. military has not carried out an execution since 1961 and has not used a firing squad to execute a service member since World War II.
The announcement of Trump's approval came days after a failed attempt to execute Christa Pike by lethal injection. The failed execution prompted Tennessee's governor to halt further executions this year and order a third-party review.
Asked whether the failed execution in Tennessee would lead him to seek changes to capital punishment, Trump called it "an interesting situation." He told reporters in Denton, Texas, that carrying out lethal injections "shouldn't be very difficult."
Trump's approval sets in motion a series of procedural steps toward carrying out Hasan's execution. But Hasan could put the process on hold — potentially for years — by filing a habeas corpus appeal challenging the legality of his detention in the civilian federal court system, according to an article published in May in the magazine Army Lawyer.
Hasan was convicted in a 2013 court-martial of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder and was sentenced to death. He exhausted his regular appeals in 2025.
What happened in the Fort Hood shooting?
Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, walked into the Soldier Readiness Processing Center, where soldiers were undergoing medical checkups before deploying, and witnesses testified he shouted "Allahu akbar" — Arabic for "God is great!" — before he opened fire with a laser-sighted handgun. He killed 13 people and wounded more than 30.
According to the Associated Press, Hasan said he carried out the shooting to stop soldiers from going to Afghanistan and killing his fellow Muslims.
He represented himself at his 2013 court-martial and mounted little defense, telling jurors that evidence would show he was the shooter and describing himself as a soldier who had "switched sides."
Why a firing squad rather than lethal injection?
The Pentagon did not explain why Hasan would be executed by firing squad rather than lethal injection, the method specified in the military's current execution regulations. It also did not say whether those regulations would need to change.
The Army adopted a plan in February for carrying out military executions at the federal government's execution facility in Terre Haute, Ind., ABC News reported in June.
Known as Operation Resolute Justice, the plan calls for condemned service members to be transferred there from the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and for the Army to coordinate with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The Army is to be ready to carry out an execution no sooner than 60 days and within 150 days of presidential approval. ABC's report did not specify an execution method.
The Justice Department separately directed the Bureau of Prisons in April to expand its protocol for federal civilian executions to include methods beyond lethal injection, including firing squads. That change does not apply to military executions.
Firing squads have also recently returned at the state level. Five states allow them, according to the Death Penalty Information Center: Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah.
Idaho made the firing squad its primary execution method on July 1 after a law signed in 2025 took effect. South Carolina carried out three firing squad executions in 2025, the first uses of the method in the U.S. since 2010. Condemned prisoners there can choose among authorized execution methods.
After Pike's failed execution, several top Republicans in Tennessee said they want to explore alternative ways of executing condemned prisoners.
U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the state's Republican candidate for governor, told the AP, "If it's lethal injection, if it is electric chair, what we do know is we have to find a way to do this — and do it successfully."
Top legislative leaders have already spoken with Blackburn about potential changes to state execution laws during their 2027 session.
"We want to broaden it, include more methods," Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton said. "What those are as of today, I'm not sure. But I don't think there's any method that's off the table at this point."
How common are military executions?
Death sentences are extremely rare in the military justice system, and executions are even rarer. Four men, including Hasan, are currently on the military's death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
President George W. Bush approved the execution of Army Spc. Ronald Gray in 2008, but a judge put it on hold. Gray remains at Fort Leavenworth.
The last person executed under the military justice system was Pvt. John Bennett, who was hanged in 1961 for the rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old girl.
This article originally appeared on Yahoo News at https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/article/nidal-malik-hasan-who-killed-13-in-fort-hood-shooting-to-be-executed-by-firing-squad-100340498.html
Republicans are swamping House and Senate races with an unprecedented flood of late ad spending as the party tests whether hundreds of millions of dollars can buy it some reprieve from the eroding political environment that’s threatening longtime Republican states and districts.
Since the start of September, Republicans have made more than $700 million worth of new advertising bookings in congressional races alone, according to an NBC News analysis of data from AdImpact, a political ad-tracking firm. That’s new money on top of what had already been committed to those races in ad reservations made over the summer.
By comparison, Democrats booked more than $430 million in new ad reservations across those races last month.
The disparity is greatest in the battle for the Senate majority, where almost 7 of every 10 newly booked advertising dollars are coming from Republicans. That’s led by a massive, late investment in the Senate race in Texas, where Democrat James Talarico is threatening a longtime Republican seat and the GOP has poured in almost $150 million in new ad dollars to back up its nominee, Ken Paxton.
The gap is smaller in the House, where a bit less than 6 in 10 of those new ad dollars are coming from the GOP.
Democrats still have a number of advantages in their corner, including President Donald Trump and his party’s eroding standing among voters, Democrats’ own well-funded candidates, and help from outside groups. Candidates can take advantage of a rule that allows them to buy television ads at cheaper rates than outside groups, too.
But the color of the outside money flood shows how Republicans, increasingly on defense in both the House and the Senate, are able to lean on their financial advantage in hope of defying political gravity, as party bastions like Texas and even Kansas look more competitive than usual.
On Tuesday morning, South Carolina — where a Democrat has not won a Senate race since 1998 — became the latest state to see a new infusion of Republican money, with the super PAC aligned with Senate Republicans planning to spend $5 million there, according to a source familiar with the spending. Axios first reported the spending in the state.
“With the environment not on our side and an incumbent presidency, the three things we have going for us are good candidates, a good map and a lot more money than they do,” said a Republican strategist involved in Senate races.
Everything about the late flood of ad spending is bigger in Texas, where a new group called Texas PAC has booked more than $115 million over the last month alone aimed at boosting Paxton, the state attorney general. Democrats haven’t won a statewide election in Texas in more than 30 years.
But because Republicans are spending largely through outside groups, they have to pay a premium on the rates for each ad, while Talarico’s flush campaign is able to capitalize on those lower candidate ad rates. That means the spending disparity is greater than the actual number of ad airings or their reach.
Senate races in Ohio and Michigan also drew more than $75 million in new ad dollars in September, mostly from Republican-aligned groups. They include a super PAC funded by cryptocurrency interests, Trump’s aligned super PACs and other groups aligned with the national party or Senate Republican leadership.
Again, both states have Democratic candidates — former Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio and former county health official Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan — who have been spending significant money on their advertising campaigns.
No Going Back PAC and Safety and Affordability PAC have made more than $150 million in new ad bookings since the start of September across dozens of races. While the groups haven’t confirmed where they’ve gotten their war chest from, The New York Times recently confirmed that MAGA Inc., Trump’s main super PAC, is primarily funding the effort with the hundreds of millions of dollars it has banked over the last few years.
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, chair of the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, touted the party’s spending advantage as key to helping Republicans hold on to their majority and credited Trump’s deep-pocketed political operation with ensuring the flood of cash continues.
Scott told reporters that he met last week with Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, and that the message from Wiles was “money will not be our problem.”
“That’s exciting news to me,” Scott said, adding later, “Knowing that they are going to invest completely in these races is incredibly helpful, because cash is king.”
“We finally find ourselves at a cash advantage because of MAGA Inc. It’s a powerful tool that is providing us with the firepower necessary to really share our message,” he said.
Democrats take some solace in where the new spending is going. The vast majority is plowing into states and seats Trump carried in 2024, including congressional districts Trump would have won by double digits that year, like North Carolina’s 1st District, Texas’ 35th District and Alaska’s at-large congressional district.
The money is also going to races in which Republicans felt comfortable until recently, like the Senate race in Kansas, where the top Senate Republican super PAC just reallocated millions initially meant to be spent in North Carolina.
“The money is not because there is this swell of Republican momentum; the money is because of a swell of Republican panic,” said Lauren French, the communications director at Senate Majority PAC, the super PAC aligned with Senate Democratic leadership. “Voters don’t like anything they are selling — that includes the message, the candidates and the president.”
Meredith Kelly, a longtime Democratic strategist who works on House and Senate races, said, “When you are defending in such deep-red territory, the technical term for that is: ‘You’re f---ed.’”
“Republicans, if they have one advantage, it’s that they have more money, and they are putting that money to the test right now post-Labor Day,” Kelly added. “However, the big question is: Is that money enough to counteract the fact that Donald Trump’s coalition is falling apart?”
Still, Democrats are uncomfortable watching their party get outspent to such a degree.
“It’s a huge problem, and it will be an ongoing problem, and you see all the lists of high-value donors for both parties and we get swamped every time,” Kelly said. “It creates such an initial advantage for the Republicans that we have to close the gap on in a variety of ways — candidate money, better message, better candidates. We are setting ourselves up for an uphill battle every single time because of the Republican donor strength in terms of the billionaire class.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
This article originally appeared on NBC News at https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/republicans-fight-red-state-midterm-chaos-hundreds-millions-late-money-rcna601675- Newsfeed provided by Yahoo! News
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