DHS Funded, Surgeon General Round Three, & Shark Chase

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Adam Rogers
May 01, 2026

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Congress ended a record 75-day shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, with the House approving a funding bill hours before emergency funding ran out and thousands of workers missed paychecks. President Trump signed the bill shortly after he received it.
The bill funds FEMA, the Coast Guard, TSA, and the Secret Service through September 30 but excludes ICE and Border Patrol. Democrats forced the shutdown in February, demanding immigration enforcement reforms, including body cameras and limits on raids near schools and hospitals. Republicans rejected those demands throughout.
Republicans separately passed a budget resolution this week to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years through reconciliation, requiring no Democratic votes. Speaker Johnson said Democrats "got absolutely nothing" from the standoff.

President Trump withdrew Casey Means' surgeon general nomination yesterday after she failed to secure enough Senate votes, and immediately named Dr. Nicole Saphier as his third pick for the post in his second term. Trump's first nominee, Fox News contributor Janette Nesheiwat, was also withdrawn over credential questions.
Means, a Stanford-educated physician, does not hold an active medical license and did not complete her surgical residency. She faced a contentious February confirmation hearing where senators from both parties pressed her on vaccine recommendations, including the CDC's decision to stop recommending the hepatitis B birth dose, which Means had previously called "absolute insanity."
Saphier is a radiologist and director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering with significantly stronger clinical credentials. She has shown independence from Trump's medical messaging — last year pushing back publicly on his comments about Tylenol use during pregnancy.

Researchers analyzing 1,154 brain scans have identified a third, more severe subtype of ADHD marked by extreme emotional dysregulation, according to a study published in JAMA Psychiatry. Children with this subtype erupt into hour-long meltdowns, what one clinician calls "simmering volcanoes."
Brain scans show this subtype has 45 abnormal areas compared to 26 for the other two, concentrated in regions governing mood and emotional intensity. Disruption in the prefrontal cortex, which regulates mood, may explain volatile swings. Changes in a second region governing emotional responses may explain why reactions are so intense. Standard treatments often fall short: positive reinforcement is less effective, and stimulants don't always work.
ADHD affects roughly 1 in 9 US children, but emotional dysregulation does not appear in the formal diagnostic criteria. A neuroscientist who helped write the current diagnostic manual said he would be surprised if this subtype were not included in the next edition — a sign the science has matured enough to reshape how the disorder is defined.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills dropped her Senate campaign Thursday, citing fundraising shortfalls, clearing the path for Graham Platner as the likely Democratic challenger to Republican incumbent Susan Collins. (More)

New Orleans Sheriff Susan Hutson faces 30 felony charges over last May's jailbreak, in which 10 inmates escaped through a broken toilet and sawed-off bars. (More)

Louisiana plans to delay its May 16 congressional primary after the Supreme Court struck down the state's district map. (More)

The Philippines and the UN are shutting down online scam centers that trap workers in forced fraud schemes, freeing roughly 6,000 people so far. (More)

Iran's supreme leader broke his silence Thursday, claiming victory over the US military campaign and vowing to assert new control over the Strait of Hormuz while protecting Iran's nuclear and missile programs. (More)

The first direct commercial flight between the US and Venezuela in more than seven years landed in Caracas on Thursday. (More)

US stock markets closed higher on Thursday (S&P +1.02%, Nasdaq +0.89%, Dow +1.62%) as strong Google earnings pushed the S&P to an all-time high. (More)

Devin Nunes resigned as CEO of Trump Media after the company's losses surpassed $1 billion, and was replaced by former Hulu and Vevo executive Kevin McGurn as interim chief. (More)

Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern resubmitted their merger proposal after a federal rejection in January, claiming the deal would save $3.5 billion annually and remove 2 million truckloads from U.S. roads. (More)

MLB owners and players will begin labor talks in the coming weeks as their collective bargaining agreement expires in December, with a salary cap expected to be the central fight. (More)

The Knicks set an NBA playoff record with a 47-point halftime lead and cruised to a 140-89 win over the Hawks, advancing to the second round. (More)

ABC renewed comedies Scrubs and Shifting Gears for the 2026-27 season, with Shifting Gears averaging 7 million viewers per episode — the network's most-watched comedy this year. (More)

Europe's Ariane 6 rocket launched 32 Amazon Leo internet satellites into orbit, the latest in a planned series of 80-plus missions to build Amazon's answer to SpaceX's Starlink network. (More)

OpenAI revealed ChatGPT developed a goblin obsession because a training glitch accidentally rewarded fantasy creature references while teaching the chatbot to sound nerdy. (More)

Researchers found a compound in ginger and turmeric that stops drug-resistant staph infections by preventing the bacteria from latching onto human cells, potentially offering an alternative to antibiotics. (More)

Watch: Shark chases man at sea.

Banksy unveils new statue in London.

Teen charged in Singapore for licking vending machine straw.

Plane grounded because passenger won’t hang phone.

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